The different nations south of the Sahara (=first clime) according to a Portolan map.

Back to Table of Contents
To next page
Yahya ibn Barmak; Kitab al- Majisti (The greatest book)
(about 800) (Almagest, translated from Ptolemy).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taken from: Yad-Nama: in memoria di Alessandro Bausani By Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti, Alessandro Bausani, Lucia Rostagno

The first climate is from the Equator, to the north, 14 degrees, that is 933 miles and 1/3. Its length from the West to the east is 180 degrees. The countries of Zaghawa (1) and Ghana are comprised, as well as Kugha (2), Sufala of the Zanj and the greater part of the islands of the sea of the Hind. All these countries are of the Black people. This climate has two winters and two summers. The day length is 12 hours. The shadows are cast towards the south and the north; you see the sun at the bottom of the water holes. Terrible animals reproduce themselves, like elephants, rhinoceros, giraffes and they inseminate men; sands that the wind transports dominate the land.

(1) Zaghawa: also called Beri or Zakhawa, are a Sahelian Muslim ethnic group primarily residing in Fezzan North-eastern Chad, and western Sudan, including Darfur.

(2) Kugha: according to Ibn-Hawqal (970) Kugha is acountry west of Ghana (mediaeval Ghana; not modern day Ghana).