A map of Arabia from a manuscript of Istakhri (south on top)
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Abu Muhammad al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaqub al-Hamdani (c. 893-945 A.D) was an Arab geographer, chemist, poet, grammarian, historian, and astronomer, from the tribe of Banu Hamdan, western Amran, Yemen. He left Sanaa for Mecca, later he went back to Sanaa and still later to Raydah to live with his own tribe. His Geography of the Arabian Peninsula (Sifat Jazirat ul-Arab) is by far the most important work on the subject. He gives the geographical description of East Africa and the sea-route to get there.
Chapter on the
knowledge of the best of Inhabited lands
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(the sun throws a shadow) on the inhabitants of the earth except those who are on the equator, a region of Middle-earth, they are the first residents to fill southern China and southern India and
the country of Zinj and Al-Dybajat (1)…
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Hermes (2) says that in that part (the southern part of the globe) there are climates that resemble these once (from the North), but that what makes it impossible for the people to get there is
the big stretched ocean and the agitated violent sea, the power of the wind, the size of the waves and the far distance to make. Except that the ships also are at high risqué in the gulfs and sea
arms, like the sea of Zinj and the Oriental Sea. But these are far from being the most important once, as the biggest obstacles consist, even in favorable times, of the distance and its
wideness.
According to Hermes (2), the wise, the seven climates are: India, the Hijaz (3) and Yemen, the land of Egypt, the land of Babylon, Land of the Romans, Gog and Magog (4), the land of China. They
are grouped around the forth climate, the one of Babylon and in such a way that the first climate touches the seventh.
…The sea unites Oman to Jeddah (5) the places of Yemen to the land of Zinj and Abyssinia…
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…in north India and Sindh (23) where we will meet the green sea (24) – To go to the Sea Al-Zenj - and the Sea of Basra, and get to the Arabian Peninsula, Mecca and the Hijaz (3), the sea of
Qulzoum (Red Sea) and Upper Egypt…
He then describes different systems to divide the 7 climes as seen on this map of the seven climes from this manuscript.
Chapter on Differences in Opinions on Longitude and Latitude.
As to latitude; there are those who count the first clime from the equator till its northern boundary. Others make of the sea of the Zindj something separate between the first climate and the
equator, this is then at 8deg 25min. There are there no days longer than 12.5 hours.
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… northern Maghreb the land of Rum that is west and north, in the Orient Khorasan (6) and east and south, in the Orient Sindh and India, and eastern and southern Maghreb by Habash and Zinj
…
Chapter on what is reported by Claudius Ptolemaeus about the Nature of the Inhabitants of the inhabited land, in details.
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Section between Maghreb and the South: The fourth quarter to the south of Maghreb, the country of Sudan Zinj the Abyssinians, the Beja (7), the Nuba, the Fezzan (8), the land of al-Qayrawan (9);
and from Ifriqiyya (10), al-Qayrawan, the Sus (11), the lands of the naked blacks and Ghana which are called by other names such as Numidia (12) and Gaetuli (13) in the Greek tongue, it faces the
triangle of Cancer (14). It is ruled by Venus and Mars…
As for the Nuba and all the Abyssinians, the Zinj and those adjacent to them from southern India, they resemble in nature both Scorpio (15) and Mars. For that reason their moral conduct has
become more like that of savage beasts than that of men. They have become people who squabble, who harbor enmities and disputes and things which are hateful and abhorrent. They deem life to be of
little worth and they are not compassionate among one another. They do not show care and affection for each other and sometimes they are cruel to themselves; they destroy each other by burning,
by throttling and by destruction in the pit……….
Chapter on the Islands in the Sea
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The island (peninsula) of Barbara is a piece from the edge of the coasts of al-Yaman extending into the sea at Adan from about the rising point of Canopus (16) and going east from it and in what
is adjacent to Adan. Facing it is Mount Dakhkhan (17) and the island of Suqu.tra (Socotra). Ascribed to it is Suqu.tri aloes. It and the island of Barbara are among what lies established on the
route between Adan and the land of Zanj. When one leaves Adan to go to the country of Zanj, he would take a way as if he wanted to go to Uman and the island of Suqu.tra, heading parallel to it on
the south until it comes to an end. Then he turns in the direction of the Sea of Zanj. The length of this island is eighty parasangs (18), and in it are representatives of all the tribes of
Mahrah (19) and in it are some 10,000 warriors who are Christian. It is mentioned that a people from the land of Rum (Byzantine Empire) were banished to it by Kisra (20). Subsequently, tribes of
Mahrah settled with them and some of them became Christians. In Suqutra are many date palms and ambergris reaches it. In it also is Dragon's Blood (21) which is a tree called ayda, and many aloe
(22) plants.
(1) Al-Dybajat; or Dijabat is the Madives islands.
(2) Hermes: The first Hermes, was a "civilizing hero", an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world. Hermes is here a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth in the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.
(3) Hijaz: the province of Mecca.
(4) Gog and Magog: high North of the globe.
(5) Jeddah: town at the shore, close to Mecca.
(6) Khorasan: Afghanistan + Eastern Iran.
(7) Beja: people from Sudan. The Egyptians leaving from Aswan; the southern border town on the Nile; have to cross their territory to reach the harbours on the Red Sea.
(8) Fezzan: in south west Libya.
(9) al-Qayrawan: Kairouan is a city in northern Tunisia.
(10) Ifriqiyya: coastal parts of eastern Algeria, Tunisia and western Libya.
(11) The Sus: the Berber region of Southwest Morocco,
(12) Numidia: the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa.
(13) Gaetuli: Romanised name of an ancient Berber tribe inhabiting Getulia. The latter district covered the large desert region south of the Atlas Mountains, bordering the Sahara.
(14) Cancer: in the Northern celestial hemisphere. Its name is Latin for crab.
(15) Scorpio: is located in the Southern celestial hemisphere, its bright stars include Antares and Acrab.
(16) Canopus, Canope: is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina and the second-brightest star in the night sky. The south celestial pole can be approximately located using Canopus and another bright star, Achernar, as the three make an equilateral triangle.
(17) Mount Dakhkhan: in Eritrea.
(18) Parasangs: 1 parasangs or farsakhs = 2.8 nautical miles/ about 5km.
(19) Al Mahrah, or simply Mahra, is a governorate of Yemen bordering Oman.
(20) Kisra: Chosroes; also known as Khosrow Parviz is the last great Sasanian king (shah) of Iran, ruling from 590 to 628, before the Muslim conquest.
(21) Dragon's Blood: on Socotra island the bright red Dracaena resin.
(22) Aloe: An evergreen perennial, it originates from the Arabian Peninsula.
(23) Sindh now in Pakistan.
(24) Green Sea: the ocean.