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Extract from another book of Masudi : Kitab et Tanbih
(The book of warning)
Taken from: translation by B. Carra de Vaux
p52
The limit of the second climate is the sea from the region of Oman following the borders of Ech-Chihr (1) and El-Ahkaf (2) till Aden Abyan (3), then up to the peninsula of the Zendjs and the Abyssinians. The longest extend of the days there is 13 hours……..
p76
The sea of Abyssinia and the sea of China, of Sind and from India, of the Zendj, of Basra, of Obollah (4), of Fars (5), of Karmanie (6), of Oman, of Bahrein, of Chihr (1), of Yemen, of Eilah (7), of Kolzoum (on the Red Sea) in the land of Egypt, and Abyssinia. In the whole world, there is no bigger sea….
p84-85
The Nil ; Starts with sources situated in the mountain of the moon (Djebel el-Kamar) 7 and a half degrees behind the equator, what comes to 141 parasangs (14) and two thirds, or in miles 425 miles. From those sources leave 10 rivers that go 5 by 5 in two lakes which are situated to the south behind the equatorial line. From each of these two lakes comes three rivers and all those river arms throw themselves in one lake in the first climate. It is from there that the Nile of Egypt starts…..
p86
And from the origin of the Nil in the mountains of the moon to the place where it throws itself in the sea of Roum (8), the distance is 748 parasangs (14) and 2/3 what comes to 2,245 miles. There are people who measure the distance from the origins of the Nile till its end to 1,130 and some parasanges. In the neighborhood of the mountain of the moon are many villages and places from the Zendjs; after having crossed these one arrives in the land of Sofalah of the Zendj and the island of Kanbalou (15) where the inhabitants are Muslim, then to the land of Berbera and Hafouni (9)……..
Ptolemy says, in his treatise: Introduction to the Art of the Sphere, that behind Ecuador, under the circle of Capricorn (16), live Negroes similar to those we see under the circle of Cancer (17), below Ecuador on the side of North, and that the Ocean comes from the point where the sun rises in winter, that is where Capricorn gets up, then bends to the North and then to the point where the sun sets in summer, that is to say, where Cancer sets. He adds that he drew this information from the books in which were recorded the information on the peoples in the South of Egypt, books composed by the care of the kings from Egypt with the help of the explorers they sent in these countries to know the nations who lived there.
p297
The same learned people teach that when the northern hemisphere is in summer, the southern one is in winter, and when winter reigns in the north, summer reigns in the south. This allows to explain why the rise of the Nile happen in summer, because it is the time of winter and of rain in that part of the earth of the Abyssinians like Nubie, Zagawah (10), the land of the Zendjs, up to the mountains of the moon who are situated behind the equator. It is from those mountains that flow the sources of the Nile.
Al-Mas'udi: (916) Kitab al-Ausat (Book of the Midpoint)
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Taken from: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, vol 11 1997 p189-250. Pharaonische Wunderwerke bei Ibn Wasif as-Sabi' und al-Mas'udi. Teil II (Sezgin, Ursula).
(He only gives some short extracts from the Ms. St. Petersburg).
(About the Sources of the Nile)
F164b
Al-Walid (11) set out with a large army to find healing water against his illness in Egypt and at the same time to subjugate the countries through which he passed. He sets off to the sources of the Nile, he marches through the gold country, (ard al dahab), and arrives at the temple of the sun. In it the word is addressed to him, which would be too long to be reproduced…….
F165a
There are 85 tamatil (12) in number. They are all designed to take in the water of the Nile, with places where something is buttoned, outflow openings and qanawat (13), underground channels in which the water flows. (Namely) it flows in when it exits below the moon mountain….
(1) Ech-Chihr: Shihr; coastal town in Hadhramaut in eastern Yemen;
(2) El-Ahkaf: the name of a sand desert in Southern Arabia.
(3) Abyan: province of Yemen just east of Aden.
(4) Obollah: close to Basra.
(5) Fars: region in Iran.
(6) Karmanie: Kirman in Persia.
(7) Eilah: on the Gulf of Aqaba or Gulf of Eilat.
(8) Roum: or Rum = Rome.
(9) Hafouni: Ras Djafary or Cape Hafun; a promontory in the northeastern Bari region of Somalia.
(10) Zagawah: also called Beri or Zakhawa, are a Sahelian Muslim ethnic group primarily residing in Fezzan North-eastern Chad, and western Sudan, including Darfur.
(11) Al-Walid: Ar-Rayyan ibn al-Walid ibn Dauma was an Amalekite king of Misr during the time of Prophet Yusuf (=Joseph)
Walid is mentioned in the following books: Al-Mas'udi: (916) Kitab al-Ausat; Ibn Babawayh (991); Maslamah ibn Ahmad Majriti (1050); Katib Marrakesh (12th); Wasif Shah (1209); Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); Nuwayri (1333); Maqrizi (1441) (Oualid); Ibn Abd'essalem al-Menoufi (15th); Suyuti (1505).
(12) 85 tamatil: or tamafil: the 85 copper or bronze statues build at the source of the Nile by Hermes. They are mentioned by the following authors: Wasif Shah: Akhbar al-zaman (1209); Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); Maslamah ibn Ahmad Majriti (1050); Hikayat Iskandar Dhu'l-Qarnayn (1050); Dhikr Kalam al-Nas fi Manba’ al-Nil (15th); Suyuti (d1505); al Maqrizi (1441); Nuwayri : (1333); Murtada Ibn al-Afif (1237); Ibn al Wardi (1456).
(13) Qanawat: meaning 'Channels' in Arabic.
(14) parasangs: 1 parasangs or farsakhs = 2.8 nautical miles/ about 5km.
(15) Qanbalouh: The island of Qanbalu from where the Zanj slaves were imported till the great Zanj revolt in Basra. (Zanzibar or Pemba).
(16) constellation of the Goat; Capricornus its name means “the goat” in Latin, and it is represented as a goat with the tail of a fish.
(17) Cancer: is one of the twelve constellations of the zodiac and is located in the Northern celestial hemisphere. Its name is Latin for crab and it is commonly represented as one.