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Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi:
Kitab al-Imta' wa'l-Mu'anasa (930-d1023)
(a discussion on national character) lived in Baghdad.
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Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abbas (923–1023) also known as Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi was born in 923 near Baghdad or Fars, and died in 1023 in Shiraz. Al-Tawḥidi was born into a poor family that sold dates, and spent much of his childhood as an orphan in the care of his uncle, who treated him poorly. He has left a set of literary, philosophical, and Sufi works. Al-Imta wa al-Mu’anasa, has a chapter on zoology perhaps based on Timotheus of Gaza's book on animals. His few remarks on East Africa are indeed about the national character of the Zanj.

 

Taken from : Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry by Bernard Lewis

        Page numbers from the islamport.com version
Vol1 p18
Which is the wisest of all nations?
The Chinese we said; People of furnishings and handicrafts, he replied, with neither thought nor reflection. The Turks we said; Wild beasts for the frag he replied, The Indians we said; People of fantasy he said of legerdemain and conjuring and tricks. The Zanj we said; Freckles cattle he replied....
Vol1 p20
.... In consequence, good and bad qualities are spread among the whole of mankind and implanted in all of them. The Persians have statecraft, civility, rules, and etiquette. The Byzantines have science and wisdom; the Indians have thought and reflection and nimbleness and magic and perseverance. The Turks have courage and impetuosity, the Zanj have patients and toil and merriment, the Arabs are intrepid, hospitable, loyal, gallant, generous, protective, eloquent, and cogent....
Vol1 p23
On Languages;
We have heard many languages (even if we do not understand them) of all nations, such as the languages of our friends the Persians, Indians, Turks, Khwarezinians (1), Slavs, Andalusians (2) and Zanj, and we found nothing in these languages like the limpidity of Arabic   
 

Taken from: Studies in Arabic and Hebrew lexicography: Lothar Kopf

Vol1 p32

The elephant’s teeth (begin to) grow as soon as it is born. As to its big teeth, or tusks, they come out, when it has become a youngster or full grown.

Vol1 p52

All beasts of prey (siba) and (other) quadrupeds (dawabb) when walking advance the right fore-leg (together) with the left hint-leg. The giraffe (zarafa) is to be found only in an area where water is scarce (3). If horse-breeders wish to have an ass cover a mare………..

 Vol1 p55

The rhinoceros (himar wahshi) is a cross between a mare and an elephant. It has a horn growing from its nose [that looks] like a [drawn] sword. When striking at a tree it fells it with it. It fights with the elephant and slits its belly open with its horn. No female of this species has ever been sighted. In the sea there is a fish called bus …..

Vol1 p65-66

The male elephant (fil) lacks [spontaneous] desire for copulation. When desiring a young one he goes together with the female to meadows and garden-areas. Where mandrake (luffah) is to be found. This plant, by its odour and warming- power, arouses his lust and they copulate. The female, when bringing forth, does so while standing, for her joints do not bend as do the joints of those [animals] which drop kneeling or crouching. Yet she gives birth in water out of fear for her young one, lest it die when falling to the ground. So she goes to the shore of the sea, until the water reaches up to her belly, and drops her young one on the water as [onto] a soft mat. The male, in the meantime, guards her and her young one from the serpent.

How violent is the elephant's enmity for the serpent ! Whenever an elephant encounters a serpent he does tread on it and kill it. When falling on its side the elephant is unable to get up. It sleeps only leaning against a tree. This is the reason why the people of those regions (i.e. where the elephant is found), since they know how the elephant sleeps, go to a tree and saw into it; and if an elephant, comes to the tree and leans against it, both fall to the ground together. At that moment the elephant cries violently in a loud voice; at which many [other] elephants gather round it endeavouring to help it rise and get restored to normal. Yet they are unable to achieve this, and, therefore, the whole herd cries out in one voice out of impatience at the failure and inability. Then an elephant approaches which is smaller-bodied though craftier than they, places its trunk beneath the fallen elephant and all [the others] do likewise, putting their trunks beneath it, until, with their support, it gets onto its feet again.

The elephant’s head is set on a short neck, but instead of a long neck it was furnished with a long trunk to compensate for the handicap. With it does it take its food and drink. Its legs are created unjointed; rather are they like massive pillars and solid columns, that they (may be able to) carry the bulk and heavy (of its body). They are connected to small hocks which (however), do not bend or move on joints; for its bones are all of one piece. Its span of life stretches up to three hundred years; yet ticks and gnats (baqq) befall elephants and do them harm, (wherefore they often die earlier)

Vol1 p 85 

Then I recounted: The learned in the nature of the animals maintain that elephants are generated only on the islands of the southern seas and under the orbit of Aries. The giraffe (zarafa) is found only in the country of the Habash. The sable (sammur)….

 

Taken from: Klaus Hachmeier; Rating Adas: Al-Tawhidi on the Merits of Poetry and Prose.

 Vol1 p114

Another bedouin said: Their dispute about grammar makes me feel a stranger until [or: to the point that] I heard the speech of the Zanj and the Byzantines.

This line of poetry is attributed to a certain Mu'ád b. Muslim al-Harra' Abu Muslim(d. 187/802 or 190/805), teacher of the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan.

It appears in: Marzubání, Nür al-Qabas, al-Zubaydï, Tabaqât al-nahwïyîn, al-Suyûtï, Bugyat al-wu'àh, al-Qiftî, Inbâh al-ruwâh.