Taken from: كتاب المسالك والممالك للبكري  by أبو عبيد البكري al-maktaba.org

 

Vol 2 p88

And Ham, the son of Noah, begot Quwt (2) the son of Ham, and India and Sindh (29), and these people descended from his sons. And the people of India say that they were born of Sala ibn Quwt (2), Sala one of the famous kings of the world. And Kanan (30) bin Ham and his son Berbara and Canaanite who fought Moses and Joshua ibn Nun (31), it is said that the Pharaohs of Egypt were from among them. From these were born; Goliath (32), Kush (7), Nubia, Zinj, Fazan (3), Zaghawa (4), Qabt (2), Habashah and Berber.

 

Vol 2 p146

… the Arabian Peninsula, which follows the south coast of this sea-lane to the right the Arabian Peninsula to the West Sea, and on his left the country Zinj.

At the coast is found amber, and passes the coast of Hadhramaut (5), Abyan (6), and ends at Aden, and Aden is the limit of this lane, and then turns the lane, then turns this lane of Aden to the south, passing a turning point on the Arabian Peninsula, the one of the north, on whose right the Arabian Peninsula, and left the country of Sudan, and Abyssinia, and others.

 

Vol 2 p187

And no plant. And the end of life behind the line of equal day (and night) time rate in the south, …., there are ugly creatures, such as elephants and giant birds. Some sea traders who have gone to the land of the Kush (7); I mean Al-Zenj mention white ostrich eggs, but the eggs of ostriches are only a percentage of the proportion of those eggs.

 

Vol 2 p191

Which is the Sea of Abyssinia, the Sea of China, India, Sindh (29), Zanj, Basra, Ubalat (8) and Persia. And also they say, Oman, Bahrain, Al-Shihr (9), Yemen, Elate (10), and Al-Qulzum (11), and there is no greater sea than this. Its length from the East to Morocco is eight thousand miles and its width is two thousand seven hundred miles and in a different place this is thousand and nine hundred miles. These differences are normal. And this sea, though one, consists of six, sailing one after another, and the guides know how to separate them, ……

 

Vol 2 p195

And the sea comes out of this Gulf of India towards the land of Abyssinia and Zinj and is called the Berbara sea length of five hundred miles and a hundred miles wide, and the waves in this sea are called blind because they are not broken and does not show the foam of breaking the waves of the other seas, rising in altitude as a mountain and then falls as low as the valleys, in which the fish of length of four hundred arms to five hundred arms……..

 

Vol2 p198

And extends from the sea another Gulf who ends at Al-Qolzum and between it and Fustat (12) Egypt is three days, and therefore the city of Eileh, (13) Hijaz (14), Jeddah (15) and Yemen, and a length of thousand four hundred miles, and what we mentioned from the country on the east and west of Upper Egypt and the land and the Beja (16) and those close by, and then the country of Habash and Sudan in contact with the land of the Zangis, and then there is the country of Sofala.

 

Vol2 p200

And the finest amber b.jz..r Zinj, something that is made in the bottoms of the sea like types of mushrooms, truffles, and possibly eaten by a whale, killed by the people of Zinj, brought to the shore with hooks and ropes, they cut open the stomach, then they find amber, ….

 

Vol2 p201

And not as we mentioned from the bays of this sea, you are windy and no less good in the stomach and back to the Sea of Al-Kulzum (11), which is on the right of the Sea of India, and not more than it and not obscure and no large mountains, and the boats do not travel only in the day, if the night is set in places known as the stages. Which is the border of the Sea of India and on the bottom of it is pearl and amber, and in the soils of its mountains metals and gold and silver, and ebony, bamboo rods, timber, camphor trees, cloves, sandal and types of perfume.

 

Vol 2 p208

Sea unites India following the east islands and China and other countries, follows Maghreb and Aden, and the end of the country of Zinj. If passengers go to sea from the city of Aden, the first ground is to the island of the Berbers, and the race of Zinj of Sudan's north.

In the Arab countries and Zinj, Al-Zabaj (17), and many other nations, all rain is in the summer, apart from the top of their country, which are far from the sea Kurasan (18), Tibet and Kabul and others.

 

Vol 2 p213

Giant snake in Harkand Sea (34).

In the Harkand Sea there are giant snakes that go ashore to swallow elephants and devour large rocks found on the land. The elephant and the stone that had been swallowed were crushed in their stomachs until they made a terrifying sound [while the process was going on]. This snake rarely appeared. Sometimes some kings - I mean the Kings of Hind and Zanj - snared and hunted these snakes and then cooked and released their oil which added to their strength and energy as well as their greatness. The snake's skin was used as a bed overlay. It is shiny and softer than silk. If a person with tuberculosis sits on the bed, it will cure and the disease will not last forever (19).

 

Vol2 p216

After the Sanfa Sea (35) is the China Sea. It is an ugly and cold sea. The smell is basically like a bubble of water on a volcano. People who can be trusted and have sailed it tell that it is a guarded sea. The guards live in the water and the sailors see them when the sea was rough at night, they look like black people (Zanj). They will try to climb aboard the ship.

 

Vol 2 p228-229

As for the Nile, its source is beneath the Mount of the Moon behind the equator, seven and a half degrees from a dozen springs. They meet in two lakes called Batayih. He said: These two lakes are here in the burning southern country, where there is no plant or animal, and then all three rivers are mixed with rivers, all of which meet to the tip of the first region. Out of this Batiha comes the Nile of Egypt. Then emits between mountains and sand, then runs through the land of Sudan following the country of Zinj and watering the land of Nubia, and pours out in the Gulf of the Zing Sea, at the island of Qanpalu (20), we will remember it, God willing. The sea is broken by more than a mile of sweetness, which is dissolved during the increase of the Nile.

 

Vol2 p230

As for the part of the Nile, which branched into the Sea of Zinj, (it is the border of the countries of Zinj ) the Al Habash where it not for this water and the sand that separates them, the Habashi in their home country would be under Zinj rule.

 

 Vol2 p249

India is connected to Khurasan (18) and through the mountains connected to the land of Sindh (29) and Tibet, and India is in their policy and their intellect different from the rest of Sudan and Zinj, Al Habash and others.

 

 Then Galen (21) said: In the black ten qualities not found or not present in the other: Kinky hair, thin eyebrows, broad noses, thick lips, sharp teeth, malodorous skin, dark pupils, cleft hands and feet, elongated penises and excessive merriment… surely the dark complexion person (al-aswad) is overwhelmed by merriment due to the imperfection (fasad) of his brain; therefore, his intellect is weak… Tawus Dhabihullah say that the Zinj, is a distorted creation.(36)

 

Vol2 p293

It may be in the land of Zinj, where they have the highest elephants higher than twelve arms; its tusks are more than two hundred ratl (21) of Baghdad .

 

Vol2 p299

And that he mentioned that he was born Dara Akbar Abu Dara, who reigned over the kingdom of Alexander, and that Dara was married to the daughter of the King of Zinj Hilabana, and she had a bad smell, he ordered that she be cleaned,….. and then was separated from him and then he returned her to her family, this is what Alexander said.

 

Vol2 p320-321-322

Mentioned kingdoms of the Sudan

They were born from Kush ibn Canaan (23) and moved from the Maghrib until the split off the Nile of Egypt, and then separated and then became a portion to the East and the portion of the Maghreb, in the East Nubia and Bedja (24) and Zinj and Ethiopia, and Maghreb: Zaghawa (4) and Al-Mf.fw., and Merca (25), and Koukou (26), and Ghana, and other types of Al Habaca. on Zinj categories: The M.kyr, of the Berbers, and those who are not Berber of Al-Mshk.r, on others on the Sea of Sudan Zinj on Al-Habaca on others, who are on the right hand of India, and cut off the Zinj from the Al-Habaca separated by the Nile, which flows into the Sea of Zinj, so they stayed on that spot (The country of Sofala and the Zinj). There is the home of the Kingdom, and the king Flimmy,(27) he is the king of all the Zinj the title of the king, means I'm the Lord God above, which means that if they find that the king does not do justice to them, then they have him killed or he is denied the right to be the king. They claim that the king has to be perfect to be the Son of God who is the king of heaven and earth. And the Flymy (27)(title of king) has three hundred thousand cavalry, but mounted on bulls, as in their land horses, mules and donkeys and camels are not know to them. The Zinj have the best breath because of much saliva (28) to wash the mouths, those who enter the country of Alzenj will find out…., in their country is to be found the giraffe, a precious animal to be given away to the kings and their red leopard skins, which is their dress, their country is home to the elephants but the beast is not driven nor used they kill them with poison from a tree that intoxicate, then they take the tusks, people of Oman come to collect it after which it is brought to China, because they make of it the chairs needed to enter in the presence of the kings … in the land of the Zinj the elephant grows up to 400 years old.

 

Vol3 p577

(In the days of Pharaoh Nedras)

And in the thirty years of his reign he wanted to possess Zinj and Nubia in his land, and they went out there and wrecked it, he gathered the armies and conquered them with on the land three hundred thousand men and in the sea three hundred ships, (In every ship) a priest and magician who did miracles (of magic wonders), they met the armies of the Sudan of about a million, so they defeated them and killed them (the ugliest of them) and they took many captives.

(1) Harkant: Herkend; the ocean on the east coast of India.

(2) Quwt; the Qibt: Copts of Egypt.

(3) Fazan: Fazzan or Fezzan: in south west Libya.

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

(5) Hadhramaut: province in eastern Yemen.

(6) Abyan: province of Yemen just east of Aden.

(7) Kush: kingdom in Sudan on the Nile.

(8) Ubalat; Uballa which was an important port of the Persian Empire.

(9) Al-Shihr; coastal town in Hadhramaut in eastern Yemen

(10) Elate; Eilat is a southern Israeli port and resort town on the Red Sea, near Jordan.

(11) Al-Qulzum: located at the head of the Gulf of Suez.

(12) Fustat: now part of Cairo.

(13) Eileh; Eilat is a southern Israeli port and resort town on the Red Sea, near Jordan.

(14) Hijaz: the province of Mecca.

(15) Jeddah: town at the shore, close to Mecca.

(16) Beja: in N 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.

(17) Al-Zabaj: one of the main islands of Indonesia (Sumatra).

(18) Khurasan: Khorasan: Afghanistan + Eastern Iran.

(19) The snake's skin was used as a bed overlay. It is shiny and softer than silk. If a person with tuberculosis sits on the bed, it will cure and the disease will not last forever. This story is found in: Abu Ubayd Al Bakri (1067); Ibn Al Wardi (about 1456); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Wasif Shah (1209); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Qazwini (1283) .

(20) Qanpalu: The island of Qanbalu from where the Zanj slaves were imported till the great Zanj revolt in Basra. (Zanzibar or Pemba)

(21) Galen: In the black ten qualities not found or not present in the other: this statement is repeated endless: Al Amsati al Hanafi (1478), Al-Mas'udi (916), Al-Dimashqi (1325), Al-Qazwini(d. 1283); Ibn al Jawzi (1257); Abu Ubayd Al Bakri (1067), At Tahqiq fi sira ar raqiq (1250); Abulfida (1331).

(22) ratl: standard ratl of 440 grams in Umayyad Egypt.

(23) Kush ibn Canaan: Ibn Qutayba (880) says that Kanan and Kush are the fathers of the races of the Sudan.

(24) Bedja: 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.

(25) Merca: here not the Merca on the coast of Somalia but a place in West Africa. Also found in Abu Ubayd Al Bakri (1067); a people in West Africa. Also found as Mirka in Ibn al Jawzi (1257) ); Nuwayri (1333) has Mrnk; Al Umari (1349) Merka; Maqrizi (1441) Marka.

(26) Koukou or Qaqu: the Kuku of al-Zayyat 1058; Ibn al Jawzi 1257; Al-Dimashqi 1325; Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi (d897) has Qaqu; Yakut 1220 Koko; Suyuti (1505) has Koukou.

(27) Flimmy: this got copied from Al-Mas'udi (916).

Names of the king of the Zanj according to different authors:

Ibn Khordadbeh (868) Alfikhat.

Masudi (916): The king of Zanj is called Flimi.

Al-Khwarizmi: (d997) Almehraj: King Alzabaj and Zinj.

Abu Ubayd Al Bakri (1067): And the Flymy (title of king) has three hundred thousand cavalry.

Al-Raghib al-Isfahani (1109): Al Buhraja: sahib al Zunj.

Wasif Shah (1209): Their principal king is called Kunah; he resides on the shore of the sea, in a place called Kandu.

Al-Qazwini (1283). Atar al Bilad: And they have a King named Aokulaim.

Al-Dimashqi (1325): The supreme king is called Touqlim (or tuqlim or buqlim) meaning 'son of the Lord'.

Muhammad al Fasi, Maliki: (d1429-30): Al Hyaj: the king of Zinj and Ghana.

Note: Charles Guillain: ( Documents sur l'histoire, la géographie et le commerce de l'Afrique…. P173) gives several versions on how different translators translated the word Flimi (King) of Masudi (916): M. Reinaud: Oklimen; M. Quatremère: Wakliman; M. Sprenger: Afliman; Deguignes: Phalimi and Aphlimi.

(28) They have the cleanest teeth of mankind because they have much saliva. This is repeated with variations by: Al-Jahiz (869); Ibn Qutayba (880); Ibn Abd Rabbih (d940); Abu Hilal Al-Askari (1005 AD); Ibn Butlan (1066); Abu Ubayd Al Bakri (1067); Al-Raghib al-Isfahani (1109); Al-Zamakhshari (d1144); Ibn al Jawzi (1200); At Tahqiq fi sira ar raqiq (1250); al-Abshihi (1450); Al Amsati al Hanafi (1478).

(29) Sindh; now in Pakistan.

(30) Canaan; Kush ibn Canaan: Ibn Qutayba (880) says that Kanan and Kush are the fathers of the races of the Sudan. The name "Canaan" appears throughout the Bible, where it corresponds to "the Levant", in particular to the areas of the Southern Levant that provide the main settings of the narratives of the Bible: the Land of Israel, Philistia, and Phoenicia, among others.

(31) Joshua functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Exodus and Numbers, and later succeeded Moses as leader of the Israelite tribes in the Book of Joshua.

(32) Goliath is a character in the Book of Samuel, described as a Philistine giant defeated by the young David in single combat.

(33) Kush: kingdom in Sudan on the Nile.

(34) Harkand Sea; sea of Harkant: Herkend; the ocean on the east coast of India.

(35) Sanf: Champa in Indochina

(36) Zinj, they are a distorted creation.

This hadith is repeated by: Abu Nu’aym al Isfahani 1038; Abu Ubayd al Bakri 1067; Ibn Qudama al Maqdisi 1223; Ibn al Jawzi 1257; Ibn abd al Rahman al Mizzi 1342; al Dhahabi 1348; (and many others). Al Kulayni 939 was maybe the first to use it.