The Western Sea which we call Ocean has been named the Environing Sea, because in effect its shores commence at the extremity of the countries which it touches on the southern side, opposite the Negro lands and runs past successively the shores of Audagost (1), Sous-Alacsa (2), Tanger (3) and Tahurt (4) advancing towards the shores of Andalusia (5), Galicia (6) and the countries of the Slavs. Then, in turning north, it goes round the inhabited world and countries behind unknown mountains and lands desolate because of the cold and flows east by an unsuspected route as far as the Oriental Sea which marks the limit of the inhabited world. It has not been described with the same exactitude as the Ocean. We know, however, in a general way, that it continues towards the south just as the Ocean continues towards the north. The Southern Sea commences at China and flows along the shores of India towards the country of the Zendj. The coasts to the north are inhabited but those which border it on the south remain unknown, for they have not been visited by any navigator and the people who live in the adjacent isles have not furnished us with any knowledge on this point.

……. In the west the land of Habacha and the cap of Barbara; the gulf Barbari stretches towards those people….. The furthest point that the seamen on the big sea go to is Soufala of the Zandj situated on one line with the land of Misr; (7) but they do not go further. This sea is in effect very irregular on the northern side, the eastern one and she goes into the continent on many places. In those places are many islands, like al-Zabadj (8), al-Dibadjad (9), Qoumair (10), al Waqwaq (11) and the Zandj.

In the same way on the south-west, as if by way of compensation, the continent projects into the sea. This region is inhabited by the Negroes of the West and it stretches beyond the Equator to the mountains of Comr where the Nile has its source. Beyond this point, the sea penetrates between the mountains and valleys which alternate with one another. The water is continually set in motion by the ebb and flow of the tide, the waves for ever surging to and fro, so that ships are broken in pieces. This is why the sea is not navigated. But this does not prevent the Southern Sea from communicating with the Ocean through a gap in the mountains along the south coast [of Africa]. One has certain proofs of this communication although no one has been able to confirm it by sight. It is because of this inter-communication that the habitable part of the world has been placed in the center of a vast area environed on all sides by the sea.

Table of longitudes starting from the coast of the sea of al Mouhit (16) west and their latitudes starting from the equator.

Names of places situated       Longitude  Latitude       Region and Land
in different climes                  deg   min   deg  min

Behind the Equator with
Southern Latitude

Soufala of the Zandj;            55      0        10    0            Zandj
Muslims, on one line
with al-Iskandariya
and Egypt

Qanbalouh, residence of       52      0          8     0           Zandj
the Zandj king, on an
island (12)

Zaghawa, one of their           56      0          1     0            Zandj
towns (13)

Taken from: Orientalia Suecana; Jamshid and the Ultrahuman Power of Creation by Dariush Kargar.

Iranians believes that Jamshid (14) went in a carriage on this day (=Nouruz) (15) and travelled towards the south to battle against demons who probably according to the Iranian are blacks and Zangis. And about the Great Nouruz (15) (Farvardin the 6^th/ March the 26/27^th) they have told that Jamshid (14) returned victorious on this day.

(1) Audagost: Audagoste (Aoudaghost), Auadaguste (Awadaghust), Audugaste (Awdughast) and Auduguxte (Awdaghusht), was an important oasis town at the southern end of the Trans-Saharan caravan (in southern Mauritania).

(2) Sous-Alacsa: in the Magreb-alacsa =Morocco

(3) Tanger: Tangier, a Moroccan port on the Strait of Gibraltar

(4) Tahurt: in Morocco

(5) Andalusia: Muslim Spain

(6) Galicia: in Spain’s northwest

(7)Misr: other name for Egypt.

(8) al-Zabadj: one of the main islands of Indonesia (Sumatra).

(9) al-Dibadjad: Didadjat islands: Dibayat; =Maldives

(10) Qoumair: Qamar; Khmer (Cambodia) or Qumr; Madagascar; or Cape Comorin – South India.

(11) al Waqwaq: in the books three different places are called Waqwaq: in South-East Africa; in Indonesia; around Japan.

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

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

(14) Jamshid: is the fourth Shah of the mythological Pishdadian dynasty of Iran according to Shahnameh.

(15) Nouruz: is the Iranian New Year, also known as the Persian New Year.

(16) the all encircling ocean.