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Tha'alibi (d1038): Lata'if al-ma'arif

 

Tha'alibi: Yatimat ad Dahr (Rare Pearl)

Taken from: The Mediaeval Islamic Underworld

 

Through my brethren, the Banu Sasan (1), the influencial and bold ones.

Theirs is the land of Khurasan (2), and then Qasban (3) as far as India,

And as far as Byzantium, and the land of the Zanj, and to Bulghar and Sind.

 

Taken from: Violence in Islamic Thought from the Quran to the Mongols by Robert Gleave

Cited by al Tha’alibi: Those pagans had a custom widely known, namely regarding it lawful [to kill] people and to eat their flesh (istibahat alnas waakl luḥumihim). Their rabid desire for it went so far that they would eat, as an accompaniment to drink, human palms. My lord [‘Aḍud al Dawla] inquired about this extraordinary side-dish to drink, and it was narrated to him from them that no part of the human [body] is tastier than the palm and the fingertips. Now, the day when the vanguards of the victorious army [viz. the Buyid army] approached the gate of Oman, hordes of those dogs ambushed [our troops] from a hiding place. The mount of one of the young soldiers tripped, and [the blacks] took him, divided him up among themselves, and ate him there and then, [our] people being astonished by their voracity and cruelty. But God the Most High has annihilated them and purified the land and the sea of their wantonness and abuses (ṭahhara albarr walbaḥr min ‘abathihim wama’arratihim), so the inhabitants of the mountains of Oman submitted [to our rule], humbling themselves obediently and seeking safety under the umbrella of the community.

 

Taken from: Der Neger in der Bildersprache der arabischen Dichter By Manfred Ullmann

 

Vol I p72

( citing abul ala al Ma’arri)

When the lightning flashes apart, you think the night is a wounded zanj.

Vol I p125

(citing: Abu Ali Muhammad ibn Hamad ibn Furraga al Barugirdi)

Don't you see how a light breeze gets into the sleeping curls (of the boys) so that they fall partially on his cheek. It is as if a Zanj was spreading his fingers to grab the embers, but he cannot.

Vol I p367

The shine of a flash, spreading a flickering light, robbed my eye of sleep and let me lose weight. I watched him when the darkness let him see, like a zanj shows his teeth when he smiles.

Vol I p391

(citing: abu Amir ibn Suhaid)

I said: First you have to describe a flea and say: He is a black Zanj, with tooth and wild, never tired or anxious, to some extent an atom of the night, a black-chunk grain, etc.

Vol I p502

And a black one who grumbles like a camel stallion when riding on brightly lit flames. It makes the limbs of a wild bred stand out, which had been grazing on the flowers for months. To a certain extent, a zanjiyya is sitting on the fire, who has put on her yellow coat.

Vol I p524

If the wind keeps the clouds now, the thunderbolt is in the middle of the lightning. Zanj, as it were, their twitching (swords) twitching as they beat their drums among themselves.

Vol I p536 

(citing: Ubaid Allah ibn Ahmad al-Baladi an-Nahwi.)

Oh, you, on this place two armies, Zanj and Byzantines, stand. They attack the hearts, and the bodies.

Vol I p548

I remember one night, the darkness of which did not delight. Then I thought I was at a zanj wedding.

Vol II p44

(citing Abu Ishaq as Sabi)

A gala perfume that the druggist made the loudest effort to prepare. It goes back to Tibet in terms of its musk content, but in terms of amber it comes from Sihr. Its fragrance spreads even though it is enclosed in a crystal flacon. In the bottle that keeps it, it resembles a Byzantine woman carrying a Zanjiyya girl under her heart.

Vol II p46

(citing Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Hilal as Sabi)

I give a description of someone who has her homeland in India and looks like a Zanj that wears black clothes, one of whose the pupils are red. It is when she grieves that she has put on mourning clothes (because of that) and is shedding drops of blood from her eyes.

Vol II p201

(citing: Ibn Sukkara al-Hashimi (d995) Baghdad)

That you turn your face from a hawk and turn to an owl is in signs of misfortune, unfaithfulness and disaster. (You act) like someone who desires the zanj girls out of sheer stupidity and leaves the daughter of the Turks and Byzantines to the left.

Vol II p205

(citing: Ibn Sukkara al-Hashimi (d995) Baghdad)

I think of a Zanj girl with an empty stomach that had not met the (real) Zanj and who was plagued by thirst. She came to you to ask for too much wine, that she would be full; she returned like a pregnant Abyssinian woman. Like many honorable woman who remember her in her thinness, you took care of her until she was stuffed full and revitalized.

Vol III p82

(citing as Sahib ibn Abbad)

Anemone stood in front of me. They were like zanj who had hurt each other, so that their blood flowed; this made them weak, and there was only one last or left for them.

Vol III 167

And she turned with me to a wide field on which Zanj and Byzantines keep galloping.

Vol III p258

(citing abul Hasan ali ibn abd al Aziz al Gurgani)

(black eggplants) they are like the mouths of zanj whose skin you see black; but you see assembled silver when they are cut open.

Vol III p283

(citing: abu l-Fayyad Sa’d ibn Ahmad at-Tabari)

I think of a daughter of Zanj, who has small children and who nurses those who she did not give birth to; she was created without an uterus.

When she's gives birth, her embryos return quickly to her belly. She has had no contractions or pregnancy problems.

One really must wonder about her children: if she breastfeeds their eyes weep; if she disaccustoms them, they do not cry.

(They are) well-acquainted with a sharpened (knife): When she keeps pulling them to the throat, they are healthy; If they are spared, they get sick.

Vol IV p103

(citing Abu Talib al Ma’mumi )

In it I find the faces of the Byzantines, on which the frizzy hair of the zanj or the pupils of the eyeball lie.

Vol IV p324

(citing Abul Qasim Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Mabruk az Zauzani)

The black of the two curls on the temples from the unbelievers is opposed to the white of two cheeks of justice and monotheism. The Zanj entered the Byzantine country, and then both made peace. Oh my mind between the white and black.

 

Note: My reason for adding so much poetry is that it gives a less racist picture then the philosophers give.
 

Thaalibi: Timar al-Qulub fi-l-Mudaf wa-l-Mansub (Fruits of the Hearts) 

 Taken from: alwaraq.net

 

P155
Navel of the Earth, because it is the mode of the earth, and in the line of moderation, including the moderation of its people and flatter their bodies, but You see them handed over from the Romans and Greek, Slaves and dark Abyssinia, and the burning of Zinj and the Turk and China.

P162

The giraffe is characteristic of Yemen, and the Rhino is characteristics of India.

P165

Chapter Forty-sixth

In addition the following symptoms are attributed to the countries:  Obedience to the people of Syria, to the Levant plagues,

backwardness to Zinj, conditions to the Hijaz, ….

P166
(Tarab al-Zinj =Joy of Zinj) They are assigned among the nations with the intensity of ritual, love of entertainment and songs, and the preference for nakedness and idolatry, and the story continues with their compliments, especially if the drink bears in them and is added free to their free mix acquired from the heat of their identity.
Some of the adults described a man with rapture, and he said, By God, that he is more pleasant than a Zinj, a drunk lover, and Abu al-Shammaq (4) said:
(And there is no guard at Ibn Idris’s door ... and there is no lock at Ibn Idris’s door)
(I rejoiced at his favor, so I asked him ... just as I rejoiced the Hijaz Zinj to the drum)
And he tells of the goodness of their wedding and their attainment in it every amount of taking the sides of the drums, the playing and the excitement of playing and dancing what is represented by Ibn Tabataba describing an enjoyable night:
(And one night, her misdemeanor rejoiced me ... and she placed me on the Zinj throne)
(As if Gemini was a misdemeanor, a drummer hitting a cymbal (cymbal is also translated as zinj)) (A list has freed its shelling ... with its head tilted from coquettishness)
P170
………….. And for everyone who came from Iraq to the Zinj country, he will get scabies (5) as he stayed with him, because more than excessive drinking, it obscures his mind so that there is only a little between him and the imbecile.

Tha'alibi (d1038): Khass al-Khasu (Private Special)

 

Taken from: خاص الخاص by عبد الملك بن محمد بن إسماعيل أبو منصور الثعالبي ketabonline.com

 

Why do I see you having an opinion stranger than the Sunnah in Kufa, and perfection in Basra, yes! Loyalty is due to abandonment, generosity is due to Romans, and concern is due to Zanj.

(1) Banu Sasan: a name frequently applied in medieval Islam to beggars, rogues, charlatans, and tricksters of all kinds.

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

(3) Qasban: maybe Kasbah; a type of fortress.

(4) Abu al-Shammaq: Marwan bin Muhammad Abu al-Shammaq (730-815AD), is a Bukhari satirical poet, originally from the loyalists of Banu Umayyah.

(5) Scabies in the land of Zanj is found in: Jahiz's Kitab al-Hayawan 869,  Ibn Khordadbeh 886, al Hamadhani 903, Ibn Rosteh 903, Ibn al-Fakih Tha'alibi 1038, Al-Raghib al-Isfahani 1109, Mohammad ebn Mahmud ebn Ahmad Tusi 1160, Ali ibn Zaid al Baihaqi 1170, Jakut al Hamawi 1220, Al-Qazwini Atar al Bilad 1283, Rukneddin Ahmed 1420 and many others.

(6) Other versions: ushtur gaw yalank (palank); shutur-gaw-palank; ustar-gaw-palang; ushturgavpalang; ushtur or shutur-gdw-palank; ushtur kaw-balank; ushtur-gdv-palang ………………

The more used form to write it is: Usturgawpalang: persian name for giraffee; camel-ox-leopard (ustur-gaw-palang). The animal that looks like the cross of these three animals. Palang means: a leopard, a panther a giraffe, a hyena; anything of a motley colour. Ushtur: a camel [two-humped], gaw: cow, ox or bull. This Persian name is repeated among many others: Ibn al-Fakih al Hamadhani (903); Musa Ud-Damiri (d1405); Zad Sparam (9th); Ibn Bakhtishu (1295); Al-Raghib al-Isfahani (1109); Hassan Bar Bahlul (10th); Mohammad ebn Mahmud ebn Ahmad Tusi (1160); Jahiz's Kitab al-Hayawan (869); Tha'alibi (d1038); Ibn Manzur (1290); Al-Saghani (1252); Ibrahim Ibn Wasif Shah al Misri (d1209); Ibn Qutayba (880); Ibn Abd Rabbih (940).