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Al-Raghib al-Isfahani: Muhadarat al Udaba (Lectures writers) (d1109) Isfahan
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Abul-Qasim al-Hussein bin Mufaddal bin Muhammad, better known as Raghib Isfahani, was a Muslim scholar of Qur'anic exegesis and the Arabic language. Al-Raghib Al-Isfahani meaning: the Isfahani monk; was born in Isfahan, though his exact date of birth is not known. He died in 1108AD. The concept of justice, according to al-Isfahani's definition, is: equal retaliation; for wrongdoing. His most famous work was Al-Mufradat fi Gharib al-Quran. What he knows of the Zanj is from meeting them in Muslim lands. He has no apparent knowledge of East Africa.
Taken from: Islamport.com الموسوعة الشاملة - محاضرات الأدباء
Vol1 p11
It offers praise and vilifying:
……..(about the educated people living around the mosque of Basra)
I have been attracted to them in poetry - - until they have spoken the words of the Zinj and Rum
When I heard words I do not know - - as if Saturn were crows and owls
Vol1 p69
Titles of kings from everywhere:
Khazhira: sahib Afriqaya. Khusara: sahib Fars. Ceasar: sahib Rumi. Yaghfura: sahib Sin. Al Buhraja (1): sahib al Zunj. Khaqana: sahib al Turk. Zinbayla: sahib al Kharz……..
Vol1 p113
The prohibition on alienating the enemy:
…………. Do not believe the weak enemy that your involvement … may be finished by the lack of knives and Zinj.
Vol1 p149
A disobedient protest:
………………. It was said: What is the right of the child to the father? He said: to choose his mother and improve his name and circumcision and teach the Koran! Then he revealed his nakedness, and if he was a Muslim, he said: My name is Barghouth and I do not know the characters from the Qur'an, and I was born a Zinj, and was told by my father: Carry it you deserve it!
Vol1 p166
Al Sayid al-Humairi (2):
If you say: Our father is Abdul Sham - - - The Zinj is one of the sons of Noah
They are two races out of all - - - but no schism like the Shiites
Vol1 p240
Ibn Abi al-Aswad (the Black one)
He has been called the one longing for the Kaaba - - Watch careful the sorrows
Catch carefully, he is attentive - - the careful Zunuj
Vol1 p281
Abdel Aziz
Like the mouth of a Zanj has black skin inside - - and I run from our local author
Vol1 p282
Eat dates:
Some of them said: I did not benefit from eating dates except with the Zanjis and the people of Isfahan (3), the Zanj do not choose and I choose, and the people of Isfahan only take a fist. Until they have finished eating, they have not taken any of them. And it was said: So for centuries, he does not go out with his companions and eat twice dates.
Vol1 p302
Low-fat broth and meat:
……………… And another found many bones, and he said, the work of a cook, or from the teeth of a Zinj; Another said: I appreciate his mother’s grave?
Vol1 p327
The Story:
Isaac said: The bands are singing………. Ibn al-Mu'taz (4) describes the story:
As a child had she become - - She came from the children of Zinj.
Vol1 p329
Al-Siriyu al-Rafa (5):
And a battalion of Zing and Rum smarter - - A war where intelligence remains active.
Vol1 p452
Reason of good mouth smell:
It was said: a lot of saliva (9) makes your mouth does not smell. Therefore, the dogs have the best breath. And among the people the best are the Zinj……
Vol1 p453
The spelling of Sudan:
Oh suspicious in color it is - - not prepared for what followed the division
He has wronged you from your creation - - and injustice is derived from injustice
It is taken from Hakim's words. He was told: What do you say about black? He said: The best color.
Al-Mutawakil (6) said: Not too hot in the Sudan? He said: Because they are hotter. He said worship was present: Yes visible. Jarir said black on him is a white dress. ………..
Anecdotes in Sudan:
Saw a Zinj person blow to Rome, he said: The night is engulfed in the day.
And he saw a Zanj cry, and said, like a kitchen that shall cease.
And he saw a black man with a yellow thread (in the hair), and said, as if a fire was in his head.
Vol2 p68
Solar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse:
Al-Raqashi said: It is narrated that Zinj were worshipping the moon and India worshipped the sun, and God threw them solar and lunar eclipses.
Vol2 p73
Describe Lightning:
………………As a strange Zanjiya she laughes - - the traveller is up and running
Vol2 p85
(he gives parts of poems)
Af-Rafa:
And the shadow becomes pale - - a condition if Zanj and Rum rest.
Abu Rafie Al-Harawi (7):
The bunches of caterpillars were above us - - when Zunuj and Rum hung in the sky
Vol2 p117
The giraffe:
In the land of Nubia and is called in Farsi: like the cross between a female leopard and a camel, or a female camel and a leopard, with the snout of a camel and the skin of a leopard, and the head and the form of a camel. (10) The giraffe long forelegs bent the back, and her legs do not have knees, and this is like Karemish, what is like a bull.
Vol2 p131
Described as foolish:
Vulture, bustards and the female wolves and called the Jahira because they take care of the child of the hyena and leave her stomach, he said:
As breastfeeding other children otherwise lost ... built her stomach for this error of intent
And the daba, the sheep, and the goats, as well as the peacock , and the hasanaha, and the giraffe.
Vol2 p132
These are the things that will change:
People differ over the changes and the pagans deny it….
And there was an earthquake and some said: do not deny that the air and soil are changing, acting like nature does in Zinj and Saqalaba (slavs); and it becomes the force of the nature of their land one sees that the locusts destroy the pulses and worms the vegetables, lice in black youthful head, and in the reddish one,….
What is attributed to a places of beasts:
The wolf of wine, the rabbit of vinegar, …….. Khyber fever, and spleen disease in Bahrain, and the island's abscesses, and scabies (8) of Zinj
Vol2 p129
What breed is from different races:
The mule is known. And the wolf and the hyena……. Ignorant claimed that the giraffe is produced from among the wild camels and the wild cow, because they saw his name in Farsi, ustar-gaw-palang (10) and it is shared between these animals….
Taken from: Der Neger in der Bildersprache der arabischen Dichter By Manfred Ullmann
I think of a Zanjiyya who was not born by any woman and who carries children from another in her stomach.
Vol II p713
… and it is as if the wine-skin is a Zanj, who has stolen (= his hands and feet have been cut off because of stealing)
Vol II 722
Once I saw a flute playing women with a beaming face, whose coquettish eyes secured her love.
It was as if she were bringing a baby from the Zanj kids, to whom she had given birth in fornication.
Vol II 726
Two squadrons of Zanj and Byzantines who have fought a war in which the keen mind has twitched swords.
Vol III p316
(citing ibn ar Rumi)
White and black hair on my head: two peoples, Byzantines and Zanj, have settled on my head. The young raven flew away from my head, and instead the king bird has taken up residence on it. So two colors have spread on the courtyard of my head.
Vol IV p587
And (vines under which) the shadows rest; they are adorned with jars full of wine, Zanj and Byzantines, adorned as if they were earrings.
Vol IV p587
(citing abu Rafi al Harawi)
It is as if the grapes on the trellis above us are Zanj and Byzantines that have been hung from the throats.
Al-Ragib Al-Isfahani: Magma' al-balaga (On poetics)(d1108)
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I think of a Zanjiyya who was not born by any woman and who carries children from another in her stomach.
Vol II p574
(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 II p607
Once I saw a flute playing women with a beaming face, whose coquettish eyes secured her love.
It was as if she were bringing a baby from the Zanj kids, to whom she had given birth in fornication.
Vol II p644
(citing abul Tayyib al-Mutanabbi)
A dust cloud in which the (bare) iron turns the black zanj to smile or to a greyish back of the head.
Vol II p726
(citing Kultum ibn amr al Attabi)
The lightning is, as it were, a white-gray blaze that shines on the face of a black mare whose fur is not speckled, or the row of teeth, a zanj woman who breaks out in laughter, her lips soon opening, soon closing.
Vol II p732
( citing ann)
…. A zanj woman made of teak and juniper.
Vol II p738
(citing anon)
A Zanjiyya who has put on a safflower coloured dress and who has unhooked a round collar.
Vol II p738
(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 II p741
(citing as Sari ar Raffa).
And (vines under which) the shadows rest; they are adorned with jars full of wine, Zanj and Byzantines, adorned as if they were earrings.
Vol II p741
(citing abu Rafi al Harawi)
It is as if the grapes on the trellis above us are Zanj and Byzantines that have been hung from the throats.
Note: My reason for adding so much poetry is that it gives a less racist picture then the philosophers give.
(1) List with names of rulers among the Zang.
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.
Al-Qazwini(d. 1283). Atar al Bilad: And they have a King named Aokulaim.
Muhammad al Fasi, Maliki: (d1429-30): Al Hyaj: the king of Zinj and Ghana.
Wasif Shah (1209): Their principal king is called Kunah; he resides on the shore of the sea, in a place called Kandu.
Al-Dimashqi (1325): The supreme king is called Touqlim (or tuqlim or buqlim) meaning 'son of the Lord'
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.
(2) Al Sayid al-Humairi : poet Seyyed Ali Humairi Yamani, (d 796CE). In Medina with Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq.
(3) Isfahan: is a city in central Iran.
(4) Ibn al-Mu'taz: Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz (861 – 908) was the son of the caliph al-Mu'tazz, but is better known as a leading Arabic poet and the author of the Kitab al-Badi.
(5) Al-Siriyu al-Rafa: (d 973 CE) was a poet in the court of Sayf al-Dawla.
(6) Al-Mutawakil: (822-861) Abu al-Faḍl Jaʽfar ibn Muḥammad al-Muʽtaṣim billah, better known by his regnal name Al-Mutawakkil ʽalà Allah was the 10th Abbasid caliph, under whose reign the Abbasid Empire reached its territorial height.
(7) Abu Rafie Al-Harawi: (d. after 40/660-1) is a famous companion of the Prophet and his servant who later was freed.
(8) 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.
(9) 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).
(10) 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).