Kashani, Abdullah bin Ali: Arais al-Jawahir wa nafais al-ajaib

(Bridal jewels and precious delicacies) (1301)

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Taken from: عرائس الجواهر ونفائس الاطائب  by کاشانى، عبد الله بن على ·

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 … and no matter where it is at the bottom of the mountains, the power of its attraction will be great. And it is a heavy black stone that resembles iron ore. And the wise Hermes (7) said that the best color of the magnet (4) is reddish black, and among the best are three colors: azure, reddish black, and ash with black dots. There are many similarities, but the difference is that it is similar to when a magnet would pick it up when it smelled iron, and even if the veils themselves are obstacles. And they have mentioned that in the Zanzibar Sea, it is a magnet (4) of the mountains. When the ship reaches that area, whatever iron is in those ships will be removed as it will come close to the mountain ....

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Chapter 31 in stone knowledge, the first few of that emery (5) and the properties of that stone emery is so hard that after diamond, there is no substance or stone harder than it, and the words of stones can be used for him. And it should be of two colors: one with red color, and one with blue color and no solid substance affects it except diamond, and it affects among jewels and its mine is in many places around Kerman (6) and the coast of the Indian Ocean and close to Zanzibar and on the other side of Abyssinia. And if you were not a craftsman, you could not use any of this solid substance and make gems of it. Iron steel can be watered, and black swords and Indian swords can be softened with it.

(1) ambra al schalahati: salahat ambergris; a good quality. Also found in: Ibn Masawaih (857); Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi (d897); Sa'id al-Tamimi (980); Abu al Mutahhar al Azdi (1010); Ismail Gorgani (1110)

(2) Schihr; coastal town in Hadhramaut in eastern Yemen.

(3) Nadd al zangi; Abu I-Tayyib Muhammad al-Washsha (d936) defines Nadd as: (aloeswood + musk + ambergris)

(4) Magnetic mountains are often mentioned in East Africa:

Alkerany (Kharani), a magnetic mountain.

Ibn Said (1250) Alkerany mountain magnetic

Nasir Al Din Al Tousi (1274) Kvhast (mountain) magnet in the sea of Zanzibar

Alf layla wa layla (15th cent) the Magnet Mountain (where the Ruc bird lives)

Abulfida (1331) al-Kerany (magnetic mountain)

(5) Emery is also mentioned by: Mohammed Ben Mansur (1300); Al-Dimashqi (1325)

(6) Kerman: known in ancient times as the satrapy of Carmania, is the capital city of Kerman Province, Iran.

(7) Hermes: The first Hermes, was a "civilizing hero", an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world. Hermes is here a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth in the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.