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Al-Qazwini(d. 1283). 'Aja'ib al-makhluqat
wa-ghara'ib
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Qazwini's worldmap taken from www.henry-davis.com/MAPS and its translation from the Mappae Arabicae by Miller Konrad
African Elephant
Asian Elephant
Left: farsi translation from Qazwini about the islands of the Zanj.
Left page on top: Hybrids in the islands of Zanj.
Under: Merchants arriving in the islands of Zanj.
Right page on top: people who live in trees.
Under: cannibals
Bottom: the rhino.
Cannibals Jazirat Turan
Palaces of Crystal.
Taken from: Zakarija ben Muhammed ben Mahmûd el-Kazwîni's Kosmographie, mit Benutzung der Anmerkungen und Verbesserungen des Herrn Prof. Dr. Fleischer, vollständig übers. von H. Ethé.
masaha.org/book/view/4844 عجائب المخلوقات وغرائب الموجودات - مساحة حرة
P84
This provides a proof that both this pole as well as Canopus (13) have a special peculiarity to evoke cheerfulness and joy, and on that account it is also that the Zeng (the people of Zanguebar), because they are very close to the pole and Canopus, are used to speak with the most exuberant cheerfulness on earth.
P138
(The saying about what is well-known) For every type of people there are months such as the months of the Arabs, the Romans, the Persians, the Copts, the India and the Zinj, but the months used now in our time are the months of the Arabs, the Romans and the Persians, so we only mention those ones and some of their characteristics and the seasons in them, in God is Success.
P215
Furthermore, from him go out two large inlets, one of which is the Persian, the other is called the Red Sea; it continuous to an under the name of Berber known sea, which expands from Aden to the Sofala of Zanguebar, and no ship goes over this sea because of the great danger, further it extends under the name : Mountain of the Moon, famous mountains, from which the sources of the Egyptian Nile gush forth, up to the lands of the western Sudan and finally up to the countries of Spain and the Okeanos. - In this sea there are so much islands that only God Almighty alone knows it all; those to which people have got there but really, are also numerous, and each of which increases from 20 parasangs (14)(circumference) of up to 100 and 1000. The most famous of these are the islands Cyprus, Samos, Rhodes, Sicily, and in the south the islands of Zanguebar, Taprobana (Ceylon), Socotra, the Maldives (ed’d’ibig’at) and the islands of Java (ez zabig).
P216
Left: Three black cannibals swimming in a silver sea
(Waqwaq island) ………..
Also there is the Ebony tree, and it belongs to the most wonderfull trees. He looks like made of stone, and on its top are green, fresh leaves, while he himself is white. When he becomes old, he becomes black as a stone
P223
The seafarer's report is the following: when this sea is in a violent wave, black individuals appear, of which the individual is 5 or 4 spans (1) big, and which look
as though they are in shape and stature the small children of the Ethiopians. And they then mount the ship, and in large quantities, but without causing harm. Among them there are also a crowd of
people who are swimming to the boat, when the wind is blowing, while the ship is rapidly moving to sell amber for iron, and carry this in their mouths to an island on which people with black,
frill hair live, who eat humans, which they disassemble link by link. And these form communities of countless multitudes. They resemble the inhabitants of Zanguebar, and they are called Mag'kui.
In their neighborhood is another black nation, and when a vessel comes to it, the sea comes violently at night, and they come out towards the ship.
P224
Then a fish, which is over two hundred cubits (3) in size, and which is a great fear for the ships. If the people learn that he passes by, they strike with wood and scream loudly, so that he may flee from the sound of their voice; And when he lifts his fins, it is similar to the sail of a ship on the sea. And most species of this kind are near the island Wakwak (15). There are also large turtles, each of which is about twenty cubits (3), and sometimes one of them has one hundred eggs. These are also found near the island of Wakwak.
P226
From this Indian Ocean now two arms branch off the greatest is the Persian and the other the Red Sea. The one to the north is the Persian Sea, to the south of the sea Zanguebar.
P228-229
The islands in the Indian ocean
1 The Island Bertajil (9) ………………..
2 The Island Essalamit ……………
3 The Island with the castle (Gezirat el Kasr)
Note: in three manuscripts found in the BNF (and also some other manuscripts) this island is called: Island of the Moon. On it is a crystal palace.
The story is given of a Persian king going there and perishing with his people. And of D’ul Karnain (=Iskandar) wanting to go but receiving the advice not to. ………………
On this island there is a white palace which is of good omen for sailors; they say that it assures them of profit, safety and good luck on the seas. [. . .] It is reported that the companions of Alexander saw on some islands dog-headed people from whose mouth fire emanated.’ When Alexander was about to fight them he noticed a palace made of crystal from which these strange people were emerging. A brahmin dissuaded him from his intention to go there, where he would have met his death.
Note 2: This story is important as it is discovered that in Mayotte (site at Dembeni), a small island of the Comoros archipelago (=Islands of the Moon) was the centre for sale of the raw rock crystal coming from Madagascar on its way to the Muslim world. See my webpage: Note on Rock Crystal.
Pradines argues that the dog-headed creatures are the lemurs from Madagascar.
A ferocious people with human bodies and dog’s heads live on this island. The story is told by Yaqub ibn Ishaq who spoke with a scar-faced man who had managed to escape from that island. The dog-headed people used to capture their victims and lock them in a building, then fed them until they were fat enough to be eaten.
P238
The sailors say these three species of fish coming in every year twice to Basra, and each of them stays there for two months. When the two months have passed, then the duration of this species comes to an end, and there is another. Now, concerning the barastug, it comes from the countries of Zanguebar to have the pleasure of sweet Tigris water in Basra, and that the residents of Zanguebar know this very well. What then is not fished by the people, then returns to the countries of Zanguebar. And this fish is not present in the parts of the sea in the region lying between Basra and Zanguebar, no barastug except on the days when he comes and goes again. Except for this time the sea is empty of them. The sailors report that the barastug in the time when it is found in Zanguebar, it is not in Basra, and also when it is found in Basra, it is not in Zanguebar. (8)
P242
A man from Isfahan (16), who was badly afflicted by debts and no longer able to look after his family, decided to board a ship out of desperation. During the journey the ship was caught in a whirlpool, and the only way out to continue her journey safely was someone’s sacrifice by disembarking on a nearby desert island. The desperate man from Isfahan volunteered in exchange for a solemn oath from the others that they would take care of his children in Isfahan. He went to the island, saved the ship and started to look around.
‘I was under the largest tree I ever saw. Above [it] there was a wide terrace-like surface, and when daylight came; I noticed that it was very large. Suddenly a huge bird came (=Rock or Rukh), the largest animal I ever saw, and rested on the tree terrace [as if it were its nest]. I was frightened by [the possibility] that it would catch me. When the first light of morning appeared, [the bird] spread its wings and flew away.’ The giant bird did not show any enmity towards the man, therefore he approached it and one morning, when it was about to fly away as usual, he grabbed one of its legs and flew away holding on to it. ‘I held myself firmly until I could see land below me. I saw villages and buildings. [When the bird] was close to the ground I let myself drop on to a pile of straw on the threshing floor of a village. The villagers noticed me. [The bird] flew up and disappeared, and the people gathered around me and brought me to the chief [of the village].’ The story ended happily because everybody was amazed by his tales and the village chief gave him some money and let him stay with them for a while. Eventually, the ship which he had saved called at that place. The man from Isfahan joined his companions and returned to his family with the money he had received.
P243
(The Red Sea) This Sea is situated between the Indian, Persian and the one of Zanguebar and all these are hanging one under the other together.
P245
The sea of Zanguebar.
This is actually the Indian Ocean itself, and the countries of Zanguebar lie to the south of the same below the Suhail, and who travels on the sea, will see the South Pole and Suhail, but never the North Pole. On its shores lay the Berber countries, and that is a strain of the residents of the Sudan, but different from those in the West. Next, the Berber country stretches by the sea shore of Zanguebar until after Aden. The extreme ends of this sea connect to the surrounding ocean, and the waves of this sea are enormous large, similar to high mountains, and they swell so high, as towering mountains. But also as deep they sink down again, as the deepest wadis. Its waves do not break up, and therefore the greatest part of it shows no foam, as is the case in the other oceans. Man claims this flood of waves is filled with demons, and it has numerous, sprawling islands where there are thickets and Trees. But these places do not bear any fruit, it is precisely just such trees such as the ebony tree, the sandalwood, the sag (teak tree, Tectonia grandis) and the pipe shrub. - From its shores they collect also the Ambra, and sometimes there is a piece as large as a huge hill. - We shall now mention some of the islands and animals from that sea.
P246
Some of the Islands in this Sea
1-The burning Island (elg'ezira 'Imu htarika.) Once every 30 years the island burns down when a star that appears only then reaches its zenith. (6) …………
P247-248
2-The island Eddanda (or Ed-Douda)(island of the loud noise)(5). That is one more island close to the one from Zanguebar. A merchant said: On this island there is a town of white stone from which one hears loud noise and voices, although there is nobody living. Many times the sailors landed there, took water, they drink it and find it sweet and good and with a camphor smell to it. They also say that they do not know where the island ends, only that close to it there are mountains, out of which at night there is a tremendous fire, then comes out of it very loud a lamenting screaming. Some people also say; this noise and this fire are sign that one of their kings has died. Further is said that in the neighborhood of the island there is a snake but only visible once a year, and many times already have the kings of Zanzibar tried to catch it, and they really caught it, then cooked it and took the fat. As soon as the king brushes himself with this, he gets an increase in his strength, his prestige and his cheerfulness. From the skin of this serpent they make also a carpet that has such an effect that a patient with a consumptive disease is saved from this evil (4).....
3- The island el'ur (an island with people one el long) ………..
4- The island Seksar ( an island where people have the head of a
dog)(there are cannibals on this island) …………….
A[nother] people living on a certain island of the Sea
of Zanj are dog-faced whereas the rest of their body is human. They live on fruit found on the trees of that island, [but]
they [also] eat [the flesh] of the animals which they are able to find. They are called Sagsar
in Persian.
P250
Some of the creatures in this sea.
………….. Furthermore, the fish known as the whale is in length 4 - 500 Ell (17); and sometimes only in this sea is only one part of the fin visible, and that's as big as the biggest ship sail. Sometimes also appears the head and blows the water up high. And climbing higher into the air, as the thrown arrow flies. The ships are night and day in fear of him, but when one beats the drums for their protection, than he flees from the sound. It drives with its tail and its fins other fish up to its mouth, and the destruction that it causes in the sea among the other sea animals is enormous in size. However, if this fish is too outrageous, so God Almighty sends another fish, about a cubit (3) long, which bears the name ellasak, and firmly attached to his ear, so he can he not get away from him again. Then he goes to the bottom of the sea and beats in violent excitement around until he finally dies. Then it will float on the water like a huge mountain. If this sea surges most violent, it ejects from its ground pieces of Ambra (=Ambergris), as big as mountains; these are devoured by the whale now, and the swallowed pieces of Ambra bring him to death. Then it will float on the water and there are specially people from Zanguebar that lurk on the ships for him; as soon as they notice him now, they throw their harpoons into it and drag it to the shores. Then they pick on his stomach and bring the Ambra out of it. But everything in the belly of the fish, has a bad smell; that is known to the merchants and medicine dealers in Irak, Persia and India very well. What however in the neighborhood of it is found, is supposed to be pure and excellent.
P259
(Wal) A great type of fish that eats amber and dies, and we mentioned it in the Zinj Sea, so we do not return on it, and it has a lot of fat in its brain and they use it to light candles.
From the islands in the sea of the Zanj: a man with two women.
The whale (sea of Zanj)
The horned fish (sea of Zanj)
The sawfish (samak al-minshar) of the Sea of Zanzibar
P301
Likewise, the southern half (of the earth) is a quarters from the south-east, in it is the country of Zinj, Abyssinia and Nubia, and a quarter in the southwestern part that no one has ever set foot in, and it is adjacent to the Sudan, who border the Berbers.
P302
Climate map
P378
The Nile.
They say there are in the world no rivers longer as the Nile, because he flows one month in the countries of the Muslims, two through Nubia and four flowing through desert land, until where it comes out in the countries of the mountains of the moon behind the equinoctial line. Also there is in the world no other stream that pours from south to north, as the Nile; and also none exists in the world, which swells during the most violent heat, when all other currents suffer a water reduction, and swells in a sequence of stages, while the others decrease.
P381
(About the Nile)
Now as to the source of the stream, it comes from the countries of Zanguebar, passes Abyssinia and finally arrives in the country of Nubia. Then it flows unceasingly between two mountain ranges, between whose are villages and towns. Anyone that travels on the Nile, see the two mountains on his right and left, until the same finally empties itself into the sea. - Some say the reason that it swells in the summer, is that there is rain in the land of Zanguebar; rain falls on those countries at these times; downpours like openings of hoses down and the torrents are now poured from all sides into the Nile. Until the Nile reaches Egypt itself, and has passed these deserts is it the time of the summer heat and this is the predestination of the Almighty, All-Wise.
Kazwini, just like Abulfedra
thought that ginger was a plant originating from East Africa:
There are the wolf and the parrot, and the peacock, and the dove, and the plant of Zinj, and al-sasim, and pepper...
(verses on India by Aby'l-dhal'i, quoted by Kazvimi)
Taken from: Die Wunder des Himmels und der Erde; Zakarīyā Ibn-Muḥammad al- Qazwīnī, Alma Giese 1986 (German translation of the part of the work following the translation by H. Ethé)
P54
One of the wonders of (the sun’s) influence on living beings is that it burns the people of the countries that are closest to their zenith, like the countries of the blacks, which are in the first climatic zone, and makes them black; and the intensity of their heat makes their faces black as coal, their bodies light, and makes for an untamed nature, similar to the nature of wild animals.
Picture city in first clime
P106
(About amber). And some of them said: It is the dung of a water animal, and there is no dispute that it breeds it in the sea, and the sea throws it to the coast, and they mentioned that the Zinj Sea at times throws up a great piece that resembles a hill. Often among the sea fish, they eat it and then die, and in this variety (of amber) there is no odor.
P159
The negroes will rush into your country and they will rule what is between Ibyan and Nedschran (Nedschran in Arabia on the border with Yemen; Ibyan:500 km further north) (This is the invasion of Abraha, from Ethiopia who ruled much of present-day Arabia and Yemen from at least 531 to 570). Then the king said: That really makes one upset. When will that be, in our time or afterwards? Schiqq said: It will be in a time after that. Then someone of great importance will free you from them and give them the greatest disgrace to taste. The king asked: Who is this mighty man? To this Schiqq replied: He is a son of the house of Dhu Yazan (2), who will come from Aden. Then said the king: Will his reign be permanent, or will it come to an end? - It will be ended, said da Schiqg, by one of the messengers who bring truth and justice from (10) ……..
P199-200
The giraffe
In Persian the Giraffe is called: Camel Cow Panther. The head is like the head of the camel, her horns like the horns of the cow, her skin as the skin of the panther, her legs are as belonging to the camel, and their split hooves are like the cattle. She has a very long neck, long forelimbs and short hind legs, and her appearance is close to the camel; the fur resembles that of the leopard, and the tail is like the tail of the gazelle. They say the giraffe descended from the Abyssinian camel, the antelope and the male hyena; namely, it is so that in Abyssinia the hyena males fertilize the camel, and then they bring forth a young one whose shape is between the shape of the camel and the hyena. Now, when the young of this camel is a male and it copulates with the antelope, it brings the giraffe into the world.
Taimath al-Hakim (11) reported, in an area near the equator congregate by the artificial waterholes in summer animals of various kinds, because they have strong thirst. Then it happens that different kinds of animals fertilize each other and at these places are made something like the giraffe, the African Wild Dog, the Isbar (12) and the likes. The Giraffe is of a remarkable kind; except for the elegance of its appearance and the strange nature of their hybridization nothing of it is known.
P235
(And from it) a tribe on an island of Zinj, they have the image of a human being but speak words that cannot be understood, and they eat and drink like a person but have wings with which they fly and there are white, black and green varieties.
A people on one of the Zanj islands.
Their height measures a cubit (3). Most of them are one-eyed (7). Their one-eyedness comes from fighting the cranes. The cranes attack them every year and a fight takes place between them. Some are killed in the process and the cranes stab some in the eyes so that they become one-eyed. They kill as many of them as God will, eat them and then return to their country.
P236
A people on one of the islands in the Zanj Sea.
Their heads are like dogs and their bodies like humans. They feed on the fruits of this island, and when they find a living being they eat it. A people on another island in this sea; they are in human form, and their form is as beautiful as it can be. Their legs have no bones, and their legs are like thickened liquid. They crawl forward. When they find someone who is walking, they summon him to sit down with them, and when he is seated one of them jumps on his neck and wraps his legs around him. If he tries to throw him off, he scratches his face with his nails and subdues him, like one of us makes his mount submissive.
A people on a certain island: These have wings and thin limps, and they also have hair. They walk on two legs and also on four; they also fly. There are people who say that they are a human-species, or that they belong to the genus of the Djinn.
Taken from: Kosmographie: Die Wunder der Schöpfung, Volume 1 Zakarīyā Ibn-Muḥammad al- Qazwīnī 1849 (IN ARAB)
P449
(When talking about hybrid animals) (And from them) born between hyenas, camels and feral cows, is the giraffe, it is born between these three and has been mentioned in the chapter of animals, so we do not repeat it.
(1) spans: the distance from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger of a spread hand (23cm).
(2) Dhu Yazan: was a semi-legendary Himyarite king of Yemen who lived between 516 and 578 CE, known for ending Aksumite rule over Southern Arabia with the help of the Sassanid Empire.
(3) cubit: Distance from fingers to elbow (45cm).
(4) 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); Wasif Shah (1209); Qazwini (1283); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Ibn Al Wardi (about 1456).
Note also that there is only one island with an active volcano close to East Africa: Angazidja (Ngazidja or Grand Comoros); Ibn Majid (1470) calls it Angazidja or Angaziga; Al Idrisi (1150): the unnamed island (has Volcano); Ibn Said (1250) calls it Beukan.
(5) Al Idrisi (1150); Jazirat min az Zanj, with Jabal an-Nar: with a volcano (Comoros); Ibn Said al Maghribi (1250) island of the Vulcan (Djeziret-el-Beurkan); Al Qazwini (1283) puts the volcano on : The island Eddanda (or Ed-Douda)(island of the loud noise); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Nuwayri (1333).
(6) Burned Island: Qazwini (1283); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Mustawfi, Hamd-Allah ibn Abi Bakr Qazvini (1340) also mentions it.
(7) The Isle of the one-eyed: also found with Al Qazwini (1283); Musa Ud-Damiri (d1405); Al Dimashqi (1325). The story was also known in China: Tu Yu (801): The little people are to the south of great Ch'in (Rome). Their bodies are barely three feet long. At the season of plowing and planting their crops they fear lest they be eaten by the cranes. But great Ch'in provides guards to protect them, and the little people exhaust their treasures to repay and reward them.
(8) The migrating fish at Basra….. The barastouj …… : these paragraphs are repeated by many authors: Jahiz's Kitab al-Hayawan (869); Ibn al-Fakih al Hamadhani (903); Shah Mardan Ibn Abi al-Khayr: (11th); Mohammad ebn Mahmud ebn Ahmad Tusi (1160); Al-Zamakhshari (d1144); Al-Qazwini(d. 1283); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (around 1300); al-Watwat (d1318) ); Rukneddin Ahmed (1420). These fish in reality only immigrate from the open sea to the coast.
(9) Balthair; Rukneddin Ahmed (1420) has Bertayim; Qazwini (1283) has Bertajil; Ahmad Tusi (1160) has Balthair.
(10) a longer version of this is found in Al Tabari (922). The person mentioned: Schiqq; is one of the two soothsayers contacted by the king to know the future of his country.
(11) Timothy of Gaza is meant here.
(12) cross of wolf and hyena.
(13) Canopus, Canope: is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina and the second-brightest star in the night sky. The south celestial pole can be approximately located using Canopus and another bright star, Achernar, as the three make an equilateral triangle.
(14) parasangs: 1 parasangs or farsakhs = 2.8 nautical miles/ about 5km.
(15) Waqwaq: Can be Indonesia-Malaysia but in other contexts South East Africa or even Japan.
(16) Isfahan: is a city in central Iran.
(17) An ell is a north-western European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand).
Wonderful creatures in the land of the Zanj
Three winged natives of the islands of the Zanj.
Two naked inhabitants of the islands of Zanj in the China Sea.
Island of Sagsar (one of the islands of Zanj)