Al-Qazwini Atar al Bilad 1283

Al-Qazwini(d. 1283). Atar al Bilad (Monuments of lands) from Kazwin in Persia
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Taken from: Beitrage aus arabischen quellen zur kenntnis des negerischen Afrika; By Ernst Dammann, al-Hamawi Yakut ibn ‘Abd Allah, Zakariya ibn Muḥammad

site:islamport.com

A worldmap with the Kaba as its centre from his Atar al Bilad.

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As for the animals, the elephant is born only in the southern seas islands, and its life in the land of India is no longer than her life outside the land of India, and its tusks are not as great as they are in their own land, the giraffe is only born in the land of Abyssinia,…….

Likewise, the teak, the ebony, and the aloes grow only in Yemen, and saffron is in the land of the mountains of Bikharasan.

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First region

Consists of the following countries: Zinj, Nubia and Abyssinia, and the other territories, beginning….before the equator and ending at the equator.

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Abyssinia

Is a vast land north of the Gulf of Barbary, and south of the mainland, and east of Zinj, and west of the Beja (1). There is the very severe and intense heat and burning, leading to the dark color, and most people are Jacobite Christians, and a few are Muslims. They are most numerous on the land (farmers), but they are few in the more dry lands and deserts which lack water and rain, they eat wheat, millet, and they have bananas, grapes, pomegranates, and leather garments and cotton….

Among the wonderful animals they have: the elephant and the giraffe. And they ride the cows, they ride it with a saddle and bridle as a horse, and they have a lot of wild elephants to hunt. As for the giraffe, it is born with them from the Ethiopian camel, the hyena, and the wild cattle. In Persian it is called aishtarkawibulanak (Camel Cow Panther), the head is like that of the camel, the horns like an old cow, the skin of a panther, the tail of the antelope, her neck is very long, her front legs are long and her hind- legs are short. Timath al-Hakim (9) recounted that in the south, near the equator in the summer, animals of various types meet on the water springs with intense thirst and heat, and a species other than its kind is impregnated and exotic animals such as the giraffe are born, because they are from the Ethiopian camel, the wild cow, and the hyena, and that the hyena spoils the Ethiopian camel and comes a wondrous boy from the hyena and the camel, so if that boy is a male and impregnates the wild cow, the giraffe is born.

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Country Zinj

The country is from north to the south two months of marching, and consists of deserts; it is east of Yemen, and west of

Abyssinia, Nubia, Sudan and all are born of Kush who was born of ibn Canaan (10), Ham (11), and the country of Zinj is very very

hot, and the darker color is due to the sun. It was said: Noah, peace be upon him, he called on his son Ham and changed

his color (12), and their country is low on water with few trees, the roofs of their homes are made from the bones of the whale.

It is claimed they are bad people and it is said they are the lions among mankind. Said Galen (2): Zinj have these ten

characteristics: dark color, and crisp hair and crushed noses and thick lips and cracked hands and heels, stinky smell and

many have musical skills and a lack of reason and they eat each other, in their wars they eat the flesh of the enemy, and an

enemy they over won they eat. And most of them are naked, they do not dress, and you never see a Negro in distress, grief

does not exist among them and celebrating they all like; the wise men said: The reason for this behavior is in the blood of

the heart, and others have said: it is caused by the rising of the planet Suhail on them every night, it brings joy.

And the wonders of their country are: much gold, and those who enter their country must love fighting, and because of the

dryness of the air, one does not recognize scabies (7) until he has left the country.

And the Negroes, when they enter our country they get more orthodox moods and they grow fat. And they have a King named

Aokulaim (3), who in his countries has three hundred thousand Zinj warriors who are fighting on cows with saddles and bits, other

animals, like horses and mules and camels, are not available in their country. In their country there are the giraffe, elephant and

many other things in the deserts of the Negroes.

They have wonderful traditions, including that they kill the king and deny his offspring to the throne, and they say: A bad king is

not fit to be Vice-King of the heavens and the earth. And they eat the enemy they over won. It was said: This is the habit of

some of them not all of them. Also they drink wine which blurs the mind; it was said: It is taken from coconuts, they give it to

their enemies and to those who like it. And they make a show of the large number of iron and gold they have, they make

ornaments of iron although they have gold and silver, they claim that the iron scares the devil so they encourage to be dressed

up with it. As said they fight on cattle instead of horses. Massoudi said: I saw there this cow with it's red eyes and pregnant, big

as a camels pregnancy. They hunt the elephants, because wild elephants are many in Bilad Zinj, and the Zinj do not use them

in the war nor at work, but only use the bones and skin and meat, and they have a poison which they throw in the water, then the

elephant drinks the water; is not able to walk, then they go to him and kill him, and the bones of the elephant and the tusks are

brought from the land of Zinj, more then hundred fifty, and perhaps up to three hundred.

Bilad al Sudan.

It is a large country and a vast land, the north of which ends in the land of the Berbers, the south to the prairies, the east to

Abyssinia, and the west to the surrounding sea. Its land is burned because of the influence of the sun on it, and the heat is very

intense because the sun is still bleeding to their heads, and its people are naked, they do not wear anything because the intensity

of the heat, there are Muslims and some of them are infidels. Their land is gold-growing, and they have wonderful animals: elephants,

rhinoceroses, and giraffes. And it has great trees that are not found in other countries.

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Sofala

Last known city in the land of Zinj, known as the golden, and the story is passed that in the land of gold dust the traders carry

their baggage, and put it close to them and then leave. Then the people of Sudan- Sofala they come and leave the price of

these goods in gold, Sofala gold is known to the traders of Zinj. (8)

And the Hawai a kind of bird that repeats what he heard at a high voice and pronounces the words more correctly with more

sound than the parrot, and it lives more than a year and the eggs are red, and green. Mohammad ibn Jahm said: I saw some

people eating flies and they claim that they do so to avoid eye infection.

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L.njwyh (4)
Is a great Island in the land of Zinj, the capital of the king of Zinj, and the main anchorage of the vessels, one of its wonders is

that the vines bear fruit each year three times, and whenever one harvest ends another one starts.

Maqdaschu is a town situated at the beginning of the lands of Zendsch to the south of Yemen at the coast of the sea.

Its people are Arabs who don't have a sultan. The people handle their businesses through agreements. The merchants

let it to be know that there the south pole comes close to the center of heaven and also Suhail, that they can not see the

north-pole. And that they see something as big as the moon resembling a white cloud that never disappears and doesn't

move. They export sandalwood, ebony, amber, and ivory.

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About the Nile River; They said: On the face of the earth there is no river longer than the Nile because its march is a month

in the land of Islam, two months in the land of Nubia, and four months in the wilderness until where it leaves Bilad al Qamar

behind the equator. There is no other river flowing from south to north in the world, and it extends (overflows) in the intensity

of heat when water and all rivers are reduced, and increases and decreases in fixed order this is only the Nile.

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(About the Nile) As for the origin of its course, it comes from the country of Zinj and passes through the land of Abyssinia until

it ends in the country of Nubia, then it is still running between two mountains between them are villages and countries, and the

passenger in it sees the mountains on its right and north until it empties into the sea. It was said: The reason for its increase

(in water) in the summer is that the rain abounds in the land of Zanzibar. And from that country (the water) descends through

the rivers in proximity who pour torrents in the Nile from the sides,……

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Turuq

A city near Isfahan (central Iran). Its people are skilled in working ivory and ebony, cutting with skills and instruments that other

makers of the country are unable to.

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And the people of Jarjani are all Mu'tazilites (5), and most of them practice the science of speech, even in the markets and on the

paths, without the cold intolerance in theology…………….

And its people are the people of precision industries, such as ivory and ebony working and others. This is the only place in

Khorezem (6) except in a village called Turuq from Isfahan. Its women work in the needle industries, such as sewing, embroidery

and delicate works.

(1) Beja: in N Sudan. The Egyptians leaving from Aswan; the southern border town on the Nile; have to cross their territory to reach the harbors on the Red Sea.

(2) Galen: Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (129 – c. 216 CE), was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire.

Galen: In the black ten qualities not found or not present in the other: this statement is repeated endless: Al-Mas'udi (916), Abu Ubayd Al Bakri (1067), At Tahqiq fi sira ar raqiq (1250); Ibn al Jawzi (1257); Al-Qazwini(d. 1283); Al-Dimashqi (1325), Abulfida (1331), Al Amsati al Hanafi (1478).

(3) a King named Aokulaim: Names for the ruler of the Zanj are given by several authors:

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.

(4) L.njwyh; Lunjuya (Unguja) = Zanzibar.

(5) Mu'tazilites: Originally; Those who would neither condemn nor sanction Caliph ʿAlī or his opponents but took a middle position. Later: By the 10th century CE the term had also come to refer to an Islamic school of speculative theology in Basra and Baghdad.

(6) Khorezem; Khorazm: Xorazm Region or Khorezm Region in Uzbekistan located in the northwest of the country.

(7) 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.

(8) Those mentioning the silent trade in East Africa on my webpages: Hudud Al-'Alam (982); Al Zuhri : (1137); Mohammad ebn Mahmud ebn Ahmad Tusi (1160); Yakut (or Jakut) al Hamawi (1220); Al-Qazwini(d. 1283) Atar al Bilad; Rukneddin Ahmed (1420); Ibn Al Wardi (about 1456).

(9) Timan al-Hakim (Hakim= the Sage): Timothy of Gaza. He was a Greek grammarian active during the reign of Anastasius, i.e. 491-518AD. He is the author of a book on animals.

(10) Kush ibn Canaan: Ibn Qutayba (880) says that Kanan and Kush are the fathers of the races of the Sudan.

(11) Ham and Kuch are both children of Noah.

(12) This is the curse of Ham which is repeated with variations by:

- Ibn Qutayba (880)

- Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi (897)

- Al-Kisa'i (d904)

- Al Tabari (922): collects all that was already written about the subject (including denials).

- Eutychius of Alexandria (940)

- Muhammad Bal'ami (10th)

- Grandson of Muhallib bin Muhammad bin Shadi (1126)

- Al Jawzi (1200): he denies the curse.

- Al-Qazwini (1283) in Atar al Bilad