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Al-Qazwini Ebony

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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.

P221

(Waqwaq island) (1) ………..

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.

P245

The sea of Zanguebar.

………….  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.

Taken from: 2013  عجائب المخلوقات وغرائب الموجودات By زكريا بن محمد بن محمود/القزويني     

Ebony: a tree that is like a piece of stone with a green plant on its head. It is more like wood with stone. As al-Shaykh al Rayiys (2) said: If you put it on hot coals it smells good, and the cloudiness and whiteness clears up if they (the ashes) dissolve in water and (the cloudiness) becomes covered in it. If its sawdust is burned on a floor and then (the eye) washed and covered with it, it will benefit dry conjuctivitis of the eye.

(1) Waqwaq island: three places are known to be called Waqwaq: 1 southern part of East Africa; 2 People from Indonesia; 3 islands close to Japan.

(2) Sheikh al-Ra'is (الشيخ الرئيس); other name for Ibn Sina (1037)