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Abdullah Muhammad Al-Qurtubi; Tafsir al-Qurtubi

(Commentary by Al-Qurtubi) (13^th)

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Taken from: Africanism; Blacks in the Medieval Arab Imaginary by Nader Kadhem 2023

 

In interpreting the people mentioned in the Quranic verse “Until, when he came to the rising of the sun [i.e., the east], he found it rising on a people for whom We had not made against it any shield”

(Quran 18:90), Qatada (2) says: “They are called the Zanj, they are Taris (1), Haweel (1) and Mensek (1), barefoot, naked, and blind to the truth. They have intercourse publicly like dogs and donkeys.”

 

(1) Taris, Mansak, Kamara: according to Dinawari they lived close to the people of Gog and Magog (high North).

Al-Kalbi said: They are Taris, Mawnsik and Tawil.

Tha'alibi (d1038) in his Qisas al Anbiya also mentions the places Mansik and Nasik but here inhabiting opposite ends of the " length " of the earth, and the places Hawil and Ta'wil occupying opposite ends of the earth’s width.

(2) see my webpage on Umayr Ibn Qatadah 'Ubayd b. 'Umayr (d694).