A 19th century drawing of fencing with spears
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Awfi, Sadid
al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad Buhari: Javami al-hikayat va lavami al rivayat; (Compendiums of Reports and Illumination of Narratives) (1228) India
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Awfi, Sadid al-Din Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Buḫari (d.1232). He was probably born and educated in Buḫara. Sometime after 1208, ʿAwfī decided to migrate to India. He resided there for the remainder of his life and composed his two major works: Lubab al-albab and Javami al-ḥikayat va lavami al-rivayat, (genre anthology). It is an anthology of biographies of close to 300 poets. (in 1221). Javami al-hikayat va lavami al rivayat contains more than 2000 historical and literary anecdotes relating to the dynasties of Persia. (in 1228) Unfortunately I was so far only able to find an abbreviated description of the anecdotes related to East Africa instead of the complete text.
Taken from: persian.packhum.org
(Anecdote 1768) The chaste daughter of an Alawi (1) contrives her own death at the hands of Burqu'l, the chief of the invading band of Zangis, rather than to face ignominy.
(Anecdote 1972) On the Abyssinians, called Ḥabasha. The various black races — their marked features — extreme heat that affects their features and temperament.
(Anecdote 1973) A king of Khurasan (2) employs Negroes in his army to frighten the Turks beyond the Oxus, who took them for giants and dared not fight with them.
(Anecdote 1974) An account of the earliest alliance by marriage between Iran and Turkistan (3): Balaj or Balh (?), the king of Turkistan, gives his daughter to the
King of Iran called Hasanawayh or Hastawayh (?); the King of Iran sends among other presents a Zangi, a curiosity which the people of Turkistan had never seen before; the Zangi becomes a favorite
of the King, and seizing his opportunity kills the King, makes himself the ruler, and becomes famous in Turkistan as Qara Khan.
(Annecdote1975) An account of a few peculiarities of the Zangis eg. fencing with poisoned spears - eating snakes - making special flexible bows and super-fine shields from the hide of an
animal called Malt (or Lamt) (4)
(Anecdote 2059)
The Giraffe: structure of the body, various theories about its origin and birth, supposed to be an animal of mixed breeds, hence the Persians call it camel-ox-leopard. Refutation of this theory
by the great naturalist, al-Jahiz
Mohammed Aufi : Lubab-al-Al-bab, (The essence of wisdom)
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Taken from : Annemarie Schimmel; A two colored Brocade: the imagery of Persian Poetry
(oldest biographical work on Persian poetry)
Also called: Awfi, Sadid al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad Buhari:
A poet called Sandali is quoted expressing the wish that his patron might be happy. (Sandali means eunuch.)
as long as around the faces of the Turks exist Hindu-like curls,
as long as this clamor comes from the Negroes to the dust of Byzantium,
may your smallest fief be Turk and Hind and Rum (Byzantium) and Zanj..
(1) Alawi: Alawites, a Shia minority sect in Syria, also known as Nusayris.
(2) Khurasan; Khorasan: Afghanistan + Eastern Iran.
(3) Turkistan: Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan, is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang.
(4) Lamt: animal mentioned by Murda al Tarsusi (12th) and Awfi (1228): antelope from which the skin is used to make shields by gluing together several layers.