His map of the climate zones from the Paris ms 210.
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Gregory Bar Hebraeus (1226 - 1286), or Bar Ebroyo, was a regional primate of the Syriac Orthodox Church. He is noted for his works concerning philosophy, poetry, language, history, and theology. He was the son of a Jewish physician, Aaron. He was born in the village of Ebra near Malatya (Turkey) He died in Maraga, Persia, and was buried at the Mar Mattai Monastery, near Mosul. He wrote a history in Arabic the: al-Mukhtaṣar fi-l-Duwal. As to theology he wrote: Menarath Qudhshe, (Lamp of the Sanctuary), and the Kethabha dhe-Zalge, (Book of Rays), a summary of the first. Sullarat Haunanayz (Ascent of the Mind), a treatise on astronomy and cosmography, is edited and translated by F. Nau (Paris, 1899). His knowledge of East Africa is vague.
Taken from: Observations on Bar 'Ebroyo's Marine Geography, Hugoye
Le candélabre des sanctuaires de Grégoire Aboulfaradj dit Barhebraeus by Bar Hebraeus, Jan Bakos
Note : page numbers out of the French translation
P95
He wrote about her in the book of Geography. What is said about the region of the equator, that it is temperate, is not real. It is known that its inhabitants are tanned, burned, black and that all are alike in color, hair, customs and intelligence. How can a region be tempered, in which the sun burns the brains of the inhabitants so that, if the sun is a little away from the two solstices that we know, in winter and summer, they are a little cleared from burning and take a rest.
P96
First Clime
………… The people are ugly, naked, unorganized, without laws. Their animals are dangerous, their birds terrible, their monsters enormous, and reptiles numerous.
P155
The Sea Oceanus, which is outside the Herculean Pillars, with its flow (redyo) proceeding southwards, passes by the lands of the Western Arabs and by the Silver Mountain and the Moon Mountains, from whose caves the waters of the River Nile spring (nob’in), and by the lands of the Abyssinians and the lands of the Nubians, i.e. the whole land of the Cushites (3) ……………
The Universal Sea which is outside this gulf, flowing further towards the east, passes by the famous islands of the Indians [of] which [one] is called Sarandib (Sri Lanka) and another Qumair (here Madagascar), as well as the rest of the islands and mountains from which are brought and conveyed those hot, choice and aromatic spices, clove (arab. qaranful), aloe, pepper, camphor etc….
Note: according to the author of the article (Observations on Bar 'Ebroyo's Marine Geography) Qumair has a real chance of being Madagascar.
P159-160
Translation of the right upper corner of the map (of the Paris 110 Ms)
Tura semanaja: Silver Mountains
Surta de-saujuta auket ar’-a jakkitta dale-garbeja mennah sima kollah ar’a amarta wale-taimenamennah lait metom met’amranita : The equal line (Equator), To the North it is called the warm country, it is totally inhabitable and to the south of it is no land where one can live.
In the first clime:
Barbaraje ukkame hakwattaijaje : black Barbarians but also Muslims
Habsaje: Habash
Nubaje: Nubians
P165
From the land of the Kouschites (2) runs the Egon and the Nyses (rivers). From the Silver Mountain runs the Kremetes and the Nile…..
The Guihon is the Nile river, that runs through the lands of the Kouschites (2), Egypt and the West (of Africa). It is also called Schikhor.
The same map from the Paris ms 109.
A German translation of this map has
Z-b-lgah instead of baglah and adds that in the copy in Berlin Zang is mentioned. This German translation has also: the Nile river (=nahrj nilos) and adds that in the drawing of the copy of Berlin the Nile comes out of the Mountains of the Moon.
Under: map from the copy in Berlin of his Menareth qudhshe.
Translation from the Berlin ms map.
Taken from: Richard Gottheil: Proceedings of the American Oriental Society 1888, Mai, Seite
Under: a very similar map.
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Sulloqo hawnonoyo (Ascent of the Mind) 1279
Taken from: Observations on Bar 'Ebroyo's Marine Geography, Hugoye
Le livre de l'ascension de l'esprit sur la forme du ciel et de la terre: cours d'astronomie rédigé en 1279 par Grégoire Aboulfarag, dit Bar Hebraeus É. Bouillon, 1899
P118
The all encircling Sea…….many travellers who have gone up to the place where the southern pool is 10 deg. Above the horizon see only from far away the white mountain silver coloured from where flow the waters of the Nile, but they did not see the ocean.
P119
(The all encircling Sea)………… It passes by Egypt (iguptos) and the lands of the Berbers and the Cushites (3) and the whole of Africa. In the proximity of the Silver Moutain, which is also called the Moon [Mountain], it becomes imperceptible, but it is thought to unite after it with the Western Sea, from which it began and with which it ends.
P123
From the Silver Mountain, from which big amounts of water spring and two rivers leave. One is called Brhumitos goes to the North and gives water to the whole country from where gold comes (1). All the negroes who live along its course drink its water. The other river, simply called the Nile goes east and brings water to the whole of Egypt during its inundation which arrives every year.
P128
1 The seven Devine Islands
2 Equator
3 Silver Mountain source of the Nile; three barbarian negro settlements on the south of the Equator, in one of them is the capital of the empire of the Kousians (3). They are man-eaters.
4 Four settlements of the Hindus on the Equator and one south of it.
5 Eighteen towns according to some between the Equator and the first clime.
6 West
7 First clime
8 Second Clime
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Tarikh Mukhtasar al-Duwal: (A Compendious History of Dynasties) (about 1279)
Taken from: Guide to the Sources of the History of Africa: Sources de l’histoire de l… BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE Paris
http://islamport.com/d/3/tkh/1/84/2084.html
Translated by Bar Hebraeus from Syriac into Arab.
An abbreviation is given of Arab ms 299 of Paris.
f 1v : General habits of the black people, determined by the climate of the regions in which they live.
f 5 : Partition of the land between the children of Noah.
f 6v : The descendents of Ham,…… African Zinj, Egypt and Nubia and Abyssinia, Sindh and India. The people who descent from him and where they live.
f 10r : Frightened Moses avoids the Pharaoh, and he fled to the land of the Arabs and married the daughter of Jethro bin Reuel Madeeni Dadan bin Aakec Bin Ibrahim the Turk named Safora the al Zanjyh who became his wife. Then Safora al Zanjyh born to Moses two sons, one Gershon the other Eliezer and God helped them.
f 14v : Abulun, King of the Zunug is mentioned during the reign of Gedeon.
f 20v : Asa Ben Apia king for forty-one years. …In the tenth year of the reign of Asa there was war with Zarah king of the al Zanug with a million and six hundred thousand men of Berbers and Abyssinia and Nubia. They defeated him in the desert of Gajar. Five years later they burned the idols of the pagan….
f 34v : Under Ptolemee b. Lagus, the territories of the Copts and Nubians are part of Egypt.
f 42v : During the last years of the reign of Trajan (4) the Jews of Cyprus… Egypte and Ethiopia revolt.
f 48v : many black people convert to Christianism after the conversion of Constantin, King of Byzantium
f 56v : In the last 5 years of Heraclius (5) Cesar an invasion of the Persians reaches up to Nubia.
Taken from: Des Gregorius Abulfaradsch kurze Geschichte der Dynastien oder ... by Barhebraeus,
Georg Lorenz Bauer
F10r: Moses the son Amram. After he was 40 years old and was still in
the palace of Pharaoh, he saw an Egyptian, that behaved violently against an Israelite. He sat around, and when no one watched, he struck him dead. A few days later he saw two Israelites
bickering and he joined them. But one of them said to him. Who made you Lord over me? Have you come to kill us as you have killed an Egyptian a few days ago? As Moses feared that this might come
to Pharaoh, he fled to Arabia, and married Sophuta a Negress, the daughter of Jethron the son of Revel, a Midianite of the sons of Dadan, the son of Jokshan, the son of Abraham and his wife
Kenthura the Turkish girl. The Negress Sephura gave Moses two sons, Gersum, that is, the stranger, and the other, Eliezer, that is, God helps me.
God said to Moses: Command the Israelites to collect for me gold and silver and brass, purple garments, byssus, silk, goat's hair, skins, and cedarwood, and prepare an apartment for me among you,
for as long as they are out of the promised country. Your brother Aaron and his sons are to light a lamp that burns from evening till morning. They did what the Lord commanded them to do. So the
Israelites started with Moses before them to make an apartment. But Aaron and Miriam murmured against Moses that he had a Negress for a wife, and said: Did God only speak to Moses alone, and not
to us? But God said to them, If your prophecy will come, then I will secretly reveal myself to you. But I have faithfully found Moses in my house, and spoken to him from mouth to mouth.
F14v: Gideon. Seeing the afflicted state of the Israelites, God took pity on them, and sent an angel to a man named Gideon the son of Joash, and commanded him to rule the Israelites. He reigned
for forty years, killing the Arab kings who had subjugated them. And he had fathered 70 sons. In these days, Afulon (Apollo) lived as the king of the Moors (Zendsch), to whom, by his singing, the
stones were submissive, they obeyed the hard heart.
F20v: Asa's son Abia ruled 41 years and was righteous. In the second year of his reign, Jeroboam's son Nabat became king of the 10 tribes and died after having ruled for 22 years. Nadab, his son
followed him on the throne for two years. Then the government went to a man from the tribe of Isashar, named Boasa, the son of Ahia for 24 years. In the 10th year of the reign of Asa, King of the
two tribes, Zarah king of the al Zanug defeated him with one million and six hundred thousand men of the Barbars, Ethiopians, and Nubians. Asa went to meet him in the desert of Gad, and put him
to flight. Five years later they burned the idols of the pagan…
Taken from: Observations on Bar 'Ebroyo's Marine Geography, Hugoye
Ktobo d-zalge (Book of Rays)
…..this sea of us westerners called the Adriatic. To its north are Rome, land of the Franks, Byzantium and the whole of Europe; to its south, which is called the Sicilian are Abyssinians, Nubians, Berbers, Egypt, Alexandria and the whole of Lybia…..
... Oceanus, which, beginning at the islands of the Blessed and that (island) in the west called Gadeira, flows outside the whole earth towards the south and passes by the Mountains of the Moon, from which the Nile springs. It encircles the Abyssinians and the Nubians and forms the Sea of the Berbers, whose length is 500 miles and breadth at its extremity 100 miles. It flows further and forms the Red Sea
Sulloqo hawnonoyo (Ascent of the Mind) 1279
It passes by Egypt (iguptos) and the lands of the Berbers and the Cushites (3) and the whole of Africa. In the proximity of the Silver Moutain, which is also called the Moon [Mountain], it becomes imperceptible, but it is thought to unite after it with the Western Sea, from which it began and with which it ends.
Kethabha dhe-Ithiqon, (Book of Ethics)
The Universal Sea, beginning in the west where the Isles of the Blessed are, encircles the Silver Mountain, from which the river Nile descends and which is in the southwest. It passes outside the Cushites (3) and the lands of Sheba and Saba to the south.
Hewat hekmto (Book of the Cream of Wisdom)
In Latin called: Butyrum sapientiae
(1) One is called Brhumitos goes to the North and gives water to the whole country from where gold comes: Most authors call it the Nile of Ghana.
(2) Kousians: land of the Kush: kingdom in Sudan on the Nile.
(3) Cushites; Kushites: ancient people of Sudan.
(4) Trajan was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presided over one of the greatest military expansions in Roman history.
(5) Heraclius, was Eastern Roman emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular usurper Phocas.