Taken from: ﻛﺘﺎﺏ  :ﺍﻟﺘﺎﺭﻳﺦ ﺍﻟﻜﺎﻣﻞ   ﺍﳌﺆﻟﻒ  :ﺍﻷﺛﲑ ﺍﺑﻦ 

P29

…and from Ham was born Cush and Masraim (1) and Qwt (2)…. the sons of Ham went to the coasts, the  Nubia and Abyssinia and Zinj, it is said: And from Masraim (1)  the Barbarians and the Copts (in Egypt)….

 

P877

(In the year 75AH-695AD)

Shir-i- Zanji (3) and the Zinj mentioned with him.

The Zinj met at the Euphrates of Basra in the last days of Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr, they were poor, they spoiled the land and ate the fruits, people complained to Waleed Khalid bin Ubaidullah bin Khalid of Basra, he took an army, and when he reached them, they dispersed and he took some of them, and slew them and crucified them…… Then a great multitude of Zinj gathered together among them, and made them a leader named Rabah, and called him Sher Zanji, meaning lion of the Zanj, ….and Ziad bin Amr, who was on the Basra police, send them an army fighting them,…. and killed him.

 

P1140

(In the Year 132AH-750AD)

…..the people of Mosul refuse to obey….. Yahya ibn Muhammad al-Mosul….. went to them with 12000 men….. and 11000 (of Mosul) were killed…. And when the night came, Yahya heard the screams of the women whose men had been killed, and he asked about that noice, and he told him, and said, If tomorrow again, kill the women and the children. And they did that, and three of them were killed, and there was in his camp a captain with four thousand Zanj, and they took the women as loot. When Yahya finished killing the people of Mosul on the third day, he rode the fourth …..a women asks him for safety from the Zanj…. The next day he called all the Zanj, and they gathered together, and he commanded them, and they turned away from him.

 

P1201

(In the Year 151AH-768AD)

When Al-Mansur came out, al-Mansur said to him: Jarir Lula said: Do not ask a responsible (of the Taghlib) to prevail

The maternal uncles of the Zenj are more noble then him, do not ask a woman to marry any of them. (5)

 

P1477 - 1574

The war of the Zanj

 

P1679

(In the Year 317AH-929AD) (Rebellions in the army)

And the Sudan they burned the houses, and burned many of them, and the children, and women, and then went out to Wassit (6), and gathered a lot of them, and invaded them…. , And more murder… they did not have a banner after that. …..

 

P1808

(in the year 355AH-966AD) During the war against the Qarmatians (7).

.... To be stationed in the Emirate known as Ibn Tagan, and was a small valley in Amman, and paid them salary…………. Ali ibn Ahmad, …. He ordered Abdul Wahab Katib Ali to give the soldiers their money, and he did so, and when he had finished with the Zinj, they were six thousand men, and they have good and bad, Ali said to them : Prince Abdul Wahab ordered me to give the white the soldiers such and such, and ordered me to give you half of that; and they were upset and refused, he said to them: Can you disperse me, and I will give you like all the other armies? They answered him, and they gave him allegiance. The white soldiers, so the white ones refrain from that, and there is a war among them, and the Zanj discussed with them, they settled, and agreed with the Zinj, …. (a new commander was appointed).

 

P1838

(in the year 363AH-974AD) In the Kingdom of Oman.

The Minister Abu al-Qasim al-Mutahar bin Mohammed, the minister of state (of Adud al Dawlah), took over the mountains of Oman, in Rabi al-Awwal (the beginning of spring); and the reason behind that is that when Mu’izz al Dawlah died, his deputy Abu al Farag bin Abbas left Oman, and Umar bin Nabhan al Tai took over Oman and called for Adud al Dawlah. Then the Zanj overcame the country, with groups of soldiers, they ibn Nabhan,……

To Oman, Abu Harb went from the boats to the mainland, and the boats went in the sea from that place, and they came to Sohar (8) the city of Oman, and the soldiers went out to them to the Zinj they fought very hard on land and at sea, and Ghafar Abu Harb, seized Sohar, and it lost its people, that was the year of sixty-two. Then the Zinj gathered at Brim, which is in Rustaq two stages from Sohar (8).  Abu Harb went and killed them and their families, the country was save. (9)

 

P2542

(In the Year 569AH- 1174AD) The Kingdom of Zabid and Aden; And other countries of Yemen.

……Turanshah bin Ayoub, brother of Salah al-Din al-Akbar returned to Egypt from Nubia, they asked Nour al-Din to go to Yemen for the intention of having Abd al-Nabi, the owner of Zabid (10), to cut off the Abbasid khutbah (11)….. In Egypt, a poet called Amara from the people of Yemen….and describes the country to him, and magnifies it in the same, ….. prepare the poles and angles and weapons and other machinery, and recruited the armies, gathered and mobilized, and walked from Egypt Beginning Rajab (12), and reached Mecca, the most precious God, and to Zabid (10) …….

They (Shams al-Dawla) then proceeded to Aden on the coast. It had a large anchorage and was the port for India, the Zanj, Abyssinia, Oman, Kerman (13), Kish (14), Fars (15) and elsewhere….. He left as his lieutenant in Aden Izz al-Din Uthman ibn al-Zanjili and in Zabid Sayf al-Dawla Mubarak ibn Munqidh…..

 

Ibn Al-Athir: Lubab fi tahdhib al-ansab (General refining of genealogy)

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Taken from:  alwaraq.net

 

Negro: … This person is a Zinj, and they are a kind of the Sudan. He said: I do not know any of them from among the scholars. 

Ibn al Athir: Nihayah fi Gharib al-Hadith (The end in the strange talk ) (1232)

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Taken from: www.shiaonlinelibrary.com/الكتب/...ابن-الأثير-ج.../الصفحة_74

In the poem Ka'b ibn Zuhair praises the Prophet peace be upon him:

And the skin of the dead is not touched. The skin of the (dead) giraffe is described as strong and smooth.  This does not affect (the prohibition).

Ibn Al Athir : al Matal al Sa'ir (1231)

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Taken from: Der Neger in der Bildersprache der arabischen Dichter By Manfred Ullmann

 

Vol III p88

Your question concerns a black piece of rock that is light and thin, has a delicate body, and appears dirty-grey. It is set up on the market where money is exchanged to make an original. It is like a zanj judge rubbed with saffron perfume.

(1) Masraim:  According to Genesis 10, Mizraim son of Ham was the younger brother of Cush and elder brother of Phut and Canaan, whose families together made up the Hamite branch of Noah's descendants. Mizraim's sons were Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim (out of whom came Philistim), and Caphtorim.

(2) Qwt: Genesis 10: Phut.

(3) Shir-i- Zanji: Sanih b. Ribah: also called Subaih b. Riyah az-Zangi or Sir az Zangi (Lion of the Zangi). He led the Zanj rebellion around Basra in 694/5. Ibn al Athir 1231 gives the circumstances of the rebellion. Al-Jahiz (776-869): Al-Fakhar al-Sudan mentions him also, and Ahmed bin Yahya bin Jabir   also known as (Al-Baladhuri) (AD 893) and Abd al-Karim ibn M. al Samani (1172).

(4) Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr: Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr was the governor of Basra in 686–691 for his brother, the Mecca-based counter-caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, during the Second Fitna. Mus'ab was a son of Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, a prominent companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

(5) Do not ask a responsible (of the Taghlib) to prevail The maternal uncles of the Zenj are more noble then him: Banu Taglib (Tagleb): also known as Taghlib ibn Wa'il, were an Arab tribe that originated in Najd (central Arabia), but later migrated and inhabited the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) from the late 6th century onward.

This is repeated by: Al Jahiz; Sudan (869); Ahmed bin Yahya bin Jabir (893); Masudi (916); Muhammad ibn Tahir Ibn al-Qaysarani (1113); Ibn Al Athir (1231).

These verses originated from the poet Jarir ibn Atiya (728) in his war of poems with the black poet al-Akhtal of the Taghlibi tribe.

Ghiyath ibn Ghawth ibn al-Salt ibn Tariqa al-Taghlibi commonly known as al-Akhtal (Al-Ahtal), was one of the most famous Black-Arab poets of the Umayyad period. He was one of the ‘Arab crows’. He belonged to the Banu Taghlib tribe, and was, like his fellow-tribesmen, a Christian.

(6) Wassit: Wasit: The city was built by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf in c. 702 CE on the west bank of the Tigris across from the historical city of Kashkar. It was abandoned in the 16th century CE, after the change in the course of the river Tigris.

(7) Qarmatians: The Qarmatians was an Iranian dynasty of a syncretic branch of Sevener Ismaili Shia Islam. They were centred in al-Hasa, where they established a religious-utopian republic in 899 CE.

(8) Sohar: In Oman close to the border with Dubai.

(9) This zanj uprising is hardly mentioned anywhere.

(10) Zabid: town on Yemen's western coastal plain. It is one of the oldest towns in Yemen.

(11) Abbasid khutbah: the Sunni sermon in the Friday mosque.

(12) Rajab: is the seventh month of the Islamic calendar.

(13) Kerman: known in ancient times as the satrapy of Carmania, is the capital city of Kerman Province, Iran.

(14) Kish: island is located in the Persian Gulf, 19 km from mainland Iran, and has an area of approximately 91 km2. It was very important in early Abbasid times.

(15) Fars: region in Iran.