Vol2 p54

Khalid bin Abdullah al-Murozi said: The cities of the world are eight thousand cities. In China there are 1000 cities, in India there are 1000 cities, in Sindh a 1000, and in Zanj and Nubia, 1000 cities. The rest of the cities are divided in the climes.

 

Vol2 p101

Abu al-Hussein bin al-Manadi (1) said: The length of this sea from Al-Qulzum (2) to al Waq-Waq (3)  four thousand and five hundred farsakhs (4), it has great bays, including a bay that connects to the land of Abyssinia and extends to the land of Zinj to a place that is called: Berbera, five hundred miles long and 100 miles wide, this is not the Berbera position known in the Maghreb from the land of Africa, but it is another place in the extreme end of Abyssinia called by this name.

 

Vol2 p117-118-119

The flooding’s of the Nile.

The origin of the Nile: the flood, al-Jawhari (5) said: Nile floods Misr.

They all agreed about the guiding principle of the Moon Mountain, that is mentioned in the geography and the picture that it stems from a dozen springs, and the springs empty in the lake, such as Bataeh (6) behind the equator.

Water from on the sand and between the mountains, enters the land of Sudan and pours into the sea of Zing, in this sea, is Qanbalu (7) is fully populated, and the people are Muslim but speak the language of the Zanji. They defeated the people of the island around the time of the extinction of the dynasty of Umayyad (8) and the beginning of the Abbasid state, and that sea of Qanbalu (7) pours into the Sea of Oman.

And from Mount Moon to this island is a march of five hundred Farsakh and the flow strengthens of its mouth in the sea in the days that the Nile increases, ………..  So it was said that the water color affects the color of the sea and that it is a hundred times sweeter than honey.

……………………

Ahmed bin Bakhtiar (9) said: The spring, which is the origin of the Nile is the first spring of Mount Moon, and then it emit ten rivers, The Nile of Egypt is one of them, he said: and the Nile crosses the first region and then over to the second, and from the beginning of Mount Moon to the end to the Sea of Rome three thousand Farsakh being only a guess, in Fustat (10) there are two branches: a section passes to Damietta (11) and a section passes to Rashid (12), ending in the Sea of Rome, and it was said: It is unknown how long the Nile is except for God Almighty.

The increase begins in mid-June and ends in September, and differed reasons are given in the cause of increase and decrease: Some people said: it is not know that except by Allah. Others said: caused by increased water from the springs; Others said: It seems that the reason for the increase of rain are torrential rains, raining in Abyssinia and Nubia increases, but a delayed arrival in the summer because of the distance, and some people answered and said that the springs, which are under Mount Moon, are increasing in the days of his increase, it is indicated that it is the act of Allah rather than more rain.

………………

Al-Jahiz said in the book: Wonders of the two countries: That the Mehran of al-Sindh (13) comes from the Nile of Egypt, said so because the crocodile is in it.

I said: It is the fantasy of Al-Jahiz, because Mehran Sindh comes out of the mountains of Moultan (13), which is in the east under the equator and moderation line, and the Nile comes out of Mount Moon on the south and is outside the equator, and between Mahran (13) and Abyssinia and Nubia there is the East Sea. How can it be?! If the crocodile is found in Mehran, it is found in it as it is in the Nile.

 

Vol2 p332-334

Chapter on Ham and his offspring

Al-Kalbi said: He was the middle of Noah's son. He descended to the south, and the colors of his sons went down, and the sons of Japheth went down the north course, and their colors intensified as the cold grew colder.

Wahhab said: He was one of the best people, white, and when his father summoned him, God changed his color and the colors of his sons.

And Galen (14) said: They went down the coast of the sea, and their food was fish, and they fixed their teeth, and left them like needles, for the fish was glued to them.

Wahhab said: Then they dispersed in the country, and from Ham was born: Kush the son of Ham, and Kanan the son of Ham, and Hind the son of Ham. Then Hind of India and Sind went down there.

Abu Hanifa al-Dinuri (15) said: The sons of Ham were seven brothers; Ham's children: Sindh, India, Zinj, Qubt (16), al-Habash, Nubah, and Canaan (17). They went to the south.

Galen (14) said in the book: Wonders of children Ham: I met in the black ten qualities: curly hair, and the lightness of the eyebrows, and the spread of nostrils, and thick lips, and special teeth, a stinky skin, and cracking hands and feet, and big length of the penis, and a lot of love.

He said: But their brains became corrupted and weak, under influence of the planets of Saturn.

And Tawus the Yemenite (18) did not eat the sacrifice of the Zanji, and he said: He is a distorted creation. (44)

I said: This could be considered if he was a Magi (19), but if he is a Muslim, his blackness does not harm him.

Al-Haitham ibn Uday said: The sons of Ham are scattered in the land, so the son of Cush, the son of Canaan, the son of Ham, went in the Magreb, they cut the Nile of Egypt.

 Then they separated right and left, and they are many types: Nubia, Beja (20), Zaghawa (21), Kannam (22), Mirka, (23) Ghanah, Kuku (24), Damadem (25), Habash, Berber, Zayla (26).

And in their land is the giraffe, some people said: Crossbreed between the camel and the tiger, and some said: It is a kind of animal itself, and protested that it exists in the land where there is no camel, and al-Jawhari (5) mentioned evidence that it is procreating, he said: It is called in Farsi (27): ashtarakaw yulnaka; and I say: it is a camel.

(28) Al-Sharqi ibn Qatami said: The king of Zinj is riding with three hundred thousand knights, as well as the king of Nubia, and they have no snow or cold. And their homes are at the top of the Gulf, where a branch of the Nile of Egypt is close to the sea of Habashi and to a country Waqwaq and Sofala. And the dimensions of their country, a distance of seven hundred leagues in length and breadth, and there are many elephants, but the Zinj does not use them in war or anything else, only kill them to take the teeth, the amount of each tusks is hundred fifty (pounds), and the elephant will live in the land of Zinj for four hundred years, and (ivory is) carried by traders to Oman and Bahrain.

He said: In their country, there is an animal known bialzubriq it is smaller than the leopard, it is red, with fluff and bright eyes. It runs at fifty cubits, and it urinates on the elephants and the sons of Adam, and burns them. And if a man sees him, he flees from it up a tree. If it puts his head in the ground and it shouts a strange shouting, then a piece of blood came out of him, and he died while you watch, and if his urine reaches a tree it burns it. This animal is famous for Zanj and India, and is in the outskirts of India more than in Zanj.

Narrated by a witness who had his urine in his face with the effects of fire like smallpox, was asked and he said: I climbed a height Qsdna tree of fifty cubits, it urinated from the ground and hit me with some of his urine.

This animal escapes from the Rhino as the elephant escapes him, and as the elephant escapes from the snakes.

Al-Jahez said (29): The king of Zinj is called: falimin, meaning the Son of the Great Lord. It was said: They call the Great Lord Muklaniju, the greatest of them. And when the king has wronged them, or transgresses an end, they kill him and set up others, because they say: the Lord was set up only to establish justice, he is not close to the Son of the Lord, and deprive his children of becoming king.

Al-Haitham ibn Uday said: Among the children of Ham Nubia and their houses on the Nile of Egypt connected to the house of the Copts from the land of Upper Egypt and their city is said: Dungla (30), is the king's house. And the Bedja houses between al-Qulzam (31) and Upper Egypt, and they have gold and silver and other metals, and they live as pirates and kill.

He is one of the sons of Ham, the father of Abyssinia and their king of Negus. His city is said to be Ka'abar (32), a vast kingdom connected to the Levant and close to Uman, and the island of Dahlak (33) next to them.  And there is a group of Muslims under dhimmis (34). And between the coast of Abyssinia and the coast of Zabid (35) is three days, and from this place crossed Abyssinia to Yemen in the boats when they ruled Yemen at the narrowest place in the sea in a day, and through Jafar bin Abi Talib (36) the Muslims, it was said: the Muslims went from Jeddah (37) to Abyssinia. In the coast of Bahr al-Abyssinia at the crossing is a big city of Habashah.

 

Vol2 p451-452

(when talking about a people where there are no plants, roads, buildings in their land)

And the people said: They are Zanji (39)

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

 

Vol20 p444

Malik Shah bin Alba Arslan (40)

…………………..

And the greatness of his sermons, from the far country of the Turk and China as far as Yemen, and kings-sending, even the King said: How many days have you signed the residence of the messengers of the king of the Romans, and the messengers of the king of Al-Khazar (41), Zinj, Sindh (42), India, China, the Levant, Yemen, Persia, Ahwaz (43) and so on.

(1) Abu al-Hussein bin al-Manadi: was born in the city of Baghdad in (869 - 947 AD). He wrote many books; few survived.

(2) Al-Qulzum: located at the head of the Gulf of Suez.

(3) al Waq-Waq: can be the south of East Africa or also the end of the earth in the east of the ocean.

(4) Farsakhs: Parasang: 1 parasangs or farsakhs = 2.8 nautical miles/ about 5km.

(5) al-Jawhari: see my webpage on al-Jawhari (1001)

(6) Bataeh; Batiha; swamp

(7) Qanbalu; Qanbuluh: The island of Qanbalu from where the Zanj slaves were imported till the great Zanj revolt in Basra. (Zanzibar or Pemba)

(8) Umayyad: were the first Muslim dynasty, (661 – 750)in Damascus. Their dynasty succeeded the leadership of the first four caliphs.

(9) Ahmed bin Bakhtiar: an important judge from Wasit in the 12^th century AD. His statement is repeated by: Suyuti (1445-d1505); Ibn al Jawzi (1257); Ibn al Jawzi (1200); Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); Annon: Dhikr Kalam (15th)

(10) Fustat: now part of Cairo.

(11) Damietta: important town in the delta of the Nile.

(12) Rashid: Rosetta or Rashid is a port city of the Nile Delta, 65 km (40 mi) east of Alexandria.

(13) Mehran of al-Sindh: Mehran River, a local name for the Indus River in Sindh, Pakistan.

Moultan: Multan was one of the most important trading centres of medieval Islamic India.

Mahran: Makran, coastal region of Baluchistan in southeastern Iran and southwestern Pakistan.

(14) Galen: Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (129 – c. 216 CE), was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire.

Galen: In the black ten qualities not found or not present in the other: this statement is repeated endless: Al-Mas'udi (916), Abu Ubayd Al Bakri (1067), At Tahqiq fi sira ar raqiq (1250); Ibn al Jawzi (1257); Al-Qazwini(d. 1283); Al-Dimashqi (1325), Abulfida (1331), Al Amsati al Hanafi (1478).

(15) Abu Hanifa al-Dinuri: Abu Hanifah Dinawari; see my webpage on Abu Hanifa al Dinawari; (d895)

(16) Qubt: Qibt: Copts of Egypt.

(17) Canaan; Kush ibn Canaan: Ibn Qutayba (880) says that Kanan and Kush are the fathers of the races of the Sudan.

(18) Tawus the Yemenite: Tawus Ibn Kaisan (d723) is often introduced as a Yemeni with no mentioning of his Persian origin. He was one of the narrators of hadith.

(19) Magi: were priests in Zoroastrianism.

(20) Beja: in N Sudan. The Egyptians leaving from Aswan;  the southern border town on the Nile; have to cross their territory to reach the harbours on the Red Sea.

(21) Zaghawa: also called Beri or Zakhawa, are a Sahelian Muslim ethnic group primarily residing in Fezzan North-eastern Chad, and western Sudan, including Darfur.

(22) Kannam; Kanem in West Africa.

(23) Mirka: here the Merca of Abu Ubayd Al Bakri (1067); a people in West Africa. Also found as Mirka in Ibn al Jawzi (1257) ); Nuwayri (1333) has Mrnk; Al Umari (1349) Merka; Maqrizi (1441) Marka.

(24) Kuku: also found in al-Zayyat 1058; Ibn al Jawzi 1257; Al-Dimashqi 1325; Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi (d897) has Qaqu; Yakut 1220 Koko.

(25) Dendemes, Dendemeh; Dandama: East African people living in the interior, close to the sources of the Nile; also mentioned by Al Masudi (916); Al Idrisi (1150); Ibn Said (1250); Ibn al Jawzi (1257); Harrani (1300); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Abulfida (1331); Nuwayri (1333); Cowar el-aqalim (1347); Said Abd al Aziz al Dairini (d1385); Ibn Khaldun (1406); Al Qalqashandi (d1418) and Ibn al Wardi (1456) speaks about Demadam; al Himyari (1461).

(26) Zayla: Zeila in N Somalia close to Djibouti.

(27) Farsi: language of Persia.

(28) Al-Sharqi ibn Qatami: an early hadith collector.

(29) Al-Jahez said: The king of Zinj is called: falimin, meaning the Son of the Great Lord. They call the Great Lord Muklaniju: this is not from Jahiz but from Masudi (916)

(30) Dungla: Dongola: Old Dongola is a deserted town in what is now Northern State, Sudan.

(31) al-Qulzam: located at the head of the Gulf of Suez.

(32) Ka'abar: this he copied from Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi (d897)

(33) Dahlak: island off the Eritrean coast.

(34) Dhimmis: term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection.

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

(36) Jafar bin Abi Talib: (c. 590–629 CE), was a Companion and cousin of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and an older brother of Ali.

(37) Jeddah: town at the shore, close to Mecca

(39) (when talking about a people where there are no plants, roads, buildings in their land) And the people said: They are Zanji: this he copied like many others from: Umayr Ibn Qatadah 'Ubayd b. 'Umayr (d 694).

(40) Malik Shah bin Alba Arslan:  (1055 – 1092) was sultan of the Seljuk Empire from 1072 to 1092.

(41) Al-Khazar: Semi nomadic people from south Russia, south Ukraine, Crimea, Kazakhstan.

(42) Sindh: now in Pakistan.

(43) Ahwaz: al-Ahwaz: is a city in the southwest of Iran and the capital of Khuzestan province Iran.

(44) This hadith is repeated by: Masudi (916); Abu Nu’aym al Isfahani 1038; Abu Ubayd al Bakri 1067; Ibn Qudama al Maqdisi 1223; Ibn al Jawzi 1257; Ibn abd al Rahman al Mizzi 1342; al Dhahabi 1348; (and many others). Al Kulayni 939 was maybe the first to use it.