Lapidario del rey Alfonso X el Sabio;

(Lapidary of King Alfonso X the Wise) (1250AD) Spain

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Alfonso X (1221-1284) was the king of Castile, Leon and Galicia. He encouraged the translation of works from Arabic and Latin into the vernacular of Castile. He is one of the few writers that defined East Africa as origin of crystal stones. 

Taken from: http://www.academia.edu/5896062/_with_Elise_Morero_The_diffusion_of_

rock_crystal_carving_techniques_in_the_Fa_imid_Mediterranean

 

The stone called Crystal

In the fifth degree of the sign of Cancer: The stone  called bollar in Arabic, and in Latin cristal ... It is found in many parts, but the best of all, is from the land of Ethiopia (= East Africa)

See Note on Rock Cristal.

 

 

 

The page concerned in the manuscript

Written for King Alfonso el Sabio: La Gran Conquista de Ultramar;

(The great overseas conquest) (ca. 1293)

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Taken from: La Gran Conquista de Ultramar 1877

 

(Talking about the presents that Aron Arraxid Caliph of Baghdad send to Charlemagne.) (1)

…..believing that it was good; and even more, than when Charlemagne sent him some messengers, without the great gifts he had sent to him, give them still very great jewels; He sent his gifts of precious stones and of silk and of many other very rich and very good things to the honorable men of France and of Germany; and he gave honor to those who believed they were fine with Charlemagne; and yet, besides all this, he sent him elephants and azorabas (giraffes) and other strange beasts of which he knew there were none in his land. He kept the overseas Christians for the love of Charlemagne so that no one dared to say anything that weighed on them; ………..

(Note: Charlemagne did receive an elephant from Harun al Rashid but no giraffes).

(1) Caliph Aron Arraxid: Caliph Harun Ar-Rasid; (763 – 809) was the fifth Abbasid Caliph.

Cronica de Alfonso X; Chronicle of Alfonso X

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Taken from: Imagining the Mediterranean: Disruption and Connectivity in Medieval Iberian Tales of the Sea; Nicholas Michael Parmley.

 

While King Alfonso was in Seville and all the men with him during this honor that they did for his father, messengers came to him from Alvandexáver, King of Egypt. They brought presents to King Alfonso of many precious cloths of different kinds and of many rare and beautiful jewels. They also brought him an elephant and an animal called an azorafa [giraffe], and an ass that was striped with on band white and the other black, and many other kinds of beasts and animals. The king welcomed warmly these messengers and did them great honor and sent them very well pleased from there.

(1) The King of Egypt was probably the Sultan Kutuz (1259–1260); he bore the honorific title al-Muzaffar, which the Chronicle distorted as Alvandexáver.