A world map from a manuscript of Al-Umari. I was unable so far to find a translation of it.                                                     Ebony from one of his mss

Shihab al-Din Abu 'l-Abbas Ahmad b. Yahya b. Fadl Allah al-Adawi known as Ibn Fadl Allah al Umari was born in Damascus in 1301AD and died there in 1349. In between he spend many years in Cairo. His book: Masalik al absar fi mamalik al amsar; Pathways of Vision in the Realms of the Metropolises is a combination of universal history and world geography; it is a sort of encyclopaedia. He only knows some of the East African towns but all information copied from old sources and adds some well-known mythical stories about the Nile sources.

Taken from : كتاب مسالك الأبصار في ممالك الأمصار by  ابن فضل الله العمري  al-maktaba.org

- مسالك الأبصار في ممالك الأمصار  by ابن فضل الله العمري    islamport.com

- Yajima Hikoichi: State, Port and the Maritime Space

- maktabatalarab.com

Full Name: Shihab al-Din Abu 'l-Abbas Ahmad b. Yahya b. Fadl Allah al-Adawi.

Vol1 p11

A chain called the Mountains of the Moon branches off here. The Nile rises in it. It is said that glittering stones are to be found there which gleam like white silver. They are called sanjat al-bahit (14). Anyone who sees one laughs and cleaves to it till he dies. It is also called the human magnet (maghnatis al-nas). The author of [the] Jughrafiya [Geography – presumably Ptolemy is meant here] says that Aristotle (1) mentions it in his Book of Stones (Kitab al-ahjar)….…….two divisions (of the mountains) circle on the equator the course of the Nile, from the east and the west. The East, known as Jabal Qagouli, and stops at the equator. The western, known as Adam. There flows the Nile of the Sudan, Geographically going to the Sea of Damadam (2). And it cuts off their areas of Ethiopia between the cities of Samghara (3) and Jimi (4).

Vol1 p12

……………The eastern quarter to the south. It has the mountains of the Great Moon on the outside of the equator…………..And there is a mountain….. From the writer of the Geography we learn that there are black people who eat people. Its tail falls on the equator, on a part of a length of one hundred and five degrees……

Vol1 p17

Including the Nile River. Which is the greatest river that does not change in the great benefit it gives: To the greatness of the country and its length in the nations. It starts from Mount Moon………..

The Nile consists of ten rivers from the above-mentioned Mount Moon. In groups of five rivers. Then these ten rivers will flow in two seas: Every five rivers flow in a lake by itself. And then come out of the eastern lake, including a gentle sea (=river) that takes east on the mountain Qagouli, it extends to the cities there, then pours into the Indian Sea.(28) Then six rivers shall come out of the two lakes. From each lake there are three rivers. Then these six rivers converge in a sprawling lake.

The Qadi Sharaf al-Din Abu-al-Rua 'Issa al-Zawawi told me that Prince Abba Dasoub Ibn Abi al-'Ala Abi Dabous and his father were the last sultans of al-'Adawah (5) from among the Bani Abd al-Mu'min (6) who told him that he came to this lake in the days of his escape from the sons of Abd al-Haq (7).

We returned to mention the joining of those six rivers in that lake and some of them call it: Al-batiha (lake-swamp). We say it also.

In those batiha, the water is divided in halves. One half of the lake goes west. This half is known as Nile of Sudan…………..

The other half is out of the way, taking the north east of Jamie (4).  Then there is a division that takes east to the city of Sahartat (8). Then he returns southward. Then turn south east to the city Sahartat (8).   Then to the city of Merka (9), ending close to the equator and at the length of sixty-five degrees marked in the map. It flows in a lake.

The main Nile continues on the opposite side of this division east of the city of Chemi (4), taking it to the outskirts of Habash.  And then enters into the Sudan to Dongola (10),…. to Aswan (11)……………..

Vol1 p18

There are numerous accounts of the origins of the course of the Nile. Al-Mas‘udi and others give worthless information. The most commonly expressed view is that somebody or other has actually seen its source, and each writer puts forward a reason for the failure to find out the truth about it.

Some say: Some persons reached the mountains [where the Nile rises], climbed them, and saw beyond them a heaving sea with water black as night split by a river white as day which entered the mountains on the south and came out on the north, where it divided into branches at the dome of Hermes (12), which is built there. They assert that the builder of this dome was Hirmis al-Haramisa (Hermes (12) of the Hermeses), who is called the Threefold in Wisdom [Trismegistus], while others claim that he is Idris (13)(peace be upon him!), who reached that place and there built a dome; and they say that he is called the Threefold because he combines three things: prophethood, wisdom, and kingship.

Others say: “Some persons climbed the mountain, but each time one of them stepped forward he would laugh, clap his hands, and fling himself down the far side. The rest feared to suffer the same fate, and so came back.”

Others make this assertion: What these persons mentioned about actually saw was the bahit (14) stone. Everyone from among them who saw it laughed, stepped forward, and cleaved to it until he died.

Vol1 p23

The second half is the western, it’s the place of the lakes: It is the three Nile lakes. The highest are the two lakes, located in Oula (29), then the big lake that is below them and we call it Al-Batihah (lake-swamp)……………

We should point out was that these two lakes they are from the Nile, but we know that their land did not change the water and did not spoil their taste.

Vol2

And the Land of Zinj: and the town Barawa (15) and the city people are infidel people who do not believe anything, and their foods are malignant such as ants, frogs, mice and lizards and so on. And in their city of Malindih its people are magicians who are hunting the beasts with magic, so they do not harm anyone but those who they want to be harmed, and lions and tigers do not attack them because of the magic, and the name of the magicians in their language (almuqanaqana), and the city of Menbash (Mombasa), where they abstract iron, and their red dogs who fight off lions and tigers, and there lives the king of Zinj. And the city of Al Bais (16) which is small like a village, and its people worship the Most Merciful, a large drum is found there whose sound is tremendous and heard for about three miles, and the Arabs are feared in the hearts of the Zinj, and when they see an Arab, whether a merchant or other he kneels for him and allows him all judgment.

As for the Indian Ocean it has to be mentioned: as for the islands of Alranj (17) they border the coast of the country of Zinj,and from the islands of Alranj (17) the island of Cherboh (18) it is said that it is a thousand and two hundred miles in circumference. With a fertile planting conditions, and plenty of water, and it has pearl bancs, and the products for perfume, and it has a mountain called Wabra, to which its worshipers take refuge.

Vol5 p43 

I stayed there (Aden) for a while as a child (= al Hakim Salah al Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad b. al Bulhan). As for the drinking water it is imported in the town from the outside like anything else. For a person who stays there, for food and beverage etc because the price is high it becomes an expensive large sum. For the people who stay there during the season of the intense heat, they need to drink many times a day. This is the place for meeting our travelling companions who came a long way. They come from: China (north and  south) Iraq and Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, Zanj, Habash, and from all the Indian Ocean areas I can mention. There are many merchants and ships and visiting people and of many types. The lists of commodity products will take one week. The people who stay there they make sufficient profit with trading. In this business, in this profit the  Rasulids (21) support the national and international and sea trade.

Vol5 p85-86

(When talking about Muslim and Kaffir Abyssinia)

Reach it to a territory called Sahrat (22) and called the ancient Takrai (23) The city of the Kingdom in this region at that time called Achashram in another language, also called: Zepharta, and the oldest Negashi (24) was king over all the country, and then the territory of Amhara (25), which is now the city of God; And then the territory of the province of Damut (26), then the province of La Manan, then the province of Siho (27), then Zinj province, and then the province of al Amra, and then the province of Hamsa, and then the territory of Paria, and then the Islamic model of the province of all countries.

Vol5 p129

What I do say however is that much has been told of the Sudan who eat man's flesh. It is they whose territory lies far to the south. Some of these are Zanj. Jahiz says in his book entitled Kitab al-bayan wa-'l-tabyin; The book of eloquence and exposition : We have mentioned the Zanj and the fact that they extract their front teeth. I asked Mubarak al-Zanji al Fashikar : Why do Zanj pull out their front teeth ? And he replied : I have asked about this, and also why some of them sharpen their teeth. I was told that the adepts of sharpening do it so as to be able to fight and bite because they eat human flesh, for whenever a king makes war on another and captures him dead or alive he eats him; and likewise when they make war on each other the victor eats the vanquished. As for the adepts of extraction they have looked at the mouths of sheep and dislike that the fore-part of their mouths should resemble those of sheep.

Vol6 p99

God has made places with heat and few residential places in Regions I and II, India and China seas and Zinj with abundant colorful islands.

Vol6 p114

Gold dust in Gana in the West  and Sofala gold dust in the Middle - which, as reported from the experts of this matter - more than in Ghana, immeasurably quantities in the land of Zinj, in some of which there are soils that if a fire is lit form pure silver…..

Vol 23 p365

As for the amber, we also mentioned it, and we mentioned the disagreement in it. Some traders have claimed that in some years the sea of Zeng throws up a great piece. The more like the size of the skull, the weight greater than a thousand mithqals, whales often swallow the amber and die.

Vol25 p483

(In a poem from Mohammed bin Hussein al-Tinabi)

And he threw the sands in his name, so let them come -- Between Egypt and the land of al-Zinj

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

Vol 14 p429

(citing ibn ar Rumi)

He moves against the enemies on a black night of Zanj and on a day by Byzantines. The night as well as the day are a help to achieve the desired purpose.

Vol15 p126

And a black one who grumbles like a camel stallion when riding on brightly lit flames. It makes the limbs of a wild bred stand out, which had been grazing on the flowers for months. To a certain extent, a zanjiyya is sitting on the fire, who has put on her yellow coat.

Vol 15 p153

The owner of the meadows let us go freely. In his mature plain, no longer green figs. They are similar in colour and sweet-smelling aroma. The musk bubbles and the coolness of the snow. (They are) like ...... or like the breasts of busty zanjiyya girls.

Vol 15 p187

If the wind keeps the clouds now, the thunderbolt is in the middle of the lightning. Zanj, as it were, their twitching (swords) twitching as they beat their drums among themselves.

Vol 15 p336

(Citing Abul ala al Ma’arri)

When the lightning flashes apart, you think the night is a wounded zanj.

Vol 15 p338

(citing: abu l-Ala al Ma’arri)

This night is a Zanjiyya bride who wears necklaces of (fake) pearls.

Vol 16 p261

Towards the end of the month, the full moon became a thin sickle and joined the morning light. It is as if the crescent moon is a tightly spun bow of silver, while the night is a zanj that has firmly taken hold of it.

Vol 17 p127

He has a mole between cheek and lips that resembles a zanj that comes in a garden in the morning. When it comes to picking flowers, he is undecided because he doesn't know whether to pick roses or camomiles.

Vol 17 p198

(citing Muhammad ibn Atiya ibn Hayyan al katib al Majribi)

It is as if the coals and the ashes and what the fires have done to them are like an old zanj with a grey head and wearing a gold-colored shirt.

Vol 17 p242

(citing: Ubaid Allah ibn Ahmad al-Baladi an-Nahwi.)

Oh, you, on this place two armies, Zanj and Byzantines, stand. They attack the hearts, and the bodies.

Vol 17 p249

(citing abul Qasim al Asad ibn Ibrahim ibn Billita)

It is as if the darkness was a fleeing army of Zanj, for whose pursuit the dawn sent the Copts.

Vol 17 p287

(citing abd al Aziz ibn Hiyara called al Munfatil)

We felt as if the mourning robe of the night was our coat until dawn appeared in a Sahul dress. The night that dawn was like a Zanj fled from a Byzantine

Vol 17 p288

(citing abu Ahmad abd al Aziz ibn Hiyara al Qurtubi called al Munfatil)

When the night appeared and the flash of lightning flashed, it was as if a zanj had shrugged a gold sword.

Note: My reason for adding so much poetry is that it gives a less racist picture then the philosophers give.

Ibn Fadl Allah al-Amri: al-Ta'rif bi-al-Mustalah al Sharif

(Definition of the term Sharif)

Taken from: alwaraq

P89

About the Tiger…..

About the Wolf…..

About the elephant…..

About the Rino……

About the giraffe: Al-Jahiz said: They claimed that the giraffe created from breeding among the camel from Nubia and al-Habash, and between the cow and the hyena. If the child is a female who mates with a wild bull, so the offspring becomes a giraffe, and if he is a male, so he will give birth to a giraffe [also]. He said: Some of them claimed that the female giraffe is not impregnated from the male giraffe, but rather is a composite. He said: They said that this is known in Yemen. And the teeth of the male are more than the teeth of the female; and if her teeth were blackened and like a pyramid or if white it showed the age. And [of] its diseases: the madness like a dog; [and its diseases also]: Angina and gout. (Then follows a poem on the giraffe)

P89

About the hamar al-atabiya (Zebra): It is equal to [the] night and day, and consists of whiteness and blackness by: and settled lines, like flowing rivers ………(a poem on the Zebra follows)

(1) Aristotle: was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.

(2) Sea of Damadam: Bahr al-Damadam: Damadem: Dandama: Of which the East African people are 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 Himyari (1461); Abulfida (1331); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Nuwayri (1333); Said Abd al Aziz al Dairini (d1385); Ibn Khaldun (1406); Al Qalqashandi (d1418) and Ibn al Wardi (1456) speaks about Demadam.

(3) Samghara: also found in Maqrizi (1441); Al Umari (1349)

(4) Suyuti (1505) :island of Chemi: Jimi (Gimi), (Himi): al Makrizi (1441) mentions it on the Niger; Abulfida (1331) and Ibn Said (1250) make it the kaptial of Kanim/Kanem. Al Umari (1349) has Jimi, Jamie, Chemi.

(5) al-'Adawah: literally hatred.

(6) Bani Abd al-Mu'min: The followers of Abd al Mu'min (c. 1094–1163) he became the first Caliph of the Almohad Empire in 1133 (in north Africa).

(7) Abd al-Haq: (died 1217) in 1214 he conquered parts of Moroco from the Almohas Empire.

(8) Sahartat; Sahartah; Sahart: also mentioned by Abulfida (1331) and Dimashqi (1325); Makrizi (1441) as a major part of Ethiopia.

(9) Merka: here not the Merca on the coast of Somalia but a place in West Africa. Also found in 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

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

(11) Aswan: the southern border town of Egypt on the Nile.

(12) the dome of Hermes: The first Hermes, was a "civilizing hero", an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world. Hermes is here a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth in the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.

(13) Idris: is an ancient prophet mentioned in the Quran, whom Muslims believe was the third prophet after Seth. He is the second prophet mentioned in the Quran. Islamic tradition has unanimously identified Idris with the biblical Enoch.

(14) bahit stone: Pieces of the story of the tones Baht or Bahit brought by Alexander from the country of the Zanj and found in the mountains of the moon called the magnet of men or who make people laugh till they die and which story comes originally from Aristotle can be found in: al Maqrizi (1441); Suyuti (1445-d1505); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Al Umari (1349); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Al Zuhri (1137); Salamanca translator (1420).

(15) Barawa: Brawa or Barawa or Brava on the south Somali coast; The Bedouna of Idrisi (1150)

(16) Al Bais: El'Banas of Idrisi (1150): Bais with Abd-el-Mo'al (15th?); Al-Bais of Al Umari (1349); Al Himyari: Banas; Ibn Said (1250): Banyna; Abulfida (1331): Batyna.

(17) Alranj: literraly: the wind. Most probably mistake for Al Zanj.

(18) Cherboh: : an island Cherboua (Sribuza or Sharbua) is found with Idrisi (1150); Yakut (1220) has Sribuza; Ibn Said (1250) Serira; Al Umari (1349) Cherboh; Qoutb al-Din al-Chirazi (1311) Sribua

(19) tanka: about 11 gr in silver.

(20) dirhams hashtkanis: the silver tangah (tanka) of India was equivalent to eight of the dirhems called Hashtkani, these hashtkani dirhems being of the same weight with the dirhems of Egypt and Syria.

(21) Rasulids: were a Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled Yemen from 1229 to 1454.

(22) Sahrat; Sahartat; Sahartah; Sahart: also mentioned by Abulfida (1331) and Dimashqi (1325); Makrizi (1441) as a major part of Ethiopia.

(23) Takrai: maybe presentday Tigray.

(24) Negashi: Najashi, was originally the ruler of the Kingdom of Aksum.

(25) Amhara: are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group indigenous to Ethiopia, traditionally inhabiting parts of the northwest Highlands of Ethiopia.

(26) Damut: The Kingdom of Damot was a medieval kingdom in what is now Ethiopia, and ruled by Welayta people or Sidama people.

(27) Siho: The Saho are a Cushitic ethnic group from Eritrea, and they also inhabit some parts of northern Ethiopia.

(28) the Shabella river called the Nile of Mogadishu by Arab geographers. Al Umari called it a sea as the Egyptian Nile is also called sea by the people of Egypt. This is also repeated by Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (Marine Book of Wonders) (around 1300).

(29) Alwa: in the vicinity of modern day Khartoum.