Then we find the province of Zendjs, of which the first part, which is called Anhiya (1), stretches up to the Nile of the Demadem (2), who goes to Mogadoxo (3), where it joins the sea. The Nil of Mogadoxo (3) is the border of the province of Berbera (4). Some other towns, starting from Amina (5) up to Berbera (4), are found on the river, which has more then 300 parasangs (6) in length. This province stretches widely over the shores of the Ocean up to the one of the inhabited quarter for 250 parasangs. These lands as well as the mountains of Sofala, have grains of gold in them. On the shores of the sea of this country there is a lot of ebony, aloes, sandalwood and Brazil-wood. At any moment you find gray amber in the sea. This province is rich of several kinds of animals and birds, especially the elephant, the panther, the giraffe, the hippo, the civet, the ape, the rhino. In most of its mountains there are honey flies, plains and prairies; those plains are always covered with green, flowers and weeds. This is how to collect the perfume of the civet. You take the animal, you put up a pole to which you attach it; every day you feed it milk several times, the civet will turn around the pole and brush itself against it.  The perfume comes out of its body just like sweat and is deposited as drops on the pole, to which it glues and from which you collect it. (9)
After this region is the region of (the mountains) of the moon; these are several towns and places which are called Dendeme (2) and Kirichne. On the shores of the Ocean is a mountain which stretches towards the east, up to the middle of the land of Sofala, as far as 1,400 parasanges (6). Several kinds of animals and plants are found in the mountain, as well as rivers who in big numbers reach the sea in the inhabited quarter of the world. The mountains of the moon are to the west of this mountain; several rivers leave there big and deep ones, they are called the Nile of Egypt. These waters make two big lakes measuring 100 parasanges by 100. To the west of those lakes one sees a big mountain and a region which is called Refle. The Nil goes through those lakes and continues. The equator meets the river in a western direction; it goes on for 350 parasanges (6), several branches of the Nile water, which is sweet, meet the salty water of the Ocean, leaving the ocean again without mixing; the river reaches Mehir (7), Alexandria and the sea of the Francs. This passage of the Qoran: He has separated the two seas that touched, he has put up a barrier between them, of fear that they wouldn't mix. Of this the theologians don't know exactly what God wanted to explain with those two seas. (the sea and the river). (After this he talks a lot about several animals of east Africa.)
The Nile, from the mountains of the moon from which he leaves up to the place where it throws itself into the sea of the Francs, measures close to 1000 parasanges (6).

STORY

Once a group of travelers came to an agreement: We want to know, they said, where the Nile has its source. They followed the river in the southern direction to the Mountains of the Moon, where there is the source. One of them made the ascent of the mountain top to see what was there: he started laughed and threw himself to the other side. Another of those travelers followed him to see what had happened; but also did the same. After that, the explorers said: lets attach a rope to the belt of one of us, and hold the end firm with several; send our comrade on the top of the mountain, and if he also wants to go to the other side, we will pull here and ask him what he saw. So they did; but this man cut the rope and went off like his predecessors; they were never able to find out what was the cause. Some say the garden of Irem (8) is on the other side of the mountain, and that [the traveler] wishes to go there; others claim that it is a very nice place, and [the traveler] rushes to it when he sees it. However others give this explanation: There is a gigantic animal that attracts by his breath all the animals he sees, to feed upon. However, God knows the truth!

To the east of the Nile in Egypt, at the height of the equator, is a mountain from which emerges a considerable river called the Nile of Magadoxo (3). There are still there other cities and other countries. On the shore of the Sea which enters the region of the habitable quarter, at the height of the equator, and in these mountainous areas, there is collected a lot of water, which has become a lake; (the river) heads toward the north and joins the Sea of Egypt. 

(1) Anhiya: literally:Prophets

(2) Dendema or Demdems: According to Ibn Said (1250) these are the once who invaded Nubia and Abyssunie around 1220 AD (when the Mongols invaded Persia)

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).

Nile of the Demadem: also found in Al-Dimashqi (1325); al Maqrizi (1441): the Nile River Damadem.

(3) Nil of Maqdishu: Nile of Mogadishu: This is the Shabelle River begins in the highlands of Ethiopia, and then flows southeast into Somalia towards Mogadishu. Near Mogadishu, it turns sharply southwest, where it follows the coast. Below Mogadishu, the river becomes seasonal.

Al Zuhri : (1137) Makes the people divert themselves the Nile into a branch to the sea of Yemen; In Dimashqi (1325) it is called the river of Damadim; and he is the only one who kind of understands the river-system in South-Somalia. Salamanca translator (1420): calls it yellow Nile. Ibn Khaldun (1406) says it has nothing to do with the Nile.

Nil of Mogadoxo: Nile of Mogadishu appears in Ibn Said al Maghribi (1250); Cowar el-aqalim (1347); Abulfida (1331); al Maqrizi (1441); Hafiz I Abru (1420); Qoutb al-Din al-Chirazi (1311); Al Qalqashandi (d1418); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Maqrizi (1441).

(4) Berbera: here the area north of Mogadishu.

(5) Amina: literally safe, secure

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

(7) Mehir: Misr, old name for Egypt

(8) garden of Irem: Garden of Eden.

(9) Other works mentioning the civet from Africa are (see my webpage:) Al-Jahiz Al-Fakhar al-Sudan (869); Shah Mardan Ibn Abi al-Khayr (11th); Joseph ibn Abraham (1137); Yakut al Hamawi (1220); Al-Saghani (1252); Nur al-ma'arif (1295); al-Watwat (1318); Friar Jordanus; (1329); Ibn Battuta and the African Diaspora (1331); Cowar el-aqalim (1347); From the Court of Al-Zahir (1439); Ibn al-Ahdal (1451); Ibn Madjid: As-Sufaliyya (1470); Ibn al-Dayba (1496).