Ibn al Wardi; Ta’rikh Ibn al Wardi (History of Ibn al Wardi) (d1348)

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Taken from: Ta'rīkh Zayn al-Din ʻUmar ibn al-Wardī

P84

Over the Zinj and Damam (1), the tartars of the Sudan. They went out their land to kill. They have idols and many different ones, and they have giraffes, and there the Nile separates to Egypt and to the Zinj, and from their nations (the Zinj), the blackest of them are the people of valor and cruelty, hot, and they ride to cows and they have idols, and the Nile is divided in their countries at Jabal al-Muqasam (2), and their mother (the takur) is on the west of the Nile, the south-westerly.

(1) Damam: Dendeme; Dendemes, Dendemeh: 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); Cowar el-aqalim (1347); al Himyari (1461); Abulfida (1331); Ibn al Wardi (1348).

(2) Jabal al-Muqassim (or Almacsam); Jabal Makhasam: The mountain Muqasam El-Moquecem; Muqassim: literally symmetrically divided, close to the source of the Nile; also found in Ibn Al Wardi (1348); Hafiz I Abru (1420); Ibn Said al Maghribi (1250); Al Idris ; Ouns al Moubhadj (1192), al Harrani (1300); Abu al-Fida (1331).