On top: African people in the lands of Islam. (As illustration only)
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Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al Sabankarah’i, (b.1297 d1358). He wrote a post-Ilkhanid historiography called: Majma’ al- Ansab fi al- Tavarikh. While the Majma‘ al- Ansab does devote particular attention to the province of Fars, it nevertheless provides a great deal of information on Shaykh Ḥasan’s establishment of political authority in Arab Iraq, and his attempt to capture the Ilkhanid imperial centre in Azarbayjan. He gives also a general description of the East African people.
Taken from: http://download.ghbook.ir/downloads/htm/12000/8504-f-13920611-majmao-alansab-koli.htm
P58
The description of Abyssinia and Zanzibar
The Abyssinians are one genus, but there are many types and guilds, and their land is vast and their vast black fields is due to the extreme heat of his earth. What is besides of their cities is extremely ugly and they are the Zang that are a kind of Abyssinia, and their eyes are crawling out and the lips are thick. And there are several tribes such as Qabawa (1), Qarqwa (2), Desli, Numd and Gholam (=slave) and these tribes fight with each other. And their land is devoid of blessings and goodness, and their essence is devoid of the veil of religion.
And Majd al-Din Muhammad Adna, who for the sake of Sultan Ibrahim Tamghaj Khan (3) made a history which contained some histories that mention that one of the kings of Turkistan (4) had a Zangi slave; because the face of the Zangi was strange in Turkestan, it became that he constantly showed that slave in the Majlis Eish (5). And that Zangi was strong and courageous and clever. The heart of the king was inclined to him and he did great deeds until he reached the vicarage and he rebelled and marched and killed the king and sat on the throne of the king and conquered most of Turkestan and became a ruler. And they named him Qara-khan and this name will remain in Turkestan to be called the great king Qara-khan (Qara = Black). Among the Zang are the people who eat snakes and they do not harm them, and their bows are very small, and they make the bow out of the bark of a tree that is equal in strength to iron. And one of the wonders in Zangistan is an animal in the shape of a cow, which is called Malat and it has two horns in the shape of a spear on the head of the animal that starts burning when it gets cold. And a shield from this skin, each one is about the size of three yards and it is called the: shield of Malatia, and no arrow passes through it, because it is like white paper. Another wonder is the skin of a goat that is tanned and becomes extremely soft and its color is patterned and sewn, and that skin, of course, does not become old at all, and whenever it becomes dirty, it is washed in hot water, it returns to its original freshness.
P199-200
Descendants of Noa
The third tribe from the first group and they are called ordinary people. Among them, seven of them are the descendants of Aram ibn Sam, son of Noah, and three of them are descendants of Sam, but not from Aram. The first of those seven children …………..
The seventh: Wabar bin Aram - His kingdom was Abyssinia and Zangestan, and the kings of Abyssinia are his descendants. Know that detailing the condition of this clan does not give much benefit, and the purpose and intention of us (6) ………
(1) Qabawa: literally darkerness.
(2) Qarqwa: literally revealing stupidity.
(3) Sultan Ibrahim Tamghaj Khan: became sultan of Samarkand in 1141 for a short time.
(4) Turkistan: Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan, is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang.
(5) Majlis Eish: council or parliament.
(6) His intension is giving the history of Iran.