Abu’l-Fada’il Safi ad-din Abd al-Haqq al-Baghdadi. (d1338 AD). Otherwise unknown author of a summary of Yaqut’s Mu’jam al-buldan called: MaraSid al-ittila ala asma al-amkinat wa-l-biqa (The Observatories on the Names of Regions and Countries).

 

Taken from: Youssuf Kamal tome IVfasc2

                     Journal asiatique: 1846

                     maktabatalarab.com

                     Le pays des Zendjs

                     Nouvelles annales des voyages 1862 Malte Brun

                     The Pearl strings: a history of the Resuliyy dynasty of Yemen.

         By Ali ibn al Hasan Khazraji

 

Baouari and Moulenda (1), two towns in the neighborhood of the Zendjs from which amber is exported.

 

The sea of the Zendjs is the sea of India: the zendjs occupy the south, and India the north. The Zendjs placed under the star Canopus live in a complete and very big continent and many islands.

 

(Berbera)(2) these and other countries are between Habash and Zinj and, on the coast of the Sea of Zinj and its people are blacks too.

 

Djoubb (3)(El Jub), town in the neighborhood of the county of the Zendj, on the land of Berbera  from where one exports giraffe

 

Sofala is the most remote known city in the country of the Zenj.

 

Socotra;  a great big island with several villages and cities south of Aden, which is closer to the Arabs then to India; and the fairway to the land of Zinj goes through it, and most people are Christian Arabs……

 

Al-Kumr (Madagascar) is an island in the middle of the sea of the Zandj which contains many villages no island is larger then it. It comprises a large number of towns and kingdoms. Each king makes war on the other. On the shores are found amber and the leaf al-Kumari. This is a perfume, it is also called betel leaf. Wax (sama) is also obtained from it.

 

Kilwa, a town in the country of the Zanj.

 

Leikhouna, (4)(or Bandjouya or Lendjouya (Unguja), Landschuja) is a big island and the seat of the elected kings in the land of the Zendj where the king lives. Ships from all countries come there for careening and repair. People of the island of Tumbat (8) were Muslim and the people of Lenguja have been forced to flee to Tumbat to escape from their enemies. You find their vines that have fruit three times a year. Each time when a fruit is ripe another one is being formed.

 

Merca (5) is a town on the coast of the Zanj (Zandschabar), belonging to the Berbers of the Blacks, not the Berbers of the Maghrib.

 

Maqdishu (Mogadishu) is a city at the beginning of the country of the Zanj to the south of Yemen on the mainland of the Barbar in the midst of their country. These Barbar are not Barbar who live in the Maghrib for these are blacks resembling the Zunuj, a type intermediary between the Habash and the Zunuj. Its inhabitants are all foreigners (ghuraba), not blacks. When a merchant goes to them he must stay with one of them who will sponsor him in his dealings. From there is exported sandalwood, ebony, ambergris, and ivory - these forming the bulk of their merchandise.

 

Menbaca; (Mombasa) big town in the land of the Zendjs where the boats anchor.

 

Mnfyh (Mafia island): is a town famous on the Zinj Sea coast.

 

Nujah (6)(or Nudschah) (Naja of Idris) a town of the land of the Berbers of the Zanj (Barbarat az Zanj), on the shores of the ocean, after a town called Markah, and Markah is after Maqdishu on the sea of the Zanj.

 

The country of the Takrur (7), in the extreme south of North-West Africa, is called after a people who resemble the negroes of Zengibar and its mainland regions.

(1) Baouari and Moulenda: Barawa (South Somalia) and Malindi (Kenya).

(2) Berbera: here area in South Somalia.

(3) Djoubb (El Jub): Yakut (or Jakut) al Hamawi (1220): Djoubb (El Jub), town in the neighborhood of the county of the Zendj, on the land of Berbera ......  (El Jub): a dug, non-masoned waterhole (according to Marcel Devic p70); the name still exists in the name of the river Jubba. Must have been close to present day Kismayo. Is mostly mentioned by Chinese authors: Yakut (1220); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Fei-Hsin (1436) has Giumbo; Xuanzong Shih-lu (1438) has Zhu-bu; Zhang, Tingyu: Ming Shi (1739); Luo Maodeng (1597); Taizong Shi lu (1430). Some authors say the channel mentioned by al Masudi (916) is the Jubba: “…Zinj were the only ones who had crossed a tributary of the Nile (the Jubb) which flowed into a bay or canal, which in turn opened into the Indian Ocean…”.

(4) Leikhouna, (or Bandjouya or Lendjouya (Unguja), Landschuja: local name for Zanzibar. According to Marcel Devic; Anggoudja is the Swahili word for ‘wait’, what makes it for him a waiting place for ships. The modern word in Swahili is ‘ngoja’ but the pronunciation remains unchanged.

(5) Merca: a harbour on the coast of south Somalia.

(6) Nujah: al-Nuga: the el-Nedja of Idrisi (1150) The Bedje of Abulfida 1331 (according to Marcel Devic p66.) Yakut 1220: Nujah (or Nudschah).

(7) Takrur: at the border between Senegal and Mauretania. Already mentioned by al Bakri in 1068.

(8) see my webpage on Ras al-Hamam and Tumbatu.