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Abu al-Mahasin (1441) lived in
Cairo.
al-Manhal al-safi wa'l-mustawfi ba'd al-wafi:
(The pure source of fullness after completion)
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Abu al Mahasin is nearly the only medieval writter to write about Lamu town. For that reason we add some pictures of this historic town.
Jamal al-Din Yusuf bin al-Amir Sayf al-Din Taghribirdi (1411— 1470) was an Egyptian historian. His most famous work is a chronicle of Egypt and the Mamluk sultanate called al-Nujum al-zahira fi muluk Misr wa'l-Qahira. Chronicle from the Islamic conquest of Egypt in 641 to 1468. al-Manhal al-ṣafi wa-al-mustawfa ba’da al-wafi: biographical dictionary with approx. 3000 entries of the lives of sultans, princes (amirs), scholars and scientists (ulama), dignitaries, and entertainers. Ḥawadith al-duhur fi mada al-ayyam wa-al-shuhur: Egypt history 1250-1517 it continues al-Maqrizi's Suluk li-ma'rifat duwwal al-muluk. His work is important for East Africa; he is about the only one speaking about Lamu (Swahili town in Kenya) (Also Mogadishu is mentioned). And some insight in the live of the black slaves in Egypt.
Note: Abu al Mahasin says that Lamu was getting covered with sand. This makes that the present Lamu is younger then the middle ages.
In the Lamu house museum is brought back to live the Zidaka, a system of intricate niches, often dug into the tick stone walls and plastered. Families organize their wares in each hold.
The text is taken from: Freeman-Grenville; Selected Documents,
M Guillain; Documents sur l'histoire la geographie...
Marcel Devic: Le Pays des Zendjs
It is a series of biographies which got never published.
He cites a passage from a lost work of al-Maqrizi (1) concerning a qadi (4) of Lamu (2), a town in the land of Zanj on the sea of the Berbers, some twenty marhala (3) from Mogadishu.
Now this is what Maqrizi (1) says of the Qadi (4): he came to Mecca while
I was there at the end of A.H. 839(A.D.1441). I realized that he was a man of great erudition in the law according to the Shafi'i rite (5). The Qadi (4) told us that monkeys have become the
rulers of Mogadishu since about A.H. 800 (A.D. 1402), to such an extend that they disturb the people in their homes and markets. They even come to take the food from the dishes, attack men in
their homes and take away what they can find. The master of the house chases the thieving monkey, and does not seas cajoling him until the animal, having eaten the food, gives back the dish or
vessel. When the monkeys enter a house and find a women, they hold congress with her. (27)
It is the custom for the king of Mogadishu to call the officers to his dominion to the palace at an arranged time. When they have all met, he opens a window below which they are. The officers immediately prostrate themselves, and , when they stand up again, they see the king who, from the place where he is above them, gives them his orders and regulates maters of state. One day when this ceremony was being carried out in the usual manner, when the officers stood up and looked towards the window, they saw a monkey in the king's place. (27) The monkey's divide into bands, each with his own chief, and march behind him in an orderly manner. The people have much to put up with.
Lamou is a town in the land of the Zendjs on the shore of the sea of Berbera, at about 20 days walk from the east of Maqdechou (6). It is now nearly covered by sand which is several arms high. The sea often throws pieces of gray Amber. It is always taken by the king. Once a piece weighing 1,200 ratls (7) was found. There are very large banana trees. These are of different kinds, and some of them bear fruit a cubit (8) long. From them is made a kind of honey which lasts for more then a year and also various preserves. That is what Maqrizi (1) says, but at greater length.
Note: Dr. Muhammad Hussain Muallem Ali wrote in his article: Al-Maqrizi ... between Lamu and Mogadishu (2020) that the text of Maqrizi got messed up. This story of the Qadi of Lamu has a story of Mogadishu in it but ends again with a description of Lamu. As the description of the customs in Mogadishu as found by Ibn Battuta are very different from those described here; the story should not be attributed to Mogadishu. Dr. Muhammad does not conclude that it needs to be attributed to Lamu; only that a mess-up happened.
Note: Abu al-Mahasin by his writing on Lamu (2) gives evidence of the existence of old Lamu town. Today it is covered by a sand dune called Hedabu hill situated between Shela and present day Lamu. More evidence of old Lamu comes from the Pate chronicle and Archeology
Taken from:
alwaraq.net
A Mamluk (28) high official got killed the fighting in Upper Egypt by the Zinj in 845 AH Almighty God's mercy.
Abyssinia is very broad…it is said to have (as provinces)… then the territory of
Al-Sehu (9) then the territory of Zinj, then the region…
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Abu al-Mahasin Yusuf Ibn Taghribirdi : al-Nujum al-zahirah fi muluk Misr
wa-al-Qahirah (Stars in the depths of the kings of Egypt and Cairo)
History of Egypt, 1382-1469 A.D.: 1422-1438 A.D Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf Ibn Taghrībirdī
African Military Slaves in the Medieval Middle East: The Cases of Iraq (869-955) and Egypt(868-1171)Author(s): Jere L. Bacharach
In the year 854-855
[The Caliph], after he received the news, blamed the wali (10) of those regions, then sought advice from people who had experience of the routes of that country. He was told that the Buja (11) were nomads, breeders of camels and cattle; that their country was extremely difficult to reach because it was far from any inhabited country. Between the Buja (11) country and the Islamic countries there was wilderness and deserts, where thirst is the worst danger; the country was mountainous and rocky; he who undertakes to go there must walk for at least two months from Egypt taking with him large supplies of water, food and fodder, for, if he runs short of anything, he will be lost - he and his army - and the Buja (11) will then capture them without fighting. In addition, those nomads are a people (ṭaifa), who, whenever an invader coming from the Islamic countries enters their territory, immediately seek help from their neighbours on the Nubian frontier. Likewise, the Nuba seek help from the kings of the Hubush, for all those kingdoms are connected with each other by the Nile river up to the country of the Zanj, and thence to Jabal al-Qumr, where are the sources of the Nile to be found and the last inhabited regions of the terrestrial globe (kurrat al-arḍ). Said the judge Shihab al-Din ibn Fadlallah (12) in his book: The Sight of the paths in the kingdoms of the regions (13): about the population of this country; that there is no difference between them and the wild animals because they are barefoot, naked, not on one of them is concealing himself... When al-Mutawakkil (14) was properly informed by the experts about the real situation, he dropped his plan of a punitive expedition to that country.
In the year 1036
The Blacks used to wait in the alleys, (of Cairo) catch women with hooks, strip off their flesh, and eat them. One day a woman passed through the Street of the Lamps in Old Cairo (15). She was fat and the Blacks caught her with hooks and cut a piece off her behind. Then, they sat down to eat and forgot about her. She went out of the house and called for help, and the chief of police came and raided the house. He brought out thousands of bodies, and killed the blacks.
In the year 1389
There were taken along a large number of articles which the Sultan might need, including five hundredweights (16) of ivory and ebony for chess pieces for the Sultan's use; this amount was required because it was his custom that whenever he finished a game of chess his opponent took the set and another one was provided.
In the year 1389
The gift of Mumahmid ad Din Ismail, son of al Malik al Afdal Abbas ibn al Mujahid Ali ibn Dawud ibn Saif ibn Umar ibn Rasul (17), ruler of Yaman, arrived at Cairo in charge of the merchant Burhan ad-Din Ibrahim al-Mahalli (18) And the eunuch Iftikhar ad-Din Fakhir. The gift consisted of 10 white eunuch slaves and some Abyssinian black slaves, 6 slave girls, a sword ornamented with gold and set with cornelian, a girdle with vertical bands of cornelian and ornamented with large pearls, a cornelian horse's face, an Indian mirror ornamented with silver and set with cornelian, 10 horse caparisons, 200 spears A chess set of white and red cornelian, 4 fans plated with gold, 1,000 mithqals (19) of musk, 70 uqiya (20) of civet, 100 flasks of musk and ambergris perfume. 216 pounds of ebony, 340 pounds of frankincense, 364 pounds of sandal wood, 4 bottles of shand perfume, 700 pounds of raw silk, and large quantities of spices, leather mats, trays, etc
In the year 1428
(About the plague killing thousands of Walzinj in Qarafa-Cairo in 1428 and again in 1438)
Then the number over whom prayers were said at the Succor Gate Oratory (21) in the middle third of II Jumada (22) was 1,030 and some, and the number at the Mu'mini Oratory in the Rumaila (23) approached that number; according to this count there died on this day about 1,500 people. Al-Maqrizi (1) says: In this plague strange things happened. One was that in the large Qarafa and small Qarafa (24) there were about 3,000 Negroes, including men and women, young and old, and they perished the plague until only a few were left; these then fled to the top of the mountain and spent the whole night awake, sleepless for the excess of their grief at the loss of their families. They spent the entire next day on the mountain; when the second night came 30 of them died; before they could begin to bury them, 18 [more] had died. He says also: It happened that a fief in the standing army was transferred in a few days to nine individuals, each of them dying. Because of the great preoccupation with the sick and dead there was no buying and selling in the markets. People crowded one another in search of shrouds and biers, so that the dead were carried on planks and crates and by hand. They were unable to bury their dead and passed the night with them at the cemeteries, while the gravediggers spent the whole night digging; they made large trenches, the dead in each one reaching a large number. Dogs ate the extremities of them, while the people searched eagerly all the night for washers, porters, and shrouds. Biers were seen in the streets as though they were files of camels, so many they were following one on the steps of another at the Mu'mini Oratory in the Rumaila (23) approached that number; according to this count there died ………….
In the year 1432
A report came from Mecca the Honored that a number of junks had come from China to the seaports of India, and two of them had anchored in the port of Aden, but their goods, chinaware, silk, musk, and the like, were not disposed of there because of the disorder of the state of Yemen. The captains of these two junks wrote to the Sharif Barakat ibn Hasan ibn 'Ajlan, emir of Mecca (25), and to Sa'd ad-Din Ibrahim ibn al-Marra, controller of Judda (29), asking permission to come to Judda. The two wrote to the Sultan about this, and made him eager for the large amount that would result if they came. The Sultan wrote to them to let them come to Judda, and to show them honor.
Note : What we have here is the arrival of the fleets of Cheng Ho visiting East Africa
In the year 1438
Feb. 25 1438 A.D.Tuesday, Ramadan 1 [Sha'ban 29]. The plague appeared in Cairo and its environs; it began with the children, the female slaves, the Negro slaves, and mamluks. The plague was common ………
Ibn Taghribirdi: Hawadith al-duhur fi mada al-ayyam wa-l-shuhur.
(Incidents over the ages in the days and months) (d1470)
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Taken from: BLACK SLAVES IN MAMLUK NARRATIVES: REPRESENTATIONS OF TRANSGRESSION by SHAUN MARMON
And during this month a strange event occurred. The black slave grooms were in the spring pasturage in the land of Giza (26) and Munbaba. When they went there with the horses of their masters, they stayed there for a short time and then set up among themselves a black slave and made him Sultan. They appointed for him officials of the state and holders of offices and had him judge among them as he wished. They set up a throne for him that he could sit on. This aforementioned black slave began to do as he pleased. No one could oppose him until another man from among the black slaves went against him. Each one of them gathered their followers and they fought with one another. The one who had been made Sultan was victorious and he had a number from the opposing faction cut in half at the waist. The master of the black slave who was killed could say nothing. It is said that he [the master] went there and spoke with the black slave who had been made Sultan. There are those who say that the black slave [Sultan] also wanted to cut in half the mamluk, the master of the [executed] slave. And some say that he [the black slave Sultan] recompensed him [the mamluk] for the price of the black slave. This reached the Sultan [Jaqmaq] and they told him that he [the slave Sultan] had appointed a viceroy of Syria and a viceroy of Aleppo and that they [the black slaves] were continuing [to behave] in this manner. The Sultan remained silent. One of the great men of the regime said, this is a foolish affair of little consequence. When the spring pasturage has been depleted, they will disband and each one will go back to his appropriate station. For they do this on a whim. This is what happened and the affair ended. This was a thing that had not been heard of in past ages.
(1) al-Maqrizi: see my webpage al Maqrizi 1441
(2) Lamu: Lamu island with Lamu town, a tourist attraction in Kenya.
(3) marhala: literally stage; (day trip)
(4) Qadi: A Qadi is the magistrate or judge of a Sharia court.
(5) Shafi'i rite: founded by Mohammed bin Idris Shafi'i: (767–820 CE) was an Arab Muslim theologian, writer, and scholar, who was the first contributor of the principles of Islamic jurisprudence. His legacy on juridical matters and teaching eventually led to the formation of Shafi'i school of fiqh.
(6) Maqdechou : Mogadishu.
(7) Ratls : Ratl-weight: standard ratl of 440 grams in Umayyad Egypt.
(8) cubit: Distance from fingers to elbow (45cm).
(9) Al-Sehu: in Islam: A man respected for his piety or religious learning.
(10) wali: is an Arabic word meaning guardian, custodian, protector, or helper.
(11) Buja Buja: Beja in N Sudan. The Egyptians leaving from Aswan; the southern border town on the Nile; have to cross their territory to reach the harbours on the Red Sea.
(12) judge Shihab al-Din ibn Fadlallah: see my webpage Al Umari (1349).
(13) book: The Sight of the paths in the kingdoms of the regions: see my webpage Al Umari (1349).
(14) al-Mutawakkil: (822-861) Abu al-Faḍl Jaʽfar ibn Muḥammad al-Muʽtaṣim billāh, better known by his regnal name Al-Mutawakkil ʽalà Allāh was the 10th Abbasid caliph, under whose reign the Abbasid Empire reached its territorial height.
(15) Street of the Lamps in Old Cairo: close to the mosque of Amr ibn al-As.
(16) Hundredweights: about 50.8 kg.
(17) Mumahmid ad Din Ismail, son of al Malik al Afdal Abbas ibn al Mujahid Ali ibn Dawud ibn Saif ibn Umar ibn Rasul, ruler of Yaman: Rasulid ruler of Yemen from 1377 till 1400.
(18) Burhan ad-Din Ibrahim al-Mahalli: important Karimi merchant from old Cairo. Died in 1403. Traded with Yemen, was provost of
merchants in 1385. He was
(19) mithqals: 4-5 gr of gold
(20) uqiya: 37.4 gr
(21) Succor Gate Oratory: the funerals at Succor Gate (Bab an-Nasr) Oratory, on the northern side of the city.
(22) Jumada: Jumada II is the sixth month in the Islamic Calendar.
(23) the Mu'mini Oratory in the Rumaila: The second funerary oratory of Cairo, al-Mu'mini (75), was located at the Qarafa Gate.
(24) large Qarafa and small Qarafa: Qarafa means cemetery; the Qarafat al-Sughra, or "Smaller Qarafa", located further north, and the Qarafat al-Kubra, or "Greater Qarafa", spreading over a large area further south; with in the middle the citadel of Cairo.
(25) Sharif Barakat ibn Hasan ibn 'Ajlan, emir of Mecca: Born in Jeddah (1399) died (1426) in Cairo.
(26) land of Giza; Giza is 5km southwest of Cairo.
(27) island of the monkeys: Ibn Said (1250); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Al Marvazi (1120) mentions Aden, where female apes were offered for sale to visitors who could not afford to buy slave girls, Al Maqrizi (1441) copied by Abu al-Mahasin (1441) and Al-Sakhawi (d1497) describes this same behaviour of the monkeys in the towns of East Africa, from where the monkeys supposedly were imported to Aden.). Al-Idrisi (1150) and Ibn Al Wardi (1456) has the merchants of Yemen use them as slaves to guard their belongings and money in their shops.
(28) Mamluks: literally: "one who is owned", meaning "slave". Here a military slave of the Sultan.
(29) the port city of Jeddah, close to Mecca.