Al Firuzabadi: Qamus al Muhit (The Ocean) (d1414) Persia
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Abu al-Tahir Majid al-Din Muhammad ibn Ya'qub ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Shirazi al-Firuzabadi (1329–1414) was a lexicographer, who lived many years in Jerusalem and Mekka and was the compiler of al-Qamous, a comprehensive and, for nearly five centuries, his simplified two volume edition was the most widely used Arabic dictionary. Although his dictionary does not say much about East Africa, at least several Swahili cities are mentioned.
Taken from: Arabic English Lexicon By Edward William Lane.
alwaraq.net
P37
….and Jibbeh (1), ……, from which the Barbar bring the giraffe.
P182
Zang and zing and mazanaga and zunug (2) means a tribe of the Sudan and the singular of it is zangi while in the Persian language zangi, and their country are called Zangbar and their country is beyond the Said (=south of Egypt) and on the other side of the equator.
P255
The giraffe: and everybody says: a distorted creature.
P353
Barbar: Barbar: a people, plural. Baraabirah, and they are: in the Maghreb (to the west). And another people between the Hubush and the Zanj. They cut off the penises of men and give them to their women as dowries (11). Each of them is from a son of Qais Al-Bailaan or they (the barbar) are two groups from Himyar (3), the Sinhaajah and the Kutaamah (4) who became berbers (were berberized) during the time when the king Africanus conquered Africa/Ifriqiyyah.
P364
Having a buttock like the whirl of a spindle resembling the Zenj.
P372
(in a list of islands) Al Nisbatu: an island and the great island in Bilad al Zinj where the sultans do not interfere with one another.(8)
P426
Usqutraa (5). An island on the Indian Sea to the left of the aljayiya (12) from the land of Zinj, and in general: Suqutratu.
P470
Amber from Al-Tayeb: dung of a marine animal,……from sea fish…and from the skin of the sea fish.
P494
Al Qumr (Madagascar): Joining behind the land of Zinj, and also (the place from) which the Alqumari (6) leaves is brought. And it is said: al Qumriu it is spicy with a good taste.
P542
Zinj ; a disease in the intestines.
P650
Mekdco (Mogadishu), large city between Zinj and Abyssinia.
P930
And l.k.f.w: a kind of Zinj. (see Jahiz (869) and al-Sahib ibn Abbad (995))(7)
P1054
B.h.shl: Dance of the Zinj.
P1129
(about a woman of ez Zenj) blame her not for she is a women whose fat is placed above her knees (meaning their fat is in their thighs).
P1234
(Ta)Rim: two places; in the Maghreb and near Makdishu. (15)
P1469
Wakilwatu,…: from the Balzzanji
(9)
P1478
Khna: on the Zinj Sea coast. (10)
Taken from: بحار الانوار الجامعة لدرر اخبار الائمة الاطهار المجلد 57 : کتاب آسمان و جهان - 4
A mountain in Makkah.” Thabair, al-Athbarah, Thabair al-Khadra, al-Nasa’, al-Zanj (14), al-A’raj, al-Ahdab, and the richness of the mountains in the outskirts of Makkah.
Taken from: El-Okyānūs ül-basīt fī terǧümet el-qāmūs ül-muḥīṭ by al- Fīrūzābādī vol3 p626
And Al-Saif al-Tawail (=The long coast- literaly: the long sword) which is the coast of the Berber Sea next to Maqdoushouh.
(1) Jibbeh: jub; 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 from where one exports giraffe skins which serve in Persia to make shoes; (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…”.
(2) mazanaga and zunug: plural of zanj.
(3) Himyar: Yemen.
(4) the Sinhaajah and the Kutaamah: the black Arab Berbers (Sinhaajah and Kutaamah).
(5) Usqutraa: Socotra; island on the coast of Somalia.
(6) Alqumari leaves: According to Hinrich Biesterfeldt in: Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table: A Fourteenth-Century ...p571 it must be qat or kat or khat. See my webpage: Annon: Kanz al fawa’id (Treasure Trove of benefits)(14th). According to Ibn al Baytar it is Betel: Tambol means Betel in Hindi. However in: Leaf of paradise?: the intricate effects of khat in Madagascar; L. Gezon, Lisa puts the qat arrival in Madagascar in the early 20th century. So as the Austronesian expansion to Madagascar brought the Betel to Madagascar. I think Ibn Al Baytar must be right.
Qumari leaves are mentioned by: Ibn al Baytar (1249); Kanz al fawa’id (14th); Al Firuzabadi (d1414); Al Qalqashandi (d1418)
(7) al-Sahib ibn Abbad (995:; Alkharzinjy: A Tale of Al Jahiz in which: Zinj of two kinds, one called lkfw and the other lytw.
-Jahiz (869) repeated it in two books: Kitab al Hayawan and Al-Fakhar al-Sudan: the tribes of Zinj are of two types: the ants and the dogs, this tribe are the dogs, and that tribe are the ants,
-Al-Dimashqi (1325): they are divided in two tribes, the Qabliet and the Kendjewiat, the first name means ants, the second dogs.
-Suyuti (1505): As for Zinj, two classes Kabila and Katajwia.
(8) Al Nisbatu (=Tumbatu): an island (=Tumbatu) and the great island (=Zanzibar) in Bilad al Zinj where the sultans do not interfere with one another.
(9) Wakilwatu: The way the word is formed in Swahili this must mean the people of Kilwa.
(10) Khna: maybe the city of Kua just off Mafia Island (it is on Juani island.)
(11) list of authors who mention emasculating enemies in this area:
Buzurg ibn Shahriyar (955)
Ch'en Yuan-Ching (late12 century)
Chou Chih-Chung: (1366)
Zare'a Ya'kob ruler of Ethiopia (1445)
Yakut (or Jakut) al Hamawi (1220)
Al Marvazi (1120)
Ibn Nasir al-Din (d1438)
Ning Xian Wang (1430)
Al Firuzabadi (d1414)
Abu l-Fida’ (1331)
(12) aljayiya: al Jazira = the Islands (of the Zanj).
(13) Madinat al-Ṭayb on the south Arabian coast. Also mentioned by Qutb al-Din al-Chirazi (1311).
(14) This mountain Thabir al Zanj, so called because the Zanj living in Mecca used to gather there is mentioned often: Ahmad al-Azraqi: Akhbar (858AD); Al Fakihi (883AD); Al Iskandari (d1165 ); Abu Bakr Al-Hazimi (1188); Muhammad al Fasi (d1429); Yakut al Hamawi (1220); Ibn Dhahirah (1457); Al Firuzabadi (1414).
(15): (Ta)Rim: Gezira = Jazeera and the two Xariim islands to the south of Mogadishu.