Vol 2 p46

The Thabir el Zang (jabal al-zanj) is so called because the black slaves of Mecca when fetching wood played games there, it is a part of the mountain group.

Note: At least the following authors have the story of the mountain Thabir or Thabyr or Thaber of the Zanj.

(see my webpages): Ahmad al-Azraqi 858; Al Fakihi 883; Al Iskandari 1165; Abu Bakr Al-Hazimi 1188; Yakut al Hamawi 1220; Muhammad al Fasi, Maliki 1430; Ibn Dhahirah 1457.

 

Vol 3 p129

Jamal al-Din, Sheikh bin Shaybah; he entered Egypt and elsewhere, and that he was born - as far as I was told - in the country Makdshoh. And he used to frequent it, and some of his children were born to him there.(7)

 

Vol 3 p187

(In a list of the names of the kings of the different countries) And Al Hyaj (5): the king of Zinj and Ghana.

 

Vol 3 p191

As for Ismail bin Ali bin Othman Al-Asfahani, of Meccan origin known as Ibn Al-Majmi: Ali Isa bin Abdullah Al-Hajji; and Al-Avchehry; and Musa Al-Zahrani: He got kind of sick while he was present in the year of thirty-seven and seven hundred (1337) in Haram al-Sharif (4). He was suffering and he was traveling because of this. So he died in Muqdashuh (6)(Mogadishu), according to what I was told, and I did not know when he died.

 

Vol 4 p135

Mr. Amr ibn Dinar said to me: Believe the servant of Allah, the Zinj do not believe in resurrection, remember to give charity to Him.

Taken from: العقد الثمين في تاريخ البلد الأمين 1-7 مع الفهارس ج4 محمد عبد القادر عطا, ‎محمد بن أحمد الحسني الفاسي المكي ·

 

Vol 4 p ??

Al-Maqdashi, Bashin Mujamah: He mentioned to our honorable Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Fasi, and mentioned that he lived in Mecca for about twenty years, and during that time he married my aunt, the honorable Mansoura, daughter of Ali al-Fasi, and he returned to Medina, and gained fame in the Two Holy Mosques and in Alexandria, for his private and public greatness. He was one of the saints. He did miracles. When he arrived in Mecca; He had money for himself. So he divided it into a budget.

 

Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Ahmed Al-Maqdishi Bashin Mu’jamah. (14)

He was born in the year seven hundred and fourteen. And he heard most of the “Sahih Muslim”(11) from Abu Al-Faraj Ben Abd al-Hadi (d.749/1348), and he spoke of it, and there was humor in it. His companions nicknamed him the Chief of Judges because he used to often mutter about it with great integrity and a lot of worship and religion. He died on the sixteenth of the month of Rajab (12) in the year eight hundred and two (13), at the age of about Ninety years.

 

Mohammed Abdullah Artan has the following to say about him: Sulayman al-Maqdashi (10) [Mogadishu] (d. 770/1369) Sulayman al-Maqdashi settled in Jerusalem, via Mecca, before that via Madina, before that Mogadishu. Sulayman al-Maqdashi stayed in Mecca around twenty years. The lay people and scholars alike honoured him. He died in Jerusalem in 770/1369.

(1) al Malik al Mansur Hassan ibn (al Malik) al-Mu'ayyad Sulayman ibn (al Malik al-Malik...) al Husayn: in the article: Kilwa Dynastic Historiography: A Critical Study by Elias Saad (History in Africa Vol. 6 (1979), pp. 177-207) we learn his place in the line of Sultans of Kilwa as found in the ‘Kitab al Sulwa’ the written down oral history of the Sultans of Kilwa. He is not in the list but can easily be added. The last sultan in the list is ‘al Adil Muhammad ibn Husain ibn Sulaiman ibn Muhammad al Adil. The sultan mentioned in al Fazi’s work is through his nomenclature revealed as a brother of this Muhammad al Adil to whom he probably gave way shortly before or after his pilgrimage. The kitab al Sulwa mentions the pilgrimage and the pilgrim in a digression concerning his son Sa’id ibn Hasan ibn Sulaiman. (Elias Saad p187).

(2) Muawiya: Mu'awiya I (c. 597, 603 or 605– 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, serving from 661 until his death.

(3) Zubayr: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam (622–624 CE – 692), was the leader of a caliphate based in Mecca that rivaled the Umayyads from 683 until his death.

(4) Haram al-Sharif: The Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Haram esh-Sharif and the Al Aqsa Compound, is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem that for thousands of years has been venerated as a holy site in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike.

(5) During the ages many authors have written down the titles of the rulers of the Zanj:

Ibn Khordadbeh (868) Alfikhat.

Masudi (916): The king of Zanj is called Flimi.

Al-Khwarizmi: (d997) Almehraj: King Alzabaj and Zinj.

Abu Ubayd Al Bakri (1067): And the Flymy (title of king) has three hundred thousand cavalry.

Al-Raghib al-Isfahani (1109): Al Buhraja: sahib al Zunj.

Al-Qazwini(d. 1283). Atar al Bilad: And they have a King named Aokulaim.

Muhammad al Fasi, Maliki: (d1429-30): Al Hyaj: the king of Zinj and Ghana.

Wasif Shah (1209): Their principal king is called Kunah; he resides on the shore of the sea, in a place called Kandu.

Ibn al jawzi (1257): Al-Jahez said: The king of Zinj is called: falimin, meaning the Son of the Great Lord.

Al-Dimashqi (1325): The supreme king is called Touqlim (or tuqlim or buqlim) meaning 'son of the Lord'

Al-Bakuvi (1430) a king called Aklim

Note: Charles Guillain: ( Documents sur l'histoire, la géographie et le commerce de l'Afrique…. P173) gives several versions on how different translators translated the word Flimi (King) of Masudi (916): M. Reinaud: Oklimen; M. Quatremère: Wakliman; M. Sprenger: Afliman; Deguignes: Phalimi and Aphlimi.

(6) instead of Mogadishu, Mecca can also be the place mentioned here.

(7) also mentioned by al Maqrizi (1441).

(8) Jumada al-Awwal also known as Jumada al-Ula or Jumada I, is the fifth month of the Islamic calendar. Jumada al-Awwal spans 29 or 30 days.

(9) 844AH= 1440AD

(10) In most cases somebody with the nisbat Maqdashi is from Jerusalem: Bayt al Maqdashi. And as this man settled in Jerusalem the conclusion that he is from Mogadishu might be wrong.

(11) Sahih Muslim is a 9th-century hadith collection and a book of sunnah compiled by the Persian scholar Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (815–875).

(12) Rajab: is the seventh month of the Islamic calendar.

(13) 802AH = 1400AH

(14) Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad Almekdci (1314-1400): also mentioned by: Muhammad al Fasi (1430); Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (1448); Al-Sakhawi (1497); al Maqrizi (1441); Abd al Basit ibn Khalil (1490). But it is unsure that al-Maqdishi stands for Mogadishu.

 

Note on: Mahmal bin Abi Bakr bin Nasser bin Ahmed Al-Abdari Al-Shaibi, Jamal al-Din, Sheikh bin Shaybah.

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This person is very important for the religious Somali; Dr Mohamed Hussein Moallin writes (2002):

We are the guardian of God's sacred house

….…. During my reading of some sources, I found the translation (of the live of) of Mr. Muhammad bin Abi Bakr bin Nasser bin Ahmed Al-Abdari Al-Shaibi Al-Mukki in more than one source, such as the book “Al-Aqd Al-Thamin fi Tarikh Al-Balad Al-Ameen” by Al-Faasi Taqi al-Din Abu al-Tayyib Muhammad bin Ahmad bin Ali al-Makki …. As well as the translation of al-Maqrizi Taqi al-Din Muhammad bin Ali in his book “Durar al-Aqd al-Faridah fi Tarajim al-Alam al-Mufida. However, El Fassi was singled out by saying: “...and he was born - as far as I was told - in the country of Mekdco: and he used to frequent it, and some of his children were born to him there.” End. While al-Maqrizi gave a very brief translation, including his saying: “He entered Egypt, Mekdco , and others places.” End. Perhaps he meant Egypt, Mekdco, meaning the country of Mogadishu. Al-Shaibi's relationship with his birthplace Mogadishu, and his first country Somalia, was permanent. Even when he moved away from it, he used to return to it, and his connection with it was not interrupted. And when he visited the holy places - Mecca and Medina - the homeland of his fathers and grandfathers, where he joined his cousins, the Banu Shaybah. Then after a while he was entrusted with the key of the Kaaba and the service of the Sacred House of God, “because of his religious and scholarly status,” and because of his lineage, the Banu Shaybah, “the people of the custodianship and the custodians of the key of the Kaaba since the Messenger of God gave it to them, and according to the noble hadith, only an unjust person takes it from them. Al-Fassi described: "Sheikh of the veil" and the conqueror of the Kaaba... that he was the guardian after Muhammad b. Yusuf al-Shaibi in the early Jamadi al-Awwal of the year seven hundred and forty-nine, before the death of Muhammad ibn Yusuf. He continued to do so until he died. End. However, he was dismissed from this service because of his absence from Makkah. Al-Fasi says: “...except that he was dismissed from that at the beginning of the year seven hundred and fifty-seven.”

Abu al-Fadl al-Shaibi was absent from Egypt...” It is over. He may have traveled to his hometown and the home of his family as well. Bin Abi Rajeh deputizes about it until he came back to Mecca. So restart at the end of Sha'ban or at the beginning of Ramadan of the aforementioned year. His death was in the year seventy-seven and seven hundred in Mecca.” He was seventy years old. And the people used to pay attention to him because of his boldness in speaking.”