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(Pseudo)
Ibn Al Wardi (about 1456) Kharidat al aji ib
(The Pearls of Wonders and the Uniqueness of Things Strange) Syria
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Taken from www.henry-davis.com/MAPS and the translation from Mappae Arabicae by Miller Konrad
Taken from: De Guignes
in ; Notices et extraits (1789)
Henry Salt A Voyage to Abyssinia: And Travels Into the Interior of
that Country ...
alwaraq.net
خريدة العجائب وفريدة الغرائب
https://www.minhajsalafi.com/kutub/boldan/Web/3298/001.html
Ibn al-Wardi, Siradjj al-Din Abu Hafs Umar, Shafi’i scholar, d. 1457 from Maʿarat al-Nuʿman, in present-day Syria. The Kharidat al-ʿadja’ib wa-faridat al-ghara’ib, a geography and natural history without any scientific value. The Kharida is partly a plagiarism of the Djami al-funun wa-salwat al-mahzun of Nadjm al-Din Ahmad b. Hamdan b. Shabib al-Harrani al-Hanbali, (1332AD). The Kharidat summed up the geographical knowledge of the Arabic world, referring to climate, terrain, fauna and flora, population, way of living, existing states and their governments in individual regions of the world. Although East Africa is mentioned several times we do not learn anything new.
Also called : Ibn Al-ouardy/Wardy
Complete name: Zain al-Din Abu Hafs Omar bin Muzaffar Ibn Al Wardi.
He is a compiler. And a difficult one, as he doesn't mention the authors, nor does he update their work.
As examples I would give that to him the capital of the Fatimid dynasty is al-Mahdiyya. This must be taken
out of a work older then 968 when Cairo became the capital. Others are his stories taken from Masudi
(without mentioning his name) in which the Zenj warriors ride on cattle. And his first chapter is almost entirely
based on Yaqut's geography. And as a result those trying to date his work start from c. 900 to 1456. The
later mentions 1789 or 1778... are the dates of the manuscripts found. One more date that is mentioned
often 1349 in which Ibn Al Wardi died of plague. This was another Ibn Al Wardi, but the complete name is in
both cases the same. In
more recent works the Ibn al Wardi concerned is often called pseudo Ibn al Wardi.
P31-2
As for its width from the north to the south, you take from the coast of the ocean to the end of the Gog and Magog (1) then pass on the Sakaliba (2) and cut the land of the Bulgarians al-Dakhla and go in the land of the Romans to Syria and the land of Egypt and Nubia, and then extends in the wilderness between the country of Sudan and the land of Zeng until it ends at the ocean. This is a line between the south and north of the Earth.
P33
In the territory of Zinj there are bays in the ocean, as well as in the land of the Roman, I do not remember the size of these Gulfs.
P38
As for Abyssinia, it is on the sea of al-Qulzum (3), which is the sea of Persia, and ends it to the land of Zinj, and it binds it to the wilderness between Nubia and the sea of al-Qulzum (3). The land of Zinj is the longest land in Sudan and does not border to a kingdom or kingdoms other than the country of Abyssinia, it is in the vicinity of Yemen and Persia and Kerman (12) and in the south to be aligned with the land of India.
P131
And one of the most famous cities of China, Khanku (4), the largest city of China, is on a great river greater than the Tigris and the Euphrates, and with countless nations, and has a prestige of more than a thousand elephants, and his soldiers are many on the creek of the Great Sea , With rice, bananas, sugar cane and walnuts.
Khanku (4): It is a great city like Khangu in capacity, architecture and abundance of character. They are many luxurious fruits and are on the creek from the sea. In this country, exotic animals such as elephant, lobster, giraffe, and other sandalwood, ebony, camphor, bamboo, fragrance and all the unspeakable birds, night and day in this country are equal (in length).
P142
Barbara; this land is situated on the sea shore; opposite Yemen, neighboring Nubie, it is densely populated, one can see there a mountain called Canouni (5), with seven peaks, stretching for 40 miles into the sea, on one of its peaks, there is a small town called Haouina (6). The people of Barbara eat frogs, insects and dirt and go to the sea to fish with a small net.
This land is followed by the land of the Zinji it lies opposite to that of Sind (7); between the two intervenes the breadth of the Sea of Persia. The inhabitants are the blackest of the Sudan. They worship idols, are brave, hardy and fight in battle riding oxen, as their country supplies neither horses, mules, nor camels. Massoudi says; I’ve seen their oxen kneel like camels, to be laden, and they travel fast with their burdens, Their inhabitations extend from the extremity of the gulf (Gardafui)(29) to the low land of gold (Sofala ‘t il Dhab.)(30).
This country is extensive, and abounds in gold, grain, and the treasures of nature, and their towns are populous. Each town lying adjacent to a branch of a river. Snow is not known among them, nor rain, which is commonly the case with the greater part of the country of the blacks. They have no ships, but traders come in vessels from Uman, to buy their children (15), whom they sell in different countries. The Zinji are extremely numerous, through deficient in the means of carrying on war. It is said that their king goes forth to battle with three thousand followers, ridding on oxen.
P143
The Nile is divided above their country, at the mountain of Muksim (31). Most of the natives sharpen their teeth, and polish them to a point. They traffic in elephants tusks, panthers skins and silk. They have islands in the sea, from which they collect cowries to adorn their persons, and they use them in traffic one with another, at an established rate.
Adjoining to these lies the land of the Demadem (8). It is situated on the Nile, bordering on the Zinji. The inhabitants are infidels, and the tartars (Mongols) among the blacks, consisting of savage tribes of freebooters, they go out all the time and kill and capture and loot and they are negligent in the order of their religions and in their country are many giraffes, in their country the river divides; one branch going towards Egypt, and the other to the country of the Zinji.
Sofala ‘t il Dhab (the land of the golden sands) adjoins the eastern border of the Zinji. It is an extensive district, and mines of iron are found in it, which the people of the country work and sell to the traders from India, who give a high price for it, on account of it being harder and of better temper than that which they obtain in their own country, and they purify it and make it into steel, which admits to a durable edge. The natives themselves also make swords of it, and other offensive weapons. The most remarkable produce of this country is its quantity of native gold that is found, in pieces of two or three Meskalla weight (9); in spite of which, the natives generally adorn their persons with ornaments of brass. They are neighbors to the country of Ouacouac (Wak-Wak).
P149
Yemen; this land is situated opposite the ones of Barbara and the Zindges, from which it is separated by the sea.. .. ..
P151
Aden, nice town, but it is best known under its name Marsa al Bahrain, where the ships of Sind (7), India and China come, one finds there all the products of the eastern countries, brought there from different places, silk, arms, kaimoukt (kind of leader) , musk, aoud (aloes wood), several aromatics, ivory, ebony, parchment and clothes of hashish, estimated higher is value than those of silk, brocade, lead, pearls, precious stones, the zoubad (civet) and amber etc. In the north there is a mountain who goes from one sea to the other, leaving two holes through which the boats can pass, this town (Aden) is 4 days away from the Zendges.
P166
The land of Hind, this big country part of the continent extending north to south, its king has relations with the king of Zinj; In the sea is the country of Maharaj (10)……
P191
…then branches the greatest bay, the Persian Gulf; and at each place the ocean carries the name of each province and place aligned with it, so first the China Sea and the Sea of Tibet and the Sea of India and then a sea of Sindh (7) and … one Sea Makran (11), Kerman (12), Khuzestan (13) and Abadan (14), which is the northern-eastern Gulf, and the other the Gulf South West the Zinj Sea, Ethiopia and Sofala-the-golden, the Berbers and Qulzum (3) country, Yemen, Sudan, until the end to the land of Egypt.
P201-203
Rokh Island.
(16)
The rokh which gave its name to the island, is an immense, extraordinary bird, of a frightening aspect, to the point that one says that the length of a wing is about ten thousand fathoms. (17) In his book called Kitab al-Hayawan (18), Book of Animals, Al-Hafiz Ibn al-Djawzi - God have mercy on him! - reports the following: He met a man from Maghrib who traveled to China and neighboring islands and had stayed there for a long time. He brought back great riches and a feather pipe from the young of a rokh still in the bud and not yet released. The small rokh's feather pipe was [of the size] to be able to contain nine skins of water (19). The people [who saw him] were in awe. This man was nicknamed the Chinese, because of the many stays he had made [in China]; but his [real] name is Abd ar-Rahman the Maghribin. Among other extraordinary things that there was [seen], he related this one. Traveling one day in the China Sea, the wind threw them to an immense and vast island. The sailors went ashore to collect water and firewood. They had taken axes, ropes and bottles with them. The narrator was with them. They saw in the island a huge dome, white, glittering and over a hundred cubits (20) high. They walked towards [this dome] and saw, as they approached, that it was a rokh egg. With axes, stones and clubs, they smashed it. After having broken it, appeared the small of this bird, similar to a high mountain. They clung to the feathers of the wings and pulled them towards them; and the one [which has been spoken of] which had not come to its full development, was taken from the root of the wing. The little [rokh] was then killed. They took of his flesh as much as they could; the quill was cut off at its end; then they left. Some of those who had been to the island, cooked some of the flesh [of the rokh] and ate it. Those who were old men with white beards had black beards the next day; none of those who had eaten the flesh [of the rokh] subsequently turned white. They said that the [piece of] wood with which they had stirred the flesh (of the little rokh) put in the pot, came from the tree of youth. But only God knows the truth.
By sunrise, continues the narrator, the people of the ship had set sail; the rokh appeared advancing like an immense cloud, holding between its talons a quarter of rock like a big house and bigger than the ship. When he was just above the ship, from high in the air he dropped this rock on the ship and those on board. But as the ship went at great speed, the rock fell behind it into the sea, and there caused an immense bubbling [of the water]; but God predestined us to come out of this danger safe and sound.
Monkey Island is large; there
are many forests and monkeys there. The apes have a king whom they obey; they carry him on their neck and shoulders. [The monkey-king] rules them in such a way as to prevent one of them from
being unfair to another. If sailors land [in their island,] they bite them, scratch them, throw stones at them [to drive them away]. The people of the two islands Khartan and Martan (the island
of Kurian-Murian) catch [these monkeys] by surprise and sell them at a high price. The people of Yemen seek out [these monkeys] and take them to guard their shops, like real slaves, because they
are remarkably intelligent. (21)
P207
Jazirat al Qamar (Moon Island): It is a long, wide island, its length from the east is four months; and has the city called: Lan; the king's residence, it is fertile, with trees, fruits, rivers and wine; with sugar and sugar cane; and this island makes clothes of exotic hashish type that is not look in the world for silk and brocade, and manufactured by a kind of patterns that catch the eyes and go with the minds well and with joy, they were worn by kings over silk rugs, they make boats carved out of one piece and fearful ones; and the length of each boat is 60 arm, carrying two hundred fighters and called al-Sofana.
P213
The Indian Sea, the largest of which is the Sea of Persia and the Sea of Qulzum (3), and in the south is the sea of Persia, and also south the sea of Zinj. Ibn al-Faqih said (32): The Sea of India is connected to the Persian Sea, and in it are many islands and it was said that there are more than twenty thousand islands and how many nations is not known only to God Almighty, but those where the people reached are a little less.
P215
The island of Birtabil (22): It is a settlement on an island of the Zang, and they have their faces in their body, and the tail of horses, there is a lot of cloves and lobsters, and if the traders if they came down and put their goods on the coast and return to the boats and if they came back to their goods they find beside each commodity an amount of cloves, if the owner is satisfied he takes it and leaves, and if he is not he leaves the cloves and goods and returned on the second day and find they have been increased (28),…
P216
Island Palace (23): It is a great white high palace of transparent crystal showing to those in boats from a distance. If they see it, they take safety. A man from Zinj mentioned that it was a tall, high palace and he did not know what was inside it.
P232
Chapter in the Sea of the Zinj.
It is the Indian
Sea.
And the land of Zeng is on the south side under Suhail (24) and the travellers of this sea see the South Pole and do not see the North Pole and its stars, it is connected to the surrounding sea, the waves are like the mountains of the gorge and they fall as low as the valleys and it has no foam like other seas, and there are many islands with trees and groves, but they have no fruits, but such as ebony trees, sandalwood and teak. And the amber shall be caught and taken from its coast, and therein every piece is big.
P233
It is islands island noise:
They are from among the Zinj.
Some merchants reported that there is an empty city of white stone, but they hear there a noise, the sailors collect water there and drink from it and carry it to the boats, which is good fresh
water with the smell of camphor, and in proximity of the mountains there is a great fire in the night and a living thing appears once a year, and the kings of the Zinj hunt it and they take the
skin for bedding sitting on it will make the owner heal from tuberculosis. (27)
P234
The Island of Saksar: It is a great island, they are people with no bones in their legs.
The story of the historian Ibn Ishaq said: I received a man with many scars in the face and asked him about it, he said: I was in a sea of Zinges with a group and the wind brought us to the island of Saksar, we could not get away because the intensity of the wind, they brought us to the people who had a face of dogs and a body of humans……
P256
The blessed Nile: There is no river longer then it, for it is two months in Islam, two months among the unbelievers, two months in the wilderness, and four months in the desert. And his source is in the land of Mount Moon behind the equator, and it is called Mount Moon, because the moon is not seen behind the equator but the light is; He (the Nile) comes out of the sea of darkness and enters under the mountains of the moon. The prophet Peace Be Upon Him said: The Nile comes out of Paradise, even if you seek refuge in it when it comes you might find the leaves.
Abakam (25), the first Hermes, was led by demons to this mountain known as the moon and saw the Nile get out of the Black Sea and enter under Mount Moon, and he built at the foot of that mountain a palace with eighty-five bronze statues (26), make it in a wise way for what comes out of the water from this mountain, and it is controlled and controlled in a tight manner, from which water flows into the images and statues come out of their throats on a known scale of a few arms, and it pours into many rivers and connects to two Batiha (swamps) and comes out of them until it reaches a big Batiha. And this Batiha is in the country of the Sudan and its city of greater Tirmi.
P368
Yemen: Its characteristics are swords, and ice, monkeys, and giraffes which is a semi-camel, bull and tiger, and characteristics also the agate, which filled the world a lot.
(1) Gog and Magog: high North of the globe.
(2) Sakaliba; Sakalpah or Saqaliba: the Slaves from Eastern Europe.
(3) sea of al-Qulzum: located at the head of the Gulf of Suez (the Red Sea).
(4) Khanku: the right reading is Khanfu; Guangzhou was known to medieval Persians such as Al-Masudi and Ibn Khordadbeh as Khanfu.
(5) Canouni, with seven peaks: Khakoui, (Ras Hafun) who has seven peaks: the seven peaks on the mountain on the peninsula of Hafun still have different names (Charles Guillain p203).
(6) Haouina: El Hadye: Hawiya: In south Somalia mentioned by Ibn Said (1250); Ahmad ibn Al Harrani (1300); Al Idris Ouns al Moubhadj (1192); Idrisi (1150) has El Hadye; Abulfida (1331); Haouiya; Dimashqi (1325) Hawiah; Al Wardi (1456) Haouina.
The reference in Al-Idrisi (1150) to the Hadiye and in Ibn Sa’id (1250) to the Hawiye, on both occasions associated with the Benadir port of Merca, where the Hawiya live today, suggests that they have been in this area for at least 700 years. The references slightly later in the Futuh al-Habasha to Somali groups in north-western Somaliland indicates that the population in this area has also remained substantially unchanged since the sixteenth century, when the work was written. The Galla another group from the Horn has been living there at least since the 15th century as Fra Mauro (1459) mentions a Galla River in Ethiopia.
(7) Sind: now in Pakistan.
(8) Dendema or Demdems: According to Ibn Said (1250) these are the once who invaded Nubia and Abyssunie around 1220 AD (when the Mongols invaded Persia)
Dendemes, Dendemeh; Dandama: East African people living in the interior, close to the sources of the Nile; also mentioned by Al Masudi (916); Al Idrisi (1150); Ibn Said (1250); Ibn al Jawzi (1257); Harrani (1300); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Abulfida (1331); Nuwayri (1333); Cowar el-aqalim (1347); Said Abd al Aziz al Dairini (d1385); Ibn Khaldun (1406); Al Qalqashandi (d1418) and Ibn al Wardi (1456) speaks about Demadam; al Himyari (1461).
(9) Meskalla weight: mitqal: about 5gr of gold.
(10) The land of Hind, this big country part of the continent extending north to south, its king has relations with the king of Zinj; In the sea is the country of Maharaj: The wars of colonisation by the Austronesians in East Africa are long time over and normal relations established.
(11) Sea Makran, Mekran: Makran or Mecran and Mokran, is the coastal region of Baluchistan (Pakistan).
(12) Kerman: known in ancient times as the satrapy of Carmania, is the capital city of Kerman Province, Iran.
(13) Khuzestan: or Xuzestan province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country.
(14) Abadan: in the southwest of Iran.
(15) to buy their children: Other authors on this: Other authors writing on enslaving (children): Tuan Ch'eng-Shih (863); Jahiz: Sudan (869); Abu Zaid al Hassan (916); Hamza ibn-'Ali ibn-Ahmad (1017); Marvazi (1120); Mudjmal al -Tawarikh wa-l-qisas (1126); Al Idrisi (1150); Yahya bin Ahmad Sirhindi (1434); Ibn al Wardi (1456); Al Himyari; (1461).
ALL THE FOLLOWING CHINESE SOURCES SPEAK ABOUT SELLING SLAVES BY THE PEOPLE FROM MADAGASCAR: Chou Chih-Chung (1366); Ning Xian Wang (1430); Wang Khi (1607); Ch'en Yuan-Ching (late12 century); Chao Ju-Kua (1226).
(16) Rokh Island: the giant bird Roc lived in Madagascar see my webpages of Buzurg (955) and Marco Polo (1295).
(17) fathoms: a unit of length equal to six feet (1.83 meters) used especially for measuring the depth of water.
(18) Kitab al-Hayawan, Book of Animals, Al-Hafiz Ibn al-Djawzi: see my webpage on Jahiz: Kitab al Hayawan (d869).
(19) skins of water: a waterskin is the medieval Muslim variation of the bucket.
That the tube of the feathers of the Roc bird are big enough to be used as buckets is found in: Buzurg ibn Shahriyar (955); Li Kung-Lin (d1106); Chou Ch'u-fei (1178); Ch'en Yuan-Ching (late12 century); Chao Ju-Kua (1226); Ibn Said al Maghribi (1250); Luo Miandao (fl. ca. 1270); Marco Polo (1295); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Chou Chih-Chung (1366); Ning Xian Wang (1430); Ibn Al Wardi (1456); Alf layla wa Layla (15th); Wang Khi (1609).
(20) cubits: Distance from fingers to elbow (45cm).
(21) 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.
(22) The island of Birtabil: There is an island of Bartayil in the Kitab Ghara'ib al-funun wa-mulah al-'uyun (1050): in the Moluccas. And maybe: Al Himyari (1461) has Bartayel.
(23) Island Palace: It is a great white high palace of transparent crystal: In an article: Islamic Archaeology in the Comoros The
Swahili and the Rock Crystal Trade with the Abbasid and Fatimid Caliphates by Stephane Pradines; it is stated that at Dembeni on one of the Comore islands (Mayotte) small rock crystal pieces are
found scattered around coming from Madagascar and being transhipped to the Muslim world on the island. This trade in Dembeni had stopped already long-time when this book was written. But just
like in some copies of Qazwini there is a crystal palace here.
(24) Suhail: from Arabic it is the common name of a number of stars typically seen near the southern horizon (three stars in the constellation Argo Navis).
(25) Abakam, the first Hermes: The first Hermes, was a "civilizing hero", an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world. Hermes is here a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth in the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.
(26) a palace with eighty-five bronze statues: They are mentioned by the following authors: Maslamah ibn Ahmad Majriti (1050); Wasif Shah (1209); Murtada Ibn al-Afif (1237); Picatrix: (1256); Nuwayri (1333); Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); al Maqrizi (1441); Ibn al Wardi (1456); Dhikr Kalam al-Nas fi Manba’ al-Nil (15th); Suyuti (d1505).
(27) The snake's skin was used as a bed overlay. It is shiny and softer than silk. If a person with tuberculosis sits on the bed, it will cure and the disease will not last forever. This story is found in: Abu Ubayd Al Bakri (1067); Wasif Shah (1209); Qazwini (1283); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Ibn Al Wardi (about 1456).
(28) Those mentioning the silent trade in East Africa on my webpages: Hudud Al-'Alam (982); Al Zuhri : (1137); Mohammad ebn Mahmud ebn Ahmad Tusi (1160); Yakut (or Jakut) al Hamawi (1220); Al-Qazwini(d. 1283) Atar al Bilad; Rukneddin Ahmed (1420); Ibn Al Wardi (about 1456).
(29) Guardafui: Al Jardafun: Cape Guardafui, Ra's Jardafun, Ra's 'Asir.
(30) Golden Sofala.
(31) mountain El-Moquecem; Muqassim: literally the dividing mountain.
(32) maybe Ibn al-Fakih al Hamadhani (903) Kitab al Buldan
Kibla map from Ibn al Wardi. This kind of map takes the Kaba as the centre and shows from there
on all countries. Zang here is found in the text in the lower left corner.