Sayyed (1) Ali ibn Muhammad Sahib al-Zanj, and the Sayyed (1) was wise and brave. His father had in the days of Caliph al-Mutawakkil (2) fled to Zanzibar. And the birth of the Sayyed (1) was there and the people of Zanzibar believed him, and there were twelve thousand with him,….

Note: although the text uses the word Zanzibar it might also be that: “to the Zanj” is meant. In that case he did not go to Africa but to the black slaves in Iraq.

(1) Sayyed Ali ibn Muhammad Sahib al-Zanj: (d. 883) was the leader of the Zanj revolt against the Abbasids.

(2) Sayyed: is an honorific title denoting people accepted as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

(3) Caliph al-Mutawakkil: (822 – 861), was the tenth Abbasid caliph, under whose reign the Abbasid Empire reached its territorial height.