Al-Biruni: Kitab al-Jamahir fi ma’rifat al-Jawahir. (The Book most Comprehensive in Knowledge on Precious Stones.) (1050 AD)

Isfidru

The word isfidru is a Persian word, meaning white copper....

Isfidru is used in making food utensils, water cups, pickle-jars and wash-tubs, since it neither rusts or collects dirt .......

Good copper is found in Sufulah-Zanj; it does not blacken upon fire but becomes peacock colored. When the artisans poured (molten) copper upon it, it became shibh-like and malleable .......

Ibn Madjid: As-Sufaliyya (the poem of Sofala)(1470)

………… and copper, as the infidels of Sofala and the slave traders have copper and gold and silver…………

Note: And Al Zayyat (d1058);Al Idrissi (1150); Al Himyari (1461) all three mention that: In Sofala one can find gold …… But the people like more copper, and make jewelry from that metal. We can in general conclude that in Al-Beruni's days and later there was trade in copper from central Africa to the East African Coast. It took the Portuguese not long to find out about this also.

Taken from: Álvaro Velho: Roteiro da primeira viagem de Vasco da Gama. (1497-1499).

Álvaro Velho was on board but left on the return at Sierra Leone.

[ Terra da boa Gente and Rio do Cobre.] (Land of good people and Copper River) (Somewhere in the south of Mozambique)

…………….. The houses are built of straw. The arms of the people include long bows and arrows and spears with iron blades. Copper seems to be plentiful, for the people wore [ornaments] of it on their legs and arms and in their twisted hair. Tin, likewise, is found in the country, for it is to be seen on the hilts of their daggers, the sheaths of which are made of ivory. Linen cloth is highly prized by the people, who were always willing to give large quantities of copper in exchange for shirts. They have large calabashes in which they carry sea-water inland, where they pour it into pits, to obtain the salt [by evaporation]. …………….

Taken from: Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol IV

1516 June 26

LETTER FROM JOAO VA Z DE ALMADA, CAPTAIN OF SOFALA, TO THE KING

……….. and where the people are whiter than the blacks, and these say that there they see a land bordering with Bonapotapa (=Monomotapa) which they call Ambar. Here these people, whom I say are whiter than the blacks, come to sell copper rods and from there they come to the land of Bonapotapa, because this Antoneo Fernandez saw them being sold in those fairs and recognises them as being made in the copper rivers of the Manyconguo, Let Your Highness be assured that both those from there and those from here set the same value on the copper rods in the trade with this king of whom I have spoken. ………………

………………….. Item, Sire, on the 15th or 18th of May last of one thousand Five hundred and sixteen, news came to me from the interior by a leading Moor, whom they call Quatyvo, who came from Outonga where the gold is found, who told me that he had seen some slaves, natives of this place, who told him that in Ambar, the land we spoke of above to Your Highness to which the copper rods come the saw a white man dressed like us, with clothing like ours made from the cloths of the land, tending cows, and that the Moor said to them what you have said and seen I will tell the captain and the Negroes said to him, and we do not know what other for they are like those who are in the castle in Sofala. And as soon as this news arrived, ………………………

Taken from: Ethiopia oriental by Santos, João dos, d. 1622

From this Fort of Sena to that of Tete are sixty leagues up the river (=Zambezi=Cuama). The residents of Tete came to Sena's trading post to use their gold for the goods there.

Tete is a town located along the river, in the same part of Sena, in the kingdom of Inhabazoe, which Manamotapa conquered, and distributed among some of his vassals; giving the fort of Tete a good part of it, which are lands that recognize the Portuguese and the captaincy of the fort, as its king, ……………………………………… to the Ethiopian Ocean, where this river goes and enters there are one hundred and twenty leagues and the Portuguese sail here with the goods, which come from Mozambique, …………… In these towns of Sena and Tete there are many figs from Portugal and India, like the ones I have said are in Sofala: which are there all year round. There are many pomegranate trees, vines, palm trees, many local fruits, ………… there are many yams, potatoes, pineapples and very thin melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, rice, corn, and many other vegetables.

There are many cow farms. goats and sheep, from which they make as good cheeses …… pigs and a large number of chickens…… things that come from India and Portugal to these rivers are very expensive, …………

The smallest coin there is in these lands is a weight of gold, which they call tanga (coin of Portuguese India), which is worth three vintens (60 Reis = 3 Vintens=Portuguese coins) and the largest is matical (4.25gr of gold=Portuguese coin), …… There is also another type of currency, with which you can buy precious things, which are small copper bars half a palm long and almost two fingers wide, which they call macontas (=coins in south central Africa), and each of them is also worth three vintens. Tin is also common currency, which they call calaim (=Indian coins), made in loaves, each loaf weighing half an arratel (1), and they call these loaves pandos, and each one of these is worth two tangas (2), which are worth six vintens … They also use as ordinary currency in In these lands, small colored beads of glazed clay, strung on threads a span long (=one hand long), …… In addition to these coins, all kinds of clothes are also used to buy and sell all things, and debts are paid in gold. With this sort of coin they also pay priests their salaries, ………

(1) arratel: is an old Portuguese weight equivalent first to 14 and then to 16 ounces.

(2) The tanga was a coin current in Portuguese India. Its value in relation to the rei varied at different dates.