cowar_el_aqalim



Back to Table of Contents 4 To next page Cowar el-aqalim (1347) written in Kirkman-Perzia ---------------------------------------------- Taken from: Cl. Huart: XIV congres int. des Orientalistes This geography was written by an unknown author for the prince Mobariz-eddin Mohammad, son of Mozaffer


		The African Civet Cat (Viverra Civetta). This book devotes more attention to it then any other Arab manuscript.


	Then we find the province of Zendjs, of which the first part, which is called Anhiya, stretches up to the Nile of the Demadem, who goes to Mogadoxo, where it joins the sea. The Nil of Mogadoxo is the border of the province of Berbera. Some other towns, starting from Amina up to Berbera, are found on the river, which has more then 300 parasangs in length. This province stretches widely over the shores of the Ocean up to the one of the inhabited quarter for 250 parasangs. These lands as well as the mountains of Sofala, have grains of gold in them. On the shores of the sea of this country there is a lot of ebony, aloes, sandalwood and Brazil-wood. At any moment you find gray amber in the sea. This province is rich of several kinds of animals and birds, especially the elephant, the panther, the giraffe, the hippo, the civet, the ape, the rhino. In most of its mountains there are honey flies, plains and prairies; those plains are always covered with green, flowers and weeds. This is how to collect the perfume of the civet. You take the animal, you put up a pole to which you attach it; every day you feed it milk several times, the civet will turn around the pole and brush itself against it. The perfume comes out of its body just like sweat and is deposited as drops on the pole, to which it glues and from which you collect it. After this region is the region of (the mountains) of the moon; these are several towns and places which are called Dendeme and Kirichne. On the shores of the Ocean is a mountain which stretches towards the east, up to the middle of the land of Sofala, as far as 1,400 parasanges. Several kinds of animals and plants are found in the mountain, as well as rivers who in big numbers reach the sea in the inhabited quarter of the world. The mountains of the moon are to the west of this mountain; several rivers leave there big and deep ones, they are called the Nile of Egypt. These waters make two big lakes measuring 100 parasanges by 100. To the west of those lakes one sees a big mountain and a region which is called Refle. The Nil goes through those lakes and continues. The equator meets the river in a western direction; it goes on for 350 parasanges, several branches of the Nile water, which is sweet, meet the salty water of the Ocean, leaving the ocean again without mixing; the river reaches Mehir, Alexandria and the sea of the Francs. This passage of the Qoran: He has separated the two seas that touched, he has put up a barrier between them, of fear that they wouldn't mix. Of this the theologians don't know exactly what God wanted to explain with those two seas. (the sea and the river). After this he talks a lot about several animals of east Africa. The Nile, from the mountains of the moon from which he leaves up to the place where it throws itself into the sea of the Francs, measures close to 1000 parasanges.

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