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Nuwayri : Nihayat al-Arab (Arab Encyclopedia.) (1355) from Egypt
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Taken from ; Gabriel Ferrand ; Journal Asiatique
Gabriel Ferrand ; Relations des voyages et textes geographiques...
Youssuf KamaltomeIVfasc2
Aufs�tze zur arabischen Wissenschaftsgeschichte By Eilhard Ernst Gustav Wiedemann 1970
Also called: Nuwairi or Al Nouwairi
According to him the ocean is divided into six seas;
1- The sea of Sadjl where one finds Sarira, Sandji, and Anfudja (Ungudja)
2- The Sea of Sanf...
3- The Sea of Larwi...
4- The Sea of Herkend...
5- The Sea of Yemen...
6- The Sea of the Zendjs...
The land of the Wakwak is situated in the south of the equator between China and the Sofala of the Zenjs, on the southern shore of the Indian sea.
...Then after the amber of Sibr the amber of Zandj which is brought from Zandj to Aden. This amber is white......
Then the amber of Zandj which is brought from the sawahil al- Zandj, it resembles the amber of India and is nearly the same. This is what Tamimi says in his book Djayb al'arus but he places the amber of Zandj after the one of Sihr and mentions that one after the Indian one.
The sea of Hind and its islands is to the east of al Sin under the equator. It stretches in westerly direction and passes the region of al-waq and of Soufala of the Zanj, then the land of the Zandj, to come to the land of the Barbara where it comes to an end.....
The sea of Hind.... And lastly a part called sea of Zandj and of Barbara of which the coast is called al-Zandjbar....and finally the island of al-Qoumr also called island of Malay. It is long as four months, and at its widest is more then 20 days. This island is situated opposite Sarandib and has many towns, the most important are Kaydana, Malay, Dahmi, Balyaq, Khafoura, Dali and Qoumriya....it is from here that the Nile gets its origin...
Qoudana ibn Djafar says that this river originates in the Djabal al Qamar south of the equator from a spring out of which flow 10 rivers, of which each 5 get into a lake. After this come out of each lake 2 rivers and those 4 rivers run to a big lake in the first clime. It is from this lake that the Nile comes.
Bittich (watermelon) ........ among the cultivated there are three varieties; al hindi, al sini and al churasani. The Indien is called the green one in Egypt, the the Maghrib dalla in the Higaz Habhab and in Syria al Dabasch (al zangi in the Leyden mss)
He wrote the history of the Zinges, under the name Khouareg� Zing, in the third volume of his general history