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Al Umari (1349) Masalik al-absar fi mamalik al-amsar. (pathways of vision in the realms of the metropolises.) from Damascus and Cairo
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Taken from : -N. Levtzion and J.F.P.Hopkins; Corpus of early Arabic Sources for West             African History.
-The translation by Gaudefroy-Demombynes
-erga.packhum.org
Full Name: Shihab al-Din Abu 'l-Abbas Ahmad b. Yahya b. Fadl Allah al-Adawi.
Al Umari also gives quite some attention to African animals. Here an African elephant from his manuscript
What I do say however is that much has been told of the Sudan who eat man's flesh. It is they whose territory lies far to the south. Some of these are Zanj. Jahiz says in his book entitled Kitab al-bayan wa-'l-tabyin; The book of eloquence and exposition : We have mentioned the Zanj and the fact that they extract their front teeth. I asked Mubarak al-Zanji al Fashikar : Why do Zanj pull out their front teeth ? And he replied : I have asked about this, and also why some of them sharpen their teeth. I was told that the adepts of sharpening do it so as to be able to fight and bite because they eat human flesh, for whenever a king makes war on another and captures him dead or alive he eats him; and likewise when they make war on each other the victor eats the vanquished. As for the adepts of extraction they have looked at the mouths of sheep and dislike that the fore-part of their mouths should resemble those of sheep.

(when talking about prices of commodities in India)
A well-fatted sheep of the first quality sells for a tanka, which represents eight dirhams hashtkanis. A good ox sells for two tankas, and sometimes for less. Buffaloes at the same price. The general food of the Indians is beef and goats' flesh. I asked Shaikh Mubarak if this usage arose from the scarcity of sheep, and he replied that it was a mere matter of habit, for in all the villages of India there are sheep in thousands. For a dirham of the money of Egypt four fowls can be bought of the best quality. Pigeons, sparrows, and other birds are sold very cheap. All kinds of game, birds, and quadrupeds, are extremely plentiful. There are elephants and rhinoceroses, but the elephants of the country of the Zinjes are the most remarkable.
A world map from a manuscript of Al-Umari. I was unable so far to find a translation of it.
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