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Al Biruni; Tarhdeid nikeayeat al-aneakin (the book of the demarcation of the limits of the areas)
Taken from ; translation by Jamil Ali
The equator starts from the sea in the west, beyond the towns of the black people of the west, then it passes through sands and uninhabited lands near the sources of the Nile, then south of Zanj beyond Nubia, then through Didjat and Waqwaq islands, and the Zabaj islands in the east. All those living below the equator are wild brutes who eat human beings, but among people living north of the equator, such wild and brutal disposition and customs disappear gradually....
The sea which issues forth from the ocean west of Zanj and at the promontory called Barasun extends similarly to the south of the equator, and spreads out along the coasts of the Sudan and south of Zanj. Both seas fall directly under the influence of the sun, moon, and the planets, and hence their airs are soft, and navigation in their waters is smooth.
Islam has already penetrated from the eastern countries of the earth to the western. It spread westwards to Spain (Andalus) eastward to the borderland of China and to the middle of India, southwards to Abyssinia and the countries of the Zanj, northwards to the countries of the Turks and Slavs.
(an explanation of Biruni's idea of the world as he brought it with him from India. East Africa is put in nr. 1 HIND . The inscription reads : India; Sind, and the islands related to them such as the Sundra archipelago, the Eastern Coast of Africa.