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Extracts from Jahiz other books
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Al-Tabassur bi'l-tijara : Al Jahiz
Taken from: Bernard W Lewis; Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople
Note: this might well be the coast of Berbera instead of the city Berbera (in the northern part of the horn of Africa) because in the whole chapter (about export products from various places) the author tends to mention big geographical areas instead of small harbors or towns.
The best leopard skins are from Berbera, spotted with bright white and deep black, with long spots like a starling. The finest skins are those with a small, clear black spot in the middle of the black part. If the black parts are joined to one another by a light black line, it is still finer. If the skin contains red with bright white and jet black, it is more beautiful and of higher price. The leopards of Berbera are small; one skin barely covers a single saddle. The highest price of a skin is 50 dinars. The North African and Indian skins are wider and bigger, but they do not fetch high prices and are not of good quality. The best leopard skins are spotted.
The best falcons are the white ones found between the Turkish land and Gilan , then the black corvine ones from the land of the Zanj to the Yemen and India, the bright red ones, then the dune-colored ones.
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From his Al-Bayan wa'l-tabyin (The explanation and the evidence):
taken from the original translation
They (the Shu'ubiyya) maintain that eloquence is prized by all people at all times- even the Zanj, despite their dimness, their boundless stupidity, their obtuseness, their crude perceptions and their evil dispositions, make long speeches.
Nevertheless we find people, which are capable to copy the mode of expression of the inhabitants Yemen with them the peculiar discussion of the words without ignoring a little thing; likewise they can copy also a Kurasaner, a Ahwazer, one of the Zang, a man of Abessinia and others, it can even be that one finds one, that it more faithful than the inhabitants of those areas. If they copy a stutterer, is it, as if all characteristics of all stutterer of the earth would be united in the language of this person.
Abul Hasan al-Madani told me that the Zanj have the incisors pulled. They sharpen their teeth, not only to use them in battle as a weapon but also so as to be able to eat the enemies later on.
And I do not care about the people like those as the Berber, the Tailasaner, the Muqaner and the Gilaner (all on the shore of the Caspian Sea), the Zang and those who resemble the Zang. The people that are worth mentioning are four: the Arabs, the Persians, the Indians and the Byzantines. The others are savages (hamag) and those who resemble savages.
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Taken from: Al Jahiz, nine essays
from the translation by William M. Hutchins; Nine essays of al-Jahiz
You asserted that the difference between the Turks and the Khurasani is not like the difference between the Persian and Arab, the Byzantine and the Slav, or the Zanj and the Ethiopian, not to mention those more distant in substance and more intensely different. It is rather, like the difference between a resident of Mecca and of Medina.
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Taken from Al Jahiz: Kitab al-Bukhala; Avarice & the Avaricious
taken from the original translation
We know that the Zanj are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of actions.
He had the habit to say : I never had the pleasure to eat dates with a Zang or someone from Ispahane. The Negro is not choosing, there where I do; the ones from Ispahane they take a handful and before he has finished those won't touch the others.
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Taken from: "Kitab al Akhbar" ("The Book of the New")
found in: Gerald Messadie : A History of the Devil
Having become interested in the Byzantine, we found that they were doctors, philosophers, and astronomers. They are familiar with the principles of music, are able to create Roman(weights and measures) and know the world of books. They are excellent painters........ They possess an architecture different from any other.... It is unarguable that they have beauty, are familiar with arithmetic, astrology, and calligraphy, and that they possess courage and a variety of great talents. The Blacks and similar peoples have less intelligence because they lack these qualities.
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Investigation into commerce
Taken from: Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World by Olivia Remie Constable, Irving W. Raymond,
The imports in Iraq .
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From Barbary and the borders of the Maghrib: panthers, salam leaves, felts, and black hawks.
From Yemen: eye lotion, tanned skins, giraffes, cuirasses, colored gems, incense, the leaves of the Khitr (for dyeing) and the spice safran-bamboo (Zingiberaceae).
From Egypt�..
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Le Kitab al Tarbi wal tadwir (Gahiz)
Why is it that they do not speak different languages? Some speak the language of Zang, others the Nabateen, others Persian? If you say one finds among them people seldom found, the poet, the ��..