To next page
Alf layla wa layla (One Thousand and One Nights) (15th cent)
-----------------------------------------------------
Taken from : standard text 15th century; trans by Sir Richard Burton as The Arabian Nights, 16 vols, 1885-8).
The oldest part of this book got supposedly compiled by a reputed storyteller Abu abd-Allah Muhammed el-Gahshigar in the 9th century. The stories are gathered from all parts of the world through several centuries, but were best known in Cairo.
ON NIGHTS 566 to 578, Shahrazad entertained her sultan with the tale of the City of Brass. She told how a Caliph sent an expedition under Emir Musa to explore in Africa. There they found a vast deserted castle, a jinn imprisoned in a pillar, and finally the City of Brass itself, with its people lying dead in the streets and houses. The expedition gathered a load of loose treasure, met a friendly black tribe, and at last returned in triumph.
In the tale of the city of Brass: (an ancient Arabian legend)
And at the foot (of the tabled) were written these verses:-
Where is the wight who peopled in the past
Hind-land and Sind; and there the tyrant played?
Who Zanj and Habash bound beneath his yoke,
And Nubia curbed and low its puissance laid.
Look not for news of what is in the grave.
Ah, he is far who can thy vision aid.
The stroke of death fell on him sharp and sure;
Nor saved him palace, nor the lands he swayed.
After exploring the city and encountering al-Khadir the search party spent a night at a lake. The divers of Musa bring up jars of brass out of the lake.
An important note got written on this tale by Marina Tolmacheva
The international Journal of African Historical Studies Vol 12 No 2 (1979): They came from Damascus in Syria.
This lays at the basis of the chronicle of Lamu which tries to establish a connection between the East African Coast, Caliph Abd al Malik and the copper flasks. Harun al Rashid, a central figure of the arabian nights, appears in these legends associated with Arab migrants, Persian governors, or Fumo Lyongo. Abd al Malik ibn Marwan did not send the first settlers of Lamu in search of copper. Nor did an expedition of Musa ibn Nusayr arrived at a city of brass. The opening sentences of the Lamu chronicle: The first of the people of Lamu were Arabs who came from Damascus in Syria. He who send them was Abdul Malik ibn Marwan. It was he who sent them to the Swahili coast at a time when he wanted copper sceent-flasks. Two governors of N. Africa stand out as explorers and conquerors of the Maghrib and the land beyond. Uqba ibn Nafi (d683) and Musa ibn Nusayu (d717). Musa becomes the hero of the story of the city of bras.
Taken from: M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes Les cent et une nuits tr.de l'arabe 1911
David Pinault; Story-telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights
In the Manuscript 3668 of Paris
The tale of the City of Brass and what happened there in the form of a wondrous tale and wonders. As follows; Ibn Sad el Baghdadi said, One day I was at the court of Abd al Malik ibn Marwan in the time of the Caliphate in Damascus, and before him there was a circle of poets, scholars, and those learned in the law.... one day they took the conversation subject the history of former important kings. Among the real believers, Solomon, Alexander with the two horns, with his minister Khidr and among the infidels Kesra, and Qaisar. From there they get lost in long considerations on the Zendjs, the djinn, and the people. Abd el Mouttalib ben Merwan tells the story of the bottles of Salomon, and an assistant Abd ec Camed ben Allah el Iskanderi says he travelled in India with his father and assisted in the fishing of the infidel djinn. The Caliph addressing Taleb el Matalibi counsels him to write to Mousa ben Abd el Qaddous, the governor of the Maghreb....
Taken from: Les voyages de Sind-bad le Marin et les ruses des femmes. 1814
First tale of Sindbad
We embarked on the eastern sea, which is surrounded by right; the Garb, and left; the Farsistan; the sea is it is said; from one side to the other 70 farsangs and includes many mountains: its limits are the Zendje and Kolzoum; it is the big eastern sea. Its length measured from Kolzoum up to Quac (=wakwak) is 4500 farsangs.
Seventh tale of Sindbad
Taken from: wollamshram.ca
(the way he arrived on the island as well the way he got of the island does not teach us anything about East Africa)
I got up, and found I was upon a long and broad hill, covered all over with the bones and teeth of elephants. ......I did not stay on the hill, but turned towards the city, and, after having traveled a day and a night, I came to my patron; I met no elephant on my way, which made me think they had retired farther into the forest, to leave me at liberty to come back to the hill without any hindrance.
In the tale of the Princess of Deryabar
During the night of the wedding of the king:
....a neighboring prince, who was his enemy, made a
descent by night on the island with a great number of
troops. That formidable enemy was the king Zanguebar:
He surprised those people, and cut to pieces all the
king my husband's subjects.
Nur Al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis Al-Jalis
Now the Wazir Al-Fazl had a son like the full moon when shiniest light, with face radiant in light, cheeks ruddy bright, and a mole like a dot of ambergris on a downy site; as said of him the poet and said full right,
A moon which blights you if you dare behold;
A branch which folds you in its waving fold:
Locks of the Zanj and golden glint of hair;
Sweet gait and form a spear to have and hold:
Story of Prince Sayf Al-Muluk and the Princess Badi'a Al-Jamal
This is a different version of the story:
Taken from: Qissa-i Saif al-Muluk va Badi' al-Jamal, an anonymous romance. Copied by Muhammad Warith in Thatta 1775
Saif al-Muluk (son of the king of Egypt) is sailing to China. The Zangis attack his ship and capture it. Saif al-Muluk is brought before the King of the Zangis. And later brought before the giant daughter of the Zangi king.
Afterwards Saif al-Muluk visits many wonderful places.
At the end of the story: there is a battle between the Zangis and Fakhr al-Muluk.
And the army of the div Anbar, comes to support the Zangis. But the Zangis lose.
Then Anbar and the King of the Zangis are brought as prisoners before Saif al-Muluk.
And the giant daughter of the Zangi king is spared by Saif al-Muluk and married off to an ugly div.
There are some fine miniature paintings illustrating this story on the website of the British Library.
Tale 137
The battle ( the Muslims against the son of the king of Hind) waxed fierce and fell, the blood ran in rills, nor did they cease to wage war with lunge of lance and sway of sword in lustiest way, till the day darkened and the night sharpened, when the drums beat the retreat and the two hosts drew asunder. Now the Moslems were evilly entreated that day by reason of the riders on elephants and giraffes, and many of them were killed and most of the rest were wounded. This was grievous to Gharib (King of Iraq and Yemen) who commanded the hurt to be medicined and turning to his Chief Officers, asked them what they counseled. Answered they, O King, tis only the elephants and giraffes that irk us; were we but quit of them, we should overcome the enemy. Quoth Kaylajan and Kurajan, We twain will unsheathe our swords and fall on them and slay the most part of them. But there came forward a man of Oman, who had been privy counselor to Jaland and said, O King, I will be surety for the host, an thou wilt but hearken to me and follow my counsel. Gharib turned to his Captains and said to them, Whatsoever this wise man shall say to you that do.............
Now as soon as it was day, the Indians came out to the field, armed cap a pie, with the elephants, giraffes and champions in their van; whereupon Gharib and his men mounted and both hosts drew out and the big drums beat to battle. Then the man of Oman cried out to the archers and harquebusiers to shoot, and they plied the elephants and giraffes with shafts and leaden bullets, which entered the beasts' flanks, whereat they roared out and turning upon their own ranks, trod them down with their hoofs. Presently the Moslems charged the Misbelievers and outflanked them right and left, whilst the elephants and giraffes trampled them and drove them into the hills and words, whither the Moslems followed hard upon them with the keen-edged sword and but few of the giraffes and elephants escaped.............
Note; as the 1001 nights originated in Cairo it seems they did not know much about Africa.
The story of Mahomed the Lazy
(on his return from China to Basra) Then they loosed, and proceeded to an island called the Island of the Zendjs (Ethiops in other translations), who are a people of the blacks, that eat the flesh of the sons of Adam. And when the blacks beheld them, they came to them in boats, and, taking all that were in the ship, bound their hands behind them, and conducted them to the King, who ordered them to slaughter a number of the merchants.....
Khudadad and his brothers
Said she, O auspicious King, this my tale relateth to the Kingdom of Diyar Bakr in whose capital-city of Harran dwelt a Sultan of illustrious lineage, a protector of the people.....
(a man searching for the sons of the Sultan:)
Khudadad, giving attentive ear, heard her say these words, "O youth, fly this fatal site, else thou wilt fall into the hands of the monster who dwelleth here: a man-devouring Ethiopian (Zangi-i-Adam-kh'war in the Manuscript) is lord of this palace; and he
seizeth all whom Fate sendeth to this prairie and locketh them up in darksome and narrow cells that he may preserve them for food." Khudadad exclaimed, "O my lady, tell me I pray thee who thou art and whereabouts was thy home;" and she answered, "I am a daughter of Cairo and of the noblest thereof. But lately, as I wended my way to Baghdad, I alighted upon this plain and met that Habashi,
who slew all my servants and carrying me off by force placed me in this palace. I no longer cared to live, and a thousand times better were it for me to die; for that this Abyssinian lusteth to enjoy me and albeit to the present time I have escaped the caresses of the impure wretch, to-morrow an I still refuse to gratify his desire he will surely ravish me and do me dead. So I have given up all hope of safety; but thou, why hast thou come hither to perish? Escape without stay or delay, for he hath gone forth in quest of wayfarers and right soon will he return. Moreover he can see far and wide and can descry all who traverse this wold." Now hardly had the lady spoken these words when the Abyssinian drew in sight; and he was as a Ghul of the Wild, big of bulk, and fearsome of favour and figure, and he mounted a sturdy Tartar steed, brandishing, as he rode, a weighty blade which none save he could wield. Prince Khudadad seeing this monstrous semblance was sore amazed and prayed Heaven that he might be victorious over that devil: then unsheathing his sword he stood awaiting the Abyssinian's approach with courage and steadfastness; but the blackamoor when he drew near deemed the
Prince too slight and puny to fight and was minded to seize him alive. Khudadad, seeing how his foe had no intent to combat, struck him with his sword on the knee a stroke so dour that the negro foamed with rage and yelled a yell so loud that the whole prairie resounded with the plaint. Thereupon the brigand, fiery
with fury, rose straight in his shovel-stirrups and struck fiercely at Khudadad with his huge sword and, but for the Prince's cunning of fence and the cleverness of his courser, he would have been sliced in twain like unto a cucumber. Though the scymitar whistled through the air, the blow was harmless, and in an eye-twinkling Khudadad dealt him a second cut and struck off his right hand which fell to the ground with the sword hilt it gripped, when the blackamoor losing his balance rolled from the saddle and made earth resound with the fall. Thereupon the Prince sprang from his steed and deftly severing the enemy's head from
his body threw it aside. Now the lady had been looking down at the lattice rigid in prayer for the gallant youth; and, seeing the Abyssinian slain and the Prince victorious, she was overcome with exceeding joy and cried out to her deliverer, "Praise be to Almighty Allah, O my lord, who by thy hand hath defeated and
destroyed this fiend. Come now to me within the castle, whose keys are with the Abyssinian; so take them and open the door and deliver me." Khudadad found a large bunch of keys under the dead man's girdle wherewith he opened the portals of the fort and....