Which is the wisest of all nations?

……The Chinese we said;

People of furnishings and handicrafts, he replied, with neither thought nor reflection.

The Turks we said;

Wild beasts for the frag he replied,

The Indians we said; People of fantasy he said of legerdemain and conjuring and tricks.

The Zanj we said; dumb beasts to be left alone.

The Khazars (1): pasturing cattle.

The Habitable Quarter of the World

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Taken from: Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources edited by Scott Cameron Levi, Ron Sela

Note: the work is not extant the quote is found in: Gardizi: Zain al-akhbar

…..When the prophet Nuh (Noah), upon whom be peace, came out from the ark, the world had become devoid of people. He had three sons, Sam (Shem), Ham, and Yafith (Japheth), and he divided the earth among his sons. The Land of the Blacks, such as Zanj, Abyssinia, Nubia, Barbary, and Fazz (2), and the maritime and southern region of Persia he gave to Ham…..

(1) Khazars: Semi nomadic people from south Russia, south Ukraine, Crimea, Kazakhstan.

(2) Fazz: Fazzan or Fezzan: in south west Libya.