Nahray b. Nathan; Letter to Abu Sahd ULC Or. 1080J92 (late11th) (Alexandria)
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Taken from: India Traders of the Middle Ages: Documents from the Cairo Geniza 'India ... edited by Shelomo Dov Goitein, Mordechai Friedman
I have received a letter from Sheikh Abu Sulayman Da’ud Ibn al-Lebdi, who has also sent a memorandum. I have now asked God for guidance and sent with Sidi ‘Ayyash (1) a purse containing 100 new dinars, and with Sidi Ishaq a purse containing another 100 dinars also of {Old} Cairo {Egyptian} currency. Please, my lord, buy at your earliest convenience, first
1 bahar (2) of pepper
2 bahars of lac
1 bahar of costus. (3)
Buy me also 30 ounces (4) of good civet perfume (5), the best to be had;
4 manns (6) of ashbah wood (7) for 12 dinars;
4 manns of ashbah wood for 16 dinars;
40 manns of ban (8) ...
(1) Meaning Long Lived; a common name in the Maghreb. The Sidi might have bee, Sayyid.
(2) The bahar of pepper, cloves, ginger: is the great Bahar: about 216kg.
(3) Costus, a fragrant root, native to Kashmir, was used in medicine and for fumigation.
(4) Civet ounce: 27.4 gram
(5) Civet according to Goitein was exported from India (coming from Malay) to Aden. However, civet was also produced in Ethiopia and Somalia.
Other works mentioning the civet from Africa are (see my webpage:) Al-Jahiz Al-Fakhar al-Sudan (869); Shah Mardan Ibn Abi al-Khayr (11th); Joseph ibn Abraham (1137); Yakut al Hamawi (1220); Al-Saghani (1252); Nur al-ma'arif (1295); al-Watwat (1318); Friar Jordanus; (1329); Ibn Battuta and the African Diaspora (1331); Cowar el-aqalim (1347); From the Court of Al-Zahir (1439); Ibn al-Ahdal (1451); Ibn Madjid: As-Sufaliyya (1470); Ibn al-Dayba (1496).
The oldest mention of civet from the Horn of Africa comes from: Ibn Sa’d: Kitab aṭ-Tabaqat al-Kabir: The Book of the Major Classes (d845) (Taken from: Untold: A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad By Tamam Kahn.) : The King (of Ethiopia) commanded that his women (the King of Ethiopia had married Umm Habiba to the Prophet Mohammed in absentia) send to you all the scent they have. …… (Umm Habiba explains this gift herself: (Abraha-servant of the King-) brought me aloes, wars scent, amber and much civet. I brought all of that to the Prophet. He did not object when I wore it.
(6) Mann: varied, from as low as 25 pounds (11 kg) to as high as 160 pounds (72½ kg); now 37.3 kg.
(7) an aromatic wood.
(8) an aromatic wood.