These maps are found in the manuscript of ibn Khaldun, he clearly copied it from Idris. Three copies are known. I only found two.

Back to Table of Contents 7 
To next page

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) Kitab al 'Ibar
(about universal history) born in Tunisia, worked in Egypt
---------------------------------------------------

Abu Zayd Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun al-Hadrami (1332 – 1406) was an Arab scholar of Islam, social scientist, philosopher and historian. Kitab al-Ibar, full title: Kitab al-‘Ibar wa-Diwan al-Mubtadaʼ wa-l-Khabar fi Taʼrikh al-ʻArab wa-l-Barbar wa-Man Asarahum min Dhawi ash-Shaʼn al-Akbar (Book of Lessons, Record of Beginnings and Events in the History of the Arabs and the Berbers and Their Powerful Contemporaries); begun as a history of the Berbers and expanded to a universal history in seven books. Book 1; Al-Muqaddimah (The Introduction), a socio-economic-geographical universal history of empires, and the best known of his works.

Books 2-5; World History up to the author's own time.

Books 6-7; Historiography of the Berbers and the Maghreb.

His books have some importance for East Africa but he only knows Mogadishu, Mombasa, Sofala.

Al-Muqaddim (Introduction)

Taken from: The Muqaddimah: Transl. Franz Rosenthal

Also called: Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Haldun, Ibn Khaldoun: Al Makkadima, Al Makaddima
The book is also called : Prolegomenes de l'Histoire des Berbers.

Note: this is the first volume of his Kitab al Ibar

P89

SECOND PREFATORY DISCUSSION

 The parts of the earth where civilization is found. Some information about oceans, rivers, and zones

P91-92
From the Surrounding Sea, they say, a large and wide Sea flows on the east at 13 deg. north of the equator. It flows a little towards the south, entering the first zone. Then it flows west within the first zone until it reaches the country of the Abyssinians and the Negroes and Bab al-Mandeb (1) in the fifth section of the first zone, 4,500 parasangs (2) from its starting point. This sea is called the Chinese, Indian, or Abyssinian sea. It is bordered on the south by the country of the Zendjs and the country of Berbera which Imru'ul-Qays (3) mentioned in his poem. These Berbers do not belong to the Berbers who make up the tribes in the Maghrib. The sea is then bordered by the town of Maqdachou (Mogadishu), the land of Sofala, the places of the Quaq-Quaq (waqwaq) and other people, after which there is nothing then deserts and waste. On the north where it starts it is bordered by China then Eastern and Western India and then by the coast of Yemen-that is al-Ahqaf (4), Zabid (5), and other cities. Where it ends, it is bordered by the country of the Zendjs and beyond them the Beja (6).

The Nile begins at a large mountain, sixteen degrees beyond the equator at the boundary of the fourth section of the first zone. This mountain is called the Mountain of Qumr. No higher mountain is known on earth. Many springs issue from the mountain, some of them flowing into one lake there, and some of them into another lake. From these two lakes, several rivers branch off, and all of them flow into a lake at the equator which is at the distance of a ten days journey from the mountain. From that lake, two rivers issue. One of them through Egypt... The other river turns westward, flowing due west until it flows into the surrounding sea.

P93

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE TO THE SECOND PREFATORY DISCUSSION

The northern quarter of the earth has more civilization than the southern quarter.

P101

The first zone

The first section of the first zone contains the mouth of the Nile which has its origin in the Mountain of the Qumr, as we have mentioned. (This Nile) is called the Sudanese Nile…. The city of Sila,Takrur (7) and Ghanah are situated along this Nile.

p102
That river (Nil) comes from the mountain of al-Komr 16 deg. south of the equator. People disagree on the pronunciation. Some say al-Kamar, they think the mountain got its name from the moon, because it is very white. In the Mostarik Yakut (8) writes al-Komr which is also the name of a people in India. Ibn Said (9) uses this last way of writing.
From that mountain come ten springs, of which five flow into one lake, and the five others in a second lake. Out of each lake flow three rivers. Those rivers flow together in a swampy lake (batiha)(33), on the foot of which emerges a mountain that cuts the northern shore of the lake and divides the waters into two branches. The western one flows west, in the land of the blacks, and winds up throwing itself into the ocean. The eastern one goes north, through Abyssinie and Nubie and the places in between.

p103
Abyssinie is situated in the middle of the first part of the world in the fifth section. Through it flows a river, coming from the other side of the equator, running towards Nubia where it runs into the Nile, and from there descends into Egypt. After the equator it has passed close to Mogadisco, on the southern shores of the ocean. Many people have fantastic ideas about this river, and believe that this river is part of the Nile of Al-Qumr. But Ptolemy wrote in his geography that it has nothing to do with the Nile. (46)

To the south of Zayla (10), on the western shores of the Indian Ocean, are spread out the villages of Berbera, following the southern coast all the way to the VI section. In the east they touch the land of the Zanj. Then there is the town of Mogadiscio (Maqdashu) which is overfilled with people and its standard of civilization is that of nomadic people. One also finds lots of merchants there. To the east of Makdasau is the land of Sofala, which is on the southern shore of this sea, in the seventh section of this first climate. Then to the east of Sofala on the same coast you find the land of Wakwak, that stretches uninterrupted till the end of the 10th section of the climate there where the Indian ocean and the surrounding sea meet.
There are many islands in the Indian ocean. The biggest is Sarandyb (11), it has a rounded form and encloses a well known mountain, the highest in the world. This island is opposite Sofala. After that comes the island of Komar, which is long and starts opposite Sofala, and goes east and north, that way it comes close to China. (12) To the south of it is the island of wakwak...

p122

THIRD PREFATORY DISCUSSION

 The temperate and the intemperate zones. The inuence of the air upon the color of human beings and upon many (other) aspects of their condition.

P123

The inhabitants of the zones that are far from temperate, such as the first, second, sixth, and seventh zones, are also farther removed from being temperate in all their conditions. Their buildings are of clay and reeds. Their foodstuffs are durra and herbs. Their clothing is the leaves  of trees, which they sew together to cover themselves, or animal skins. Most of them go naked. The fruits and seasonings of their countries are strange and inclined to be intemperate. In their business dealings, they do not use the two noble metals, but copper, iron, or skins, upon which they set a value for the purpose of business dealings. Their qualities of character, moreover, are close to those of dumb animals. It has even been reported that most of the Negroes of the first zone dwell in caves and thickets, eat herbs, live in savage isolation and do not congregate, and eat each other.

p124
Some genealogists who had no knowledge of the true nature of beings imagined that the blacks are the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, and that they were characterized by black color as a result of a curse (47) put upon them by his father (Noah), which manifested itself in Ham's color and the slavery that God inflicted upon his descendants. Concerning this they have transmitted an account arising from the legends of the story-tellers. The curse of Noah upon his son is there in the Torah (13). No reference is made there to blackness. His curse was simply that Han's descendants should be the slaves of his brothers' descendants. To attribute the blackness of Negroes to Ham, shows disregard for the nature of heat and cold and the influence they export upon the air and upon the creatures that come into being in it. The black color (of skin) common to the inhabitants of the first and second zones is the result of the composition of the air in which they live, and which comes about under the influence of the greatly increased heat in the south. The sun is at the zenith there twice a year at short intervals. In (almost) all seasons, the sun is in culmination for a long time. The light of the sun, therefore, is plentiful. People there have (to undergo) a very severe summer, and their skins turn black because of the excessive heat.

p125
The inhabitants of the first and the second zone in the south are called the Abyssinians, the Zanj, the Sudanese. These are synonyms used to designate the particular nation that has turned black. The name Abyssinians however is restricted to those Negroes who live opposite Mecca and the Yemen and the name Zanj is restricted to those who live along the Indian Ocean. These names are not given to them because of an alleged descent from a black human being, be it Ham or anyone else. Negroes from the south who settled in the temperate fourth zone or in the seventh zone that tends towards whiteness, are found to produce descendants whose color gradually turns white in the course of time. Vice versa, inhabitants from the north or from the fourth zone who settle in the south produce descendants whose color turns black. This shows that color is conditioned by the composition of the air. In his rajaz poem (14) on medicine, Avicenna (15) said:

Where the Zanj live is a heat that changes their bodies

Until their skins are covered all over with black.

The Slavs acquire whiteness

Until their skins turn soft.

When genealogists noted differences between the nations their distinguishing marks and characteristics, they considered these to be due to their different descents. They declared all the Negro inhabitants of the south to be descendants of Ham. They had misgivings about their color and therefore undertook to tell the aforementioned silly story.

Distinction between races and nations are in some cases due to different origin, as in the case of the Arabs, the Israelites and the Persians. In other cases, they are caused by geographical location and physical marks, as in the case of the Zanj, the Abysinians, the Slavs, and the Sudanese Negroes. Again in other cases, they are caused by custom and distinguishing characteristics, as well as by descent, as in the case of the Arabs. Or they may be caused by anything else among conditions, qualities, and features peculiar to the different nations.

P126

FOURTH PREFATORY DISCUSSION

The influence of the air (climate) upon human character.

We have seen that Negroes are in general characterized by levity, excitability and great emotionalism. They are found eager to dance whenever they hear a melody. They are everywhere described as stupid.

p127
Masoudi (16) took it upon him to look for the cause that produces by the Negroes that light handedness, the constant pleasure they radiate, but for all solutions there is only a word from Galen (17) and Al-Kendi (18) after whom their character goes towards a feeble brain, from where comes feeble intelligence. Their words do not prove anything and are without value.
 

p129

The result of great amount of food is a pale complexion and an ugly figure, because the person has too much flesh, as we have stated. When the moisture with its evil vapours ascend to the brain, the mind and the ability to think are dulled. The result is stupidity, carelessness, and a general intemperance. This can be exemplified, by comparing the animals of waste regions and barren habitats such as gazelles, wild cows, ostriches, giraffes, onagers, and wild buffaloes.with their counterparts among the animals that live in hills, coastal plains and fertile pastures. There is a big difference between them with regard to the glossiness of their coat, their shape and appearance, the proportions of their limbs, and their sharpness of perception. The gazelle is the counterpart of the goat, and the giraffe that of the camel; the onagers and (wild) buffaloes (cows) are identical with (domestic) donkeys and oxen (and cows). Still, there is a wide difference between them. The only reason for it is the fact that the abundance of food in the hills produces pernicious superfluous matters and corrupt humors in the bodies of the domestic animals, the influence of which shows on them. Hunger, on the other hand, may greatly improve the physique and shape of the animals of the waste regions. The same observations apply to human beings…..

p197

A nation that has been defeated and come under the rule of another nation will quickly perish.

The black nations are as a rule, submissive to slavery, because ( blacks) have little (that is essentially) human and have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals, as we have stated.

Second book: Tarikh (World-History)

Taken from: sources.marefa.org  تاريخ ابن خلدون - الجزء الثاني

IN THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD AND THE DIFFERENCES …….

Know that God, may He be glorified and exalted, transcended this world with his creation, honored the children of Adam with their succession in his land ………………. Some of them are the Arabs, Persians, Romans, Banu Israel, and Berbers, and among them are the Saqalaba (19), Habash and Zinj, and among them are the people of India, the people of Babylon, the people of China, the people of Yemen, the people of Egypt and the people of Morocco. And among them are the Muslims, Christians, Jews, Sabeans (20), and Magi (21), and among them are the people of the wilderness, who are the owners of tents, the halal (22), and the people of Al-Mudar (23), and they are the owners of marshlands, villages, …………..

…… the son of Noah, from whom the nations branched out, were three: Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and they were mentioned in the Torah (13), and that Japheth is the oldest of them, and Ham the youngest, …... Al-Tabari (24) included hadiths that Sam was the father of the al-Arab, Jafeth of the al-Rum, Hamm of the al-Habash and al-Zinj, and some of the Sudan. ……….

….. Al-Tabari (24) narrated on the authority of Ibn Ishaq that India, Sind (25) and Abyssinia were from the sons of Sudan from the son of Cush (26). And that Nubia, Fezzan (27), Zaghawa (28), and Zinj are from Canaan (29). Ibn Said (9) said: All the races of Sudan are from the son of Ham, and he attributed three of differenty: Habash, and Nuba, and Zinj, and he did not name any of the fathers of the remaining races……

KINGS OF BABYLON

…………… Shaddad bin Medad bin Shaddad bin Aad (30) marched to Egypt, and defeated it………..

His nephew, Al-Boudashir Ibn Qubt (31), reigned after him, who sent Hermes (32) the Egyptian to the Mountain of the Moon until he channelled the Nile river from there. And modified the great Al-batiha (33) in which poured the springs of the Nile ………….

The third book:

The news of the Berbers and the second nation of the people of the Maghreb.

Taken from: Histoire es berbères, 2: et des dynasties musulmanes de l'afrique septentrionale  baron de Slane.

Chapter IV About the Islamic conquest

Sudan:

About the kings of Sudan neighboring the Maghreb.

………………….                                                              p106-107

p279

The Sus (41), that very big country, is situated under the same latitude as the Bilad el Djerid (42) and has the same climate as that region.

The Djerid (423) region spreads without interruption from the ocean up to the Nile of Egypt, the river that has its source behind the equator and that runs to the north up to Alexandria.

Taken from B.G. Martin: African Historical Studies 1974. This section only appears in one manuscript (the Egyptian edition)
The population of Shash (43) or Chach (now Tashkent) in Central Asia was ordered to evacuate the town around 604 AH (1207-1208AD) by the Khwarizmshah Qutb al-Din Muhammad II (44). Chach lay in the path of an invading force of Qara Khitay Turks (45). these refugees, many of them skilled weavers and cap-makers, dispersed into the lands of Islam.... to Cairo, Baghdad, and Mogadishu.

(1) Bab al-Mandeb: is a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa.

(2) Parasangs: 1 parasangs or farsakhs = 2.8 nautical miles/ about 5km.

(3) Imru'ul-Qays: On this see my webpage: Imru’u-l-Qays: Diwan of Imru’u-l-Qays (6th century).

(4) al-Ahqaf: : Valley of Ahqaf in Yemen.

(5) Zabid: town on Yemen's western coastal plain. It is one of the oldest towns in Yemen.

(6) Beja: in N Sudan. The Egyptians leaving from Aswan;  the southern border town on the Nile; have to cross their territory to reach the harbours on the Red Sea.

(7) Takrur: at the border between Senegal and Mauretania. Already mentioned by al Bakri in 1067.

(8) Mostarik Yakut: see my webpage Yakut (or Jakut) al Hamawi (1220).

(9) Ibn Said: see my webpage Ibn Said (1250).

(10) Zayla: Zeila in N Somalia close to Djibouti.

(11) Sarandyb: Sri Lanca.

(12) After that comes the island of Komar, which is long and starts opposite Sofala, and goes east and north, that way it comes close to China: Knowledge of Madagascar has been lost among the Arab Geographers.

(13) Torah: Here: means the totality of Jewish teaching, culture, and practice.

(14) Rajaz: is a metre used in classical Arabic poetry. A poem composed in this metre is an urjuza.

(15) rajaz poem on medicine, Avicenna: see my webpage on Ibn Sina (1037)

(16) Masoudi: see my webpage Al-Mas'udi (916)

(17) Galen: Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (129 – c. 216 CE), was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire.

(18) Al-Kendi: see my webpage Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Ishaq as Sabbah al-Kindi (873)

(19) Saqalaba: the Slaves from Eastern Europe.

(20) Sabeans: an ancient people of South Arabia.

(21) Magi: were priests in Zoroastrianism.

(22) the halal; literally: permissible.

(23) Al-Mudar: one of the most powerful northern Arab tribal groupings.

(24) Al-Tabari: see my webpage Al-Tabari;(838-922)

(25) Sind: now in Pakistan.

(26) Cush: son of Ham son of Noah;

(27) Fezzan: in south west Libya.

(28) Zaghawa: also called Beri or Zakhawa, are a Sahelian Muslim ethnic group primarily residing in Fezzan North-eastern Chad, and western Sudan, including Darfur.

(29) Canaan: son of Ham, son of Noah.

(30) Shaddad bin Medad bin Shaddad bin Aad:  Maybe: Shaddad bin Ad; mentioned in the Qur’an (Sura 89).  His story is found in the 277th through 279th nights of the Tales of the Arabian Nights. The tale described him as a universal king.

(31) Al-Boudashir Ibn Qubt: Al-Budashir: literally meaning form the Red House. Found in Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); Wasif Shah (1209) has Al-Budashir; Nuwayri (1333) has Al-Boudsir, Ibn Khaldun (1406) Al-Boudashir Ibn Qubt; al Maqrizi (1441) has Budchir; Annon: Dhikr Kalam (15th) has Berdashir; Suyuti (1505) has Budchir.

(32) Hermes: The first Hermes, was a "civilizing hero", an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world. Hermes is here a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth in the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.

(33) Al-batiha: swamp-lake

(34) Micr: Misr: Egypt

(35) Ibn Abd al-Barr; see my webpage on Ibn Abd al-Barr (1071)

(36) Munbaca: Mombasa

(37) caliph al-Mutamid: Abbasid Caliphate from 870 to 892.

(38) Dendema or Demdems: According to Ibn Said (1250) these are the once who invaded Nubia and Abyssunie around 1220 AD (when the Mongols invaded Persia)

Dendemes, Dendemeh; Dandama: East African people living in the interior, close to the sources of the Nile; also mentioned by Al Masudi (916); Al Idrisi (1150); Ibn Said (1250); Ibn al Jawzi (1257); Harrani (1300); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Abulfida (1331); Nuwayri (1333); Cowar el-aqalim (1347); Said Abd al Aziz al Dairini (d1385); Ibn Khaldun (1406); Al Qalqashandi (d1418) and Ibn al Wardi (1456) speaks about Demadam; al Himyari (1461).

(39) Tartars: Mongols

(40) Dongola: Old Dongola is a deserted town in what is now Northern State, Sudan.

(41) The Sus : Sus al Adna: Atlantic Moroco with Fez as capital + Sus al-Aqsa (Sus the Remote) was a town in Morocco. It was located near Tangier.

(42) Bilad el Djerid: is a semi-desert region situated in southwestern Tunisia.

(43) Shash or Chach (now Tashkent): is the capital of Uzbekistan.

(44) Khwarizmshah Qutb al-Din Muhammad II: was the Shah of the Khwarazmian Empire (Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran) from 1200 to 1220.

(45) Qara Khitay Turks: iterally "Black Khitan" empire in central Asia (1124–1218), also known as the Western Liao.

(46) Nil of Maqdishu: Nile of Mogadishu: This is the Shabelle River begins in the highlands of Ethiopia, and then flows southeast into Somalia towards Mogadishu. Near Mogadishu, it turns sharply southwest, where it follows the coast. Below Mogadishu, the river becomes seasonal. Al Zuhri : (1137) Makes the people divert themselves the Nile into a branch to the sea of Yemen; In Dimashqi (1325) it is called the river of Damadim; and he is the only one who kind of understands the river-system in South-Somalia. Salamanca translator (1420): calls it yellow Nile. Ibn Khaldun (1406) says it has nothing to do with the Nile. Nile of Mogadishu appears in Ibn Said al Maghribi (1250); Cowar el-aqalim (1347); Abulfida (1331); al Maqrizi (1441)he calls it River of the Damadim ; Hafiz I Abru (1420); Qoutb al-Din al-Chirazi (1311); Al Qalqashandi (d1418); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300) Cowar el-aqalim (1347).

(47) The curse of Ham is repeated by:

- Ibn Qutayba (880)

- Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi (d897)

- Al-Kisa'i (d904)

- Eutychius of Alexandria: (d. 940 A.D.)

- Muhammad Bal'ami (10th)

- Al Rabghuzi; Qisas al Anbiya (1300)

-Al Dimashqi (1325)

- Ibn Khaldun (1406)

- Suyuti (1505)