Mogadishu from M. Guillain 1848

Sofala by Mallet in 1683

 

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Jamshid Ghyath al-Din al-Kashi (1420) (central Iran)
Zij-I Khaqani (Astronomical tables of al Kashi)
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Ghiyath al-Din Jamshid Mas’ud al-Kashi (or al-Kashani) (c. 1380 Kashan, Iran –1429 Samarkand, Transoxania) was a Persian astronomer and mathematician during the reign of Tamerlane. He produced the Khaqani Zij, which was based on Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's earlier Zij-i Ilkhani. Al-Kashi produced tables of great accuracy and transformations from one coordinate system to another. He gives the coordinates for some East African cities.

 

Taken from: E. S. Kennedy, M. H. Kenneydy; Al-Kashis Geographical Table

 

Berbera of Zanj 78;0 longitude  6;30 latitude  Climate zone: 0
Muqadishu (Mogadishu) 72;0 longitude 2;0 latitude Climate zone: 0
Qanbala (1) island 21;0 longitude 3;0 latitude Climate zone: 0
Sofala Zanj 60;0 longitude 2;30 latitude Climate zone 0

Kuri (2) lake 63;0 longitude 0;00 latitude Climate zone 0

Zaghawa (3) 66;0 longitude 1;10 latitude Climate zone 0

Under Worldmap from this Manuscript

The title of the map: Country distribution map of the world

In Samarkand he was closer to China then any other Muslim scientist and he knew a lot of their science. He noted that Chinese

astronomers had long used one ten-thousandth of a day as a unit in calculating the occurrence of a new moon. This seems to have inspired him to employ decimal notations by which quantities less than one could be represented by a marker to show place.

Taken from:  http://www.newschinamag.com/newschina/articleDetail.do?article_id=700&section_id=10&magazine_id=8

 

1 the sea of Zanzibar, Persia and India

2 Yemen

3 Fars (4)

4 Tabaristan (5)

5 Byzantine Empire

6 India

7 China

8 China Bay

This map (19th century on French paper), in the possession of the Iran National Library, is found on several Chinese websites who due to the presences of the words: China Bay; state that this supports the present ownership of the area by China.

(1) Qanbala: Qanbuluh: The island of Qanbalu from where the Zanj slaves were imported till the great Zanj revolt in Basra. (Zanzibar or Pemba)

(2) Kuri lake: lake Koura; Kura: Ibn Said mixes up the third lake at the sources of the Nile with lake Chad. From which emerge the Nile of Egypt, the Nile of Magdasu and the Nile of Gana (according to Ibn Said).

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

(4) Fars: region in Iran.

(5) Tabaristan: was the name applied to a mountainous region located in the Caspian coast of northern Iran.