Notes:

Taken from: Did Antarah ibn Shaddad conquer Zimbabwe by H.T. Norris (in: A Miscellany of Middle Eastern Articles: In Memoriam Thomas ...1988)

Taken from: From Asia to Africa: The "Tuḥfat al-Albāb" by Abū Ḥāmid al-Gharnāṭī (473/1080-565/1169) as a Source for the Chronology and Content of the "Sīrat 'Antar B. Shaddād" by H. T. Norris (in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 57, No. 1, In Honour of J. E. Wansbrough (1994), pp. 174-183)

 

In the first article Norris compares King Humam’s capital with Zimbabwe up into many details. In the second article he has discovered that the story of King Human is originally from al-Garnati (1169AD) and is a description of Dagestan.

According to me it can still be linked to Zimbabwe as the author of Sirat Antar might have placed it in Africa as it fitted the description he knew of the country. All the details that Norris in the first article made to correspond to what was found in the ruins of Zimbabwe however I take out and only his general description of the town I copy.

 

-There is indeed no other city like the great Zimbabwe in that land and there is an old tradition (first written down in 1609) that it was the site of King Salomon’s mines.

-The pyramid hill should be the Hill Complex of Great Zimbabwe. It was the residence of King Mwene Mutapa (translated by Garlake as Master Pillager) and his guard. (Where Antar, in the tale, is held captive, but accomplishes a coup d'état.)

-There are monoliths (of 3 feet) that resemble a sword found in the Hill complex with a perched bird carved on top. Garlake thinks they might have served as reminders of the individual dead. Garlake writes that the king as a religious figure dresses simply in cotton cloth.

-The Elliptical Building or Mumbahuru is ‘the house of the great women’. In the story of Antar (after the description here given) it is the place where the wifes and daughter of king Human are. In this elliptical building near the conical tower an abundant amount of monoliths without bird were found.

 

-As to the description of much of the town; the sword, the arms manufacturers; the treatment of the deceased; the white cloths; the non-paying taxes; Norris found years later that: Abu Hamid Al-Garnati in Tuhfat al-Albab (The gift of the spirits) (1080-1169) from Andalusia; had a description like it for an area in Dagestan  (Caucasus mountains) from where it was copied (with some adaptations) in the Sirat Antar. From his detailed analysis of what he first described as an eye-witness account only the general settings are copied.

 

- In the Sirat Anthar the following happens: Chapter 60: A demand for tribute now comes to Humam from king al-Damhar ……. Al-Damhar, however, is afraid of being attacked by his overlord, al-Najashi, the king of Abyssinia. …….. It seems we have here three neighbouring countries: King Humam's country, Abyssinia, al-Damhar’s country. Norris gives as possible explanation: Ibn Madjid: As-Sufaliyya (1470) (the poem of Sofala) who makes the same mistake:  

 

Concerning Sofala - it is separated from the people of Muna-Musavi (Monomotapa), and  the ruler of Zabnavi (or Zimbawi) ( Zimbabwe) -, it is here that the gold mines are, and the slave trade - you are informed. And the trip between (the lands) of the two Negus (kings of the Ethiopia), o glorious man, lasts one month from Sofala to the West, with the border line in Somalia, as people say that have experience. Here Zabnavi governs - and in the South there are no others that are equal to him.

(see also my webpage on Ibn Majid)

 

H.T. Norris concludes in his second article that this part of the Sirah Anthar must have been written in the 13th century, while taking the story of Dagestan out of Al Qazwini’s work (1283) (Athar al Bilad) who copied it from Al Garnati (1169). In his first article his conclusion was 1400AD based on Radiocarbon dating at the great enclosure.

 

Al-Mas'udi (916) Muruj al-Dhahab wa-Manadin al-Jawhar (Meadows of gold and mines of gems)

 

To come back to the Zanj of Sofala and their kings, the name of the king of the country is Waklimi which means supreme lord; they give this title to their sovereign because he has been chosen to govern them justly. If he becomes tyrannical  or strayed from the truth he is killed and his seed excluded from the throne for ever, for they claim that in thus conducting himself he ceases to be the son of the Master, that is to say of the king of heaven and earth. They call God by the name of Maklandjalu, which means supreme Master (er-rabb el-kebir)...............

 

In the same way that the sea of china ends with the lands of Sirla (Japan), the sea of Zanj ends with the land of Sofala and the Waq-waq, which produces gold and many other wonderful things. It has a wonderful climate and is fertile.

It is there that the Zanj build their capital (dar mamlaka): then they elected whom they called Waklimi (or Flimi) (or Ouaqlimi) (the word means sun of the supreme Lord "ibn er-Rabb el-Kebir"). This name… has always been that of their sovereigns. The Waklimi has  under him all the other Zanj kings, and commands three hundred thousand men. The Zanj use the ox as a beast of burden, for their country has no horses or mules or camels and they do not even know these animals.

 

Note:

-Taken from: The Shona and Ndebele of Southern Rhodesia by Kuper, Highes and Van Velsen 1954:p103

Masudi’s name for the High God, Namkulunjulu, ‘the Great One Above’, may be compared to that of present-day Nguni language of the Ndebele: Unkulunkulu. ( They live in the western parts of Southern Zimbabwe.)

-Taken from: Man in Southern Africa The Southern Nguni by Shaw and Davison 1973:p12

The Southern Nguni(S. Africa; Zimbabwe) were still riding cattle in the nineteenth century.

 

Buzurg ibn Shahriyar Persian sea captain (Kitab aja'ib al-Hind) (955)

 

Sailors tale 35 and 36

Many is the ship's master, who has told me that he has heard tell, how, at Sofala of the Zindjs, are birds which seize an animal in their back or claws, carry it up into the sky and let it drop again, to kill or break it; then they swoop down and devour it. In this same country of the Zindjs, there is, so they say, a bird which falls on huge tortoises, seizes them, carries them up into the air, and drops them against some rock, where they are broken. And, it is affirmed, that they eat as many as five or six in a day, if they can come by them. What is more, this bird flies away in terror, if it sees a man, so hideous are the men of that country.        

In the highlands of the Zindjs country are rich yielding gold mines. There, I am informed by captain Ismailouia, men search for gold by digging into the soil. And this work sometimes brings them to ground, excavated as if it were an ant-hill, whence, straightway, issue a horde of ants, big as cats, which devour and tear them in pieces. (second part of this story unrelated)

(Note: these birds might have been a bird called Rukh in Arab, with official name Aepyornis maximus, now extinct, found so far only in Madagascar. The bird was 10 feet high and could not fly.)

 

Hudud Al-'Alam (982)

 

The first of the islands of this great sea is called Goldisland (dhahabiya); its periphery is of 300 farsangs and it possesses gold-mines and many cultivated lands (abadhani), and its inhabitants are called Waqwaqian Zangi (Zangiyan-i Waqwaqi). All are naked and man-eaters (mardum-khwar). Chinese merchants go there in great numbers, carrying iron and food, which they sell to the inhabitants for gold, using signs and without saying a word to each other....

Note: this island can be (unsure) Madagascar; because the great sea is the Indian Ocean. Goldisland is normally one of the Indonesian islands, but here they are all separately mentioned. Here the gold should have come from Zimbabwe on the African mainland. Idrisi (1150) also has the Chinese coming for trade on the Islands.

 

Al-Biruni (1050): The Book most Comprehensive in Knowledge on Precious Stones.

….. The gold which is so pure that it does not have to be tested for its purity by melting is called iqyan. It is found in the desserts of the Sudan like soapwort pieces and is picked therefrom by the people of Sifalah i-Zauj...

 

At Sufala of the Zanj there is gold of extreme redness and in the land of the Sudan of the Maghrib one finds it round like little beats. He who goes at a forced pace as one says of crossing deserts like those without following a beaten track will reach it within the time mentioned, but he will excuse himself unless he is able to carry enough supplies, even if his needs are satisfied.

 

Al Idrisi (1150)

In the whole country of Sofala one can find gold, in abundance and from excellent quality. But the people like more copper, and they make jewelry from that metal. The gold one finds in Sofale is more, in quality and volume, then that from other countries, because one can find pieces of about one or two mitqals sometimes even of a rotl. …………….

We have said that in the south of this sea is a part of Sofala, of which we have already talked, and that among the habited places is the town of Jabasta, not so big. There is quiet some gold, its exploitation is the only industry and the only income for its people. …………

The last town on the coast of Sofale (Sufalat at tibr) is Daghuta (Angoche in Mozambique?) and its territory, and there most gold is found. …………….

 

Ibn Battuta visits Kilwa (1331)

I was told by a merchant that the town of Sufala lies two weeks journey from Kulwa and that gold dust is brought to Sufala from Yufi in the country of the Limis, which is a month's journey distant from it.

Note: Ibn Battuta who wrote his book after years of travelling made some mistakes writing this down. When visiting West Africa he says that the Nile starting in Mali goes to the land of the Limis and from there to the Yufi.

 

Ibn Madjid: As-Sufaliyya (1470)(the poem of Sofala)

 

This bay is long, its originates in the Egypt- Nile valley. - Here at that distance. The majority of those living between Sofala and Kilva (or Kagalwah) are infidels, who are called to arms, according to the name of Muna-batur, a great king whose will is followed by the infidels. He owns the center of Sofala, because he governs the eastern part of this region.

 

(Folio 93 recto):

You see there the dwelling of the infidels, its borders here. (the king) governs here, from Ahvar until Zanzibar, as much the lands as the seas. He possesses pure gold mines which are found in the region of the infidels with their remote inhabitants. And the mines of Nubia also belong to these rulers; they are in his possessions. These people communicate one with another; a sea separates them and the border, on the firm land, goes down to the sea on the western side. Experienced people, communicated me this news about them. It takes in barsak (ships), brother, seven days, to reach firm lands, o careful man, and to be able to observe the arrival of the infidels. While from the western sea - according to information - one says that these people arrive, they excavate copper to get the white metal (o informer): the silver that is paid with this copper; these people that come of the tribes of the Francs and the (Western) Magrib - understand my words and follow your way, my friend. Take in consideration that the Nile is divided in three branches, without making a mistake. The one of Nubia is the river that you cross in a day, passing the surrounding Saha (or Sanga), o traveler. The second part is the one that passes close to Kavama-described above, by one man who knows it. And the third part is the Egyptian Nile. While to the gold, my friend, accept my official statement. Among the people, the inhabitants of the West and the North - I speak of the gold of the Nubia - each coin of Machrafi (or al-Asrafi) is made of it. Knowing this, do not ask more to me on this subject.

On the northern part are some islands. They are on the west side, I know, o careful man. Concerning Sofala - it is from the people of Muna-Musavi (Monomotapa), and  the ruler of Zabnavi (or Zimbawi) ( Zimbabwe) -, it is here that the gold mines are, and the slave trade - you are informed. And the trip between (the lands) of the two Negus (kings of the Ethiopia), o glorious man, lasts one month from Sofala to the West, with the border line in Somalia, as people say that have experience. Here Zabnavi governs - and in the South there are no others that are equal to him. It doesn't have, nor in Sudan, nor in its western parts, others then wild places or abandoned islands, this is south of certain oases that I know. I say this and he who knows can control the information. ………………

 

………..  This is also communicated to us by the Franc-Portuguese; this division is made in agreement of words. One has left them, o careful man, in truth, towards the Muna-Musavi empire. The mine of the gold - accept this complement of information - is more to the South than Sofala; It is called Vadihuria (Wadigra).  To sail for it, the last city is called Saiha (Siha). To the mine from this city one month is necessary, in the north-west direction; its inhabitants are infidels. In these lands the naked savages do not know the Takrur (language) properly.

Note: the parts in bold are among the parts that Ibrahim Khoury describes as later additions to the text. Ibrahim Khoury proofs that the additions must have happened in Yemen. And also in this part there is a proof. The coin Machrafi (or al-Asrafi) is a coin used in Mamluk Egypt and Yemen. That the people of the West and North (Portuguese) used Nubian gold to make coins is unreal.