Abu Hamid al-Andalusi

[pp. 288-289]

ABŪ ḤĀMID AL-ANDALUSĪ (Al-Gharnāṭī)

(1080 - 1169 A.D.)

Abū Ḥāmid A. Raḥmān al-Mazīnī al-Qaysi al-Andalusī.

He was born at Granada, studied in Alexandria, travelled in Africa and Asia and died at Damascus.

Brockelmann, 477f

Tuḥfat al-albāb (a short treatise on Cosmography)

Ed.: M.G. Ferrand, Journal Asiatique, t. 207, 1925, pp. 1-148, 195-303.

T.: MC 874-876 (Ferrand) A:1

As for the Fāwah, the Qūqū (Qawqaw), Kawkaw, Mallī Takrūr and the Ghadamis, they are dreadful peoples whose countries are devoid of any good things or wealth. They have neither religious beliefs nor understanding. The worst among them are the Qūqū who have a short neck, flat noses, red eyes ... I saw them in the country of Maghrib. They are the worst kind of Blacks (Sūdān). The other Blacks are employed as slaves and labourers, but the Qūqū are fit for nothing but war. (Ferrand, pp. 42 - 43; MC 8740).

[p. 289] Another people among the Blacks are the Zaylaʿ: i.e. they are the most civilized of all the Blacks, and are Muslims. The countries of the Blacks, including the territories of the Zanj and the Buja extend a distance of 14 years' journey<ref>Some ancient geographers estimated at 100 years the time required to journey throughout all the inhabited Earth and assessed the size of each several country according to the time assigned for its visit.</ref>. These people eat dogs, a meat they prefer to lamb, and rats. (ibid., p. 44; MC 874 r).

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