Travels of an Arab merchant in Soudan (the Black Kingdoms of Central Africa)Tūnisī, Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar
History
Travels of an Arab merchant in Soudan (the Black Kingdoms of Central Africa)
Tūnisī, Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar
Darfur (Sudan) -- Description and travel; Wadai (Sultanate) -- Description and travel
Productions of Darfur — Fruit — Trees — The Thlyleg —
Nebks — The Ochan — Horse-stealers — Medicinal Plants —
Seasons — Wind and Rain — Wonderful Plants — Herbalists —
The Narrah — Its Magical Properties — Strange Roots — Robbers
— Buried Sacred Books — Sorcerers — A wonderful Foulan —
The Temourkehs — Strange Stories — A Slave-hunt in Dar-Fertyt
— Sand Diviners — Prophecies that came to pass.
The Forians, in their autumn season, which corresponds to our
summer, take advantage of the rain to sow the ground. It is
probably on account of these rains, which are very heavy, that they
generally sow neither wheat nor barley, nor beans nor lentils,
nor chick-peas. In Darfur we found neither apricots nor peaches,
nor apples, nor pomegranates, nor olives, nor prunes, nor pears, nor
the sweet-lemon, nor oranges, nor almonds, nor nuts, nor pistachios,
nor walnuts, nor the fruit of the service-tree. The principal thing
cultivated is the millet; but they also cultivate different kinds
of maize. I have already mentioned, that in some districts wheat
is sown. In the pools, and in places where water stands for some
time, rice grows without any cultivation, and the people gather it
in in the spring. Sessame is sown, but the grain is eaten, and no
oil is made. Honey is common in Darfur, but the wax is made no use
of. Houses are lighted by a kind of wood. Charcoal is never made.
Darfur produces some small water-melons, which are eaten either
fresh, as in Egypt, or dried and steeped in water, so as to make
a kind of sherbet. Onions, garlic, pepper, and various kinds of
cucumbers are sown, and several species of vegetables are found
in some provinces. The river Kou flows through a great valley,
which it inundates in autumn, after which, when the waters retire,
an immense quantity of bamieh springs up spontaneously. There is
a kind of bean peculiar to Darfur.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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