In the tenth century a sea captain from the Persian port city of Seraf wrote a book which collected together various stories related to him by traders and seamen of life and adventures in the Indian ocean. The writer's name was Buzurg ("Big") ibn Shahriyar and his book was called The Wonders of India which survives today as a single copy kept at a mosque in Istanbul.

The excepted story below, which is the 31st tale in Buzurg's book, was one I first came across in a paraphrased form while reading Richard Hall's excellent book Empires of the Monsoon. Here it is in translation from the original from Pieter Derideaux's website. I've mentioned Pieter's site once before, it is fantastic resource of extracts from ancient and mediaeval authors who writing on subject related to the history of East Africa, the forbidding and mysterious land of "Zanj" [1].

When Buzurg was writing, traders from the Persian Gulf and Red Sea were routinely traveling to and trading with China, India, Indonesia and Africa. It was a world, however, that was virtually unknown to Europeans at the time .

Ismail'awaih told me, and several sailors who were with him, that in the year A.H. 310 [2] he left Oman in his ship to go to Quanbalu. A storm drove him towards Sofala [3] and the Zanj coast. Seeing the coast we had reached, the captain said, and realizing that we were falling among cannibal Negroes we were certain what our fate would be, we made the ritual ablutions and turned our hearts towards God, saying for each other the prayers for the dead. The canoes of the Negroes surrounded us and brought us into the harbor. There we cast anchor and went ashore. They led us to their king. He was a young Negro, handsome and well set-up. He asked us who we were, and were we were going. We answered that we had come to his land.

You lie, he said. It was by no means here you meant to land. It is only that the winds have driven you here in spite of yourselves. When we had admitted that he spoke the truth, he said: Bring ashore your goods. Sell and buy, you have nothing to fear.

We brought all our bales ashore and began to trade, a trade which was excellent for us, without any restrictions or customs dues. We made the king a number of presents to which he replied with gifts of equal worth or ones even more valuable. There we staid several months. When the time to depart came, we asked his permission to go, and he agreed immediately. The goods we had bought were loaded and business was wound up. When everything was in order, and the king hearing of our intention to set sail, accompanied us to the shore with several of his people, got into one of the boats and came out to the ship with us. He even came on board with seven of his companions.

When I saw them there, I said to myself: In the Oman market this young king would certainly fetch thirty dinars, and his seven companions a hundred and sixty dinars the lot. Their clothes are worth twenty dinars at the lowest. One way and another this would give us a profit of at least 3,000 dirhams, and without any trouble. Reflecting thus, I gave the crew their orders. They raised the sails and weighed anchor.

In the meantime the king was most agreeable to us, making us promise to come back again and promising us a good welcome when we did. When he saw the sails full with the wind and the ship began to move, his face changed. You are off he said. Well, I must say good-bye. And he wished to embark in the canoes which were tied up to the side. But we cut the ropes, and said to him: You will remain with us, we shall take you to our own land. There we shall reward you for all the kindness you have shown to us.

Strangers, he said, when you fell upon our shores, my people wished to eat you and pillage your goods, as they have already done to others like you. But I protected you, and asked nothing from you. As a token of my goodwill I even came down to bid you farewell in your own ship. Treat me then as justice demands, and let me return to my own land.

But we paid no attention to his words. As the wind got up, the coastline disappeared from sight. Then night wrapped us in her veils, and we reached the open sea.

When the day came, the king and his companions were put with the other slaves whose number reached 200 head. He was not treated differently from his companions in captivity. The king said not a word and did not even open his mouth. He behaved as if we were strangers to him and as if we did not know him. When he got to Oman, the slaves were sold, and the king with them.

Now, several years after, sailing from Oman towards Quanbalu, the wind again drove us towards the coast of Sofala on the Zanj coast, and we arrived precisely at the same place. The Negroes saw us, and their canoes surrounded us, and we recognized each other. Fully certain we should perish this time, terror stuck us dumb. We made the ritual ablutions is silence, repeated the prayer of death, and said farewell to each other. The Negroes seized us, and took us to the king's dwelling and made us go in. Imagine our surprise, it was the same king that we had known, seated on his throne, just as we had left him there. We prostrated ourselves before him, overcome, and had not the strength to raise ourselves up.

Ah he said, here are my old friends. Not one of us was capable of replying. He went on: Come, raise your heads, I give you the aman (save conduct) for yourself and for your goods. Some raised their heads, others had not the strength, and were overcome with shame. But he showed himself gentle and gracious until we had all raised our heads, but without daring to look him in the face, so strongly did remorse and fear affect us. But when we had been reassured by his save conduct, we finally came to our senses, and he said: Ah traitors. How have you treated me after all I did for you! And each one of us called out: Mercy, oh King! be merciful to us!

I will be merciful to you, he said. Go on, as you did last time, with your business of selling and buying. You may trade in full liberty. We could not believe our ears, we feared it was nothing but a trick to make us bring our goods to shore. None the less we disembarked them, and came and brought him a present of enormous value. But he refused it and said: You are not worthy for me to accept a present from you. I will not soil my property with anything that comes from your hands.

After that we did our business in peace. When the time to go came, we asked permission to embark. He gave it. At the moment of departure, I went to inform him. Go, he said, and may God protect you! Oh king, I replied, you have showered your bounty upon us, and we have been ungrateful and traitorous to you. But how did you escape and return to your country?

He answered: After you had sold me in Oman, my purchaser took me to a town called Basrah,- (and he described it). There I learned to pray and to fast, and certain parts of the Koran. My master sold me to another man who took me to the country of the king of the Arabs, called Baghdad-( and he described Baghdad). In this town I learnt to speak correctly. I completed my knowledge of the Koran and prayed with the men in the mosques. I saw the Caliph, who is called al-Muqtadir (908-32). I was in Baghdad for a year and more, when there came a party of men from Khorasan mounted on camels. Seeing a large crowd, I asked where all these people were going. I was told: To Mecca. What is Mecca? I asked. There, I was answered, is the house of god to which Muslims make the pilgrimage. And I was told the history of the temple. I said to myself that I should do well to follow the caravan. My, master, to whom I told all this, did not whish to go with them or to let me go. But I found a way to escape his watchfulness and to mix in the crowd of pilgrims. On the road I became a servant of them. They gave me food to eat and got for me the two cloths needed for the ihram (the ritual garments used for the pilgrimage). Finally, under their guidance, I performed all the ceremonies of the pilgrimage.

Not daring to go back to Baghdad, for fear that my master would kill me, I joined up with another caravan which was going to Cairo. I offered my services to the travelers, who carried me on their camels and shared their food with me. When I got to Cairo I saw a great river which is called the Nile. I asked: Where does it come from? They answered: Its source is in the land of the Zanj. And where? Near a large town called Aswan, which is on the frontier of the land of the blacks.

With this information, I followed the banks of the Nile, going from one town to another, asking alms, which was not refused to me. I fell, however, among a company of blacks who grabbed me. They seized on me, and put me among the servants with a load which was to heavy for me to carry. I fled and fell into the hands of another company which seized me and sold me. I escaped again, and went on in this manner, until, after a series of similar adventures, I found myself in the country which adjoins the land of the Zanj. There I put on a disguise. Of all the terrors I had experienced since I left Cairo, there was none equal to that which I felt as I approached my own land. For, I said to myself, a new king has no doubt taken my place on the throne and commands the army. To regain power is not an easy thing. If I make myself known or if anyone recognizes me, I shall be taken to the new king and killed at once. Or perhaps one of his favorites will cut of my head to get in his favor.

So, in prey of mortal terror, I went on my way at night, and stayed hid during the day. When I reached the sea, I embarked on a ship; and after stopping at various places, I disembarked at night on the shore of my country. I asked an old women: Is the king who rules here a just king? She answered: My son, we have no king but god. And the good women told me how the king had been carried off. I pretended the greatest astonishment at her story, as if it had not concerned me and events which I knew very well. The people of the kingdom, she said, have agreed not to have another king until they have certain news of the former one. For the diviners have told them that he is alive and in health, and safe in the land of the Arabs.

When the day came, I went into the town and walked towards my palace. I found my family just as I had left them, but plunged into grief. My people listened to the account of my story with surprise and joy. Like myself, they embraced the religion of Islam. Thus I returned into possession of my sovereignty, a month before you came. And here I am, happy and satisfied with the grace God has given me and mine, of knowing the precepts of Islam, the true faith, prayers, fasting, the pilgrimage, and what is permitted and what is forbidden: for no one else in the land of the Zanj has obtained a similar favor.

And if I have forgiven you, it is because you were the first cause of the purity of my faith. But there is still one sin on my conscience which I pray god to take away from me.

What is this thing, oh king? I asked. It is, he said, That I left my master, when I left Baghdad, without asking him his permission, and that I did not return to him. If I were to meet an honest man, I would ask him to take the price of my purchase to my master. If there were among you a really good man, if you were truly upright men, I would give you a sum of money to give him, a sum ten times what he paid as damages for the delay. But you are nothing but traitors and tricksters.

We said farewell to him. Go, he said, and if you return, I shall not treat you otherwise than I have done. You will receive the best welcome. And the Muslims may know that they may come here to us, as to brothers, Muslims like themselves. As for accompanying you to your ship, I have reasons for not doing so.

And on that we parted.

It should be noted that although this story and especially its punch-line would have undoubtedly delighted its Muslim readership, it is almost certainly not true. It is highly unlikely that anyone, African or otherwise would have been able to survive an overland journey from Cairo to the south of Zanj through the hostile territories of inland Africa. A more plausible though also very dangerous route would have been to hitch a ride down the Zanj coast from Mogadishu.

Nevertheless the story relates many things that must have been true about the daily dangers of the trade with Africa.

[1] Zanj - meaning "blacks" i.e. Africans. The ancient African port of Zanzibar which is located centrally on the East African coast derives its name from Persian Zanj-i-bar which means "the Coast of the Blacks". It was famous centuries ago for its exports of gold, ivory and slaves and more recently for its export of Farrokh Bulsara better known as Freddy Mercury.

[2] A.H. 310 - After Hijra i.e. 922 AD

[3] Sofala - located in present day Mozambique was a major trading port and the southernmost point were merchant shipping was willing to go due to the treacherous winds and currents that lay beyond.

   

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