Early Afro-Arab relations
The Negroland of the Arabs examined and explained:
http://books.google.com/books?id=380NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA93
quoting Ibn Battuta
"Ibn Batutah: the river descends to Yufi (Nufi), one of the greatest kingdoms of Negroland"
quoting Ibn Khaldun
On the other side of Africa Ibn Khaldun says
http://books.google.com/books?id=380NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA117#
the Abyssinians (Ethiopians)..From their country Yemen once had its kings…. They believe that they are destined to become masters of Yemen and all Arabia
Bellow is from
http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-West-Africa-Scholars-Merchants/dp/155876304X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241409685&sr=8-1
"Medieval West Africa: Views from Arab scholars and Merchants" by Jay Spaulding and Nehemia Levtzion
P. 40 quote from Yaqut
The king of Zafun is stronger than the veiled people of the Maghreb and more versed in the art o kingship. The veiled people acknowledge his superiority over them, obey him and resort to him in all important matters of government
page 44
From Ibn Sa'id
This sultan has authority there over kingdoms such as those of the Tajuwa, Kawar, and FazzanGod has assisted him and he has many descendants and armies.
Link to Timbuctoo the mysterious
http://books.google.com/books?id=OYELAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA285
The scholars of Timbuctoo yielded in nothing to the saints and their miracles. During their sojourns in the foreign universities of Fez, Tunis, and Cairo, '
The anthropological treatises of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach see 3rd footnote page 307:
http://books.google.com/books?id=u9QKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA307
Niabuhr: " Mohammedan merchants in Cairo, Jeddah, Surat, and other cities, are glad to buy boys of this kind; they have them taught writing and arithmetic, carry on their extensive business almost entirely through negro slaves, and send them to establish business places in foreign countries.
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