“ALL STRANGERS ARE TO ONE ANOTHER KIN,”
wrote the sixth-century poet Imru’ al-Qays in one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature written in Arabic. It predates by a century
or so the revelations of the oldest Arabic book—the Qur’an—
which also celebrates meetings beyond our own boundaries: God,
it tells us, made mankind into nations and tribes “so that you may
come to know one another.”
From the Arabic shelves of my library, here are a few encounters
beyond the borders of the familiar. The first comes from a description of Constantinople, quoted by the geographer Ibn Rustah. His
informant, Harun ibn Yahya, had been captured by the Byzantines
and taken to their capital. During his account of the imperial palace, Harun recalled a personal memory of Christmas dinner with
the Christian emperor:
T
it y o f
he emperor came to the hall and sat in the place of
Th e r e lia b il h a s b e e n
t
n
u
o
c
c
a
s
honor, at the table of gold, this being the feast-day of
H a r u n’
cene,
To m e th is s ow
.
d
e
n
o
the Messiah’s birth. He commanded that the Muslim
ti
s
e
u
q
il s th a t fo ll
ta
e
d
e
th
prisoners-of-war
be brought in, and they were seated at the
d
n
a
ipti o n o f a n
other tables ... on which was a huge variety of dishes both hot
it – a de s c r m us ic , th e
s
and cold. Then the emperor’s herald proclaimed, “By the life
o rg a n a n d ita ptive o f th e
c
of the head of the emperor, in these dishes there is not a trace
g if t to e a c h o f tw o d ina r s
p r e c is e s umh a m s – le n d it
of the flesh of swine!” And the platters on which the prisonir
p lus th r e e dg o f tr u th .
ers’ food was served were of gold and silver.
th e r in
During the early Islamic centuries, the Arabs encountered furtherflung peoples through both conflict and commerce. Moving forward in time only a few years from Harun’s Constantinople but
south some 6500 kilometers (4000 mi), the coast of what is today
Mozambique is the setting for a tale recorded by the 10th-century
sea captain Buzurg ibn Shahriyar. The story calls for a certain suspension of disbelief, but it bears witness to how mobile the Arab–
Islamic world had become, and also to how the Arabs themselves
could look into the mirror of other peoples, even if it reflected
unflatteringly on themselves.
Captain Buzurg heard the story from a fellow dhow-skipper,
who in the year 923 had set sail on a trading voyage from Oman,
in the southeast Arabian Peninsula, to Zanzibar, along the African
coast. A storm, however, blew his ship far south of its destination.
Eventually the skipper spied land:
d
With th eir ab lu tio ns an
hen I made out the place, I realized we had arrived
pr ay er s th e cr ew were
ll
at the land of the Zanj, who eat people, and that by
perf or mi ng , wh ile sti
of
g
making landfall here our doom was sealed. So we
in
sh
wa
e
th
al ive ,
ry
ra
ne
fu
d
performed
our ablutions, repented to Almighty God of our
an
se
th e co rp
an
e
ed
ec
pr
at
sins,
and
prayed
the prayers for the dead over each other.
th
pr ay er s
l.
ria
bu
ic
Isl am
W
Ib n Rus ta h
a r o u n d 9 0c o m pil e d h is b o o k
g e o g r a p h 0 c e . A s w e ll a s
y
(f r o m wh ic, th e s eve nth vo lum
c o nta in s s h th e ex tr a c t c o m e e
s)
om
a n d e n d s , e inter e s ti n g o d d s
s
“Th e Fir s t uc h a s a lis t o f
Fo r in s ta n Per s o n To .. .“
ce,
to m a ke s th e f ir s t p er s o n
oa
o th er th a n p wa s n o n e
So lo m o n .
“Za n j” wa s th
e
A r a b ic ter m c o ntem p o r a r y
in h a b it a nts o fo r th e b la c k
f
c o a st , h er e inth e Ea st A fr ic a n
Su fa la h (n ow th e r e g io n o f
Th e a r e a wa in Moz a mb iq u e ).
A r a b s, fo r it s li tt le k n own to th e
la
th a t c o u ld b e y b e y o n d th e r a n g e
visi
m o n so o n sa il te d in a si n g le
in g se a so n .