A merchant’s account of travels within an independent African state
Muhammad ibn ‘Umar al -Tunisi (d. 1274/1857) was part of the lineage of Tunisian merchants who traded with Egypt and, more recently, Sudan. Al-Tunisi was born in Cairo and was a graduate from al-Azhar.
At the age of 14, al-Tunisi set off for the Sultanate of Darfur, where his father had left the previous year. He travelled his route, the Forty Days Road, was brought back to his father and then took over administration of the large estates he was granted to his father by the Sultan of Darfur. The story of Darfur is the remarkable report of his time in the state of Darfur.
Suggested Read: The Silk Roads , History of the World, World War I, The Islamic World by Ladan Akbarnia, Nahj al-Balagha, Lost Islamic History, Stranger The History, Realizing Islam, Prophet Muhammad
The second volume of al-Tunisi provides a map of the region as well as the customs of the Darfur’s courtly kings, the petty monarchs and the clothes worn by its rulers, marriage rituals as well as eunuchs, illness and food, hunting animals and plants, currency and plants, magic, divination and dances. The book In Darfur blends literature and ethnography with history as well as linguistics and travel adventures, and unlike anything else of its kind contains 52 illustrations, each one created from the perspective of the creator.
The story of Darfur is an exceptional example of an Arab description of Africa at the time of Western colonization. It vividly depicts an era in which travel was free of bureaucracy and borders were fluid and shocking coincidences are almost routine.
Suggested Read: The Afghanistan File , Islam in Saudi Arabia, Top Seller: Islamic Art by Luca Mozzati, Jewish Morocco, Kingdoms of Faith and Islamic History For Kids: Story of Uhud
Product details
- ASIN : B07CJ11M5G
- Publisher : NYU Press
- Publication date : May 8, 2018
- Language : English
- Size of file:15103 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- enhanced typesetting:Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Print length : 434 pages
- Lending : Not Enabled
Muhammad al-Tunisi (d. 1274/1857) was a member of an extended lineage from Tunisian merchants who trade with Egypt as well as what is now Sudan. Born in Cairo Al-Tunisi spent more than ten years travelling throughout his travels through the Darfur Sultanate.
When he returned to Egypt and his return to Egypt, he was an important role in Muhammad’s modernization program overseeing the translation of medical and veterinary texts as well as editing the initial printed editions of classic Arabic texts.
Humphrey Davies is an award-winning translator of more than 25 works of contemporary Arabic literature, including Alaa Aswany’s the Yacoubian Building, five novels written by Elias Khoury, including Gate of the Sun and Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq’s leg over legs. He also has created an important edition of the translation, lexicon, and translation of the Ottoman period. Brains Confused with The Ode of Abu Shaduf Expounded by Yusuf al-Shirbini, as well as translations and editions from al-Tunisi’s in Darfurand the Sanhuri’s The Risible poemsfrom the same time period.
Additionally, he’s compiled with Madiha Doss a collection of poems in Arabic named Al-‘ammiyyah Al-maktubah: the mukhtarat from 1400 to 2009. ( Egyptian Colloquial Writing: Selections from 1400 until 2009.) as well as co-authored with Lesley Lababidi,
A Field Guide to the Street Names of Central Cairo. He was a student of Arabic from his school at the University of Cambridge, received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley prior to completing the first of his translations in 2003 he worked in research and social development agencies that operate in Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine and Sudan. He is associated with The American University in Cairo. This text refers to the hardcover edition
