Tanwir al-Ghabash fi Fadl al-Sudan wa al-Habash
- Author died
- 597 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Sharīf
Tanwir al-Ghabash fi Fadl al-Sudan wa al-Habash (The Illumination of the Dusk on the Virtues of the Black Peoples and the Abyssinians) is a historical and virtues treatise by the Baghdadi Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH / 1201 CE) dedicated to the merits, reports, and standing of Black peoples and Abyssinians.
Content and Themes
The work is categorized among historical treatises on the histories and virtues of distinct nations (tawarikh al-umam). It collects traditions, historical reports, and geographical narratives concerning the virtues of the Sudan and the Abyssinians (al-Habash). Among the geographical reports cited by Ibn al-Jawzi in the work is a transmission through al-Asma'i from al-Nimr ibn Hilal dividing the earth into 24,000 parasangs (farsakh), assigning 12,000 to the Sudan, 8,000 to the Byzantines (al-Rum), 3,000 to the Persians (al-Furs), and 1,000 to the Arabs.
The text also gathers reports regarding the virtues and presence of Abyssinians during the early Islamic period, such as the account of the Abyssinians playing with their spears out of joy upon the arrival of the Prophet ﷺ in Medina, as well as Aisha watching them display their martial games in the mosque. It also includes hadith and biographical reports transmitted regarding the merit of households hosting Abyssinians, some of which later traditionists evaluated as unauthentic.
Abridgments and Transmission
The book was abridged by the Shafi'i polymath Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE) in his treatise Raf' Shan al-Hubshan (also cataloged as al-Durar al-Hisan fi Raf' Shan al-Hubshan: Mukhtasar Tanwir al-Ghabash fi Fadl al-Sudan wa al-Habash). Manuscripts of the work and its abridgments survive in various library collections, including the Jar Allah Efendi and Shahid Ali collections in Istanbul and the King Faisal Center in Riyadh.
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