Tarikh (al-Tabari) 14
Creation of the heavens and the earth
ذِكْرُ الرِّمَالِ الرِّمَالُ تَتَلَاقَى وَتَنْتَقِلُ بَعْضُهَا إِلَى بَعْضٍ إِلَّا أَنَّ مِنَ الرِّمَالِ مَا يُوطِئُ مِنَ الْقَدَمِ، وَمِنْهَا مَا يُوفِضُ فِيهِ الرِّجُلُ لِوَقْتِهِ وَرُبَّمَا ابْتَلَعَ الشَّخْصَ فَمِنَ الرِّمَالِ مَا بَيْنَ الْعِرَاقِ وَالْمَدِينَةِ وَالرِّجْلُ يَثْبُتُ عَلَيْهِ، وَكَذَلِكَ الرَّمْلُ الَّتِي فِي تِيهِ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ فِيمَا بَيْنَ مِصْرَ وَمَكَّةَ وَبِلَادِ الْيَمَنِ فِي أَمَاكِنِ الْقِرَدَةِ، رِمَالُهَا لَيِّنَةٌ يُتَاهُ فِيهَا لِطُولِ الْمَسَافَةِ، وَتَنْقُلُهَا الرِّيحُ مِنْ مَكَانٍ إِلَى مَكَانٍ فَيَصِيرُ الْوَادِي هَضْبَةً وَالْهَضْبَةُ وَادِيًا فَتَشْتَبِهُ الْمَسَالِكُ. وَبِبِلَادِ الصَّمَدِ فِي الْبَحْرِ الشَّرْقِيِّ الْكَثِيرُ الْأَحْمَرُ، وَأَهْلُهُ عِظَامُ الْأَجْسَامِ سُودُ الْأَلْوَانِ وَرَمْلُ عَالِجَ طَوِيلُ الْمَسَافَةِ.
Translation
✧ Mention of the sands The sands meet one another and some of them shift into others, except that among the sands there is what settles under the foot, and among them there is what a man hastens into at his moment, and sometimes it swallows the person. Among the sands there is what lies between Iraq and Madinah, and the foot remains firm upon it; likewise the sand that is in the wilderness of the wandering of the Children of Israel between Egypt and Makkah and the lands of Yemen in the places of the monkeys—its sands are soft, in which one loses the way due to the length of the distance, and the wind carries them from one place to another, so the valley becomes a hill and the hill becomes a valley, and the paths become confused. And in the land of al-Ṣamad in the eastern sea there is much red sand, and its people are huge of bodies and black of colors, and the sand of ʿĀlij is long in distance.
Grades by grader
No grade is recorded for this wording.