Agisymba
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Agisymba is a lost sub-saharan country in Africa mentioned by Ptolemy in the middle of the 2nd Century AD. According to Ptolemy's specification it was 4 months journey south of the Fezzan, contained large animals and many high mountains.
Between the years 83 and 92 AD the king of the Garamantes claimed that the black Agisymba population were his subjects.
Ptolemy's account is based on that written by Marinus of Tyre between 107 and 115 AD.
Modern historians cannot decide whether Agisymba lies in Tibesti, or the Lake Chad area or elsewhere. It is in the Chad area that there are many high mountains.
One theory is that Agisymba was an antecedent of the Kanem Empire on the northern shore of Lake Chad. [1]
[edit] References
- ^ "The Mune as the Ark of the Covenant between Duguwa and Sefuwa (in ancient Kanem)" Borno Museum Society Newsletter 66-67 (2006), 15-25. (The article has a map (page 6) of the ancient Central Sahara and proposes to identify Agisymba of 100 CE with the early Kanem state).
- Desanges, Jehan,Recherches sur l'activité des méditerranéens aux confins de l'Afrique, Rome 1978 (here: p. 197-213).
- Huss, Werner: "Agisymba",NewPauly, vol I, Stuttgart 1996 (Sp 260).
- Long, Dierk,Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa, Dettelbach 2004 (here: pp 280-4).
[edit] External links
- West Africa and the Classical World - neglected contexts " in H. Bleyet al.(Ed.),in Africa Context: references in world history and the present, 19 international meeting of the VAD, Hannover 2004, p. 20
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