ABSTRACT
Hanno of Carthage (ca 480 BCE) King (suffete) of Carthage in the early 5th c , probably a relative of the Himilkōn who commanded Carthaginian forces at the battle of Himera. His expedition through the Pillars of Herakles and down the coast of Africa is mentioned in the PSEUDO-ARISTOTELIAN D E MIRABILIBUS AUSGULTATIONIBUS, POMPONIUS M E L A , PLINY and ARRIANUS. An MS in the 9th c. Codex Palatinus graecus 398 purports to be a Greek translation of his account, posted in the “temple of Kronos” (Baal Haman) in Carthage. The text describes an exped ition with 60 ships and 30,000 men and women to found cities and explore the coast. The expedition founded a series of settlements up to the Lixos river (mod. Wadi Loukkos, Morocco?). Beyond this point the expedition encountered “Ethiopians” and Troglodytes, as well as savage men dressed in animal skins. The coastal topography is described in some detail, noting islands, bays, rivers, mountains, fragrant forests, and elephants, crocodiles and hippopotami. The account culminates in a description of a volcanic region and a high mountain visible from the sea called the Chariot of the Gods. Sailing past this mountain, the expedition reached a bay called the Horn of the South; on a large island they encountered, captured and skinned “wild men” whom their interpreters called “gorillas” – possibly humans, western lowland gorillas, chimpanzees or baboons. Shortly afterwards, the expedition ran out of provisions and turned back. The account lacks mythological or fan tastic references, and so suggests a real voyage; but there is no consensus on what part of the African coast was reached. Most commentators accept the beginning as an authentic account of the Carthaginian settlement of the Moroccan coast. The route beyond the Lixos is harder to plot. Some see the rest of the account as a late fabrication. Others locate the entire journey along the coast of Morocco as far as the Canary Islands. A common view is that the expedition made it as far as the coast of Sierra Leone and Sherbro Island, with the Chariot of the Gods being Mount Kakoulima, visible from the sea but not a volcano. Some identify the volcano as Mount Cameroon, the only active volcano on the west African coast; if so, the island of the gorillas could be Bioko (Fernando Po); but one must posit major elisions in the account to explain such an extended journey. Ed. : J. Ramin, Le Périple d’Hannon/The Periplus of Hanno (1976). J. Blomqvist, The Date and Origin of the Greek Version of Hanno’s Periplus (1979); E. Lipiński, Itineraria
Phoenicia (Studia Phoenicia 18) (2004) 435-476. Philip Kaplan
al-Hārith ibn-Kalada a l -Thaqaf ī (ca 620 — ca 680 CE) Born in Tāif, al-Hārith ibn-Kalada, a physician who studied medicine in Iran around the time of the prophet Muhammad (b. ca 570, d. 632). It is difficult to sift reality from legend: he is said to have lived to the time of Muāwiya (reigned 661-680) but also to have participated in learned exchanges with the Persian emperor Xusraw I (reigned 531-579), preserved as a dialogue by the great historian of medicine Ibn-Abī-Usaybi'a (d. 1270). Albeit, the name al-Hārith ibn-Kalada is usually registered as the earliest of Arab physicians known to later Arabic historians, the beginning of a very long Hellenistic trad ition of medicine. Several other early Arab physicians’ names are known but little else remains.
