THE SCENE: Abu Hamid, a Berber scholar who was born in Spain, was a widely-travelled man. In this passage, he describes a “Sea of Darkness” in which traders exchange goods with a sinister, but fair, unknown trading partner.
THE TEXT: Beyond Wisu, there is a region known as Yura, on the Sea of Darkness. The day there is very long in summer, so the merchants say that the sun does not set for the space of forty days. In winter, on the other hand, the nights are equally long. The merchants say that the Darkness is very close to this place, so that the people of Yura enter the Darkness provided with torches. In the Darkness there is a tree as big as a large village and on it perches an enormous creature, some say a bird.
They take different kinds of goods with them. Each merchant sets his wares out in a particular place, marked with his sign. Then they all withdraw and when they come back again, everyone finds something left besides his goods. If he approves the exchange, he takes these wares. If not, he picks up his own merchandise and leaves the other things, without ever transgressing or cheating. No one knows who it is that exchanges goods with them.
– The Travels of Abu Hamid al-Andalusi al-Gharnati, 12th Century AD
