the <gigamesh> files

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To read some historical and other documents, and their translations into Kiswahili see"HATI ZA KALE NA ZA LEO"

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the <gigamesh> files
Geobytes

Welcome to my world. Although biographical details are unimportant for the purposes of this site I state, for the record, that I was born in 1951, in Tanga, Tanganyika, and died in Tanga, Tanzania, in 1972. At the time, I was a medical student, and one among the first of the nation's independent generations.

Flags of some countries that have acquired independence in the previous century.

tanzania	algeria	bahrain	congo	indonesia	macedonia	mali	papua	uzbekistan	angola

When I died, I do not suppose that my death touched more than a handful of people. It was a great misfortune for my family, to have lost a member who was not only relatively young, but ambitious enough to have set his sights on the study of medicine.

	'The physician, with his medical art and his drugs, Cannot avert a summons that has come, What ails the physician that he dies of the disease That he would have cured in time gone by? There died alike he who administered the drug and he who took it, And he who imported and sold the drug, and he who bought it.'Verses upon the death in Baghdad of the physician Yuhanna ibn Masawayh in 857 (243 H).
	' Medicine is a science from which one learns the states of the human body with respect to what is healthy and what is not, in order to preserve good health when it exists and restore it when it is lacking.'Ibn Sina, the opening to theQanun fi al-tibb

Pictured here:Ibn Nafis translation of a Hippocratic treatise

Pictured here:
Ibn Nafis certificate.

'There are isolated examples of students being given a signed statement that they successfully read and mastered a particular treatise. The National Library of Medicine has one of these very rare documents. The certificate is written at the end of a commentary on the Hippocrates treatise On the Nature of Man by the Damascene physician Ibn al-Nafis, who spent much of his life in Cairo, where be became `Chief of Physicians', dying there in 1288(687 H / ھ ٧ ٨ ٦ ) and bequeathing his house and library to the recently constructed Mansuri hospital. The certificate occurs at the end of the manuscript in the handwriting of Ibn al-Nafis himself, and reads as follows: '[In the name of] God the Provider of Good Fortune. The wise, the learned, the excellent shaykh Shams al-Dawlah Abu al-Fadl ibn al-shaykh Abi al-Hasan al-Masihi, may God make long lasting his good fortune, studied with me this entire book of mine -- that is, the commentary on the book by the imam Hippocrates, which is to say his book known as `On the Nature of Man' -- by which he demonstrated the clarity of his intellect and the correctness of his thought, may God grant him benefit and may he make use of it. Certified by the poor in need of God, `Ali ibn Abi al-Hazm al-Qurashi [known as Ibn al-Nafis] the physician. Praise be to God for his perfection and prayers for the best of His prophets, Muhammad, and his family. And that is on the twenty-ninth of Jumada I [in the] year six hundred and sixty eight [= AD 25January 1270].'

Source(copyright protected): US National Library of Medicine

However, in the great scheme of things, it hardly mattered. Now, 50 years later, the population of Tanzania, and of the African continent as a whole, has increased hugely. The following table illustrates what I mean.

POPULATION CHANGE
Total Population	1967	1978	1988	2002
United Republic of Tanzania	12, 313, 469	17, 512, 610	23, 095 878	34, 569, 232

Source:Tanzanian Govt. Bureau of Statistics

To see this trend reflected globally, I must show you the figures for Africa as a whole, and the world in its entirety.

POPULATION CHANGE
Total Population	1955	1965	1975	1985	1995	2000	2005
Africa	205, 253, 000	318, 937, 000	415, 824, 000	553, 255, 000	722, 669, 000	812, 466, 000	905, 936, 000
World	2, 757, 399, 000	3, 337, 974, 000	4, 073, 740, 000	4, 843, 947, 000	5, 692, 353, 000	6, 085, 572, 000	6, 464, 750, 000

Source:UNO Statistics

As can be seen, the Tanzanian population has tripled since the 1950's, and that of Africa has nearly quintupled, so that the continent now holds a billion people. This is reflected, also, in the figures for population density . For Tanzania, this increase in human density over the last 50 years has been from 14 persons / sq. kilometre, to 39 persons / sq. kilometre, not counting the wildlife! I mention wildlife advisedly, since the corresponding figures for Zanzibar are 150 to 400 persons/sq. kilometre, registered for the same period. Life expectancy, as calculated for 2005 for Tanzania, was 45.24 years, so from that point of view, I had already lived half my life...

What, then, is the purpose of this site under which I lie so profoundly and permanently ignorant of the world that whirls above me, beneath its ever-changing sky? I hope, dear visitor, that you will leave a trace of your thoughts, an image of your perception, a glimpse of your perspective, to help me build a picture of what lies above. If I can help you with my access to oracular powers, then that, too, might serve us both. Before I can make any sound declarations, however, I ask for your indulgence if a degree of exasperating multilingualism creeps in from time to time. Its driving force is internationalist, its motive, global. Mostly, it will be conducted in English, as none of us can escape being a child of his time.

"Bado ungali kijana/Na dunia ngumu sana, Kukufunza kuona/Ni jambo la welekea,
Ulimwengu una adha/Njiaze kadha wa kadha, Itunze kama fedha/Hati utabarikiwa......"

A local poet, Shaaban bin Robert, quoted from his autobiographical Baada ya Miaka Hamsini in an admonitory mood, asking his little daughter to be mindful of her tender years, and of the many, difficult roads the universe will require her to negotiate.

The Greek physician, Hippocrates,taught Ars longa, vita brevis (the first of his'Aphorisms' ):
"Life is short, and the Art long; the occasion fleeting; experience fallacious, and judgment difficult..."

I am navigating in uncharted waters here and, like Vasco da Gama in the late 15th century, must be helped to find the way to the Indies. It is said that sailors at Malindi, in nearby Kenya, helped him along the way by showing him the use of a kamal

'This was a small parallelogram of horn or wood measuring about one by two inches with a string inserted in the center. On the string were nine knots at measured intervals. The end of the string was held in the teeth. The lower edge of the horn was placed on the horizon while the horn was moved along the string until the upper edge touched the required star. The knot at which the horn covered the exact distance signified a certain number of isba' of altitude of the star. The altitude of the Pole Star could then be deduced from the rahmani.'

Source: nabataea

Perhaps Christopher Columbus would not have played his part in that major rewriting of Iberian history without this knowledge, or that of shore-sighting pigeons used by the Singhalese, and by the Persians, as late as the 9th century AD according to source,as mentioned by Pliny the Elder, author of Historia Naturalis, in the 1st century A.D.

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It seems appropriate to return, once again, to the poet, Shaaban bin Robert singing about the spoken word which, once uttered, rises like a bird to places unknown, far beyond celestial bounds, to reach the ear of divinity itself, like a voice on the radio passing instantly over huge distances.
.
"Mungu hutia kabuli/Katika zetu kauli, Maamuzi ya kweli/Ndiye anayetoa.
Na sauti nyembamba/Hupaa kama kwamba, Kwa mbawa zimepambwa/Kwenda tusikojua.
Hasa imethibitika/Kabisa bila shaka, Neno likitamkwa/Katika hewa hupaa.
Hupaa hata ng'ambo/Aliko Mwelewa mambo, Wala hapana jambo/Yeye asilosikia.
Hati haya isemayo/Fananisha na radio, Sauti yendavyo mbio/Toka mbali kukujia."

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Geobytes

Geobyte feature-found only here!

geobyte sound Download or play this song 'Give thanks to Allah' by Michael Jackson, a jingle in the musical style of late 20th.c.'Islam britannique'

geobyte image A human egg cell sitting on the point of a pin: From an exhibition of medical photographs at the Wellcome Library

geobyte word Friedrich Engels to Franz Mehring; July1893. From 'Marx and Engels-Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy.' Edited by Lewis S Feuer. Collins1969
"...if Richard Coeur de Lion and Philip Augustus had introduced free trade instead of getting mixed up in the Crusades we would have been spared five hundred years of misery and stupidity" Friedrich Engels, 1893.

There, I have made a beginning. Changes will inevitably follow.In the meantime , email me:

If you think other subjects would have been more interesting let me know. Your comments, queries, and interpolations are eagerly awaited.

This page is dedicated by the deceased, to serve the needs of those still alive.

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Find out more about:

Table of Population for Africa (1905)
Pliny the Elder
Safari na vitendo vya Dom Francisco; Voyage and acts of Dom Francisco 1505 A.K / 960 A.H
Christopher Columbus
From Vasco da Gama's journal
Vasco da Gama

© M. E. Kudrati, 2006:This document may be reproduced and redistributed, but only in its entirety and with full acknowledgement of its source and authorship

geobyte sound	Download or play this song	'Give thanks to Allah' by Michael Jackson, a jingle in the musical style of late 20th.c.'Islam britannique'
geobyte image		A human egg cell sitting on the point of a pin: From an exhibition of medical photographs at the Wellcome Library
geobyte word	Friedrich Engels to Franz Mehring; July1893. From 'Marx and Engels-Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy.' Edited by Lewis S Feuer. Collins1969	"...if Richard Coeur de Lion and Philip Augustus had introduced free trade instead of getting mixed up in the Crusades we would have been spared five hundred years of misery and stupidity" Friedrich Engels, 1893.