gems, ancient history, Arabic mineralogy, ancient metal sources, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Sudan, early lapidaries

From what appears to be an isolated passage in the Muqaddima (Prolegomena) of Ibn Khaldūn where incidentally he mentions gold and silver mines, it is plain that he regarded the Sudan as the principal, if not the only, source of gold in his time (14th century). On a matter of this kind, Ibn Khaldūn’s opinion is likely to be reliable. The testimony of al-Bakrī (11th century) and al-Idrīsī (12th century) goes far to confirm the importance of gold from the Sudan. Other sources of gold were available, at least in the early days of Islam, as we shall have occasion to see, but it may be taken that Ibn Khaldūn’s opinion was correct for his time, at least as far as the West of Islam is concerned.