| Title: | Sofala |
| Original Title: | Sofala ou Zofala |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 15 (1765), p. 267 |
| Author: | Louis, chevalier de Jaucourt (biography) |
| Translator: | Kathryn Heintzman [Harvard University] |
| Subject terms: |
Modern geography
|
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.778 |
| Citation (MLA): | Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de. "Sofala." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Kathryn Heintzman. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2019. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.778>. Trans. of "Sofala ou Zofala," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 15. Paris, 1765. |
| Citation (Chicago): | Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de. "Sofala." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Kathryn Heintzman. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.778 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Sofala ou Zofala," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 15:267 (Paris, 1765). |
Sofala or Zofala, African kingdom in the Kaffraria, on the coast of the Ethiopian sea, near Zanzibar. [1] M. Danville [2] encloses the kingdom between the states of Monomotapa to the north, the sea of Mozambique to the east, the kingdom of Sabia to the south, and that of Manica to the west. The Tendanculo river flows to the north of the country, and another river that we name Sofala, traverses from the east to the west. The king of Sofala is called Quiteve. [3] His subjects are negroes [4] for the most part. They only cover themselves from the belt to the knees with a cotton loincloth. Some of them speak Arabic and are Mahommedans. The others profess no religion. The region does not want for elephants, lions, or wild animals; but, near the mouth of Cuama [5] it is a fertile land and rather populated. One even finds rich gold mines some distance from the kingdom’s capital, which holds the same name, Sofala. A number of savants take this for Solomon’s Ophir. This capital is situated at the edge of the sea, a little north of the mouth of the Sofala river. The Portuguese captured this town around 1508, [6] and built a fortress there that is of great importance to them to secure commerce with the Cafres. Latitude of this fortress, 20° 30” S .
Notes
1. In the eighteenth century, Englishmen would have likely used the same word as the French, Zanguebar.
2. A reference to cartographer, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville (16971-1782).
3. As European struggled to conceptualize African governance and power structures, they often warped descriptions of political rule through comparison to their own. “Quiteve” was a difficult term for them. Some European sources treat it as a proper noun (confusing it for the name of a specific king), some treat it as a synonym for king or lord, others use it to describe a specifically secular, non-absolute, ruler. My translation attempts to preserve such ambiguities.
4. I have elected to translate negre consistent with Pamela Cheek’s Encyclopédie translation here.
5. Also referred to as Quama and Zuama. Reportedly called Zembere by Monomotapa people. Presently referred to as Zambezi.
6. A reference to Pêro de Anaia’s expedition of 1505.