Premodern Ethnography: A Cushitic Custom Described and Explained by Mediaeval Arab Observers

Both mediaeval Arabic geographers and Western sources of the colonial era make mention of the custom of cutting off the genitalia of defeated enemies among the speakers of various Cushitic languages in the Horn of Africa. The premodern Arab authors discussed here differ on some details of this custom as well as on the explanation that they offer for its existence and cultural meaning. Through a comparative overview of the sources, this essay seeks to demonstrate how mediaeval Arab observers were influenced by their cultural expectations in their attempts to make sense of an exotic and repulsive custom. It further illustrates the impact of the progressive Islamic conversion of Cushitic-speaking peoples upon perceptions of their cultures by Muslim outsiders.