According to the historical writings from the scribes of an
emir in
Benghazi,
Libya in 1481, a camel driver named Hamid Keila came to Benghazi in bad shape and recounted to the emir that he had been to the city of Zerzura. Apparently Hamid Keila and a caravan had been heading out from the
Nile River to the oases of
Dakhla (Darkhla/Dakhilah) and
Kharga (Kharijah) and were caught in a vicious sandstorm that killed everyone except Keila who apparently survived under the shelter of his dead camel. After the storm passed, the man had emerged from the camel to find himself confused by the lie of the land because the storm changed all the familiar landmarks. It was when Keila was becoming delirious from having no water that a group of strange men found him. The men were said to be tall with fair hair and blue eyes, carrying straight swords instead of Arab scimitars, who then took the camel driver back to a city called Zerzura to tend to him. Zerzura was indeed described as a white city that was approachable through a
wadi (valley) that ran between two mountains, and from the wadi was a road that led to the gates of the city which had a carving of a strange bird above them. Within the city were white houses of inner luxury, palms, springs, and pools that were used by fair-skinned women and children for washing and bathing. Hamid Keila recounted that the Zerzurans, or "El Suri", treated him with kindness and spoke a strange form of Arabic that was difficult for him to understand but was carefully explained to him by the Suri, who apparently weren't Muslim because the women wore no veils and no mosques could be found in the city, nor did Hamid Keila hear any calls to prayer by a
muezzin. The camel driver told this story to the emir months after being in Zerzura, and the emir asked him how it was that he came to be in Benghazi at present. Hamid grew uncomfortable with the questioning and told him that he had escaped from Zerzura one night. The emir then asked why it was necessary to escape if the Suri treated him with kindness, and the camel driver had trouble explaining. The emir suspected something strange and had Keila searched by his guards, who found a precious ruby set in a gold ring hidden on the man. The emir then asked how he got the ring, but Keila couldn't say. Figuring he'd stolen it from the Suri, the emir had Keila taken out into the desert to have his hands cut off. The emir believed the man's story because he and his men later went out into the wasteland to find Zerzura, but never did, though it is possible that the emir did not look in the right area of the desert. According to unknown sources, the ring supposedly came into possession of Libya's
King Idris, who was overthrown in 1969 by
Muammar al-Gaddafi and his
Revolutionary Command Council. It is said that the ring has been studied by many experts who claim it is of great value, and it is speculated that it was crafted by Europeans in the 12th century, suggesting that the Zerzurans who had it before Hamid Keila stole it may have been the remnants of early European
crusaders who got lost in the
Sahara on their way to or back from
Jerusalem and set up their own habitat in the desert. However, there oddly seems to be no information about the supposed ring made available by any sources, nor is there any evidence of its existence. Furthermore, because Hamid Keila was the narrator of the Zerzura tale, it is possible that he may have been the anonymous author of the
Kitab al Kanuz (Book of Hidden Treasures) since his plight occurred in the 15th century, as the manuscript was also published at that time. Note, however, that esoteric manuscripts dealing with the subject of magically sealed treasures were popular long before the 15th century, and according to scholars such as Maria Golia the Kitab al Kanuz was largely a compilation of writings of texts written centuries earlier during the Islamic Golden Age. "The manuscripts excerpted in Hidden Pearls were also compilations, culled from various written and possibly oral sources, snatches of magical treatises and stories old, new and perhaps invented. The dialect and terminology suggest Egyptians wrote them, and directions offer topographic clues that were probably identifiable in the past." It remains unknown if the references to Zerzura in the original manuscript were new additions from the 15th century or snippets of texts copied from more ancient manuscripts. == Books and articles about Zerzura (non-fiction) ==