The most healthy part is the Gouz, or Country of Sand. The Arabs who inhabit it and breathe its pure air are full of force and courage, but it unfortunately contains little water.
-In Darfur: Travels of an Arab Merchant in Sudan, Muhammad Ibn Umar al-Tunisi (1789-1857)
I wonder if Jizzu, the rare seasonal flourishing of rich pasture grass in the remotest part of Dar al-Kababish that is like catnip to their camels, is a cognate of Gouz, properly transliterated as Jauz, Center of a Desert. Mas’ūd told me that herdsmen in the Jizzu had to drink urine because there were no wells. I asked, Why don’t you take milk camels with you? He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye.