Chapter XXVI: Part 26

The Nouba regularly paid their Bakt every year, and received in return the above menmentioned articles, until the times of the Emir of the true Believers, El Motassem b’illah Aly Is-hak, the son of Er-rasheid, when Zakarya Ibn Bahnas[131] was their king. At that period the Nouba having perhaps been tardy in paying the Bakt, and the Moslim governors of the frontier provinces having treated them harshly, and withheld from them the supply of provisions, Feyrakey the son of Zakarya refused his father to submit in obedience to foreigners, and reproached him with weakness in paying the tribute. His father then asked him what his advice was, and he replied, to revolt against the Moslims, and make war with them. Our forefathers, answered Zakarya, thought this a just measure; I am afraid that the worst of the business will devolve upon you. We shall prepare for this war against the Moslims, but I will send you to their king as an envoy: you will know the state of their affairs and your own. If you think that we are a match for them, we shall go to war, and trust to God; if not, you will ask the king for presents. Feyraky then set out for Bagdad; he passed through the towns, and the country appeared to him very fine. In coming down, he was joined by the king of the Bedja and his retinue. They met El Motasem, and they were astonished to see in the Irak, besides what they had already witnessed on the road; the quantity of soldiers, and the flourishing state of the country. El Motasem received Feyraky with politeness and kindness, and treated him with great generosity. He accepted his presents, and returned them two-fold, and told him to demand any favour he liked. Upon which he begged that the prisoners[132] might be set free, which was granted to him. Feyraky rose high in the opinion of Motasem; who made him a present of the house at which he had alighted in the Irak, and gave orders to purchase in every town on his way a house for the accommodations of the messengers he might send, and wherein no other travellers should be permitted to lodge. At Cairo two houses were purchased for him; one at Djyze and another at Beni Wayl,[133] and they received from the treasury of Cairo seven hundred Dinars, a mare, a saddle, a bridle, a gilt sword, a rich habit, a silk turban, a cloke, and a shirt of the finest sort, and pieces of stuff for his delegates, which were not accounted for in the returns of the tribute. They had further to receive two loads,[134] and from the collector of the Bakt a suit of clothes, and had, in their turn, to give to the latter, and to those who accompanied him, certain articles. Whatever might be given to them (beyond these fixed things) should be considered as presents, which they would return in the same manner. Upon enquiry El Motasem found that what was given to the Noubas by the Moslims exceeded the value of the Bakt; he therefore refused to give them any more wine, or to send them (the full amount of) the corn and the stuffs above mentioned; and he re-established the Bakt to be sent at intervals of every three years; and wrote to them a letter on that subject, which remained in their hands. The king of the Noubas demanded justice from some of the inhabitants of Assouan, who had purchased landed property from his slaves.[135] El Motasem ordered inquiry to be made into it at Assouan, where the tribunal of the judge was. But the slaves being questioned, said, “We are his subjects, not his slaves,” and thus his suit was rejected. He then demanded among other things, that the military post at the Kaszer, which was situated within his territory, should be removed to the frontier; but this request was not granted. These stipulations continued to subsist between the Noubas and Egypt, and the Bakt was paid, and the returns given as Motasem had regulated them, until the Fatimites arrived in Egypt.—Thus far goes the relation of the Nubian historian.

Abou Hassan el Masoudy[136] relates:—The Bakt is the annual tribute of slaves which has been imposed upon the Noubas, and is received from them and carried to Egypt. It consists in three hundred and sixty five head of slaves to the public treasury, according to the tenour of the articles of peace between the Noubas and the Moslims. Besides these, the governor of Egypt receives forty head; his representative, who resides at Assouan, and collects the Bakt, twenty head; the governor of Assouan, who, together with him, is present at the collecting of the Bakt, five head, and the twelve trusty witnesses of the people of Assouan, who are to accompany the governor on this business, twelve head; the whole, according to the stipulations of the Bakt, when the Moslims and Noubas first concluded their treaty.

El Beladiry, in his work entitled El Tetouhat,[137] says: “the amount of the renewed tribute of the Noubas is four hundred slaves, for which they take in return victuals, that is to say, grain. The Emir of the true Believers, El Mohdy Mohammed Ibn Aly Djafar el Mansour,[138] obliged them to pay three hundred and sixty head of slaves, and a Giraffa. The mischievous and troublesome behaviour of Daoud (David) the king of the Noubas, was principally manifested in the year of the Hejira 674. After he had committed great excesses at Aidab, he came with his army nearly as far as Assouan, and there burnt many water wheels. The governor of Kous marched against Daoud, but not meeting with him, laid hold of the Lord of the Mountain, and numbers of Noubas, whom he carried before the Sultan Daher Bybars el Bondokdary, at the Castle of Cairo, where their bodies were severed in two. Shekendy,[139] the son of the King of Nouba’s sister, then came to implore assistance against the injustice which he had experienced from his uncle Daoud. The Sultan ordered the Emir Shams-eddyn Ak Soukor el Farekany, the intendant of his household,[140] with the Emir Djandar Emir Oz-eddyn Aybek el Afram,[141] to march together with Shekendy against Daoud, with a large army composed of the provincial horsemen,[142] and of the Arabs of southern Egypt, and of lancers, bowmen, and fire-men.[143] They left Cairo on the first of the month of Sheban. Upon their arrival in Nouba the enemy met them, mounted upon camels, armed with lances, and covered with black Dekadek.[144] Both parties fought bravely, and the Noubas fled. El Afram now fell upon Kallat Addo,[145] where he killed and took prisoners many of them. El Farakany penetrated into the interior of Nouba by land and by the river, killing or enslaving every body. He took an innumerable quantity of cattle, and alighted at the island of Mykayl, at the top of the cataracts;[146] from whence he obliged the Nouba ships to retreat, while the Nouba themselves fled to the islands. He then wrote a promise of safe conduct to Kamr el Doula,[147] the lieutenant of Daoud, who swore allegiance to the Shekendy, and brought back all the people of Merys, and the fugitives; after which El Afram crossed over a shallow part of the river, to a tower built in the water, which he besieged until he took it. Two hundred men were killed there, and a brother of Daoud was taken prisoner; Daoud fled, and was closely pursued for three days by the soldiers, who killed and took prisoners a great number on the road, until the people submitted. The mother and sister of Daoud were taken, but he himself escaped. Shekendy was now confirmed in his stead, and agreed to pay an annual personal tribute of three elephants, three giraffas, five female Fahed, one hundred camels of good race, and four hundred chosen cows,[148] and that the soil of Nouba should thenceforward be divided into two parts;[149] one half for the Sultan, and the other to be appropriated to the fertilizing and guarding of the country; excepting the territory of the cataracts, which was to belong entirely to the Sultan, on account of its vicinity to Assouan: this alone was about one-fourth of Nouba.[150] Farther, that the dates and the cotton of this part, as well as the ancient customary duties, should be carried off, and that as long as they should remain Christians, they should pay the Djezye, or annual Om Dinar in cash, for every grown up person.[151] There was a form of oath written out concerning these articles, by which Shekendy bound himself, and there was another by which his subjects swore. The two commanders destroyed the churches of Nouba,[152] and carried away whatever they found in them. They seized about twenty of the chiefs of Nouba, and liberated the Moslims of Assouan and Aidab, who were captives in the hands of the Noubas. Shekendy was crowned, and seated on the throne of his kingdom, after he had taken his oath. He was obliged to send the property of Daoud, and that of all those who were killed or taken captives, whether money or cattle, to the Sultan, together with the usual Bakt. This consisted in an annual payment of a giraffa and of four hundred slaves, of whom three hundred and sixty were for the Khalif, and forty for his lieutenant at Cairo, with the condition that he should send them in return, upon the full receipt of the Bakt, one thousand Erdeybs of wheat to the king of Nouba, and three hundred to his delegates.[153]

_Description of the Town of Assouan._[154]

It begins with some remarks on the etymology of the word Assouan, which is said to mean a person in grief. Assouan lies on the extremity of the territories of Sayd. It is one of the harbours of this province, and divides Nouba from the country of Egypt. In former times a great plenty of wheat, grain, fruits, vegetables, and pot herbs, was found here, together with abundance of camels, cows, and sheep, whose flesh is of peculiar good flavour and fatness. The prices of provisions were always very low. Goods and articles of trade were found here, that were transported to the country of Nouba. To the east there is not any Moslim country bordering on Assouan: to the south there is a mountain, in which are the mines of emeralds, in an insulated barren country. At fifteen days journey from Assouan are the gold mines.[155] To the westward are the Oases. From Assouan a road leads to Aidab, from whence is the passage to the Hedjaz, and Yemen, and India. Masoudy relates: Assouan is inhabited by people of the Arabs Kahtan, Nezar Ibn Rabya, Modher, and Arabs of Koreysh, most of them transplanted from the Hedjaz.[156] The town has abundance of date trees; it is fertile and rich. The date stone is put into the ground, and the tree grows out of it, and after (a certain number of) years they eat the fruit.[157] The people of Assouan possess many villages within the confines of Nouba, the duties on which they pay to the king of Nouba. These villages were bought from the Noubas in the time of the Islam, during the reign of Beni Omeya and Beni Abbas. When El Mamoun arrived in Egypt, the king of Nouba asked for his protection against these people of Assouan, by means of emissaries whom he dispatched to Fostat. They complained to El Mamoun, that some villages of Nouba had been sold to their neighbours of Assouan; that these villages belonged to the king of Nouba, and that those who sold them were the king’s slaves, who possessed no property, and whose only business it was to take care of the cultivation. Mamoun referred them to the governor of Assouan, to the learned men, and Shikhs of that town. The people of Assouan who had bought the villages, perceiving that they were in danger of losing them, had recourse to a stratagem against the king of Nouba. They proposed to the Noubas who had sold the villages, when they appeared before the governor, to deny that they were slaves of the king, and to say, “the same relation exists between us and our king, O Moslims, as between you and your king. We owe him only submission, and are bound only not to contravene his orders. If you, therefore, are the slaves, and the property of your king, then we are the same.” They spoke other similar things, to which they had been prompted, and thus the sale was confirmed, and so it has remained until our times. The possession of these villages, in the territory of Merys in the country of Nouba, was transmitted by inheritance, and the Noubas, the subjects of the king, now became divided into two classes; the one, as we have stated, freemen, not slaves, and the other part slaves.[158] The latter were those who did not dwell in this territory of Merys, which is in the neighbourhood of Assouan.

Masoudy relates,[159] that the Noubas were divided into two branches. The one dwelt on the two banks of the Nile; their territory bordered upon the territory of the Copts of Upper Egypt, and extended far up the river; they built, as the seat of their government, the large city of Dóngola. The other race of the Noubas is called Aloa, and they have built the large town of Serfeta.[160] The country of Nouba, the territory of which borders upon the soil of Assouan, is called Merys, from which the Merysan wind takes its name.[161]

On the east side of Upper Egypt is a large mountain of marble, from whence the ancients cut columns, and pedestals, and capitals, which the Egyptians call Assouanye, (the same name they also give to the mill-stones). The ancients wrought these things many hundred years before the appearance of Christianity, and among them are to be reckoned the columns of Alexandria.

In the month of Zol Hadj, in the year 344, the king of Nouba attacked Assouan, and killed many Moslims. In the month of Moharran 345, marched against him Mohammed Ibn Abdallah, the treasurer of the Egyptian army of El Wodjour, Ibn el Ak Shedy (king of Egypt), by land and by sea.[162] He sent back many prisoners of the Noubas, who were beheaded at Cairo, after the king of Nouba had likewise met with his fate. He continued his march until he conquered Ibrim, and reduced its inhabitants to captivity, and he returned to Cairo with 150 prisoners, and many heads, in the middle of the month of Djomad el Awal, 345.[163]

The Kadhy el Fadhel states, that in the year 585, the income of the port of Assouan was 25,000 Dinars.[164] Djaafar el Edfouy relates:[165] at Assouan are 80 officers of the tribunal of justice, and Assouan produced in one year 30,000 Erdeybs of dates. Somebody informed me that he had met with a writing that contained the names of 40 Sherifs of the purest race (of Assouan) and another in which there were 60, besides the rest. And (El Edfouy) says: “I have met with a writing, dated in the year 620, that mentioned the names of 40 authors of Assouan.”

At Assouan were settled the Beni el Kenz, a tribe of Rabya, very praiseworthy people, celebrated by many verses. El Fadhel el Sedyd Abou el Hassan Ibn Aram has written their history. When Salah eddyn Ibn Ayoub[166] sent an army against Kenz el Doula[167] and his party, they left this territory.[168] The soldiers entered their houses, and found therein verses of those who had sung their praises, and among the rest a poem of Mohammed el Hassan Ibn Zebeyr, in which was this passage:

They help him whom the times have betrayed or oppressed;

People they are, who never dwell where dishonour abides;

When they grant their protection, no man under the stars fears;

When they dispense with their generosity, no want remains upon the
earth’s surface.

For which the author received 1000 Dinars, and a water-wheel (with its field) was entailed upon him, worth 1000 Dinars.[169] regular armed garrison had always been stationed at Assouan, to guard the harbour against the inroads of the Nouba, and the blacks. When the reign of the Fatimites terminated,[170] this port was neglected. The king of Nouba, with 10,000 men, fell then again upon the island opposite Assouan,[171] and took prisoners all its Moslim inhabitants.[172] After this period the affairs of this harbour declined. After the year 790, the tribe of El Kenz became masters of it. They behaved vilely, and had many wars with the governors of this town, until the destructive epoch of 806.[173] Upper Egypt was then ruined and depopulated, the Sultan drew off his hand from Assouan, and he no longer kept a governor there. It remained in a deserted state for many years. In the month of Moharram, of the year 815, the Arabs Howara[174] proceeded to Assouan and attacked the Beni Kenz, and obliged them to fly.[175] They killed many of them, and reduced to slavery all the women and children whom they took prisoners.[176] They destroyed the walls of Assouan, departed with their captives, and left the city in ruins, without inhabitants. In this state the town remained, of which Selym el Assouany relates, that when Abd el Hamyd el Amry took the mines, he wrote to Assouan to demand from the merchants to supply him with provisions, upon which one man of the name of Othman Ibn Hauthale el Temymy, carried to him 1000 loads of provisions and corn. (Here follows a few other notices on Assouan of little interest.)

_Belak._

Belak is the last fortified place of the Moslims. It is an island in the neighbourhood of the cataract, surrounded by the Nile, with a large town upon it, well inhabited, with a number of date trees, and a Mambar (pulpit) in a mosque.[177] Between this and the city called Kaszer, which is the first town of Nouba, is one mile, and between Assouan and Belak four miles. Between Assouan and Belak are cataracts in the river, over which the ships cannot pass but with great caution, and guided by the fishermen of these parts, who are acquainted with the passage. At the Kaszer is a garrison post, and it is a gate towards Nouba.

_On the Desert of Aidab or Aizab._

The pilgrims from Egypt and Barbary remained upwards of 200 years without taking any other road to Mekka, may God honour her, than by the desert of Aidab. They embarked on the Nile at the plain of Fostat, and ascended as far as Kous. From thence they mounted camels, and crossed this desert to Aidab, where they afterwards embarked in vessels for Djidda, on the coast of Mekka. In the same manner the merchants of India, and Yemen, and Habesh, arrived by this sea at Aidab, reached through this desert the town of Kous, and from thence Mesr. This desert continued to be peopled and frequented by caravans of merchants and of pilgrims going and coming, in so much that loads of spices and drugs, as pepper, cinnamon, and others were found on the road, while caravans were ascending and descending, and nobody touched them until their owner took them away.[178] The pilgrims in going to Mekka and returning from thence, continued to frequent that road more than 200 years, from the year 453 and upwards, to the year 663 and upwards, at which time happened the great misfortune during the reign of the Khalif Mostanser b’illah Aly Temim Mad Ibn el Dhaher,[179] and the pilgrim caravans were interrupted by land and by sea until the Sultan Dhaher Roken eddyn Bybars el Bondokdary clothed again the Kaba, and made a key to it. A caravan then departed by land in the year 66—.[180] But the passage of pilgrims through this desert became less frequent, although it continued to be the road by which the merchandises were carried from Aidab to Kous, until the year 760, when it was abandoned, after which the affairs of Kous declined. This desert from Kous to Aidab is seventeen days journey across, during which no water is found for three, and once for four, successive days.[181] Aidab is a town on the coast of the sea of Djidda. It has no walls, and most of its houses are built of mats.[182] It was formerly one of the first harbours of the world, because the ships from India and Yemen brought here their merchandise, and set sail again in company with the ships of the pilgrims that passed to and fro. When the Indian and Yemen ships ceased to arrive at this place, then Aden, of the Yemen, became the great harbour, until after 820 and upwards, Djidda became the first harbour of the world, and likewise Hormuz, which is a fine anchoring place. Aidab is situated in a desert devoid of any vegetation; all the provisions, even the water, are imported. Its inhabitants derived immense gains from the merchants and the pilgrims; they had certain established dues from every camel’s load belonging to the pilgrims,[183] and hired their ships to them to cross over the sea to Djidda, and from thence back to Aidab; by which they accumulated great riches. There was no inhabitant of Aidab who had not one or more ships, in proportion to the amount of his property. In the sea of Aidab, at some islands in the vicinity of it, is a pearl fishery.[184] The divers issue from Aidab every year at a fixed period, in small boats. Arrived at the island, they remain there some time, and come back with whatever has fallen to their good fortune. They find the pearls in water of little depth.

The people of Aidab live like brutes. They resemble in their character wild beasts more than human beings. The pilgrims are exposed during their sea voyage to terrible adventures. They usually meet with strong winds in distant and desert anchoring places to the south.[185] The Bedja people then come down to them from their mountains and hire to them their camels, with which they travel without any supply of water.[186] Many of them die from thirst, and the Bedjas take whatever they had with them. Others lose their road, and likewise die from thirst, and he who escapes reaches Aidab as if risen out of his winding sheet, and entirely altered in features and in body. No where perish more pilgrims than in these anchoring places. To others, but the smaller number, the wind is propitious, and carries them to Aidab. In the ships that carry the pilgrims, are no nails whatsoever. They sew the planks with the Kombar, which is made of the cocoa tree,[187] and drive into them wooden pegs made of the date tree; after which they pour butter over them, or the oil of the Kheroa,[188] or the fat of the Kersh,[189] which is a very large sea fish that swallows up the drowned. The sails of these ships are made of the mats of the tree Mokel.[190] The inhabitants of Aidab use all kind of devilish practices with the pilgrims. Anxious for the fare, they load their ships with passengers one above the other, and never care about what may happen to them at sea, saying, on the contrary: “to us belongs the care of the ships, and to the pilgrims that of their own selves.”[191] The inhabitants of Aidab are of the Bedja, and have a king of that nation, and a governor named by the Sultan of Egypt. I have seen myself their Kadhy at Cairo, a man of black colour. The Bedjas have no religion, and are people of no understanding. Their males and females go constantly naked, with some rags round their loins, but many of them have no covering whatever. The heat is very great at Aidab, on account of the burning Simoum. (V. note _b_ at the end.)

NOTES.

* * * * *

(1.) This work of Ibn Selym I have in vain searched for in Egypt. Its title is well known; at Assouan and at Derr in Nubia, I found that some people knew it by name, but I never could find any body who had seen it.

(1.*) (see p. 494). I am led to believe, from different circumstances, that the Mokel here meant is the Doum. Wahyshe speaks of a tree called the blue Mokel, or Mokel el Azrek, which he says resembles the quince tree, has no fruit or flower, but emits from its trunk a fluid that has a good odour, and is used as a perfume. This tree, he adds, is principally found in Barbary. Of the Mokel simply so called, Wahyshe says that it produces a gum which is used by the Arabs as a mixture with perfumes, and that it grows in Arabia. He no farther describes the tree. I am ignorant whether the Doum produces a gum.

(2.) Selt (سلت) is a species of barley. In an abridgment of Ibn Wahyshe’s translation of the Agriculture of the Nabateans,[192] it is said that the Selt requires a hard stony soil and little water. (The country of Bedja would therefore be well fitted for it.) The bread made of it is of difficult digestion.

(3.) The expression of the author (فيعتقبون الارض لفيقها) may likewise mean, that the first cultivator makes room for another, who sows in the same spot after him.

(4.) Djawars or Djawarsh (جاورس or جاورش). A grain unknown to me, and, I believe, unknown in Egypt. The above cited author says that it requires a well watered soil to prosper; and that it is like Dhourra.

(5.) I find this name spelt Bedjrash, Bahrash, Narash, Bakhrash, Nadjrash. The two first occur most frequently.

(6.) The sense of this passage is not clear in my MSS. من قال حتي ان عظيمهم اذا جزبها و قف به المسلمي و اوهم افه يفتّش عليه حتي يجد الطريق الي و لده او وزيره و من دو نهما.—In another copy I find اذا حاربها و قف بها.

(7.) The Sembad is a stone still used in Egypt by jewellers and goldsmiths to give a polish; but it is imported from India and not from Nubia.

(8.) This ruin of Say I have not seen myself, as I could find no boat to carry me over. But I saw from a distance an ancient castle-like edifice among the palm groves.

(9.) This corresponds to the country of Mahass.

(10.) I find this word written Yonso, Benso, Noso. Perhaps Mosho, the frontier town of Dóngola is meant. The extent of the Merysy language is perfectly well indicated here.

(11.) I find it spelt likewise Yaoun (يعون). The description of this country agrees well with the present state of the country of Dóngola.

(12.) Taghtit and Nouby are, I believe, different species of the parrot. The term Babagh (ببغ), which I have translated here by parrot, is given to a small green parrot of the size of a black-bird. The Sennaar caravans bring them to Cairo. Some of them are found at Sennaar, but the greater part come from the neighbourhood of Shilluk, on the Nil el Abyadh. I never saw any wild parrots in any part of Nubia.

(13.) I find this written likewise Sendykal and Sefdabkal (سنديقل, سفدبقل).

(14.) The Sant is a well known species of Mimosa, very common in Upper Egypt and all over Nubia. The wood Sadj is of a dark brown colour, and very hard. Articles of furniture are manufactured from it at Bombay and Surat, and are exported to Djidda, from whence they are sent to Cairo. According to Masoudy, in his Golden Meadows (مروج الزهب), the Sadj is a very large tree, larger than the palm or the walnut tree.[193]

(15.) The Arabic reads ولقد رايت علي بعضها علامة عربية, and another copy has: علامة غريبة, which would mean, I have seen myself on several of them very curious signs of workmanship.

(16.) Instead of Shenka and Shenkyr, I find these words also written Sheka, Shekfyr, and Shenfyr.

(17.) This name is written in a different manner, every time that it occurs. Nadha, Nasza, Madha, Badha (ناضع, ناصع, ماضع, باضع). Shultens, in the extracts he gives from Masoudy in his Monumenta, has adopted the reading of Nasza, which he calls Nazoa. It is no doubt a harbour on the coast of Abyssinia, or on the coast between Souakin and Dahlak. If on the coast of Abyssinia, the names of Massouah, or as it may likewise be written, Masōa (مصوع), or Madyr, in the bay of Amphila, two days journey south of Massouah, which, according to Mr. Salt, is a much frequented port, are the nearest corresponding to it in sound. If, on the contrary, a harbour is meant north of Massouah or Dahlak, it seems, from Capt. Court’s map, that the only good harbour on that coast is Port Mornington, of which it is to be regretted that we are not acquainted with the native name.

(18.) The Beni Omeya and Koreysh, who fled from Mekka into Abyssinia, are meant here.

(19.) I find this city spelt Maafa, Naka, Yafa (معافة, ناقه, يافه); in Arabic MSS. the points over the consonants of proper names are very often misplaced. I read here Tafa (تافة), because, at one long day’s journey from Assouan is a ruined town of that name, which I have mentioned in my journal. More considerable remains of private habitations are seen there than any where else between the cataracts, and likewise several small temples. Descendants of ancient Christian families are still found here among the tribe of Kenz, who inhabit these parts.

(20.) Of this word are different readings. I find it spelt Nara in two copies, and Zonara in one: (from the latter word Sennaar might perhaps be derived.) نارة, زناره.

(21.) These pigeons are called Narein or Bazein (نارين or بازين). I prefer the former name, as being derived from the name of Nara.

(22.) The Bekam is a dye wood that comes to Cairo by the way of the Red Sea, from India and the Somauly coast. I believe it to be the logwood.

(23.) The Kena (قناة, plur. قنا) is the cane of which the shafts of lances are made.

(24.) The Arabic name of سرداب, is applied to cellars, caverns, grottos, and subterraneous passages, the work of men and not of nature.

(25.) To place Meroe between the Nile and the Atbara, where Shendy lays, is totally inconsistent with the nature of the ground. For, instead of the fertile island, we find there only a narrow border of cultivated ground, close by the river, while the whole country from thence to the Atbara is a desert, barren soil. I believe that the distances given by Herodotus will be found to agree very well with the position of the island described by Selym.

(26.) This theory of the rise of the Nile is certainly more natural than the theory of Herodotus, Strabo, or Diodorus Siculus. The remarkable fact that the Nile rises every where at the same time is universally believed in Egypt, and the first day after the Khamseyin, or the 18th-20th of June is stated all over Egypt as the day of rise. To make exact researches on that subject would require several observers stationed in different spots, and making their observations on the rise of the river at the same time. I am ignorant whether the French savants have done it.

(27.) The explanation which I have given of this passage appears to me the only reasonable one. I do not find the term of Ras Hofra applied to the Cape of Guardafui by the Arabian geographers, who usually call this promontory Djebel Mandeb. But I find in Edrisy a passage that supports my opinion of this cape being designated here by the name of Ras Hofra. He says (Geog. Nub. i. 6.) in speaking of the Djebel Mandeb: “on the back of this mountain is a cave, which if once entered, none comes out again, on account of some beast that devours him, or on account of pits (Hofer, the plural of Hofra), into which he falls.”[194]

(28.) Northwards is here rendered by the word بحري, Bahry, which is the usual word applied to the north by the Egyptians, who have the Mediterranean or el Bahr always to the north.

(29.) The different readings of this name are, Souba, Souya, (سوية, سوبة). I strongly suspect it to be the same city which is called below Serfeta, Serketa, Serkya (سرقيه, سرقته, سرفته), as a copyist might easily make that mistake.

(30.) Edrys, in describing Nubia, speaks of a town called Ghaloa (غلوه), which he places much farther down the Nile than this Aloa, although I believe that the latter is meant. The point over the ع makes the sole difference.

(31.) This I find written Korsa, Kortyna, and Koroma (كرما, كرتينا, كرسا). I have chosen the latter appellation, because it is an Arabic word, meaning “the generous,” an epithet that might well be given to the Meroe shepherds.

(32.) This town is likewise spelt Zerla (زرلا). I prefer (زلا), as similarly corresponding in sound to Zeyla; and if under the country of Kanem we must understand here the whole of the middle part of northern Africa, the author is quite right in stating that the nearest place to Egypt is Zela, (or Zeyla) because this was no doubt the nearest place on the caravan road, although it might not be so in a straight direction.

(33.) This is likewise spelt Wandy (وندي, دندي).

(34.) I find this name written likewise Djezye or Herye (جزية, حريه, خربه).

(35.) The work of Djaheth alluded to here, is probably his natural history.

(36.) The existence of these emerald mines has lately been authenticated by an European traveller. (V. note 82.)

(37.) هذا عرش فُلان, may mean “this is the tent covering, or the tent pole, or the panoply, of such a man.” In one of the MSS. it is written عرس; which would mean, “this is the wedding of such a one.” But the allusion to the tent is preferable, because it was therein that the guest was defrauded or ill treated.

(38.) I am not acquainted with the tree Shohat (شوحظ), but I find in the dictionary that it is a kind of yew tree. Wahyshe, in the above cited work, says that it is a fine looking tree which grows to a considerable height, with yellow leaves, shaped like those of the apple tree; its wood is of a spotted colour, black and white, of which the Persians and Arabs formerly made great use.

(39.) In a small minerological treatise of Tyfashy (خواص الاحجار ليو سف التيفاشي), I find the Hamest mentioned as a stone used in polishing sword blades, and other arms, and likewise to cut with. It is added, that this stone is principally found in the valley of Szafra, in the Hedjaz.

(40.) Under Ahlylid, I believe the Myrobolan to be understood, although it is not quite certain whether this is really the tree. Ibn Wahyshe describes four different species of it; the Indian, which is divided into two species, the yellow and black; and the Kabely, which is likewise of two sorts, black and white.

(41.) The Adkher or Azkher (ادخر or اذخر), is, according to Wahyshe, a shrub growing in deserts. It is odoriferous, with a red flower or rose. Its seed is a narcotic and an astringent. The plant is not unknown at Cairo. Amongst the charcoal rolled up in mats which is sent to Cairo from Upper Egypt, where it is collected principally by the Arabs Ababde, who live in the mountains south of Kenne and Kosseir, some branches of this Adkher are often met with, and are bought up by the druggists. In Azraky’s history of Mekka, I find that it grows likewise in the Hedjaz, and that formerly the Mekkans mixed it with the mortar (or to burn the mortar), with which they built their houses and their tombs, or perhaps they burnt the mortar with it.

(42.) The Shyh is the Artemisia; and is found in most deserts, for I have seen it in those of the Euphrates, of Arabia petræa, of the Hedjaz, of Nubia, and it is likewise found in Libya. It is one of the favorite herbs of the camels. In the Syrian deserts it is burnt by the Arabs, and the alkali procured from it is exported to the Syrian towns, where it is used in the manufacture of soap.

(43.) The Senna and coloquintida are mentioned in different parts of my journal.

(44.) El Ban, a species of tamarisk, I believe. Wahyshe says it produces a pulse, the shape of which is like that of a lupin, and the bean like a pistaccio nut. It has a green flower.

(45.) The Fahed is a beast of prey, which, according to Damyry, in his Zoology, is called Heyat el Heywan (حيوة الحيوان للدميري), and is born of the tiger and the lion. Its propensity to sleep has become proverbial among the Arabs. The Khalifs of Bagdad and the governors of Mekka used it to hunt game.[195]

(46.) Anak el Ardh (عناق الارض), according to the same, is an animal smaller than the Fahed, of the size of a small dog. It has a long back. It hunts every thing, even birds. It is probably a weazel or a martern. Damyry adds, that it belongs to the species of the lion, and that it is likewise called Teffa (تفّه).

(47.) At Cairo the name of Komary is given to a species of turtle dove, with a ring of white or coloured feathers round the neck. They are scarce in Egypt.

(48.) I do not know what is meant by the Habesh fowl. In Egypt a species of fowl is distinguished by the name of Bedja fowl (دجاجه البحر), which is somewhat larger than other fowls, but is indigenous in the country.

(49.) Perhaps the people called Nara (v. note 20) are meant here; or else it is from this race of Baza, that the name of the pigeon Bazein derives its origin (v. note 21.)

(50.) In my journal, in speaking of Souakin, I have mentioned these Hadareb; but, according to the manner in which I saw their name spelt then, I wrote them Hadherebe (حضارب) and not Hadareb. I have stated that they are a colony from Hadhramout, at least this is universally affirmed by themselves. From what is said here, it should seem that they are Bedjas, or at least very ancient settlers in that country.

(51.) From the manner in which Nadha is mentioned here, with regard to Dahlak, it should appear that both places are distant from each other, and that Nadha, or Madha, or Maza, cannot therefore be Massouah (V. note 17.)

(52.) It seems that at that time, as at present, people were found among the Djidda inhabitants who spoke Bedja or the Bisharein language. Many Djidda people are established even now at Souakin, and return home after having made a small fortune with the trade in slaves and Soudan merchandise.

(53.) Instead of في عدة قوية و رجال منتخبة, one of the copies has في عدة قليلة, which would mean, with a small but well chosen force. عدة means the equipment of an army or numbers.

(54.) The Discourse of el Ahbās: خطبة الاحباس.—الاحباس, has the same signification as الاوقاف, and means property bequeathed for pious or beneficent purposes. It is probably a small treatise in which the different decisions which Aly gave on that subject have been collected.

(55.) It should appear therefore that the famous mines of Ollaky contain gold dust, and no ore.

(56.) The extracts which Macrizi has here given from Masoudy’s excellent work, called Meroudj e’dahab, or the Golden Meadows, are made from different parts of it. The great work of that historian, called Akhbar e’Zaman (اخبار الزمان), which I suspect is one of the richest treasures of Arabian literature, is not extant in Egypt. A Shikh from Cairo told me that he had seen above 20 volumes in quarto of it,[196] in the library of the mosque of St. Sophia at Constantinople.

(57.) Arteyt, or Arneyb (ارتيت, ارنيب).

(58.) This does not agree with the statement above, that their colour has a yellow tinge. I believe the colour of the Bedjas and that of the Habesh people to be much the same, from the many individuals of the latter whom I have seen at Mekka. The people of the Amhara province of Abyssinia are certainly less black than the Bedjas.

(59.) Thus I translate و كان القصر فرضة القوص. The word فرضة, is still applied in Egypt and in the Hedjaz to designate the income of the custom-house.

(60.) I call the conqueror of Egypt Amr, because his name is thus pronounced by the Arabs, and not Amrou, as the Europeans pronounce it. The و at the end of عمرو, which is added to distinguish the name from عمر, Omar, is never pronounced.

(61.) Slinging machines (مجانيق), to throw stones, appear to have been used by the Arabs in very ancient times. Some time after the death of Mohammed, the rebel Yezyd defended himself at Mekka against Ibn Zebeyr with similar machines. (V. Azraky’s History of Mekka).

(62.) The different names recorded in these notices of Nubian kings, are all Greek or Christian names. In an odd volume of Macrizi’s “ancient history of Egypt,” called Akhbar Messr fi Ed-daher Elawel (اخبار مصر في الدهر الاول), in the chapter of “the titles and surnames given to the kings of different nations,” I find it stated, that the name of the ancient kings of Nouba was always Kabyl (كابيل), in the same manner as Hatty was the name given to the kings of Abyssinia, Toba to those of the Hemyar race of Yemen, &c. &c. This volume of a work of Macrizi’s, which I believe is no where found complete in Egypt, is the more valuable, because it is written by the author’s own hand, with many notes and corrections.[197] It belongs to the library of Seyd Mahrouky, the first merchant of Cairo, who has the finest collection of books in Egypt, and which he is continually enlarging, although he has given them to a mosque lately built by him.

(63.) In the history of Bahnase (Oxyrinchus), and that of its valorous defence against the Arab conquerors of Egypt, I find it stated, that a large army of Bedjas and Noubas, headed by Maksouh, king of Bedja, and Ghalyk, king of Nouba, came to the assistance of the Christian chief, Batlos, who was besieged at Bahnase, by the officers of Amr Ibn el Aas. This black army is said to have consisted of 50,000 men. They had with them 1,300 elephants, each bearing upon its back a vaulted house made of leather, in which 10 men took their post in the battle. In the company of the Bedjas were a race of men of gigantic stature, called El Kowad (القواد), coming from beyond Souakin. They were covered with tiger skins, and in their upper lips copper rings were fixed. The Moslims defeated this army. There is a strange mixture of truth and romance in this history, but the arrival of the Bedja army is so well authenticated by a train of witnesses, that little doubt can remain of its having really taken place; although the number both of men and elephants seems to be exaggerated. The elephants of southern Nubia are, as far as I know, no longer used to ride upon.

(64.) I am unacquainted with the wine measure called Kanyr.

(65.) Or Bahbas (بحنس—بحبس).

(66.) The text has ان اسوان اشتروا املاقاً من عبيده. The word املاق (Emlak, plural of Malaka) is used in Egypt as synonymous with بلاد, or ضياع, villages. It is likewise used as a measure of distance, and the peasants say, “such a place is distant so many Emlak from another,” meaning that so many villages intervene between the two points. According to the greater or lesser population of the province, the villages are farther from or nearer to each other. A Malaka in Upper Egypt may be taken for one hour and a half, and in Lower Egypt for one hour.

(67.) I find this name written in my MSS. Shekende, Sekebde, Tenekde, Sekende, (شكندة, سكبدة, تنكدة, سكنده).

(68.) The intendant of his household, or Istedar (استدار). Syouty, in his description of Egypt, called Hossn el Mohādhera (حسن المحاضرة) says, in his chapter of the officers at court, that the Istedar has under his inspection the household establishment of the Sultan of Egypt, in as far as relates to domestic affairs, expenses, and dress. He is one of the great officers at court.

(69.) Djanedar (جاندار) I believe to be a chief of soldiers, from the word Djend, (جند).

(70.) Provincial horsemen, اجناد الولايات. The word جند, or جندي, is at present applied in Egypt exclusively to a horseman, in opposition to عسكري, a foot soldier. I do not know how far back this use of the word جند may date, which originally means a soldier of any kind, whether cavalry or infantry.

(71.) Kallat Addo (قلعة الدو), or the castle Addo, is no doubt the same mentioned before, in the description of Nouba, under the name of Addoa, which I believe to be the castle of Adde.

(72.) From this Moslim name it should seem that the Noubas had Moslims in their service; and it is not surprising that they should go over to the enemy.

(73.) We have seen above that a giraffa had already been sent in tribute by the Noubas to the Kalif el Mohdy. Masoudy, in his chapter on the Negroe nations, in the Golden Meadows, says that it was the custom in the time of the Abassides, to present them with giraffas. Djaheth, in his natural history, called “The Animals” (الحيوان),[198] says that the Giraffas are no where found in the world, but in the southern Nouba country. The southern parts of Africa were unknown to the Arabs.

(74.) The notices of these Arab tribes is interesting, because it shows how this part of Africa came to be peopled by them, and explains why we find on the Nile, in Kordofan, Darfour, and Borgho, pure Arabian blood. In speaking of the Bedjas, the author has already mentioned the tribes of Modher (مُضر), Rabya, and Djeheyne, who intermixed with the Bedjas. Of the Djeheyne, some appear to have wandered farther on towards Darfour, where I have heard that they are still settled, and of whom I have myself seen an individual at Cairo. I have stated in my first journal through Nubia, that the few inhabitants of the Batn el Hadjar, above the second cataract, trace their origin from the tribe of Koreysh, no doubt descendants of those who were settled in the neighbourhood of Assouan. In the chapter on Upper Egypt, which precedes these notices on Nubia, Macrizi states, “the most numerous and potent tribes of Upper Egypt were six: Beni Helal, Bily, Djeheyna, Koresh, Howata, and Beni Kelab. Besides these great tribes, many of the Anzar[199] alighted in these parts, and many from the tribes of Mezeyna, Beni Deradj, Beni Keleb, Thalebe, and Djezam.” Almost all these tribes can still be traced in Egypt and its neighbouring country. Beni Helal have retired to Barbary, where they are very powerful; I do not believe that any of them remain in Egypt at present.[200] The Bily are found in the province of Sherkye in Lower Egypt. The Djeheyne are in the same province, and some descendants of them have a few poor encampments in the plains of Kous and Goft in Upper Egypt. The Koreysh, as I have said before, are met with in Nubia[201] Some of the Beni Kelab are at present cultivators in several villages in the vicinity of Miniet in Upper Egypt. The Mezeyna, a strong tribe of Beni Harb, still living in the desert east of Medina, are likewise found in the peninsula of Mount Sinai. Several peasant tribes of the Sherkye[202] claim descent from the Rabya, a tribe that accompanied Amr Ibn el Aas to Egypt, and had the principal share in the conquest of the country. And the Beni Kenz, a branch of these Rabya, are still settled above the cataract of Assouan, forming part of the nation commonly called Berábera in Egypt, a name which, as I have stated in my journal, is given to them by the Egyptians only, and is not their own.[203] The history of the emigration of the Arab tribes into Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, Barbary, and Soudan, would throw great light upon the race of these nations, and in Egypt in particular, we should find that the Ethiopian blood is not the aboriginal of the nation, as some ingenious authors have asserted. From Syout to Assouan the country is exclusively inhabited by Arab tribes; on the west bank as high up as Orment, and on the east side as high as Kenne, live peasant tribes who state their origin to be from Barbary Bedouins; farther south, tribes from Arabia are found, as the Hāmede, Djaafere, Rowādjah, and others.

(75.) I believe the town of Souba to be here meant, (v. note 29) of which Selym el Assouany speaks, as being the capital of Aloa. In my manuscript of Masoudy, which I have compared, the name of this town is spelt Serfeta. The MSS. of Macrizi call it Serketa, Serkya, and another MS. of Masoudy, belonging to the library of the mosque of Mohamed Beg at Cairo, has not accentuated the word at all.

(76.) The Merysan wind is still well known in Egypt. The name is applied to chilly, violent south winds, which take place in Egypt in the month of Touba, or January; and which in Lower Egypt are often followed or preceded by showers. The south winds prevailing from March to June, are called simply, southerly winds (ريح قبلي), and the name of Merysan wind is exclusively given to those of Touba, which are always cold, and are much disliked by the people of Cairo.[204]

(77.) It is probable that the Beni Kenz then first entered Nubia, where they have closely intermixed with the inhabitants, and adopted their Merysan language. I have stated in my journal, that the Kenz of Nubia still assert their origin to be from Arabia, although few, if any of them, are acquainted with their history. Here it appears therefore that they belong to the Rabya.

I find in Macrizi’s history, called el Selouk,[205] ad annum 569, and in a short note of Macrizi’s treatise of the Kalifs who performed the pilgrimage (رسالته من حج من الخُلفَا والسلاطين للمقريزي) that in the year 568-69, A. H. Shams eddyn Touran Shah, a brother of Salah eddyn, made an incursion into Nubia from Yemen.

(77.)

و ينجد ه ان خانه الدهر او سطا

اناسٌ اذا ما انجد الذل اتهموا

اجار وا فما تحت الكواكب خايفٌ

اجادوا فما فوق السيطه معدم

The second line, literally translated, is “People they are who go to Tehama, when dishonour (or ignominy) goes to Nedjed.” That is to say, they retire to the side opposite to dishonour. Nedjed receives its name from being an elevated country, in opposition to Tehama, the sea coast of Yemen and Hedjaz. In translating it in this manner, I am warranted by a verse of Abou Temama el Tāy, in which he says,

وانجد تموا من بعد اتهام دار كم

You have turned to Nedjed after your mansion was in Tehama.

فيا دمع انجد ني علي ساكني نجد

O tears! help me against the inhabitants of Nedjed.

(78.) The author of these verses, which convey the highest praise that can be given to an Arab, is probably the same Ibn Zebeyr who is known as the author of a history of Assouan.

(79.) I suppose this attack to be that mentioned by the Egyptian historians, to have taken place in the time of the before mentioned Salah eddyn; of which I however know no more particulars, than that during his reign the King of Nouba fell upon Assouan.