T R A N S L A T E D B Y J A S O N C O L A V I T O
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NOTE |
The Akhbār al-zamān, also known by the alternate title The Digest of Wonders (as the extant manuscripts give varying titles), is a treasury of medieval lore about the world before the Flood and the wonders of Egypt before and after the Deluge. This text has long been considered the earliest extant account of these myths, but its exact origins and provenance are unknown. Based on internal evidence and the dates when manuscripts were copied, it appears that the text was composed no earlier than 904 CE and no later than 1140, though it is clearly based on much older sources, including the work of Abu Ma‘shar, dating to 840-860 CE, and Christian chronographic material, likely the chronography of Annianus, dating back to Late Antiquity. Its author is unknown. Tradition, and one manuscript, attribute it to al-Masʿūdī (c. 896-956 CE), who wrote a thirty-volume encyclopedia with the same title. (Our manuscript may have acquired its title from much later confusion with the book by al-Masʿūdī.) Close similarities in language, and an ascription on a 1211 CE manuscript now in St. Petersburg, suggest that the author might have been the mysterious figure known as Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah (a.k.a. al-Wasifi), a presumed twelfth century writer. The question of the true author remains open.
This valuable book of lore is the earliest surviving form of stories better known to the West from their appearance in Murtada ibn al-‘Afif’s thirteenth century Prodigies of Egypt and al-Maqrizi’s fifteenth century Al-Khitat. I have made the following translation from the French edition of Baron Carra de Vaux, published in 1898 as L’abrégé des merveilles. I have tried to be as literal as possible. Words and phrases in parentheses are explanatory notes, adapted from those of Carra de Vaux. Material in square brackets are lines that do not appear in all four of the manuscripts Carra de Vaux used in preparing his text. Bracketed lines marked as variant are alternative readings to the preceding sentence appearing in a single manuscript. |
PART ONE: PEOPLES AND NATIONS
Chapter 1: On the Creation
In the name of God, clement and merciful, Abu al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Hodali al-Masʿūdī said:
We begin by giving glory to God by thanking him for his blessings, by invoking his blessings on all his prophets and all his angels, especially on our Lord and Prophet Muhammad and on his wives and his companions. We will present what we know of the secrets of nature and the different types of creatures, limiting ourselves to what relates to our design. We will append the traditions concerning the kings of the earth, the wonders they made, and the description of the different wonders that the different countries contain, magical instruments, talismans, temples, laws, countries, and inscriptions on stones. We will discuss all the things which have been reported. We will also discuss what is known about the ancient laws and pagan doctrines, as well as what was transmitted by the sages of old. May God be our guide!
I have titled my book: The Book of the History of Time and That Which Was Destroyed by Revolutions, the Wonders of the Countries, of the Seas, and of the Lands. I therefore say:
God, whose glory is great and whose names are holy, has created without need; he made his creatures grow without his need for them, but he created them only so that they might serve him and glorify him, that they might thank him for his blessings. That is why he said: “I created the djinn and mankind only that they might serve me. I did not need them to feed me” (Quran 51:56-57). For God himself is the sustenance of all things, and all power comes from him. His creation does not grow by even the weight of an atom, nor does their loss reduce its grandeur by even a hair. It is unchanging: it does not generate power, and its power is diminished neither by the days, nor by night. He endowed his creatures with hearing, sight, intelligence, so that by these faculties they might know the true and the false, the useful and the harmful. He gave them the earth as an expanse that they might walk therein by spacious roads (Quran 71:19), and the sky as a solidly built roof (Quran 21:32); He has sent down from heaven the clouds, which pour out rain and fertility. He set the course of the moon in the night and that of the sun during the day, so that they in turn serve a useful function; he gave them the night as a rest (Quran 6:96) and the day as a time for action (Quran 78:11). He made the sign of the night and made the sign of the day; both were established to enable people to know the times (Quran 17:12) of their different obligations, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, pilgrimage, and so they can calculate the years and the maturities of their debts. God the Almighty said: “They ask you about the new moons. Answer them that they are used to measure the time for men and to regulate the pilgrimage” (Quran 2:189). He also said: “It is God who placed the sun as a torch and the moon as a light, and measured their houses to calculate years and time. He has created these things in view of justice” (Quran 10:5).
Sa‘id bin Jubayr narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas this tradition: The world lasts for one week of the other world; and these weeks are comprised of days of a thousand years. Six thousand years and many hundreds of years more have already passed. There are still a few hundred years to come. — Nāfi‘ told from the son of Omar: “I heard the Prophet of God say ‘You have come through the report of past nations as in the space of time between the prayer of ‘aṣr and sunset.’” — Abu Hureyrah said: “The Prophet of God said: ‘My mission and the time of the end of the world are like these two fingers,’ and he pointed to the index and middle finger.” — A tradition taken from Sahl ibn Sa’d al-Sa’idi holds that the Prophet of God said, “Time and I, we are like two racehorses struggling near the end of the race.”
According to Ibn ‘Abbas, the Prophet would have said: “The first creature of God is the Qalam (reed pen); He created it from light. Its length is five hundred years of operation.” He then created the preserved tablet, from a white pearl, and it gave it an edge of red hyacinth. Its width equals the distance between heaven and earth. He created them before creatures, before heaven, and before earth. He told the Qalam, “Write.” The Qalam replied, “What shall I write?” He said, “Write everything I know of creation until the day of resurrection.” Then the Qalam inscribed on the tablet all that had to happen until the day of resurrection, and all that was in the knowledge of God. God Almighty looks at this tablet three hundred and sixty times each day, and then he creates, he develops, he gives life, and he causes death; he performs everything he wishes to do and he executes all he has decided.
The Prophet was asked, “Where was God before our master created humanity, heaven, and the earth?” He said that he had been in a cloud, having only air above him and air below him. He then created his tabernacle on the water. — We asked Ibn ‘Abbas: “What does the water sit upon?” He replied: “On the back of the wind; and when the Creator wished to produce the creatures, he gave to the wind power over the water, and the water swelled in waves, splashed with foam, and sent vapor over itself. And these vapors remained high above the water, and God called this heaven. The foam solidified and became land. The earth was placed on a fish [and the fish on a bull].”
This is discussed in the book of God, where it says: “N...” [There is a lacuna in the text, which likely referenced Quran 68:1: “Nun. By the Qalam and what is written thereby.”] The Qalam and that which was written thereby place the fish in the water and the water upon on a rock and the rock on the back of the wind. The earth shook, and God ordered the waves to rise above it in steep mountains, and the waves arrested themselves in this position and remained stable. This is what the Almighty says: He has established firm places on earth. “We have established,” he said, “on earth, solid mountains, that they might secure your home” (Quran 16:15).
Ibn ‘Abbas reported that the Jews came to the Prophet and asked about the origin of the world. He answered them that God created the earth on Sunday and Monday. He created the mountains along with that which they contain on Tuesday. He created the water, trees, towns, and fertile fields on Wednesday. Such is his word: “Do not disbelieve him who created the Earth in two days,” up to the words “also to all those who ask” (Quran 41:9-10). On Thursday, he created the sky, the planets, the fixed stars, and the angels. On Friday, he created heaven and the fires of hell, and Adam, on whom may there be salvation. “And after?” asked the Jews. After that, Muhammad said he stood balanced on his throne (Quran 7:54). The Jews answered, “You would have spoken well if you had finished by saying: ‘And then he rested.’” The Prophet of God was very angry with this remark, and he received revelation of this verse: “We created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six days, and we have not felt fatigue. Be patient over what they say” (Quran 50:38-39).
We read in a tradition of Asad ibn Musa that God Almighty commanded the skies to rise and they rose; he ordered the earth to spread and to descend as it spread; God spread it around the location of the holy house. — The Prophet said: “The world is hollow and pushed back; if it were not so, the sun and moon would burn the earth and everything on it. In between one heaven and the next heaven there is a space of five hundred years of walking, and between the seventh heaven and the throne, a space of one thousand years.”
The Prophet says of God: “He is the first, and there is nothing before him; and the last, and there is nothing after him.” — Zorarah ibn Abu Aufa reports that the Prophet said: “I asked Jibril (the angel Gabriel): ‘Have you ever seen your Lord?’ Jibril was confused and said, ‘O, Muhammad, between me and him there are seventy thousand veils of light. If I approached one of those veils, I would be burned.’”
After God decided to create Adam, he ordered Jibril to descend onto the earth and take up a handful of the earth, with which he would create man. But the earth said to Jibril: “I beg you in the name of God not take anything from me.” And Jibril returned to God, saying, “The earth implored me in your name.” God sent Israfil, who returned with the same message. Then he sent the angel of death, and the earth still implored him in the name of God; but the Angel of Death answered: “I come by order of my Lord, and I beg you not to allow me to return to him without executing his command.”
Many traditionalists say that God first infused the spirit into Adam in the head and eyes, before infusing it in the rest of the body. Adam, before seeing the fruits of paradise, wished to move to reach them, before the spirit had started his legs, so he could not. That is why God said, “Man is overly hasty” (Quran 17:11).
When Adam was created, the angels were amazed at him, and God ordered them all to bow down before him. They bowed in obedience, except for Iblis (the devil), who was filled with pride and became animated by a spirit of hatred and revolt. [“I am better than him,” he said to God, “for you created me from fire whereas you created him from mud.”] God became irritated with Iblis, the accursed: this was the cause of his fall to the earth, [and he became evil].
The ancient sages say that God gathered the stars in Aries. He gave them the Sun for a king; Mercury assumed the place of secretary; Jupiter was the judge; Mars, the guardian who carries weapons; the Moon was the treasurer; Venus, the wife; and Saturn, the counselor. The nodes (i.e. the points where the ecliptic crosses the equator) were employed in the operation of the celestial sphere.
The ancients reported that there were on earth twenty-eight races of creatures endowed with spiritual powers and strength, corresponding to the twenty-eight houses (of the moon). They believed that past nations were under the direction of the fixed stars. There are one thousand and twenty fixed stars, each of which runs through the zodiac over thirty-six thousand years. It is they who produce all operations and direct all world affairs.
Some traditionalists say God created the celestial spheres out of sea water and after the water had been inflated, it solidified. The spheres are seven in number; on top of them is placed the Inhabited House; this house has three hundred and sixty doors, each of which opens onto a degree of the sphere. All blessings and all graces flow from these open doors onto the signs (of the zodiac), and those are the stars which transmit them to the Earth. — The traditionalists further say: God created a substance that fills his kingdom and is called the mind. Above are the veils, and above all this is placed the throne. That is why God said, “He has expanded his throne above the heavens and the earth.” The throne and everything in it are themselves placed in the tabernacle; the tabernacle and everything in it are contained in the knowledge of God.
The highest of the seven wandering stars is Saturn. Below it, Jupiter is placed, followed in order by Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. — Several among the ancient sages believed that the stars were angels, each having a share in the administration of the world. This is why they glorified them and worshiped them.
Some think that the higher creatures, which are the angels, are divided into twelve classes corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and that God’s commands are transmitted from one class to another. God gave these angels their strength and various faculties. Some may assume a figure so colossal that it would fill the earth; others may assume one so small it would pass through the eye of a needle; they penetrate into the depths of the earth, in the seas, in the mountains, and no one can stop them. There are angels which have wings in pairs of two, three, or four; it is of them that God says, “They travel in a flash to the ends of the earth.” There are some that are made of light; others are azure like the flame, and still others are resplendent. Some angels are carriers of the grace of God, while others function as guards and supervisors; these originate from water vapor; they have lovely faces, but dark in color. They are occupied solely in the service of God, and they have various forms to infinity.
Physicists teach that, after the creation of the spheres, the spheres played the role of the body in relation to the stars, and the stars played the role of spirits relative to the spheres.
Hermes said: “After creating the signs of the Zodiac, God divided time among them. He gave to Aries the presiding role for twelve thousand years; Taurus assumed it for eleven thousand years; Gemini assumed it for ten thousand years, [nine thousand to Cancer], eight thousand to the Lion, seven thousand to the Virgin, six thousand to Libra, five thousand to Scorpio, four thousand to Sagittarius, three thousand to Capricorn, two thousand to Aquarius, and one thousand to Pisces. The full tour of the entire celestial sphere is seventy-eight thousand years. The planet Saturn has dominated for fifty-six thousand years; the remaining time is shared between the other planets. During the time that the world was under the signs of Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, there were no animals. This lasted the duration of thirty-three thousand years; there were no longer any spiritual beings on earth. When the turn of Cancer came, there appeared sea monsters and the giants of the earth. When Leo had taken the presiding role, quadrupeds appeared on earth. When it was the turn of the Virgin, there were born the two humans, Adamānūs and Hīwāūs. The birds appeared during the reign of Libra.”
Here is what physicists think of the size of the stars: The Sun is one hundred and sixty-three times as big as the Earth; Saturn, ninety-one and a half times as big as her; Jupiter, eighty-one times; Mars, seventy-three times; Venus, sixty and a bit more times; Mercury thirty-three and a third; Moon, twenty-seven times and a quarter. The Sun is, as we have said, the king of the planets.
There are philosophers who think that the planets are alive, endowed with reason and senses. According to some of them, the planets have the senses of hearing, sight, and touch, but not those of taste and smell, which would be useless for them. Many say that the celestial sphere is alive, and that it distinguishes all that is in it and that has corporeal form. They say that the Moon borrows its light from the Sun, because when these two stars meet, the Moon loses its light. According to some of them, the world was created, but it will never end because it is the work of wisdom and the work of wisdom cannot perish. On the length of time, they express different opinions, of which we will report only that which has a wonderful character, without worrying about the truth. The book of Sindhind (i.e. Siddhānta, or Indian philosophy), from which were made the Almagest and several tables, teaches that the orbit the Sun, from its starting point in Aries, will only be completed in the space of 1,400,020,000 rounds, each of which is one year, being the year of three hundred sixty-five days and a quarter. They say that the measure of the cycle is 4,320,000,000 rounds, each comprising one thousand years. The traditionalists report that the age of the world up to Adam was seven thousand years. Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari says, as we reported earlier, that from Adam until the end of the world seven thousand years must pass; and he tells us that before the end of time, the sun will rise in the West. Some people say that when the Heart (Antares, in Scorpius) reaches the fifteenth degree of the Lion, there will be a deluge of fire that will consume the world, leaving no living being in the sea or on land. After that God will restore such creatures as he pleases. Aristotle believed that time has neither beginning nor end and that nature is eternal.
We begin by giving glory to God by thanking him for his blessings, by invoking his blessings on all his prophets and all his angels, especially on our Lord and Prophet Muhammad and on his wives and his companions. We will present what we know of the secrets of nature and the different types of creatures, limiting ourselves to what relates to our design. We will append the traditions concerning the kings of the earth, the wonders they made, and the description of the different wonders that the different countries contain, magical instruments, talismans, temples, laws, countries, and inscriptions on stones. We will discuss all the things which have been reported. We will also discuss what is known about the ancient laws and pagan doctrines, as well as what was transmitted by the sages of old. May God be our guide!
I have titled my book: The Book of the History of Time and That Which Was Destroyed by Revolutions, the Wonders of the Countries, of the Seas, and of the Lands. I therefore say:
God, whose glory is great and whose names are holy, has created without need; he made his creatures grow without his need for them, but he created them only so that they might serve him and glorify him, that they might thank him for his blessings. That is why he said: “I created the djinn and mankind only that they might serve me. I did not need them to feed me” (Quran 51:56-57). For God himself is the sustenance of all things, and all power comes from him. His creation does not grow by even the weight of an atom, nor does their loss reduce its grandeur by even a hair. It is unchanging: it does not generate power, and its power is diminished neither by the days, nor by night. He endowed his creatures with hearing, sight, intelligence, so that by these faculties they might know the true and the false, the useful and the harmful. He gave them the earth as an expanse that they might walk therein by spacious roads (Quran 71:19), and the sky as a solidly built roof (Quran 21:32); He has sent down from heaven the clouds, which pour out rain and fertility. He set the course of the moon in the night and that of the sun during the day, so that they in turn serve a useful function; he gave them the night as a rest (Quran 6:96) and the day as a time for action (Quran 78:11). He made the sign of the night and made the sign of the day; both were established to enable people to know the times (Quran 17:12) of their different obligations, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, pilgrimage, and so they can calculate the years and the maturities of their debts. God the Almighty said: “They ask you about the new moons. Answer them that they are used to measure the time for men and to regulate the pilgrimage” (Quran 2:189). He also said: “It is God who placed the sun as a torch and the moon as a light, and measured their houses to calculate years and time. He has created these things in view of justice” (Quran 10:5).
Sa‘id bin Jubayr narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas this tradition: The world lasts for one week of the other world; and these weeks are comprised of days of a thousand years. Six thousand years and many hundreds of years more have already passed. There are still a few hundred years to come. — Nāfi‘ told from the son of Omar: “I heard the Prophet of God say ‘You have come through the report of past nations as in the space of time between the prayer of ‘aṣr and sunset.’” — Abu Hureyrah said: “The Prophet of God said: ‘My mission and the time of the end of the world are like these two fingers,’ and he pointed to the index and middle finger.” — A tradition taken from Sahl ibn Sa’d al-Sa’idi holds that the Prophet of God said, “Time and I, we are like two racehorses struggling near the end of the race.”
According to Ibn ‘Abbas, the Prophet would have said: “The first creature of God is the Qalam (reed pen); He created it from light. Its length is five hundred years of operation.” He then created the preserved tablet, from a white pearl, and it gave it an edge of red hyacinth. Its width equals the distance between heaven and earth. He created them before creatures, before heaven, and before earth. He told the Qalam, “Write.” The Qalam replied, “What shall I write?” He said, “Write everything I know of creation until the day of resurrection.” Then the Qalam inscribed on the tablet all that had to happen until the day of resurrection, and all that was in the knowledge of God. God Almighty looks at this tablet three hundred and sixty times each day, and then he creates, he develops, he gives life, and he causes death; he performs everything he wishes to do and he executes all he has decided.
The Prophet was asked, “Where was God before our master created humanity, heaven, and the earth?” He said that he had been in a cloud, having only air above him and air below him. He then created his tabernacle on the water. — We asked Ibn ‘Abbas: “What does the water sit upon?” He replied: “On the back of the wind; and when the Creator wished to produce the creatures, he gave to the wind power over the water, and the water swelled in waves, splashed with foam, and sent vapor over itself. And these vapors remained high above the water, and God called this heaven. The foam solidified and became land. The earth was placed on a fish [and the fish on a bull].”
This is discussed in the book of God, where it says: “N...” [There is a lacuna in the text, which likely referenced Quran 68:1: “Nun. By the Qalam and what is written thereby.”] The Qalam and that which was written thereby place the fish in the water and the water upon on a rock and the rock on the back of the wind. The earth shook, and God ordered the waves to rise above it in steep mountains, and the waves arrested themselves in this position and remained stable. This is what the Almighty says: He has established firm places on earth. “We have established,” he said, “on earth, solid mountains, that they might secure your home” (Quran 16:15).
Ibn ‘Abbas reported that the Jews came to the Prophet and asked about the origin of the world. He answered them that God created the earth on Sunday and Monday. He created the mountains along with that which they contain on Tuesday. He created the water, trees, towns, and fertile fields on Wednesday. Such is his word: “Do not disbelieve him who created the Earth in two days,” up to the words “also to all those who ask” (Quran 41:9-10). On Thursday, he created the sky, the planets, the fixed stars, and the angels. On Friday, he created heaven and the fires of hell, and Adam, on whom may there be salvation. “And after?” asked the Jews. After that, Muhammad said he stood balanced on his throne (Quran 7:54). The Jews answered, “You would have spoken well if you had finished by saying: ‘And then he rested.’” The Prophet of God was very angry with this remark, and he received revelation of this verse: “We created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six days, and we have not felt fatigue. Be patient over what they say” (Quran 50:38-39).
We read in a tradition of Asad ibn Musa that God Almighty commanded the skies to rise and they rose; he ordered the earth to spread and to descend as it spread; God spread it around the location of the holy house. — The Prophet said: “The world is hollow and pushed back; if it were not so, the sun and moon would burn the earth and everything on it. In between one heaven and the next heaven there is a space of five hundred years of walking, and between the seventh heaven and the throne, a space of one thousand years.”
The Prophet says of God: “He is the first, and there is nothing before him; and the last, and there is nothing after him.” — Zorarah ibn Abu Aufa reports that the Prophet said: “I asked Jibril (the angel Gabriel): ‘Have you ever seen your Lord?’ Jibril was confused and said, ‘O, Muhammad, between me and him there are seventy thousand veils of light. If I approached one of those veils, I would be burned.’”
After God decided to create Adam, he ordered Jibril to descend onto the earth and take up a handful of the earth, with which he would create man. But the earth said to Jibril: “I beg you in the name of God not take anything from me.” And Jibril returned to God, saying, “The earth implored me in your name.” God sent Israfil, who returned with the same message. Then he sent the angel of death, and the earth still implored him in the name of God; but the Angel of Death answered: “I come by order of my Lord, and I beg you not to allow me to return to him without executing his command.”
Many traditionalists say that God first infused the spirit into Adam in the head and eyes, before infusing it in the rest of the body. Adam, before seeing the fruits of paradise, wished to move to reach them, before the spirit had started his legs, so he could not. That is why God said, “Man is overly hasty” (Quran 17:11).
When Adam was created, the angels were amazed at him, and God ordered them all to bow down before him. They bowed in obedience, except for Iblis (the devil), who was filled with pride and became animated by a spirit of hatred and revolt. [“I am better than him,” he said to God, “for you created me from fire whereas you created him from mud.”] God became irritated with Iblis, the accursed: this was the cause of his fall to the earth, [and he became evil].
The ancient sages say that God gathered the stars in Aries. He gave them the Sun for a king; Mercury assumed the place of secretary; Jupiter was the judge; Mars, the guardian who carries weapons; the Moon was the treasurer; Venus, the wife; and Saturn, the counselor. The nodes (i.e. the points where the ecliptic crosses the equator) were employed in the operation of the celestial sphere.
The ancients reported that there were on earth twenty-eight races of creatures endowed with spiritual powers and strength, corresponding to the twenty-eight houses (of the moon). They believed that past nations were under the direction of the fixed stars. There are one thousand and twenty fixed stars, each of which runs through the zodiac over thirty-six thousand years. It is they who produce all operations and direct all world affairs.
Some traditionalists say God created the celestial spheres out of sea water and after the water had been inflated, it solidified. The spheres are seven in number; on top of them is placed the Inhabited House; this house has three hundred and sixty doors, each of which opens onto a degree of the sphere. All blessings and all graces flow from these open doors onto the signs (of the zodiac), and those are the stars which transmit them to the Earth. — The traditionalists further say: God created a substance that fills his kingdom and is called the mind. Above are the veils, and above all this is placed the throne. That is why God said, “He has expanded his throne above the heavens and the earth.” The throne and everything in it are themselves placed in the tabernacle; the tabernacle and everything in it are contained in the knowledge of God.
The highest of the seven wandering stars is Saturn. Below it, Jupiter is placed, followed in order by Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. — Several among the ancient sages believed that the stars were angels, each having a share in the administration of the world. This is why they glorified them and worshiped them.
Some think that the higher creatures, which are the angels, are divided into twelve classes corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and that God’s commands are transmitted from one class to another. God gave these angels their strength and various faculties. Some may assume a figure so colossal that it would fill the earth; others may assume one so small it would pass through the eye of a needle; they penetrate into the depths of the earth, in the seas, in the mountains, and no one can stop them. There are angels which have wings in pairs of two, three, or four; it is of them that God says, “They travel in a flash to the ends of the earth.” There are some that are made of light; others are azure like the flame, and still others are resplendent. Some angels are carriers of the grace of God, while others function as guards and supervisors; these originate from water vapor; they have lovely faces, but dark in color. They are occupied solely in the service of God, and they have various forms to infinity.
Physicists teach that, after the creation of the spheres, the spheres played the role of the body in relation to the stars, and the stars played the role of spirits relative to the spheres.
Hermes said: “After creating the signs of the Zodiac, God divided time among them. He gave to Aries the presiding role for twelve thousand years; Taurus assumed it for eleven thousand years; Gemini assumed it for ten thousand years, [nine thousand to Cancer], eight thousand to the Lion, seven thousand to the Virgin, six thousand to Libra, five thousand to Scorpio, four thousand to Sagittarius, three thousand to Capricorn, two thousand to Aquarius, and one thousand to Pisces. The full tour of the entire celestial sphere is seventy-eight thousand years. The planet Saturn has dominated for fifty-six thousand years; the remaining time is shared between the other planets. During the time that the world was under the signs of Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, there were no animals. This lasted the duration of thirty-three thousand years; there were no longer any spiritual beings on earth. When the turn of Cancer came, there appeared sea monsters and the giants of the earth. When Leo had taken the presiding role, quadrupeds appeared on earth. When it was the turn of the Virgin, there were born the two humans, Adamānūs and Hīwāūs. The birds appeared during the reign of Libra.”
Here is what physicists think of the size of the stars: The Sun is one hundred and sixty-three times as big as the Earth; Saturn, ninety-one and a half times as big as her; Jupiter, eighty-one times; Mars, seventy-three times; Venus, sixty and a bit more times; Mercury thirty-three and a third; Moon, twenty-seven times and a quarter. The Sun is, as we have said, the king of the planets.
There are philosophers who think that the planets are alive, endowed with reason and senses. According to some of them, the planets have the senses of hearing, sight, and touch, but not those of taste and smell, which would be useless for them. Many say that the celestial sphere is alive, and that it distinguishes all that is in it and that has corporeal form. They say that the Moon borrows its light from the Sun, because when these two stars meet, the Moon loses its light. According to some of them, the world was created, but it will never end because it is the work of wisdom and the work of wisdom cannot perish. On the length of time, they express different opinions, of which we will report only that which has a wonderful character, without worrying about the truth. The book of Sindhind (i.e. Siddhānta, or Indian philosophy), from which were made the Almagest and several tables, teaches that the orbit the Sun, from its starting point in Aries, will only be completed in the space of 1,400,020,000 rounds, each of which is one year, being the year of three hundred sixty-five days and a quarter. They say that the measure of the cycle is 4,320,000,000 rounds, each comprising one thousand years. The traditionalists report that the age of the world up to Adam was seven thousand years. Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari says, as we reported earlier, that from Adam until the end of the world seven thousand years must pass; and he tells us that before the end of time, the sun will rise in the West. Some people say that when the Heart (Antares, in Scorpius) reaches the fifteenth degree of the Lion, there will be a deluge of fire that will consume the world, leaving no living being in the sea or on land. After that God will restore such creatures as he pleases. Aristotle believed that time has neither beginning nor end and that nature is eternal.
Chapter 2: The Nations Created before Adam
It is said that God created twenty-eight nations corresponding to the heavenly mansions inhabited the moon, because this star was the attendant, by the permission of God, of the government of the earthly world. These races were created using different mixtures of elements: water, air, fire, and earth, and the individuals in them had various forms. There is a race where the individuals are tall and very agile and have wings, and whose language is formed by the snapping of fingers. In another race, the individuals have the bodies of lions and birds’ heads, covered in hair and having long tails, and their language is a buzzing. In another, they have two faces, one in front and one behind, and several feet; their language is similar to that of birds. These nations are the djinn; there is among others a kind of djinn which has the form of dogs, complete with tails; their language is an incomprehensible growl. In another of these races, individuals resemble men except that they have their mouths in the middle of their chests and speak by whistling. Another race is similar to long snakes provided with wings, legs, and tails; others are like halves of men, having only one eye, a hand, and a foot and walking by jumping and bounding; their language resembles that of cranes. Others have the faces of men and loins covered tortoiseshell like turtles; they have claws for hands, long horns on their heads, and their language is similar to the howling of wolves. Others have two heads with two faces like the heads of lions; they are great and speak an incomprehensible language. Others have a round face, white hair, tails like oxen, and they spit fire from their mouths. Others look like women, with hair and breasts; there are no males in this race; these women are made pregnant by the wind, and they bring forth that individuals who resemble them; they have lovely voices and they attract many people of other races by the charm of their voices. Others are shaped like reptiles and insects. Although they are tall, they eat and drink like cattle. Still others are like the beasts of the sea; but they have tusks like wild boars and long ears. The rest of these twenty-eight breeds are of various forms, and all have a wild appearance.
They say that these nations interbred, and that the number of distinct races grew to one hundred and twenty.
The Djinn, Their Tribes, and the Their Kinds
They asked the emir of the believers, Ali ibn Abu Talib, if before Adam there existed on earth creatures capable of serving God. He replied: Yes; God created the earth, and then he put onto it races of djinn who celebrated ceaselessly his glory and holiness. They flew into heaven, they met with the angels, they greeted them, and they received from them the knowledge of good and of the disasters that that would arrive from heaven. But some of the djinn rebelled, rejecting the authority of God and filling the earth with injustice. Some elevated themselves above the others; they shed blood, and they displayed corruption and contempt for divine things. The rest of the djinn persevered in religion and in obedience and broke the rebels. They, because of their submission, could continue to fly up to heaven.
Angels, as we have said above, are spiritual creatures, equipped with wings that enable them to fly where God sends them. They live between the levels of heaven, and there they praise God and proclaim his holiness tirelessly until they are called for a mission. The angel closest to God is Israfil (Raphael); Mikhail (Michael) comes after him, then Jibrail (Gabriel). [The revelation is passed from one to another until it reaches us.]
The Indians, the Persians, and the Greeks treated the genealogy and tribes of the djinn and gave the names of their kings, and they believed they were divided into twenty-one tribes. When their empire had lasted five thousand years, they appointed a king from among themselves and called Shāma’īl, son of Aras. Then they divided and named five kings, and they stayed a long time in this state. At the end, some of the djinn attacked each other, and there were a great number of battles and terrible wars.
Iblis (the Devil) is a djinn. He has many names, varying with languages; his name in Arabic is al-Harit, and his nickname, Abu Murrah (Father of Bitterness). He was a very powerful creature; he ascended into heaven, stood in the middle of the angelic orders and served God with great zeal. When discord broke out among the djinn and these wars took place among them, he came down to earth with an army of angels and defeated and massacred the djinn; then he established his empire on earth. But he swelled with pride and prevarication. One of his sins was his refusal to prostrate himself before Adam, as God tells us in his book. His form was changed into a hideous one, a figure of great repulsiveness, and all the tribes of djinn disowned him and moved away from him in horror. Seeing this, he fixed his abode on the sea. God made him raise a throne on the water. Later, he fathered a lineage, as Adam did. But the deformity of his race was manifested even in the act of reproduction; his descendants were similar to birds in this, and hatched from eggs.
The scholars have mentioned the types of the djinn. According to them, there are thirty-five tribes of satans, fifteen tribes of djinn that fly in the air, [twenty-five tribes of djinn who walk on land, twenty tribes of djinn that live in the water, twelve tribes of djinn who run in storms,] ten tribes of djinn who run in the flame, thirty tribes of djinn occupied with the magic of sounds. The kings of these tribes are responsible for protecting them against danger.
It is reported that there is a kind of fairy that assumes the form of beautiful women and marries men. This adventure happened, they say, to Sa‘id bin Jubayr. He married one of the women-fairies, without knowing what she was. She stayed close to him and gave him children. One night while she was with him on a terrace overlooking the countryside, plaintive voices of women were heard in the distance. She was troubled and told her husband, “Do not you see the fairy lights? I leave to your care your house and your children.” And she flew away and did not return.
There is also a kind of djinn that sets upon a man when they find him alone in the rocks or in ruins; they take him by the hand, forcing him to dance until he falls down, dizzy, and they suck his blood.
There are some which are no different snakes; sometimes men kill them and die immediately; [if the killer is a child, his father dies, or someone even more powerful.] It is said that a young Ansarian (companion of the Prophet), being close to getting married, asked the Prophet for permission to celebrate the wedding and reunite his family at a feast during the Battle of the Ditch. The Prophet allowed him to do so. Back at his home, this Ansarian found his wife standing at the door; he conceived a great jealousy, and made the gesture of directing his spear against her; but she stopped and said: “Abandon this thought, and instead enter and see what is on your bed.” He entered and saw on the bed a great snake. He killed it with a spear, and instantly he died.
The Arabs report the next adventure as having occurred to ‘Abīd ibn al-Abraṣ. He left with some men to visit Syria. At one point along the way, he saw a shojā’ serpent panting with thirst, and behind him, a black [saudā] serpent which was chasing it. He dismounted and killed the black serpent; then untying his water-skin, he sprinkled water on the shojā’, which crawled under a stone. ‘Abīd went on his way, and he finished his business in Syria. As he was returning, he fell asleep in a deserted place, and he saw, when he awoke, that his camels were lost. Not knowing the way, he remained in the same place; but, when night had already enveloped all in shadow, he heard a voice saying:
“O, master of the young camel, you who have lost your way and have with you no guide to lead you, I offer you a young camel; climb up on him; and when the darkness of the night is dissipated, and the morning will be near and the star will shine, removes his saddle from him and let him go free.”
When he heard these words of the voice, ‘Abīd turned and caught sight of a camel of surpassing beauty. He climbed up on it and traveled the rest of the night. In the morning, he found himself in front of himself; yet the day before he was twenty-one stations from his home. He descended from the camel and began to speak.
“O young camel, I am here thanks to you saving me from a mortal peril. I was a traveler in the night without a guide. Return covered in the praise I heap upon you, so that the good you did to me is returned to you at night or in the morning.”
The camel replied saying, “I am the shojā’ serpent whom you met in distress and dying of thirst. You gave me water without thinking about yourself, and you did not reason like the men with hard hearts. Goodness persists long; evil is the worst provision that you can put in your travel bag.” The camel said, “The black snake that was following me is one of my slaves who sought to kill me. You removed me from his evil designs, and you quenched my thirst. This good deed will not be lost; God will count it.”
Ibn ‘Abbas said: Most tame animals are types of djinn. Dogs, among others, are djinn. When they see you eat, throw them some of your food because they have souls; that is to say that they understand what they see with their eyes.
The Arabs report that a man riding a camel the size of a ram appeared in the market of ‘Okāz and said, “Who will give me eighty camels both the white and brown?” Seeing that no one answered him, he struck his camel, and it flew between heaven and earth with the speed of lightning. The crowd was amazed and a man from among them recounted this fact: “I once met,” he said, “in a desert a character mounted on an ostrich; he had both eyes split across the width of his face. At first I was afraid of him; then I asked him to stop and I said: ‘Do you know some poems?’ — ‘Yes,’ he said. — ‘Recite them for me, then.’ He began to recite the poem that begins with this line: ‘Will Kitami finally abandon her coquetry, or will she always remain stingy with greetings and words?’
“And he went through to the end. I told him, ‘Excellent! But the brother of the son of Dhubyan (i.e. al-Nābighah al-Dhubiyānī) wrote these verses before you.’ He replied, ‘O my brother, I have, by God, uttered these very words in the market of ‘Okāz four hundred years before him.’”
It is said that God created one thousand and twenty nations, according to the number of fixed stars. There are six hundred in the sea and four hundred and twenty on the continents. Of all these races, the human race is the most beautiful, the most perfect, the most beloved of the Creator, [and the human form is the one in which the proportions are most admirable]. Man was created in the image of Israfil, who is the angel closest to God. It is written in the Torah (Bible): God created man in his image; and a tradition holds: Do not hit faces because they are in the likeness of Israfil; another holds: Do not stop gazing on the faces of beardless youths because they throw glances like those of black-eyed houris. They also say that there is something of all other creatures in man; that is why he is above other animals, mastering, hunting, and enslaving them. God has prepared for his food plants and animals; he has prepared for him all sorts of pleasures, and made him capable of performing any kind of work through his hands. Man has the power of speech, laughter, reflection, intelligence, and the capability of invention; and it is with him that the Creator communicates; it is he who orders and defends, he who invented the arts, who developed science, who builds tools, who digs mines, who extracts the hidden wonders in the depths of the seas, and who rules over all.
Among the wonderful creatures, one must mention the Nasnās. The Nasnās is built like half a man; it has one hand and one foot; he walks by jumps and he runs with great speed. Once it was found in Yemen and sometimes in non-Arab countries. The Arabs hunted and ate it. An Arab legend says that one day some travelers arrived in a country where there were many Nasnās. They cornered one, and it killed, and roasted it, yet it was very fat. When they had sat down to eat, one traveler said, “How did the Nasnās grow fat?” Another Nasnās who was hiding near there in a tree began to respond:
"He ate mastic (Pistacia lentiscus), which is what made him fat.” The hunters, tipped off by this explanation, seized that nasnās and killed him. Another then said, in a tree where he was hiding, “If he had presence of mind, he would have been talking to himself instead of you.” The hunters took him in turn and killed him. At that moment, a fourth Nasnās, hidden in a hole in the ground, shouted: “I am cleverer, so I will say nothing!” He was immediately seized and put to death like the first. Travelers were thus provided with food. They say the Nasnās feed on fruits and plants and they are able to withstand thirst.
It is said that in the east of the world, toward the sea, there is a breed that is both human and wild beast. Individuals have a wide face and are hairy like the lion, have round and shiny eyes, sharp teeth, long tails and long ears; but they have the bodies of men, except the extremities are provided with large curved and sharp claws. There are more nations beyond that; they serve as food for the animals of the sea.
One of the races that is most similar to man is that of the Wāḳwāḳ. These individuals hang from branches by their hair; they have breasts and sexual organs similar to those of women, and they have a ruddy complexion; they constantly shout “Wak Wak!”, and if one of these females is captured, it goes silent and falls dead.
We read in the Book of Treasure that the traveler who passes by this nation comes to another race entirely of women, greater than these and more beautiful in the face and the rest of the body. These, after being captured, survive a little over a day. Many times those who took them used them for their pleasure; they are similar to women, but they have a pleasant smell and they provide the most delicious pleasures. The atmosphere of this country is more fragrant than camphor. This race does not comprise thousands. We do not know anything else of them except that given in the accounts of sailors who have been driven to that country.
Another wonderful breed is that of marine women called water girls. They have the appearance of beautiful women with flowing hair; they are provided with developed sex organs and breasts, and they speak an incomprehensible language accompanied by laughter. Sailors have recounted that they had been thrown by the winds against an island where there were forests and freshwater rivers, and there they heard shouts and laughter. They approached unseen and surprised two women whom they tied up. They remained with those who had captured them. The sailors visited them all the time, and they found very great pleasure in them. One of them made her his mistress and took off her chains, but immediately she ran into the sea and he never saw her again.
The other remained captive to her master; she became pregnant by him and gave him a son. The sailor took her to sea with the child; having seen in the ship that she did not wish to be separated from her son, he had pity on her and removed her bonds; immediately she abandoned the child and jumped into the sea. The next day she showed herself to the sailor and threw him a shell that contained a precious pearl.
[Al-Masʿūdī said:] We have spoken of the celestial spirits from what we have learned, — but God knows his creation best! — and of other things, looking for wonderful legends and not the exact truth. Whoever reads our book will have to guard against the stories we report herein. In God we find our strength, salvation, and duration.
They say that these nations interbred, and that the number of distinct races grew to one hundred and twenty.
The Djinn, Their Tribes, and the Their Kinds
They asked the emir of the believers, Ali ibn Abu Talib, if before Adam there existed on earth creatures capable of serving God. He replied: Yes; God created the earth, and then he put onto it races of djinn who celebrated ceaselessly his glory and holiness. They flew into heaven, they met with the angels, they greeted them, and they received from them the knowledge of good and of the disasters that that would arrive from heaven. But some of the djinn rebelled, rejecting the authority of God and filling the earth with injustice. Some elevated themselves above the others; they shed blood, and they displayed corruption and contempt for divine things. The rest of the djinn persevered in religion and in obedience and broke the rebels. They, because of their submission, could continue to fly up to heaven.
Angels, as we have said above, are spiritual creatures, equipped with wings that enable them to fly where God sends them. They live between the levels of heaven, and there they praise God and proclaim his holiness tirelessly until they are called for a mission. The angel closest to God is Israfil (Raphael); Mikhail (Michael) comes after him, then Jibrail (Gabriel). [The revelation is passed from one to another until it reaches us.]
The Indians, the Persians, and the Greeks treated the genealogy and tribes of the djinn and gave the names of their kings, and they believed they were divided into twenty-one tribes. When their empire had lasted five thousand years, they appointed a king from among themselves and called Shāma’īl, son of Aras. Then they divided and named five kings, and they stayed a long time in this state. At the end, some of the djinn attacked each other, and there were a great number of battles and terrible wars.
Iblis (the Devil) is a djinn. He has many names, varying with languages; his name in Arabic is al-Harit, and his nickname, Abu Murrah (Father of Bitterness). He was a very powerful creature; he ascended into heaven, stood in the middle of the angelic orders and served God with great zeal. When discord broke out among the djinn and these wars took place among them, he came down to earth with an army of angels and defeated and massacred the djinn; then he established his empire on earth. But he swelled with pride and prevarication. One of his sins was his refusal to prostrate himself before Adam, as God tells us in his book. His form was changed into a hideous one, a figure of great repulsiveness, and all the tribes of djinn disowned him and moved away from him in horror. Seeing this, he fixed his abode on the sea. God made him raise a throne on the water. Later, he fathered a lineage, as Adam did. But the deformity of his race was manifested even in the act of reproduction; his descendants were similar to birds in this, and hatched from eggs.
The scholars have mentioned the types of the djinn. According to them, there are thirty-five tribes of satans, fifteen tribes of djinn that fly in the air, [twenty-five tribes of djinn who walk on land, twenty tribes of djinn that live in the water, twelve tribes of djinn who run in storms,] ten tribes of djinn who run in the flame, thirty tribes of djinn occupied with the magic of sounds. The kings of these tribes are responsible for protecting them against danger.
It is reported that there is a kind of fairy that assumes the form of beautiful women and marries men. This adventure happened, they say, to Sa‘id bin Jubayr. He married one of the women-fairies, without knowing what she was. She stayed close to him and gave him children. One night while she was with him on a terrace overlooking the countryside, plaintive voices of women were heard in the distance. She was troubled and told her husband, “Do not you see the fairy lights? I leave to your care your house and your children.” And she flew away and did not return.
There is also a kind of djinn that sets upon a man when they find him alone in the rocks or in ruins; they take him by the hand, forcing him to dance until he falls down, dizzy, and they suck his blood.
There are some which are no different snakes; sometimes men kill them and die immediately; [if the killer is a child, his father dies, or someone even more powerful.] It is said that a young Ansarian (companion of the Prophet), being close to getting married, asked the Prophet for permission to celebrate the wedding and reunite his family at a feast during the Battle of the Ditch. The Prophet allowed him to do so. Back at his home, this Ansarian found his wife standing at the door; he conceived a great jealousy, and made the gesture of directing his spear against her; but she stopped and said: “Abandon this thought, and instead enter and see what is on your bed.” He entered and saw on the bed a great snake. He killed it with a spear, and instantly he died.
The Arabs report the next adventure as having occurred to ‘Abīd ibn al-Abraṣ. He left with some men to visit Syria. At one point along the way, he saw a shojā’ serpent panting with thirst, and behind him, a black [saudā] serpent which was chasing it. He dismounted and killed the black serpent; then untying his water-skin, he sprinkled water on the shojā’, which crawled under a stone. ‘Abīd went on his way, and he finished his business in Syria. As he was returning, he fell asleep in a deserted place, and he saw, when he awoke, that his camels were lost. Not knowing the way, he remained in the same place; but, when night had already enveloped all in shadow, he heard a voice saying:
“O, master of the young camel, you who have lost your way and have with you no guide to lead you, I offer you a young camel; climb up on him; and when the darkness of the night is dissipated, and the morning will be near and the star will shine, removes his saddle from him and let him go free.”
When he heard these words of the voice, ‘Abīd turned and caught sight of a camel of surpassing beauty. He climbed up on it and traveled the rest of the night. In the morning, he found himself in front of himself; yet the day before he was twenty-one stations from his home. He descended from the camel and began to speak.
“O young camel, I am here thanks to you saving me from a mortal peril. I was a traveler in the night without a guide. Return covered in the praise I heap upon you, so that the good you did to me is returned to you at night or in the morning.”
The camel replied saying, “I am the shojā’ serpent whom you met in distress and dying of thirst. You gave me water without thinking about yourself, and you did not reason like the men with hard hearts. Goodness persists long; evil is the worst provision that you can put in your travel bag.” The camel said, “The black snake that was following me is one of my slaves who sought to kill me. You removed me from his evil designs, and you quenched my thirst. This good deed will not be lost; God will count it.”
Ibn ‘Abbas said: Most tame animals are types of djinn. Dogs, among others, are djinn. When they see you eat, throw them some of your food because they have souls; that is to say that they understand what they see with their eyes.
The Arabs report that a man riding a camel the size of a ram appeared in the market of ‘Okāz and said, “Who will give me eighty camels both the white and brown?” Seeing that no one answered him, he struck his camel, and it flew between heaven and earth with the speed of lightning. The crowd was amazed and a man from among them recounted this fact: “I once met,” he said, “in a desert a character mounted on an ostrich; he had both eyes split across the width of his face. At first I was afraid of him; then I asked him to stop and I said: ‘Do you know some poems?’ — ‘Yes,’ he said. — ‘Recite them for me, then.’ He began to recite the poem that begins with this line: ‘Will Kitami finally abandon her coquetry, or will she always remain stingy with greetings and words?’
“And he went through to the end. I told him, ‘Excellent! But the brother of the son of Dhubyan (i.e. al-Nābighah al-Dhubiyānī) wrote these verses before you.’ He replied, ‘O my brother, I have, by God, uttered these very words in the market of ‘Okāz four hundred years before him.’”
It is said that God created one thousand and twenty nations, according to the number of fixed stars. There are six hundred in the sea and four hundred and twenty on the continents. Of all these races, the human race is the most beautiful, the most perfect, the most beloved of the Creator, [and the human form is the one in which the proportions are most admirable]. Man was created in the image of Israfil, who is the angel closest to God. It is written in the Torah (Bible): God created man in his image; and a tradition holds: Do not hit faces because they are in the likeness of Israfil; another holds: Do not stop gazing on the faces of beardless youths because they throw glances like those of black-eyed houris. They also say that there is something of all other creatures in man; that is why he is above other animals, mastering, hunting, and enslaving them. God has prepared for his food plants and animals; he has prepared for him all sorts of pleasures, and made him capable of performing any kind of work through his hands. Man has the power of speech, laughter, reflection, intelligence, and the capability of invention; and it is with him that the Creator communicates; it is he who orders and defends, he who invented the arts, who developed science, who builds tools, who digs mines, who extracts the hidden wonders in the depths of the seas, and who rules over all.
Among the wonderful creatures, one must mention the Nasnās. The Nasnās is built like half a man; it has one hand and one foot; he walks by jumps and he runs with great speed. Once it was found in Yemen and sometimes in non-Arab countries. The Arabs hunted and ate it. An Arab legend says that one day some travelers arrived in a country where there were many Nasnās. They cornered one, and it killed, and roasted it, yet it was very fat. When they had sat down to eat, one traveler said, “How did the Nasnās grow fat?” Another Nasnās who was hiding near there in a tree began to respond:
"He ate mastic (Pistacia lentiscus), which is what made him fat.” The hunters, tipped off by this explanation, seized that nasnās and killed him. Another then said, in a tree where he was hiding, “If he had presence of mind, he would have been talking to himself instead of you.” The hunters took him in turn and killed him. At that moment, a fourth Nasnās, hidden in a hole in the ground, shouted: “I am cleverer, so I will say nothing!” He was immediately seized and put to death like the first. Travelers were thus provided with food. They say the Nasnās feed on fruits and plants and they are able to withstand thirst.
It is said that in the east of the world, toward the sea, there is a breed that is both human and wild beast. Individuals have a wide face and are hairy like the lion, have round and shiny eyes, sharp teeth, long tails and long ears; but they have the bodies of men, except the extremities are provided with large curved and sharp claws. There are more nations beyond that; they serve as food for the animals of the sea.
One of the races that is most similar to man is that of the Wāḳwāḳ. These individuals hang from branches by their hair; they have breasts and sexual organs similar to those of women, and they have a ruddy complexion; they constantly shout “Wak Wak!”, and if one of these females is captured, it goes silent and falls dead.
We read in the Book of Treasure that the traveler who passes by this nation comes to another race entirely of women, greater than these and more beautiful in the face and the rest of the body. These, after being captured, survive a little over a day. Many times those who took them used them for their pleasure; they are similar to women, but they have a pleasant smell and they provide the most delicious pleasures. The atmosphere of this country is more fragrant than camphor. This race does not comprise thousands. We do not know anything else of them except that given in the accounts of sailors who have been driven to that country.
Another wonderful breed is that of marine women called water girls. They have the appearance of beautiful women with flowing hair; they are provided with developed sex organs and breasts, and they speak an incomprehensible language accompanied by laughter. Sailors have recounted that they had been thrown by the winds against an island where there were forests and freshwater rivers, and there they heard shouts and laughter. They approached unseen and surprised two women whom they tied up. They remained with those who had captured them. The sailors visited them all the time, and they found very great pleasure in them. One of them made her his mistress and took off her chains, but immediately she ran into the sea and he never saw her again.
The other remained captive to her master; she became pregnant by him and gave him a son. The sailor took her to sea with the child; having seen in the ship that she did not wish to be separated from her son, he had pity on her and removed her bonds; immediately she abandoned the child and jumped into the sea. The next day she showed herself to the sailor and threw him a shell that contained a precious pearl.
[Al-Masʿūdī said:] We have spoken of the celestial spirits from what we have learned, — but God knows his creation best! — and of other things, looking for wonderful legends and not the exact truth. Whoever reads our book will have to guard against the stories we report herein. In God we find our strength, salvation, and duration.
Chapter 3: The Earth and What It Contains
Ibn ’Abd al-Hakam said the earth was created in the image of a bird, with the head, chest, wings, feet, and tail. The head is Mecca, Medina, and Yemen. The chest is Syria and Egypt. The right wing is formed by Iraq, going to the land of Wāḳ and Wāḳ-Wāḳ, and, and by the nations of Sind and Hind. The left wing includes Māshaq (Meshek) and Manshaq, Gog and Magog, and numerous nations. The tail goes from Dat al-Homam up to the west of the sun and the Black Sea.
According to a tradition, God created two cities: one in the east, named Jābūlqā; the other in the west, called Jābūlsā. Each of these cities has a length of ten thousand parasangs, and each has ten thousand gates placed every two parasangs. Ten thousand men stand watch nightly at these gates, and they will not return from their watch until the day of resurrection. The inhabitants live about seven thousand years; they eat, drink, and take women. They have developed several sciences; their manners are noble and worthy of all praise. Both cities are located outside of our world; neither the sun nor the moon illuminates them, and they know neither the sons of Adam nor the sons of Iblis. Their inhabitants serve and praise God; they live in a light that is not borrowed from our stars, but that descends on them from the tabernacle.
It is reported that the Prophet said: “Jibril made me spend the night of my removal (from the earth--the Night Journey) among these peoples. I called them to God, and they listened. Since then, what is good among them is good for you, and what is bad for them is bad for you.”
Wahb ibn Munabbih reported that the Prophet said God has eighteen thousand worlds, of which our earthly world is but one; and in this same world, the inhabited parts are like a mustard seed in the palm of the hand.
The traditionalists say that God still has a huge beast living in a meadow in a hollow known only to himself, and eating every day as much as all the animals that are in the world eat together. Glory to the Almighty, who makes all things beautiful!
According to a tradition, God created two cities: one in the east, named Jābūlqā; the other in the west, called Jābūlsā. Each of these cities has a length of ten thousand parasangs, and each has ten thousand gates placed every two parasangs. Ten thousand men stand watch nightly at these gates, and they will not return from their watch until the day of resurrection. The inhabitants live about seven thousand years; they eat, drink, and take women. They have developed several sciences; their manners are noble and worthy of all praise. Both cities are located outside of our world; neither the sun nor the moon illuminates them, and they know neither the sons of Adam nor the sons of Iblis. Their inhabitants serve and praise God; they live in a light that is not borrowed from our stars, but that descends on them from the tabernacle.
It is reported that the Prophet said: “Jibril made me spend the night of my removal (from the earth--the Night Journey) among these peoples. I called them to God, and they listened. Since then, what is good among them is good for you, and what is bad for them is bad for you.”
Wahb ibn Munabbih reported that the Prophet said God has eighteen thousand worlds, of which our earthly world is but one; and in this same world, the inhabited parts are like a mustard seed in the palm of the hand.
The traditionalists say that God still has a huge beast living in a meadow in a hollow known only to himself, and eating every day as much as all the animals that are in the world eat together. Glory to the Almighty, who makes all things beautiful!
World map of Al-Idrisi from 1154 depicting earth as known to the medieval Arabs. South appears at top.
Chapter 4: The External Sea (the Ocean) and the Wonders It Contains
It is said that the throne of Iblis, close to the Dark Sea, is supported by a troop of devils and evil spirits who are employed in this endeavor, and is surrounded by evil djinn who are under obedience to him. These veil him and never leave him, while there are others that disperse at his command; but none leaves his place to encourage a sinner in his rebellion or seduce a saint; there are also all the other minions of Iblis, who disperse among men to lead them astray. The prison of Iblis is the island of Sah; there he is incarcerated with the djinn and satans who followed him. — In this sea there is also the temple of the Prophet Solomon, containing his body; it is a beautiful palace built on an island. — One can still see craters that never cease to eject fire to the height of a hundred cubits; — long fish each of several days, of wonderful aspects, various shapes, and colored in all hues; — cities that float on the water and which flee from sailors; — the three idols erected by Abrahah: one, yellow, motioning with her hand, as if she were giving it the order to those who came near her to move away; the second, green, raising her hands extended as if she meant to point or where one needs to go; the third, black with curly hair, pointing to the sea, as if to say: “He who disregards will be wrecked.” She wears on her chest the inscription, “Work of Abrahah Dū’l-Manār the Homeīrite, dedicated to his Lord the Sun.” — It is also said that one can see a type of fortresses that rise from the water and which appear in various forms, which then sink into the water. — The deep-sea is variable. There are places where one touches or knows the depths; others of seven thousand fathoms and more and less; and still others where trees grow like coral.
The Black Sea, made of pitch, joins the Outer Sea; it is very fetid; there one may find the citadel of silver that some say is artificial, and others natural.
The Ocean detaches itself from the South China Sea, which begins at the West, to the sea of Fars, and extends to the country of China. It is a narrow sea from which we extract pearls. [The “Persian Gulf” is intended.] They say it contains 2,800 islands. It is the vortex (the dordūr), where the water turns; when a ship is taken, it runs until it is submerged. Nearby lie the two mountains Kusaīr and ‘Uwaīr. This sea has many marvels: species of colorful snakes, some of which reach a length of one hundred cubits and two hundred fathoms, more or less, and devour one another; — mines where one may find gold growing on branches, and mines of gems; — three hundred populated and cultivated islands where many kings reign. — It is said that this sea contains a crystal palace high up on a rock, lit by candelabra that will never extinguish.
Then comes a sea which whose bottom cannot be reached and which is of unknown width. Vessels, pushed by a good wind, can make it through in less than two months; it is the largest body that depends on the outer sea, and there is none more formidable. There are mines of emeralds and plants and bamboo canes. Its fish will reach a length of about four hundred cubits, but there are little ones too, of just a cubit. When these fish grow to excessive size and harm other fish of the sea and ships, small fish have power against them; and do fear that they shall kill them. Most often big fish avoid these waters for fear of the small fish. — In the same sea are: fish whose faces resemble that of a man who shows himself in the water; — winged fish that fly at night to eat the grass on the shore, and plunge back into the sea before sunrise; — a fish whose venom is used to form writing legible at night; — a green fish whose fat is such that anyone who has eaten of it refuses to take food for several days so as not to lose the taste; — a fish that has two horns similar to the antennas of crayfish, and who throws fire at night; — a round fish, called the maṣḥ, having on his back a sort of sharp edge; no other fish can resist it, because it of this on its back and a horn in front, which kills; sometimes it pierces vessels; his horn is yellow like gold and grooved; — a fish called hafsh, covered with a kind of armor around its eyes and head, and extending over almost its entire body; it is elongated like a snake, twenty cubits long, and equipped with needles arranged like the teeth of a file from its chest to the tip of its tail. It embraces everything it encounters, and everything that its tail embraces dies. They say its flesh heals all diseases; but it is rarely found. — Finally, this sea produces ambergris.
The Sea of Harkend (the Bay of Bengal) follows, containing many islands. Here one might encounter a fish on the back of which sometimes grows grass and seashells. Sometimes sailors moor their ships on it because they take it for an island, but, when they recognize the truth, they pull back. Sometimes this fish deploys one of the two wings it has on its back; when the head comes out of the water, it looks large like a mountain; when its tail comes out of the water, it looks like a large lighthouse. When the sea is calm, it attracts fish with its tail, and then it opens its mouth and reveals its throat like a well. It is called the gondor. It is three hundred cubits long. Sailors dread it; they bang on the clapper at night, so it does not come near to damage and capsize their ships. — Also found in this sea are large snakes; they come out of the water and go into the desert where they swallow elephants. They wrap themselves around rocks and hide in their cavities; they utter a frightening hiss. — One may meet yet another snake which they call al-malikah (the queen), who never appears once. The kings of Zanj use cunning to seize it; it is cooked until its fat melts; the king is anointed, to increase his strength and agility. The skin of this snake, which is tiger-striped, is made into a carpet; the consumptive who sits on it is healed of consumption; the healthy person is insured against it forever. [Sometimes fish of this type arrived in India, where the kings used them for their hide and to guard their treasure.] — The wind, in this sea, blows from its depths; sometimes the tempest projects a fire that spreads an intense light.
The fourth sea is called Dāwanjīd. It is separated from the sea of Harkend by many islands; by one account 1,900 islands. Ambergris is abundant between the islands. [They use large chunks as houses]. This ambergris grows like a plant at the bottom of the sea, and when the agitation of the waves is great, it is ejected from the bottom and rises to the surface, like bitumen and warm water. This is the fat called ambergris. I read in the book of medicine of Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi that Ahmed ibn Ḥafṣ al-‘Aṭār, said: “I went into a meeting with Abu Ishāq; he heated up ambergris that was already melted, and there issued from it some dry grass in the shape of birds’ beaks. He asked me my impression: ‘This is,’ I said, ‘the beaks of birds that eat ambergris which is excreted by the beasts of burden.’ Abu Ishāq laughed and said, ‘This is the belief of the vulgar; but God has not created a beast of burden which excretes ambergris. Ambergris is simply a substance that is found at the bottom of the sea.’ Previously, Rashīd had resolved the issue of ambergris: He instructed Hammad the Berber to seek a solution. This person wrote that he had learned from many inhabitants of ‘Aden that ambergris came from sources in the bottom of the sea and the wind threw it up with the waves; similarly, the land of Rūm (i.e. Romania—the Byzantine Empire) came out of the Rumi tar.
The last island in this sea is that of Sarandīb (Sri Lanka) in the Sea of Harkend. This is the main island among all of these islands; on it there are many deposits of pearls and precious stones. In the sea of Sarandīb are paths between mountains that lead to the country of China. In the mountains of the sea, there are gold mines and pearl deposits. Here we can see wild oxen and various kinds of animals. We might travel through this sea to the land of Maharāj. Often the clouds darken this region for days and nights, rain falls there continually, and neither the fish nor the beasts show themselves at all.
From there we go to the Sea of Ṣenf (the Gulf of Thailand), where the aloe tree is located; we do not know who lives there. The origin of this sea is near to the dark North. We pass also from the same region to the country of Wāk, where the king lives on islands, called the Maharāj. The islands and provinces of his kingdom are countless, and a sailor that would tour them for several years could not see them all. This king has a quantity of medicinal species: camphor, cloves, sandal, walnuts, mace, ḳāḳilah and aloes; no other king possesses as much. — It is said that in this sea is a white castle that moves on the water and that sometimes appears to sailors before dawn; they rejoice when they see it because it presages their salvation, their gain, and their fortune. — There is also the island of Braṭā’īl, which contains inhabited mountains where by night and day timpani, drums and unknown sounds can be heard. The faces of its inhabitants are like shields of double leather, and their ears are slit. Most sailors agree that Dajjāl (the Antichrist) lives on the island, and that he will emerge from it when his time comes. They sell cloves that traders buy from invisible merchants. — In the same sea is al-Barakah (brilliant); it is a great city in glowing white stone where one might hear shouts and songs but see no people. Sailors sometimes are driven down there and have taken of its water, which they found to be white and clear, and to have a sweet taste with the odor of camphor. — There is also an island with shining houses and white domes; sailors, seeing these, want to reach them; but they recede as the sailors approach; in the end they disappear altogether and the sailors therefore turn back.
This sea joins the Wāk. Sailors say they do not know its end, unless it is marked by a mountain where day and night there burns a fire which burns so ardently that it makes a sound like the rolling of thunder. Sometimes one hears in that fire sounds that portend for the people of the region the death of one of their kings or some great personage. One cannot reach the bottom of the sea in this place.
After the Sea of Ṣenf, of which we have spoken, comes the South China Sea, an unpleasant and cold sea, one colder than any other. It is said that the wind blows from its depths and that it is inhabited by a people living in the bosom of the water. Sailors that have visited these parts say that at night, when the sea is stirred by the wind, these individuals appear and climb up into their ships; this never takes place, moreover, when the sea is stormy. The sailors say that they do not know of any navigable sea beyond the South China Sea. There is only an ocean, which extends indefinitely, whose water is not like that of other seas. — In the China Sea one may see a fish similar to a firebrand; the water throws it up on the shore, and when the water has receded, the fish remains in the mud; it then shakes itself for half a day and, as a result of this agitation, it becomes armed with a wing that drives this fish, with which it turns itself around and flies away. — It is estimated that the width of the country of China, which the ships travel over, is fifteen hundred parasangs. — [There is a fish in this sea called loḥm which eats men. Often when they throw dead sailors into the water, fish of this species swallow them.] Also, one may see a great face, like a human face, but larger, rounded and of the color of the moon, which covers the space between two mountains. — China’s gates are in the sea; they are the slots between the mountains.
It is said that in the city of Baqmūliah, which is the former Constantinople, there is a church under the water; the ebbing water uncovers it one day of the year, and people from the surrounding area come to it on pilgrimage. They prepare in advance, stay there for the day, and then disperse; they bring their elders; toward sunset, the water starts to return, and they withdraw in a hurry. Water re-submerges the church and covers it until the following year.
Coral is found particularly in the Sea of Spain, at the bottom of which it grows like a tree; to grasp the branches, one uses this method: one attaches a wire to a line of hemp that is weighed down with lead; one then lowers the line until it reaches the coral. Then, one pulls on it by advancing the ship, and the branches cling to right and left, so that one knows that the hook has attached. Then one raises the line and takes the coral. They export large quantities to the Hejaz, India, and China. — In the same sea there is a lot of ambergris. — There is also a fish whose flesh has aphrodisiac properties, and another which has the shape of a human being.
The History of Tinnīs (Tanis)
Tinnīs was a city that included gardens, vineyards, and pleasant sights; it was divided between two kings who descended from Atrīb, son of Miṣr, one a believer and the other unfaithful. The believer spent his fortune in various good works and had to sell his share of the city to his brother, but he still spent the proceeds on good works. His brother, on his side, embellished his part of the city. He built palaces, made the waters to run, and built monuments. The believer needed the help of the infidel, but he refused it to him, and he boasted of his riches and his gardens. One day when the first brother spoke to him amicably, he said: “I am richer and more powerful than you.” “I do not see,” replied his brother, “what you give back to God for what he has given you; soon he will take everything from you.” He then invoked the heavens against him, and in one night the waters of the sea washed over all his possessions, so that it seemed they had never existed. These two men are said to be those of whom God speaks in the Quran in this passage: “Offer them the parable of the two men to whom we gave two gardens…” up to “anyone” (Quran 18:32-42). Tinnīs was a great city; she had a hundred gates. We shall speak of it in dealing with the cities of Egypt, God willing. It is said that the water of Lake Tinnīs becomes fresh when the Nile floods, and remains that way for six months; then it becomes salty.
In the Maghreb is a spring that gushes only during the hours of prayer; they go to it to make ablution; it bubbles at each of these times; it is known under the name of the Spring of the Canonical Hours.
The Indians have a great river near which is a very high tree, made of iron or copper; under the tree is a pike of copper or iron, stuck in the ground, angled towards the water, with a height of ten cubits above the ground and a width of a cubit and a little more; on top of the pike are set three thick and sharpened stakes like candlesticks. Near the tree a man read a book and said, turning to the river, “O, greatly blessed torrent of Paradise, which emerges from its source in Paradise and which watches the road for men! Happy is he who ascends the tree and throws himself on this pike; God will be auspicious to him alone!” Many of those who listen climb this the tree and throw themselves on the pike that cuts them, and they fall into the water, while their companions pray for them to be introduced to the joys and happiness of Paradise. — The Indians also worship the Mehran River, which joins the Nile, they say; they believe that just like the Nile, its source is in Paradise. No one should drink the water without being purified from their sins. — They have still another river near which according to their tradition stand men with sharp swords in hand. When a follower of their religion wants to purify himself and join his creator, he engages these men; they strip him of everything he wears, jewelry, clothing, gold necklaces, bracelets, earrings; even the king’s son comes to this river; these men throw them on a large altar, and having taken their necklaces, they strike them with their swords and cut their bodies in two. They throw one half in this river and the other half in the river Ganges. The Indians believe that these two rivers come out of Paradise.
In the mountains of Sarandīb is the Diamond Valley; it is a very deep valley inhabited by large venomous snakes. To extract the diamonds, they throw freshly flayed hot meat; eagles, which are numerous in this region, seeing this meat, they swoop down on it, seize it, and transport it elsewhere for eating for fear of snakes in the valley. The diamond hunter goes to where they feast, for there are the diamonds that have adhered to the meat and that are the size of a lens, a bean, or a pea; the biggest reach the size of a bean. The kings there burn their seals. The author of the Logic (Aristotle) reports that there are large diamonds, but that one cannot extract them because of the snakes in the valley.
One can also find in India the Valley of Cloves. Neither merchants nor sailors ever enter it, and none is said to have ever seen a tree. The fruit is sold, they say, by djinn. The sailors dock at the island, lay on the shore their consignments, and return to their ship. The next morning, they find one portion of cloves beside each lot. There are those who leave the lot and cloves to ask for more, and a supplement is sometimes added.
A man reported that he had gone down into the island and that he had traversed it; he saw yellow, beardless people with long hair and dressed as women, who hid at his approach. After this visit, the merchants, having waited some time, returned to the shore of the island but found no cloves. They realized that the people had done this because of the man who had seen them. A few years later, they resumed their ancient practice. They say that cloves, when fresh, are palatable. The island’s inhabitants are well-nourished; they do not get sick and never grow old. It is also said that they dress in the leaves of a tree that grows there, and that is unknown to other men.
The Islands of the Green Sea
Ptolemy says that the Green Sea (Outer Sea) contains 27,000 inhabited and uninhabited islands. Among them are:
An island inhabited by a people who are a remnant of Nasnās; these people have a tree, called the loofah, whose fruit nourishes and with whose leaf they dress; they also eat the flesh of marine animals.
An island of coral, where grows the tree of coral, in the pools between fresh and salt water; it raises up a head made out of a tuft of branches. When a ship passes near the island, they load it up on all the coral they can.
An island in the middle of which is a large and shiny black stone pyramid; who knows what it contains, but around it are the dead and vast ossuaries. A king once came to visit the island. When he went down into it, drowsiness seized his companions; they fell into a stupor, lost their strength, and could not move. Those who saw this returned to the ship in haste, and all those who stopped or lingered perished.
It is said that Dhul-Qarnayn (Alexander), going towards the Darkness, passed near an island where he saw people whose heads were those of large dogs, with menacing teeth and spewing fire from their mouths, and which ran toward his ships. They attacked and engaged in battle, and they fled from them.
Continuing his journey, he saw a very high bright light; he sailed toward it and reached the Island of the Palace. It is an island in the middle of which stands a crystal palace, which shines above the nearby sea. He wanted to go down there, but a Brahmin, an Indian philosopher, stopped him, telling him that whoever sets foot on this island loses consciousness and, unable to escape, dies. It is said that Alexander saw the people dressed in leaves and he asked the Brahmin how they could survive, contrary to what he had said; but the Brahmin replied that there was fruit in the island, and that those who ate it recovered their health. It is reported that there appears, at night, on the battlements of the palace lamps that burn until morning, when their light decreases until evening, when they re-ignite again.
In the same sea is a wide white island, containing water and wood; it is inhabited by a race of people whose faces are located on their chests. They go naked, and they have both male organs and those of women. They speak a language like that of birds. They feed on plants similar to fungi and tubers, and they drink water from ponds that are on the island.
The Island of the Dragon (al-tinnin) contains mountains, rivers, and crops. It is inhabited. Above its capital stands a tall fortress, residence of a huge dragon that devoured men. It is said that Alexander landed at this island and its people begged him to rescue them. It is reported that they every day they left two bulls a short distance from the palace, so that when the dragon emerged from the forest he would take the two bulls and return home, and recommence the next day. Alexander said to the people, “Show me his lair.” In the morning they took him to a commanding position; they laid out the two bulls and the dragon appeared, like a black cloud, with eyes bright like lightning and fire coming out of his insides. He devoured the two bulls and returned to his lair. Alexander then flayed two big bulls and filled their skins with pitch, sulfur, plaster, and arsenic, and mingled with this paste harpoons and iron pins. And then he made the deposit in the same place. The dragon came as usual, devoured the bait, and left; but he had barely moved when all these materials mixed in his stomach, and he fell to the ground without being able to move, breathing with an open mouth. Alexander ordered that reddened pieces of iron be set upon iron tables and launched into the dragon’s throat; the monster died on the spot, and the country regained peace. They celebrated the death of the dragon, and the people thanked Alexander and offered him what they most valued. Among the presents they gave him was a beast of the figure of a hare, with yellow forepaws of the brilliance of gold, and they called it mi‘rājj. This beast had on his head a single black horn; lions, tigers, birds, wild beasts, and all the animals fled before it.
There is an island in this sea which appears in some years and some months, and disappears in the interval with all that is therein; it always comes back with the same appearance. They say it is a mobile island.
There is also the island of the Malkān. The Malkān is a sea monster that has established its lair on the island; it has many heads with diverse faces and curved teeth; it feeds only on the fish it has caught. It is said that this monster was used as vehicle by a king of the sea djinn because it has two wings that, when drawn together near the heads, creates a form like a bow that would provide shelter against the sun. The ancients referred to this beast and said it was the size of a mountain. The island of the Malkān is inhabited by a race of people who have animal heads on human bodies and feed on the fish they can reach.
The Island of Sīdūn
Sīdūn was a king. His island extended for a one-month walk in both directions. It contained many wonders, forests, and rivers. In the midst of it was a seat on a pillar of colored marble; this seat was made of gold and enriched with all kinds of gems, and it dominated the island. The king Sīdūn was, it is said, a magician, and djinn flew around him and taught him marvelous secrets. But a djinn made him known to Solomon, who came to attack him, devastated the island, and killed almost all its inhabitants because of their worship of Sīdūn. He also took several prisoners and those, for the most part, believed in him. Among the prisoners was a daughter of Sīdūn, such that there was no better woman more accomplished or gentler on the surface of the earth. Solomon reserved her for himself and married her.
But this princess spent her days in sorrow and tears because she was far from the kingdom of her father, deprived of her past happiness, and her family, servants and relatives were captives. Solomon said, “What is this sadness that I see here in you? I am nonetheless better for you than your father, and my kingdom is greater than his.” “Glorious King,” she said, “when I remember my life with my father and the affection I had for him, it causes me to remember my pain. If you order the satans to make me an image of my father, perhaps I can console myself by looking at it.” Solomon gave orders to them, and they depicted the king on such a seat at the one where he sat. It is said that one satan who made this statue was a friend of her father. It is also said that he had suggested the idea to the princess, and had encouraged her to talk to Solomon. The satans placed the image in one of the rooms of the palace he had built for the young woman; rare shrubs were brought there and water was conducted therein by gold and silver pipes lined with various stones, on the model of what Solomon had seen in the house of Sīdūn.
The princess then approached the statue, donned various magnificent vestments brocaded with gold and embellished with gems, put on her head a crown of precious stones, and donned a golden miter decorated with jewels of all colors. She sat on the throne, disposed around her silk cushions, burned before her aloe and ambergris, spread it on the ashes of musk. Face to face with the statue and at some distance, she offered spices, flowers, and crocuses. Then she came to visit him in the morning and evening, and worship him, in the company of Solomon’s wives and their handmaidens, as she had practiced toward her father.
The news of her idolatry spread. She managed to Asaph son of Barakia (Baruch or Berekiah), reader and secretary of Solomon, who presented to the king the knowledge of the Book, and who had accompanied him before the throne of Bilḳīs. He knew what place the young woman held in Solomon’s heart and how much he loved her, and he sought the best way to prove her guilt to the king. Therefore, he said to Solomon: “O son of God, I want to ask you something.” “Ask,” said the king. “I am old,” he replied, “and I fear that death comes to surprise me. I wish, in a solemn assembly, to recall the memory of the prophets, praise them, and explain their merits. Send for your subjects, gathering together all the notable people of Israel and have them sit according to their rank. I wish for a pulpit where shall I stand and where I will talk about how to best achieve the purpose of my speech.” Solomon acceded to his desires. The old man mounted the pulpit to preach. He gave glory to God, then listed the prophets one after another. He praised all of them from childhood to old age, and he glorified their reign; he thus arrived at and praised David, invoking his life, and even his death. But when came the turn of Solomon, he praised his youth, saying nothing of his maturity or his reign, and celebrated him without happiness. Solomon noticed this, sent for him when he had finished, and said: “Tell me, Asaph, why I heard you mention all the prophets and praise their whole lives and reigns, but instead for me you have praised my childhood, saying nothing of my manhood? Why have you done this?” “I have memory,” he responded, “of that which I know.” But, as the king insisted, he added, “What could I have found worthy to be praised in the current period of your kingdom?” “What am I doing wrong?” asked the king. “Another god,” said the old man, “has been served in your house for forty days. Is this how you repay God’s favors and thank him for the kingdom he has given you and your fathers before you?” Solomon asked for forgiveness and said, “You speak the truth.” He went to his wife, chastised her, broke the idol, and put the satan to flight; afterwards, he seized and imprisoned him. They say that idol spoke to the woman in the language of her father; it told her that she had done well, and induced her to worship it.
God severely punished Solomon for that reason. The djinn stole his seal; he descended from his throne and wandered among the children of Israel, who denied him. Finally God heard his prayers; he returned his kingdom and his seal at the end of forty days, the length of time which the woman had worshiped the idol. This princess died, it is said, after giving children to Solomon.
The island of Rūd. Here there are people who have wings, coats of hair, and tapered horns; they walk on two feet and four feet; they fly away and come back to the island. They are said to be former satans.
The island of Gami (the submerged). It is a beast rounded like a ball, who utters a terrible cry, without knowing whence its voice issues. It is claimed that it remains six months in the sea and that, for the other six months, it is visible on this island; it is not known what it eats or where it gets its food.
An island where passing sailors saw the sea swell and bubble before them; they looked and an old man with white hair and a white beard appeared, wearing green clothes, lying on the surface of the water, and saying, “Glory to Him who rules the world, who knows the secrets of the heart and whose power holds back the sea so it does not overflow. Head between the north and the east until you reach the mountains and the route passing through the middle of them; thus will you avoid a wreck.” So they did, and they reached a city inhabited by men with long faces, who were supported by rods of gold, which they also used to fight, and who fed on bananas and costus. They stayed one month among them, and took their rods of gold, without which they could not stop them. Then they returned by the same way healthy and sound.
It is said that the personage who oversees all is al-Khiḍr, and that this island in the middle of the largest sea is his home.
The Islands of the Sea of China
Ptolemy reports that the Sea of the East and of China and contains 13,700 islands, and he cites a few. Among them are:
The island of Sarandīb. It is said to be eighty parasangs in both directions. The Indians claim that it contains the mountain on which God caused Adam to fall to earth; sailors see it on certain days. The Brahmins claim that there one sees the footprint of Adam, who was seventy cubits tall. It shines day and night like lightning over the inhabitants of the mountain, and no one can fix it his gaze upon it. Adam would have made only one step from there to the sea, and the distance is a two-day walk. Around the mountain are hyacinths and all kinds of stones; on its slopes aromatic and medicinal plants grow and animals with musk live. Its soil is abrasive, and its valleys contain diamonds, rivers, and crystal. The surrounding sea contains pearls.
Not far is the island of al-Ramini. Al-Ramini is an island of India. In this island there are rhinoceroses and logwood whose sap is a very effective antidote. Sailors use it against the bites of vipers and snakes. — We can also see buffaloes without tails and naked men living in marshes, speaking a language we cannot understand and similar to wild beasts. Their size is four spans. These men and women have very small genitals; their hair is thin and red; they climb on trees without the aid of their hands; they pursue ships by swimming with the speed of the wind; they sell ambergris to obtain iron, and they carry it in their mouths. These people have for neighbors the Negroes with woolly hair, which eat men alive and dissect them soon as they have made them into captives. These Negroes have a mountain in the island whose earth is a kind of silver liquefiable by fire.
In the vicinity lies the land of camphor. Camphor is a tree that grows in these parts, and whose shadow can cover at least a hundred people. If one were to cut the tree, out comes a liquid which fills several jars; it is the essence (literally: water) of camphor. Camphor is a resin that comes from the tree when cut. The tree’s wood is white and light. This island contains many marine wonders, extraordinary birds, and other rarities.
The island of Kalah is a large island inhabited by Indians, where there are tin mines and bamboo plantations.
To its right and two days journey by ship, is the island of Balūs. The people are cannibals. There are large species of bananas, camphor, Indian nuts, sugar cane, and oryza.
The island of Zābah (or Zabaj, of unknown location, possibly Java). It contains the city of Selāhat; it has a king who lives in great opulence, dressed in golden robes, wearing a gold hat embellished with precious stones. This island produces the Indian nuts, bananas, sugar, sandalwood, lavender, and cloves. Toward it is a mountain on top of which burns a fire that rises up a hundred cubits and is even as wide. It is visible at night as flames and as smoke during the day.
The island of Tib (perfume) is two weeks’ distant from the previous island by sea; it produces all kinds of spices.
In the kingdom of Maharāj is an island called Braṭā’īl where one may hear the sounds of the drum, fife, flute, and various songs. Sailors say it is the home of Dajjāl. In this vicinity, there is a point in the sea from which emerge horses adorned with manes hanging down to the ground.
The island of Toyūmah on the route to China. It produces aloe and camphor. It is distant a few days from Ḳimār (Khmer, or Cambodia) on the mainland. Ḳimār produces the aloes of Ḳimār and sandalwood.
The island of sandalwood, on the mainland. It produces the aloe of Ṣenf (southern Cambodia), which the inhabitants of these countries esteem more than the aloe of Ḳimār because it sinks in water due to its quality and weight. On the island there are oxen and buffalo.
The country of Wāk with its islands is located to the east of China. Gold is plentiful to the point that people make from gold the reins of their horses, weapons, and their dogs’ chains, and they wear shirts of gold cloth. They also make wonderful statues. These countries export aloe, musk, ebony, and cinnamon, and all kinds of goods and curiosities.
The islands of Zanj. They are populated by many races whose appearance and humors differ, and they are ruled by many kings with various customs and beliefs. There are different kinds of animals.
The sea of Zanj contains several islands where there are various colored seashells, whose inhabitants use them to make ornaments. They bury the teeth of elephants, and when they are moldy, traders from India and Sindh come to buy them.
The Islands of the Sea of Harkend
The Sea of Harkend, in the opinion of Ptolemy and most sailors, contains seventeen hundred inhabited islands, without counting those that are deserted. All these islands are governed by a woman. A great deal of ambergris comes from here; the pieces are sometimes as big as a house. This ambergris comes up from the depths of the sea under the action of storms that rush under it, and it is then thrown by the wind onto the shore. The inhabitants of these islands trade with shells; the queens fill their treasuries with them, and they represent the largest share of their wealth. It is said that these shells float to the surface of the water and that animals live in them. They take pieces (branches) of the Indian nut tree and throw them into the sea; the shells cling to them, and thus they are collected.
The Kingdom of Maharāj is considerable; none has more islands in the seas of the East. A sailor who wished to traverse all these islands could not in several years. This sea contains countless wonders. Its kings have a quantity of aromatic oils: camphor, cloves, walnuts, mace, ḳāḳilah, cubebs, and aloe. No other king possesses as much, and none can compete with them in that kind of wealth.
The Country of China
The land of China is said to contain three hundred and some-odd flourishing cities, without counting the large towns, frontier towns, or islands. The entranceways to China are twelve ports formed by mountains rising in the sea, the mountains in pairs leaving a gap between them. One sails in this country’s sea until one reaches one of the great and famous cities. The ships take seven days to pass through the mountains; having passed these ports, they arrive in a spacious sea of fresh water, and there sail to the point they want to reach. The first port they dock at is Khanfu (Guangzhou). Water from these ports is fresh, coming from the rivers; one finds safe places in all of them, equipped with all the things necessary for life: trees, gardens, and crops. In all these bays, two tides are felt day and night. Each port has markets, stocks of goods, an entrance, an exit, and customs offices where the ship is registered both coming and going.
The island of Khalzhān is between Sarandīb and Kalah, in the country of India. It is inhabited by naked Negroes, and when a foreigner falls into their hands, they hang him upside down and cut him up. They have no king; they feed on fish, bananas, Indian nuts, and sugarcane. There are bamboo forests on the island. These blacks go completely naked.
Near to China is a place in the sea called Ṣanzhi (Taiwan). This is the point where the sea is the worst, where there is the most wind, storms, dangers, and frightening objects. The children, like those of Zanj, spread out and assail the ships. They are large, of five spans; they come out of the water, jump on the vessels, roam over them in all directions without hurting anyone, and then go back into the waves. When sailors see them appear, they know that the winds will become bad. They then return to their ships, lighten the ship by throwing overboard some of their cargo, and tightening one or two cubits of the sail in the yard, or more according to their fear. — Sailors also say that, [when a bird is seen perching itself on the end of the vessels in these waters, like a burning torch, it is a sign of salvation. — They still tell that] one may see lurking in there a fish called the whale, which sometimes reaches a hundred cubits in length and a width of twenty cubits, and has a stony crust on its back. This fish attack ships and the air. They add that sometimes it approaches the shore unknowingly searching for food and pursuing fish which flee before it; carried away by this movement, it runs up on the shore, and, unable to turn back, perishes. When it is taken in this way, they share its flesh and it is melted in cauldrons. It melts completely, and becomes a fat employed on ships and other things.
A nearby island is called Zābaj; there stands a mountain called the Mountain of Fire, from which comes smoke by day and flame by night, and none might come near it.
The island of al-Mandar. Its inhabitants are Negroes; they have a town called Barend; they infest the routes, taking prisoners; they fight against Chinese ships carrying arms dealers or naphtha. One of their ships can carry four hundred merchants and five hundred fighters. These are not the ones that the Blacks attack. They attack the smaller vessels and seize them.
The islands of Zābaj. This is a large archipelago, well peopled, with rich harvests and various commodities. It is said that when the Chinese people were ruined by invasions or civil wars, they came to loot one of the islands of Zābaj, and such was the fate of all the islands of this archipelago and all their cities.
The best of China’s ports for traders is that which leads to Khanfu, and it is the closest. The route is longer via other ports.
The islands of Zābaj are numerous; one of them, known as the Sribuzah (Brunei), has an area of four hundred parasangs. It produces food and perfumes.
The island of al-Rami. It is flourishing too. An estimated size is eight hundred parasangs. It has logwood forests; camphor and aromatic ointments are found there.
The island of Kalah. They say it occupies a middle position between the land of China and the land of the Arabs. Its area is eighty parasangs. Kalah produces many commodities: aloes, camphor, sandalwood, ivory, pewter, ebony, and logwood. Nowadays, they go to Oman.
The island of Maharāj; its name is also the name of the king of the island. This is a large, very prosperous, and very fertile island. Traders make credible reports that roosters sing in the trees and they reply for a hundred parsangs, because of the continuity of cultivated land and the beautiful arrangement of the countryside that is not interrupted with deserts or ruins. Travelers move through them without provisions and can go down where they want.
In the island of Sarandīb there is a place where locals get together to read the biographies of their prophets and the stories of their ancient kings. One may also see a large golden idol that achieves, with the stones of which it is covered, a weight of 100 raṭl. It is placed in a temple. On the island there are other places where Jews and other inhabitants of the kingdom come together to study and to discuss their science and their religion; this the King permits. — In the same island are valleys called the gobb of Sarandīb; these are long valleys which require at least two months to cross. They are filled with gardens and groves, and the air is still very fresh; a sheep in this country is half a dirham or a little more. The people spend most of their time playing backgammon or chess. A man covets a woman with the full knowledge of the family thereof.
The islands of Zanj. It is a great and vast archipelago. All one sows—corn, reeds and other plants—they come up black. There is a tribe in the archipelago called the Mokhazzam (from the nasal passage), in which individuals have the nose and chin split. A chain is placed in the slot; each warrior takes one of these men by the end of the chain, he conducts him and prevents him from moving until the trumpets sound breaking the peace. Then they tie the chain around their necks and loose them to the battle. No one can resist them; they tear and devour anyone who opposes them, and none of them leaves his place without being killed.
The Arabs inspire a great reverence among the Zanj; when Arabs appear before them, they love saying, “This is a kingdom where grows date trees,” because the date is worshiped there, and because the Arabs raise their children with dates.
The Zanj have eloquent speakers. Those who are consecrated to the gods dress in tiger skins; they carry a stick with which they gather the people, and they stand on one foot all day, preaching, invoking God, and telling the story of the reigning king and of the ancient kings.
The island of Socotra. There grows the myrrh of Socotra. This island is located between the country of Zanj and the Arabs. Most of its inhabitants are Christians; here is the reason. When Alexander had conquered the kingdom of the Persians and killed Porus the Indian, he wrote to Aristotle what had happened to him and told him of what kingdoms he had attacked and conquered. Aristotle replied by advising him to seek an island in the sea, called Socotra, where grows the myrrh of Socotra, containing the great remedy which alone could complete the medicine called ἱερἀ. He ended by recommending to Alexander that discovering the island he not leave it without having pacified the inhabitants and without having ensured the Greeks could govern and hold it. Alexander followed his advice, and he ordered the satraps to keep the island. This state of affairs lasted until the mission of the Lord Jesus, son of Mary. The Rumis then embraced Christianity, and the inhabitants of Socotra entered the new religion with the rest of the empire. The descendants of these Christians still remain today, mixed with the other populations of the island.
The Islands of the Sea of Oman and of Yemen
In the vast sea that is to the right and beyond Oman there are many islands; they face the country of Shiḥr where incense grows, and the countries that border it and which are the territories of the ’Ādites, of the Jurhamites, and of the Tubba‘. These islands are inhabited by Arabs. They live in poverty and a very miserable way, but those who are close to Omani or Yemeni shores live a little more prosperously; they feed on fish and plants that grow there. Sometimes ambergris comes on their shores, which they sell to sailors.
The sea of Yemen meets the sea of al-Jar and Kolzom and ends there. Among the wonderful islands contained in this sea is an island called Salaṭā, inhabited by people whose speech, cries, movements one can hear, to whom one can talk and with whom one can meet, but who cannot be seen. Asked about their condition, they said they were men who had been sent a prophet named Sāfir son of Jardūl. They believed in him and they continued to follow his religion. When a traveler approaches this place, they give him for one night provisions that would be sufficient for three nights, wonderfully fresh and fragrant fruits, Indian nuts, and roasted birds as big as pigeons and most succulent. When their guest wants to return home, they prepare him a vessel; but often the stranger forgets to leave, and if it does not carry him away, he will always remain with them, as their country is nice and it abounds in delights. This is familiar to sailors.
The island of Farsh. Farsh is a tree that gave its name to the island. It bears a fruit that looks like almonds, but is bigger; it is eaten with the peel and it takes the place of any remedy. Whoever is nourished by it does not get sick until his death and does not age; if his hair is white, it will become black. This island has a king who prohibits access. It is said that a king of India procured this almond and that he sowed it; the tree had leaves, but bore no fruit.
The island of Dilhāt. Dilhāt was a satan in human form, mounted on the back of a bird that resembled the ostrich in form and dimensions. He ate human flesh. When the sea brought him victims, he put them in a high place from which they could not escape, and he ate them, one after another. He devoured them alive. It is said that the sea tossed a ship against this island. The sailors who had heard of the satan, seeing him coming, stood firm on the ship; they launched against him and defended themselves, determined to kill him; but he uttered a cry such that they all fell down unconscious. The satan then carried them into the usual place; but he found among them a pure man who called God’s vengeance on him; and he died on the spot. This man went to the place where the satan had carried the victims to collect the riches and goods that had accumulated there.
The island of al-Ṣarif. It is an island that appears to mariners; they try to approach it and, when they believe it nearby, it moves away; they sometimes travel for several days without being able to reach it. None of them has ever been said to have landed on or entered it. One may see on this island inhabitants, animals, crops, and trees.
The island of al-Bīdaj. Here one may see an idol with green glass eyes from which always fall tears. The sailors say it cries over those who serve it. A king attacked the island, killed or captured the people; and then wanted to break the idol. But although they made a good hit, the blow did not work and reverberated onto those who threw it; in the end they abandoned the effort. The incoming wind in the ears of the idol produced a strange whistling sound.
The island of Sindarūsah. It is populated and wooded. Most of its people serve themselves from vessels of gold, have clothing of golden fabrics, and golden weapons. They have a king. Anyone who wants to take something from this place is prevented from doing so by him.
The Islands of the West
Among the islands of the West, Sicily is worthy of remark. This is a large island. The time needed to traverse it is long, more than fifteen days; and it forms a vast kingdom. It has mountains, forests, rivers, and crops. It is located across from and close to Ifrīkīah (North Africa). It contains Mount al-Burkhān (Etna), where one constantly sees rising smoke during the day and fire by night. This volcano projects above the sea burning masses, which are black and porous stones, similar to the sponge and floating on water. The Sicilians gather them and they are used to rub in the ovens. Sometimes burning lava comes out of the volcano, falls into the sea, and burns animals and fish in its path; the waves wash it back toward the shore. Nobody can approach this place.
The island of Sardinia. This is a large island which is crossed in twenty days. It has woods, springs, farms, mountains, and produces various commodities.
The island of Crete. It is in the Sea of Rūm; it contains mountains, gold mines, rivers, and fruit. It has a length of twelve days in one direction and six in the other.
In the vast sea is an island visible at sea at some distance; but if one wants to approach it, it moves away and disappears. When one returns to the point whence one left, one sees it again just as before. It is said that on this island there is a tree that sprouts at the time when the sun rises and rises as the sun rises; by afternoon, it decreases, and it disappears at sunset. Sailors claim that there is in this sea a little fish called the chākil, and that those who carry them can see the island and enter it without it disappearing. This is really a wonderful and singular thing.
The island of Ṭāūrān. Ṭāūrān is a king who has four thousand women. Anyone who does not have as many cannot be king of this people. They celebrate their number of children. There are trees there that give those who eat of them an extraordinary power for the act of sex.
The island of as-Sayārah. There are sailors who claim to have seen it often, but they have not stayed. It is a mountainous island and cultivated, jutting eastward when the west wind blows, and vice versa. The stone of this island is very light. A large stone, which weighs several talents with us, weighs just a few ratls with them. A man could carry a big piece of mountain.
A Jewish merchant recounted that one year he was on a ship that was broken, and the storm tossed it with his companions on an island where the earth, the rocks, and everything else was golden. They stayed several days without any food except the fish, which were quite rare. As they were in danger of perishing, they found the ship’s lifeboat remained intact; they drew it against the shore and filled it with gold; but their greed led them to exceed the load that it could hold; they entered and gained the high seas, seeking to save themselves; they did not get far before the ship sank. All the gold was lost, and almost all of them perished, except a few who escaped by swimming in the direction of Zanj and reached the shore.
It is reported that in the camphor islands are a people who eat men, and take their heads, stuff them with camphor and perfumes, hang them in their homes, and worship them. When they need to decide a matter, they take one of these heads, worship it, bow down before it, and ask what they want to know. It informs them of what they want to know, good or bad.
The island of women. This is an island with the limits of the Sea of China. It is reported that it is inhabited only by women who are impregnated by the wind and that only bear female children; [also, it is said they are fertilized by a tree whose fruit they eat]. Gold, according to claims, grows there in canes, such as bamboo, and the women are fed with gold. A man once fell among them; they wanted to kill him; but one of them had compassion, set him on a plank, and entrusted it to the sea. The waves and winds carried him to the land of China. He went to the king of China and spoke of the island. The king sent his ships to investigate, but after three years of effort, they found neither news nor traces of it.
The island of Ibn as-Si’lāt (Son of the Demons). Here there is a monster, but no one knows what it is. Some say this satan is an intermediary between the djinn and men. Others believe that it is a sea monster, close to human form, and devouring men who fall into its power.
It is told in the history of Alexander that his ships landed on a white island, pure, rich in water, wood, and fruits. It was populated by individuals with the bodies of men and the heads of lions or dogs; when the sailors approached them, they fled. In the middle of the island is a river of extreme whiteness, on whose banks grows a large tree laden with all kinds of fruit, delicious in taste, and in colors of all shades. The foliage of this tree resembles the ḥalak in size, softness, and beauty. The tree grows with the sun from morning to noon, and when the sun stops rising, it stops growing; the tree then decreases with the sun and disappears when the sun sets. Its fruit is sweeter than honey and sweeter than cream, and the fragrance of its foliage is better than musk. Sailors brought back a bunch of leaves for a report to Alexander, but they felt like they had been hit and saw on their bodies the mark of blows, without knowing where they came from; and a voice shouted: “Give back what you have taken from this tree, and commit no outrage against it, or else you will perish.” So they took back what they had taken, went back to their ships, and left.
Alexander also went to the island of ascetics. He could see nothing on its soil except grass and ponds; it was inhabited by men exhausted by asceticism and whose skin had turned black like ash. He stopped among them, greeted them, and they returned his salutation. He asked them how they lived in this place: “We eat,” they said, “the fish of the sea, which we take, and various herbs, and drink the water from these ponds.” He proposed transporting them to a richer land. They said, “What would we do? We have in this same island treasures worth all the rest of the world, which would satisfy anyone who possessed them.” “And what are these?” asked Alexander. They brought him to a valley quite dazzling with pearls and hyacinths, which boggled the mind; and from there they brought him into a vast plain which produced abundant fruit of species unknown in any other country. “Can you lead us then,” they said, “to a richer place than this?” “By God,” Alexander replied, “I do not know one with even half as much.” “All this,” they continued, “is in our hands and we will not make us of it; we prefer grass to these fruits.” The companions of Alexander wanted to take some precious stones, but he stopped them. He said goodbye to the men and returned to his ship, amazed.
There are reports that they pointed Alexander to an island in the Green Sea, on which lived wise men. He went there and saw men wearing pants (Persian: sarābil) made from leaves and living in caves. Peace reigned among them. He asked them questions on philosophy, which they answered. Then he said, “Ask of me what you wish.” They asked him for immortality. “Is this something I possess,” he said, “for I cannot add a single moment to my life?” “Then help us to know how much time remains for us to live.” “I do not know the time remaining in my own life; how would I know the time left in yours?” “Give us at least at least the blessing that we might live as long as we have already lived.” “I cannot obtain this blessing for myself; how would I obtain it for another?” “We will therefore ask,” they said, “who has the authority to give it.” Then they began to view the army of Alexander. There was on the shore of the sea a potter who did not look up at Alexander or his army. The conqueror was surprised and, approaching him, said to him, “What is stopping you from rising before me and watching my troops?” He replied, “Your power is nothing that amazes me; why should I view your men?” “What do you mean?” “I saw before you a king whose power exceeded that of any other. Now there was in my neighborhood a poor man, possessing nothing. The king and the poor man died the same day and were buried in the same place. I visited their graves, until the coffins were consumed and where the bones, which alone remained, mingled. Then I tried to distinguish the king from the poor man and this I was unable to do. Since that time, I have despised kings.” “The profession that you practice, is it enough to live on?” asked Alexander. “I earn three dirhams per day,” the man replied. “I spend a dirham; I pay one in debt, and I save one.” The one I spend is for my food and my family’s food; the one that I pay in debt is for the lease on my house and my shop; and the one I save is for the education of my child, who will support me when I become old.” Alexander asked him if he spent nothing on his companions. He replied, “They do not need it, and I need no more of their help. Whoever needs help is one who does not fulfill his duties to himself. Whoever does what he should for himself shall need nothing.” Alexander, who admired this wisdom, walked away.
The Black Sea, made of pitch, joins the Outer Sea; it is very fetid; there one may find the citadel of silver that some say is artificial, and others natural.
The Ocean detaches itself from the South China Sea, which begins at the West, to the sea of Fars, and extends to the country of China. It is a narrow sea from which we extract pearls. [The “Persian Gulf” is intended.] They say it contains 2,800 islands. It is the vortex (the dordūr), where the water turns; when a ship is taken, it runs until it is submerged. Nearby lie the two mountains Kusaīr and ‘Uwaīr. This sea has many marvels: species of colorful snakes, some of which reach a length of one hundred cubits and two hundred fathoms, more or less, and devour one another; — mines where one may find gold growing on branches, and mines of gems; — three hundred populated and cultivated islands where many kings reign. — It is said that this sea contains a crystal palace high up on a rock, lit by candelabra that will never extinguish.
Then comes a sea which whose bottom cannot be reached and which is of unknown width. Vessels, pushed by a good wind, can make it through in less than two months; it is the largest body that depends on the outer sea, and there is none more formidable. There are mines of emeralds and plants and bamboo canes. Its fish will reach a length of about four hundred cubits, but there are little ones too, of just a cubit. When these fish grow to excessive size and harm other fish of the sea and ships, small fish have power against them; and do fear that they shall kill them. Most often big fish avoid these waters for fear of the small fish. — In the same sea are: fish whose faces resemble that of a man who shows himself in the water; — winged fish that fly at night to eat the grass on the shore, and plunge back into the sea before sunrise; — a fish whose venom is used to form writing legible at night; — a green fish whose fat is such that anyone who has eaten of it refuses to take food for several days so as not to lose the taste; — a fish that has two horns similar to the antennas of crayfish, and who throws fire at night; — a round fish, called the maṣḥ, having on his back a sort of sharp edge; no other fish can resist it, because it of this on its back and a horn in front, which kills; sometimes it pierces vessels; his horn is yellow like gold and grooved; — a fish called hafsh, covered with a kind of armor around its eyes and head, and extending over almost its entire body; it is elongated like a snake, twenty cubits long, and equipped with needles arranged like the teeth of a file from its chest to the tip of its tail. It embraces everything it encounters, and everything that its tail embraces dies. They say its flesh heals all diseases; but it is rarely found. — Finally, this sea produces ambergris.
The Sea of Harkend (the Bay of Bengal) follows, containing many islands. Here one might encounter a fish on the back of which sometimes grows grass and seashells. Sometimes sailors moor their ships on it because they take it for an island, but, when they recognize the truth, they pull back. Sometimes this fish deploys one of the two wings it has on its back; when the head comes out of the water, it looks large like a mountain; when its tail comes out of the water, it looks like a large lighthouse. When the sea is calm, it attracts fish with its tail, and then it opens its mouth and reveals its throat like a well. It is called the gondor. It is three hundred cubits long. Sailors dread it; they bang on the clapper at night, so it does not come near to damage and capsize their ships. — Also found in this sea are large snakes; they come out of the water and go into the desert where they swallow elephants. They wrap themselves around rocks and hide in their cavities; they utter a frightening hiss. — One may meet yet another snake which they call al-malikah (the queen), who never appears once. The kings of Zanj use cunning to seize it; it is cooked until its fat melts; the king is anointed, to increase his strength and agility. The skin of this snake, which is tiger-striped, is made into a carpet; the consumptive who sits on it is healed of consumption; the healthy person is insured against it forever. [Sometimes fish of this type arrived in India, where the kings used them for their hide and to guard their treasure.] — The wind, in this sea, blows from its depths; sometimes the tempest projects a fire that spreads an intense light.
The fourth sea is called Dāwanjīd. It is separated from the sea of Harkend by many islands; by one account 1,900 islands. Ambergris is abundant between the islands. [They use large chunks as houses]. This ambergris grows like a plant at the bottom of the sea, and when the agitation of the waves is great, it is ejected from the bottom and rises to the surface, like bitumen and warm water. This is the fat called ambergris. I read in the book of medicine of Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi that Ahmed ibn Ḥafṣ al-‘Aṭār, said: “I went into a meeting with Abu Ishāq; he heated up ambergris that was already melted, and there issued from it some dry grass in the shape of birds’ beaks. He asked me my impression: ‘This is,’ I said, ‘the beaks of birds that eat ambergris which is excreted by the beasts of burden.’ Abu Ishāq laughed and said, ‘This is the belief of the vulgar; but God has not created a beast of burden which excretes ambergris. Ambergris is simply a substance that is found at the bottom of the sea.’ Previously, Rashīd had resolved the issue of ambergris: He instructed Hammad the Berber to seek a solution. This person wrote that he had learned from many inhabitants of ‘Aden that ambergris came from sources in the bottom of the sea and the wind threw it up with the waves; similarly, the land of Rūm (i.e. Romania—the Byzantine Empire) came out of the Rumi tar.
The last island in this sea is that of Sarandīb (Sri Lanka) in the Sea of Harkend. This is the main island among all of these islands; on it there are many deposits of pearls and precious stones. In the sea of Sarandīb are paths between mountains that lead to the country of China. In the mountains of the sea, there are gold mines and pearl deposits. Here we can see wild oxen and various kinds of animals. We might travel through this sea to the land of Maharāj. Often the clouds darken this region for days and nights, rain falls there continually, and neither the fish nor the beasts show themselves at all.
From there we go to the Sea of Ṣenf (the Gulf of Thailand), where the aloe tree is located; we do not know who lives there. The origin of this sea is near to the dark North. We pass also from the same region to the country of Wāk, where the king lives on islands, called the Maharāj. The islands and provinces of his kingdom are countless, and a sailor that would tour them for several years could not see them all. This king has a quantity of medicinal species: camphor, cloves, sandal, walnuts, mace, ḳāḳilah and aloes; no other king possesses as much. — It is said that in this sea is a white castle that moves on the water and that sometimes appears to sailors before dawn; they rejoice when they see it because it presages their salvation, their gain, and their fortune. — There is also the island of Braṭā’īl, which contains inhabited mountains where by night and day timpani, drums and unknown sounds can be heard. The faces of its inhabitants are like shields of double leather, and their ears are slit. Most sailors agree that Dajjāl (the Antichrist) lives on the island, and that he will emerge from it when his time comes. They sell cloves that traders buy from invisible merchants. — In the same sea is al-Barakah (brilliant); it is a great city in glowing white stone where one might hear shouts and songs but see no people. Sailors sometimes are driven down there and have taken of its water, which they found to be white and clear, and to have a sweet taste with the odor of camphor. — There is also an island with shining houses and white domes; sailors, seeing these, want to reach them; but they recede as the sailors approach; in the end they disappear altogether and the sailors therefore turn back.
This sea joins the Wāk. Sailors say they do not know its end, unless it is marked by a mountain where day and night there burns a fire which burns so ardently that it makes a sound like the rolling of thunder. Sometimes one hears in that fire sounds that portend for the people of the region the death of one of their kings or some great personage. One cannot reach the bottom of the sea in this place.
After the Sea of Ṣenf, of which we have spoken, comes the South China Sea, an unpleasant and cold sea, one colder than any other. It is said that the wind blows from its depths and that it is inhabited by a people living in the bosom of the water. Sailors that have visited these parts say that at night, when the sea is stirred by the wind, these individuals appear and climb up into their ships; this never takes place, moreover, when the sea is stormy. The sailors say that they do not know of any navigable sea beyond the South China Sea. There is only an ocean, which extends indefinitely, whose water is not like that of other seas. — In the China Sea one may see a fish similar to a firebrand; the water throws it up on the shore, and when the water has receded, the fish remains in the mud; it then shakes itself for half a day and, as a result of this agitation, it becomes armed with a wing that drives this fish, with which it turns itself around and flies away. — It is estimated that the width of the country of China, which the ships travel over, is fifteen hundred parasangs. — [There is a fish in this sea called loḥm which eats men. Often when they throw dead sailors into the water, fish of this species swallow them.] Also, one may see a great face, like a human face, but larger, rounded and of the color of the moon, which covers the space between two mountains. — China’s gates are in the sea; they are the slots between the mountains.
It is said that in the city of Baqmūliah, which is the former Constantinople, there is a church under the water; the ebbing water uncovers it one day of the year, and people from the surrounding area come to it on pilgrimage. They prepare in advance, stay there for the day, and then disperse; they bring their elders; toward sunset, the water starts to return, and they withdraw in a hurry. Water re-submerges the church and covers it until the following year.
Coral is found particularly in the Sea of Spain, at the bottom of which it grows like a tree; to grasp the branches, one uses this method: one attaches a wire to a line of hemp that is weighed down with lead; one then lowers the line until it reaches the coral. Then, one pulls on it by advancing the ship, and the branches cling to right and left, so that one knows that the hook has attached. Then one raises the line and takes the coral. They export large quantities to the Hejaz, India, and China. — In the same sea there is a lot of ambergris. — There is also a fish whose flesh has aphrodisiac properties, and another which has the shape of a human being.
The History of Tinnīs (Tanis)
Tinnīs was a city that included gardens, vineyards, and pleasant sights; it was divided between two kings who descended from Atrīb, son of Miṣr, one a believer and the other unfaithful. The believer spent his fortune in various good works and had to sell his share of the city to his brother, but he still spent the proceeds on good works. His brother, on his side, embellished his part of the city. He built palaces, made the waters to run, and built monuments. The believer needed the help of the infidel, but he refused it to him, and he boasted of his riches and his gardens. One day when the first brother spoke to him amicably, he said: “I am richer and more powerful than you.” “I do not see,” replied his brother, “what you give back to God for what he has given you; soon he will take everything from you.” He then invoked the heavens against him, and in one night the waters of the sea washed over all his possessions, so that it seemed they had never existed. These two men are said to be those of whom God speaks in the Quran in this passage: “Offer them the parable of the two men to whom we gave two gardens…” up to “anyone” (Quran 18:32-42). Tinnīs was a great city; she had a hundred gates. We shall speak of it in dealing with the cities of Egypt, God willing. It is said that the water of Lake Tinnīs becomes fresh when the Nile floods, and remains that way for six months; then it becomes salty.
In the Maghreb is a spring that gushes only during the hours of prayer; they go to it to make ablution; it bubbles at each of these times; it is known under the name of the Spring of the Canonical Hours.
The Indians have a great river near which is a very high tree, made of iron or copper; under the tree is a pike of copper or iron, stuck in the ground, angled towards the water, with a height of ten cubits above the ground and a width of a cubit and a little more; on top of the pike are set three thick and sharpened stakes like candlesticks. Near the tree a man read a book and said, turning to the river, “O, greatly blessed torrent of Paradise, which emerges from its source in Paradise and which watches the road for men! Happy is he who ascends the tree and throws himself on this pike; God will be auspicious to him alone!” Many of those who listen climb this the tree and throw themselves on the pike that cuts them, and they fall into the water, while their companions pray for them to be introduced to the joys and happiness of Paradise. — The Indians also worship the Mehran River, which joins the Nile, they say; they believe that just like the Nile, its source is in Paradise. No one should drink the water without being purified from their sins. — They have still another river near which according to their tradition stand men with sharp swords in hand. When a follower of their religion wants to purify himself and join his creator, he engages these men; they strip him of everything he wears, jewelry, clothing, gold necklaces, bracelets, earrings; even the king’s son comes to this river; these men throw them on a large altar, and having taken their necklaces, they strike them with their swords and cut their bodies in two. They throw one half in this river and the other half in the river Ganges. The Indians believe that these two rivers come out of Paradise.
In the mountains of Sarandīb is the Diamond Valley; it is a very deep valley inhabited by large venomous snakes. To extract the diamonds, they throw freshly flayed hot meat; eagles, which are numerous in this region, seeing this meat, they swoop down on it, seize it, and transport it elsewhere for eating for fear of snakes in the valley. The diamond hunter goes to where they feast, for there are the diamonds that have adhered to the meat and that are the size of a lens, a bean, or a pea; the biggest reach the size of a bean. The kings there burn their seals. The author of the Logic (Aristotle) reports that there are large diamonds, but that one cannot extract them because of the snakes in the valley.
One can also find in India the Valley of Cloves. Neither merchants nor sailors ever enter it, and none is said to have ever seen a tree. The fruit is sold, they say, by djinn. The sailors dock at the island, lay on the shore their consignments, and return to their ship. The next morning, they find one portion of cloves beside each lot. There are those who leave the lot and cloves to ask for more, and a supplement is sometimes added.
A man reported that he had gone down into the island and that he had traversed it; he saw yellow, beardless people with long hair and dressed as women, who hid at his approach. After this visit, the merchants, having waited some time, returned to the shore of the island but found no cloves. They realized that the people had done this because of the man who had seen them. A few years later, they resumed their ancient practice. They say that cloves, when fresh, are palatable. The island’s inhabitants are well-nourished; they do not get sick and never grow old. It is also said that they dress in the leaves of a tree that grows there, and that is unknown to other men.
The Islands of the Green Sea
Ptolemy says that the Green Sea (Outer Sea) contains 27,000 inhabited and uninhabited islands. Among them are:
An island inhabited by a people who are a remnant of Nasnās; these people have a tree, called the loofah, whose fruit nourishes and with whose leaf they dress; they also eat the flesh of marine animals.
An island of coral, where grows the tree of coral, in the pools between fresh and salt water; it raises up a head made out of a tuft of branches. When a ship passes near the island, they load it up on all the coral they can.
An island in the middle of which is a large and shiny black stone pyramid; who knows what it contains, but around it are the dead and vast ossuaries. A king once came to visit the island. When he went down into it, drowsiness seized his companions; they fell into a stupor, lost their strength, and could not move. Those who saw this returned to the ship in haste, and all those who stopped or lingered perished.
It is said that Dhul-Qarnayn (Alexander), going towards the Darkness, passed near an island where he saw people whose heads were those of large dogs, with menacing teeth and spewing fire from their mouths, and which ran toward his ships. They attacked and engaged in battle, and they fled from them.
Continuing his journey, he saw a very high bright light; he sailed toward it and reached the Island of the Palace. It is an island in the middle of which stands a crystal palace, which shines above the nearby sea. He wanted to go down there, but a Brahmin, an Indian philosopher, stopped him, telling him that whoever sets foot on this island loses consciousness and, unable to escape, dies. It is said that Alexander saw the people dressed in leaves and he asked the Brahmin how they could survive, contrary to what he had said; but the Brahmin replied that there was fruit in the island, and that those who ate it recovered their health. It is reported that there appears, at night, on the battlements of the palace lamps that burn until morning, when their light decreases until evening, when they re-ignite again.
In the same sea is a wide white island, containing water and wood; it is inhabited by a race of people whose faces are located on their chests. They go naked, and they have both male organs and those of women. They speak a language like that of birds. They feed on plants similar to fungi and tubers, and they drink water from ponds that are on the island.
The Island of the Dragon (al-tinnin) contains mountains, rivers, and crops. It is inhabited. Above its capital stands a tall fortress, residence of a huge dragon that devoured men. It is said that Alexander landed at this island and its people begged him to rescue them. It is reported that they every day they left two bulls a short distance from the palace, so that when the dragon emerged from the forest he would take the two bulls and return home, and recommence the next day. Alexander said to the people, “Show me his lair.” In the morning they took him to a commanding position; they laid out the two bulls and the dragon appeared, like a black cloud, with eyes bright like lightning and fire coming out of his insides. He devoured the two bulls and returned to his lair. Alexander then flayed two big bulls and filled their skins with pitch, sulfur, plaster, and arsenic, and mingled with this paste harpoons and iron pins. And then he made the deposit in the same place. The dragon came as usual, devoured the bait, and left; but he had barely moved when all these materials mixed in his stomach, and he fell to the ground without being able to move, breathing with an open mouth. Alexander ordered that reddened pieces of iron be set upon iron tables and launched into the dragon’s throat; the monster died on the spot, and the country regained peace. They celebrated the death of the dragon, and the people thanked Alexander and offered him what they most valued. Among the presents they gave him was a beast of the figure of a hare, with yellow forepaws of the brilliance of gold, and they called it mi‘rājj. This beast had on his head a single black horn; lions, tigers, birds, wild beasts, and all the animals fled before it.
There is an island in this sea which appears in some years and some months, and disappears in the interval with all that is therein; it always comes back with the same appearance. They say it is a mobile island.
There is also the island of the Malkān. The Malkān is a sea monster that has established its lair on the island; it has many heads with diverse faces and curved teeth; it feeds only on the fish it has caught. It is said that this monster was used as vehicle by a king of the sea djinn because it has two wings that, when drawn together near the heads, creates a form like a bow that would provide shelter against the sun. The ancients referred to this beast and said it was the size of a mountain. The island of the Malkān is inhabited by a race of people who have animal heads on human bodies and feed on the fish they can reach.
The Island of Sīdūn
Sīdūn was a king. His island extended for a one-month walk in both directions. It contained many wonders, forests, and rivers. In the midst of it was a seat on a pillar of colored marble; this seat was made of gold and enriched with all kinds of gems, and it dominated the island. The king Sīdūn was, it is said, a magician, and djinn flew around him and taught him marvelous secrets. But a djinn made him known to Solomon, who came to attack him, devastated the island, and killed almost all its inhabitants because of their worship of Sīdūn. He also took several prisoners and those, for the most part, believed in him. Among the prisoners was a daughter of Sīdūn, such that there was no better woman more accomplished or gentler on the surface of the earth. Solomon reserved her for himself and married her.
But this princess spent her days in sorrow and tears because she was far from the kingdom of her father, deprived of her past happiness, and her family, servants and relatives were captives. Solomon said, “What is this sadness that I see here in you? I am nonetheless better for you than your father, and my kingdom is greater than his.” “Glorious King,” she said, “when I remember my life with my father and the affection I had for him, it causes me to remember my pain. If you order the satans to make me an image of my father, perhaps I can console myself by looking at it.” Solomon gave orders to them, and they depicted the king on such a seat at the one where he sat. It is said that one satan who made this statue was a friend of her father. It is also said that he had suggested the idea to the princess, and had encouraged her to talk to Solomon. The satans placed the image in one of the rooms of the palace he had built for the young woman; rare shrubs were brought there and water was conducted therein by gold and silver pipes lined with various stones, on the model of what Solomon had seen in the house of Sīdūn.
The princess then approached the statue, donned various magnificent vestments brocaded with gold and embellished with gems, put on her head a crown of precious stones, and donned a golden miter decorated with jewels of all colors. She sat on the throne, disposed around her silk cushions, burned before her aloe and ambergris, spread it on the ashes of musk. Face to face with the statue and at some distance, she offered spices, flowers, and crocuses. Then she came to visit him in the morning and evening, and worship him, in the company of Solomon’s wives and their handmaidens, as she had practiced toward her father.
The news of her idolatry spread. She managed to Asaph son of Barakia (Baruch or Berekiah), reader and secretary of Solomon, who presented to the king the knowledge of the Book, and who had accompanied him before the throne of Bilḳīs. He knew what place the young woman held in Solomon’s heart and how much he loved her, and he sought the best way to prove her guilt to the king. Therefore, he said to Solomon: “O son of God, I want to ask you something.” “Ask,” said the king. “I am old,” he replied, “and I fear that death comes to surprise me. I wish, in a solemn assembly, to recall the memory of the prophets, praise them, and explain their merits. Send for your subjects, gathering together all the notable people of Israel and have them sit according to their rank. I wish for a pulpit where shall I stand and where I will talk about how to best achieve the purpose of my speech.” Solomon acceded to his desires. The old man mounted the pulpit to preach. He gave glory to God, then listed the prophets one after another. He praised all of them from childhood to old age, and he glorified their reign; he thus arrived at and praised David, invoking his life, and even his death. But when came the turn of Solomon, he praised his youth, saying nothing of his maturity or his reign, and celebrated him without happiness. Solomon noticed this, sent for him when he had finished, and said: “Tell me, Asaph, why I heard you mention all the prophets and praise their whole lives and reigns, but instead for me you have praised my childhood, saying nothing of my manhood? Why have you done this?” “I have memory,” he responded, “of that which I know.” But, as the king insisted, he added, “What could I have found worthy to be praised in the current period of your kingdom?” “What am I doing wrong?” asked the king. “Another god,” said the old man, “has been served in your house for forty days. Is this how you repay God’s favors and thank him for the kingdom he has given you and your fathers before you?” Solomon asked for forgiveness and said, “You speak the truth.” He went to his wife, chastised her, broke the idol, and put the satan to flight; afterwards, he seized and imprisoned him. They say that idol spoke to the woman in the language of her father; it told her that she had done well, and induced her to worship it.
God severely punished Solomon for that reason. The djinn stole his seal; he descended from his throne and wandered among the children of Israel, who denied him. Finally God heard his prayers; he returned his kingdom and his seal at the end of forty days, the length of time which the woman had worshiped the idol. This princess died, it is said, after giving children to Solomon.
The island of Rūd. Here there are people who have wings, coats of hair, and tapered horns; they walk on two feet and four feet; they fly away and come back to the island. They are said to be former satans.
The island of Gami (the submerged). It is a beast rounded like a ball, who utters a terrible cry, without knowing whence its voice issues. It is claimed that it remains six months in the sea and that, for the other six months, it is visible on this island; it is not known what it eats or where it gets its food.
An island where passing sailors saw the sea swell and bubble before them; they looked and an old man with white hair and a white beard appeared, wearing green clothes, lying on the surface of the water, and saying, “Glory to Him who rules the world, who knows the secrets of the heart and whose power holds back the sea so it does not overflow. Head between the north and the east until you reach the mountains and the route passing through the middle of them; thus will you avoid a wreck.” So they did, and they reached a city inhabited by men with long faces, who were supported by rods of gold, which they also used to fight, and who fed on bananas and costus. They stayed one month among them, and took their rods of gold, without which they could not stop them. Then they returned by the same way healthy and sound.
It is said that the personage who oversees all is al-Khiḍr, and that this island in the middle of the largest sea is his home.
The Islands of the Sea of China
Ptolemy reports that the Sea of the East and of China and contains 13,700 islands, and he cites a few. Among them are:
The island of Sarandīb. It is said to be eighty parasangs in both directions. The Indians claim that it contains the mountain on which God caused Adam to fall to earth; sailors see it on certain days. The Brahmins claim that there one sees the footprint of Adam, who was seventy cubits tall. It shines day and night like lightning over the inhabitants of the mountain, and no one can fix it his gaze upon it. Adam would have made only one step from there to the sea, and the distance is a two-day walk. Around the mountain are hyacinths and all kinds of stones; on its slopes aromatic and medicinal plants grow and animals with musk live. Its soil is abrasive, and its valleys contain diamonds, rivers, and crystal. The surrounding sea contains pearls.
Not far is the island of al-Ramini. Al-Ramini is an island of India. In this island there are rhinoceroses and logwood whose sap is a very effective antidote. Sailors use it against the bites of vipers and snakes. — We can also see buffaloes without tails and naked men living in marshes, speaking a language we cannot understand and similar to wild beasts. Their size is four spans. These men and women have very small genitals; their hair is thin and red; they climb on trees without the aid of their hands; they pursue ships by swimming with the speed of the wind; they sell ambergris to obtain iron, and they carry it in their mouths. These people have for neighbors the Negroes with woolly hair, which eat men alive and dissect them soon as they have made them into captives. These Negroes have a mountain in the island whose earth is a kind of silver liquefiable by fire.
In the vicinity lies the land of camphor. Camphor is a tree that grows in these parts, and whose shadow can cover at least a hundred people. If one were to cut the tree, out comes a liquid which fills several jars; it is the essence (literally: water) of camphor. Camphor is a resin that comes from the tree when cut. The tree’s wood is white and light. This island contains many marine wonders, extraordinary birds, and other rarities.
The island of Kalah is a large island inhabited by Indians, where there are tin mines and bamboo plantations.
To its right and two days journey by ship, is the island of Balūs. The people are cannibals. There are large species of bananas, camphor, Indian nuts, sugar cane, and oryza.
The island of Zābah (or Zabaj, of unknown location, possibly Java). It contains the city of Selāhat; it has a king who lives in great opulence, dressed in golden robes, wearing a gold hat embellished with precious stones. This island produces the Indian nuts, bananas, sugar, sandalwood, lavender, and cloves. Toward it is a mountain on top of which burns a fire that rises up a hundred cubits and is even as wide. It is visible at night as flames and as smoke during the day.
The island of Tib (perfume) is two weeks’ distant from the previous island by sea; it produces all kinds of spices.
In the kingdom of Maharāj is an island called Braṭā’īl where one may hear the sounds of the drum, fife, flute, and various songs. Sailors say it is the home of Dajjāl. In this vicinity, there is a point in the sea from which emerge horses adorned with manes hanging down to the ground.
The island of Toyūmah on the route to China. It produces aloe and camphor. It is distant a few days from Ḳimār (Khmer, or Cambodia) on the mainland. Ḳimār produces the aloes of Ḳimār and sandalwood.
The island of sandalwood, on the mainland. It produces the aloe of Ṣenf (southern Cambodia), which the inhabitants of these countries esteem more than the aloe of Ḳimār because it sinks in water due to its quality and weight. On the island there are oxen and buffalo.
The country of Wāk with its islands is located to the east of China. Gold is plentiful to the point that people make from gold the reins of their horses, weapons, and their dogs’ chains, and they wear shirts of gold cloth. They also make wonderful statues. These countries export aloe, musk, ebony, and cinnamon, and all kinds of goods and curiosities.
The islands of Zanj. They are populated by many races whose appearance and humors differ, and they are ruled by many kings with various customs and beliefs. There are different kinds of animals.
The sea of Zanj contains several islands where there are various colored seashells, whose inhabitants use them to make ornaments. They bury the teeth of elephants, and when they are moldy, traders from India and Sindh come to buy them.
The Islands of the Sea of Harkend
The Sea of Harkend, in the opinion of Ptolemy and most sailors, contains seventeen hundred inhabited islands, without counting those that are deserted. All these islands are governed by a woman. A great deal of ambergris comes from here; the pieces are sometimes as big as a house. This ambergris comes up from the depths of the sea under the action of storms that rush under it, and it is then thrown by the wind onto the shore. The inhabitants of these islands trade with shells; the queens fill their treasuries with them, and they represent the largest share of their wealth. It is said that these shells float to the surface of the water and that animals live in them. They take pieces (branches) of the Indian nut tree and throw them into the sea; the shells cling to them, and thus they are collected.
The Kingdom of Maharāj is considerable; none has more islands in the seas of the East. A sailor who wished to traverse all these islands could not in several years. This sea contains countless wonders. Its kings have a quantity of aromatic oils: camphor, cloves, walnuts, mace, ḳāḳilah, cubebs, and aloe. No other king possesses as much, and none can compete with them in that kind of wealth.
The Country of China
The land of China is said to contain three hundred and some-odd flourishing cities, without counting the large towns, frontier towns, or islands. The entranceways to China are twelve ports formed by mountains rising in the sea, the mountains in pairs leaving a gap between them. One sails in this country’s sea until one reaches one of the great and famous cities. The ships take seven days to pass through the mountains; having passed these ports, they arrive in a spacious sea of fresh water, and there sail to the point they want to reach. The first port they dock at is Khanfu (Guangzhou). Water from these ports is fresh, coming from the rivers; one finds safe places in all of them, equipped with all the things necessary for life: trees, gardens, and crops. In all these bays, two tides are felt day and night. Each port has markets, stocks of goods, an entrance, an exit, and customs offices where the ship is registered both coming and going.
The island of Khalzhān is between Sarandīb and Kalah, in the country of India. It is inhabited by naked Negroes, and when a foreigner falls into their hands, they hang him upside down and cut him up. They have no king; they feed on fish, bananas, Indian nuts, and sugarcane. There are bamboo forests on the island. These blacks go completely naked.
Near to China is a place in the sea called Ṣanzhi (Taiwan). This is the point where the sea is the worst, where there is the most wind, storms, dangers, and frightening objects. The children, like those of Zanj, spread out and assail the ships. They are large, of five spans; they come out of the water, jump on the vessels, roam over them in all directions without hurting anyone, and then go back into the waves. When sailors see them appear, they know that the winds will become bad. They then return to their ships, lighten the ship by throwing overboard some of their cargo, and tightening one or two cubits of the sail in the yard, or more according to their fear. — Sailors also say that, [when a bird is seen perching itself on the end of the vessels in these waters, like a burning torch, it is a sign of salvation. — They still tell that] one may see lurking in there a fish called the whale, which sometimes reaches a hundred cubits in length and a width of twenty cubits, and has a stony crust on its back. This fish attack ships and the air. They add that sometimes it approaches the shore unknowingly searching for food and pursuing fish which flee before it; carried away by this movement, it runs up on the shore, and, unable to turn back, perishes. When it is taken in this way, they share its flesh and it is melted in cauldrons. It melts completely, and becomes a fat employed on ships and other things.
A nearby island is called Zābaj; there stands a mountain called the Mountain of Fire, from which comes smoke by day and flame by night, and none might come near it.
The island of al-Mandar. Its inhabitants are Negroes; they have a town called Barend; they infest the routes, taking prisoners; they fight against Chinese ships carrying arms dealers or naphtha. One of their ships can carry four hundred merchants and five hundred fighters. These are not the ones that the Blacks attack. They attack the smaller vessels and seize them.
The islands of Zābaj. This is a large archipelago, well peopled, with rich harvests and various commodities. It is said that when the Chinese people were ruined by invasions or civil wars, they came to loot one of the islands of Zābaj, and such was the fate of all the islands of this archipelago and all their cities.
The best of China’s ports for traders is that which leads to Khanfu, and it is the closest. The route is longer via other ports.
The islands of Zābaj are numerous; one of them, known as the Sribuzah (Brunei), has an area of four hundred parasangs. It produces food and perfumes.
The island of al-Rami. It is flourishing too. An estimated size is eight hundred parasangs. It has logwood forests; camphor and aromatic ointments are found there.
The island of Kalah. They say it occupies a middle position between the land of China and the land of the Arabs. Its area is eighty parasangs. Kalah produces many commodities: aloes, camphor, sandalwood, ivory, pewter, ebony, and logwood. Nowadays, they go to Oman.
The island of Maharāj; its name is also the name of the king of the island. This is a large, very prosperous, and very fertile island. Traders make credible reports that roosters sing in the trees and they reply for a hundred parsangs, because of the continuity of cultivated land and the beautiful arrangement of the countryside that is not interrupted with deserts or ruins. Travelers move through them without provisions and can go down where they want.
In the island of Sarandīb there is a place where locals get together to read the biographies of their prophets and the stories of their ancient kings. One may also see a large golden idol that achieves, with the stones of which it is covered, a weight of 100 raṭl. It is placed in a temple. On the island there are other places where Jews and other inhabitants of the kingdom come together to study and to discuss their science and their religion; this the King permits. — In the same island are valleys called the gobb of Sarandīb; these are long valleys which require at least two months to cross. They are filled with gardens and groves, and the air is still very fresh; a sheep in this country is half a dirham or a little more. The people spend most of their time playing backgammon or chess. A man covets a woman with the full knowledge of the family thereof.
The islands of Zanj. It is a great and vast archipelago. All one sows—corn, reeds and other plants—they come up black. There is a tribe in the archipelago called the Mokhazzam (from the nasal passage), in which individuals have the nose and chin split. A chain is placed in the slot; each warrior takes one of these men by the end of the chain, he conducts him and prevents him from moving until the trumpets sound breaking the peace. Then they tie the chain around their necks and loose them to the battle. No one can resist them; they tear and devour anyone who opposes them, and none of them leaves his place without being killed.
The Arabs inspire a great reverence among the Zanj; when Arabs appear before them, they love saying, “This is a kingdom where grows date trees,” because the date is worshiped there, and because the Arabs raise their children with dates.
The Zanj have eloquent speakers. Those who are consecrated to the gods dress in tiger skins; they carry a stick with which they gather the people, and they stand on one foot all day, preaching, invoking God, and telling the story of the reigning king and of the ancient kings.
The island of Socotra. There grows the myrrh of Socotra. This island is located between the country of Zanj and the Arabs. Most of its inhabitants are Christians; here is the reason. When Alexander had conquered the kingdom of the Persians and killed Porus the Indian, he wrote to Aristotle what had happened to him and told him of what kingdoms he had attacked and conquered. Aristotle replied by advising him to seek an island in the sea, called Socotra, where grows the myrrh of Socotra, containing the great remedy which alone could complete the medicine called ἱερἀ. He ended by recommending to Alexander that discovering the island he not leave it without having pacified the inhabitants and without having ensured the Greeks could govern and hold it. Alexander followed his advice, and he ordered the satraps to keep the island. This state of affairs lasted until the mission of the Lord Jesus, son of Mary. The Rumis then embraced Christianity, and the inhabitants of Socotra entered the new religion with the rest of the empire. The descendants of these Christians still remain today, mixed with the other populations of the island.
The Islands of the Sea of Oman and of Yemen
In the vast sea that is to the right and beyond Oman there are many islands; they face the country of Shiḥr where incense grows, and the countries that border it and which are the territories of the ’Ādites, of the Jurhamites, and of the Tubba‘. These islands are inhabited by Arabs. They live in poverty and a very miserable way, but those who are close to Omani or Yemeni shores live a little more prosperously; they feed on fish and plants that grow there. Sometimes ambergris comes on their shores, which they sell to sailors.
The sea of Yemen meets the sea of al-Jar and Kolzom and ends there. Among the wonderful islands contained in this sea is an island called Salaṭā, inhabited by people whose speech, cries, movements one can hear, to whom one can talk and with whom one can meet, but who cannot be seen. Asked about their condition, they said they were men who had been sent a prophet named Sāfir son of Jardūl. They believed in him and they continued to follow his religion. When a traveler approaches this place, they give him for one night provisions that would be sufficient for three nights, wonderfully fresh and fragrant fruits, Indian nuts, and roasted birds as big as pigeons and most succulent. When their guest wants to return home, they prepare him a vessel; but often the stranger forgets to leave, and if it does not carry him away, he will always remain with them, as their country is nice and it abounds in delights. This is familiar to sailors.
The island of Farsh. Farsh is a tree that gave its name to the island. It bears a fruit that looks like almonds, but is bigger; it is eaten with the peel and it takes the place of any remedy. Whoever is nourished by it does not get sick until his death and does not age; if his hair is white, it will become black. This island has a king who prohibits access. It is said that a king of India procured this almond and that he sowed it; the tree had leaves, but bore no fruit.
The island of Dilhāt. Dilhāt was a satan in human form, mounted on the back of a bird that resembled the ostrich in form and dimensions. He ate human flesh. When the sea brought him victims, he put them in a high place from which they could not escape, and he ate them, one after another. He devoured them alive. It is said that the sea tossed a ship against this island. The sailors who had heard of the satan, seeing him coming, stood firm on the ship; they launched against him and defended themselves, determined to kill him; but he uttered a cry such that they all fell down unconscious. The satan then carried them into the usual place; but he found among them a pure man who called God’s vengeance on him; and he died on the spot. This man went to the place where the satan had carried the victims to collect the riches and goods that had accumulated there.
The island of al-Ṣarif. It is an island that appears to mariners; they try to approach it and, when they believe it nearby, it moves away; they sometimes travel for several days without being able to reach it. None of them has ever been said to have landed on or entered it. One may see on this island inhabitants, animals, crops, and trees.
The island of al-Bīdaj. Here one may see an idol with green glass eyes from which always fall tears. The sailors say it cries over those who serve it. A king attacked the island, killed or captured the people; and then wanted to break the idol. But although they made a good hit, the blow did not work and reverberated onto those who threw it; in the end they abandoned the effort. The incoming wind in the ears of the idol produced a strange whistling sound.
The island of Sindarūsah. It is populated and wooded. Most of its people serve themselves from vessels of gold, have clothing of golden fabrics, and golden weapons. They have a king. Anyone who wants to take something from this place is prevented from doing so by him.
The Islands of the West
Among the islands of the West, Sicily is worthy of remark. This is a large island. The time needed to traverse it is long, more than fifteen days; and it forms a vast kingdom. It has mountains, forests, rivers, and crops. It is located across from and close to Ifrīkīah (North Africa). It contains Mount al-Burkhān (Etna), where one constantly sees rising smoke during the day and fire by night. This volcano projects above the sea burning masses, which are black and porous stones, similar to the sponge and floating on water. The Sicilians gather them and they are used to rub in the ovens. Sometimes burning lava comes out of the volcano, falls into the sea, and burns animals and fish in its path; the waves wash it back toward the shore. Nobody can approach this place.
The island of Sardinia. This is a large island which is crossed in twenty days. It has woods, springs, farms, mountains, and produces various commodities.
The island of Crete. It is in the Sea of Rūm; it contains mountains, gold mines, rivers, and fruit. It has a length of twelve days in one direction and six in the other.
In the vast sea is an island visible at sea at some distance; but if one wants to approach it, it moves away and disappears. When one returns to the point whence one left, one sees it again just as before. It is said that on this island there is a tree that sprouts at the time when the sun rises and rises as the sun rises; by afternoon, it decreases, and it disappears at sunset. Sailors claim that there is in this sea a little fish called the chākil, and that those who carry them can see the island and enter it without it disappearing. This is really a wonderful and singular thing.
The island of Ṭāūrān. Ṭāūrān is a king who has four thousand women. Anyone who does not have as many cannot be king of this people. They celebrate their number of children. There are trees there that give those who eat of them an extraordinary power for the act of sex.
The island of as-Sayārah. There are sailors who claim to have seen it often, but they have not stayed. It is a mountainous island and cultivated, jutting eastward when the west wind blows, and vice versa. The stone of this island is very light. A large stone, which weighs several talents with us, weighs just a few ratls with them. A man could carry a big piece of mountain.
A Jewish merchant recounted that one year he was on a ship that was broken, and the storm tossed it with his companions on an island where the earth, the rocks, and everything else was golden. They stayed several days without any food except the fish, which were quite rare. As they were in danger of perishing, they found the ship’s lifeboat remained intact; they drew it against the shore and filled it with gold; but their greed led them to exceed the load that it could hold; they entered and gained the high seas, seeking to save themselves; they did not get far before the ship sank. All the gold was lost, and almost all of them perished, except a few who escaped by swimming in the direction of Zanj and reached the shore.
It is reported that in the camphor islands are a people who eat men, and take their heads, stuff them with camphor and perfumes, hang them in their homes, and worship them. When they need to decide a matter, they take one of these heads, worship it, bow down before it, and ask what they want to know. It informs them of what they want to know, good or bad.
The island of women. This is an island with the limits of the Sea of China. It is reported that it is inhabited only by women who are impregnated by the wind and that only bear female children; [also, it is said they are fertilized by a tree whose fruit they eat]. Gold, according to claims, grows there in canes, such as bamboo, and the women are fed with gold. A man once fell among them; they wanted to kill him; but one of them had compassion, set him on a plank, and entrusted it to the sea. The waves and winds carried him to the land of China. He went to the king of China and spoke of the island. The king sent his ships to investigate, but after three years of effort, they found neither news nor traces of it.
The island of Ibn as-Si’lāt (Son of the Demons). Here there is a monster, but no one knows what it is. Some say this satan is an intermediary between the djinn and men. Others believe that it is a sea monster, close to human form, and devouring men who fall into its power.
It is told in the history of Alexander that his ships landed on a white island, pure, rich in water, wood, and fruits. It was populated by individuals with the bodies of men and the heads of lions or dogs; when the sailors approached them, they fled. In the middle of the island is a river of extreme whiteness, on whose banks grows a large tree laden with all kinds of fruit, delicious in taste, and in colors of all shades. The foliage of this tree resembles the ḥalak in size, softness, and beauty. The tree grows with the sun from morning to noon, and when the sun stops rising, it stops growing; the tree then decreases with the sun and disappears when the sun sets. Its fruit is sweeter than honey and sweeter than cream, and the fragrance of its foliage is better than musk. Sailors brought back a bunch of leaves for a report to Alexander, but they felt like they had been hit and saw on their bodies the mark of blows, without knowing where they came from; and a voice shouted: “Give back what you have taken from this tree, and commit no outrage against it, or else you will perish.” So they took back what they had taken, went back to their ships, and left.
Alexander also went to the island of ascetics. He could see nothing on its soil except grass and ponds; it was inhabited by men exhausted by asceticism and whose skin had turned black like ash. He stopped among them, greeted them, and they returned his salutation. He asked them how they lived in this place: “We eat,” they said, “the fish of the sea, which we take, and various herbs, and drink the water from these ponds.” He proposed transporting them to a richer land. They said, “What would we do? We have in this same island treasures worth all the rest of the world, which would satisfy anyone who possessed them.” “And what are these?” asked Alexander. They brought him to a valley quite dazzling with pearls and hyacinths, which boggled the mind; and from there they brought him into a vast plain which produced abundant fruit of species unknown in any other country. “Can you lead us then,” they said, “to a richer place than this?” “By God,” Alexander replied, “I do not know one with even half as much.” “All this,” they continued, “is in our hands and we will not make us of it; we prefer grass to these fruits.” The companions of Alexander wanted to take some precious stones, but he stopped them. He said goodbye to the men and returned to his ship, amazed.
There are reports that they pointed Alexander to an island in the Green Sea, on which lived wise men. He went there and saw men wearing pants (Persian: sarābil) made from leaves and living in caves. Peace reigned among them. He asked them questions on philosophy, which they answered. Then he said, “Ask of me what you wish.” They asked him for immortality. “Is this something I possess,” he said, “for I cannot add a single moment to my life?” “Then help us to know how much time remains for us to live.” “I do not know the time remaining in my own life; how would I know the time left in yours?” “Give us at least at least the blessing that we might live as long as we have already lived.” “I cannot obtain this blessing for myself; how would I obtain it for another?” “We will therefore ask,” they said, “who has the authority to give it.” Then they began to view the army of Alexander. There was on the shore of the sea a potter who did not look up at Alexander or his army. The conqueror was surprised and, approaching him, said to him, “What is stopping you from rising before me and watching my troops?” He replied, “Your power is nothing that amazes me; why should I view your men?” “What do you mean?” “I saw before you a king whose power exceeded that of any other. Now there was in my neighborhood a poor man, possessing nothing. The king and the poor man died the same day and were buried in the same place. I visited their graves, until the coffins were consumed and where the bones, which alone remained, mingled. Then I tried to distinguish the king from the poor man and this I was unable to do. Since that time, I have despised kings.” “The profession that you practice, is it enough to live on?” asked Alexander. “I earn three dirhams per day,” the man replied. “I spend a dirham; I pay one in debt, and I save one.” The one I spend is for my food and my family’s food; the one that I pay in debt is for the lease on my house and my shop; and the one I save is for the education of my child, who will support me when I become old.” Alexander asked him if he spent nothing on his companions. He replied, “They do not need it, and I need no more of their help. Whoever needs help is one who does not fulfill his duties to himself. Whoever does what he should for himself shall need nothing.” Alexander, who admired this wisdom, walked away.
Chapter 5: The History of Adam and His Children
All historians agree in placing the creation of Adam on Friday 6 Nissan (April). God clothed him in his own clothes, and commanded the angels to prostrate themselves before him. All obeyed, except Iblis. Iblis reigned on earth; he ascended into heaven whenever he wished. So he refused to bow to the man, saying to God: “I was your lieutenant on earth, and this one is formed out of the dust I trod; I am the fire, and he is the mud; in all things I am his superior, and I have more than him in my wings, with which I can run to the ends of the earth in less than a blink of an eye.” Hearing this refusal, God stripped these from him and cursed him.
God created Eve [from Adam]. He put on her his clothes and made her live in Paradise; this creation took place in three hours that first day. God put everything in paradise at the disposal of Adam and Eve, with the exception of a tree which he forbade them to touch. According to most scholars, this tree was wheat, and its fruit was the size of the orange. The serpent met Adam and Eve; it was one of the most beautiful animals; he was then in possession of both hands and feet. Adam, seeing himself placed by God in a state of such high dignity, conceived the desire to be immortal. However Iblis tried to tempt him; by deceit he obtained entry into Paradise when the serpent let him enter [by its mouth] and spoke through him to Eve: “Your Lord,” he said, “has prevented you from touching this tree for fear that you will become immortal.” And he swore an oath to both of them that he advised them for their own good. He did not cease tempting Eve, therefore, until she had eaten of the tree, and she had given the fruit to Adam, who also ate.
After both had tasted the fruit, the clothing that covered them was rent to the ends of their fingers and their sin appeared to them with great clarity. Adam began running right and left in Paradise without knowing what he was doing; he hung a lemon in Eve’s hair. Eve joined him; they plucked leaves from trees in the garden and covered themselves.
God said to them, “This tree”—that is to say, the tree from which they had eaten by disobedience—“will be your food and your descendants’ food. As for Iblis and the serpent, fall down, both of you; there will now be enmity between you.” And God took away the serpent’s feet, and they fell.
The time Adam had remained in Paradise with Eve had been three hours, equivalent to two hundred and fifty years in the days of this world, and a quarter of a day of the next world, because that day is a thousand years long.
Adam was thrown down onto a mountain in Sarandīb (Sri Lanka), bringing with him the leaves sewn in Paradise. When the leaves had lost their freshness and had become dry, they were torn, and fell; the breath of the wind scattered them in all directions, and they gave birth in the land of Hind to various kinds of perfumes, ointments, and fruits that grow only there, like aloe and animal musk. Around the island various hyacinths and diamonds spread themselves, and pearls at the bottom of the sea. And God gave Adam the name Abed-Allah (Servant of God) and the sobriquet Abu Muhammad (Father of Muhammad). Adam was tall and had curly hair, and he was the most beautiful creature of God. When he fell to earth, he lost something of his luster, his beauty, and his grandeur. He first spoke Arabic; God changed his tongue to the Syriac language. He took away the knowledge he had given him; but he restored it to him later, in reconciliation with him.
Eve was thrown down at Jeddah, holding in her hand a handful of stones from Paradise; some were lost on the way; it is from them that our gemstones come. Eve also saw her beauty and charm diminish.
Iblis was cast down [to Maīsān (in Persia), and the serpent fell at Isfahan, deprived of feet, of beauty and of speech].
Adam took a handful of wheat and branch picked from a tree of Paradise, the bramble, they say. This is the rod that Moses possessed. He carried with him thirty branches responsible for the fruits of Paradise, with which he crowned the head. Of these fruits, ten were nuts; walnut, almond, hazelnut, pistachio, poppy, acorn, chestnut, the Indian nuts, pomegranates, and bananas; ten were stone fruits: peach, apricot, plum, date, medlar, the rowan, cherry, chāhlūk, the lotus, and the fruit of the dūm; ten had neither core nor shell; apple, quince, pear, grape, blackberry, orange, carob, squash, melon, and fig. The pear tree was the first of these trees that God caused to grow on the earth.
God reconciled with Adam a hundred years after his fall. He sent Jibril, who taught him the formula: “There is no God except Thee; I have done wrong; forgive me. Thou art the most merciful.”
It is said that Adam was at first so tall that he reached the sky. After his descent to the earth, his size was reduced to two hundred and seventy cubits. He knew how to extract iron and melt it, use the hammer and the anvil, hooks and knives; he knew the tools needed for plowing and cultivation. God told him what animals he could eat and which he had to avoid. He commanded him to go to Mecca. The places where he put down his feet became fertile places; the intervals between his steps remained deserted. He reached Jeddah and found Eve crying: “All this,” he said, “is your work.” God said to Adam, “When you see the Kaaba, revolve around it.” He walked in its direction; in al-Abtah he met the angels, who greeted him with the words: “God gives you life, O Adam! We revolved around this house two thousand years before you, and you are not the first to come here on pilgrimage.” And Jibril taught him the rites of sacrifice, and he revealed twenty-one sheets (of wisdom). Jibril prescribed for him prayer, almsgiving, purification after pollution, and ablutions. He also taught him the sowing of the land, harvesting, and grinding flour to make bread. “Behold,” God said to Adam, “what will be your condition and that of your race.” Adam said, “Lord, I cannot endure this without great suffering.” “This is the punishment for your sin,” said the Lord.
Eve had to undergo her own ten kinds of punishment: the pain at the loss of virginity, the pain of childbirth, the length of pregnancy, the menstruation, the sadness of death, the veil on the head, the domination of men over women, the submission of women to men in sexual intercourse, wailing in misfortune, and the anguish of the heart in grief. Adam and Eve were united and knew one another. Adam had a special punishment: the reduction of his size, lessening of his beauty, and a fear of wild beasts that once feared him. The seal was put on the sentence of death, to which he was sentenced with all his posterity. It was therefore his concern to work to provide for himself, at the price of great fatigue. The serpent was chastened by the loss of its wings, by the loss of its hands and feet, by the obligation to crawl, by the splitting of its tongue, and by the fear of the man who became his enemy. It had to search in the dust for its food, and in order to kill a man, to dart out its tongue.
Adam made Eve pregnant, and she gave him Ḳābil (Cain) and a twin daughter Iqlimiā (Aclima). She had the same pattern of twins at each birth. She then bore Hābil (Abel) and his twin, Labūdā. Cain occupied himself with the work of tilling the ground, and Abel, with husbanding his sheep. Abel was ordered by his father to marry the sister of Cain; but the latter, who wanted her for himself, said: “I am more worthy than him to possess her.” Their father ordered them to each offer a sacrifice to the Lord; the one whose sacrifice was approved would be the most worthy to marry the sister of Cain. They accepted this test. Abel offered his fattest rams and Cain the refuse of his property; the sacrifice took place on a Friday. Fire from heaven descended on the offerings and burned up the ram provided by Abel, showing that his sacrifice was approved; but it did not touch Cain’s offering. Cain was enraged, and he conceived the idea to kill his brother if he found someone to help them. Both were in Mina (the valley of sacrifice near Mecca). Cain knew how to kill Abel. Iblis appeared to him in the form of a man; he took a bird, crushed its head with a stone and killed it. Then he carried it off and disappeared. Cain similarly surprised Abel, who was sleeping while his sheep were grazing. He took a stone and bashed it over his head, and Abel died. Remorse immediately seized Cain. Adam wept for Abel and the Paradise he had lost. Then God sent him one of the tents of Paradise, a tent of red hyacinth, and caused him to deposit it in the place of the Kaaba.
Two hundred and thirty years after the fall, Adam begat Seth, whose name means gift of God, and his twin sister. The traditionalists say Adam had children one hundred and twenty times.
Adam was told to write on sheets; he knew all languages, and the names that are used to ward off the djinn and the satans. He knew how to calculate time and the drift of the stars. He asked his Lord to let him see the world with the good and the evil that it contained. The image of the land and sea was shown him. He saw them with their kings and peoples, his future descendants; he saw the figures of the prophets and all that would be contained in the world, and everything that would be produced in it, both good and evil, until it is consumed. When his children and his children’s children had multiplied, God sent him to them, with the order to transmit to them the precepts he had given him. They say he received this mission at the age of 770 years. When God wanted to end his life, he commanded him to bequeath to Seth his recommendations, and to teach him all the sciences he had himself received. He obeyed. He died, worn out from fatigue and had become unable to cultivate the land. A fever took him; he was sick for twenty days during which he visited the angels. They say he wished for a cluster of grapes from Paradise, and he sent one of his children to ask the first angel that he met for them. The messenger met Jibril, who gave him consolation and said: “Return whence you came, for your father is already dead.”
Adam died at 930 years of age, though others say it was 950 years, admitting that he gave fifty years of his life to David. Jibril came close to the body with a casket and the spices of Paradise, and he taught Seth how he should bury it. “This will be,” he added, “your custom upon the death of one of you.” The body was placed in the Cave of Treasure, Mount Abu Kubais (near Mecca). Adam’s death came on a Friday. At that time his children and his children’s children formed forty thousand families. That day, the tent of red hyacinth, which had descended on the location of the Kaaba, was taken back up to heaven.
Eve was profoundly saddened at the death of Adam; she lived for another year and died. Seth offered a prayer over her body and buried her next to Adam.
Some Features of the History of the Children of Adam
Ḳābil (Cain). This is the eldest son of Adam; he was the first to commit injustice and murder and was unfaithful. After killing his brother, he fled with his sister to a mountain, and they built a city called Halula. Cain was the first to devote himself to fire worship. They say he was the most unfortunate of men, and that he alone bore half of the suffering of the human race; whenever blood was shed unjustly, he was considered an accomplice in the crime.
Seth, the son of Adam. God sent him to the children of his father; twenty-seven sheets (of knowledge) were revealed to Adam and him. He was ordered to build the holy house of stone with the help of his children, to make the pilgrimage, to conduct the Umrah; he was the first who made this visit. He was fated to battle the children of Cain, but his defense of Tihama and Mecca did damage to them.
Seth had a son, Enosh, his firstborn, whom he made his heir. The children of Abrakîn, son of Seth were Yaghuth, Ya‘uq, Nasr, Suwa’, and Wadd (Quran 71:23). They formed a family of pure men, and when they died, their children wept for them. Iblis had their images and statues carved in stone, and their descendants placed them in their homes to keep their memory; the company of these images lightened their grief. But when that generation had died out and another grew up, Iblis put in the minds of latecomers that these statues were gods worshiped by their fathers; and, deceived by him, they worshiped them.
Seth lived 912 years. He became father at 150 years of age. He chose as his heir his son Kenan. He told him about the revealed sheets, he explained the division of the earth with the fullness thereof; he ordered him to devote himself to prayer, to fulfill the precepts of charity and pilgrimage, and to continue the war against the children of Cain. Kenan followed all the recommendations of his father, and died aged 920 years.
His heir was his son Mahalalel, to whom he transmitted the knowledge and the laws he had received from his father. Mahalalel lived 895 years. His heir was his son Jared. He told him about the revealed sheets. He taught him the division of the land and the events to happen in the universe. He gave him the Book of the Secret of the Kingdom, which the angel Darâbil had written for Adam. The patriarchs were handed down this sealed book without ever seeing its content.
Jared, at the age of 100 years, became father to Henoch (Enoch). Some chronologists say that in that time, the world was 1,640 years old. Henoch is the prophet Idris. God elected him a prophet, and he was called Idris because he wrote many books about God and religious laws. He received the revelation of thirty sheets, bringing to eighty the number of pages disclosed to date. Jared made Henoch his heir; he transmitted what he had received from his father, and taught him all the sciences he possessed; he bequeathed the Book of the Secret, which after Seth, was not opened by Idris.
According to a certain legend, Idris was the first to write after Adam. Others say that whenever the science of writing was lacking in a generation or a race, Idris was sent to them as a prophet. He taught men how to count lines, he ordered them to bring together the sheets and collect them in a temple. He also made a copy for the children of Adam and the others. Tradition relates that men were then dressed in shirts of the precious fabric khazz (large silk) or harir (fine silk) or other colored fabrics, cloth of gold and adorned with gems. They also wore the tiara. Eve had received from God the order of weaving and spinning.
She spun cotton, linen, and hair; she wove cloth with which she dressed her children. Adam also dressed in fabric made by Eve.
They say that at the birth of Idris, idol worship was weakened among the Cainites, and they saw the fall of a major idol to which they had dedicated a cult and offered sacrifices.
At that time they had Mahwîl for a king. They gathered in his presence, to see what was happening. Iblis appeared to them in the guise of a very white old man. His white hair was a miracle for them because they had never seen the like. We did not see, in fact, white-haired old men until after Noah. Abraham, it is said, was the first whose hair went white. The king asked: “O, my Lord, what is this?” Iblis said, “It is a sign of majesty.” “O, my God,” said the king, “so increase my majesty.” According to another tradition, Iblis appeared to them in his spiritual form and provided with two wings. He told King Mahwîl, “Jared has become the father of a son who will be the enemy of God, the enemy of your kingdom, and the cause of great damage. That is what the events that trouble you portend for you.” “Can you destroy him?” asked Mahwîl. “I shall try,” said Iblis. But God committed the child to the care of his angels, and when Iblis and his army wanted to approach him, they were repulsed. In that time there appeared a comet that remained visible for a little more than thirty days.
Idris’s father put the child in the temple. He introduced him to the sheets (of wisdom). Idris applied himself to copying them, while he gave himself over to fasting and prayer, and he grew up in these exercises. God elected him a Prophet at the age of 40 years. The angel Darâbîl was sent to instruct him in the science of the spheres and the stars, and their happy or fatal influences, and the zodiacal constellations. They say he was the first who observed the stars, after Adam. [He became attached to writing books, and he was called God’s servant]. It says in the Torah that Idris was the most beautiful of God’s servants.
God made Idris rise up to him. When the prophet had seen the children of Cain sunken in sin and dedicated to the worship of idols, he asked God to be removed to him after being purified of his sins; and God satisfied his request. He ordered him and his sect to remain for forty days in the temple [in order to elect a pontiff. They were purified, entered the temple, and passed forty days in prayer]. At the end of this time, Idris chose for his heir his son Matushalakh (Methuselah), having received God’s revelation: “Pass on your inheritance to Methuselah, your son; I will leave him as a prophet who will satisfy me.” It is said that Idris was taken up to the seventh heaven. There is also told a story of his encounter with the angel of death when he asked God to make him taste the taste of death. He then asked the Lord to make him experience his satisfaction by introducing him into Paradise. God heard him, and he went out of Paradise no more. He was taken to heaven at the age of 365 years.
Methuselah. He stood with his brothers and the son of his brothers in the temple, serving God. The seventy leaders (nuqabā’ – literally, the Watchers) were with them. When God had removed Idris to heaven, discord and dissension increased; Iblis spread the rumor that he (Idris) had died, that he was a soothsayer who had been burned by trying to ascend to heaven, and that the children of Adam, dedicated to his religion, suffered great pain for his death. He made the Cainites believe that their principal idol had killed him. They therefore redoubled their zeal in the worship of idols; these they richly adorned, and to them they offered their sacrifices, and instituted a feast that everyone was required to attend. They had then seven idols: Yaghuth, Ya‘uq, Nasr, Wadd, Suwa’, Sharhah, and Damr. We shall discuss them in treating women consecrated to the gods.
After Idris, the revelation was interrupted. The leaders (nuqabā’) died; and at the death of each of them, his son and his family made his statue which they set up in a temple, to keep his memory and to implore his assistance. Methuselah wished to destroy these images, but they prevented him. He died, having chosen as his heir his son Lamech. Lamech means “one who looks like.” Lamech received from his father sheets and sealed books that had come from Idris. Methuselah lived 932 years.
The legacy of the patriarchs passed to Lamech, father of Noah. Lamech saw in a dream a fire come out of his mouth and set the world on fire; another time he saw himself under a tree in the midst of a sea without shores. After the birth of Noah, scholars and soothsayers related these visions to King Mahwîl, telling him that the world would be destroyed in the time of this child and that the child would have a long life. They thought that a flood would overwhelm the earth. Mahwîl ordered the construction of fortresses on the highest mountaintops as places of refuge. They built seven, which received the names of the seven idols worshiped by his race; and the Cainites inscribed in these fortresses a part of their sciences. It is also said that the king had them built for himself personally.
Noah became great; God elected the Prophet at the age of 50, and he sent him to his people. Physically, he had a dark complexion, the skin of his face delicate; he was tall, with beautiful eyes, slender knees and legs, and strong thighs; his beard was long and full; his body large and fat. He was the first prophet after Idris, and is one of the strongest prophets. According to some traditions, he lived for 1,250 years, of which he spent, as God said, 950 in the midst of his people, calling them to faith. The philosophers who do not believe in these long lives think that this figure includes the period of his life and that of his descendants. The articles of his law consisted in the belief in the One God, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, war against the enemies of God of the race of Cain, and the obligation to pursue good and oppose evil; but it contained no imposition of provisions on how to accomplish these precepts, and contained neither testamentary rules nor criminal penalties. Noah was told to call men to God to protect them against his punishment, to remind them of his divinity.
When Noah was 200 years old, Mahwîl, king of impiety, died, leaving the throne to his son Darmashil. This one was even more strongly attached to the worship of idols; he grew their prestige, he gathered the people in front of them, and he forced the people to worship them. Noah, meanwhile, proclaimed the religion of God; he went into the houses, the public places, and the temples preaching God to men. The impious did not first warn their king about this preaching; they contented themselves to blame Noah, then to threaten him, until one day, the fame of the prophet had spread and he had increased his authority. He had followers who busied themselves defending him. The king was then informed of what was happening. He summoned Noah into his presence, and then he expelled him by ordering him not to return. It is also said that the king who pronounced this judgment was Mahwîl, who imprisoned Noah, and died three years later; Darmashil, his successor, freed the Patriarch from prison, provided he would cease to attack religion and insult the gods.
Each of the main idols of the Cainites had a feast day in a particular time of the year in which they all assembled before it, slaughtered victims for it, and danced around it in circles. When it was the feast of Yaghuth, the Cainites came to this idol from all parts. Noah also came there, went among them, and beseeched them to say “There is no God but God.” But they began to place their fingers in their ears and plunged their heads into their clothes. While Noah was preaching, the idols fell from their thrones. The crowd then fell on him and hit him in the head to force his face to fall down against the ground. Then they dragged him to the palace, before the king. He sat in a chamber decorated in various colors, and with images and admirable paintings and hung with fine silks, on a throne covered with gold leaf and decorated with gems. As soon as Noah was in his presence, he said to him: “Have I not made a recommendation to you, and did I not command you not to oppose anything that concerns the gods? But here you called the people to unfamiliar beliefs, and your audacity has increased to the point that you have insulted the gods, whom you have cast down from their thrones and driven from their seat of power and glory. Who taught you such conduct, and whence come your doctrines?” Noah, who was all stained with his own blood, replied: “If these idols were gods, they would not have fallen. So be pious to the true God, O Darmashil, and equate him to no other, for he sees you.” “How can you,” said the king, “use such language before me?” And he ordered Noah imprisoned until the feast of the next idol, to whom he would be a sacrifice. He also had the idols put back on their thrones.
However, Darmashil had a dream about Noah that greatly frightened him. He commanded that he Noah be pulled out of prison, and that he be let free. He said that Noah was a fool who was not guilty.
There was at that time a soothsayer named Serdib who announced to the people the approach of the Flood and who advised the murder of Noah, but God saved the prophet from their hands.
At the age of 500 years, Noah begat Shem. After that he begat Ham and Yam and Japheth; they all had for a mother Nounah, daughter of Enosh, son of Enoch.
Noah remained for a long time among men, but very few among them listened. Others said, “Why should we believe in you? You are followed by vile people” (Quran 11:27). They wanted to talk to people in the same profession as Noah, who was a carpenter. Three generations followed, and the patriarch kept calling them to God; but they grew in iniquity and arrogance, in boasting and in pride; and they were massacred those of them who wanted to follow the prophet. While he was preaching to men, it was revealed to Noah that none among his people would believe except those who already believed (Quran 11:36). From that moment he despaired for the world and he invoked God’s wrath against it. “Lord,” he said, “let not even one of the ungodly remain on Earth.” Noah then received the order to build the ark. Procreation stopped among men; a great drought occurred, and life became difficult. They continued, as was their custom, to implore the idols for help, but this was of no use to them.
Noah started building the ark. For three years for its construction he cut and shaped wood, which was from the plane tree. He then made nails, prepared all the necessary parts, and mounted the ship. He was prescribed to give the ark a length of three hundred cubits, a breadth of fifty, and a depth of seventy. They say he did not know what form to make it, and that Jibril (Gabriel) was sent to him to tell him to give it the shape of a chicken. The men, while Noah worked, laughed at him; they insulted him and threw stones at him. An entrance was opened on the side of the ark. After the ark was finished, it remained seven months on the ground. At the moment, three of Noah’s companions who believed in him were taken and sacrificed to the idols. The impious ones hoped thereby to obtain the cessation of drought; they received the punishment they deserved.
God commanded Noah take into the ark two animals of each species, a male and a female. The lower floor was reserved for animals, livestock, and wild beasts. The second floor was reserved for provisions of food and drink; the third was devoted to housing for people. There were eighty people in the ark: Noah, his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their family. The angels brought the coffin containing the body of Adam, which was in Tihamah; it was a wooden coffin, and Noah kept it in the ark. The Prophet took with him [Philemon, seer of Egypt; this character was sent by the king of Egypt to Darmashil to complain of the outrages Noah inflicted on the worship of idols; but Philemon believed in the Prophet, who brought him into the ark; he also brought in] those children of his father and grandfather Idris who had believed in his preaching.
They say Darmashil, learning that Noah had moved himself into the ark and had gathered provisions, asked: “Where is the water that will bear them?” He mounted his horse and with a band of his companions came to the ark, and ready to set it on fire, called to Noah, who showed himself: “Where,” asked the prince, “is the water that will carry your ship?” “You’ll soon see it coming,” said Noah, “in the very same place where you are.” “I wonder really,” said the king, “if, despite whatever you say there may be, this parched land has enough water to carry a vessel of this size. Come out of your ark with your companions. Otherwise I’ll burn you all.” Noah replied: “How great is your blindness toward God! Hasten to believe, and stop resisting the Most High. Repent, walk the right path, or punishment is coming for you!”
As they spoke, the king received the news that a woman who was baking bread in her oven had seen water spring forth from the oven (Quran 11:40). “How is it possible,” he said, “that water could come out of a hot oven?” “Behold,” said Noah, “it is a sign of divine wrath! My Lord makes me hear: This fact is the harbinger of the shaking that all the earth will undergo. [The water comes!] Let your horse leave the place where he is, and you will see the water well up beneath him.” The king moved his horse, and water sprang up under his feet; he put it elsewhere, and it was the same. Envoys came to warn him that the water was rising and bubbling. He returned to his palace, planning to take his family and children and take refuge in the fortresses he had built. — They also say that the impious were warned of the approaching flood, but did not arrive in time, as they had hoped, because of the plans that God had for them. — The king had filled the fortresses with food. But when he tried to climb the mountains, the rocks fell on his head from atop the peaks. The gates of heaven opened, dropping a quantity of water that cannot be imagined; men fled without knowing where to go. The water of the flood, they say, was hot and fetid.
It is reported that Yam, the son of Noah, was in the party that came to the ark with Darmashil. His father called to him, saying: “O, my son, embark with us and be not with the ungodly.” — “I will go,” he said, “with the king on a mountain where I will be safe against the water. — “There will be no safety on this day,” said Noah, “against the sentence of God, except for those for whom he will have mercy.” And water was already seen welling oven [in Kufah].
It is said that the ark remained on the water one hundred and fifty days. Some traditionalists give the figure of eleven months. Others say that the flood began in the month of Rajab and the ark rested on Mt. Judi in Muharram [on the day of Ashura]. — It is written in the Torah that God swore to himself that he would no longer destroy any nation by water. [He said, ‘When you see a rainbow in the sky, know that you are safe against the flood.”] — From the fall of Adam to the Deluge, there passed [two thousand two hundred fifty-six years. — When God wanted to stop the flood, he sent a wind across the surface of the water and the bubbling stopped, and he stopped up its sources].
When forty days had passed after the rain had stopped, Noah was told to open the door of the ark, and he sent out a raven to in order to see the state of the earth. The raven left and never returned; and the patriarch prayed to God to punish him by condemning him to be fierce and to live off of carrion. Then he let loose the dove, who returned with feet dyed with mud, and Noah prayed to God to bless it by making man’s friend. It was from that day that the dove had feet of two colors. Seven days later, Noah let the dove go a second time, and it returned carrying an olive branch in its beak; others say she brought back grass.
It is written in the Torah that the earth dried up during the twenty-seven days of the eleventh month. When the water had drained away and the ark came to rest atop Mt. Judi, God spoke to Noah and ordered him out of the ark with his companions. The patriarch also let out the beasts and reptiles.
It is said that the lion had pondered committing havoc in the ark. Noah called him, and God set fire to his body. Garbage piled up in the ship, so Noah rubbed the elephant, who sneezed and spat out a pig, and the pig ate the garbage. Rats then multiplied, so the Patriarch rubbed the lion, and the lion, sneezing, spat out a tomcat.
Noah disembarked the ship with his sons Shem, Ham, [Japheth], and Joktan, who was born in the ark. When they set foot on dry land, they built a village they called Suq Thamanin (the Place of Eighty), and they lived there. God said: “Multiply, and till the earth and make it fruitful. I bless you, and I lift my curse from the Earth; it again will become fertile and bear its fruit. Eat all that it produces, lawful and good. Shun the idols, dead bodies, blood, the flesh of swine, and offerings devoted to any god but me. Take not the life of any person unfairly.”
Noah brought back the coffin containing the body of Adam to the Cave of Treasure, in Mecca, and deposited it there.
When the children of Noah had multiplied, the patriarch divided their land; but Iblis crept among them to raise discord and hatred. He told the sons of Ham and Japheth, “Your father gave to Shem and his descendants the best of the land, and deprived you; he preferred them to you.” He kept tempting them and until he had sparked a war between them.
God created Eve [from Adam]. He put on her his clothes and made her live in Paradise; this creation took place in three hours that first day. God put everything in paradise at the disposal of Adam and Eve, with the exception of a tree which he forbade them to touch. According to most scholars, this tree was wheat, and its fruit was the size of the orange. The serpent met Adam and Eve; it was one of the most beautiful animals; he was then in possession of both hands and feet. Adam, seeing himself placed by God in a state of such high dignity, conceived the desire to be immortal. However Iblis tried to tempt him; by deceit he obtained entry into Paradise when the serpent let him enter [by its mouth] and spoke through him to Eve: “Your Lord,” he said, “has prevented you from touching this tree for fear that you will become immortal.” And he swore an oath to both of them that he advised them for their own good. He did not cease tempting Eve, therefore, until she had eaten of the tree, and she had given the fruit to Adam, who also ate.
After both had tasted the fruit, the clothing that covered them was rent to the ends of their fingers and their sin appeared to them with great clarity. Adam began running right and left in Paradise without knowing what he was doing; he hung a lemon in Eve’s hair. Eve joined him; they plucked leaves from trees in the garden and covered themselves.
God said to them, “This tree”—that is to say, the tree from which they had eaten by disobedience—“will be your food and your descendants’ food. As for Iblis and the serpent, fall down, both of you; there will now be enmity between you.” And God took away the serpent’s feet, and they fell.
The time Adam had remained in Paradise with Eve had been three hours, equivalent to two hundred and fifty years in the days of this world, and a quarter of a day of the next world, because that day is a thousand years long.
Adam was thrown down onto a mountain in Sarandīb (Sri Lanka), bringing with him the leaves sewn in Paradise. When the leaves had lost their freshness and had become dry, they were torn, and fell; the breath of the wind scattered them in all directions, and they gave birth in the land of Hind to various kinds of perfumes, ointments, and fruits that grow only there, like aloe and animal musk. Around the island various hyacinths and diamonds spread themselves, and pearls at the bottom of the sea. And God gave Adam the name Abed-Allah (Servant of God) and the sobriquet Abu Muhammad (Father of Muhammad). Adam was tall and had curly hair, and he was the most beautiful creature of God. When he fell to earth, he lost something of his luster, his beauty, and his grandeur. He first spoke Arabic; God changed his tongue to the Syriac language. He took away the knowledge he had given him; but he restored it to him later, in reconciliation with him.
Eve was thrown down at Jeddah, holding in her hand a handful of stones from Paradise; some were lost on the way; it is from them that our gemstones come. Eve also saw her beauty and charm diminish.
Iblis was cast down [to Maīsān (in Persia), and the serpent fell at Isfahan, deprived of feet, of beauty and of speech].
Adam took a handful of wheat and branch picked from a tree of Paradise, the bramble, they say. This is the rod that Moses possessed. He carried with him thirty branches responsible for the fruits of Paradise, with which he crowned the head. Of these fruits, ten were nuts; walnut, almond, hazelnut, pistachio, poppy, acorn, chestnut, the Indian nuts, pomegranates, and bananas; ten were stone fruits: peach, apricot, plum, date, medlar, the rowan, cherry, chāhlūk, the lotus, and the fruit of the dūm; ten had neither core nor shell; apple, quince, pear, grape, blackberry, orange, carob, squash, melon, and fig. The pear tree was the first of these trees that God caused to grow on the earth.
God reconciled with Adam a hundred years after his fall. He sent Jibril, who taught him the formula: “There is no God except Thee; I have done wrong; forgive me. Thou art the most merciful.”
It is said that Adam was at first so tall that he reached the sky. After his descent to the earth, his size was reduced to two hundred and seventy cubits. He knew how to extract iron and melt it, use the hammer and the anvil, hooks and knives; he knew the tools needed for plowing and cultivation. God told him what animals he could eat and which he had to avoid. He commanded him to go to Mecca. The places where he put down his feet became fertile places; the intervals between his steps remained deserted. He reached Jeddah and found Eve crying: “All this,” he said, “is your work.” God said to Adam, “When you see the Kaaba, revolve around it.” He walked in its direction; in al-Abtah he met the angels, who greeted him with the words: “God gives you life, O Adam! We revolved around this house two thousand years before you, and you are not the first to come here on pilgrimage.” And Jibril taught him the rites of sacrifice, and he revealed twenty-one sheets (of wisdom). Jibril prescribed for him prayer, almsgiving, purification after pollution, and ablutions. He also taught him the sowing of the land, harvesting, and grinding flour to make bread. “Behold,” God said to Adam, “what will be your condition and that of your race.” Adam said, “Lord, I cannot endure this without great suffering.” “This is the punishment for your sin,” said the Lord.
Eve had to undergo her own ten kinds of punishment: the pain at the loss of virginity, the pain of childbirth, the length of pregnancy, the menstruation, the sadness of death, the veil on the head, the domination of men over women, the submission of women to men in sexual intercourse, wailing in misfortune, and the anguish of the heart in grief. Adam and Eve were united and knew one another. Adam had a special punishment: the reduction of his size, lessening of his beauty, and a fear of wild beasts that once feared him. The seal was put on the sentence of death, to which he was sentenced with all his posterity. It was therefore his concern to work to provide for himself, at the price of great fatigue. The serpent was chastened by the loss of its wings, by the loss of its hands and feet, by the obligation to crawl, by the splitting of its tongue, and by the fear of the man who became his enemy. It had to search in the dust for its food, and in order to kill a man, to dart out its tongue.
Adam made Eve pregnant, and she gave him Ḳābil (Cain) and a twin daughter Iqlimiā (Aclima). She had the same pattern of twins at each birth. She then bore Hābil (Abel) and his twin, Labūdā. Cain occupied himself with the work of tilling the ground, and Abel, with husbanding his sheep. Abel was ordered by his father to marry the sister of Cain; but the latter, who wanted her for himself, said: “I am more worthy than him to possess her.” Their father ordered them to each offer a sacrifice to the Lord; the one whose sacrifice was approved would be the most worthy to marry the sister of Cain. They accepted this test. Abel offered his fattest rams and Cain the refuse of his property; the sacrifice took place on a Friday. Fire from heaven descended on the offerings and burned up the ram provided by Abel, showing that his sacrifice was approved; but it did not touch Cain’s offering. Cain was enraged, and he conceived the idea to kill his brother if he found someone to help them. Both were in Mina (the valley of sacrifice near Mecca). Cain knew how to kill Abel. Iblis appeared to him in the form of a man; he took a bird, crushed its head with a stone and killed it. Then he carried it off and disappeared. Cain similarly surprised Abel, who was sleeping while his sheep were grazing. He took a stone and bashed it over his head, and Abel died. Remorse immediately seized Cain. Adam wept for Abel and the Paradise he had lost. Then God sent him one of the tents of Paradise, a tent of red hyacinth, and caused him to deposit it in the place of the Kaaba.
Two hundred and thirty years after the fall, Adam begat Seth, whose name means gift of God, and his twin sister. The traditionalists say Adam had children one hundred and twenty times.
Adam was told to write on sheets; he knew all languages, and the names that are used to ward off the djinn and the satans. He knew how to calculate time and the drift of the stars. He asked his Lord to let him see the world with the good and the evil that it contained. The image of the land and sea was shown him. He saw them with their kings and peoples, his future descendants; he saw the figures of the prophets and all that would be contained in the world, and everything that would be produced in it, both good and evil, until it is consumed. When his children and his children’s children had multiplied, God sent him to them, with the order to transmit to them the precepts he had given him. They say he received this mission at the age of 770 years. When God wanted to end his life, he commanded him to bequeath to Seth his recommendations, and to teach him all the sciences he had himself received. He obeyed. He died, worn out from fatigue and had become unable to cultivate the land. A fever took him; he was sick for twenty days during which he visited the angels. They say he wished for a cluster of grapes from Paradise, and he sent one of his children to ask the first angel that he met for them. The messenger met Jibril, who gave him consolation and said: “Return whence you came, for your father is already dead.”
Adam died at 930 years of age, though others say it was 950 years, admitting that he gave fifty years of his life to David. Jibril came close to the body with a casket and the spices of Paradise, and he taught Seth how he should bury it. “This will be,” he added, “your custom upon the death of one of you.” The body was placed in the Cave of Treasure, Mount Abu Kubais (near Mecca). Adam’s death came on a Friday. At that time his children and his children’s children formed forty thousand families. That day, the tent of red hyacinth, which had descended on the location of the Kaaba, was taken back up to heaven.
Eve was profoundly saddened at the death of Adam; she lived for another year and died. Seth offered a prayer over her body and buried her next to Adam.
Some Features of the History of the Children of Adam
Ḳābil (Cain). This is the eldest son of Adam; he was the first to commit injustice and murder and was unfaithful. After killing his brother, he fled with his sister to a mountain, and they built a city called Halula. Cain was the first to devote himself to fire worship. They say he was the most unfortunate of men, and that he alone bore half of the suffering of the human race; whenever blood was shed unjustly, he was considered an accomplice in the crime.
Seth, the son of Adam. God sent him to the children of his father; twenty-seven sheets (of knowledge) were revealed to Adam and him. He was ordered to build the holy house of stone with the help of his children, to make the pilgrimage, to conduct the Umrah; he was the first who made this visit. He was fated to battle the children of Cain, but his defense of Tihama and Mecca did damage to them.
Seth had a son, Enosh, his firstborn, whom he made his heir. The children of Abrakîn, son of Seth were Yaghuth, Ya‘uq, Nasr, Suwa’, and Wadd (Quran 71:23). They formed a family of pure men, and when they died, their children wept for them. Iblis had their images and statues carved in stone, and their descendants placed them in their homes to keep their memory; the company of these images lightened their grief. But when that generation had died out and another grew up, Iblis put in the minds of latecomers that these statues were gods worshiped by their fathers; and, deceived by him, they worshiped them.
Seth lived 912 years. He became father at 150 years of age. He chose as his heir his son Kenan. He told him about the revealed sheets, he explained the division of the earth with the fullness thereof; he ordered him to devote himself to prayer, to fulfill the precepts of charity and pilgrimage, and to continue the war against the children of Cain. Kenan followed all the recommendations of his father, and died aged 920 years.
His heir was his son Mahalalel, to whom he transmitted the knowledge and the laws he had received from his father. Mahalalel lived 895 years. His heir was his son Jared. He told him about the revealed sheets. He taught him the division of the land and the events to happen in the universe. He gave him the Book of the Secret of the Kingdom, which the angel Darâbil had written for Adam. The patriarchs were handed down this sealed book without ever seeing its content.
Jared, at the age of 100 years, became father to Henoch (Enoch). Some chronologists say that in that time, the world was 1,640 years old. Henoch is the prophet Idris. God elected him a prophet, and he was called Idris because he wrote many books about God and religious laws. He received the revelation of thirty sheets, bringing to eighty the number of pages disclosed to date. Jared made Henoch his heir; he transmitted what he had received from his father, and taught him all the sciences he possessed; he bequeathed the Book of the Secret, which after Seth, was not opened by Idris.
According to a certain legend, Idris was the first to write after Adam. Others say that whenever the science of writing was lacking in a generation or a race, Idris was sent to them as a prophet. He taught men how to count lines, he ordered them to bring together the sheets and collect them in a temple. He also made a copy for the children of Adam and the others. Tradition relates that men were then dressed in shirts of the precious fabric khazz (large silk) or harir (fine silk) or other colored fabrics, cloth of gold and adorned with gems. They also wore the tiara. Eve had received from God the order of weaving and spinning.
She spun cotton, linen, and hair; she wove cloth with which she dressed her children. Adam also dressed in fabric made by Eve.
They say that at the birth of Idris, idol worship was weakened among the Cainites, and they saw the fall of a major idol to which they had dedicated a cult and offered sacrifices.
At that time they had Mahwîl for a king. They gathered in his presence, to see what was happening. Iblis appeared to them in the guise of a very white old man. His white hair was a miracle for them because they had never seen the like. We did not see, in fact, white-haired old men until after Noah. Abraham, it is said, was the first whose hair went white. The king asked: “O, my Lord, what is this?” Iblis said, “It is a sign of majesty.” “O, my God,” said the king, “so increase my majesty.” According to another tradition, Iblis appeared to them in his spiritual form and provided with two wings. He told King Mahwîl, “Jared has become the father of a son who will be the enemy of God, the enemy of your kingdom, and the cause of great damage. That is what the events that trouble you portend for you.” “Can you destroy him?” asked Mahwîl. “I shall try,” said Iblis. But God committed the child to the care of his angels, and when Iblis and his army wanted to approach him, they were repulsed. In that time there appeared a comet that remained visible for a little more than thirty days.
Idris’s father put the child in the temple. He introduced him to the sheets (of wisdom). Idris applied himself to copying them, while he gave himself over to fasting and prayer, and he grew up in these exercises. God elected him a Prophet at the age of 40 years. The angel Darâbîl was sent to instruct him in the science of the spheres and the stars, and their happy or fatal influences, and the zodiacal constellations. They say he was the first who observed the stars, after Adam. [He became attached to writing books, and he was called God’s servant]. It says in the Torah that Idris was the most beautiful of God’s servants.
God made Idris rise up to him. When the prophet had seen the children of Cain sunken in sin and dedicated to the worship of idols, he asked God to be removed to him after being purified of his sins; and God satisfied his request. He ordered him and his sect to remain for forty days in the temple [in order to elect a pontiff. They were purified, entered the temple, and passed forty days in prayer]. At the end of this time, Idris chose for his heir his son Matushalakh (Methuselah), having received God’s revelation: “Pass on your inheritance to Methuselah, your son; I will leave him as a prophet who will satisfy me.” It is said that Idris was taken up to the seventh heaven. There is also told a story of his encounter with the angel of death when he asked God to make him taste the taste of death. He then asked the Lord to make him experience his satisfaction by introducing him into Paradise. God heard him, and he went out of Paradise no more. He was taken to heaven at the age of 365 years.
Methuselah. He stood with his brothers and the son of his brothers in the temple, serving God. The seventy leaders (nuqabā’ – literally, the Watchers) were with them. When God had removed Idris to heaven, discord and dissension increased; Iblis spread the rumor that he (Idris) had died, that he was a soothsayer who had been burned by trying to ascend to heaven, and that the children of Adam, dedicated to his religion, suffered great pain for his death. He made the Cainites believe that their principal idol had killed him. They therefore redoubled their zeal in the worship of idols; these they richly adorned, and to them they offered their sacrifices, and instituted a feast that everyone was required to attend. They had then seven idols: Yaghuth, Ya‘uq, Nasr, Wadd, Suwa’, Sharhah, and Damr. We shall discuss them in treating women consecrated to the gods.
After Idris, the revelation was interrupted. The leaders (nuqabā’) died; and at the death of each of them, his son and his family made his statue which they set up in a temple, to keep his memory and to implore his assistance. Methuselah wished to destroy these images, but they prevented him. He died, having chosen as his heir his son Lamech. Lamech means “one who looks like.” Lamech received from his father sheets and sealed books that had come from Idris. Methuselah lived 932 years.
The legacy of the patriarchs passed to Lamech, father of Noah. Lamech saw in a dream a fire come out of his mouth and set the world on fire; another time he saw himself under a tree in the midst of a sea without shores. After the birth of Noah, scholars and soothsayers related these visions to King Mahwîl, telling him that the world would be destroyed in the time of this child and that the child would have a long life. They thought that a flood would overwhelm the earth. Mahwîl ordered the construction of fortresses on the highest mountaintops as places of refuge. They built seven, which received the names of the seven idols worshiped by his race; and the Cainites inscribed in these fortresses a part of their sciences. It is also said that the king had them built for himself personally.
Noah became great; God elected the Prophet at the age of 50, and he sent him to his people. Physically, he had a dark complexion, the skin of his face delicate; he was tall, with beautiful eyes, slender knees and legs, and strong thighs; his beard was long and full; his body large and fat. He was the first prophet after Idris, and is one of the strongest prophets. According to some traditions, he lived for 1,250 years, of which he spent, as God said, 950 in the midst of his people, calling them to faith. The philosophers who do not believe in these long lives think that this figure includes the period of his life and that of his descendants. The articles of his law consisted in the belief in the One God, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, war against the enemies of God of the race of Cain, and the obligation to pursue good and oppose evil; but it contained no imposition of provisions on how to accomplish these precepts, and contained neither testamentary rules nor criminal penalties. Noah was told to call men to God to protect them against his punishment, to remind them of his divinity.
When Noah was 200 years old, Mahwîl, king of impiety, died, leaving the throne to his son Darmashil. This one was even more strongly attached to the worship of idols; he grew their prestige, he gathered the people in front of them, and he forced the people to worship them. Noah, meanwhile, proclaimed the religion of God; he went into the houses, the public places, and the temples preaching God to men. The impious did not first warn their king about this preaching; they contented themselves to blame Noah, then to threaten him, until one day, the fame of the prophet had spread and he had increased his authority. He had followers who busied themselves defending him. The king was then informed of what was happening. He summoned Noah into his presence, and then he expelled him by ordering him not to return. It is also said that the king who pronounced this judgment was Mahwîl, who imprisoned Noah, and died three years later; Darmashil, his successor, freed the Patriarch from prison, provided he would cease to attack religion and insult the gods.
Each of the main idols of the Cainites had a feast day in a particular time of the year in which they all assembled before it, slaughtered victims for it, and danced around it in circles. When it was the feast of Yaghuth, the Cainites came to this idol from all parts. Noah also came there, went among them, and beseeched them to say “There is no God but God.” But they began to place their fingers in their ears and plunged their heads into their clothes. While Noah was preaching, the idols fell from their thrones. The crowd then fell on him and hit him in the head to force his face to fall down against the ground. Then they dragged him to the palace, before the king. He sat in a chamber decorated in various colors, and with images and admirable paintings and hung with fine silks, on a throne covered with gold leaf and decorated with gems. As soon as Noah was in his presence, he said to him: “Have I not made a recommendation to you, and did I not command you not to oppose anything that concerns the gods? But here you called the people to unfamiliar beliefs, and your audacity has increased to the point that you have insulted the gods, whom you have cast down from their thrones and driven from their seat of power and glory. Who taught you such conduct, and whence come your doctrines?” Noah, who was all stained with his own blood, replied: “If these idols were gods, they would not have fallen. So be pious to the true God, O Darmashil, and equate him to no other, for he sees you.” “How can you,” said the king, “use such language before me?” And he ordered Noah imprisoned until the feast of the next idol, to whom he would be a sacrifice. He also had the idols put back on their thrones.
However, Darmashil had a dream about Noah that greatly frightened him. He commanded that he Noah be pulled out of prison, and that he be let free. He said that Noah was a fool who was not guilty.
There was at that time a soothsayer named Serdib who announced to the people the approach of the Flood and who advised the murder of Noah, but God saved the prophet from their hands.
At the age of 500 years, Noah begat Shem. After that he begat Ham and Yam and Japheth; they all had for a mother Nounah, daughter of Enosh, son of Enoch.
Noah remained for a long time among men, but very few among them listened. Others said, “Why should we believe in you? You are followed by vile people” (Quran 11:27). They wanted to talk to people in the same profession as Noah, who was a carpenter. Three generations followed, and the patriarch kept calling them to God; but they grew in iniquity and arrogance, in boasting and in pride; and they were massacred those of them who wanted to follow the prophet. While he was preaching to men, it was revealed to Noah that none among his people would believe except those who already believed (Quran 11:36). From that moment he despaired for the world and he invoked God’s wrath against it. “Lord,” he said, “let not even one of the ungodly remain on Earth.” Noah then received the order to build the ark. Procreation stopped among men; a great drought occurred, and life became difficult. They continued, as was their custom, to implore the idols for help, but this was of no use to them.
Noah started building the ark. For three years for its construction he cut and shaped wood, which was from the plane tree. He then made nails, prepared all the necessary parts, and mounted the ship. He was prescribed to give the ark a length of three hundred cubits, a breadth of fifty, and a depth of seventy. They say he did not know what form to make it, and that Jibril (Gabriel) was sent to him to tell him to give it the shape of a chicken. The men, while Noah worked, laughed at him; they insulted him and threw stones at him. An entrance was opened on the side of the ark. After the ark was finished, it remained seven months on the ground. At the moment, three of Noah’s companions who believed in him were taken and sacrificed to the idols. The impious ones hoped thereby to obtain the cessation of drought; they received the punishment they deserved.
God commanded Noah take into the ark two animals of each species, a male and a female. The lower floor was reserved for animals, livestock, and wild beasts. The second floor was reserved for provisions of food and drink; the third was devoted to housing for people. There were eighty people in the ark: Noah, his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their family. The angels brought the coffin containing the body of Adam, which was in Tihamah; it was a wooden coffin, and Noah kept it in the ark. The Prophet took with him [Philemon, seer of Egypt; this character was sent by the king of Egypt to Darmashil to complain of the outrages Noah inflicted on the worship of idols; but Philemon believed in the Prophet, who brought him into the ark; he also brought in] those children of his father and grandfather Idris who had believed in his preaching.
They say Darmashil, learning that Noah had moved himself into the ark and had gathered provisions, asked: “Where is the water that will bear them?” He mounted his horse and with a band of his companions came to the ark, and ready to set it on fire, called to Noah, who showed himself: “Where,” asked the prince, “is the water that will carry your ship?” “You’ll soon see it coming,” said Noah, “in the very same place where you are.” “I wonder really,” said the king, “if, despite whatever you say there may be, this parched land has enough water to carry a vessel of this size. Come out of your ark with your companions. Otherwise I’ll burn you all.” Noah replied: “How great is your blindness toward God! Hasten to believe, and stop resisting the Most High. Repent, walk the right path, or punishment is coming for you!”
As they spoke, the king received the news that a woman who was baking bread in her oven had seen water spring forth from the oven (Quran 11:40). “How is it possible,” he said, “that water could come out of a hot oven?” “Behold,” said Noah, “it is a sign of divine wrath! My Lord makes me hear: This fact is the harbinger of the shaking that all the earth will undergo. [The water comes!] Let your horse leave the place where he is, and you will see the water well up beneath him.” The king moved his horse, and water sprang up under his feet; he put it elsewhere, and it was the same. Envoys came to warn him that the water was rising and bubbling. He returned to his palace, planning to take his family and children and take refuge in the fortresses he had built. — They also say that the impious were warned of the approaching flood, but did not arrive in time, as they had hoped, because of the plans that God had for them. — The king had filled the fortresses with food. But when he tried to climb the mountains, the rocks fell on his head from atop the peaks. The gates of heaven opened, dropping a quantity of water that cannot be imagined; men fled without knowing where to go. The water of the flood, they say, was hot and fetid.
It is reported that Yam, the son of Noah, was in the party that came to the ark with Darmashil. His father called to him, saying: “O, my son, embark with us and be not with the ungodly.” — “I will go,” he said, “with the king on a mountain where I will be safe against the water. — “There will be no safety on this day,” said Noah, “against the sentence of God, except for those for whom he will have mercy.” And water was already seen welling oven [in Kufah].
It is said that the ark remained on the water one hundred and fifty days. Some traditionalists give the figure of eleven months. Others say that the flood began in the month of Rajab and the ark rested on Mt. Judi in Muharram [on the day of Ashura]. — It is written in the Torah that God swore to himself that he would no longer destroy any nation by water. [He said, ‘When you see a rainbow in the sky, know that you are safe against the flood.”] — From the fall of Adam to the Deluge, there passed [two thousand two hundred fifty-six years. — When God wanted to stop the flood, he sent a wind across the surface of the water and the bubbling stopped, and he stopped up its sources].
When forty days had passed after the rain had stopped, Noah was told to open the door of the ark, and he sent out a raven to in order to see the state of the earth. The raven left and never returned; and the patriarch prayed to God to punish him by condemning him to be fierce and to live off of carrion. Then he let loose the dove, who returned with feet dyed with mud, and Noah prayed to God to bless it by making man’s friend. It was from that day that the dove had feet of two colors. Seven days later, Noah let the dove go a second time, and it returned carrying an olive branch in its beak; others say she brought back grass.
It is written in the Torah that the earth dried up during the twenty-seven days of the eleventh month. When the water had drained away and the ark came to rest atop Mt. Judi, God spoke to Noah and ordered him out of the ark with his companions. The patriarch also let out the beasts and reptiles.
It is said that the lion had pondered committing havoc in the ark. Noah called him, and God set fire to his body. Garbage piled up in the ship, so Noah rubbed the elephant, who sneezed and spat out a pig, and the pig ate the garbage. Rats then multiplied, so the Patriarch rubbed the lion, and the lion, sneezing, spat out a tomcat.
Noah disembarked the ship with his sons Shem, Ham, [Japheth], and Joktan, who was born in the ark. When they set foot on dry land, they built a village they called Suq Thamanin (the Place of Eighty), and they lived there. God said: “Multiply, and till the earth and make it fruitful. I bless you, and I lift my curse from the Earth; it again will become fertile and bear its fruit. Eat all that it produces, lawful and good. Shun the idols, dead bodies, blood, the flesh of swine, and offerings devoted to any god but me. Take not the life of any person unfairly.”
Noah brought back the coffin containing the body of Adam to the Cave of Treasure, in Mecca, and deposited it there.
When the children of Noah had multiplied, the patriarch divided their land; but Iblis crept among them to raise discord and hatred. He told the sons of Ham and Japheth, “Your father gave to Shem and his descendants the best of the land, and deprived you; he preferred them to you.” He kept tempting them and until he had sparked a war between them.
Chapter 6: The Descendants of Noah
Let us now speak of the Noachides, their genealogies, their dispersal over the earth, and the nations generated by each of them. We will speak first of Ham, then Japheth, then Joktan, and finally Shem, ancestor of the Arabs and the prophets.
The Children of Ham, Son of Noah
The traditionalists say that Noah cursed Ham, asking God that his descendants should become ugly and black, and they were subjected to serving the progeny of Shem. He had a son after Cainan, Kush, who was black; he wanted to approach his wife; Shem tried to stop him by reminding him of his father’s curse hanging over him. Ham was angry. Satan fomented discord between the brothers, and pitted one against the other. In the end Ham had to flee to Egypt; his children were scattered, and he continued his journey westward, till he came into the Sūs-al-Aqsa, the place known today Asilah [in Morocco]; this is the last port of the Sea of Spain to which ships might arrive, coming from the direction of the Qibla; one cannot pass beyond it.
It is also said that the sons of Ham, repenting of having abandoned their father, sought out the place where he lived, and they advanced in the direction he had taken, to find him; they say some discovered it and stayed with him until his death, after securing this country. They gave rise to the Negro races. Each family of Ham’s descendants began to search for him, then stopped in a place where they dwelt, without having learned his whereabouts, and they multiplied. Ham was not seen again by his own children. After his death, some of those who lived with him left the country and settled in the current country of the Berbers. He died at the age of 441 years [others say 771 years]. His children buried him in a cave in the mountains of Asilah.
Cainan was the eldest son of Ham. He was the first whom Iblis made to abandon the religion of Noah; it is from him that the enmity between his race and that of the son of his grandfather dates; the giants and the Canaanites who lived in Syria were his descendants. They also associate them with the Pharaohs of Egypt and Goliath, whom David slew, as well as the Amalekites, because the Amalekites were sons of Ham; and the Canaanites that fought Moses and Joshua were sons of Nun, after him. It is of them that God spoke in this verse: “There are in this land a people born of the giants” (Quran 5:22). Their size was very mighty indeed. It is claimed that Cainan the Younger is the one who established the regions of Syria and Mesopotamia.
Among children Cainan are Falestin and Ṣidā, who gave their name to two countries, and also Nabīṭ; Nabīṭ means the black. The name of Nabīṭ, according to others, is from the fact that this race cultivated and drained the land, and invented agriculture and administration.
Many nations issued from the children of Sūdān, son of Cainan, among others: the Ashbān, the Zanj, and various races which multiplied in the West, numbering about seventy; they had different destinies and separate kings. Among these races there is one where men are dressed only in skins; one that is clothed with grass; one where people wear on their heads the horns and bones of animals, and feed on a white mouse they call manna from heaven. In this race, one man marries ten women; he spends every night with two of them. If he gets along with them, he keeps them; otherwise he sets them free after the third night. There are often disputes among this people. When these people want rain, they gather bones, make a mound and a calcine; at the same time they turn around, raising their hands to heaven, and say formulas; rain falls and they collect it. When one of them celebrates their wedding, they smear her face with a substance that looks like ink; then they sit on a mound and make the woman sit before it. They cover her with reeds forming a sort of dome of foliage; they remain surrounding it for three days, busy drinking corn wine and playing, and then they walk away. The husband takes his wife and travels to the place where they will reside. The men of this tribe put copper rings on their wives’ wrists and ears. They give them the qardawdnīah, which are dyed red and which are worn, but among them only the king may wear it. They have a great tree in whose honor they celebrate a festival every year. They meet and rejoice around it, until one of its leaves falls on them, which they take for a good omen; their wives are adorned with copper rings and shells in their hair.
Other descendants of Sūdān are the Kūkū. This family has given its name to the largest and most powerful kingdoms of the Negroes; all African kings pay tribute to the king of Kūkū and many kingdoms have their origin in that one.
The Kingdom of Ghana. It is still a powerful state; it touches the land of gold mines, where reside several branches of the family of Sūdān. The people of this country have demarcated a boundary we cannot cross when venturing there to buy gold; when buyers approach this line, they set out their lots of merchandise and apparel, and go away; the Blacks arrive with gold, leave a certain amount of goods to one side, and go away. The owners of the lots come back, and if they are not satisfied, they go again; the Negroes come back in turn and add to the gold, and so on until the trade is complete. It’s exactly the same process employed by the merchants who go to buy cloves. Sometimes traders, after leaving, return secretly and make fires on the earth, since all the soil in this country is a pure gold mine. They take the gold that collects at the bottom, and flee. But often they are assaulted by the locals, who chase after them, overtake them, and massacre them. In the deserts of that kingdom there are mines of esbā disham (yellow amethyst); they are abundant enough to appear as tracks streaked on the sand. Traders have reported that gold is struck in the city of Sijilmasa (in the Maghreb in Morocco). This is a big city with four mosques and a street that takes half a day to travel; one can see there a great number of palm trees. It is here that the dinar is struck. The King of Ghana has under his control several kings, and several realms, in all of which gold appears on the earth’s surface; the people of this kingdom collect and work the ingots.
Among the known races of this people is also the one which lives in the kingdom of Demdem. This kingdom, which is the country of Kūkū along the sea, is on the west of the aforementioned. The tribes fight against each other. They are cannibals, and they have a powerful king who has several others subjoined to him. In this country there is a large rock with the appearance of a woman that people revere and to which they come in pilgrimage.
The Kingdom of the Zagawah (in Chad and Sudan) is still a large and powerful kingdom; it is located on the Nile opposite to Nubia. Its inhabitants fight the Nubians.
The Kingdom of Fezzan is a powerful kingdom where one can travel for many days. There is bitumen found in wells, mobile as quicksilver. These wells all open in the same country, the extent of which is half a mile, and which is dominated by a palace. The people of this country exploit this bitumen and call the place where it is found Marawa of the Sahara.
The Kingdoms of Nubia. They are inhabited by descendants of Nūbā son of Kūt, son of Miṣr, son of Ham. Indeed, when their grandfather came to Egypt with Miṣr, Miṣr died and his son remained in the country. His successor Qobṭom (i.e. Qibṭ, Qifṭ, or Qibṭim) established the Copts in Egypt; they are descendants of Qobṭom, son of Miṣr. Qobṭom married his sister; his children were scattered throughout the country and founded kingdoms. Nūb, son of Kūt, ascended the Nile with his people and his family, and his descendants settled on its banks. Their capital is called Dongola. Their land is full of palm trees and cereals. Its width is a two month journey. The Copts are Christians of the Jacobite sect.
The second kingdom of Nubia. It lies in the region of Upper Egypt; it is larger and more powerful than the first, and its people have a lighter complexion. It takes three months to cross. Its capital is Sūiah. Its inhabitants are Christians; they are very rich and have beautiful clothes and valuable rings. Gold also can be found there on the ground. They also have palm trees and cities. They are divided into several tribes with kings, occupying a large country.
The kingdom of Bodjah (in Ethiopia). It follows Nubia; it is divided into many kingdoms which are located between the Nile and the sea, and each has a king. The kingdoms of Bodjah begin at the limits of the Sudan, and they are the last Muslim province. [Their capital is called Hadjar; the inhabitants are divided into tribes; they have gold and emerald mines in their countries. They live in peace with the Muslims] and Muslims work with them in the mines. Further still are still more kingdoms and cities.
These peoples have as neighbors the Abyssinians, who are descendants of Habash, son of Cush, son of Ham. The largest Abyssinian kingdom is that of Nejāshi (Negus) [to which many other kingdoms are subject and pay tribute]. Negus is Christian. The name of its capital is Ko‘bar (Ankober). Since ancient times the Arabs have come to trade with that country.
The Abyssinians border the Zanj, located on the shore of the salt sea and whose kingdom is extensive. They descend from Sūdān, son of Cainan, and they also have several kings and kingdoms. Their principal king is called Kūnah; he resides on the shore of the sea, in a place called Kandū. These Zanj file their teeth until they become very thin; they have large mouths and very white teeth in front, because they eat lots of fish. They have elephants whose tusks they sell to traders from neighboring countries. They own islands where they collect shells with which they adorn themselves, or which they sell. They are divided into several tribes spread among several kingdoms.
The Kerk. This is a nation that descends from Sūdān, son of Cainan; it is close to the people of Sindh and Zanj and has them for enemies. The Kerk are strong and tall men, with long hair, beautiful faces, and learned in the art of war. They have a king called Naksā, a very powerful ruler who has several others under his rule. They follow the religion of idols that came to them from the people of Sind and Hind.
The Kerk have for neighbors on the side of the Zanj side several nations and tribes that cannot be counted. The Zanj and Kerk border the people of Sind and Hind [and Bend], which are the descendants of Cush, son of Ham, and whose common ancestor is Hind, son of Cush. These people have branched into separate tribes, divided into a number of kingdoms. Once they were all united under the authority of a king called Brahman; then they divided, created independent kingdoms, and fortified themselves on their islands. Today they form seventies and a few more nations. Among these, their most famous kingdoms include:
The Kingdom of Balharā, an extensive kingdom, guarded by a powerful army, rich in elephants.
The Kingdom of Rahmā, similar to the previous.
The Kingdom of Maharāj, powerful and vast.
The kingdom of Ḳindāniyīn; it is a country where men are big and strong, with abundant hair and beards, and where women are beautiful. They cultivate astrology, magic, witchcraft, medicine, and the art of building wonderful machines that sculpt magnificent games of chess, backgammon, etc. Their religion has as its constant feature the worship of Bodd (Buddha); apart from that, it is varied. They burn themselves and openly engage in fornication; they even have public places devoted to this purpose.
The Sindh. They are also divided into separate tribes. It is among them that we find the house of the gold idol suspended with nothing touching it; it has the figure of a man on horseback. They have the same religion and the same beliefs as their kinsfolk in Hind, whom they also resemble in their cultivation of science, magic, witchcraft, and in the public practice of adultery and that of burning oneself. They have a fair complexion, sturdy bodies, beautiful faces and mouths, and abundant hair, again like the Hind.
The Bend, children of Cush, are kingdoms almost equal in number to those of Hind; their religions are diverse: some worship the Buddha, other trees, and still others birds. They have a darker complexion, like the Hind and Sind, and they have even fuller beards and more hair; they are endowed with courage and strength. One finds there singular trees, amazing animals (including rhinoceroses), gold in abundance, and several species of rare birds.
The Kandahar. The people of this country are a branch of the Sindh; but they have a lighter complexion because they are allied to the Turks. This country has forests and palm trees, and the people practice polygamy. In religion and in the performance of public adultery, this people follow the practices of the Sind and Hind. The country has wooden idols, rare animals and birds, and gold. It occupies a vast realm.
The tribes of the Berbers. It is said that there are two races of Berbers. Certain of them are descended from Qobṭ, son of Ham; others say they have for an ancestor Fāriq, son of Baiṣar. The most consistent opinion is that they descend from Qobṭ, son of Ham. When his brothers were fixed in Egypt, Berber, son of Qobṭ, went with his children toward the West, and his race lived in the country stretching from the end of Egypt, or rather from the Green Sea (the Ocean), which is beyond Egypt, to the sea east of Spain and as far as the sandy desert that joins the land of the Negroes. Among the Berbers, the Lowātah inhabit the country of Ajdābīa; the Māzata live in that of Waddān; the Howāra fixed themselves in the location of Tripoli; another tribe settled to the west of that one, that of Nafūsa. There were subsequent developments: a tribe called Bārqasāna settled in the region of al-Kaīrowān. The last to arrive were the Lakhm and Judām. These tribes inhabited Palestine; a Persian king drove them out, and they came to Egypt but they did not obtain the permission of the kings of Egypt to stay there. They crossed the Nile and scattered throughout the country. Other historians believe that the tribes came from Yemen with a king who had forbidden their stay. Certain concerning facts, which the king had learned, motivated their expulsion. There was, moreover, of the kings of Yemen who marched westward, such men as Abrahah Ḏu’l-Manār, Ifrīkīs, and others. The Yemenis remained in those countries; they mingled and allied themselves with the Berber people and gave rise to new tribes. Hence the opinion of those who attach the Berbers to the Qais and to the Arabs. But God knows his secrets; he is the only master!
The kings of Miṣr (Egypt) were originally four in number, named: Qofṭ bin Misr bin Baiṣar bin Ham; Ashmūn bin Miṣr; Atrib bin Miṣr, and Ṣā bin Miṣr. The kings of Egypt are descendants of these men: we shall speak more of them later. The whole country was divided between the four princes. The domain of Qofṭ extended to the borders of Nubia; Ashmūn’s included the Dahshur region; that of Ṣā, the maritime region and country of Alexandria, to the borders of Egypt; and that of Atrib extended to the land of Shajratān and Aīlah of the Hejaz. Each of these kings built a city he called by his own name. Lower Egypt was divided into eighty-five nomes (kūrah) (Greek: χώρα), each divided into four cantons. Each canton had a leader in his capital sitting on a golden throne, and in each of these cities, there was a berba, that is to say, a temple of wisdom and a shrine dedicated to a planet. In these temples there were placed idols of gold, each representing its star. Alexandria was a city of this nation; Raqūdah was then its name. Fifteen nomes were made subject to it. In the city sat the chief priests, and in its temples were erected more idols of gold than in any other. There was in this city a hundred golden idols. The Ṣa‘īd (Upper Egypt) was divided into eighty nomes, each divided into four cantons. The number of nomes of Middle Egypt was thirty, having as many cities where there were all kinds of wonders. The nomes are for example: Akhmim, Qofṭ, Qūs, and Fayum.
The Sons of Japhet, Son of Noah
Historians say that there are seventy-two languages, including thirty-seven spoken by the children of Japheth, twenty-three by the children of Ham, and twelve by those of Shem. They also say that Japheth had thirty-seven sons, each of whom spoke a particular language which became that of his posterity. The portion of the land occupied by Japhethites includes Armenia and the kingdoms that border it down to al-Abwāb, including those of Eshbān (Spanish), Russians, Bordjān (possibly Burgundians), the Khazars, the Turks, Slavs, Bulgarians, and nations too numerous to name.
Gog and Magog. It would be impossible to mention all the peoples who are covered by this name because of their large number. It is believed that a quarter of the earth can be covered in one hundred and twenty years, and it is said that of this time, seventy years would be used to traverse the lands occupied by Gog and Magog, twelve to cover those inhabited by the Negroes, eight that of the Rūmis (Romans, i.e. Byzantine Greeks), three the Arabs, and seven the countries inhabited by other races.
Historians list forty tribes of Gog and Magog, which differ in physical structure and size, and each of which has a kingdom with a special costume and a special language. There are within these tribes some individuals who are tall, of one or two spans; others are deformed, who, for example, sleep on one ear and cover themselves with the other, or that have a tail, horns, and tusks; others walk by leaps and bounds; eat snakes, men, insects, and birds of all kinds (including vultures and kites); and fight against each other; still others speak only in grunts. These people are energetic and brave, and most live by hunting. Once they left their country to attack other nations in their vicinity; but Alexander blocked their way by raising the famous wall. It will reopen at the end of time, according to what God has announced (Quran 18:94-99; 21:96). Often among them, people devour each other. Earthquakes are very frequent there. They say that some tribes have religious practices. Someone asked the Prophet if his preaching would reach to the people of Gog and Magog, and he replied: “I passed over them during my Night Journey, and I called to them, but they have not responded.”
The Slavs. They form several nations; some are Christian, while others follow the religion of the Magi and worship the sun. They have a gentle sea that begins in northern areas and advances to the south, and another sea that extended from the east to the west, at a point where it communicates with a third sea coming from the region of Bulgaria. They have several rivers; they live in all the northern countries. They have no salt sea. Their country is distant from the sun, the water is fresh; it becomes salty only when it approaches the sun. The countries that border the north are uninhabited because of the cold that prevails and the frequency of earthquakes. The majority of their tribes practice Magianism; they set themselves on fire and they worship fire. Their towns are numerous; there are churches where there are bells which are struck as one does a clapper-board.
There is a nation, between the Slavs and the Franks, who follow the religion of the Sabians, that is to say they worship the planets. This is a very intelligent people, skilled in all kinds of arts. They made war on the Slavs, the Bordjān, and the Turks. They have seven feasts in the year, under the name of the seven planets, and the sun is the most exalted.
The Yūnān (the Ionians, i.e. Greeks). The Greeks are the predecessors of the Rūmis, descendants of Yūnān, son of Japheth, son of Noah. This is the most knowledgeable of peoples. They were versed in astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, and medicine, as well as skilled in logic, in the fine arts, and in the sciences. From Spain to Alexandria nations submitted to them, until they were defeated by the descendants of Rūmi, son of Lanti (Latinus), descendant of Esau, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. For Esau, after leaving his brother Jacob, went to the western countries, which are those inhabited by Rūmis today, and he settled there. It was his descendants who built Rome, and it is to him that the Romans trace their origin; they are sons of al-Aṣfar. The last ruler of the Greeks was Cleopatra, daughter of Ptolemy, author of the Book of Philosophy and Talismans.
Power then passed to the Rūmis, who had already had several kings before Cleopatra. To them belong those scholars who have dealt with the spheres of science, geometry, medicine, arithmetic, music, wonderful mirrors, talismans, machines of the air and the water, and all the sciences. These include Hippocrates and the second Hippocrates, Hermes, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Galen, and many others that we do not have space to mention.
China. A branch of the family of Āmir, son of Japheth, separated and went to China. The leader of this tribe built vessels on the model of the ark of Noah, his grandfather, in which all his family embarked; they crossed the sea, reached China, multiplied, built cities, and there developed the sciences and arts, and exploited its gold mines. This leader reigned three hundred years. After him, his son Sānī reigned two hundred years. It was he who gave his name to China (Ṣin). He enclosed the body of his father in a statue of gold, and the people stood around the image, which was seated on a throne of gold. This practice became a rule for that empire, and the images of kings were placed in the temples. The religion of these people was first Sabianism. They then worshiped the Buddha in imitation of the Indians; later they adored their kings, placing their bodies in golden idols before which they prostrated themselves. Chinese scholars have treated the spheres of medicine, the trades, and various sciences of the Indians.
The country of China is vast; it is said to contain three hundred and some-odd flourishing cities, not including towns and villages, where there are many wonders to be found. To go in this country, you have to cross seven seas, each of which is characterized by a wind, a color and fish of a particular species. The first of these seas is that of Fars. The current king of China is called Bagbūr; he resides in the capital, whose name is Anṣū (possibly modern Kaifeng, from a Chinese word for “capital”), distant thirty days’ travel from Khanfu, where the merchant vessels approach.
It is customary with this people that the king’s officers, ministers of finance, and leaders of his armies be eunuchs; this is what sustains this custom: when unmarried woman wants to engage in prostitution, she makes a request to the king, who delivers to her a copper seal marked with royal signs; she suspends it around her neck, wears clothing of a certain color, and can then exercise her industry in public. When she gives birth to a male child, it is castrated and the king employs him in his house and the services that depend on him; if the child is a girl, she follows the path of her mother.
The Chinese have a white complexion, tending toward yellow, and a flat nose. We will mention some traits of their manners: When one of them complained to the king of the injustice of a royal officer, his charge is considered and if found to be true, he is given restitution, and the oppressor is reprimanded; but if he lies, he is sentenced to a harsh beating for daring to make a false accusation against a nobleman.
When a eunuch of the court wants to leave, he strikes a large bell; his men come to line up around him and make a path of egress so that we do not see him depart.
Cities are divided into two parts. The king, his family, his officers, and his retinue live in the first half. The common people, the subjects, are discharged into the second where the public places are to be found. None of them can enter the area reserved for the king.
The Chinese give a larger share of inheritance to girls than to boys.
When the sun enters the sign of Aries, they celebrate a great festival; they eat and drink for seven days. Their finery is made from rhinoceros horns, which have, when polished, all kinds of wonderful designs on them. They make belts reaching the price of four thousand miṯqāl of gold apiece. Gold is abundant with them, to the point that they make from gold the bits for their horses and the chains for their dogs. They have silken robes of gold fabric.
The Ankiradah (the Lombards). They are descendants of ‘Āmir, son of Japheth, and they occupy a vast kingdom between the Franks and the Rūmis. Their king is very powerful, and they have many cities. They are mostly Christians today, but a few have no religion. They fight the Franks and Slavs around them and repel them. Their costume is the same as that of the Rūmis.
The Franks. They also descendants of Japheth. Their kingdom is vast and important. They have several kingdoms ruled by a single king. Their capital is called Darīwah (possibly Trier). They are also Christians. They are now divided into fourteen branches and beyond them live other races. Their main enemies are the Slavs, but because of the extent of their empire, they simultaneously fight Rūmis and Lombards. Trade is well developed with them. There are among them Christians, Magi, and Manicheans (zindīq); there are also some who burn themselves.
Spain (al-Andalus). The Kingdom of Spain contains twenty four cities under the authority of a single king. The religion of the inhabitants was at first Sabianism, and they had in their temples idols of planets. Later they abandoned Sabianism to become Christians. They are an educated and wise people.
There was in the capital of Spain a house where each king who came to power sealed the door with another lock. This practice continued until the accession of King Loḏrīq (Roderic). This prince, who was not of the royal family, wanted to open the locks, which numbered twenty-four. All the princes of the country begged him not to do so, telling him they would rather give him all their fortunes. But he persisted in his design; when they saw that they could not dissuade him, they regarded him as a dead man and they left him. So he opened the padlock, entered the house, and he found within images of Arabs riding on horses and camels, wearing red turbans, and holding in their hands long spears and bows. Near them was this inscription: “When this house is opened, the country will be won by men like these.” Indeed, Spain was invaded that year or perhaps the next year. It was conquered by Tariq ibn Ziyad, freedman of Mūsa bin Nusayr, in the year 92 A.H. (710-711 CE) during the reign of al-Walid, son of ‘Abd al-Malik. The winner slew King Loḏrīq, reduced the people to slavery, and plundered the land. He found in that house Solomon’s Table, which was made of gold and adorned with circles of precious stones. He also found the wonderful mirror that can see the seven climates and which is made of mixed substances; the golden cup of Solomon; a copy of the Psalms written in beautiful Greek characters on gold leaf adorned with jewels; twenty-two books, all written in gold, including the Torah; another book written in silver containing the uses of plants and stones and how to make talismans; and another giving the secrets of the art of dyeing along with instructions for how to produce the colors of the hyacinth; large stone baskets sealed with gold, full of the philosopher’s stone of the alchemists. The whole was brought to al-Walid, son of ‘Abd al-Malik.
After conquering Spain, Muslims settled there; they spread out among its various cities, and they remained master of most of them until ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Mu‘awiya ibn Hisham ibn ‘Abd al-Malik, arrived in the Peninsula in the year 138 (755 CE) and captured it. His descendants still reign there.
The Bordjān. They are descendants of Yūnan, son of Japheth. Their kingdom is important and vast. They make war against the Rūmis, the Slavs, the Khazars, and the Turks; their most formidable enemies are the Rūmis. It is fifteen days’ travel from Constantinople to the land of the Bordjān; their kingdom is twenty or thirty days’ travel in extend.
Each stronghold among the Bordjān is surrounded by a hedge that runs around it and is surmounted by a sort of wooden net, which is a similar defense to that of a high wall behind a ditch. Their towns have no moats. The Bordjān religion is that of the Magi, and they have no books. The horses they use in combat are always left free in the fields, and nobody rides them except in wartime. If they discover a man has mounted one of these animals outside this time, they kill him. When they have to fight, they form lines. They put the archers in front and they place their wives and children behind. The Bordjān know neither dinars nor dirhams; all transactions, as well as marriage contracts, are made using oxen and sheep. When peace is made between them and the Rūmis they send to the Rūmis young slaves of both sexes, either Slavic or a similar breed. When a powerful man dies among them, they gather the household of the deceased and his followers, and, after having made commendations, they burn them with the dead. They say: “We burn them in this world, but they do not burn in the other.” Or they dig a large vault into which the dead descend; the dead man is placed within with his wife and his household, and they leave them there until they are dead. It is customary there that when a slave is at fault and his master wants to punish him, he throws himself to the ground before his master so he may hit him to the extent appropriate to the offense; and if the slave gets up before receiving permission, it is punishable by death. They also have the custom to give a greater inheritance to girls than to boys.
The Turks. They are descendants of Japheth, son of Noah, and they are divided into several races. They have cities and fortresses. There is a tribe of Turks who live on mountaintops and in deserts, in felt tents; their only occupation is hunting. Those who do not succeed cut the jugular vein of their mounts, collect the blood of the beast and roast it. The Turks eat vultures, crows, and other animals. They have no religion. There are others who follow the religion of the Magi. There are also those who have embraced Judaism. Their great king is called Khāḳān. He has a golden throne, a golden miter, a gold belt, and silk clothing. It is said that the great king of the Turks cannot show himself, and that if he showed himself, no one could endure the sight. These people know the art of magic. They are hateful, but endowed with energy and courage. On a certain day the Turks light a big fire, and the king comes, then stops in a place where he overlooks the fire. He whispers a few words. He then leaves the hearth and its violent flames. If the flames are green, it is a sign of fertility and abundance; if they are white, it is a sign of starvation. Red flames are an omen of bloodshed, while a yellow color predicts epidemics and pestilence. Black means that the king will die or that he will make a long journey. When flames of this last color occur, the king hastened to leave and return.
The Rūmis. They are the sons of Esau; Rūmi is their sobriquet. When power came into the hands of Constantine, he made a profession of Christianity; he assembled the bishops in council and he was baptized. Christians were formed after him into a hierarchy including the patriarchs, bishops, priests, deacons, mafrians (matrān), and domestic heads of the troops. When they fast, they break their fast on Sunday and they take lunch on Saturday afternoon. Every man among them marries a woman and takes no concubine. They do not drink wine to get drunk; drunkenness is a sin for them. Sunday is their sacred day, because the Messiah came out of the tomb on a Sunday night and ascended to heaven on a Sunday, after meeting with the Apostles. Christians do not approve of the practice of purifying oneself after certain pollutions nor of ablutions. All of their religion resides in the spirit. They do not consume the offerings before they have said, “This is your flesh and blood,” addressing the Messiah Jesus; they believe that then there is no more wine or bread. When they separate after receiving the offering, they kiss each other, and they do not speak until they have purified their mouths. Among them women have two units of inheritance, and men have one. They do not admit divorce.
It is customary among the Rūmis that the privilege of wearing two red boots is reserved for the king; the heir to the throne wears one red and one black. The king eats with accompanying music and singing. The usual food of the Rūmis consists of Kerdanāzāt (roasts), modaqqaqāt (chopped meat), isfidabāzāt (a stew of meat, onion, oil, butter, and cheese), and sikbāzāt (a tart dish made of meat marinated in vinegar). There have organs (the instrument). They cultivate medicine, philosophy, the arts, and crafts. Their skill in sculpture is so great that they know to show on one figure sadness and on another contentment and joy. Their king is called the merciful king; he is fair and just, and he wears the diadem.
The Persians. They are the sons of Japheth, son of Noah. But they deny that origin and claim to know neither Noah nor the Flood, nor the son of Noah. They count their kings from Gayumart, the first man, who is the same Adam, and they believe that all descend from Faridun, the Persian king. Some people think that the first king in the world after the Flood was Hūshang son of ‘Āmir, son of Japheth, son of Noah, and that after having reigned thousand years, he was taken to heaven. He had Ṭahmūraṭ for a successor, and it was the first Persian period, which lasted until the victory of Alexander over Dārā, son of Dārā (Darius), and the formation of the satrapies. Then reigned the Khosrows of the family of Ardashir, son of Babak, until the destruction of the kingdom of Persia.
Others trace to Shem the origin of the Persians, which is confirmed by certain traditional information. Their religion was first Sabianism; later, they embraced Magianism and built fire-altars. It is said that the king dressed the fire-altars in cloth and he gave sulfur and arsenic to the sacred fire. That fire burned of its own accord; they did not use wood to maintain it and fanned it only with silver tongs.
It is said that when the king wanted to celebrate rites of worship at these fire-altars, he sat on a throne, having before him a large stone mortar where they had put water; he took in his hand a wooden beam with which he struck the water continuously with great violence to punish it for being the enemy of fire. The peoples of the various kingdoms recognized the rule of the Persians, admiring the perfection of their government, their beautiful method of making war, their art in making dyes and composing dishes and remedies, their way of dressing and organizing their provinces, their care to put everything in its place, their writing, their speech, the sharpness of their intelligence, their cleanliness, their extreme rectitude, and the reverence they had for their kings. On all these points the superiority of the Persians was indisputable. The books of their history can provide examples to any who come after them and must govern empires. These things are too well known to us, so we will stop here.
Kings of Khurasan. Among them are: those of Sogd; Farganah; Ashrūsnah; al-Borhās, which is the same as the Abu of Deīlem; Jīl; the Lān, the Kurds, Shash, and Transoxiana. These peoples had many kings and various faiths. Most of them were attached to Magism and worshiped fire. It is reported that Ardāshīr saw his Satan and said, “Teach me something that is useful to me.” He replied: “Draw near to your mother and take her to wife.” He did so, and this practice was perpetuated among followers of the Magi. The Persians say that incest between brothers and sisters dates from the time of Adam. Only later the Manicheans (Zindīḳ) allowed incest with the mother, saying that the mother was more worthy of love than the sister, and the practice was established.
Beyond China are peoples who live naked. There are among them those who are covered with hair, others who have no hair, and still others who have red faces and red hair. In one of those tribes, the people hide in caves when the sun rises to avoid the heat, and they do not come out until the sun has gone back down in the west. Most of the time, these people eat a plant that resembles truffles, fish, and herbs. Adjoining them, to the north, live white people with red hair who go naked, practicing incest like the beasts. Every woman is for all the men, and no man shall prevent the others from access to any woman.
The Children of Shem, Son of Noah
It is to the race of Shem that God gave supremacy, the revealed books, and the prophets. Noah established Shem, with his race, in an eminent position among his brothers.
Shem begat Arfakhshad (Arphaxad), and lived 475 years after this time; Arfakhshad begat Shālikh (Shelah); Shālikh begat ‘Ābir (Eber), and ‘Ābir lived 450 years and begat Ḳaḥṭān. Ḳaḥṭān begat Fāleg (Peleg). Fāleg begat Yar‘ob. It is said that Ya‘rob was the first to speak Arabic. The language of the Semites had previously been Syraic. Ya‘rob begat Sabā; Sabā begat Ḥomeīr (red), so named because he had a diadem decorated with a red stone and when he sat on his throne, the brilliance of the stone spread wide. He was first called the red king (al-Mālik al-Aḥmar), which then changed into that of this term, Ḥomeīr. Kahlān is the son of Ḥomeīr, son of Sabâ. From him are descended the kings of Yemen, the Tubba‘ and the Ḏū, such as Abrahah Ḏu’l-Manār and Du’l-Ad‘ār, son of Abrahah. The Ḏū are a series of princes who traveled as conquerors through various countries. Among them is Ifrīkīs, who reached the farthest reaches of the west.
Abraham. He begat Ishmael the prophet (the nabi), by the Copt (Hagar), and Isaac, by Sarah, Aaron’s daughter. Abraham was from Harran. He lived 175 years. The king who reigned in Babylon in his time was Nimrod, one of the descendants of Cush, son of Ham. When Abraham argued against him and smashed the idols, the prince lit a large fire and threw him into it; but God rendered the flames cool and protected him from harm. A wind came that threw the fire into the faces of the assistants and the king. Abraham went to Harran, followed by his nephew Lot and his cousin Sarah. This departure took place when he was 37 years old. He married Sarah after a revelation. He left carrying three pages written in Hebrew, although his language had heretofore been Syriac. These sheets contained proverbs and words of praise to God. Ordered to travel again, he passed the Euphrates and went to Egypt. We will speak more of him in the history of Egypt.
Ishmael. He lived in the sacred territory. It is for him that gushes the Zamzam well, on God’s command. God elected him a prophet and sent him to the Amalekites, the Jurhamites, and the tribes of the Yemen. He invited them to abandon the worship of idols. Some of these people believed in him; but most remained infidels. He ruled the sacred territory, married into the tribe of Jurham, had twelve children, and died at the age of 167 years. He bequeathed to his son ‘Adnān the charge of the holy house. From the race of ‘Adnān Muhammad was born, the prophet par excellence. All of the Arabs are of the race of ‘Āribah. But others say that the Prophet was of the race of Kaīdār, son of Ishmael. There remains a great disagreement concerning the descendants of Ishmael. The prophet said, when he had assembled his genealogy up to Ma‘add, son of ‘Adnān, “‘Adnān came out of the depths of the wetlands.” Many nations have for their authors Ishmael and ‘Adnān.
The History of the Confusion of Languages
Men lived together after the Flood and dwelt in the land of Babylon; their language was Syriac. They then dispersed, giving rise along the way to the tribes of Ḳaḥṭān, ‘Ād, Ṯamūd, Amalāq, Ṭasm, and Jadīs. God taught them to speak Arabic. They were driven by their destiny into Yemen. ‘Ād came into Aḥqāf, Ṯamūd lived in the region of al-Hijr, and Jadīs the Yemāmah. Then broke away Ṭasm [son of Lāūd, son of Aram], who came to live in Yemāmah with the Jadīs, and afterward ‘Amalāq who lived in the sacred territory. Ḍakhm, son of Aram, settled aṭ-Ṭā’if, and Jurham in Mecca. These are the tribes which formed, and all the Arabs ‘Āribah are the descendants of them. Other descendants of Ishmael are called Mota-‘arribah because they received from the aforementioned their education and language.
The Prophet Hūd was sent to the ‘Ādites, who lived in al-Aḥqāf ar-Raml (the sand dunes). They had for a king al-Khuljān, son of al-Wahm, and they worshiped three idols. They treated Hūd as a liar, so he invoked against them the wrath of God and God withheld rain from them for three years. In their distress they sent deputies to Mecca, charged with praying for rain in the sacred territory. At their arrival, they emissaries went to venerate the site of the holy house, which after the Flood, had become a land of red earth. The sacred territory was inhabited by the Amalekites, whose chief was Mu‘āwīah, son of Bakr. The envoys presented themselves to him. Among them were Qaīl, son of ‘Anz; Maziad, son of Sa‘d; Laqīm, son of Hazāl; and Luqmān, son of ‘Ād. They came and went down to the place where Mu‘āwīah bin Bakr was, and remained there a month eating and drinking, and listening to the two locusts, which is what the two slaves belonging to Mu‘āwīah were called. Seeing this situation continuing unabated, Mu‘āwīah was ashamed and afraid for them because they were his maternal uncles; he composed a poem to awaken them and remind them of the purpose of their mission, and he had it sung by young girls. Here is that poem:
“Come, Qaīl, woe unto thee! Get thee up and at least pray quietly, so perhaps God will make it rain on us from his white clouds, which will water the land of ‘Ād. ‘Ād, in this morning, no longer speaks in a clear voice.—But you both are filled with goods from your days and nights in opulence. Your messengers are covered with shame unknown in other peoples. They also encounter neither blessings nor salvation.”
The envoys rose out of their torpor after hearing these verses, and they performed the rites for rain. With their prayer finished, three clouds were presented to them: one white, another black, and the last red. A voice said to Qaīl: “Choose one of the three for your people.” He replied, “The white has more water, the red brings wind, and the black heavy rain,” and he chose the black. The voice continued: “You have chosen the fine ash; there will remain in the land of ‘Ād neither parents nor children. The wind then entered the valleys of ‘Ād and persisted for seven nights and seven days. The scourge ceased only when all the ‘Ādites had perished to the last and their homes had been ruined; neither walls nor mountains could not save them; there remained of them only vestiges. After asking for rain in Mecca, the envoys returned, and a voice informed them along the way that ‘Ād was no more, and it ordered them to choose their own fate. Qaīl asked to be reunited with his people; the wind overtook him on the road and killed him. Maziad, who had believed in Hūd, asked for purity and justice, and they were granted. Laqīm chose to live a hundred years without illness, without old age, without being tormented by any need. His request was granted. Luqmān chose to live as long as seven eagles, and his choice was accepted. He took a little eagle, raised it, and fed it until it died. Then he took another eagle and did the same. He continued to the seventh. His last eagle was named Lubad. The Arabs have remembered it in their proverbs and their poems.
Al-A‘sha said about it: “Do not you see Luqmān, who dies each year and each passing month? As long as an eagle remains, his days end with it, so he asks for another. He thus passes from Amad to Lubad, living for the whole of the time of his tawny eagles. But no soon will time kill Lubad, than they will make Luqmān a tomb.”
Al-Nābiġa al-D̠ubyānī said: “She was left alone one evening and took off. The outrage is to insult Lubad.”
Noah divided the land between is children, giving Shem possession of the middle of the earth, the sacred territory, and its surroundings, Yemen up to Ḥaḍramaut and up to Oman, Bahrain until ‘Ālij and up to the border of India. The whole country was covered with towns, villages, fortresses, palaces, various buildings, orchards which were touching each other, until God became irritated with the race of Hūd, overthrew almost all the homes. God imbued the race of Shem with prophecy and blessing. To Ham, Noah gave a part of Syria, Egypt to the Upper Nile, the land of Nubia, the Bodjah, the territory of the Negroes, bounded by the Green Sea, to the land of Abyssinia, Hind, Nut and Sindh. He gave Japhet the countries of the Turks, China, Gog and Magog, Slavs, Rūmis, Franks, Lombards and Spainish, to the shores of the Dark Sea. Joktan was given the land from China, to the land of ash-Shihr, to the borders of Yemen.
Humans multiplied first on all sides, spread themselves out around Babylon, and dwelt there. They built more than seventy thousand houses, which were overcrowded with people. Iblis then ignited discord among them, language confusion came, and they dispersed.
The first who reigned among them was the first Nimrod, son of Cush, son of Ham. He had dark skin, red eyes, and a deformed body; horns grew on his forehead. He was the first black person after the Flood. He was born black because of the curse pronounced by Noah against his son Ham under the following circumstances: Noah was sleeping one day uncovered in his nakedness. Ham saw him and laughed, without thinking to cover him up. Japheth was silent, and did not blame his father; but Shem was indignant against them. Noah knew of their conduct, and he cursed Ham, asking God that his descendants become black and misshapen, and slaves of the sons of Shem. He cursed Japhet and asked that his descendants become slaves to those of Shem and the worst of men. Ham had prodigious strength, a perfect beauty, and very sweet breath. He avoided having sex with his wife for fear of the curse pronounced by his father. But when Noah died, he lost faith in the prediction and he came in unto his wife; she gave birth to Cush and his sister. Ham looked upon them in horror; he went to his brothers, told them what had happened, and said, “I asked my wife if they were not born of Satan or some other man than me.” But his brothers said to him, “This is the effect of your father’s curse.” Ham grieved, and did not have sex with his wife for some time. Then he came in unto her and took her and had by her Qūṭ and his twin sister. It was then that he decided to flee, seeking to hide, not knowing where to go.
No one was ever more arrogant, more proud, and more unjust than Nimrod the Black. He knew partly the art of the soothsayers. Iblis came to him and said: “I am a prophet and I do not know anyone equal to you in my art. I will enrich you. I will put the finishing touch to your power and I will raise you above all kings, if you offer me your son as a sacrifice and if you worship me three times. So I will bestow upon you my favors; I will make you a perfect seer, and I will put you in my place.” Nimrod did what he asked; Iblis commanded the Satans to serve him and be with him.
The Satans brought to Nimrod the sons of Shem. He fought them, helped by Iblis, and put them under the yoke and made them slaves; they had to submit and obey.
Iblis built him a palace which he covered with gold and precious stones, and which lit all its surroundings. He gave him a sword which threw off light and put on his head a big snake that killed all those it reached. Seeing this, the men obeyed him. Then he wished for them to worship him, and he ordered them to build him a tower of stone and lime, without providing for any of this work. “It will be your fortress,” he told them. Iblis helped him, and thus they built a tower whose height was about nine hundred cubits. At the top of the tower he had built a magnificent building, in which were set up thrones on marvelous columns. The width of each of the four sides was a thousand cubits. He made all the other floors into storerooms and filled them with treasures, food, beverages, all kinds of tools, and all of which he could think that one day he might have need, both for him and for his people, for many centuries. He established his throne at the top of the tower and commanded men to worship him. He took his police chief an Abyssinian; and if he learned that a man refused him divine honors, he hastened from the top of the tower.
Some people believe that he lived in the clouds and that he rode across the sky in a chariot resting on the backs of the Satans, and then he came back down from there to the earth.
Some people tried to get rid of him and overthrow him. However, many worshiped him, and his power was immense. The discontented gathered round Shem who tried to find a way to topple him and had decided to try something against him. Shem made use of the names that Noah had taught him, telling him to invoke them only in great calamities. Among them was the greatest name of God. Shem said, “My God, you yourself invite your servants to come to you; behold what evils they suffer. Your people attempt to revolt against the rule of the tyrant in whom the Satans ignite all the passions; if you do not offer help, they will perish. You know what can save them. So stop the shedding of their blood, free them from the tyrant, chastise him for all his crimes, and deliver us from him.”
God then unleashed the four winds; they raged against the four sides of the tower, and caused it to reduce to nothing more than a flattened hill. This destruction was accompanied by the descent of a thick darkness and violent tremors that shook the mountains. Men were in dismay; they could not see over one other and did not know where they were going; their languages became incomprehensible. Nimrod cursed the enemy of God, and he perished with all his worshipers.
The men ran away and walked in darkness for three days. Then there appeared to them rays of dim light. These rays diverged, and each fleeing group followed one of them, seeking salvation. Each group followed by people (angels?) who drove them on, and that group had a language different from the language of any other group, until the whole of each group had arrived in a particular region of the earth. Thus occurred the confusion and multiplication of languages. When a group came to the place where it was to settle, it was said to them, “Here is the place where you shall live. Work and prosper.”
The sons of Shem settled in the region of Yemen to Shiḥr and in Ḥaḍramaut, down to the Equator. They gave rise to the Arabs ‘Āribah.
The sons of Ham went into Sind and Hind and into the country of Aswan (Syene).
The sons of Japheth extended into the North. It is from them that the Khazars, Turks, Slavs, Franks, and Gog and Magog descend.
The son of Joktan reached to the ends of China and the Orient.
Every nation settled on the land it had occupied, and they cultivated it and perpetuated themselves down to our time.
The Children of Ham, Son of Noah
The traditionalists say that Noah cursed Ham, asking God that his descendants should become ugly and black, and they were subjected to serving the progeny of Shem. He had a son after Cainan, Kush, who was black; he wanted to approach his wife; Shem tried to stop him by reminding him of his father’s curse hanging over him. Ham was angry. Satan fomented discord between the brothers, and pitted one against the other. In the end Ham had to flee to Egypt; his children were scattered, and he continued his journey westward, till he came into the Sūs-al-Aqsa, the place known today Asilah [in Morocco]; this is the last port of the Sea of Spain to which ships might arrive, coming from the direction of the Qibla; one cannot pass beyond it.
It is also said that the sons of Ham, repenting of having abandoned their father, sought out the place where he lived, and they advanced in the direction he had taken, to find him; they say some discovered it and stayed with him until his death, after securing this country. They gave rise to the Negro races. Each family of Ham’s descendants began to search for him, then stopped in a place where they dwelt, without having learned his whereabouts, and they multiplied. Ham was not seen again by his own children. After his death, some of those who lived with him left the country and settled in the current country of the Berbers. He died at the age of 441 years [others say 771 years]. His children buried him in a cave in the mountains of Asilah.
Cainan was the eldest son of Ham. He was the first whom Iblis made to abandon the religion of Noah; it is from him that the enmity between his race and that of the son of his grandfather dates; the giants and the Canaanites who lived in Syria were his descendants. They also associate them with the Pharaohs of Egypt and Goliath, whom David slew, as well as the Amalekites, because the Amalekites were sons of Ham; and the Canaanites that fought Moses and Joshua were sons of Nun, after him. It is of them that God spoke in this verse: “There are in this land a people born of the giants” (Quran 5:22). Their size was very mighty indeed. It is claimed that Cainan the Younger is the one who established the regions of Syria and Mesopotamia.
Among children Cainan are Falestin and Ṣidā, who gave their name to two countries, and also Nabīṭ; Nabīṭ means the black. The name of Nabīṭ, according to others, is from the fact that this race cultivated and drained the land, and invented agriculture and administration.
Many nations issued from the children of Sūdān, son of Cainan, among others: the Ashbān, the Zanj, and various races which multiplied in the West, numbering about seventy; they had different destinies and separate kings. Among these races there is one where men are dressed only in skins; one that is clothed with grass; one where people wear on their heads the horns and bones of animals, and feed on a white mouse they call manna from heaven. In this race, one man marries ten women; he spends every night with two of them. If he gets along with them, he keeps them; otherwise he sets them free after the third night. There are often disputes among this people. When these people want rain, they gather bones, make a mound and a calcine; at the same time they turn around, raising their hands to heaven, and say formulas; rain falls and they collect it. When one of them celebrates their wedding, they smear her face with a substance that looks like ink; then they sit on a mound and make the woman sit before it. They cover her with reeds forming a sort of dome of foliage; they remain surrounding it for three days, busy drinking corn wine and playing, and then they walk away. The husband takes his wife and travels to the place where they will reside. The men of this tribe put copper rings on their wives’ wrists and ears. They give them the qardawdnīah, which are dyed red and which are worn, but among them only the king may wear it. They have a great tree in whose honor they celebrate a festival every year. They meet and rejoice around it, until one of its leaves falls on them, which they take for a good omen; their wives are adorned with copper rings and shells in their hair.
Other descendants of Sūdān are the Kūkū. This family has given its name to the largest and most powerful kingdoms of the Negroes; all African kings pay tribute to the king of Kūkū and many kingdoms have their origin in that one.
The Kingdom of Ghana. It is still a powerful state; it touches the land of gold mines, where reside several branches of the family of Sūdān. The people of this country have demarcated a boundary we cannot cross when venturing there to buy gold; when buyers approach this line, they set out their lots of merchandise and apparel, and go away; the Blacks arrive with gold, leave a certain amount of goods to one side, and go away. The owners of the lots come back, and if they are not satisfied, they go again; the Negroes come back in turn and add to the gold, and so on until the trade is complete. It’s exactly the same process employed by the merchants who go to buy cloves. Sometimes traders, after leaving, return secretly and make fires on the earth, since all the soil in this country is a pure gold mine. They take the gold that collects at the bottom, and flee. But often they are assaulted by the locals, who chase after them, overtake them, and massacre them. In the deserts of that kingdom there are mines of esbā disham (yellow amethyst); they are abundant enough to appear as tracks streaked on the sand. Traders have reported that gold is struck in the city of Sijilmasa (in the Maghreb in Morocco). This is a big city with four mosques and a street that takes half a day to travel; one can see there a great number of palm trees. It is here that the dinar is struck. The King of Ghana has under his control several kings, and several realms, in all of which gold appears on the earth’s surface; the people of this kingdom collect and work the ingots.
Among the known races of this people is also the one which lives in the kingdom of Demdem. This kingdom, which is the country of Kūkū along the sea, is on the west of the aforementioned. The tribes fight against each other. They are cannibals, and they have a powerful king who has several others subjoined to him. In this country there is a large rock with the appearance of a woman that people revere and to which they come in pilgrimage.
The Kingdom of the Zagawah (in Chad and Sudan) is still a large and powerful kingdom; it is located on the Nile opposite to Nubia. Its inhabitants fight the Nubians.
The Kingdom of Fezzan is a powerful kingdom where one can travel for many days. There is bitumen found in wells, mobile as quicksilver. These wells all open in the same country, the extent of which is half a mile, and which is dominated by a palace. The people of this country exploit this bitumen and call the place where it is found Marawa of the Sahara.
The Kingdoms of Nubia. They are inhabited by descendants of Nūbā son of Kūt, son of Miṣr, son of Ham. Indeed, when their grandfather came to Egypt with Miṣr, Miṣr died and his son remained in the country. His successor Qobṭom (i.e. Qibṭ, Qifṭ, or Qibṭim) established the Copts in Egypt; they are descendants of Qobṭom, son of Miṣr. Qobṭom married his sister; his children were scattered throughout the country and founded kingdoms. Nūb, son of Kūt, ascended the Nile with his people and his family, and his descendants settled on its banks. Their capital is called Dongola. Their land is full of palm trees and cereals. Its width is a two month journey. The Copts are Christians of the Jacobite sect.
The second kingdom of Nubia. It lies in the region of Upper Egypt; it is larger and more powerful than the first, and its people have a lighter complexion. It takes three months to cross. Its capital is Sūiah. Its inhabitants are Christians; they are very rich and have beautiful clothes and valuable rings. Gold also can be found there on the ground. They also have palm trees and cities. They are divided into several tribes with kings, occupying a large country.
The kingdom of Bodjah (in Ethiopia). It follows Nubia; it is divided into many kingdoms which are located between the Nile and the sea, and each has a king. The kingdoms of Bodjah begin at the limits of the Sudan, and they are the last Muslim province. [Their capital is called Hadjar; the inhabitants are divided into tribes; they have gold and emerald mines in their countries. They live in peace with the Muslims] and Muslims work with them in the mines. Further still are still more kingdoms and cities.
These peoples have as neighbors the Abyssinians, who are descendants of Habash, son of Cush, son of Ham. The largest Abyssinian kingdom is that of Nejāshi (Negus) [to which many other kingdoms are subject and pay tribute]. Negus is Christian. The name of its capital is Ko‘bar (Ankober). Since ancient times the Arabs have come to trade with that country.
The Abyssinians border the Zanj, located on the shore of the salt sea and whose kingdom is extensive. They descend from Sūdān, son of Cainan, and they also have several kings and kingdoms. Their principal king is called Kūnah; he resides on the shore of the sea, in a place called Kandū. These Zanj file their teeth until they become very thin; they have large mouths and very white teeth in front, because they eat lots of fish. They have elephants whose tusks they sell to traders from neighboring countries. They own islands where they collect shells with which they adorn themselves, or which they sell. They are divided into several tribes spread among several kingdoms.
The Kerk. This is a nation that descends from Sūdān, son of Cainan; it is close to the people of Sindh and Zanj and has them for enemies. The Kerk are strong and tall men, with long hair, beautiful faces, and learned in the art of war. They have a king called Naksā, a very powerful ruler who has several others under his rule. They follow the religion of idols that came to them from the people of Sind and Hind.
The Kerk have for neighbors on the side of the Zanj side several nations and tribes that cannot be counted. The Zanj and Kerk border the people of Sind and Hind [and Bend], which are the descendants of Cush, son of Ham, and whose common ancestor is Hind, son of Cush. These people have branched into separate tribes, divided into a number of kingdoms. Once they were all united under the authority of a king called Brahman; then they divided, created independent kingdoms, and fortified themselves on their islands. Today they form seventies and a few more nations. Among these, their most famous kingdoms include:
The Kingdom of Balharā, an extensive kingdom, guarded by a powerful army, rich in elephants.
The Kingdom of Rahmā, similar to the previous.
The Kingdom of Maharāj, powerful and vast.
The kingdom of Ḳindāniyīn; it is a country where men are big and strong, with abundant hair and beards, and where women are beautiful. They cultivate astrology, magic, witchcraft, medicine, and the art of building wonderful machines that sculpt magnificent games of chess, backgammon, etc. Their religion has as its constant feature the worship of Bodd (Buddha); apart from that, it is varied. They burn themselves and openly engage in fornication; they even have public places devoted to this purpose.
The Sindh. They are also divided into separate tribes. It is among them that we find the house of the gold idol suspended with nothing touching it; it has the figure of a man on horseback. They have the same religion and the same beliefs as their kinsfolk in Hind, whom they also resemble in their cultivation of science, magic, witchcraft, and in the public practice of adultery and that of burning oneself. They have a fair complexion, sturdy bodies, beautiful faces and mouths, and abundant hair, again like the Hind.
The Bend, children of Cush, are kingdoms almost equal in number to those of Hind; their religions are diverse: some worship the Buddha, other trees, and still others birds. They have a darker complexion, like the Hind and Sind, and they have even fuller beards and more hair; they are endowed with courage and strength. One finds there singular trees, amazing animals (including rhinoceroses), gold in abundance, and several species of rare birds.
The Kandahar. The people of this country are a branch of the Sindh; but they have a lighter complexion because they are allied to the Turks. This country has forests and palm trees, and the people practice polygamy. In religion and in the performance of public adultery, this people follow the practices of the Sind and Hind. The country has wooden idols, rare animals and birds, and gold. It occupies a vast realm.
The tribes of the Berbers. It is said that there are two races of Berbers. Certain of them are descended from Qobṭ, son of Ham; others say they have for an ancestor Fāriq, son of Baiṣar. The most consistent opinion is that they descend from Qobṭ, son of Ham. When his brothers were fixed in Egypt, Berber, son of Qobṭ, went with his children toward the West, and his race lived in the country stretching from the end of Egypt, or rather from the Green Sea (the Ocean), which is beyond Egypt, to the sea east of Spain and as far as the sandy desert that joins the land of the Negroes. Among the Berbers, the Lowātah inhabit the country of Ajdābīa; the Māzata live in that of Waddān; the Howāra fixed themselves in the location of Tripoli; another tribe settled to the west of that one, that of Nafūsa. There were subsequent developments: a tribe called Bārqasāna settled in the region of al-Kaīrowān. The last to arrive were the Lakhm and Judām. These tribes inhabited Palestine; a Persian king drove them out, and they came to Egypt but they did not obtain the permission of the kings of Egypt to stay there. They crossed the Nile and scattered throughout the country. Other historians believe that the tribes came from Yemen with a king who had forbidden their stay. Certain concerning facts, which the king had learned, motivated their expulsion. There was, moreover, of the kings of Yemen who marched westward, such men as Abrahah Ḏu’l-Manār, Ifrīkīs, and others. The Yemenis remained in those countries; they mingled and allied themselves with the Berber people and gave rise to new tribes. Hence the opinion of those who attach the Berbers to the Qais and to the Arabs. But God knows his secrets; he is the only master!
The kings of Miṣr (Egypt) were originally four in number, named: Qofṭ bin Misr bin Baiṣar bin Ham; Ashmūn bin Miṣr; Atrib bin Miṣr, and Ṣā bin Miṣr. The kings of Egypt are descendants of these men: we shall speak more of them later. The whole country was divided between the four princes. The domain of Qofṭ extended to the borders of Nubia; Ashmūn’s included the Dahshur region; that of Ṣā, the maritime region and country of Alexandria, to the borders of Egypt; and that of Atrib extended to the land of Shajratān and Aīlah of the Hejaz. Each of these kings built a city he called by his own name. Lower Egypt was divided into eighty-five nomes (kūrah) (Greek: χώρα), each divided into four cantons. Each canton had a leader in his capital sitting on a golden throne, and in each of these cities, there was a berba, that is to say, a temple of wisdom and a shrine dedicated to a planet. In these temples there were placed idols of gold, each representing its star. Alexandria was a city of this nation; Raqūdah was then its name. Fifteen nomes were made subject to it. In the city sat the chief priests, and in its temples were erected more idols of gold than in any other. There was in this city a hundred golden idols. The Ṣa‘īd (Upper Egypt) was divided into eighty nomes, each divided into four cantons. The number of nomes of Middle Egypt was thirty, having as many cities where there were all kinds of wonders. The nomes are for example: Akhmim, Qofṭ, Qūs, and Fayum.
The Sons of Japhet, Son of Noah
Historians say that there are seventy-two languages, including thirty-seven spoken by the children of Japheth, twenty-three by the children of Ham, and twelve by those of Shem. They also say that Japheth had thirty-seven sons, each of whom spoke a particular language which became that of his posterity. The portion of the land occupied by Japhethites includes Armenia and the kingdoms that border it down to al-Abwāb, including those of Eshbān (Spanish), Russians, Bordjān (possibly Burgundians), the Khazars, the Turks, Slavs, Bulgarians, and nations too numerous to name.
Gog and Magog. It would be impossible to mention all the peoples who are covered by this name because of their large number. It is believed that a quarter of the earth can be covered in one hundred and twenty years, and it is said that of this time, seventy years would be used to traverse the lands occupied by Gog and Magog, twelve to cover those inhabited by the Negroes, eight that of the Rūmis (Romans, i.e. Byzantine Greeks), three the Arabs, and seven the countries inhabited by other races.
Historians list forty tribes of Gog and Magog, which differ in physical structure and size, and each of which has a kingdom with a special costume and a special language. There are within these tribes some individuals who are tall, of one or two spans; others are deformed, who, for example, sleep on one ear and cover themselves with the other, or that have a tail, horns, and tusks; others walk by leaps and bounds; eat snakes, men, insects, and birds of all kinds (including vultures and kites); and fight against each other; still others speak only in grunts. These people are energetic and brave, and most live by hunting. Once they left their country to attack other nations in their vicinity; but Alexander blocked their way by raising the famous wall. It will reopen at the end of time, according to what God has announced (Quran 18:94-99; 21:96). Often among them, people devour each other. Earthquakes are very frequent there. They say that some tribes have religious practices. Someone asked the Prophet if his preaching would reach to the people of Gog and Magog, and he replied: “I passed over them during my Night Journey, and I called to them, but they have not responded.”
The Slavs. They form several nations; some are Christian, while others follow the religion of the Magi and worship the sun. They have a gentle sea that begins in northern areas and advances to the south, and another sea that extended from the east to the west, at a point where it communicates with a third sea coming from the region of Bulgaria. They have several rivers; they live in all the northern countries. They have no salt sea. Their country is distant from the sun, the water is fresh; it becomes salty only when it approaches the sun. The countries that border the north are uninhabited because of the cold that prevails and the frequency of earthquakes. The majority of their tribes practice Magianism; they set themselves on fire and they worship fire. Their towns are numerous; there are churches where there are bells which are struck as one does a clapper-board.
There is a nation, between the Slavs and the Franks, who follow the religion of the Sabians, that is to say they worship the planets. This is a very intelligent people, skilled in all kinds of arts. They made war on the Slavs, the Bordjān, and the Turks. They have seven feasts in the year, under the name of the seven planets, and the sun is the most exalted.
The Yūnān (the Ionians, i.e. Greeks). The Greeks are the predecessors of the Rūmis, descendants of Yūnān, son of Japheth, son of Noah. This is the most knowledgeable of peoples. They were versed in astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, and medicine, as well as skilled in logic, in the fine arts, and in the sciences. From Spain to Alexandria nations submitted to them, until they were defeated by the descendants of Rūmi, son of Lanti (Latinus), descendant of Esau, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. For Esau, after leaving his brother Jacob, went to the western countries, which are those inhabited by Rūmis today, and he settled there. It was his descendants who built Rome, and it is to him that the Romans trace their origin; they are sons of al-Aṣfar. The last ruler of the Greeks was Cleopatra, daughter of Ptolemy, author of the Book of Philosophy and Talismans.
Power then passed to the Rūmis, who had already had several kings before Cleopatra. To them belong those scholars who have dealt with the spheres of science, geometry, medicine, arithmetic, music, wonderful mirrors, talismans, machines of the air and the water, and all the sciences. These include Hippocrates and the second Hippocrates, Hermes, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Galen, and many others that we do not have space to mention.
China. A branch of the family of Āmir, son of Japheth, separated and went to China. The leader of this tribe built vessels on the model of the ark of Noah, his grandfather, in which all his family embarked; they crossed the sea, reached China, multiplied, built cities, and there developed the sciences and arts, and exploited its gold mines. This leader reigned three hundred years. After him, his son Sānī reigned two hundred years. It was he who gave his name to China (Ṣin). He enclosed the body of his father in a statue of gold, and the people stood around the image, which was seated on a throne of gold. This practice became a rule for that empire, and the images of kings were placed in the temples. The religion of these people was first Sabianism. They then worshiped the Buddha in imitation of the Indians; later they adored their kings, placing their bodies in golden idols before which they prostrated themselves. Chinese scholars have treated the spheres of medicine, the trades, and various sciences of the Indians.
The country of China is vast; it is said to contain three hundred and some-odd flourishing cities, not including towns and villages, where there are many wonders to be found. To go in this country, you have to cross seven seas, each of which is characterized by a wind, a color and fish of a particular species. The first of these seas is that of Fars. The current king of China is called Bagbūr; he resides in the capital, whose name is Anṣū (possibly modern Kaifeng, from a Chinese word for “capital”), distant thirty days’ travel from Khanfu, where the merchant vessels approach.
It is customary with this people that the king’s officers, ministers of finance, and leaders of his armies be eunuchs; this is what sustains this custom: when unmarried woman wants to engage in prostitution, she makes a request to the king, who delivers to her a copper seal marked with royal signs; she suspends it around her neck, wears clothing of a certain color, and can then exercise her industry in public. When she gives birth to a male child, it is castrated and the king employs him in his house and the services that depend on him; if the child is a girl, she follows the path of her mother.
The Chinese have a white complexion, tending toward yellow, and a flat nose. We will mention some traits of their manners: When one of them complained to the king of the injustice of a royal officer, his charge is considered and if found to be true, he is given restitution, and the oppressor is reprimanded; but if he lies, he is sentenced to a harsh beating for daring to make a false accusation against a nobleman.
When a eunuch of the court wants to leave, he strikes a large bell; his men come to line up around him and make a path of egress so that we do not see him depart.
Cities are divided into two parts. The king, his family, his officers, and his retinue live in the first half. The common people, the subjects, are discharged into the second where the public places are to be found. None of them can enter the area reserved for the king.
The Chinese give a larger share of inheritance to girls than to boys.
When the sun enters the sign of Aries, they celebrate a great festival; they eat and drink for seven days. Their finery is made from rhinoceros horns, which have, when polished, all kinds of wonderful designs on them. They make belts reaching the price of four thousand miṯqāl of gold apiece. Gold is abundant with them, to the point that they make from gold the bits for their horses and the chains for their dogs. They have silken robes of gold fabric.
The Ankiradah (the Lombards). They are descendants of ‘Āmir, son of Japheth, and they occupy a vast kingdom between the Franks and the Rūmis. Their king is very powerful, and they have many cities. They are mostly Christians today, but a few have no religion. They fight the Franks and Slavs around them and repel them. Their costume is the same as that of the Rūmis.
The Franks. They also descendants of Japheth. Their kingdom is vast and important. They have several kingdoms ruled by a single king. Their capital is called Darīwah (possibly Trier). They are also Christians. They are now divided into fourteen branches and beyond them live other races. Their main enemies are the Slavs, but because of the extent of their empire, they simultaneously fight Rūmis and Lombards. Trade is well developed with them. There are among them Christians, Magi, and Manicheans (zindīq); there are also some who burn themselves.
Spain (al-Andalus). The Kingdom of Spain contains twenty four cities under the authority of a single king. The religion of the inhabitants was at first Sabianism, and they had in their temples idols of planets. Later they abandoned Sabianism to become Christians. They are an educated and wise people.
There was in the capital of Spain a house where each king who came to power sealed the door with another lock. This practice continued until the accession of King Loḏrīq (Roderic). This prince, who was not of the royal family, wanted to open the locks, which numbered twenty-four. All the princes of the country begged him not to do so, telling him they would rather give him all their fortunes. But he persisted in his design; when they saw that they could not dissuade him, they regarded him as a dead man and they left him. So he opened the padlock, entered the house, and he found within images of Arabs riding on horses and camels, wearing red turbans, and holding in their hands long spears and bows. Near them was this inscription: “When this house is opened, the country will be won by men like these.” Indeed, Spain was invaded that year or perhaps the next year. It was conquered by Tariq ibn Ziyad, freedman of Mūsa bin Nusayr, in the year 92 A.H. (710-711 CE) during the reign of al-Walid, son of ‘Abd al-Malik. The winner slew King Loḏrīq, reduced the people to slavery, and plundered the land. He found in that house Solomon’s Table, which was made of gold and adorned with circles of precious stones. He also found the wonderful mirror that can see the seven climates and which is made of mixed substances; the golden cup of Solomon; a copy of the Psalms written in beautiful Greek characters on gold leaf adorned with jewels; twenty-two books, all written in gold, including the Torah; another book written in silver containing the uses of plants and stones and how to make talismans; and another giving the secrets of the art of dyeing along with instructions for how to produce the colors of the hyacinth; large stone baskets sealed with gold, full of the philosopher’s stone of the alchemists. The whole was brought to al-Walid, son of ‘Abd al-Malik.
After conquering Spain, Muslims settled there; they spread out among its various cities, and they remained master of most of them until ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Mu‘awiya ibn Hisham ibn ‘Abd al-Malik, arrived in the Peninsula in the year 138 (755 CE) and captured it. His descendants still reign there.
The Bordjān. They are descendants of Yūnan, son of Japheth. Their kingdom is important and vast. They make war against the Rūmis, the Slavs, the Khazars, and the Turks; their most formidable enemies are the Rūmis. It is fifteen days’ travel from Constantinople to the land of the Bordjān; their kingdom is twenty or thirty days’ travel in extend.
Each stronghold among the Bordjān is surrounded by a hedge that runs around it and is surmounted by a sort of wooden net, which is a similar defense to that of a high wall behind a ditch. Their towns have no moats. The Bordjān religion is that of the Magi, and they have no books. The horses they use in combat are always left free in the fields, and nobody rides them except in wartime. If they discover a man has mounted one of these animals outside this time, they kill him. When they have to fight, they form lines. They put the archers in front and they place their wives and children behind. The Bordjān know neither dinars nor dirhams; all transactions, as well as marriage contracts, are made using oxen and sheep. When peace is made between them and the Rūmis they send to the Rūmis young slaves of both sexes, either Slavic or a similar breed. When a powerful man dies among them, they gather the household of the deceased and his followers, and, after having made commendations, they burn them with the dead. They say: “We burn them in this world, but they do not burn in the other.” Or they dig a large vault into which the dead descend; the dead man is placed within with his wife and his household, and they leave them there until they are dead. It is customary there that when a slave is at fault and his master wants to punish him, he throws himself to the ground before his master so he may hit him to the extent appropriate to the offense; and if the slave gets up before receiving permission, it is punishable by death. They also have the custom to give a greater inheritance to girls than to boys.
The Turks. They are descendants of Japheth, son of Noah, and they are divided into several races. They have cities and fortresses. There is a tribe of Turks who live on mountaintops and in deserts, in felt tents; their only occupation is hunting. Those who do not succeed cut the jugular vein of their mounts, collect the blood of the beast and roast it. The Turks eat vultures, crows, and other animals. They have no religion. There are others who follow the religion of the Magi. There are also those who have embraced Judaism. Their great king is called Khāḳān. He has a golden throne, a golden miter, a gold belt, and silk clothing. It is said that the great king of the Turks cannot show himself, and that if he showed himself, no one could endure the sight. These people know the art of magic. They are hateful, but endowed with energy and courage. On a certain day the Turks light a big fire, and the king comes, then stops in a place where he overlooks the fire. He whispers a few words. He then leaves the hearth and its violent flames. If the flames are green, it is a sign of fertility and abundance; if they are white, it is a sign of starvation. Red flames are an omen of bloodshed, while a yellow color predicts epidemics and pestilence. Black means that the king will die or that he will make a long journey. When flames of this last color occur, the king hastened to leave and return.
The Rūmis. They are the sons of Esau; Rūmi is their sobriquet. When power came into the hands of Constantine, he made a profession of Christianity; he assembled the bishops in council and he was baptized. Christians were formed after him into a hierarchy including the patriarchs, bishops, priests, deacons, mafrians (matrān), and domestic heads of the troops. When they fast, they break their fast on Sunday and they take lunch on Saturday afternoon. Every man among them marries a woman and takes no concubine. They do not drink wine to get drunk; drunkenness is a sin for them. Sunday is their sacred day, because the Messiah came out of the tomb on a Sunday night and ascended to heaven on a Sunday, after meeting with the Apostles. Christians do not approve of the practice of purifying oneself after certain pollutions nor of ablutions. All of their religion resides in the spirit. They do not consume the offerings before they have said, “This is your flesh and blood,” addressing the Messiah Jesus; they believe that then there is no more wine or bread. When they separate after receiving the offering, they kiss each other, and they do not speak until they have purified their mouths. Among them women have two units of inheritance, and men have one. They do not admit divorce.
It is customary among the Rūmis that the privilege of wearing two red boots is reserved for the king; the heir to the throne wears one red and one black. The king eats with accompanying music and singing. The usual food of the Rūmis consists of Kerdanāzāt (roasts), modaqqaqāt (chopped meat), isfidabāzāt (a stew of meat, onion, oil, butter, and cheese), and sikbāzāt (a tart dish made of meat marinated in vinegar). There have organs (the instrument). They cultivate medicine, philosophy, the arts, and crafts. Their skill in sculpture is so great that they know to show on one figure sadness and on another contentment and joy. Their king is called the merciful king; he is fair and just, and he wears the diadem.
The Persians. They are the sons of Japheth, son of Noah. But they deny that origin and claim to know neither Noah nor the Flood, nor the son of Noah. They count their kings from Gayumart, the first man, who is the same Adam, and they believe that all descend from Faridun, the Persian king. Some people think that the first king in the world after the Flood was Hūshang son of ‘Āmir, son of Japheth, son of Noah, and that after having reigned thousand years, he was taken to heaven. He had Ṭahmūraṭ for a successor, and it was the first Persian period, which lasted until the victory of Alexander over Dārā, son of Dārā (Darius), and the formation of the satrapies. Then reigned the Khosrows of the family of Ardashir, son of Babak, until the destruction of the kingdom of Persia.
Others trace to Shem the origin of the Persians, which is confirmed by certain traditional information. Their religion was first Sabianism; later, they embraced Magianism and built fire-altars. It is said that the king dressed the fire-altars in cloth and he gave sulfur and arsenic to the sacred fire. That fire burned of its own accord; they did not use wood to maintain it and fanned it only with silver tongs.
It is said that when the king wanted to celebrate rites of worship at these fire-altars, he sat on a throne, having before him a large stone mortar where they had put water; he took in his hand a wooden beam with which he struck the water continuously with great violence to punish it for being the enemy of fire. The peoples of the various kingdoms recognized the rule of the Persians, admiring the perfection of their government, their beautiful method of making war, their art in making dyes and composing dishes and remedies, their way of dressing and organizing their provinces, their care to put everything in its place, their writing, their speech, the sharpness of their intelligence, their cleanliness, their extreme rectitude, and the reverence they had for their kings. On all these points the superiority of the Persians was indisputable. The books of their history can provide examples to any who come after them and must govern empires. These things are too well known to us, so we will stop here.
Kings of Khurasan. Among them are: those of Sogd; Farganah; Ashrūsnah; al-Borhās, which is the same as the Abu of Deīlem; Jīl; the Lān, the Kurds, Shash, and Transoxiana. These peoples had many kings and various faiths. Most of them were attached to Magism and worshiped fire. It is reported that Ardāshīr saw his Satan and said, “Teach me something that is useful to me.” He replied: “Draw near to your mother and take her to wife.” He did so, and this practice was perpetuated among followers of the Magi. The Persians say that incest between brothers and sisters dates from the time of Adam. Only later the Manicheans (Zindīḳ) allowed incest with the mother, saying that the mother was more worthy of love than the sister, and the practice was established.
Beyond China are peoples who live naked. There are among them those who are covered with hair, others who have no hair, and still others who have red faces and red hair. In one of those tribes, the people hide in caves when the sun rises to avoid the heat, and they do not come out until the sun has gone back down in the west. Most of the time, these people eat a plant that resembles truffles, fish, and herbs. Adjoining them, to the north, live white people with red hair who go naked, practicing incest like the beasts. Every woman is for all the men, and no man shall prevent the others from access to any woman.
The Children of Shem, Son of Noah
It is to the race of Shem that God gave supremacy, the revealed books, and the prophets. Noah established Shem, with his race, in an eminent position among his brothers.
Shem begat Arfakhshad (Arphaxad), and lived 475 years after this time; Arfakhshad begat Shālikh (Shelah); Shālikh begat ‘Ābir (Eber), and ‘Ābir lived 450 years and begat Ḳaḥṭān. Ḳaḥṭān begat Fāleg (Peleg). Fāleg begat Yar‘ob. It is said that Ya‘rob was the first to speak Arabic. The language of the Semites had previously been Syraic. Ya‘rob begat Sabā; Sabā begat Ḥomeīr (red), so named because he had a diadem decorated with a red stone and when he sat on his throne, the brilliance of the stone spread wide. He was first called the red king (al-Mālik al-Aḥmar), which then changed into that of this term, Ḥomeīr. Kahlān is the son of Ḥomeīr, son of Sabâ. From him are descended the kings of Yemen, the Tubba‘ and the Ḏū, such as Abrahah Ḏu’l-Manār and Du’l-Ad‘ār, son of Abrahah. The Ḏū are a series of princes who traveled as conquerors through various countries. Among them is Ifrīkīs, who reached the farthest reaches of the west.
Abraham. He begat Ishmael the prophet (the nabi), by the Copt (Hagar), and Isaac, by Sarah, Aaron’s daughter. Abraham was from Harran. He lived 175 years. The king who reigned in Babylon in his time was Nimrod, one of the descendants of Cush, son of Ham. When Abraham argued against him and smashed the idols, the prince lit a large fire and threw him into it; but God rendered the flames cool and protected him from harm. A wind came that threw the fire into the faces of the assistants and the king. Abraham went to Harran, followed by his nephew Lot and his cousin Sarah. This departure took place when he was 37 years old. He married Sarah after a revelation. He left carrying three pages written in Hebrew, although his language had heretofore been Syriac. These sheets contained proverbs and words of praise to God. Ordered to travel again, he passed the Euphrates and went to Egypt. We will speak more of him in the history of Egypt.
Ishmael. He lived in the sacred territory. It is for him that gushes the Zamzam well, on God’s command. God elected him a prophet and sent him to the Amalekites, the Jurhamites, and the tribes of the Yemen. He invited them to abandon the worship of idols. Some of these people believed in him; but most remained infidels. He ruled the sacred territory, married into the tribe of Jurham, had twelve children, and died at the age of 167 years. He bequeathed to his son ‘Adnān the charge of the holy house. From the race of ‘Adnān Muhammad was born, the prophet par excellence. All of the Arabs are of the race of ‘Āribah. But others say that the Prophet was of the race of Kaīdār, son of Ishmael. There remains a great disagreement concerning the descendants of Ishmael. The prophet said, when he had assembled his genealogy up to Ma‘add, son of ‘Adnān, “‘Adnān came out of the depths of the wetlands.” Many nations have for their authors Ishmael and ‘Adnān.
The History of the Confusion of Languages
Men lived together after the Flood and dwelt in the land of Babylon; their language was Syriac. They then dispersed, giving rise along the way to the tribes of Ḳaḥṭān, ‘Ād, Ṯamūd, Amalāq, Ṭasm, and Jadīs. God taught them to speak Arabic. They were driven by their destiny into Yemen. ‘Ād came into Aḥqāf, Ṯamūd lived in the region of al-Hijr, and Jadīs the Yemāmah. Then broke away Ṭasm [son of Lāūd, son of Aram], who came to live in Yemāmah with the Jadīs, and afterward ‘Amalāq who lived in the sacred territory. Ḍakhm, son of Aram, settled aṭ-Ṭā’if, and Jurham in Mecca. These are the tribes which formed, and all the Arabs ‘Āribah are the descendants of them. Other descendants of Ishmael are called Mota-‘arribah because they received from the aforementioned their education and language.
The Prophet Hūd was sent to the ‘Ādites, who lived in al-Aḥqāf ar-Raml (the sand dunes). They had for a king al-Khuljān, son of al-Wahm, and they worshiped three idols. They treated Hūd as a liar, so he invoked against them the wrath of God and God withheld rain from them for three years. In their distress they sent deputies to Mecca, charged with praying for rain in the sacred territory. At their arrival, they emissaries went to venerate the site of the holy house, which after the Flood, had become a land of red earth. The sacred territory was inhabited by the Amalekites, whose chief was Mu‘āwīah, son of Bakr. The envoys presented themselves to him. Among them were Qaīl, son of ‘Anz; Maziad, son of Sa‘d; Laqīm, son of Hazāl; and Luqmān, son of ‘Ād. They came and went down to the place where Mu‘āwīah bin Bakr was, and remained there a month eating and drinking, and listening to the two locusts, which is what the two slaves belonging to Mu‘āwīah were called. Seeing this situation continuing unabated, Mu‘āwīah was ashamed and afraid for them because they were his maternal uncles; he composed a poem to awaken them and remind them of the purpose of their mission, and he had it sung by young girls. Here is that poem:
“Come, Qaīl, woe unto thee! Get thee up and at least pray quietly, so perhaps God will make it rain on us from his white clouds, which will water the land of ‘Ād. ‘Ād, in this morning, no longer speaks in a clear voice.—But you both are filled with goods from your days and nights in opulence. Your messengers are covered with shame unknown in other peoples. They also encounter neither blessings nor salvation.”
The envoys rose out of their torpor after hearing these verses, and they performed the rites for rain. With their prayer finished, three clouds were presented to them: one white, another black, and the last red. A voice said to Qaīl: “Choose one of the three for your people.” He replied, “The white has more water, the red brings wind, and the black heavy rain,” and he chose the black. The voice continued: “You have chosen the fine ash; there will remain in the land of ‘Ād neither parents nor children. The wind then entered the valleys of ‘Ād and persisted for seven nights and seven days. The scourge ceased only when all the ‘Ādites had perished to the last and their homes had been ruined; neither walls nor mountains could not save them; there remained of them only vestiges. After asking for rain in Mecca, the envoys returned, and a voice informed them along the way that ‘Ād was no more, and it ordered them to choose their own fate. Qaīl asked to be reunited with his people; the wind overtook him on the road and killed him. Maziad, who had believed in Hūd, asked for purity and justice, and they were granted. Laqīm chose to live a hundred years without illness, without old age, without being tormented by any need. His request was granted. Luqmān chose to live as long as seven eagles, and his choice was accepted. He took a little eagle, raised it, and fed it until it died. Then he took another eagle and did the same. He continued to the seventh. His last eagle was named Lubad. The Arabs have remembered it in their proverbs and their poems.
Al-A‘sha said about it: “Do not you see Luqmān, who dies each year and each passing month? As long as an eagle remains, his days end with it, so he asks for another. He thus passes from Amad to Lubad, living for the whole of the time of his tawny eagles. But no soon will time kill Lubad, than they will make Luqmān a tomb.”
Al-Nābiġa al-D̠ubyānī said: “She was left alone one evening and took off. The outrage is to insult Lubad.”
Noah divided the land between is children, giving Shem possession of the middle of the earth, the sacred territory, and its surroundings, Yemen up to Ḥaḍramaut and up to Oman, Bahrain until ‘Ālij and up to the border of India. The whole country was covered with towns, villages, fortresses, palaces, various buildings, orchards which were touching each other, until God became irritated with the race of Hūd, overthrew almost all the homes. God imbued the race of Shem with prophecy and blessing. To Ham, Noah gave a part of Syria, Egypt to the Upper Nile, the land of Nubia, the Bodjah, the territory of the Negroes, bounded by the Green Sea, to the land of Abyssinia, Hind, Nut and Sindh. He gave Japhet the countries of the Turks, China, Gog and Magog, Slavs, Rūmis, Franks, Lombards and Spainish, to the shores of the Dark Sea. Joktan was given the land from China, to the land of ash-Shihr, to the borders of Yemen.
Humans multiplied first on all sides, spread themselves out around Babylon, and dwelt there. They built more than seventy thousand houses, which were overcrowded with people. Iblis then ignited discord among them, language confusion came, and they dispersed.
The first who reigned among them was the first Nimrod, son of Cush, son of Ham. He had dark skin, red eyes, and a deformed body; horns grew on his forehead. He was the first black person after the Flood. He was born black because of the curse pronounced by Noah against his son Ham under the following circumstances: Noah was sleeping one day uncovered in his nakedness. Ham saw him and laughed, without thinking to cover him up. Japheth was silent, and did not blame his father; but Shem was indignant against them. Noah knew of their conduct, and he cursed Ham, asking God that his descendants become black and misshapen, and slaves of the sons of Shem. He cursed Japhet and asked that his descendants become slaves to those of Shem and the worst of men. Ham had prodigious strength, a perfect beauty, and very sweet breath. He avoided having sex with his wife for fear of the curse pronounced by his father. But when Noah died, he lost faith in the prediction and he came in unto his wife; she gave birth to Cush and his sister. Ham looked upon them in horror; he went to his brothers, told them what had happened, and said, “I asked my wife if they were not born of Satan or some other man than me.” But his brothers said to him, “This is the effect of your father’s curse.” Ham grieved, and did not have sex with his wife for some time. Then he came in unto her and took her and had by her Qūṭ and his twin sister. It was then that he decided to flee, seeking to hide, not knowing where to go.
No one was ever more arrogant, more proud, and more unjust than Nimrod the Black. He knew partly the art of the soothsayers. Iblis came to him and said: “I am a prophet and I do not know anyone equal to you in my art. I will enrich you. I will put the finishing touch to your power and I will raise you above all kings, if you offer me your son as a sacrifice and if you worship me three times. So I will bestow upon you my favors; I will make you a perfect seer, and I will put you in my place.” Nimrod did what he asked; Iblis commanded the Satans to serve him and be with him.
The Satans brought to Nimrod the sons of Shem. He fought them, helped by Iblis, and put them under the yoke and made them slaves; they had to submit and obey.
Iblis built him a palace which he covered with gold and precious stones, and which lit all its surroundings. He gave him a sword which threw off light and put on his head a big snake that killed all those it reached. Seeing this, the men obeyed him. Then he wished for them to worship him, and he ordered them to build him a tower of stone and lime, without providing for any of this work. “It will be your fortress,” he told them. Iblis helped him, and thus they built a tower whose height was about nine hundred cubits. At the top of the tower he had built a magnificent building, in which were set up thrones on marvelous columns. The width of each of the four sides was a thousand cubits. He made all the other floors into storerooms and filled them with treasures, food, beverages, all kinds of tools, and all of which he could think that one day he might have need, both for him and for his people, for many centuries. He established his throne at the top of the tower and commanded men to worship him. He took his police chief an Abyssinian; and if he learned that a man refused him divine honors, he hastened from the top of the tower.
Some people believe that he lived in the clouds and that he rode across the sky in a chariot resting on the backs of the Satans, and then he came back down from there to the earth.
Some people tried to get rid of him and overthrow him. However, many worshiped him, and his power was immense. The discontented gathered round Shem who tried to find a way to topple him and had decided to try something against him. Shem made use of the names that Noah had taught him, telling him to invoke them only in great calamities. Among them was the greatest name of God. Shem said, “My God, you yourself invite your servants to come to you; behold what evils they suffer. Your people attempt to revolt against the rule of the tyrant in whom the Satans ignite all the passions; if you do not offer help, they will perish. You know what can save them. So stop the shedding of their blood, free them from the tyrant, chastise him for all his crimes, and deliver us from him.”
God then unleashed the four winds; they raged against the four sides of the tower, and caused it to reduce to nothing more than a flattened hill. This destruction was accompanied by the descent of a thick darkness and violent tremors that shook the mountains. Men were in dismay; they could not see over one other and did not know where they were going; their languages became incomprehensible. Nimrod cursed the enemy of God, and he perished with all his worshipers.
The men ran away and walked in darkness for three days. Then there appeared to them rays of dim light. These rays diverged, and each fleeing group followed one of them, seeking salvation. Each group followed by people (angels?) who drove them on, and that group had a language different from the language of any other group, until the whole of each group had arrived in a particular region of the earth. Thus occurred the confusion and multiplication of languages. When a group came to the place where it was to settle, it was said to them, “Here is the place where you shall live. Work and prosper.”
The sons of Shem settled in the region of Yemen to Shiḥr and in Ḥaḍramaut, down to the Equator. They gave rise to the Arabs ‘Āribah.
The sons of Ham went into Sind and Hind and into the country of Aswan (Syene).
The sons of Japheth extended into the North. It is from them that the Khazars, Turks, Slavs, Franks, and Gog and Magog descend.
The son of Joktan reached to the ends of China and the Orient.
Every nation settled on the land it had occupied, and they cultivated it and perpetuated themselves down to our time.
Chapter 7: ‘Anaq and ‘Uj
‘Anāq, Daughter of Adam
Now let us return to what remains to be said regarding Adam. ‘Anāq, daughter of Adam, was born alone, without a twin brother; she was monstrous and had two heads. On each hand she had ten fingers, with two nails on every finger, like the tips of a sickle. ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib spoke of her, saying she was the first to commit evil on earth, the first who gave herself up to debauchery, who practiced ungodliness publicly and brought the demons into her service by using spells. God had revealed to Adam the names which the demons were forced to obey, and he was ordered to communicate them to Eve, so she could bear them with her and use them as a safeguard. Adam had obeyed, and Eve kept those names and was protected. But ‘Anāq the stole them by surprise, while she slept, and, equipped with these names, she conjured demons, practiced the art of magic, pronounced oracles and made public her impiety. She led astray many of the children of Adam. Adam invoked the curse of God against her, and Eve said “Amen.” Then God sent a large lion and an elephant, which fell on her in some desert, and killed and dismembered her. Adam and Eve were thus delivered form her.
‘Uj the Giant
The traditionalists say that ‘Uj (Og) the giant was the son of ‘Anāq, that the flood could not overwhelm him, and that the water covered only a part of his body. He searched for the Ark to wreck it, but God hid it from his sight. He lived until the time of Pharaoh; he snatched up a rock capable of covering the entire army Moses, who had over 600,000 men, and carrying it on his head, he tried to crush them. As he walked God sent a bird and made it peck a hole in the stone; it fell on the shoulders of the giant, surrounding his head, so that it prevented him from seeing anything and he could not move. Then God gave Moses the order to kill him.
Moses was robust and strong, and he made leaps of ten cubits; his staff was ten cubits; as to his size, he was very tall. He therefore jumped on the giant, and as soon as he reached the end of his stick, he knocked him over, and the massive rock was heavy on him and killed him. The body of the giant fell across the Nile, and men and animals passed over it, as on a bridge. According to another tradition, they dragged him away, pulled by a thousand oxen, on a sort of carriage, taking five months; after advancing half a cubit per day, they reached the sea of Qalzam (the Red Sea). It is also said that they cut him into pieces that were dragged to the sea. Finally, others believe that the giant fell in the deserts of Egypt, where he was left in place, but that he became covered with rocks and sands that formed a high mountain.
Now let us return to what remains to be said regarding Adam. ‘Anāq, daughter of Adam, was born alone, without a twin brother; she was monstrous and had two heads. On each hand she had ten fingers, with two nails on every finger, like the tips of a sickle. ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib spoke of her, saying she was the first to commit evil on earth, the first who gave herself up to debauchery, who practiced ungodliness publicly and brought the demons into her service by using spells. God had revealed to Adam the names which the demons were forced to obey, and he was ordered to communicate them to Eve, so she could bear them with her and use them as a safeguard. Adam had obeyed, and Eve kept those names and was protected. But ‘Anāq the stole them by surprise, while she slept, and, equipped with these names, she conjured demons, practiced the art of magic, pronounced oracles and made public her impiety. She led astray many of the children of Adam. Adam invoked the curse of God against her, and Eve said “Amen.” Then God sent a large lion and an elephant, which fell on her in some desert, and killed and dismembered her. Adam and Eve were thus delivered form her.
‘Uj the Giant
The traditionalists say that ‘Uj (Og) the giant was the son of ‘Anāq, that the flood could not overwhelm him, and that the water covered only a part of his body. He searched for the Ark to wreck it, but God hid it from his sight. He lived until the time of Pharaoh; he snatched up a rock capable of covering the entire army Moses, who had over 600,000 men, and carrying it on his head, he tried to crush them. As he walked God sent a bird and made it peck a hole in the stone; it fell on the shoulders of the giant, surrounding his head, so that it prevented him from seeing anything and he could not move. Then God gave Moses the order to kill him.
Moses was robust and strong, and he made leaps of ten cubits; his staff was ten cubits; as to his size, he was very tall. He therefore jumped on the giant, and as soon as he reached the end of his stick, he knocked him over, and the massive rock was heavy on him and killed him. The body of the giant fell across the Nile, and men and animals passed over it, as on a bridge. According to another tradition, they dragged him away, pulled by a thousand oxen, on a sort of carriage, taking five months; after advancing half a cubit per day, they reached the sea of Qalzam (the Red Sea). It is also said that they cut him into pieces that were dragged to the sea. Finally, others believe that the giant fell in the deserts of Egypt, where he was left in place, but that he became covered with rocks and sands that formed a high mountain.
Chapter 8: History of the Arab Soothsayers
Saṭīḥ
Saṭīḥ reached a level in the art of divination to which no one else had come. He was called the diviner (kāhin = Cohen) of diviners. He knew the secrets and the wonders. It is reported that Rabī‘ah, the son of Naṣr the Lakhmite had a vision which frightened him. He gathered the diviners and the men learned in the art of interpreting the clues or the flight of birds. When they were in his presence, he said, “I had a vision that frightened me. Explain it to me.” They answered him, “Tell us about it; we will explain to you.” He continued: “I will not be convinced of the explanation if I tell you the vision; I will have faith in the interpretation of the person who will know without me telling him.” One of them said, “The only ones able to satisfy you and that you can believe, are Saṭīḥ aḏ-Ḏibi and Shiqq al-Yashkari. These are the wisest soothsayers; send for them therefore in order to seek your answer.” Saṭīḥ arrived before Shiqq. Saṭīḥ was Rabī’ (sic), son of Rabī‘ah, of the tribe of Ḏīb, son of ‘Adi. Rabī‘ah bin Naṣr, received him with honor and said, “I had a vision that frightened me. I want you to explain it without me telling you about it.” Saṭīḥ replied, “I swear by the red twilight and the dark night and the traveler on the road at night, you saw burning coals fall from a dark cloud onto a land near to the sea and devoured its fruit.” “You speak the truth,” replied Rabī‘ah; “explain to me this vision.” He continued: “I swear by the snakes that are between the two ḥarrah, the Abyssinians tread your soil and will take possession of what is between Abian and Ḥarash.” “This is a painful calamity. Does it happen in our time? “It will not happen until later, after sixty or seventy years have passed; but then the Abyssinians will all be killed on this land or they will leave in retreat.” “Who will beat them back?” “A young man of great character, of the family of Ḏū Yazen. He will march against them from ‘Aden and he will not let even one into Yemen.” “What will then become of Yemen?” “It will be dominated by noble men with white corneas and black pupils (the Persians).” “Will this condition endure, or will it end?” “It will cease.” “Who will stop it?” “A prophet pure, sincere, and strong, who will receive the revelation of the One and Almighty.” “From whom will this prophet be born?” “From the descendants of Gālib, son of Fihr, son of Mālik, son of Naḍr. His people will reign until the end of time.” “Time too shall end?” “Yes, on the day when the sky is rent asunder there will be distributed remuneration in happiness and misfortune.” “What will this day be?” “It will be the day when the first will meet the last, where happiness will be given to the good and evil to the evil.” “What you predict for us, is it true, O Saṭīḥ?” “Yes, by dusk, the dark night, and the full moon, I proclaim the truth.”
Another anecdote about the same: Abd al-Muṭṭalib bin Hāshim held the water at at-Ṭā’īf, called Ḏū’l-Hadam. The tribe of the Ṯaqīf laid claim to it. Men of this tribe came to the water and wanted to dig wells. ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib stopped them. A great dispute arose between them, and Abd al-Muṭṭalib proposed that the Ṯaqīfites resort to the arbitration of Saṭīḥ. He left with his son al-Ḥarīṭ and a troop of men of his tribe. The Ṯaqīfites sent from their side Jundub, son of al-Ḥarīṭ, with a band of their own. The companions of ‘Abd al- Muṭṭalib arrived in a certain place that lacked water, and they asked the Ṯaqīfites to give them some. They refused. ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib and his companions stopped, not doubting that they would die. But God caused to well up in front of the weather-beaten companions of ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib a source of fresh water. They drank and took water; ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib gave thanks to God, and they went their way. The water then dried up for the Ṯaqīfites, and they asked ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib to hand some over to them; he consented; But al-Ḥarīṭ said, “I will plunge my sword into my chest before giving them a drop.” “O my son,” replied ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib, “give them some, for such gratitude is hard to bear.” And he obeyed. They resumed their march, and they cut off the head of a grasshopper, which they placed at the bottom of a purse to hang with a leather band around the neck of a dog called Sawār. This dog wore a collar made of a single piece. They arrived before Saṭīḥ and said to him, “We came to ask a question of you.” “What do you want to ask me?” “We want to question you on one thing we are pondering and ask you to serve as arbitrator in a dispute that has arisen between us.” He replied, “You have collected the head of a grasshopper and you have placed it in the bottom of a purse suspended from the collar around the neck of Sawār.” “You speak the truth,” they resumed; “tell us now the subject of our quarrel.” “I swear,” answered the soothsayer, “by the light and darkness, and the holy house, the covered wells of Ḏū’l-Hadam are filled with honor by this Arab.” They turned back, and justice was restored to ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib.
Another anecdote about the same: Kasra Abarwiz (Khosrow II Aparvēz) had seen in a dream sixteen pinnacles of his palace had fallen. He informed the Mobad (a Persian high priest), adding that this vision had instilled a very great fear in him. The Mobad replied: “O king, it is possible that the omen is good. However yesterday I myself saw in a dream that the sacred fires were extinguished, the fire-altars ruined, and their guards killed. This vision has afflicted me, and I had resolved not to bring it to the king, when the envoy came and brought me into his presence.” “And what is your opinion?” Kasra asked. “I have heard,” said Mobad, “that there lives in Arab territory a soothsayer named Saṭīḥ who is able to predict the future. If the king were to send a messenger to ask him, maybe he would give an answer.” “Have we,” asked Kasra, “someone who is capable of this mission?” At the king’s door was an Arab ambassador named ‘Abd al-Masīḥ, a close friend of Saṭīḥ. The Mobad told the king to have him come, and without informing him of the dream, said: “Go find Saṭīḥ, and ask him to share with you a dream that I had, and when he has recounted it to you, ask him for an explanation, and then hurry back here immediately.” The Ambassador replied: “O king, I will obey.” The king gave him money and provisions, and equipped him with presents for Saṭīḥ. ‘Abd al-Masīḥ mounted his beast with great eagerness, crossing deserts and plains without water. He arrived in a few days at the home of Saṭīḥ. He entered under his tent and found him ill and near death. He stopped in his presence and greeted him. Saṭīḥ said: “On a camel you made a long journey, and you have come to Saṭīḥ already close to the tomb, to question him about the collapse of the palace, the vision of Mobad, and the extinguishing of the sacred fires.” The ambassador continued: “And what is your interpretation, O Saṭīḥ?” He said, “Their days are numbered, after which their lives will be cut off; the Arabs will seize their houses when the master of the readings appears, with rod and stick” (i.e. Caliph Omar). “And when will this be, Saṭīḥ?” “When there will have reigned kings and queens in number equal to that of the fallen pinnacles.” But before that Saṭīḥ will die, and the tomb will receive him, outside of which nothing remains fixed.” They also relate this speech in another way, but it is much longer.
‘Abd al-Masīḥ returned to Kasra and repeated what he had heard from Saṭīḥ. Kasra was amazed and delighted. “Before,” he said, “sixteen kings have passed on our throne, we will have time to avert the danger, and maybe we will avoid the fulfillment of this threat.” But they saw the requisite number of princes succeed him in just a few years in the kingdom of the Persians, which was finally laid to ruin under the Caliphate of Omar.
This version is placed at other times on the night of the coming of the Prophet.
Saṭīḥ lived, they say, for four hundred years.
The First Shiqq
His name was Shiqq, son of Ḥawīl, son of Aram, son of Shem, son of Noah. This is the first prophet of the Arabs ‘Āribah. Aram was the father of the giants of ‘Ād, of Ṯamūd, of Ṭasm, of Jadīs, and of other peoples. They say Shiqq had only one eye in the middle of his forehead or that a fire him had divided his face in two. Dajjāl (Antichrist) is said to be his child; others think he is himself Dajjāl and that God keeps him chained to an island in the sea where he awaits the hour of his coming. Tamīm al-Dāri reported that on a journey, he approached the island, saw him, spoke to him, and asked him about the time of his coming. He was in shackles, tied to a rock, and Satans brought him his food; but according to other traditions, he could live without food. Tamīm al-Dāri saw that he had only one eye. He told this to the Prophet, who repeated the tale after him, saying: “I have it from Tamīm al-Dāri that....” And he then told the story of Dajjāl.
They say also that the mother of Shiqq was a female djinn, who had loved and married Hawīl. She bore Dajjāl, who is the same as Khūs, son of Hawīl. He was monstrous and could change shape. Iblis made wonders for him. When Solomon appeared, that prophet called him to his faith, but he rejected him and Solomon bound him to an island in the sea. It is said that his father was beloved of the Satans because his mother was of their race, that he lived in the city of Mārbūl a city of the Maghreb, which was in the possession of the djinn, and that they obeyed him. It is claimed that whenever this Khūs was present where a theft was committed, and he ordered the thief to return what he had taken, and in case of refusal, would change into a snake and wrap himself around the thief’s neck and kill him. It is also said that at times he spoke to the guilty without them seeing him, that if one of them did acquiesce to his sentence, he fixed his gaze of his pupil into the guilty man’s eyes and made him blind. It is reported that he had his residence under a dome at Wādi-Barhūt in Yemen and people would go there on pilgrimage. We are assured that he never slept and a white light was visible above his eyes. The same phenomenon is reported from the place where he is chained. They saw above that place a bright fire at night and smoke during the day.
Shiqq al-Yashkari
It was a sage during the pagan period of the Arabs. When Rabī‘ah bin Naṣr had his vision, he sent for Shiqq and Saṭīḥ. Saṭīḥ arrived before Shiqq and he gave Rabī‘ah the answers we have already reported. When Shiqq arrived Rabī‘ah said, “O Shiqq, I had a vision that frightened me; what is it?” And he did not reveal Saṭīḥ’s response. Shiqq replied: “You saw burning coals come out of a dark cloud, which fell into a green land and an arid land and devoured everything that had life.” Rabī‘ah continued: “You have spoken the truth. And how do you explain the vision?” “I swear,” said Shiqq, “by the men who are between the two ḥarrah, Negroes will tread your soil, they will even become masters of your young children, and will reign over all the ground between Abian and Najrān.” “Will this happen in our time?” “No, a little later. Then a man of high rank will deliver you.” “Who will this great prince be?” “A young man of the family of Ḏū Yazen; he will not let even one of the invaders into Yemen.” “Will this state of affairs last?” “No, it will cease with the coming of a Prophet who will bring justice and judgment to the people of the faith, who will rule over it until the Day of Judgment.” “What is the Day of Judgment?” “This is the day when the calls coming from heaven will sound for the living and the dead, when all creatures will be gathered together and paid their eternal rewards, when believers receive happiness and all kinds of joys, and the unbelieving misfortune and afflictions.” “Is what you prophesy true; O Shiqq?” “Yes, by the Lord of heaven and earth and all things therein up and down, all that I announce is true and sincere, without error or falsehood.” Rabī‘ah gave him a great reward and let him go.
History of al-Yamāmah with Blue Eyes
She was the mistress of Jaw and gave her name to Yamāmah; she also possessed Bahrain. Her mother was, they say, a soothsayer. Her husband was a djinn, and she belonged to the tribe of Jadīs.
The Jadīs and the Ṭasm occupied a certain country, and the Ṭasm having acquired preeminence over the Jadīs, ‘Amlūq, son of Ṭasm reigned over the country. He deflowered women before their weddings. The Jadīsites used cunning against him, and they vanquished him and killed most of the Ṭasmites. The survivors of the race of Ṭasm implored the help of Hassan, son of Tubba‘ the Ḥomeīrite. He invaded the territory of the Jadīsites to avenge the death of the Ṭasmites. Al-Yamāmah had blue eyes and one eye bigger than the other. When she closed the big one, she could see with the small one a distance of a several parasangs. It is also said that she was queen of the moon, and that she told wonderful things. The Jadīsites heard that the Ṭasmites had obtained the assistance of Hassan, son of Tubba‘ the Ḥomeīrite, had the idea to ask al-Yamāmah to observe this. She looked and said, “I swear by the points where winds blow, by the hill and by the river, by the night and by the morning, from Ḥomeīr came camels, cavalry, men, and weapons. It is time to think about your salvation.” The morning of the second day, they said to her again: “Look.” She looked. Hassan, having approached within four days’ ride of Jaw, said to his companions: “Al-Yamāmah can see you at great distances. Take heed therefore: Every one of you take as large a tree branch as you can carry, and let the leaves on the branches fall back on you and around you.” And they did so. And al-Yamāmah saw it, said, “O Jadīsites, there are trees walking towards you. Strike at the leaves and beware of them!” But they treated her as a liar and said, “Can trees walk?” On the third day, they said to her, “Look.” She looked and said, “I see a man having on his shoulder a piece of cloth or a sandal that is sewed on.” They did not believe her and said, “Her vision has declined. How could she see these things at that distance, when we have still no news?” Hassan marched by night and hid during the day; he finally caught the Jadīsites and made of them a great slaughter. He ruined their houses, raped their wives, and captured al-Yamāmah. He asked her if she had not warned of his approach. “I would have done so,” she said, “if they would listen to me.” He looked and saw in her eye dark fibers. “With what you paint your eyes?” he asked. “With antimony stone purified in rainwater.” They say that he cut off her hands and feet and that he crucified her. But the djinn to whom she belonged struck her and put out her eyes, and removed sleep from her forever.
Poets have often mentioned to al-Yamāmah. Al-A‘sha speaks of her in the poem which begins with these words: “She separates the Sa‘ad; the she removes the bond, which is cut.”
He said of her and her eyes: “No beautiful long eyelashes have obscured her gaze. As long as her view was clear, her courage was firm. She said, ‘I see a man who has on his shoulder a piece of cloth or has sewn on it a sandal made in Sana’a.’ But her own people did not believe her; and Hassan’s squadrons came easily and brought to that place defeat and death. And they went down into the homes of the Jaw; they ruined tall buildings, and they gathered treasures.”
It is of her that Nābiġa also spoke in these verses: “So judge with as much safety as the girl of the tribe who watched a troop of quick pigeons rushing towards the water between the backs of the hills; she watched them with a crystal eye, which no tears had washed, and she said, ‘May it please heaven to add these pigeons to our dove, and only half of that number in addition. They counted them and they found, as she had calculated, ninety-nine, neither more nor less. Her dove itself completed the hundred; and it did not take long to calculate that number.”
This tradition of the pigeons is very well-known; here are his exact words: “May he have these pigeons with two doves, and half of that number in addition.”
Saṭīḥ reached a level in the art of divination to which no one else had come. He was called the diviner (kāhin = Cohen) of diviners. He knew the secrets and the wonders. It is reported that Rabī‘ah, the son of Naṣr the Lakhmite had a vision which frightened him. He gathered the diviners and the men learned in the art of interpreting the clues or the flight of birds. When they were in his presence, he said, “I had a vision that frightened me. Explain it to me.” They answered him, “Tell us about it; we will explain to you.” He continued: “I will not be convinced of the explanation if I tell you the vision; I will have faith in the interpretation of the person who will know without me telling him.” One of them said, “The only ones able to satisfy you and that you can believe, are Saṭīḥ aḏ-Ḏibi and Shiqq al-Yashkari. These are the wisest soothsayers; send for them therefore in order to seek your answer.” Saṭīḥ arrived before Shiqq. Saṭīḥ was Rabī’ (sic), son of Rabī‘ah, of the tribe of Ḏīb, son of ‘Adi. Rabī‘ah bin Naṣr, received him with honor and said, “I had a vision that frightened me. I want you to explain it without me telling you about it.” Saṭīḥ replied, “I swear by the red twilight and the dark night and the traveler on the road at night, you saw burning coals fall from a dark cloud onto a land near to the sea and devoured its fruit.” “You speak the truth,” replied Rabī‘ah; “explain to me this vision.” He continued: “I swear by the snakes that are between the two ḥarrah, the Abyssinians tread your soil and will take possession of what is between Abian and Ḥarash.” “This is a painful calamity. Does it happen in our time? “It will not happen until later, after sixty or seventy years have passed; but then the Abyssinians will all be killed on this land or they will leave in retreat.” “Who will beat them back?” “A young man of great character, of the family of Ḏū Yazen. He will march against them from ‘Aden and he will not let even one into Yemen.” “What will then become of Yemen?” “It will be dominated by noble men with white corneas and black pupils (the Persians).” “Will this condition endure, or will it end?” “It will cease.” “Who will stop it?” “A prophet pure, sincere, and strong, who will receive the revelation of the One and Almighty.” “From whom will this prophet be born?” “From the descendants of Gālib, son of Fihr, son of Mālik, son of Naḍr. His people will reign until the end of time.” “Time too shall end?” “Yes, on the day when the sky is rent asunder there will be distributed remuneration in happiness and misfortune.” “What will this day be?” “It will be the day when the first will meet the last, where happiness will be given to the good and evil to the evil.” “What you predict for us, is it true, O Saṭīḥ?” “Yes, by dusk, the dark night, and the full moon, I proclaim the truth.”
Another anecdote about the same: Abd al-Muṭṭalib bin Hāshim held the water at at-Ṭā’īf, called Ḏū’l-Hadam. The tribe of the Ṯaqīf laid claim to it. Men of this tribe came to the water and wanted to dig wells. ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib stopped them. A great dispute arose between them, and Abd al-Muṭṭalib proposed that the Ṯaqīfites resort to the arbitration of Saṭīḥ. He left with his son al-Ḥarīṭ and a troop of men of his tribe. The Ṯaqīfites sent from their side Jundub, son of al-Ḥarīṭ, with a band of their own. The companions of ‘Abd al- Muṭṭalib arrived in a certain place that lacked water, and they asked the Ṯaqīfites to give them some. They refused. ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib and his companions stopped, not doubting that they would die. But God caused to well up in front of the weather-beaten companions of ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib a source of fresh water. They drank and took water; ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib gave thanks to God, and they went their way. The water then dried up for the Ṯaqīfites, and they asked ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib to hand some over to them; he consented; But al-Ḥarīṭ said, “I will plunge my sword into my chest before giving them a drop.” “O my son,” replied ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib, “give them some, for such gratitude is hard to bear.” And he obeyed. They resumed their march, and they cut off the head of a grasshopper, which they placed at the bottom of a purse to hang with a leather band around the neck of a dog called Sawār. This dog wore a collar made of a single piece. They arrived before Saṭīḥ and said to him, “We came to ask a question of you.” “What do you want to ask me?” “We want to question you on one thing we are pondering and ask you to serve as arbitrator in a dispute that has arisen between us.” He replied, “You have collected the head of a grasshopper and you have placed it in the bottom of a purse suspended from the collar around the neck of Sawār.” “You speak the truth,” they resumed; “tell us now the subject of our quarrel.” “I swear,” answered the soothsayer, “by the light and darkness, and the holy house, the covered wells of Ḏū’l-Hadam are filled with honor by this Arab.” They turned back, and justice was restored to ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib.
Another anecdote about the same: Kasra Abarwiz (Khosrow II Aparvēz) had seen in a dream sixteen pinnacles of his palace had fallen. He informed the Mobad (a Persian high priest), adding that this vision had instilled a very great fear in him. The Mobad replied: “O king, it is possible that the omen is good. However yesterday I myself saw in a dream that the sacred fires were extinguished, the fire-altars ruined, and their guards killed. This vision has afflicted me, and I had resolved not to bring it to the king, when the envoy came and brought me into his presence.” “And what is your opinion?” Kasra asked. “I have heard,” said Mobad, “that there lives in Arab territory a soothsayer named Saṭīḥ who is able to predict the future. If the king were to send a messenger to ask him, maybe he would give an answer.” “Have we,” asked Kasra, “someone who is capable of this mission?” At the king’s door was an Arab ambassador named ‘Abd al-Masīḥ, a close friend of Saṭīḥ. The Mobad told the king to have him come, and without informing him of the dream, said: “Go find Saṭīḥ, and ask him to share with you a dream that I had, and when he has recounted it to you, ask him for an explanation, and then hurry back here immediately.” The Ambassador replied: “O king, I will obey.” The king gave him money and provisions, and equipped him with presents for Saṭīḥ. ‘Abd al-Masīḥ mounted his beast with great eagerness, crossing deserts and plains without water. He arrived in a few days at the home of Saṭīḥ. He entered under his tent and found him ill and near death. He stopped in his presence and greeted him. Saṭīḥ said: “On a camel you made a long journey, and you have come to Saṭīḥ already close to the tomb, to question him about the collapse of the palace, the vision of Mobad, and the extinguishing of the sacred fires.” The ambassador continued: “And what is your interpretation, O Saṭīḥ?” He said, “Their days are numbered, after which their lives will be cut off; the Arabs will seize their houses when the master of the readings appears, with rod and stick” (i.e. Caliph Omar). “And when will this be, Saṭīḥ?” “When there will have reigned kings and queens in number equal to that of the fallen pinnacles.” But before that Saṭīḥ will die, and the tomb will receive him, outside of which nothing remains fixed.” They also relate this speech in another way, but it is much longer.
‘Abd al-Masīḥ returned to Kasra and repeated what he had heard from Saṭīḥ. Kasra was amazed and delighted. “Before,” he said, “sixteen kings have passed on our throne, we will have time to avert the danger, and maybe we will avoid the fulfillment of this threat.” But they saw the requisite number of princes succeed him in just a few years in the kingdom of the Persians, which was finally laid to ruin under the Caliphate of Omar.
This version is placed at other times on the night of the coming of the Prophet.
Saṭīḥ lived, they say, for four hundred years.
The First Shiqq
His name was Shiqq, son of Ḥawīl, son of Aram, son of Shem, son of Noah. This is the first prophet of the Arabs ‘Āribah. Aram was the father of the giants of ‘Ād, of Ṯamūd, of Ṭasm, of Jadīs, and of other peoples. They say Shiqq had only one eye in the middle of his forehead or that a fire him had divided his face in two. Dajjāl (Antichrist) is said to be his child; others think he is himself Dajjāl and that God keeps him chained to an island in the sea where he awaits the hour of his coming. Tamīm al-Dāri reported that on a journey, he approached the island, saw him, spoke to him, and asked him about the time of his coming. He was in shackles, tied to a rock, and Satans brought him his food; but according to other traditions, he could live without food. Tamīm al-Dāri saw that he had only one eye. He told this to the Prophet, who repeated the tale after him, saying: “I have it from Tamīm al-Dāri that....” And he then told the story of Dajjāl.
They say also that the mother of Shiqq was a female djinn, who had loved and married Hawīl. She bore Dajjāl, who is the same as Khūs, son of Hawīl. He was monstrous and could change shape. Iblis made wonders for him. When Solomon appeared, that prophet called him to his faith, but he rejected him and Solomon bound him to an island in the sea. It is said that his father was beloved of the Satans because his mother was of their race, that he lived in the city of Mārbūl a city of the Maghreb, which was in the possession of the djinn, and that they obeyed him. It is claimed that whenever this Khūs was present where a theft was committed, and he ordered the thief to return what he had taken, and in case of refusal, would change into a snake and wrap himself around the thief’s neck and kill him. It is also said that at times he spoke to the guilty without them seeing him, that if one of them did acquiesce to his sentence, he fixed his gaze of his pupil into the guilty man’s eyes and made him blind. It is reported that he had his residence under a dome at Wādi-Barhūt in Yemen and people would go there on pilgrimage. We are assured that he never slept and a white light was visible above his eyes. The same phenomenon is reported from the place where he is chained. They saw above that place a bright fire at night and smoke during the day.
Shiqq al-Yashkari
It was a sage during the pagan period of the Arabs. When Rabī‘ah bin Naṣr had his vision, he sent for Shiqq and Saṭīḥ. Saṭīḥ arrived before Shiqq and he gave Rabī‘ah the answers we have already reported. When Shiqq arrived Rabī‘ah said, “O Shiqq, I had a vision that frightened me; what is it?” And he did not reveal Saṭīḥ’s response. Shiqq replied: “You saw burning coals come out of a dark cloud, which fell into a green land and an arid land and devoured everything that had life.” Rabī‘ah continued: “You have spoken the truth. And how do you explain the vision?” “I swear,” said Shiqq, “by the men who are between the two ḥarrah, Negroes will tread your soil, they will even become masters of your young children, and will reign over all the ground between Abian and Najrān.” “Will this happen in our time?” “No, a little later. Then a man of high rank will deliver you.” “Who will this great prince be?” “A young man of the family of Ḏū Yazen; he will not let even one of the invaders into Yemen.” “Will this state of affairs last?” “No, it will cease with the coming of a Prophet who will bring justice and judgment to the people of the faith, who will rule over it until the Day of Judgment.” “What is the Day of Judgment?” “This is the day when the calls coming from heaven will sound for the living and the dead, when all creatures will be gathered together and paid their eternal rewards, when believers receive happiness and all kinds of joys, and the unbelieving misfortune and afflictions.” “Is what you prophesy true; O Shiqq?” “Yes, by the Lord of heaven and earth and all things therein up and down, all that I announce is true and sincere, without error or falsehood.” Rabī‘ah gave him a great reward and let him go.
History of al-Yamāmah with Blue Eyes
She was the mistress of Jaw and gave her name to Yamāmah; she also possessed Bahrain. Her mother was, they say, a soothsayer. Her husband was a djinn, and she belonged to the tribe of Jadīs.
The Jadīs and the Ṭasm occupied a certain country, and the Ṭasm having acquired preeminence over the Jadīs, ‘Amlūq, son of Ṭasm reigned over the country. He deflowered women before their weddings. The Jadīsites used cunning against him, and they vanquished him and killed most of the Ṭasmites. The survivors of the race of Ṭasm implored the help of Hassan, son of Tubba‘ the Ḥomeīrite. He invaded the territory of the Jadīsites to avenge the death of the Ṭasmites. Al-Yamāmah had blue eyes and one eye bigger than the other. When she closed the big one, she could see with the small one a distance of a several parasangs. It is also said that she was queen of the moon, and that she told wonderful things. The Jadīsites heard that the Ṭasmites had obtained the assistance of Hassan, son of Tubba‘ the Ḥomeīrite, had the idea to ask al-Yamāmah to observe this. She looked and said, “I swear by the points where winds blow, by the hill and by the river, by the night and by the morning, from Ḥomeīr came camels, cavalry, men, and weapons. It is time to think about your salvation.” The morning of the second day, they said to her again: “Look.” She looked. Hassan, having approached within four days’ ride of Jaw, said to his companions: “Al-Yamāmah can see you at great distances. Take heed therefore: Every one of you take as large a tree branch as you can carry, and let the leaves on the branches fall back on you and around you.” And they did so. And al-Yamāmah saw it, said, “O Jadīsites, there are trees walking towards you. Strike at the leaves and beware of them!” But they treated her as a liar and said, “Can trees walk?” On the third day, they said to her, “Look.” She looked and said, “I see a man having on his shoulder a piece of cloth or a sandal that is sewed on.” They did not believe her and said, “Her vision has declined. How could she see these things at that distance, when we have still no news?” Hassan marched by night and hid during the day; he finally caught the Jadīsites and made of them a great slaughter. He ruined their houses, raped their wives, and captured al-Yamāmah. He asked her if she had not warned of his approach. “I would have done so,” she said, “if they would listen to me.” He looked and saw in her eye dark fibers. “With what you paint your eyes?” he asked. “With antimony stone purified in rainwater.” They say that he cut off her hands and feet and that he crucified her. But the djinn to whom she belonged struck her and put out her eyes, and removed sleep from her forever.
Poets have often mentioned to al-Yamāmah. Al-A‘sha speaks of her in the poem which begins with these words: “She separates the Sa‘ad; the she removes the bond, which is cut.”
He said of her and her eyes: “No beautiful long eyelashes have obscured her gaze. As long as her view was clear, her courage was firm. She said, ‘I see a man who has on his shoulder a piece of cloth or has sewn on it a sandal made in Sana’a.’ But her own people did not believe her; and Hassan’s squadrons came easily and brought to that place defeat and death. And they went down into the homes of the Jaw; they ruined tall buildings, and they gathered treasures.”
It is of her that Nābiġa also spoke in these verses: “So judge with as much safety as the girl of the tribe who watched a troop of quick pigeons rushing towards the water between the backs of the hills; she watched them with a crystal eye, which no tears had washed, and she said, ‘May it please heaven to add these pigeons to our dove, and only half of that number in addition. They counted them and they found, as she had calculated, ninety-nine, neither more nor less. Her dove itself completed the hundred; and it did not take long to calculate that number.”
This tradition of the pigeons is very well-known; here are his exact words: “May he have these pigeons with two doves, and half of that number in addition.”
PART TWO: THE WONDERS OF EGYPT
Chapter 1: The Priests of Egypt
After speaking of the soothsayers [of the Arabs], we must now speak of the priests of Egypt, who are the most powerful and wisest soothsayers. The Greek sages recognized their preeminence, and they said that the sages of Egypt have taught us this, or we have taken that from them. These priests based their art on the stars. They believed the stars had spread science over them and that they had revealed to them the hidden things, taught them the secrets of nature, and caused them to discover their occult sciences. It is they who made famous talismans and dictated the excellent laws, who built the speaking sculpted figures and moving statues, who built the high buildings and engraved on stone the secrets of medicine. Only they could build the berba (great temples); they knew of talismans that could remove the enemies of their country. The wonders which they accomplished are manifest, and their wisdom is dazzling.
Egypt was divided into eighty-five nomes (kurah), including forty-five in Lower Egypt and forty in the Sa‘id. Each nome had a high priest; it is of them that the Almighty mentioned in Pharaoh’s history, when the counselors of the prince said to him, “Send into the great cities men who will collect and bring you all the skilled magicians” (Quran 26:36-37). This designates the chief priests. One of them who had served for seven years one of the seven stars that rule the world was called Mahir (clever); and the one that served all the stars, each for seven years, was called Nāzir (observer); the priest who reached this dignity sat beside the king, who followed his advice, and when the king saw him, he stood up as a sign of reverence. It was the custom that the Nāzir might be present every morning with the king and sit at his side; then came the priests, accompanied by the craftsmen, and they stood before the Nāzir. Each priest was assigned to a star he served and worshiped to the exclusion of all others; and he was called the servant of this star, as Arabs once were called servants of the Sun, ‘Abd es-Shams. The Nāzir then asked one Mahir: “Where is the star you serve?” The Mahir replied, “In this sign, to such extent and at such minute.” The Nāzir questioned in turn every other Mahir; and when he was asked about the position of the seven stars, he said to the king: “The king must now act thus, eating this or that food, having intercourse with women at such times,” and he explained in this way everything which seemed good. A scribe stood before the king and wrote down all the words of the Nāzir. He then turned to the artisans, and they went to the house of wisdom in order to apply to it the work he was to accomplish that day. The king performed all that the Nāzir had told him to do, and he recorded everything that had happened that day as a result of his conduct; the leaves were afterward rolled and stored among the treasures of the kings. Thus we know their stories.
When a case concerned the king, he ordered the priests to gather outside Misr; the people were encircling them, and then they advanced, assembling one before the other, clapping their hands like a drum, and each operating a prodigy. One had a bright face like sunlight, and nobody could look at him; another had a finger of green and red stone and was wearing a woven gold robe; he was mounted on a lion and was girded with big snakes; he had above his head a dome of fire or precious stones; and the prodigies were diverse, since each priest had been taught by the star that served him. When they arrived before the king, the priests said, “The king has called us to such a cause, and is concerned in thinking about it. The correct solution is the following.”
‘Anqām the Priest
There was in old Misr, whose name was then Amsus, a priest-king named ‘Anqām , son of Arab, son of Adam. The Egyptians have for him many traditions that astound the mind. This king lived before the flood and his science had caused him to predict its coming. He ordered the Satans who obeyed him to build him a palace across the equator where no damage could reach it. They built the palace which is at the foot of the Mountain of the Moon. This is a copper palace where stand copper statues in the number of eighty-five; Nile water comes out of their throats and flows into the lakes of Egypt. When this palace was completed, the king wanted to see it before taking up residence therein. He sat in a dome and the Satans carried him on their necks to the palace. As soon as he saw it, he admired the solidity of its construction, the ornaments of the walls, its paintings, figures of the spheres, and other wonders with which it was completed; the lamps were lit; the tables were set, loaded with all kinds of dishes, with no one to see who brought them; there was also no resident in the palace. In the middle was a pool of water that was solidified at the surface and one could see movement through the solid waves. At last the whole building was full of similar wonders confounding to reason. The king returned to Misr having admired it, and he chose for his successor his son ‘Arbāq; he gave him power, made him sit in his place on his throne. Then he returned to the palace, where he lived until his death. It is to him that we attribute the origin of the Copts’ books, which contain the stories of their kings.
Kuniah the Priestess
According to the books of the Copts, she sat on a throne of fire; when a man came to ask her for justice and his caused was just, he reached her by walking on fire without suffering any damage. She appeared before men in many forms, according to her pleasure. She built a palace where she hid from the crowd; its walls were pierced with copper pipes, and she wrote above each opening the title of one of the causes for which it was consulted. When they spoke to her, they approached the opening marked for the cause which was to be treated; and with a low voice they raised the question that they wanted resolved. When they had finished speaking, they place an ear against the opening, and they could hear the answer to what they had requested. This practice continued until the time of the invasion of Bokht Nassar (Nebuchadnezzar).
‘Arbāq
‘Arbāq, son of ‘Anqām, was priest and king after his father. The wonders he performed were legion. Among others, he made a brass tree, with branches fitted with sharp iron harpoons. When a guilty man came before the king, these branches advanced towards him, enveloped him, and pressed his hands; and they let loose when he had disclosed the truth, confessed his crime, and promised to make amends. This king made also a black flint idol, which he called ‘Abd Kronos, that is to say, the servant of Saturn. One came to plead one’s case against it, and one who had committed a crime remained fixed there, unable to get up until he had condemned himself; they saw people stay there a year or more. Those who suffered from some need, and who wanted to get something from that idol, would rise in the night, watch the star (Saturn), invoke the name of ‘Arbāq, and pray humbly. In the morning, they found what they had asked for at the door of their homes. This king was sometimes carried by large birds; his seat was placed on their wings. The people saw him in the air, and at this sight they were imbued with submission and respect. Sometimes he would alight above some individuals and defile their water, or else he would give them power against lions, wild beasts, and reptiles. Philemon, whom we have recounted in our relation about Noah, was a priest under this king.
Shimun the Soothsayer
Among these soothsayers was also found Shimun. It was he who lit a fire, uttered a few words over it, and discerned figures in the flames. The art of divination was used among the Egyptians to perform wonders. Shimun was a priest until the time of Far’ân, the king of Egypt under whom the Deluge occurred. He lived in the Maritime Pyramid. It was a temple of the stars, wherein were talking figures of the sun and moon; it was adorned with all the necessary things. One could also see there a statue which laughed and which was made of a green substance. These treasures were kept in this temple for fear of the Flood.
Al-Būdashīr
The priests who lived between the flood and the invasion of Egypt were numerous. The first who exercised the priesthood in Egypt after the flood was the son of Philemon. He rode in the ark with his father, his brother, and his sister, who married Baïsar, son of Ham. It is this family who came to Egypt; she was monotheistic and had embraced the religion of Noah. The name of this soothsayer was not tainted by wickedness; this soothsayer was the kind of sage whom we could not fault. The first who truly practiced divination, who changed his religion and worshiped the stars, was al-Būdashīr, son of Qofṭarim, son of Baïsar, son of Ham. He reigned after his father. All priests have made mention of it in their sheets. He was one of the most famous magicians, one of those who established the most important laws, who erected the idols of the stars and built their temples. The Copts believe that the stars spoke to him and he performed many wonders, including this one: After he had reigned two years, he slipped away from the sight of men, and then he appeared to them here and there, once a year, during the passage of the sun in the sign of Aries. His subjects would then find him; he spoke to them and showed himself to them; he gave them orders, demarcated what to avoid, and warned them against rebellion. He also sat in front of them at certain times of the year, speaking to those who came to find him, dictating precepts or prohibitions, but always remaining invisible. Yet the place where he spoke was visible and not far from them. Then they built him a dome decorated with gold and silver and adorned richly, and he was carried in it. He sat in the top of the dome, in the guise of a gigantic face; and he spoke to the people there as before. He also sat in the clouds, in the form of a colossal man; he remained visible for some time, and then he disappeared and was no more. The people remained without king for a long time, after which they still saw his image in the temple of the Sun, at the entry of the sun into the sign of Aries. He then ordered his subjects to take for their king ’Ādim son of Qoftarim, and he said they would see him no more. They did as he commanded them.
Bedrah the Priestess
She was a woman of the royal family, a sister, they said, of al-Būdashīr, which is how she came to the priesthood. She made many talismans and berba, and talking idols in Memphis. The priesthood remained in her family and among her progeny where it passed from the eldest to the eldest. The Egyptians say she made talismans to prevent wild beasts and birds from drinking water from the Nile, so that thirst slew many. They also say that God sent an angel who cried out such a cry that the earth shook. She died from that cry.
Shāon of Ashmun
They say he was the first Hermes, the one who built the palace of statues, which measured the volume of water of the Nile and is located in the Mountains of the Moon. He also built a temple to the Sun. On this subject, the Copts relate many extraordinary traditions, which boggle the mind. He became invisible to men, being in the midst of them. He built al-Ashmun. This city is said to have located to the east of Egypt and had a length of twelve miles; it was topped by a fortress, in which the priest built a vast palace; there he raised columns and circles. At the foot of the mountain, he founded another town called Outiratis where he placed many wonders. It had four gates, one on each side. He placed on the east gate the image of an eagle; on the west gate, the image of a vulture; on the north, he put the image of a lion, and on the south, the image of a dog. He made the spirits the guardians of this city; they warned the governors whenever a stranger approached, so that no one could enter without having received permission. He planted a tree that bore all kinds of fruit, and he built a lighthouse whose height was eighty cubits; at the top he put a dome that changed color every day; it assumed seven colors over the seven days of the week, and then it returned to its first color. The inhabitants took on the color that the dome assumed. Around the lighthouse, the king dug a pond where many fish lived, and he fixed around the city all kinds of talismans, to prevent dangers. They also called this city the city of barsak, after the name of the tree that was planted there. [Manuscript variant: It was called the city of ’Elyūs, that is to say the dawn; and the dome of the dawn rose on an assembly in front of this city.]
Sūrīd
The first to build pyramids was Sūrīd, son of Sahlūq, who ruled Egypt three hundred years before the Flood. This king had a dream in which he felt as if the earth was overturned with all its inhabitants, the men fled in all directions, and the stars fell and clashed against each other with a terrible noise. He was moved by this dream and conceived a great fear; he nevertheless imparted his foreknowledge to no person, but he knew that some terrible event would happen in the world. Then he dreamed that the fixed stars descended on the earth in the form of white birds; these birds caught men in flight, and threw them between two high mountains which then closed over them; then the stars darkened and were eclipsed. This dream renewed his terrors. He entered the Temple of the Sun and began to pray and worship God in the dust, and wept. When morning came, he ordered the chief priests to come together from all parts of Egypt. One hundred and thirty of them met, and he secretly consulted with them on the visions he had seen. The priests praised him and glorified him, and they explained to him that a great event would occur in the world. Philemon, the high priest, spoke. He was their leader, and he lived constantly in the presence of the king; he was the priest of Ashmun [sic for Amsūs], a city of ancient Egypt. He said: “No doubt the vision of a king is a wonder because the dreams of royal personages can be neither in vain nor misleading because of the greatness of their power and elevation of their rank. Allow me to share the king a dream that I had one year, which to date I have reported to no one.” The king said, “Explain it to me, O Philemon.” “I dreamed,” he said, “that I sat with the king at the top of the lighthouse in Ashmun; the sky lowered down close enough to touch our heads, and it formed over us a dome that enveloped us. The king raised his hands toward heaven, and the stars came down to us in a multitude of different forms. Men implored the help of the king and gathered around his palace. The king raised his hands up to his face, and he ordered me to do the same; and both of us were in great distress. Then we saw a kind of opening in the sky from which came a light, and we saw that light rise above us—it was the sun. We saw him and implored him, and he spoke to us, telling us that the heavens would return to their starting point after three hundred and sixty orbits had been made. The sky descended almost to touch the ground and then returned to its proper place. Then I awoke, filled with terror.” The king commanded the priests to measure the altitude of the stars, and analyze what they portended. They made the calculations with great care, and they spoke first of a flood and then of a fire, which would burn the entire world. Then the king ordered the construction of the pyramids, and when they were completed according to his wise plan, he transported to them the wonders and treasures of his people and the bodies of ancient kings. He ordered the priests to deposit therein the secrets of their science and precepts of their wisdom. But the most famous of the descendants of Ham, the Copts and Indians, are the wise.
Egypt was divided into eighty-five nomes (kurah), including forty-five in Lower Egypt and forty in the Sa‘id. Each nome had a high priest; it is of them that the Almighty mentioned in Pharaoh’s history, when the counselors of the prince said to him, “Send into the great cities men who will collect and bring you all the skilled magicians” (Quran 26:36-37). This designates the chief priests. One of them who had served for seven years one of the seven stars that rule the world was called Mahir (clever); and the one that served all the stars, each for seven years, was called Nāzir (observer); the priest who reached this dignity sat beside the king, who followed his advice, and when the king saw him, he stood up as a sign of reverence. It was the custom that the Nāzir might be present every morning with the king and sit at his side; then came the priests, accompanied by the craftsmen, and they stood before the Nāzir. Each priest was assigned to a star he served and worshiped to the exclusion of all others; and he was called the servant of this star, as Arabs once were called servants of the Sun, ‘Abd es-Shams. The Nāzir then asked one Mahir: “Where is the star you serve?” The Mahir replied, “In this sign, to such extent and at such minute.” The Nāzir questioned in turn every other Mahir; and when he was asked about the position of the seven stars, he said to the king: “The king must now act thus, eating this or that food, having intercourse with women at such times,” and he explained in this way everything which seemed good. A scribe stood before the king and wrote down all the words of the Nāzir. He then turned to the artisans, and they went to the house of wisdom in order to apply to it the work he was to accomplish that day. The king performed all that the Nāzir had told him to do, and he recorded everything that had happened that day as a result of his conduct; the leaves were afterward rolled and stored among the treasures of the kings. Thus we know their stories.
When a case concerned the king, he ordered the priests to gather outside Misr; the people were encircling them, and then they advanced, assembling one before the other, clapping their hands like a drum, and each operating a prodigy. One had a bright face like sunlight, and nobody could look at him; another had a finger of green and red stone and was wearing a woven gold robe; he was mounted on a lion and was girded with big snakes; he had above his head a dome of fire or precious stones; and the prodigies were diverse, since each priest had been taught by the star that served him. When they arrived before the king, the priests said, “The king has called us to such a cause, and is concerned in thinking about it. The correct solution is the following.”
‘Anqām the Priest
There was in old Misr, whose name was then Amsus, a priest-king named ‘Anqām , son of Arab, son of Adam. The Egyptians have for him many traditions that astound the mind. This king lived before the flood and his science had caused him to predict its coming. He ordered the Satans who obeyed him to build him a palace across the equator where no damage could reach it. They built the palace which is at the foot of the Mountain of the Moon. This is a copper palace where stand copper statues in the number of eighty-five; Nile water comes out of their throats and flows into the lakes of Egypt. When this palace was completed, the king wanted to see it before taking up residence therein. He sat in a dome and the Satans carried him on their necks to the palace. As soon as he saw it, he admired the solidity of its construction, the ornaments of the walls, its paintings, figures of the spheres, and other wonders with which it was completed; the lamps were lit; the tables were set, loaded with all kinds of dishes, with no one to see who brought them; there was also no resident in the palace. In the middle was a pool of water that was solidified at the surface and one could see movement through the solid waves. At last the whole building was full of similar wonders confounding to reason. The king returned to Misr having admired it, and he chose for his successor his son ‘Arbāq; he gave him power, made him sit in his place on his throne. Then he returned to the palace, where he lived until his death. It is to him that we attribute the origin of the Copts’ books, which contain the stories of their kings.
Kuniah the Priestess
According to the books of the Copts, she sat on a throne of fire; when a man came to ask her for justice and his caused was just, he reached her by walking on fire without suffering any damage. She appeared before men in many forms, according to her pleasure. She built a palace where she hid from the crowd; its walls were pierced with copper pipes, and she wrote above each opening the title of one of the causes for which it was consulted. When they spoke to her, they approached the opening marked for the cause which was to be treated; and with a low voice they raised the question that they wanted resolved. When they had finished speaking, they place an ear against the opening, and they could hear the answer to what they had requested. This practice continued until the time of the invasion of Bokht Nassar (Nebuchadnezzar).
‘Arbāq
‘Arbāq, son of ‘Anqām, was priest and king after his father. The wonders he performed were legion. Among others, he made a brass tree, with branches fitted with sharp iron harpoons. When a guilty man came before the king, these branches advanced towards him, enveloped him, and pressed his hands; and they let loose when he had disclosed the truth, confessed his crime, and promised to make amends. This king made also a black flint idol, which he called ‘Abd Kronos, that is to say, the servant of Saturn. One came to plead one’s case against it, and one who had committed a crime remained fixed there, unable to get up until he had condemned himself; they saw people stay there a year or more. Those who suffered from some need, and who wanted to get something from that idol, would rise in the night, watch the star (Saturn), invoke the name of ‘Arbāq, and pray humbly. In the morning, they found what they had asked for at the door of their homes. This king was sometimes carried by large birds; his seat was placed on their wings. The people saw him in the air, and at this sight they were imbued with submission and respect. Sometimes he would alight above some individuals and defile their water, or else he would give them power against lions, wild beasts, and reptiles. Philemon, whom we have recounted in our relation about Noah, was a priest under this king.
Shimun the Soothsayer
Among these soothsayers was also found Shimun. It was he who lit a fire, uttered a few words over it, and discerned figures in the flames. The art of divination was used among the Egyptians to perform wonders. Shimun was a priest until the time of Far’ân, the king of Egypt under whom the Deluge occurred. He lived in the Maritime Pyramid. It was a temple of the stars, wherein were talking figures of the sun and moon; it was adorned with all the necessary things. One could also see there a statue which laughed and which was made of a green substance. These treasures were kept in this temple for fear of the Flood.
Al-Būdashīr
The priests who lived between the flood and the invasion of Egypt were numerous. The first who exercised the priesthood in Egypt after the flood was the son of Philemon. He rode in the ark with his father, his brother, and his sister, who married Baïsar, son of Ham. It is this family who came to Egypt; she was monotheistic and had embraced the religion of Noah. The name of this soothsayer was not tainted by wickedness; this soothsayer was the kind of sage whom we could not fault. The first who truly practiced divination, who changed his religion and worshiped the stars, was al-Būdashīr, son of Qofṭarim, son of Baïsar, son of Ham. He reigned after his father. All priests have made mention of it in their sheets. He was one of the most famous magicians, one of those who established the most important laws, who erected the idols of the stars and built their temples. The Copts believe that the stars spoke to him and he performed many wonders, including this one: After he had reigned two years, he slipped away from the sight of men, and then he appeared to them here and there, once a year, during the passage of the sun in the sign of Aries. His subjects would then find him; he spoke to them and showed himself to them; he gave them orders, demarcated what to avoid, and warned them against rebellion. He also sat in front of them at certain times of the year, speaking to those who came to find him, dictating precepts or prohibitions, but always remaining invisible. Yet the place where he spoke was visible and not far from them. Then they built him a dome decorated with gold and silver and adorned richly, and he was carried in it. He sat in the top of the dome, in the guise of a gigantic face; and he spoke to the people there as before. He also sat in the clouds, in the form of a colossal man; he remained visible for some time, and then he disappeared and was no more. The people remained without king for a long time, after which they still saw his image in the temple of the Sun, at the entry of the sun into the sign of Aries. He then ordered his subjects to take for their king ’Ādim son of Qoftarim, and he said they would see him no more. They did as he commanded them.
Bedrah the Priestess
She was a woman of the royal family, a sister, they said, of al-Būdashīr, which is how she came to the priesthood. She made many talismans and berba, and talking idols in Memphis. The priesthood remained in her family and among her progeny where it passed from the eldest to the eldest. The Egyptians say she made talismans to prevent wild beasts and birds from drinking water from the Nile, so that thirst slew many. They also say that God sent an angel who cried out such a cry that the earth shook. She died from that cry.
Shāon of Ashmun
They say he was the first Hermes, the one who built the palace of statues, which measured the volume of water of the Nile and is located in the Mountains of the Moon. He also built a temple to the Sun. On this subject, the Copts relate many extraordinary traditions, which boggle the mind. He became invisible to men, being in the midst of them. He built al-Ashmun. This city is said to have located to the east of Egypt and had a length of twelve miles; it was topped by a fortress, in which the priest built a vast palace; there he raised columns and circles. At the foot of the mountain, he founded another town called Outiratis where he placed many wonders. It had four gates, one on each side. He placed on the east gate the image of an eagle; on the west gate, the image of a vulture; on the north, he put the image of a lion, and on the south, the image of a dog. He made the spirits the guardians of this city; they warned the governors whenever a stranger approached, so that no one could enter without having received permission. He planted a tree that bore all kinds of fruit, and he built a lighthouse whose height was eighty cubits; at the top he put a dome that changed color every day; it assumed seven colors over the seven days of the week, and then it returned to its first color. The inhabitants took on the color that the dome assumed. Around the lighthouse, the king dug a pond where many fish lived, and he fixed around the city all kinds of talismans, to prevent dangers. They also called this city the city of barsak, after the name of the tree that was planted there. [Manuscript variant: It was called the city of ’Elyūs, that is to say the dawn; and the dome of the dawn rose on an assembly in front of this city.]
Sūrīd
The first to build pyramids was Sūrīd, son of Sahlūq, who ruled Egypt three hundred years before the Flood. This king had a dream in which he felt as if the earth was overturned with all its inhabitants, the men fled in all directions, and the stars fell and clashed against each other with a terrible noise. He was moved by this dream and conceived a great fear; he nevertheless imparted his foreknowledge to no person, but he knew that some terrible event would happen in the world. Then he dreamed that the fixed stars descended on the earth in the form of white birds; these birds caught men in flight, and threw them between two high mountains which then closed over them; then the stars darkened and were eclipsed. This dream renewed his terrors. He entered the Temple of the Sun and began to pray and worship God in the dust, and wept. When morning came, he ordered the chief priests to come together from all parts of Egypt. One hundred and thirty of them met, and he secretly consulted with them on the visions he had seen. The priests praised him and glorified him, and they explained to him that a great event would occur in the world. Philemon, the high priest, spoke. He was their leader, and he lived constantly in the presence of the king; he was the priest of Ashmun [sic for Amsūs], a city of ancient Egypt. He said: “No doubt the vision of a king is a wonder because the dreams of royal personages can be neither in vain nor misleading because of the greatness of their power and elevation of their rank. Allow me to share the king a dream that I had one year, which to date I have reported to no one.” The king said, “Explain it to me, O Philemon.” “I dreamed,” he said, “that I sat with the king at the top of the lighthouse in Ashmun; the sky lowered down close enough to touch our heads, and it formed over us a dome that enveloped us. The king raised his hands toward heaven, and the stars came down to us in a multitude of different forms. Men implored the help of the king and gathered around his palace. The king raised his hands up to his face, and he ordered me to do the same; and both of us were in great distress. Then we saw a kind of opening in the sky from which came a light, and we saw that light rise above us—it was the sun. We saw him and implored him, and he spoke to us, telling us that the heavens would return to their starting point after three hundred and sixty orbits had been made. The sky descended almost to touch the ground and then returned to its proper place. Then I awoke, filled with terror.” The king commanded the priests to measure the altitude of the stars, and analyze what they portended. They made the calculations with great care, and they spoke first of a flood and then of a fire, which would burn the entire world. Then the king ordered the construction of the pyramids, and when they were completed according to his wise plan, he transported to them the wonders and treasures of his people and the bodies of ancient kings. He ordered the priests to deposit therein the secrets of their science and precepts of their wisdom. But the most famous of the descendants of Ham, the Copts and Indians, are the wise.
Chapter 2: The Kings of Egypt before the Flood
Naqrāūs
The first to reign in Egypt before the Flood was Naqrāūs. After the sons of Adam had committed injustice against each other, they gave themselves over to battle, and hegemony landed in the hands of the sons of Cain, the son of Adam. Then Naqrāūs the Giant, the son of Miṣraīm, the son of Marākil, the son of Dāwil, the son of ‘Arbāq, the son of Adam, along with seventy horsemen and some of the descendants of ‘Arbāq, all giants, sought a place to live apart from other men. This company walked until they had reached the Nile, and then they walked along the river and, having seen the extent of the country and its admirable beauty, they said: “This is a country with crops and fruits,” and they made their home there. This is the race that built the tallest buildings and most magnificent monuments.
Naqrāūs built Miṣr, and called this city by the name of his father Miṣraīm in order to receive his blessing. Naqrāūs was a giant, endowed with great courage and prodigious strength. Besides this, he was learned; he was the master of the race of djinn. He ruled over the sons of his father and his authority grew continuously. He collected the science that the angel Darābīl had taught to Adam, and by these means he kept under his yoke the giants, his companions; these are the princes who built monuments, erected high towers, and executed the wonderful works; who produced talismans, exploited the mines, and tamed the kings of the earth all around them. Nobody could do anything to oppose them, for all perfect science was in the possession of the Egyptians. Their secrets are engraved on stones. They say Philemon, who went with Noah into the ark, is the one who wrote their inscriptions and who composed their books.
Consequently, King Naqrāūs ordered the building of a city he called Amsūs. He erected buildings whose height was a hundred cubits; they sowed and they cultivated its territory. He also built other cities and other towns, and he settled in them men who had found their way into the land of Egypt. The inhabitants of these cities channeled the Nile and brought its water near to their homes. Previously, the course of the river was not regular; it formed marshes and was divided into branches on the ground. The king sent workers to Nubia to regularize its course, and they dug a channel that ran through the middle of the city of Amsūs. Along this channel plantations were made. The wealth of the country increased, and the land became populated. Naqrāūs drew great glory from the kingdom he ruled.
In the one hundred and eightieth year of his reign, he gave orders to erect towers and engrave on them the secrets of science. Then he ordered the building of a dome resting on pillars sealed with lead. He gave it a height of one hundred cubits.
He placed on top a mirror of chrysolite seven spans in size, which could see for a very great distance. We read in the sheets of the Egyptians that the king asked the teacher he had with him to inform him of the source of the Nile. The djinn carried him beyond the line of the equator, above the Black Sea of pitch and walked with him to the Mountains of the Moon. Then he took him out into the marshes. It is said that this prince there built the temple of the idols and there raised up a temple to the sun.
He then returned to Amsūs and divided the land among his sons; he gave to Naqrāūs (II) the western part, to Sūrīd the eastern part, and to his youngest son, named Miṣrām, a city he named Yarbiān, where he lived. There he erected towers in large numbers, he watered it with canals, and he planted trees there. At Amsūs he executed many wonders, among others a bird that whistled twice each day, at sunrise and twice at sunset, with various whistles, which permitted the prediction of future events in order to prepare for them. He divided the course of the water in the city between twenty-eight channels; in the middle he placed two black stone idols. When a thief broke into the city, he could not leave and he died, for these two idols would close in on him as he passed them; they had also other wonderful properties. The king placed in Yarbiān a gilded copper figure standing on a lighthouse so tall that it was forever in the clouds. When they desired rain, they obtained it from that statue; it was destroyed in the flood. He installed on the borders hollow copper idols, which he filled with tar; a spirit of fire guarded them. When a man driven by evil intentions approached them, these idols vomited fire from their mouths and burned him.
The boundaries of the countries to the west side of Egypt were at a distance of several days’ journey, and all that space was filled with palaces and gardens. It was the same on the side of the sea, and in the Ṣa‘īd until the country of ‘Alwah. The king erected on Mount Baṭras a lighthouse from which gushed water.
The reign of Naqrāūs was 180 years. When he died, his body was embalmed with unguents of musk; they laid him in a gold coffin and they made him an ark coated with gold, in which were placed with him treasures that cannot be assessed: precious stones of all kinds, chrysolite figures, various gems in gold or in color, worked with utmost perfection. They engraved on his tomb the date of his death, and all that they placed talismans, to repel reptiles and vermin from the edifice, and anyone who would dig it up, man or djinn.
Naqrāūs (II)
After him reigned his son Naqrāūs (II). He was violent and arrogant. He built a city called Jaljalah; he designed a garden there, and he adorned the walls with tiles of gold and colored stones; he made all kinds of trees and fruits grow there, and he circulated many channels, and commanded them to erect towers and other monuments, and to inscribe atop them all the sciences. On these were represented different species of plants, and above each was engraved its name and uses. The king had a companion Satan who made him wonderful idols. He was the first man who built a temple to Miṣr. There he installed the idols of the seven stars; they inscribed above them their influences, favorable or unfavorable, and clothed them. A priest was assigned to the temple, with auxiliaries. Naqrāūs made a trip to the West and walked until he reached the circular ocean beside which he set up monuments. There he built towers and placed at the tops of them idols whose eyes shone as lights in the night. Then he returned from the country of Sudan to the Nile. He ordered the building of a wall on one side of the Nile, and pierced it with doors for the flow of the water.
In the desert of the West, behind Wāḥāt (the oasis), the king founded three cities on pillars that were crowned with transparent and colored stones. In one of these cities, he placed the treasures of wisdom, and this city is the first and most famous of the wonders of the land. In another, he erected an idol of the Sun, which is the greatest of the Egyptian idols; it was erected in a very high temple. It has the figure of a winged man of gold and azure. His two eyes are two precious stones. He sits on a magnetic throne, holding in his hand the sheets of the sciences. The city also contains another idol with a human head and a bird’s body, to which is attached an image of a woman in solidified quicksilver. This woman is sitting and has one lock of hair; in her hand is a mirror, and on her head the image of a star; and she lifts the mirror up to her face. There one might also have seen a vessel where seven types of oil flow without mixing and without their color altering the color of any other, and also one sitting sheikh who has before him a seated child. All these objects are very rich and made of precious materials.
In the second treasury is the figure of Hermes, the king; he regards a table of salt placed in front of him on red copper feet, the middle of which are types of sheets of a red substance, on which are recorded several secret arts. This treasure also includes the figure of a raven in emerald with eyes of red hyacinth, having before him a snake of silver azure, whose tail is between his feet and whose head is raised as if to leap up. Next is the figure of a warrior on horseback holding in his hand a bronze sword. One might also see jasper columns that support a gold dome containing an idol of Mars; then a lapis lazuli dome on four pillars, atop which are images of the Sun and the Moon, in the form of a man and woman; and a red copper dome containing the idol of Venus in the figure of a woman, having beneath it a man in emerald; the man holds a book that contains secrets that he seems to read.
The king placed in the other treasuries wealth, jewels, and ornaments in quantities that cannot be assessed. On the gate of every city, he placed talismans consistently varied forms, to defend the entrances. He filled each with gemstones, emeralds, gold, silver, and red copper, all kinds of works of art, compounded ointments, and deadly poisons. He marked each door with a sign to designate it, and he dug beneath a subterranean passage. Between Jaljalah, which is the city in which he had designed the garden, and each of the three other cities, the distance was twenty miles; and between the three cities, seven miles. The city of Jaljalah was connected to his other cities through underground passages, and even the others were connected to each other. We find the description of these wonderful cities in each town of Egypt, engraved on stones, and in all the ancient books of the Egyptians, and especially in the temples of the stars. We read in the books of ancient priests the story of King Naqrāūs, with everything we reported, and the mention of several other wonders enacted in his time and which perished in the Flood, or were buried under the sands when the power of the talismans ceased.
Naqrāūs reigned 167 years and then died. They made him a sepulcher and laid wonders in large numbers there with him. He had designated as his successor his son Miṣrām.
Miṣrām
Miṣrām, son of Naqrāūs, built a marble temple to the Sun covered with gold, in which he placed a horse of an azure substance, ridden by a figure of the Sun in red gold; he draped around the statue silk veils, and commanded the burning of incense before it. And he put in the temple a clear glass candelabra decorated with a rotating stones which gave off light better than any torch. Then he established the priests, and he designated four festivals to celebrate each year. It is said that Egypt (Miṣr) is so called after his name, and that Miṣrām, son of Ham, was also thus called after him, because he found his name engraved on the stones; Philemon, the priest, had taught him the history of Egypt.
This Miṣrām had a lion that served as his mount, and he had for a companion the djinn who had served his father. While that djinn lived, he devoted himself to the care of the temples and worship of the stars; but the djinn ordered him to hide from the eyes of men, and he lit his face with a light so great that no one could look at him. He was then thought of as a god. He stayed well-hidden for three years, and he appointed to reign in his place one of the descendants of ‘Arbāq who was a priest.
It is said that while Miṣrām was raised in this state, the Satans prevailed in the middle of the sea. There they made for him the White Fortress, and they placed above it an idol of the Sun, on which they inscribed his name and the history of his reign. They also erected a copper idol on which they wrote: “I am Miṣrām the Giant, the discoverer of secrets, the conqueror, the ruler; I established talismans of safety, images that speak, and boundaries in the sea which stop incoming sailors. Thus we know that after me there will be no other kings like me, and all this happened in times of great happiness.” There was in the garden of the prince a tree that gave all kinds of fruit, a red crystal dome having atop it an idol that turned with the sun. The Satans were attendants of his guard when the night would come, and they prevented anyone from leaving the realm.
Miṣrām was the first to build hot baths. The people of Egypt wanted to see him again, and he sent two of his lieutenants. He then commanded the people to come together in a high room, and he appeared to them as a figure so majestic that their hearts were seized with terror. They worshiped him and they invoked him, and he brought them food and drink. They ate and drank, and then they returned home. After that day, they never saw him again. This king was more learned in the art of the soothsayers than any of his ancestors.
‘Anqām the Priest
After him reigned ‘Anqām the priest. He was a righteous king. He built a wonderful city near al-Arīsh, which he covered in defenses and powerful talismans. It is said that Idris appeared in his time. He lived for only a short time.
‘Arbāq
After him reigned his son ‘Arbāq bin ‘Anqām. He was a tyrant. He was the first to give himself over to hunting wild animals. He executed wonders, including an iron tree with branches, which he covered with compounded drugs. It attracted wild beasts of every kind, which made hunting them easy. We then read in the books of the Egyptians that Harut and Marut appeared in his time. They taught the Egyptians all sorts of incantations, and after the Flood they decamped into the land of Babel. ‘Arbāq was instructed by them. A captive used a ruse against the king and poisoned him. His death remained secret for a while. When they had grown impatient at having no news of him, a young man, a son of Naqrāūs named Lūjīm, came to attack him with a company of men. They found him lying on his bed, half decomposed. They lit a fire to burn him. Then they gathered the women who were in the garden and all his other wives, and they burned them with him. They freed the captives and returned them to their families. The people were in great joy.
Lūjīm
Lūjīm then reigned. He showed himself to the people, wearing the crown of his father, and he sat on his throne. He gathered the men before him, and he reminded them how ‘Arbāq was unjust and tyrannical, how he committed outrages against women, shed blood, ruined temples, and insulted priests. He said he was the heir of his father and grandfather, and more worthy of their heritage than any other. He promised the people that he would govern with meekness and justice, look after their affairs, and to keep clear of all evil. The assistants were satisfied with his words and replied: “You are worthy of the kingdom; we wish you prosperity throughout your life.” Then they retired joyfully. He ordered the restoration and expansion of the temples. He surrounded himself with priests; he venerated them and walked in the way of justice. Crows multiplied extraordinarily in his time, devastating the crops. We read that he built four copper lighthouses, one on each side of Amsūs, and placed in each lighthouse the image of a raven holding a snake that turned had against him. After that the Egyptians ceased to suffer from these birds down to the Flood, in which the lighthouses were destroyed.
Khaṣlīm
Among the kings of Egypt is Khaṣlīm. This king had a sorceress sister who possessed a remarkably intelligent and beautiful slave. He fell in love with this girl, and asked his sister to give her to him as a wife. She refused. The king insisted. She was irritated, walked away, and built a temple where she went to render service to Venus for some time. Then she saw Venus appear to her and talk to her. The goddess commanded her to deliver the girl to her brother and forbade her to hinder this union any longer. She obeyed. When the girl had come to the place where the king was, he esteemed her and loved her more than any other woman, and she gave him a son who was his only son. But other women became jealous and they began to plot her ruin. The main vizier of the king, knowing the love that the king had for her, came to visit her every day and was eager to satisfy all her requests. The women took advantage of this circumstance to make accusations against her and the vizier to satisfy their envy and hatred. So they spoke to the king with all the cunning with which they were capable; the king listened, and he ordered the death of the woman and the vizier, without informing his sister or any of the sages. But the news spread; someone brought word to the king’s sister, who dispatched a letter to the one who had orders to kill, asking him to have mercy on them until she could see the king. She ran to her brother and said: “What order did you give regarding your vizier and your slave-girl?” He said, “I learned about them doing such and such a thing.” “Can you decide on the death penalty,” she said, “in such a serious matter on uncertain clues, and without consulting with the wise men or with the nobles of your kingdom?” He said, “I could not control myself.” “Kings,” she replied, “should not decide in haste before studying the whole affair.” Thereupon the king commanded their execution be stayed. He conducted an investigation, and he recognized the falsity of the information. He immediately expelled from his palace all the women who had taken part.
Khaṣlīm was the first to construct a nilometer (miqiās) to measure the Nile flood. He assembled scientists and surveyors who raised a crystal house on the banks of the Nile; they placed in the middle a small copper pool that contained in it a weighed quantity of water and on the side of the pool they placed two copper eagles, male and female. At the beginning of the month when the flood begins, they went to the house; the priests entered it in the presence of the king, and discoursed to him until one of the two eagles whistled. If it were the male whistling, they knew that the flood would be normal or higher than normal; if it were the female, it would be below normal. Moreover, they knew the height of the flood because each finger by which the pool increased corresponded to a cubit more of flood height in the Nile. When they had built this nilometer, they drained the fields, built bridges, and erected across the Nile the large bridge that still exists today in the land of Nubia.
The son of the king was called Harṣāl, son of the eunuch of Venus, because of a vision which his sister had had. This child was nurtured by his aunt; she gave him a much sought-after education and married him to twenty women selected from the daughters of the greatest princes. She built for him a city of many wonders that she adorned and decorated with paintings; she constructed gardens and built a hot bath mounted on columns in which the water was always warm without the need for a fire. Khaṣlīm died and was placed in his tomb.
Harṣāl
After him reigned his son Harṣāl. Harṣāl removed himself to an underground palace and lived there. He built a city which is one of the richest in wonders. In the middle of it he placed an idol of the Sun revolved with this star, in the evening watching the West and the East in the morning. They say it was he who built the first subterranean passage beneath the Nile. He left his kingdom in disguise, crossed the land and the other nations, until he arrived at Babel. He saw that the kings of this country had done wonders: he learned the state of the empire, the mode of its government, and the manner in which it dealt with it affairs. Noah, it is said, was born in his time.
Harṣāl had twenty children, near to each of which he placed a Nāzir, that is to say, a chief priest. The Copts say that after reigning for 27 years, he retired to the temple which had been built by his father, in order to live alone. The affairs of his people continued to go well for seven years, but dissent and disputes then emerged among the brothers he had sired. The chief priests met among themselves to choose a king who would bring the others back into obedience. They assembled in the king’s palace; the chief priest stood up, made a speech, recalled the merits of Harṣāl, the prosperity of the empire under his rule, and the benefits he had sown, and then said how the assembly thought it necessary to elect a new king from among the brothers. He added that if Harsâl were alive and came back, he would not blame them for having done so, because they had to maintain his kingdom and to prevent its ruin, but that if he did not return, the new king would be his successor as was the custom. The others approved of his speech and they chose to rule the eldest son of the king, named Qadrashān.
Qadrashān
Qadrashān walked in the footsteps of his father; the people gave him great praise. He built a palace of wood which he decorated with beautiful paintings, where he represented the stars, and which were stretched out on mats. He had this palace carried out onto the water and went there to amuse himself. One day while he was there, there arose a great wind and the Nile suddenly surged. The palace broke apart, and the king drowned. He had sent his brothers to the cities of the interior, and he was content with just one wife, his uncle’s daughter. She had given him a son, who remained his only son. The woman was a sorceress; through her enchantments she induced the king to love her; he became isolated in his enjoyment of her pleasure, and he discharged his affairs through one of his viziers. When he died, as we have said, the woman hid the news; she continued to send orders and defensive actions via the vizier, and the people remained obedient for a space of nine years. But when the king’s brothers saw that his absence was prolonged, they assembled large forces and placed at their head one of their own, Shamrūd (variant: Nimrod) the Giant, and went to Amsūs. The sorceress, Qadrashān’s wife, was warned of their approach; she ordered the vizier to meet them and give them battle; this he did, but he was defeated and killed, along with many of his soldiers. The attackers entered the city of Amsūs. They entered the royal residence, and, not seeing the king, they were certain of his death and recognized that his wife had enacted a ruse.
Shamrūd
Shamrūd, the son of Harṣāl and brother of Qadrashān, sat on the throne and ruled the people. His reign was happy; he changed what had been displeasing in his brother’s government and, having taken possession of his wealth and its treasures, he divided them among his other brothers. He wanted to find the sorceress and her son to put them to death. But he had not a lick of news, because this woman had gone to her hometown in the Ṣa‘īd, in the bosom of her relatives who were all magicians and priests. She implored their aid, spoke to them, made them know that her son should be king after his father because his father had appointed him, and ordered that she herself should have a share in this wish. They believed her and saw that the young man was expelled from his kingdom and that Nimrod had unjustly deprived him, so they armed themselves in large numbers for his defense. The son of the sorceress set himself at their head and marched against Shamrūd. His mother had prepared all sorts of talismans capable of killing and incendiary machines. Shamrūd and his brothers came for a meeting with a great horde following armed men; but they were routed and dispersed into the mountains. The son of the magician entered the king’s palace, sat on the throne, and donned the tiara of his father. He reigned, following in his father’s footsteps, under the name Tūsidūn.
Tūsidūn
Tūsidūn was young; his mother ruled for him. He killed all those who had been supporters of Shamrūd, and he searched for them himself until they had been found. They seized the defeated king and brought him back in shackles. Tūsidūn gathered the people to display him. They attached the head of the captive to one pillar and his feet to another; his size, say the Copts, was twenty cubits. The queen confined him in a house and entrusted him to men of her guard, who were ordered to kill him on the day of the feast. But Shamrūd uttered so great a cry in the night that one of the guards died of fright and the others fled. When the queen learned of this incident, he was ordered to lie on the ground, and she came in person ordered to light a fire near him. Then she commanded that they cut off his limbs one after the other, and throw them into the fire. This was done, and so an end was made of him.
The king grew up and became a priest, astrologer, and magician; the Satans built him a spherical glass dome, which turned once while the celestial sphere turned twice. They represented on it the stars above, and with this device they knew the secrets of nature and the sciences of the world. After he had reigned six years, the king lost his mother; she had recommended that he deposit her body under an idol of the moon after it had been embalmed. After her death, she continued to teach various wonders and answer them when they questioned her. The people worshiped her son, because he presented himself in different forms. He ruled for a hundred years. At his death, he ordered the creation of a transparent glass idol in two pieces to place around his body after it was coated in spices, welding the two parts of the idol together and standing it in the temple. They celebrated a festival for him every year in which they brought offerings to him. He also commanded that they bury his treasures under him. They did as he had ordered.
Sarbaq
After him his son Sarbaq reigned. He walked in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. A man from the descendants of Ṭarbis, son of Adam, from the land of Iraq, had made himself master of Syria, and had planned to conquer Egypt. But he knew he would not be able to fulfill this design because of the skill of the Egyptians in magic, so he devised to come to Egypt in disguise, to get to know men and to learn some of their secrets. He came with a small band of companions and they reached a fortress located on the borders of Egypt. The guards asked them their intentions. They replied that they were merchants, and they were looking for a country where they could settle and bring their wealth. They kept them in prison and sent to the king a report about them. Now the king had a dream in which he had been on the top of a lighthouse; a large bird had swooped down on him to snatch him up, and in his fear, he had moved aside to the point of almost falling off the lighthouse; the bird passed him by without hurting him. The king awoke full of fright, summoned the chief priest, and told him of his vision. The priest told him that a king coveted his kingdom, and might seize it. The priest, through observations, then knew that this king had already entered the country. The king of Egypt made a closer examination of the report that the guardians of the fortress had sent him. He sent some of his companions to secure the strangers and bring them to him, ordering them to travel through all the provinces of Egypt and show them the talismans, idols, and various wonders they contained. These fellows then took the captives to Alexandria, and then they brought them to Amsūs. They made them see the wonders and the garden founded by Miṣrām and different magical images. The foreigners, filled with wonder at what they had seen, were then presented to King Sarbaq. The priests who surrounded him made all sorts of wonders appear; they lit a fire before the king which would not let anyone approach but friends, denying entry to hose who would hurt the king or who harbored any evil design against him. They made the captives pass one by one before the fire that was not injurious to any of them. The foreign prince came last, and when he approached there, the flame fell upon him, and he recoiled in terror. Sarbaq then questioned him, made threats, learned his intentions, and ordered his death. They brought him into the fortress where he was arrested; he was attached to the side of the gallows facing Syria, against a large stone column bearing the inscription, “This is so-and-so, son of such-and-such, who reigned over Syria; he secretly desired the ruin of this realm, and he sought what he could not achieve, motivated by an unjust and sinful thought. This is the reason he was punished.” They let his companions go, saying: “You should perish for joining a man who wanted the ruin of this empire, but the king has pity on you. He commands you to leave the country and never to return.” They fled, happy to be unharmed. They rehearsed all the wonders they had seen to everyone they met, and kings, hearing of it, abandoned any thought of undertaking anything against Egypt.
In Sarbaq’s time many wonders were executed. Among other things, the king erected a duck of copper in his capital, high up on columns; when a stranger came from any side and any gate, this duck fluttered and sang. It stopped the stranger, who was made to give an account of his intentions. He also led a canal from the Nile to the cities of the West, and on its banks were erected mansions and monuments; and he planted trees on its banks. Sarbaq reigned 130 years.
Sahlūq
He was succeeded by his son Sahlūq. Sahlūq was a scientist, astronomer, and priest. He reigned in righteousness. He shared accurately measured Nile water between several branches, and he sent the water into the various regions. He organized the administration and established seven castes in the empire. The first caste included the king, his children, his household, the head of the judiciary, the chief priests, the grand vizier, the keeper of the royal seal, and the keeper of the treasury. The second caste included officers of various ranks, responsible for collecting taxes, monitoring production in the kingdom, and presiding over business, agriculture, and the sharing of the waters. The third caste was composed of priests; the servants of the temples and their eunuchs; the king’s valets and stewards, responsible for collecting fruits, perfumes, small cattle and sheep, male chicks and other similar things for the king’s table; and the butlers and other such officers. In the fourth caste were astronomers, doctors, philosophers, etc. The fifth were the leaders of agriculture, attendant to crops and the breeding of horses. In the sixth were the masters of trades and purveyors of food, the inspectors charged with examining every year the products of the different arts, the experts whose mission was to identify key masterpieces and bring them to the treasury of the king. Finally, the seventh caste included the hunters for hunting wild beasts, birds, and lions, with officials responsible for collecting their blood, gall, fat, and flesh for doctors, who made them into drug compounds. This king ordered that an artisan belonging to a profession had no right to change to another. He instituted punishment for bad workers and rewards for good ones. The buffoons and singers were classified in the royal caste.
This same prince also build cities and erected monuments and lighthouses; he introduced new methods into the arts, regularized the course of the waters, and made the trees produce extraordinary fruit. On the high mountains he placed stones that divided the wind, which barred the passage to foreigners as well as birds, lions, and wild beasts. He reigned over his people in equity and in righteousness. Each class of men he matched to a class of priests who taught them from their infancy. These priests reported to the king every day all that they heard said.
He also constructed a temple with illuminated domes and therein lit a perpetual fire in honor of light. The Copts believe that he was the first man who built a temple to fire. It is said that Jam, the Persian, who also built a temple to fire and who instituted its worship in Persia, did so in imitation of Sahlūq, the king of Egypt. The reason that brought Sahlūq to institute this worship is as follows.
He had a dream in which his father appeared to him and told him: “Take yourself over the mountains of Egypt. You will see an opening made in such a way; at the entrance of this opening you will find a viper with two heads who, upon seeing you, will show you its teeth. Take with you two little birds, male and female; when you see the viper, offer them to it and throw them to it. It will take both their heads and go hide in a hole near the opening. Enter there, and advance to the bottom of the cave. You will see a large woman of hot and dry light, having a dazzling face and giving off a great heat. Do not approach her because you will be burned, but stand still before her and greet her. She will respond to you. Listen to her words and meditate on that which she will have told you; this will give you much glory because this woman guards the treasures of your grandfather Miṣrām, deposited by him under the marvelous cities.” After these words the vision disappeared. Sahlūq, waking, began to ponder this dream with astonishment, and he resolved to do what his father had commanded him. He went up to the mountain, carrying the two birds, and he executed all the requirements of his father, until he reached the woman. He bowed; she asked him if he knew her. He replied, “No, I’ve never seen you before now.” She continued: “I am the idol of fire revered among departed nations. I want to ensure that my memory will be preserved. Build me a temple; light a single and perpetual flame; institute in my honor an annual festival, to be celebrated in your presence and that of your people. I promise in return assistance that will increase your glory and strengthen your empire; I will turn away from you anyone who would want to harm you, and I will uncover the treasures of your grandfather Miṣrām.” Sahlūq assured the divinity of his obedience, and she uncovered the treasures his grandfather hid under the wonderful cities, telling him how to reach them and how to retrieve them from the spirits guarding them. When she had finished, he asked her how he could see her again when he would need to inquire of her. She said, “In terms of this place, return her no more; but when you desire to see me, throw in the fire what I have commanded of you, being such and such things,” and she enumerated them, teaching him the offerings, the sacrifices, and the balms that he should offer. “Then,” she added, “I will speak with you, and I will inform you about all the good and bad events taking place in your country.” The king, at these words, felt a great joy. Then the figure disappeared and the viper returned. He immediately departed, and when he had gone out of this place, he closed up the opening. He began to execute immediately that which he was commanded to do. Having discovered the treasures of his grandfather, he transported countless wonders to Amsūs and other cities.
Among these treasures was a dome mounted on seven pillars. We read in the pages of the Copts that this dome is called the Dome of Judgment. It was built as the result of an unfair judgment by a priest. A man of the people had come to the priest to denounce his wife, complaining of being rejected by her. He loved her immensely, he said, but she hated him, and he asked the priest to compel her to appear. This woman was of the family of the priest. He sided with her over her husband and ordered him to send her away. The husband did not obey, and the priest put him in jail and treated him with great harshness. Now this man was a craftsman, and he brought together all those of his companions who were aware of his case and the conduct of his wife, and knew how badly she treated him and how good he was to her. These people recognized the injustice of the priest and they denounced him to the king’s minister. The priest was summoned and interrogated before him. He replied that he had ruled that according to justice. The minister summoned after him the chief priest and those witnesses the artisan had gathered. They were unanimous in recognizing the unfairness of the sentence passed by the priest. Thereupon the minister released the prisoner and installed the priest in his place, and he commanded that the woman be punished and brought back to her husband. The whole case was then reported to the king, who decided that this priest would be removed from the priestly rank and held in prison so long as it pleased him.
But the king retained a certain disquiet regarding this affair; he feared that the same thing would happen with other priests, and that his authority and his people would suffer if justice were not rendered as he wished. He spent the night disturbed and in meditation, and, come morning, he consulted the deity with the formulas, perfumes, and incense she had indicated to him. The idol appeared to him and spoke to him. He begged her to build an instrument that would enable him to recognize an injustice with certainty and to distinguish the oppressor and the oppressed. The idol commanded him to build a temple on heptagonal plan and are open seven doors, one on each side. In between he was told to raise a yellow copper dome, atop which he should paint the seven stars. On the first door he was to put the image of a recumbent lion and before him that of a lioness lying on copper. He was to make an offering of a lion in this area and perform honors by burning the hair of the beast. On the second door he was to place the image of a bull and a cow; he was to sacrifice a calf and perform honors by burning the hair of the beast. On the third door, the image of a pig and the female, the sacrifice of a pig, and the burning of its hair. The fourth door, the image of a ram and a ewe, the sacrifice of a lamb, and the burning of its hair. The fifth door, the image of a fox and its mate, at which he was to sacrifice an eaglet and burn its plumage. He was to stain the faces of all these images with the blood of the victims, and then burn the rest, and place offerings in the ashes under the doorsteps. He was to establish temple servants and maintain in this temple torches lit day and night for seven days. “When you have done all this,” the divinity told him, “allocate each of the seven castes that you set up to one of the seven gates; the door of the lion is for the royal caste and the other doors to other castes, according to their order. When people will approach one of these images for trial, the guilty will be bound there, the image will grab him in a violent embrace, and the torment and suffering will be so great that he will confess the truth. The male image would deal with men and the female image the women. Thus you will be able to distinguish between the oppressor and the oppressed. When a righteous man will be called before any of these images, nothing will happen to him; when it is a guilty one, he will bow his legs, his tongue will be paralyzed, and he will be unable to move until justice is given to his opponent.” The king hastened to build this temple on the plan that had been given to him, and he executed it with the utmost perfection. Once completed, he was freed from the worries caused him by governing men, being certain, thanks to these images, that none of them could injure another with impunity. This temple survived until the Flood; it perished then with many other wonders of Egypt.
Under the reign of Sahlūq many monuments were erected. They wrote on sheets his life and the wonders he had wrought, and how to compose various drugs and manufacture automatons. He ordered that they deposit these treatises, along with the sheets on which his life story were written and his treasures, in the tomb he had prepared. He had built this tomb in the western region, and there secrets and wonders were placed. When he died, his orders were executed.
After him his son Sūrīd reigned. Sūrīd and all the people of the kingdom were saddened at the death of Sahlūq in a way never testified at the death of any other king. Sahlūq reigned 443 years. His court and many of his subjects remained before his tomb for one month to wail and lament. They set up guards to watch over his grave and priests to maintain everything in it.
Sūrīd
Sūrīd sat on the throne of his father. He walked in the footsteps of Sahlūq in justice and fairness, attended to the development of agriculture in the land, ruled his subjects with gentleness, and even shared with them his assets and those of his relatives. He was the first to establish a property tax in Egypt, and to impose one on artisans within their means; the first also who ordered welfare for the sick and infirm at the expense of the treasury. He built lighthouses, erected monuments, and fashioned talismans and temples. During his reign the empire saw the greatest prosperity it had ever experienced. The people loved him and showered him with praise.
He built a mirror of a compound substance in which he saw the climates of the world with their inhabited parts and deserted parts and everything that happened in them. This mirror was placed in a copper lighthouse in the middle of the city of Amsūs. The Copts say that it was fashioned primarily in Misr. It showed all the travelers who came to Egypt from all directions, and they therefore could take precautions against them. This king was also the first who kept records, in which he wrote every day about what had happened and what he had done; he placed these sheets in his library, and at the end of each month he carried them to the treasury, with the papers of the ancient kings, after having affixed his seal. He extracted what was best in this record and had it engraved on stone. He even collected the masterpieces that were executed in his time, the marvels that were produced there; and he rewarded by generous donations that makers of these masterpieces.
In the middle of the capital he erected a statue of a woman sitting and holding a child to her breast as though to breastfeed. Any woman who had disease afflicting a part of her body could touch the corresponding portion of the body of the statue, and the malady would cease; so if her milk were to decline, she touched the statue’s breasts and it would increase; if she wanted to curry favor with her husband, she touched the statue’s face with fragrant grease, saying, “Get me this or that.” If a woman had a sick child, she did the same with the child of the statue, and it was healed; if her children had a difficult character, she touched the child’s head, and they grew sweeter. Young women also found relief, and if an adulterous woman were to put her hand on the statue, she felt a disorder so deep that despite herself she confessed her crime. [The French translator has obscured this line to avoid sexual language.] For issues that concerned the night they visited the statue at night, and for issues that concerned the day, they visited during the day. This idol performed many wonders until the time of the Flood, when it was destroyed. However, we read in a Coptic book she was only erected after the Flood and that the Egyptians of that time went to visit it and made it into a cult. Its image is reproduced in all of Egypt’s temples and painted in many colors. It is said that the creators of this idol were the disciples of Philemon the priest. It is they who also taught the Egyptians all their arts. We’ll talk about them later in this book.
Sūrīd executed many more marvels, among them the idol called Bokras, which was composed of several substances used in medicine. This idol had the property of combatting various diseases and poisons. They knew by it which patients were likely to recover; these were treated and fed according to certain signs that appeared in the idol, and the patients returned to health. Often the treatment involved washing the part of the statue corresponding to the one in which the patient was suffering and making the patient drink the water that had been used for this ablution. This soon saw the malady end.
Sūrīd is the builder of the two pyramids that are attributed to Shaddad ibn ’Ad. The Copts deny that either the ’Adites or the Amalekites ever invaded their country because they say the Egyptians could defend themselves with their magic against any who attacked them. Al-Harabiun [sic for the Harranians] says the same. Abu Ma‘shar reported this opinion in his Book of Thousands.
The reason Sūrīd built the pyramids was the vision that we have reported in its proper place. He sent for his priests and astronomers and told them how he saw the sphere had descended to him in the guise of a woman, how the land with all its inhabitants had been overturned, and how the sun had been eclipsed. They then foretold to him the Deluge with all its circumstances.
This fact is told in a history book which was transmitted to the Copts by two brothers and found in a tomb on the chest of one of the corpses. The Copts say that these two men were the descendants of an Egyptian from ancient Egypt who escaped the rising deluge with Noah in the ark. He had believed the prophet, and he took his two sons with him. It is said he was a son of Misrâm, son of Ham; he was an eminent and highly educated person. It is written in the book that King Sūrīd built three cities in the Sa’id and placed there many wonders. Later we will have occasion to speak again of these two brothers.
Thus, we read in this book that Sūrīd, son of Sahlūq, having had the aforementioned vision, shared it with Philemon, the chief priest, and ordered the priests to consult the stars, to determine which events threatened the greatest part of the world. They immediately began their observations; they studied the sky very carefully and discovered a prodigy coming down from heaven and up from the earth would consume almost all men: this prodigy was to be a great flood, after which nothing would remain. The king asked if this event would recur several times or if it should be finished once and for all. They observed more and replied that the human race with its empires and all things on earth would reappear as they were before. Then the king ordered the construction of temples and great monuments, for himself and his family, in order to safeguard their bodies and all their riches, which they would deposit within. He inscribed on the ceilings, on the roofs, on the walls, and on columns, all the secrets of science, in which the Egyptians excelled more than any other nation; and he had painted a picture of the great stars and lesser stars, with signs that permitted their recognition. He also engraved the names of plants and their properties, how to construct talismans, their descriptions, and the rules of mathematics and geometry. All who know the books and the language of Egypt can make use of these images and inscriptions.
The priests told the king that when the following events took place, they would occur over the whole world except for a very small part, and the time of their realization would be when the heart of the Lion would be in the first minute of the head of Cancer, with the planets occupying the following positions: the moon in conjunction with the sun would be in the first minute of Aries; Zaus [Zeus], that is to say, Jupiter, would be at 29° of Pisces; Mars 28° 5′ of the same constellation; Aphrodite or Venus at 29° 3′; Hermes or Mercury at 27°; Saturn in Libra; and the apogee of the moon at 5° and a few minutes of Leo. The King, having heard the report, said to the priests, “Now look to see whether after this event there will come another from heaven onto the earth that will be the opposite of it, I mean to say, the destruction of the world by fire.” They informed him that it would be so. “Look then,” he said, “to see when this will happen.” They resumed their observations and found that this deluge of fire would take place when the Heart of the Lion would be in the final minute of 10° of Leo; the Sun would be in the same minute in conjunction with Saturn and in trine compared to the Head; Mars would be in Leo in an oblique passage; and Mercury in the same minute as he; Siline (Selene; i.e., the Moon) in Aquarius, in conjunction with the Tail, in twelve parts; Venus opposite her on a straight path; and Mars in Leo on a straight path. At that moment the sun will cover the earth in a manner heretofore unknown. The priests brought all this to the king and said: When the Heart of the Lion will have completed two thirds of a revolution, there will be no living animal on earth that will not be stricken and die, and when it will have completed a full revolution, the system of the spheres will be destroyed.
The king ordered the construction of tall monuments, the cleaving of huge slabs, the extraction of lead from the land of the West, and the rolling in of stones from the region of Aswan; these great black rocks were drawn on chariots. He laid the foundations of the three pyramids, Eastern, Western and Colored; the last of these was entirely made of white and black colored stones. It is said that the builders had palm wood sheets covered in writing, and after having extracted every stone and having it cut, they placed over each stone one of these sheets; they then gave a blow to the stone, and it traveled far beyond the reach of sight. They came back close to it and did the same again until they had led it to its assigned place. Craftsmen then carved each slab so as to affix in the middle an iron rod; they placed over it another slab with a hole in its center, and the rod entered the hole. They then poured lead around the slab and into the hole so that the adjustment was perfect.
They decorated the pyramids with paintings, inscriptions, and figures capable of confounding the imagination. The doors were placed forty cubits underground, in subterranean passages made of lead and stone; the length of each underground passage was one hundred fifty cubits. The door of the eastern pyramid was on its east side, a distance of one hundred cubits from the middle of the face. The door of the western pyramid was on its west side, also at the distance of one hundred cubits from the middle of the face; it corresponded with the door of the subterranean passage. The door to the colored pyramid, in stones of two colors, was on its north side, one hundred cubits from the middle of its face; they dug until they reached the door of the corresponding subterranean passage and thus passed into the door of the pyramid. The height of each of the pyramids was a hundred royal cubits, equivalent to five hundred cubits today. The length of each side was a hundred cubits; the faces rose perpendicularly up to forty cubits, and they then bowed inward so as to form sharp edges which joined at the top. They began construction in a time of happiness; people gathered to see them and were amazed. When they were finished, they covered them in gaudy silk from top to bottom, and they declared a feast in their honor which all persons in the empire were required to attend.
Then the king commanded the construction of storehouses in stones of flint of various colors. He filled the western pyramid with emerald objects, images made with the substances of the stars, wonderful talismans, iron tools of outstanding quality, weapons that cannot rust, glass objects that can bend without breaking, all types of drugs (simple and compounded), deadly poisons, and a host of other things too numerous to describe. Into the eastern pyramid, he transported the idols of the stars, representations of the heavens, wonders built by his ancestors, incense to offer to the idols, books containing the history of ancient Egypt, an account of the lives of the kings and the dates of all the events that had transpired, still other books comprising a proclamation of all that would happen in Egypt until the end of time, with a description of the paths of the fixed stars and their influence at every moment. He also placed vessels containing drugs and other similar things. In the third pyramid, he deposited the bodies of the priests in black flint coffins, and with nearly every priest he placed books which recounted all that he had done and the story of his life. The priests were then ranked in order. The first order was that of the Nazarites, that is to say, the priests who had served the seven stars for seven years each. The word Nazir signified, among them, one who had mastered the totality of science. The second class consisted of priests who had served six stars, the third those who had served five, and so on; and each of these seven orders had a name. The king placed the coffins of the priests down the sides of the pyramid according to their rank, and near their bodies he placed the books they had written on gold leaf in which they had recorded the past and the future and a record of the wonders performed by each of them. On the walls he placed idols who were seen to perform all of the various arts, arranging them according to their rank and power. He wrote a description of their operations, how to accomplish them, and the utility of what had been drawn. Through engravings and images, he described the nature of all things, the science of law and the laws of all the sciences. Then he filled the pyramids with the treasures of the stars, all of the gifts that had been offered to their idols, and the treasures of the priests; the amount of wealth simply cannot be calculated.
Finally he assigned a guard to each pyramid. The guardian of the eastern pyramid was an idol striped white and black, with two open and flashing eyes. This idol was sitting on a throne and held a kind of spear. When a man looked at him, he uttered a terrible cry, which made him lose consciousness; he would fall to the ground unconscious and could no longer get up, dying on the spot. The guardian of the western pyramid was a striped flint idol: he was standing, held a kind of spear, and wore a snake on his head. If a man approached him, the snake would jump on him, entwine around his neck and choke him before returning to the head of the idol. The guardian of the colored pyramid was a small idol of an eagle standing on a pedestal. He attracted everyone who looked at him, and left them to die at his feet. When all these things had been established, King Sūrīd entrusted surveillance to the invisible spirits and offered them sacrifices, so they would turn down anyone who would want to approach without providing the agreed-upon offerings and without performing the established rites in their honor.
The Copts say that the pyramids bear a painted inscription in Arabic whose interpretation is this: “I, Sūrīd, the king, built these pyramids at such and such a time. I completed the building in six years. Let anyone who would come after me and believe himself a king as great as I destroy them in six years, for all know that it is easier to destroy than to build. I also covered the pyramids in silk: Let those who come after me cover them in turn.” For a very long period these monuments remained intact. As for covering them in silk, no king could do so without overspending and without possessing true madness.
A tradition also has it that when al-Ma‘mun had entered Egypt and saw the pyramids, he wanted to destroy one to know what it contained. He was told, “You cannot.” He replied, “At least we can open a breach.” And they made the gap that we still see by charring stone with fire, dousing it with vinegar, hitting it with rams, and then removing the cuttings with iron stakes. He spent a considerable sum on this work. They then found that the thickness of the wall was about twenty cubits. When they had pierced the wall, they found on the other side of the hole a green vase containing gold coins, and the weight of each dinar was one of our ounces; there were a thousand of these dinars. The workers were amazed at this discovery and did not understand the meaning of it. They informed al-Ma‘mun and brought him the gold and the vase. Al-Ma‘mun appeared amazed at the sight of the gold, noting how it was pure, bright, and red; then he said, “Show me the accounting of what you have spent in making this breach.” This was calculated, and they found it to be exactly the value of that gold, neither more nor less. And Ma‘mun and his court stood speechless that this expenditure could have been calculated so far in advance, and that they could know exactly the place where the breach would be made. These (ancient) men had truly reached a level of science that no other had done, and which we ourselves have not reached, neither we nor our fellow men. It is said that the vase in which the sum was found was made of emerald and that Ma‘mun had it carried to his treasury. This is one of the wonders he brought from Egypt.
Among the extraordinary facts of Egypt, the following is still quoted: After Ma‘mun had opened the breach in the pyramid, the workers continued to work for several years. They eventually penetrated it, and they went down along a slope that plunged into the monument. Some of them returned unharmed, but others perished. There are a host of traditions about it.
Twenty men agreed together to enter the pyramid and not to come out until they had reached the bottom, or died. They took with them food and drink for two months. They brought supplies to make fire with, candles, ropes, picks, and all the tools they might need. They entered the pyramid; they went down the first hallway and the second slope. Continuing to walk on the floor of the pyramid, they saw bats as big as eagles, which slapped at their faces. And then they came to an opening from which came a cold wind did not stop. They wanted to enter, but the wind extinguished their torches; they placed them in glass, and they returned to the opening to try to enter. Now they saw that the bottom of the hole was closed off by a great slab of a precious substance, and they understood that below were the bodies of kings, with their gold and treasures. But they did not know how to get down there. One of them said, “Tie me with ropes, and lower me down this hole until I reached the slab. Maybe I’ll find a way to raise it.” They did as he asked; his companions tied him with ropes around the middle of his body and they lowered him down in the hole; he remained there for a long time, his companions still holding the ropes; but in the end the hole closed behind him. In vain did the others make every effort to reopen it, but they could no longer reach him. They heard his bones breaking, and a terrifying voice made them fall over in a faint. When they awakened, they sought to escape. This they managed with great difficulty, several of the men, having fallen when climbing the corridors, were abandoned by the rest and perished. Those who survived finally came out of the pyramids; as they sat together at the pyramids’ feet, they saw rise up from the ground before them that one of their companions who had perished in the hole. He now seemed to be alive, and he spoke to them in a cryptic language, and said unto them words whose meaning they did not understand; but his words were explained to them later by a scholar of the Sa’id. They meant: “Such is the fate of one who covets treasures that are not for him.” After uttering these words, the man stopped talking and fell back down dead. They took away his body. They were arrested as murder suspects and brought before the wali, and there they related what had happened to them.
One may read of another tradition that some men entered the pyramids, went down to the bottom, and made a turn. They saw a path like the one through which they came in, and they found therein a type of vase from which water dripped without decreasing; they did not understand what it was. Then they came to a place that resembled a square room whose walls were made of small square stones, colorful and magnificently beautiful. One of them took one of the stones he found and put it in his mouth, and immediately his ears were deafened by the wind. He had to endure this inconvenience the whole time he was in that company. These men then came to a place where they saw large piles of gold coins, struck with extreme perfection. The value of each piece was a thousand dinars. They took one, but they were no longer able to walk or move, and they were obliged to throw it back. In another place they saw a couch on which sat a sheikh made from green granite, wrapped in a cloak and having before him statues in the shape of small boys which it seemed like he was teaching. They took one, but they could no longer move. They returned whence they came, and from another closed room came a frightening buzzing and humming; they did not enter and went on by. They entered a square room where they saw a rooster made of precious stone, standing on a green pillar, and whose eyes lit up the whole room. As soon as they approached it, it uttered a terrible cry and flapped its wings, and they left it. They passed near a white stone idol, with the figure of a woman hanging upside down; at her side, two stone lions seemed to want to devour her. They fled and continued on their way. Having walked a long time, they reached a point where they saw ahead of them a ray of light; they followed it and they reached a gateway where they came out again onto the rocks; at the gate of the hole they noticed two statues of black stone armed with javelins. This surprised them. Then they walked up a slope, and after following it for a whole day, they returned from the pyramids to the outside. This occurred in the time when ’Abd Allah, son of ’Abd al-Malik, was governor of Egypt. These men came and told him of their adventure, and he sent someone to search with them for the hole through which they had come out; but they searched for several days at the same place without being able to find it, and to their surprise they discovered neither trail nor sign that could lead them there. He who published this story found a precious stone which he sold for a large sum.
It is said that the time of Ahmed, son of Tulun, men entered the pyramids and found in the arch of one of its rooms a glass jug, which they took and brought back. A man of their company lost his way; they went looking for him, but he came to meet them naked and giggling, and said, “Do not worry for me.” Then he ran back to the entrance of the pyramid. They understood that a djinn had seized him. This adventure leaked out, or a man of the company betrayed his companions; the Sultan seized the jug and forbade anyone from entering the pyramids. The jug was weighed, and they found it contained seven ratl of white and clear glass. A scholar stood up and said, “The ancient kings did nothing in vain, so this object must have a purpose.” Then he filled it with water and weighed it again; he found that its weight remained exactly the same.
It is said that some men entered the pyramids with a young boy to use him for sex. They saw [the spirit of] a black slave armed with a cane coming at them, and he began to give them terrible blows. They fled immediately, leaving behind their food, their drinks, and some of their clothes. The same thing happened, it is said, to other men in the temple at Akhmim.
A man and a woman entered the pyramid to have sex with each other; they were thrown to the ground and seized with a furious delirium that lasted until their death.
It is said in some books of the Copts that King Sūrīd, after hearing the priests tell him that a fire would come from beyond the sign of Leo and burn up the world, made underground passageways in the pyramids in preparation; the Nile could be brought into these underground passages and discharged from there at several points in the western territory and in the land of Sa‘id. The King filled these channels with wonders, talismans, and idols.
Some Copts say that King Sūrīd, having heard the report of astronomers, said, “See if yet some other disaster will threaten this country.” They made observations and said, “A deluge will threaten to submerge the majority of the country, which will be devastated for several years, after which its prosperity will be reborn.” “What,” asked the king, “will be the cause of this devastation?” They said, “A king will massacre his own people and take their wealth.” “And then?” he asked. “The country’s prosperity will be reborn from the murder of the king.” “And then?” “Monstrous men will come along the side of the Nile will invade and occupy the greatest part of the land.” “And then?” “They will cross the Nile, and they will take the people into captivity.” Sūrīd ordered their predictions inscribed on the pyramids, on monuments, and on stones.
A man from the land of the West, one of those who make a business of going on camels to carry fish to the oasis, said he had to stay overnight at the pyramids; having heard a noise and a sort of gushing that never ceased, he was afraid and went away; he then saw around the pyramid shining lights, and these he observed for a long time, until he was overcome by sleep. The next morning when he awoke, he saw other fish beside his own fish; astonished, he put the fish that he had back on his camel, and he hastened to return to Fustat, while vowing never to return to the pyramids.
The temples also have many stories too numerous to relate. There are traditions among the Copts of guardian spirits of the temples and the pyramids. According to these traditions, the spirit of the southern pyramid has the form of a naked woman, very beautiful and whose hair is divided into two. When she wishes to seize a man, she laughs in his face, then draws him near to her. When he approaches, she grabs him and he loses his reason. Many people have seen this woman wandering around the pyramid at noon or at sunset. The spirit of the other pyramid is a beardless naked yellow boy whose hair is divided into two; he is often seen to walk in circles around the monument. The spirit of the colored pyramid is shaped like a sea-sheik carrying a basket and having in his hand a censer such as those used in churches. These traditions are in in all the collections.
The temple of Akhmim, according to the belief of the people, has for its spirit guardian a young boy, black and naked. The spirit of the temple of Semenud is a sheikh of dark complexion, with long hair and a short beard. The spirit of the temple of Kobt (Coptos) has the form of a black servant carrying a little black child. The spirit of temple of Dendera has the form of a man with a lion’s head and two horns. The spirit of the temple of Busir has the form of a white sheikh, dressed as a monk and carrying a book. The spirit of the temple of the ‘Adites has the form of a shepherd equipped with a stick. The Dahshur pyramids have spirits that can see when anyone approaches from any side whatsoever and any time of day. There is, for each of these monuments, certain offerings and some incenses that allow access to their treasures, and agreements can be made between their spirits and men.
Sūrīd reigned one hundred and seven years. The priests had made known to him in advance the time of his death. He bequeathed power to his son Harjit with all the lessons he would need, and he ordered him to place his body in the pyramid, in the place he had prepared; he recommended that it be embalmed in camphor and they should place with him the valuable tools, arms, and instruments he had collected in advance. Harjit executed all that his father had commanded of him, and he took in his hand the reins of power.
Harjit
Harjit followed in the footsteps of his father; he made the kingdom prosper, appeared just and merciful towards men, and attracted the love of the people. He built the first of the pyramids of Dahshur and he gathered a great deal of wealth and jewels. It pleased him to gather silver, he occupied himself with alchemy, and exploited the mines; each year he buried the treasure he had amassed in the course of the year. After having an affair with one of his slaves, he exiled her to the extremity of the West, and he built for her a city where a monument was erected on which were inscribed the name and story of this woman. He sent to stay with her all the women of his house. When a man struck another, he had all his fingers cut off, and when a man stole money from another, he became his victim’s slave. He raised lighthouses, works of art, and talismans, and his reign lasted ninety-nine years, after which he died.
Menāūs
He was succeeded by his son Menāūs. Menāūs was a giant, violent and cruel. He oppressed men, shed blood, and abused women. He drained the treasures of his fathers, and he built a castle of gold and silver; there he led channel that rolled down a sand made of gemstones. The beauty of this house exceeded that which should reasonably be done. At the same time he neglected the country’s affairs, and he took courtesans from the people and the honor from women, and took the women for himself before their marriage. Men of evil passions surrounded him on all sides; his subjects hated him, and his kingdom was cursed. If anyone resisted, he was thrown into the fire. Menāūs sent a giant named Ḳarmās, the descendant of Idris, son of Adam, against the peoples of the West. This captain killed many men with his own hand. He was the greatest hero of the time; then he died, and the king wept; he was, like the kings, buried in the pyramids. It is also said that they made him a tomb near which was erected a monument engraved with his name and the history of his campaigns.
Menāūs reigned seventy-three years and then died. He was buried in the pyramids with his ancestors, in a white marble sarcophagus decorated with gold leaf and precious stones. They laid with him many of his treasures, his riches, and his wonders.
Afrāūs
He was succeeded by his son Afrāūs. He was a prince skilled in all the sciences; he conducted himself in a manner opposite to that of his father, for he was fair to his subjects and he returned to their husbands the women that his father had taken. In his time was built a dome whose length was fifty cubits, and the breadth a hundred cubits, and on top of which were placed birds which continuously sang all kinds of songs with very melodious voices. The king erected in the middle of his capital a copper lighthouse, topped by a copper head of a man which cried out every hour. Every time they heard it scream, they knew that a new hour had begun, and anyone who listened knew the number of hours that had elapsed. He also made another lighthouse on which he placed a gilded copper dome, which he coated with various ointments; at sunset, the dome shone so brightly that much of the city was lit up like daylight. This light was extinguished neither by the winds nor by the rains, but when the daytime came, it dimmed before the light of the sun. It is said that this king gave to Darmashīl, king of Babel, an emerald bottle bigger than five spans, which he placed in the house of offerings. This bottle, it was added, was recovered after the Flood. They say he erected also in the eastern mountains a great idol, standing on a pedestal coated with yellow ointment, adorned with gold, whose face was always turned toward the sun, until that star set in the West; the statue then continued turning during the night, so as to reposition itself before the sun by morning.
It is said that Afrāūs wanted a son and that he married three hundred women in the hope that they would give him one, but his wish was not granted. Indeed, they say that in his time the wombs of women and beasts became sterile and death had begun to become rampant because the Almighty had resolved to destroy the world by flood. It is said that also in that time, the lions became so numerous that they threatened to enter houses. They tried to fight through protective talismans and machines designed to spray them; they moved away for a time and then returned. The people complained to the king, and pointed out to him that this was a frightening portent. The king ordered that they dig furrows and that they might fill these with fire to attract the lions by the smoke which the wind would carry over to them. It was so done, and the lions, attracted by the smell, came rushing out into those fires where they perished.
Under his reign cities were founded in the western region; they were watered by the Nile flood, along with most of the other cities of Egypt. But the rains stopped falling, the Nile water decreased, seeds perished in the drought under the too hot winds, and many other ailments overtook the people. They tried to defend themselves from the heat with talismans, but after stopping for a moment the burning winds began to blow anew.
It is reported that these fatal prodigies were accomplished by a magician whose wife once Menāūs had once stolen. By the resources of his art, the magician gradually undid the talismans of Egypt, as there exist before each talisman powers capable of destroying its power and other talismans capable of fighting it. This is what allowed Bokht-Naṣṣar the Persian to conquer Egypt, although it was defended by all its princes. When therefore this magician had nullified all the talismans, he unleashed on the country all kinds of calamities. He rendered futile any spells against crocodiles, and the Egyptians were plagued by many ills, especially by water deprivation, and punished in this terrible way, as long as they were not aware of the cause of their misfortunes. They discovered one day that one of the disciples of the magician, who reproached his master for the evil he did to his people, had his master irritated with him, and the magician blew in his face and took his sight. The disciple went to complain to the vizier of king; the vizier reported the matter to his sovereign. The king summoned the disciple, who appeared and informed the king of the true cause of these evils. So Afrāūs sent a company of armed men against the magician to seize him, but the magician saw the men coming and produced a smoke that obscured their view. From the smoke a fiery vapor emerged that spread between them and him. The soldiers, filled with fear, fled and returned to inform the king of what had happened to them.
The king ordered all magicians to assemble. Now this was the custom in their body they take an oath to the sovereign, pledging to serve faithfully, never betray him, and undertake against him no harmful action. If any of them broke his word, they razed his home, the tax authorities seized his property, and the sovereign had the right to put him to death with his family. Being thus bound before the kings, they dared not betray their oaths.
When all the magicians were gathered before Afrāūs, the prince explained to them the affair which occupied him, how the magician became unfaithful to his faith and how he had induced many calamities among the people. “If you cannot find way to fight him,” he added, “I will kill all of you.” The magicians asked for time to review the case. The king, having retained their women and children as hostages, gave it to them. When they left the palace, the magicians consulted each other by saying, “We know the science of Ajnās and the power of his magic; we can do nothing against him; it is the king Menāūs who failed in his faith and committed the outrage against him by taking his wife. But nevertheless we must save ourselves.” They then agreed to return to the king and ask him for permission to go to the magician, in order to obtain from him, by promises or threats, his agreement to appear before his sovereign, under the guarantee of safe conduct. The king, having listened, received their request favorably. They then repaired to Ajnās and said gently, “We are not unaware of your rights or of your power, and we know that the crimes of which they accuse you are not as large as those they have committed against you. The evils that you loosed on your people are nevertheless a regrettable revenge, and it is not good that you have made so many people perish for the outrage inflicted on you by King Menāūs. You punished our king today, a man to whom we are all bound by our oaths, for the crime committed by his father. In the end you will be punished yourself, and we believe that you are wrong to use your knowledge for evil and to persist in your wickedness, for without doubt you will end up despised by all, and your memory will be condemned.” When he heard this, the magician acceded to their wishes. They wrote to the king, who sent him a letter of safe conduct. Ajnās came to his sovereign, renewed his vows, and became obedient to him. The king, pleased with him, gave him back his wife. But the magician, after having received her with honor, made her leave the palace of Afrāūs, saying that his religion did not allow him to touch a woman who had been in the possession of the king, because of the reverence that people were required to have toward their rulers and the exalted view of their rights that they had to preserve. All the Egyptians learned of his conduct, rejoiced, and admired his judgment and wisdom. This magician no longer refused therefore to procure boons for the king and his subjects; he executed for them a multitude of charms and wonders.
Afrāūs, who reigned 64 years, died. He left neither children nor brothers. They buried him in the pyramid and laid beside him riches, treasures, jewels, and works of art that had been made during his reign.
Armālīnūs
The people elected to succeed him, by unanimous consent, a man of the royal family called Armālīnūs. This man, having newly come to power, assembled his subjects and said, “I see around you many nations which seek your destruction and which ponder invading your land. But I will defend your country, and I will protect your homes and your lives. Already the enemy crowds your borders and has begun to march toward your homes. I want to repel attacks and prevent them from reaching you. In order to do this, I need help from your wise men, and they must build for me works to spread terror and images of the wondrous virtues.” The people gave him their blessing and wished him success and prosperity. The sages said, “We will go with the king and fight his enemies in every place he wishes; we will be the servants of the army and we will stand by their head.” Things being thus settled, the king took his place at the head of a powerful army to fight these foreign nations. He inflicted upon them terrible defeats, and he returned with valuable spoils, leaving a body of soldier in front of the enemy. The defeated nations returned, set upon them from all sides in this rearguard action and routed them. Some of the soldiers who had taken part came to announce the defeat to the king, who was very angry. But as he had fallen ill during the campaign, because of the change in climate and in water, he put in command a son of his paternal uncle called Far‘ān, son of Maīsūr. This leader was a giant whom none could resist. He is the first man who bore the name of Pharaoh, and he then gave that name to those who resembled him. Historians of Egypt say that the first man who was thus titled Pharaoh was a servant of Walid, son of Dūma‘, the Amalekite [of the name of Kar‘ūd] who rebelled against his master after he returned from his journey to the sources of the Nile, and who built a city called the City of the Eagle, which he fortified. He was given the title of Pharaoh, and we will speak more of him later.
The king dispatched his cousin Far‘ān at the head of a powerful army; Far‘ān repelled the invaders and drove them to the sea. He returned, bringing back with him many heads and a multitude of captives. The king set up the heads around the city and massacred all the men capable of fighting. There was among them a priest that the king dismembered. This was the first time that this kind of torture had been used. Armālīnūs gave great honor to his cousin Far‘ān. He dressed him in beautiful clothes, decorated with jewels. He ordered that they dance around him and celebrate his virtues with songs. Then he gave him for a residence one of his palaces. One of the wives of the king, whom the sovereign loved, fell in love with love with Far‘ān; she sent him several messages to invite him to come and see her, but he refused out of respect for the king, for it was a great crime to touch one of his wives. But because she was so agitated over him, she was visited by a priest’s wife who was a sorceress. She spoke kindly to her, befriended her and told her of the love that she had inspired in Far‘ān; she told her what obstacles opposed their love, and she begged her to give her the means to overcome them. The sorceress gave her a magic smoke that enveloped her, so Far‘ān could easily approach her. With this charm, they learned that they loved each other. But when they had spent some time in that love, the woman remembered that she belonged to the king, and she feared that if he became aware of the crime, he might kill them both. So she told Far‘ān, “We must find a way to kill him. You are the son of his uncle, so power will devolve to you after his death, and we shall be saved.” The love he had for her made him agree to this plan. He procured poison and gave it to the woman; she poured it into the king’s drink, and he died on the spot. He was buried in the pyramid with his predecessors.
The first to reign in Egypt before the Flood was Naqrāūs. After the sons of Adam had committed injustice against each other, they gave themselves over to battle, and hegemony landed in the hands of the sons of Cain, the son of Adam. Then Naqrāūs the Giant, the son of Miṣraīm, the son of Marākil, the son of Dāwil, the son of ‘Arbāq, the son of Adam, along with seventy horsemen and some of the descendants of ‘Arbāq, all giants, sought a place to live apart from other men. This company walked until they had reached the Nile, and then they walked along the river and, having seen the extent of the country and its admirable beauty, they said: “This is a country with crops and fruits,” and they made their home there. This is the race that built the tallest buildings and most magnificent monuments.
Naqrāūs built Miṣr, and called this city by the name of his father Miṣraīm in order to receive his blessing. Naqrāūs was a giant, endowed with great courage and prodigious strength. Besides this, he was learned; he was the master of the race of djinn. He ruled over the sons of his father and his authority grew continuously. He collected the science that the angel Darābīl had taught to Adam, and by these means he kept under his yoke the giants, his companions; these are the princes who built monuments, erected high towers, and executed the wonderful works; who produced talismans, exploited the mines, and tamed the kings of the earth all around them. Nobody could do anything to oppose them, for all perfect science was in the possession of the Egyptians. Their secrets are engraved on stones. They say Philemon, who went with Noah into the ark, is the one who wrote their inscriptions and who composed their books.
Consequently, King Naqrāūs ordered the building of a city he called Amsūs. He erected buildings whose height was a hundred cubits; they sowed and they cultivated its territory. He also built other cities and other towns, and he settled in them men who had found their way into the land of Egypt. The inhabitants of these cities channeled the Nile and brought its water near to their homes. Previously, the course of the river was not regular; it formed marshes and was divided into branches on the ground. The king sent workers to Nubia to regularize its course, and they dug a channel that ran through the middle of the city of Amsūs. Along this channel plantations were made. The wealth of the country increased, and the land became populated. Naqrāūs drew great glory from the kingdom he ruled.
In the one hundred and eightieth year of his reign, he gave orders to erect towers and engrave on them the secrets of science. Then he ordered the building of a dome resting on pillars sealed with lead. He gave it a height of one hundred cubits.
He placed on top a mirror of chrysolite seven spans in size, which could see for a very great distance. We read in the sheets of the Egyptians that the king asked the teacher he had with him to inform him of the source of the Nile. The djinn carried him beyond the line of the equator, above the Black Sea of pitch and walked with him to the Mountains of the Moon. Then he took him out into the marshes. It is said that this prince there built the temple of the idols and there raised up a temple to the sun.
He then returned to Amsūs and divided the land among his sons; he gave to Naqrāūs (II) the western part, to Sūrīd the eastern part, and to his youngest son, named Miṣrām, a city he named Yarbiān, where he lived. There he erected towers in large numbers, he watered it with canals, and he planted trees there. At Amsūs he executed many wonders, among others a bird that whistled twice each day, at sunrise and twice at sunset, with various whistles, which permitted the prediction of future events in order to prepare for them. He divided the course of the water in the city between twenty-eight channels; in the middle he placed two black stone idols. When a thief broke into the city, he could not leave and he died, for these two idols would close in on him as he passed them; they had also other wonderful properties. The king placed in Yarbiān a gilded copper figure standing on a lighthouse so tall that it was forever in the clouds. When they desired rain, they obtained it from that statue; it was destroyed in the flood. He installed on the borders hollow copper idols, which he filled with tar; a spirit of fire guarded them. When a man driven by evil intentions approached them, these idols vomited fire from their mouths and burned him.
The boundaries of the countries to the west side of Egypt were at a distance of several days’ journey, and all that space was filled with palaces and gardens. It was the same on the side of the sea, and in the Ṣa‘īd until the country of ‘Alwah. The king erected on Mount Baṭras a lighthouse from which gushed water.
The reign of Naqrāūs was 180 years. When he died, his body was embalmed with unguents of musk; they laid him in a gold coffin and they made him an ark coated with gold, in which were placed with him treasures that cannot be assessed: precious stones of all kinds, chrysolite figures, various gems in gold or in color, worked with utmost perfection. They engraved on his tomb the date of his death, and all that they placed talismans, to repel reptiles and vermin from the edifice, and anyone who would dig it up, man or djinn.
Naqrāūs (II)
After him reigned his son Naqrāūs (II). He was violent and arrogant. He built a city called Jaljalah; he designed a garden there, and he adorned the walls with tiles of gold and colored stones; he made all kinds of trees and fruits grow there, and he circulated many channels, and commanded them to erect towers and other monuments, and to inscribe atop them all the sciences. On these were represented different species of plants, and above each was engraved its name and uses. The king had a companion Satan who made him wonderful idols. He was the first man who built a temple to Miṣr. There he installed the idols of the seven stars; they inscribed above them their influences, favorable or unfavorable, and clothed them. A priest was assigned to the temple, with auxiliaries. Naqrāūs made a trip to the West and walked until he reached the circular ocean beside which he set up monuments. There he built towers and placed at the tops of them idols whose eyes shone as lights in the night. Then he returned from the country of Sudan to the Nile. He ordered the building of a wall on one side of the Nile, and pierced it with doors for the flow of the water.
In the desert of the West, behind Wāḥāt (the oasis), the king founded three cities on pillars that were crowned with transparent and colored stones. In one of these cities, he placed the treasures of wisdom, and this city is the first and most famous of the wonders of the land. In another, he erected an idol of the Sun, which is the greatest of the Egyptian idols; it was erected in a very high temple. It has the figure of a winged man of gold and azure. His two eyes are two precious stones. He sits on a magnetic throne, holding in his hand the sheets of the sciences. The city also contains another idol with a human head and a bird’s body, to which is attached an image of a woman in solidified quicksilver. This woman is sitting and has one lock of hair; in her hand is a mirror, and on her head the image of a star; and she lifts the mirror up to her face. There one might also have seen a vessel where seven types of oil flow without mixing and without their color altering the color of any other, and also one sitting sheikh who has before him a seated child. All these objects are very rich and made of precious materials.
In the second treasury is the figure of Hermes, the king; he regards a table of salt placed in front of him on red copper feet, the middle of which are types of sheets of a red substance, on which are recorded several secret arts. This treasure also includes the figure of a raven in emerald with eyes of red hyacinth, having before him a snake of silver azure, whose tail is between his feet and whose head is raised as if to leap up. Next is the figure of a warrior on horseback holding in his hand a bronze sword. One might also see jasper columns that support a gold dome containing an idol of Mars; then a lapis lazuli dome on four pillars, atop which are images of the Sun and the Moon, in the form of a man and woman; and a red copper dome containing the idol of Venus in the figure of a woman, having beneath it a man in emerald; the man holds a book that contains secrets that he seems to read.
The king placed in the other treasuries wealth, jewels, and ornaments in quantities that cannot be assessed. On the gate of every city, he placed talismans consistently varied forms, to defend the entrances. He filled each with gemstones, emeralds, gold, silver, and red copper, all kinds of works of art, compounded ointments, and deadly poisons. He marked each door with a sign to designate it, and he dug beneath a subterranean passage. Between Jaljalah, which is the city in which he had designed the garden, and each of the three other cities, the distance was twenty miles; and between the three cities, seven miles. The city of Jaljalah was connected to his other cities through underground passages, and even the others were connected to each other. We find the description of these wonderful cities in each town of Egypt, engraved on stones, and in all the ancient books of the Egyptians, and especially in the temples of the stars. We read in the books of ancient priests the story of King Naqrāūs, with everything we reported, and the mention of several other wonders enacted in his time and which perished in the Flood, or were buried under the sands when the power of the talismans ceased.
Naqrāūs reigned 167 years and then died. They made him a sepulcher and laid wonders in large numbers there with him. He had designated as his successor his son Miṣrām.
Miṣrām
Miṣrām, son of Naqrāūs, built a marble temple to the Sun covered with gold, in which he placed a horse of an azure substance, ridden by a figure of the Sun in red gold; he draped around the statue silk veils, and commanded the burning of incense before it. And he put in the temple a clear glass candelabra decorated with a rotating stones which gave off light better than any torch. Then he established the priests, and he designated four festivals to celebrate each year. It is said that Egypt (Miṣr) is so called after his name, and that Miṣrām, son of Ham, was also thus called after him, because he found his name engraved on the stones; Philemon, the priest, had taught him the history of Egypt.
This Miṣrām had a lion that served as his mount, and he had for a companion the djinn who had served his father. While that djinn lived, he devoted himself to the care of the temples and worship of the stars; but the djinn ordered him to hide from the eyes of men, and he lit his face with a light so great that no one could look at him. He was then thought of as a god. He stayed well-hidden for three years, and he appointed to reign in his place one of the descendants of ‘Arbāq who was a priest.
It is said that while Miṣrām was raised in this state, the Satans prevailed in the middle of the sea. There they made for him the White Fortress, and they placed above it an idol of the Sun, on which they inscribed his name and the history of his reign. They also erected a copper idol on which they wrote: “I am Miṣrām the Giant, the discoverer of secrets, the conqueror, the ruler; I established talismans of safety, images that speak, and boundaries in the sea which stop incoming sailors. Thus we know that after me there will be no other kings like me, and all this happened in times of great happiness.” There was in the garden of the prince a tree that gave all kinds of fruit, a red crystal dome having atop it an idol that turned with the sun. The Satans were attendants of his guard when the night would come, and they prevented anyone from leaving the realm.
Miṣrām was the first to build hot baths. The people of Egypt wanted to see him again, and he sent two of his lieutenants. He then commanded the people to come together in a high room, and he appeared to them as a figure so majestic that their hearts were seized with terror. They worshiped him and they invoked him, and he brought them food and drink. They ate and drank, and then they returned home. After that day, they never saw him again. This king was more learned in the art of the soothsayers than any of his ancestors.
‘Anqām the Priest
After him reigned ‘Anqām the priest. He was a righteous king. He built a wonderful city near al-Arīsh, which he covered in defenses and powerful talismans. It is said that Idris appeared in his time. He lived for only a short time.
‘Arbāq
After him reigned his son ‘Arbāq bin ‘Anqām. He was a tyrant. He was the first to give himself over to hunting wild animals. He executed wonders, including an iron tree with branches, which he covered with compounded drugs. It attracted wild beasts of every kind, which made hunting them easy. We then read in the books of the Egyptians that Harut and Marut appeared in his time. They taught the Egyptians all sorts of incantations, and after the Flood they decamped into the land of Babel. ‘Arbāq was instructed by them. A captive used a ruse against the king and poisoned him. His death remained secret for a while. When they had grown impatient at having no news of him, a young man, a son of Naqrāūs named Lūjīm, came to attack him with a company of men. They found him lying on his bed, half decomposed. They lit a fire to burn him. Then they gathered the women who were in the garden and all his other wives, and they burned them with him. They freed the captives and returned them to their families. The people were in great joy.
Lūjīm
Lūjīm then reigned. He showed himself to the people, wearing the crown of his father, and he sat on his throne. He gathered the men before him, and he reminded them how ‘Arbāq was unjust and tyrannical, how he committed outrages against women, shed blood, ruined temples, and insulted priests. He said he was the heir of his father and grandfather, and more worthy of their heritage than any other. He promised the people that he would govern with meekness and justice, look after their affairs, and to keep clear of all evil. The assistants were satisfied with his words and replied: “You are worthy of the kingdom; we wish you prosperity throughout your life.” Then they retired joyfully. He ordered the restoration and expansion of the temples. He surrounded himself with priests; he venerated them and walked in the way of justice. Crows multiplied extraordinarily in his time, devastating the crops. We read that he built four copper lighthouses, one on each side of Amsūs, and placed in each lighthouse the image of a raven holding a snake that turned had against him. After that the Egyptians ceased to suffer from these birds down to the Flood, in which the lighthouses were destroyed.
Khaṣlīm
Among the kings of Egypt is Khaṣlīm. This king had a sorceress sister who possessed a remarkably intelligent and beautiful slave. He fell in love with this girl, and asked his sister to give her to him as a wife. She refused. The king insisted. She was irritated, walked away, and built a temple where she went to render service to Venus for some time. Then she saw Venus appear to her and talk to her. The goddess commanded her to deliver the girl to her brother and forbade her to hinder this union any longer. She obeyed. When the girl had come to the place where the king was, he esteemed her and loved her more than any other woman, and she gave him a son who was his only son. But other women became jealous and they began to plot her ruin. The main vizier of the king, knowing the love that the king had for her, came to visit her every day and was eager to satisfy all her requests. The women took advantage of this circumstance to make accusations against her and the vizier to satisfy their envy and hatred. So they spoke to the king with all the cunning with which they were capable; the king listened, and he ordered the death of the woman and the vizier, without informing his sister or any of the sages. But the news spread; someone brought word to the king’s sister, who dispatched a letter to the one who had orders to kill, asking him to have mercy on them until she could see the king. She ran to her brother and said: “What order did you give regarding your vizier and your slave-girl?” He said, “I learned about them doing such and such a thing.” “Can you decide on the death penalty,” she said, “in such a serious matter on uncertain clues, and without consulting with the wise men or with the nobles of your kingdom?” He said, “I could not control myself.” “Kings,” she replied, “should not decide in haste before studying the whole affair.” Thereupon the king commanded their execution be stayed. He conducted an investigation, and he recognized the falsity of the information. He immediately expelled from his palace all the women who had taken part.
Khaṣlīm was the first to construct a nilometer (miqiās) to measure the Nile flood. He assembled scientists and surveyors who raised a crystal house on the banks of the Nile; they placed in the middle a small copper pool that contained in it a weighed quantity of water and on the side of the pool they placed two copper eagles, male and female. At the beginning of the month when the flood begins, they went to the house; the priests entered it in the presence of the king, and discoursed to him until one of the two eagles whistled. If it were the male whistling, they knew that the flood would be normal or higher than normal; if it were the female, it would be below normal. Moreover, they knew the height of the flood because each finger by which the pool increased corresponded to a cubit more of flood height in the Nile. When they had built this nilometer, they drained the fields, built bridges, and erected across the Nile the large bridge that still exists today in the land of Nubia.
The son of the king was called Harṣāl, son of the eunuch of Venus, because of a vision which his sister had had. This child was nurtured by his aunt; she gave him a much sought-after education and married him to twenty women selected from the daughters of the greatest princes. She built for him a city of many wonders that she adorned and decorated with paintings; she constructed gardens and built a hot bath mounted on columns in which the water was always warm without the need for a fire. Khaṣlīm died and was placed in his tomb.
Harṣāl
After him reigned his son Harṣāl. Harṣāl removed himself to an underground palace and lived there. He built a city which is one of the richest in wonders. In the middle of it he placed an idol of the Sun revolved with this star, in the evening watching the West and the East in the morning. They say it was he who built the first subterranean passage beneath the Nile. He left his kingdom in disguise, crossed the land and the other nations, until he arrived at Babel. He saw that the kings of this country had done wonders: he learned the state of the empire, the mode of its government, and the manner in which it dealt with it affairs. Noah, it is said, was born in his time.
Harṣāl had twenty children, near to each of which he placed a Nāzir, that is to say, a chief priest. The Copts say that after reigning for 27 years, he retired to the temple which had been built by his father, in order to live alone. The affairs of his people continued to go well for seven years, but dissent and disputes then emerged among the brothers he had sired. The chief priests met among themselves to choose a king who would bring the others back into obedience. They assembled in the king’s palace; the chief priest stood up, made a speech, recalled the merits of Harṣāl, the prosperity of the empire under his rule, and the benefits he had sown, and then said how the assembly thought it necessary to elect a new king from among the brothers. He added that if Harsâl were alive and came back, he would not blame them for having done so, because they had to maintain his kingdom and to prevent its ruin, but that if he did not return, the new king would be his successor as was the custom. The others approved of his speech and they chose to rule the eldest son of the king, named Qadrashān.
Qadrashān
Qadrashān walked in the footsteps of his father; the people gave him great praise. He built a palace of wood which he decorated with beautiful paintings, where he represented the stars, and which were stretched out on mats. He had this palace carried out onto the water and went there to amuse himself. One day while he was there, there arose a great wind and the Nile suddenly surged. The palace broke apart, and the king drowned. He had sent his brothers to the cities of the interior, and he was content with just one wife, his uncle’s daughter. She had given him a son, who remained his only son. The woman was a sorceress; through her enchantments she induced the king to love her; he became isolated in his enjoyment of her pleasure, and he discharged his affairs through one of his viziers. When he died, as we have said, the woman hid the news; she continued to send orders and defensive actions via the vizier, and the people remained obedient for a space of nine years. But when the king’s brothers saw that his absence was prolonged, they assembled large forces and placed at their head one of their own, Shamrūd (variant: Nimrod) the Giant, and went to Amsūs. The sorceress, Qadrashān’s wife, was warned of their approach; she ordered the vizier to meet them and give them battle; this he did, but he was defeated and killed, along with many of his soldiers. The attackers entered the city of Amsūs. They entered the royal residence, and, not seeing the king, they were certain of his death and recognized that his wife had enacted a ruse.
Shamrūd
Shamrūd, the son of Harṣāl and brother of Qadrashān, sat on the throne and ruled the people. His reign was happy; he changed what had been displeasing in his brother’s government and, having taken possession of his wealth and its treasures, he divided them among his other brothers. He wanted to find the sorceress and her son to put them to death. But he had not a lick of news, because this woman had gone to her hometown in the Ṣa‘īd, in the bosom of her relatives who were all magicians and priests. She implored their aid, spoke to them, made them know that her son should be king after his father because his father had appointed him, and ordered that she herself should have a share in this wish. They believed her and saw that the young man was expelled from his kingdom and that Nimrod had unjustly deprived him, so they armed themselves in large numbers for his defense. The son of the sorceress set himself at their head and marched against Shamrūd. His mother had prepared all sorts of talismans capable of killing and incendiary machines. Shamrūd and his brothers came for a meeting with a great horde following armed men; but they were routed and dispersed into the mountains. The son of the magician entered the king’s palace, sat on the throne, and donned the tiara of his father. He reigned, following in his father’s footsteps, under the name Tūsidūn.
Tūsidūn
Tūsidūn was young; his mother ruled for him. He killed all those who had been supporters of Shamrūd, and he searched for them himself until they had been found. They seized the defeated king and brought him back in shackles. Tūsidūn gathered the people to display him. They attached the head of the captive to one pillar and his feet to another; his size, say the Copts, was twenty cubits. The queen confined him in a house and entrusted him to men of her guard, who were ordered to kill him on the day of the feast. But Shamrūd uttered so great a cry in the night that one of the guards died of fright and the others fled. When the queen learned of this incident, he was ordered to lie on the ground, and she came in person ordered to light a fire near him. Then she commanded that they cut off his limbs one after the other, and throw them into the fire. This was done, and so an end was made of him.
The king grew up and became a priest, astrologer, and magician; the Satans built him a spherical glass dome, which turned once while the celestial sphere turned twice. They represented on it the stars above, and with this device they knew the secrets of nature and the sciences of the world. After he had reigned six years, the king lost his mother; she had recommended that he deposit her body under an idol of the moon after it had been embalmed. After her death, she continued to teach various wonders and answer them when they questioned her. The people worshiped her son, because he presented himself in different forms. He ruled for a hundred years. At his death, he ordered the creation of a transparent glass idol in two pieces to place around his body after it was coated in spices, welding the two parts of the idol together and standing it in the temple. They celebrated a festival for him every year in which they brought offerings to him. He also commanded that they bury his treasures under him. They did as he had ordered.
Sarbaq
After him his son Sarbaq reigned. He walked in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. A man from the descendants of Ṭarbis, son of Adam, from the land of Iraq, had made himself master of Syria, and had planned to conquer Egypt. But he knew he would not be able to fulfill this design because of the skill of the Egyptians in magic, so he devised to come to Egypt in disguise, to get to know men and to learn some of their secrets. He came with a small band of companions and they reached a fortress located on the borders of Egypt. The guards asked them their intentions. They replied that they were merchants, and they were looking for a country where they could settle and bring their wealth. They kept them in prison and sent to the king a report about them. Now the king had a dream in which he had been on the top of a lighthouse; a large bird had swooped down on him to snatch him up, and in his fear, he had moved aside to the point of almost falling off the lighthouse; the bird passed him by without hurting him. The king awoke full of fright, summoned the chief priest, and told him of his vision. The priest told him that a king coveted his kingdom, and might seize it. The priest, through observations, then knew that this king had already entered the country. The king of Egypt made a closer examination of the report that the guardians of the fortress had sent him. He sent some of his companions to secure the strangers and bring them to him, ordering them to travel through all the provinces of Egypt and show them the talismans, idols, and various wonders they contained. These fellows then took the captives to Alexandria, and then they brought them to Amsūs. They made them see the wonders and the garden founded by Miṣrām and different magical images. The foreigners, filled with wonder at what they had seen, were then presented to King Sarbaq. The priests who surrounded him made all sorts of wonders appear; they lit a fire before the king which would not let anyone approach but friends, denying entry to hose who would hurt the king or who harbored any evil design against him. They made the captives pass one by one before the fire that was not injurious to any of them. The foreign prince came last, and when he approached there, the flame fell upon him, and he recoiled in terror. Sarbaq then questioned him, made threats, learned his intentions, and ordered his death. They brought him into the fortress where he was arrested; he was attached to the side of the gallows facing Syria, against a large stone column bearing the inscription, “This is so-and-so, son of such-and-such, who reigned over Syria; he secretly desired the ruin of this realm, and he sought what he could not achieve, motivated by an unjust and sinful thought. This is the reason he was punished.” They let his companions go, saying: “You should perish for joining a man who wanted the ruin of this empire, but the king has pity on you. He commands you to leave the country and never to return.” They fled, happy to be unharmed. They rehearsed all the wonders they had seen to everyone they met, and kings, hearing of it, abandoned any thought of undertaking anything against Egypt.
In Sarbaq’s time many wonders were executed. Among other things, the king erected a duck of copper in his capital, high up on columns; when a stranger came from any side and any gate, this duck fluttered and sang. It stopped the stranger, who was made to give an account of his intentions. He also led a canal from the Nile to the cities of the West, and on its banks were erected mansions and monuments; and he planted trees on its banks. Sarbaq reigned 130 years.
Sahlūq
He was succeeded by his son Sahlūq. Sahlūq was a scientist, astronomer, and priest. He reigned in righteousness. He shared accurately measured Nile water between several branches, and he sent the water into the various regions. He organized the administration and established seven castes in the empire. The first caste included the king, his children, his household, the head of the judiciary, the chief priests, the grand vizier, the keeper of the royal seal, and the keeper of the treasury. The second caste included officers of various ranks, responsible for collecting taxes, monitoring production in the kingdom, and presiding over business, agriculture, and the sharing of the waters. The third caste was composed of priests; the servants of the temples and their eunuchs; the king’s valets and stewards, responsible for collecting fruits, perfumes, small cattle and sheep, male chicks and other similar things for the king’s table; and the butlers and other such officers. In the fourth caste were astronomers, doctors, philosophers, etc. The fifth were the leaders of agriculture, attendant to crops and the breeding of horses. In the sixth were the masters of trades and purveyors of food, the inspectors charged with examining every year the products of the different arts, the experts whose mission was to identify key masterpieces and bring them to the treasury of the king. Finally, the seventh caste included the hunters for hunting wild beasts, birds, and lions, with officials responsible for collecting their blood, gall, fat, and flesh for doctors, who made them into drug compounds. This king ordered that an artisan belonging to a profession had no right to change to another. He instituted punishment for bad workers and rewards for good ones. The buffoons and singers were classified in the royal caste.
This same prince also build cities and erected monuments and lighthouses; he introduced new methods into the arts, regularized the course of the waters, and made the trees produce extraordinary fruit. On the high mountains he placed stones that divided the wind, which barred the passage to foreigners as well as birds, lions, and wild beasts. He reigned over his people in equity and in righteousness. Each class of men he matched to a class of priests who taught them from their infancy. These priests reported to the king every day all that they heard said.
He also constructed a temple with illuminated domes and therein lit a perpetual fire in honor of light. The Copts believe that he was the first man who built a temple to fire. It is said that Jam, the Persian, who also built a temple to fire and who instituted its worship in Persia, did so in imitation of Sahlūq, the king of Egypt. The reason that brought Sahlūq to institute this worship is as follows.
He had a dream in which his father appeared to him and told him: “Take yourself over the mountains of Egypt. You will see an opening made in such a way; at the entrance of this opening you will find a viper with two heads who, upon seeing you, will show you its teeth. Take with you two little birds, male and female; when you see the viper, offer them to it and throw them to it. It will take both their heads and go hide in a hole near the opening. Enter there, and advance to the bottom of the cave. You will see a large woman of hot and dry light, having a dazzling face and giving off a great heat. Do not approach her because you will be burned, but stand still before her and greet her. She will respond to you. Listen to her words and meditate on that which she will have told you; this will give you much glory because this woman guards the treasures of your grandfather Miṣrām, deposited by him under the marvelous cities.” After these words the vision disappeared. Sahlūq, waking, began to ponder this dream with astonishment, and he resolved to do what his father had commanded him. He went up to the mountain, carrying the two birds, and he executed all the requirements of his father, until he reached the woman. He bowed; she asked him if he knew her. He replied, “No, I’ve never seen you before now.” She continued: “I am the idol of fire revered among departed nations. I want to ensure that my memory will be preserved. Build me a temple; light a single and perpetual flame; institute in my honor an annual festival, to be celebrated in your presence and that of your people. I promise in return assistance that will increase your glory and strengthen your empire; I will turn away from you anyone who would want to harm you, and I will uncover the treasures of your grandfather Miṣrām.” Sahlūq assured the divinity of his obedience, and she uncovered the treasures his grandfather hid under the wonderful cities, telling him how to reach them and how to retrieve them from the spirits guarding them. When she had finished, he asked her how he could see her again when he would need to inquire of her. She said, “In terms of this place, return her no more; but when you desire to see me, throw in the fire what I have commanded of you, being such and such things,” and she enumerated them, teaching him the offerings, the sacrifices, and the balms that he should offer. “Then,” she added, “I will speak with you, and I will inform you about all the good and bad events taking place in your country.” The king, at these words, felt a great joy. Then the figure disappeared and the viper returned. He immediately departed, and when he had gone out of this place, he closed up the opening. He began to execute immediately that which he was commanded to do. Having discovered the treasures of his grandfather, he transported countless wonders to Amsūs and other cities.
Among these treasures was a dome mounted on seven pillars. We read in the pages of the Copts that this dome is called the Dome of Judgment. It was built as the result of an unfair judgment by a priest. A man of the people had come to the priest to denounce his wife, complaining of being rejected by her. He loved her immensely, he said, but she hated him, and he asked the priest to compel her to appear. This woman was of the family of the priest. He sided with her over her husband and ordered him to send her away. The husband did not obey, and the priest put him in jail and treated him with great harshness. Now this man was a craftsman, and he brought together all those of his companions who were aware of his case and the conduct of his wife, and knew how badly she treated him and how good he was to her. These people recognized the injustice of the priest and they denounced him to the king’s minister. The priest was summoned and interrogated before him. He replied that he had ruled that according to justice. The minister summoned after him the chief priest and those witnesses the artisan had gathered. They were unanimous in recognizing the unfairness of the sentence passed by the priest. Thereupon the minister released the prisoner and installed the priest in his place, and he commanded that the woman be punished and brought back to her husband. The whole case was then reported to the king, who decided that this priest would be removed from the priestly rank and held in prison so long as it pleased him.
But the king retained a certain disquiet regarding this affair; he feared that the same thing would happen with other priests, and that his authority and his people would suffer if justice were not rendered as he wished. He spent the night disturbed and in meditation, and, come morning, he consulted the deity with the formulas, perfumes, and incense she had indicated to him. The idol appeared to him and spoke to him. He begged her to build an instrument that would enable him to recognize an injustice with certainty and to distinguish the oppressor and the oppressed. The idol commanded him to build a temple on heptagonal plan and are open seven doors, one on each side. In between he was told to raise a yellow copper dome, atop which he should paint the seven stars. On the first door he was to put the image of a recumbent lion and before him that of a lioness lying on copper. He was to make an offering of a lion in this area and perform honors by burning the hair of the beast. On the second door he was to place the image of a bull and a cow; he was to sacrifice a calf and perform honors by burning the hair of the beast. On the third door, the image of a pig and the female, the sacrifice of a pig, and the burning of its hair. The fourth door, the image of a ram and a ewe, the sacrifice of a lamb, and the burning of its hair. The fifth door, the image of a fox and its mate, at which he was to sacrifice an eaglet and burn its plumage. He was to stain the faces of all these images with the blood of the victims, and then burn the rest, and place offerings in the ashes under the doorsteps. He was to establish temple servants and maintain in this temple torches lit day and night for seven days. “When you have done all this,” the divinity told him, “allocate each of the seven castes that you set up to one of the seven gates; the door of the lion is for the royal caste and the other doors to other castes, according to their order. When people will approach one of these images for trial, the guilty will be bound there, the image will grab him in a violent embrace, and the torment and suffering will be so great that he will confess the truth. The male image would deal with men and the female image the women. Thus you will be able to distinguish between the oppressor and the oppressed. When a righteous man will be called before any of these images, nothing will happen to him; when it is a guilty one, he will bow his legs, his tongue will be paralyzed, and he will be unable to move until justice is given to his opponent.” The king hastened to build this temple on the plan that had been given to him, and he executed it with the utmost perfection. Once completed, he was freed from the worries caused him by governing men, being certain, thanks to these images, that none of them could injure another with impunity. This temple survived until the Flood; it perished then with many other wonders of Egypt.
Under the reign of Sahlūq many monuments were erected. They wrote on sheets his life and the wonders he had wrought, and how to compose various drugs and manufacture automatons. He ordered that they deposit these treatises, along with the sheets on which his life story were written and his treasures, in the tomb he had prepared. He had built this tomb in the western region, and there secrets and wonders were placed. When he died, his orders were executed.
After him his son Sūrīd reigned. Sūrīd and all the people of the kingdom were saddened at the death of Sahlūq in a way never testified at the death of any other king. Sahlūq reigned 443 years. His court and many of his subjects remained before his tomb for one month to wail and lament. They set up guards to watch over his grave and priests to maintain everything in it.
Sūrīd
Sūrīd sat on the throne of his father. He walked in the footsteps of Sahlūq in justice and fairness, attended to the development of agriculture in the land, ruled his subjects with gentleness, and even shared with them his assets and those of his relatives. He was the first to establish a property tax in Egypt, and to impose one on artisans within their means; the first also who ordered welfare for the sick and infirm at the expense of the treasury. He built lighthouses, erected monuments, and fashioned talismans and temples. During his reign the empire saw the greatest prosperity it had ever experienced. The people loved him and showered him with praise.
He built a mirror of a compound substance in which he saw the climates of the world with their inhabited parts and deserted parts and everything that happened in them. This mirror was placed in a copper lighthouse in the middle of the city of Amsūs. The Copts say that it was fashioned primarily in Misr. It showed all the travelers who came to Egypt from all directions, and they therefore could take precautions against them. This king was also the first who kept records, in which he wrote every day about what had happened and what he had done; he placed these sheets in his library, and at the end of each month he carried them to the treasury, with the papers of the ancient kings, after having affixed his seal. He extracted what was best in this record and had it engraved on stone. He even collected the masterpieces that were executed in his time, the marvels that were produced there; and he rewarded by generous donations that makers of these masterpieces.
In the middle of the capital he erected a statue of a woman sitting and holding a child to her breast as though to breastfeed. Any woman who had disease afflicting a part of her body could touch the corresponding portion of the body of the statue, and the malady would cease; so if her milk were to decline, she touched the statue’s breasts and it would increase; if she wanted to curry favor with her husband, she touched the statue’s face with fragrant grease, saying, “Get me this or that.” If a woman had a sick child, she did the same with the child of the statue, and it was healed; if her children had a difficult character, she touched the child’s head, and they grew sweeter. Young women also found relief, and if an adulterous woman were to put her hand on the statue, she felt a disorder so deep that despite herself she confessed her crime. [The French translator has obscured this line to avoid sexual language.] For issues that concerned the night they visited the statue at night, and for issues that concerned the day, they visited during the day. This idol performed many wonders until the time of the Flood, when it was destroyed. However, we read in a Coptic book she was only erected after the Flood and that the Egyptians of that time went to visit it and made it into a cult. Its image is reproduced in all of Egypt’s temples and painted in many colors. It is said that the creators of this idol were the disciples of Philemon the priest. It is they who also taught the Egyptians all their arts. We’ll talk about them later in this book.
Sūrīd executed many more marvels, among them the idol called Bokras, which was composed of several substances used in medicine. This idol had the property of combatting various diseases and poisons. They knew by it which patients were likely to recover; these were treated and fed according to certain signs that appeared in the idol, and the patients returned to health. Often the treatment involved washing the part of the statue corresponding to the one in which the patient was suffering and making the patient drink the water that had been used for this ablution. This soon saw the malady end.
Sūrīd is the builder of the two pyramids that are attributed to Shaddad ibn ’Ad. The Copts deny that either the ’Adites or the Amalekites ever invaded their country because they say the Egyptians could defend themselves with their magic against any who attacked them. Al-Harabiun [sic for the Harranians] says the same. Abu Ma‘shar reported this opinion in his Book of Thousands.
The reason Sūrīd built the pyramids was the vision that we have reported in its proper place. He sent for his priests and astronomers and told them how he saw the sphere had descended to him in the guise of a woman, how the land with all its inhabitants had been overturned, and how the sun had been eclipsed. They then foretold to him the Deluge with all its circumstances.
This fact is told in a history book which was transmitted to the Copts by two brothers and found in a tomb on the chest of one of the corpses. The Copts say that these two men were the descendants of an Egyptian from ancient Egypt who escaped the rising deluge with Noah in the ark. He had believed the prophet, and he took his two sons with him. It is said he was a son of Misrâm, son of Ham; he was an eminent and highly educated person. It is written in the book that King Sūrīd built three cities in the Sa’id and placed there many wonders. Later we will have occasion to speak again of these two brothers.
Thus, we read in this book that Sūrīd, son of Sahlūq, having had the aforementioned vision, shared it with Philemon, the chief priest, and ordered the priests to consult the stars, to determine which events threatened the greatest part of the world. They immediately began their observations; they studied the sky very carefully and discovered a prodigy coming down from heaven and up from the earth would consume almost all men: this prodigy was to be a great flood, after which nothing would remain. The king asked if this event would recur several times or if it should be finished once and for all. They observed more and replied that the human race with its empires and all things on earth would reappear as they were before. Then the king ordered the construction of temples and great monuments, for himself and his family, in order to safeguard their bodies and all their riches, which they would deposit within. He inscribed on the ceilings, on the roofs, on the walls, and on columns, all the secrets of science, in which the Egyptians excelled more than any other nation; and he had painted a picture of the great stars and lesser stars, with signs that permitted their recognition. He also engraved the names of plants and their properties, how to construct talismans, their descriptions, and the rules of mathematics and geometry. All who know the books and the language of Egypt can make use of these images and inscriptions.
The priests told the king that when the following events took place, they would occur over the whole world except for a very small part, and the time of their realization would be when the heart of the Lion would be in the first minute of the head of Cancer, with the planets occupying the following positions: the moon in conjunction with the sun would be in the first minute of Aries; Zaus [Zeus], that is to say, Jupiter, would be at 29° of Pisces; Mars 28° 5′ of the same constellation; Aphrodite or Venus at 29° 3′; Hermes or Mercury at 27°; Saturn in Libra; and the apogee of the moon at 5° and a few minutes of Leo. The King, having heard the report, said to the priests, “Now look to see whether after this event there will come another from heaven onto the earth that will be the opposite of it, I mean to say, the destruction of the world by fire.” They informed him that it would be so. “Look then,” he said, “to see when this will happen.” They resumed their observations and found that this deluge of fire would take place when the Heart of the Lion would be in the final minute of 10° of Leo; the Sun would be in the same minute in conjunction with Saturn and in trine compared to the Head; Mars would be in Leo in an oblique passage; and Mercury in the same minute as he; Siline (Selene; i.e., the Moon) in Aquarius, in conjunction with the Tail, in twelve parts; Venus opposite her on a straight path; and Mars in Leo on a straight path. At that moment the sun will cover the earth in a manner heretofore unknown. The priests brought all this to the king and said: When the Heart of the Lion will have completed two thirds of a revolution, there will be no living animal on earth that will not be stricken and die, and when it will have completed a full revolution, the system of the spheres will be destroyed.
The king ordered the construction of tall monuments, the cleaving of huge slabs, the extraction of lead from the land of the West, and the rolling in of stones from the region of Aswan; these great black rocks were drawn on chariots. He laid the foundations of the three pyramids, Eastern, Western and Colored; the last of these was entirely made of white and black colored stones. It is said that the builders had palm wood sheets covered in writing, and after having extracted every stone and having it cut, they placed over each stone one of these sheets; they then gave a blow to the stone, and it traveled far beyond the reach of sight. They came back close to it and did the same again until they had led it to its assigned place. Craftsmen then carved each slab so as to affix in the middle an iron rod; they placed over it another slab with a hole in its center, and the rod entered the hole. They then poured lead around the slab and into the hole so that the adjustment was perfect.
They decorated the pyramids with paintings, inscriptions, and figures capable of confounding the imagination. The doors were placed forty cubits underground, in subterranean passages made of lead and stone; the length of each underground passage was one hundred fifty cubits. The door of the eastern pyramid was on its east side, a distance of one hundred cubits from the middle of the face. The door of the western pyramid was on its west side, also at the distance of one hundred cubits from the middle of the face; it corresponded with the door of the subterranean passage. The door to the colored pyramid, in stones of two colors, was on its north side, one hundred cubits from the middle of its face; they dug until they reached the door of the corresponding subterranean passage and thus passed into the door of the pyramid. The height of each of the pyramids was a hundred royal cubits, equivalent to five hundred cubits today. The length of each side was a hundred cubits; the faces rose perpendicularly up to forty cubits, and they then bowed inward so as to form sharp edges which joined at the top. They began construction in a time of happiness; people gathered to see them and were amazed. When they were finished, they covered them in gaudy silk from top to bottom, and they declared a feast in their honor which all persons in the empire were required to attend.
Then the king commanded the construction of storehouses in stones of flint of various colors. He filled the western pyramid with emerald objects, images made with the substances of the stars, wonderful talismans, iron tools of outstanding quality, weapons that cannot rust, glass objects that can bend without breaking, all types of drugs (simple and compounded), deadly poisons, and a host of other things too numerous to describe. Into the eastern pyramid, he transported the idols of the stars, representations of the heavens, wonders built by his ancestors, incense to offer to the idols, books containing the history of ancient Egypt, an account of the lives of the kings and the dates of all the events that had transpired, still other books comprising a proclamation of all that would happen in Egypt until the end of time, with a description of the paths of the fixed stars and their influence at every moment. He also placed vessels containing drugs and other similar things. In the third pyramid, he deposited the bodies of the priests in black flint coffins, and with nearly every priest he placed books which recounted all that he had done and the story of his life. The priests were then ranked in order. The first order was that of the Nazarites, that is to say, the priests who had served the seven stars for seven years each. The word Nazir signified, among them, one who had mastered the totality of science. The second class consisted of priests who had served six stars, the third those who had served five, and so on; and each of these seven orders had a name. The king placed the coffins of the priests down the sides of the pyramid according to their rank, and near their bodies he placed the books they had written on gold leaf in which they had recorded the past and the future and a record of the wonders performed by each of them. On the walls he placed idols who were seen to perform all of the various arts, arranging them according to their rank and power. He wrote a description of their operations, how to accomplish them, and the utility of what had been drawn. Through engravings and images, he described the nature of all things, the science of law and the laws of all the sciences. Then he filled the pyramids with the treasures of the stars, all of the gifts that had been offered to their idols, and the treasures of the priests; the amount of wealth simply cannot be calculated.
Finally he assigned a guard to each pyramid. The guardian of the eastern pyramid was an idol striped white and black, with two open and flashing eyes. This idol was sitting on a throne and held a kind of spear. When a man looked at him, he uttered a terrible cry, which made him lose consciousness; he would fall to the ground unconscious and could no longer get up, dying on the spot. The guardian of the western pyramid was a striped flint idol: he was standing, held a kind of spear, and wore a snake on his head. If a man approached him, the snake would jump on him, entwine around his neck and choke him before returning to the head of the idol. The guardian of the colored pyramid was a small idol of an eagle standing on a pedestal. He attracted everyone who looked at him, and left them to die at his feet. When all these things had been established, King Sūrīd entrusted surveillance to the invisible spirits and offered them sacrifices, so they would turn down anyone who would want to approach without providing the agreed-upon offerings and without performing the established rites in their honor.
The Copts say that the pyramids bear a painted inscription in Arabic whose interpretation is this: “I, Sūrīd, the king, built these pyramids at such and such a time. I completed the building in six years. Let anyone who would come after me and believe himself a king as great as I destroy them in six years, for all know that it is easier to destroy than to build. I also covered the pyramids in silk: Let those who come after me cover them in turn.” For a very long period these monuments remained intact. As for covering them in silk, no king could do so without overspending and without possessing true madness.
A tradition also has it that when al-Ma‘mun had entered Egypt and saw the pyramids, he wanted to destroy one to know what it contained. He was told, “You cannot.” He replied, “At least we can open a breach.” And they made the gap that we still see by charring stone with fire, dousing it with vinegar, hitting it with rams, and then removing the cuttings with iron stakes. He spent a considerable sum on this work. They then found that the thickness of the wall was about twenty cubits. When they had pierced the wall, they found on the other side of the hole a green vase containing gold coins, and the weight of each dinar was one of our ounces; there were a thousand of these dinars. The workers were amazed at this discovery and did not understand the meaning of it. They informed al-Ma‘mun and brought him the gold and the vase. Al-Ma‘mun appeared amazed at the sight of the gold, noting how it was pure, bright, and red; then he said, “Show me the accounting of what you have spent in making this breach.” This was calculated, and they found it to be exactly the value of that gold, neither more nor less. And Ma‘mun and his court stood speechless that this expenditure could have been calculated so far in advance, and that they could know exactly the place where the breach would be made. These (ancient) men had truly reached a level of science that no other had done, and which we ourselves have not reached, neither we nor our fellow men. It is said that the vase in which the sum was found was made of emerald and that Ma‘mun had it carried to his treasury. This is one of the wonders he brought from Egypt.
Among the extraordinary facts of Egypt, the following is still quoted: After Ma‘mun had opened the breach in the pyramid, the workers continued to work for several years. They eventually penetrated it, and they went down along a slope that plunged into the monument. Some of them returned unharmed, but others perished. There are a host of traditions about it.
Twenty men agreed together to enter the pyramid and not to come out until they had reached the bottom, or died. They took with them food and drink for two months. They brought supplies to make fire with, candles, ropes, picks, and all the tools they might need. They entered the pyramid; they went down the first hallway and the second slope. Continuing to walk on the floor of the pyramid, they saw bats as big as eagles, which slapped at their faces. And then they came to an opening from which came a cold wind did not stop. They wanted to enter, but the wind extinguished their torches; they placed them in glass, and they returned to the opening to try to enter. Now they saw that the bottom of the hole was closed off by a great slab of a precious substance, and they understood that below were the bodies of kings, with their gold and treasures. But they did not know how to get down there. One of them said, “Tie me with ropes, and lower me down this hole until I reached the slab. Maybe I’ll find a way to raise it.” They did as he asked; his companions tied him with ropes around the middle of his body and they lowered him down in the hole; he remained there for a long time, his companions still holding the ropes; but in the end the hole closed behind him. In vain did the others make every effort to reopen it, but they could no longer reach him. They heard his bones breaking, and a terrifying voice made them fall over in a faint. When they awakened, they sought to escape. This they managed with great difficulty, several of the men, having fallen when climbing the corridors, were abandoned by the rest and perished. Those who survived finally came out of the pyramids; as they sat together at the pyramids’ feet, they saw rise up from the ground before them that one of their companions who had perished in the hole. He now seemed to be alive, and he spoke to them in a cryptic language, and said unto them words whose meaning they did not understand; but his words were explained to them later by a scholar of the Sa’id. They meant: “Such is the fate of one who covets treasures that are not for him.” After uttering these words, the man stopped talking and fell back down dead. They took away his body. They were arrested as murder suspects and brought before the wali, and there they related what had happened to them.
One may read of another tradition that some men entered the pyramids, went down to the bottom, and made a turn. They saw a path like the one through which they came in, and they found therein a type of vase from which water dripped without decreasing; they did not understand what it was. Then they came to a place that resembled a square room whose walls were made of small square stones, colorful and magnificently beautiful. One of them took one of the stones he found and put it in his mouth, and immediately his ears were deafened by the wind. He had to endure this inconvenience the whole time he was in that company. These men then came to a place where they saw large piles of gold coins, struck with extreme perfection. The value of each piece was a thousand dinars. They took one, but they were no longer able to walk or move, and they were obliged to throw it back. In another place they saw a couch on which sat a sheikh made from green granite, wrapped in a cloak and having before him statues in the shape of small boys which it seemed like he was teaching. They took one, but they could no longer move. They returned whence they came, and from another closed room came a frightening buzzing and humming; they did not enter and went on by. They entered a square room where they saw a rooster made of precious stone, standing on a green pillar, and whose eyes lit up the whole room. As soon as they approached it, it uttered a terrible cry and flapped its wings, and they left it. They passed near a white stone idol, with the figure of a woman hanging upside down; at her side, two stone lions seemed to want to devour her. They fled and continued on their way. Having walked a long time, they reached a point where they saw ahead of them a ray of light; they followed it and they reached a gateway where they came out again onto the rocks; at the gate of the hole they noticed two statues of black stone armed with javelins. This surprised them. Then they walked up a slope, and after following it for a whole day, they returned from the pyramids to the outside. This occurred in the time when ’Abd Allah, son of ’Abd al-Malik, was governor of Egypt. These men came and told him of their adventure, and he sent someone to search with them for the hole through which they had come out; but they searched for several days at the same place without being able to find it, and to their surprise they discovered neither trail nor sign that could lead them there. He who published this story found a precious stone which he sold for a large sum.
It is said that the time of Ahmed, son of Tulun, men entered the pyramids and found in the arch of one of its rooms a glass jug, which they took and brought back. A man of their company lost his way; they went looking for him, but he came to meet them naked and giggling, and said, “Do not worry for me.” Then he ran back to the entrance of the pyramid. They understood that a djinn had seized him. This adventure leaked out, or a man of the company betrayed his companions; the Sultan seized the jug and forbade anyone from entering the pyramids. The jug was weighed, and they found it contained seven ratl of white and clear glass. A scholar stood up and said, “The ancient kings did nothing in vain, so this object must have a purpose.” Then he filled it with water and weighed it again; he found that its weight remained exactly the same.
It is said that some men entered the pyramids with a young boy to use him for sex. They saw [the spirit of] a black slave armed with a cane coming at them, and he began to give them terrible blows. They fled immediately, leaving behind their food, their drinks, and some of their clothes. The same thing happened, it is said, to other men in the temple at Akhmim.
A man and a woman entered the pyramid to have sex with each other; they were thrown to the ground and seized with a furious delirium that lasted until their death.
It is said in some books of the Copts that King Sūrīd, after hearing the priests tell him that a fire would come from beyond the sign of Leo and burn up the world, made underground passageways in the pyramids in preparation; the Nile could be brought into these underground passages and discharged from there at several points in the western territory and in the land of Sa‘id. The King filled these channels with wonders, talismans, and idols.
Some Copts say that King Sūrīd, having heard the report of astronomers, said, “See if yet some other disaster will threaten this country.” They made observations and said, “A deluge will threaten to submerge the majority of the country, which will be devastated for several years, after which its prosperity will be reborn.” “What,” asked the king, “will be the cause of this devastation?” They said, “A king will massacre his own people and take their wealth.” “And then?” he asked. “The country’s prosperity will be reborn from the murder of the king.” “And then?” “Monstrous men will come along the side of the Nile will invade and occupy the greatest part of the land.” “And then?” “They will cross the Nile, and they will take the people into captivity.” Sūrīd ordered their predictions inscribed on the pyramids, on monuments, and on stones.
A man from the land of the West, one of those who make a business of going on camels to carry fish to the oasis, said he had to stay overnight at the pyramids; having heard a noise and a sort of gushing that never ceased, he was afraid and went away; he then saw around the pyramid shining lights, and these he observed for a long time, until he was overcome by sleep. The next morning when he awoke, he saw other fish beside his own fish; astonished, he put the fish that he had back on his camel, and he hastened to return to Fustat, while vowing never to return to the pyramids.
The temples also have many stories too numerous to relate. There are traditions among the Copts of guardian spirits of the temples and the pyramids. According to these traditions, the spirit of the southern pyramid has the form of a naked woman, very beautiful and whose hair is divided into two. When she wishes to seize a man, she laughs in his face, then draws him near to her. When he approaches, she grabs him and he loses his reason. Many people have seen this woman wandering around the pyramid at noon or at sunset. The spirit of the other pyramid is a beardless naked yellow boy whose hair is divided into two; he is often seen to walk in circles around the monument. The spirit of the colored pyramid is shaped like a sea-sheik carrying a basket and having in his hand a censer such as those used in churches. These traditions are in in all the collections.
The temple of Akhmim, according to the belief of the people, has for its spirit guardian a young boy, black and naked. The spirit of the temple of Semenud is a sheikh of dark complexion, with long hair and a short beard. The spirit of the temple of Kobt (Coptos) has the form of a black servant carrying a little black child. The spirit of temple of Dendera has the form of a man with a lion’s head and two horns. The spirit of the temple of Busir has the form of a white sheikh, dressed as a monk and carrying a book. The spirit of the temple of the ‘Adites has the form of a shepherd equipped with a stick. The Dahshur pyramids have spirits that can see when anyone approaches from any side whatsoever and any time of day. There is, for each of these monuments, certain offerings and some incenses that allow access to their treasures, and agreements can be made between their spirits and men.
Sūrīd reigned one hundred and seven years. The priests had made known to him in advance the time of his death. He bequeathed power to his son Harjit with all the lessons he would need, and he ordered him to place his body in the pyramid, in the place he had prepared; he recommended that it be embalmed in camphor and they should place with him the valuable tools, arms, and instruments he had collected in advance. Harjit executed all that his father had commanded of him, and he took in his hand the reins of power.
Harjit
Harjit followed in the footsteps of his father; he made the kingdom prosper, appeared just and merciful towards men, and attracted the love of the people. He built the first of the pyramids of Dahshur and he gathered a great deal of wealth and jewels. It pleased him to gather silver, he occupied himself with alchemy, and exploited the mines; each year he buried the treasure he had amassed in the course of the year. After having an affair with one of his slaves, he exiled her to the extremity of the West, and he built for her a city where a monument was erected on which were inscribed the name and story of this woman. He sent to stay with her all the women of his house. When a man struck another, he had all his fingers cut off, and when a man stole money from another, he became his victim’s slave. He raised lighthouses, works of art, and talismans, and his reign lasted ninety-nine years, after which he died.
Menāūs
He was succeeded by his son Menāūs. Menāūs was a giant, violent and cruel. He oppressed men, shed blood, and abused women. He drained the treasures of his fathers, and he built a castle of gold and silver; there he led channel that rolled down a sand made of gemstones. The beauty of this house exceeded that which should reasonably be done. At the same time he neglected the country’s affairs, and he took courtesans from the people and the honor from women, and took the women for himself before their marriage. Men of evil passions surrounded him on all sides; his subjects hated him, and his kingdom was cursed. If anyone resisted, he was thrown into the fire. Menāūs sent a giant named Ḳarmās, the descendant of Idris, son of Adam, against the peoples of the West. This captain killed many men with his own hand. He was the greatest hero of the time; then he died, and the king wept; he was, like the kings, buried in the pyramids. It is also said that they made him a tomb near which was erected a monument engraved with his name and the history of his campaigns.
Menāūs reigned seventy-three years and then died. He was buried in the pyramids with his ancestors, in a white marble sarcophagus decorated with gold leaf and precious stones. They laid with him many of his treasures, his riches, and his wonders.
Afrāūs
He was succeeded by his son Afrāūs. He was a prince skilled in all the sciences; he conducted himself in a manner opposite to that of his father, for he was fair to his subjects and he returned to their husbands the women that his father had taken. In his time was built a dome whose length was fifty cubits, and the breadth a hundred cubits, and on top of which were placed birds which continuously sang all kinds of songs with very melodious voices. The king erected in the middle of his capital a copper lighthouse, topped by a copper head of a man which cried out every hour. Every time they heard it scream, they knew that a new hour had begun, and anyone who listened knew the number of hours that had elapsed. He also made another lighthouse on which he placed a gilded copper dome, which he coated with various ointments; at sunset, the dome shone so brightly that much of the city was lit up like daylight. This light was extinguished neither by the winds nor by the rains, but when the daytime came, it dimmed before the light of the sun. It is said that this king gave to Darmashīl, king of Babel, an emerald bottle bigger than five spans, which he placed in the house of offerings. This bottle, it was added, was recovered after the Flood. They say he erected also in the eastern mountains a great idol, standing on a pedestal coated with yellow ointment, adorned with gold, whose face was always turned toward the sun, until that star set in the West; the statue then continued turning during the night, so as to reposition itself before the sun by morning.
It is said that Afrāūs wanted a son and that he married three hundred women in the hope that they would give him one, but his wish was not granted. Indeed, they say that in his time the wombs of women and beasts became sterile and death had begun to become rampant because the Almighty had resolved to destroy the world by flood. It is said that also in that time, the lions became so numerous that they threatened to enter houses. They tried to fight through protective talismans and machines designed to spray them; they moved away for a time and then returned. The people complained to the king, and pointed out to him that this was a frightening portent. The king ordered that they dig furrows and that they might fill these with fire to attract the lions by the smoke which the wind would carry over to them. It was so done, and the lions, attracted by the smell, came rushing out into those fires where they perished.
Under his reign cities were founded in the western region; they were watered by the Nile flood, along with most of the other cities of Egypt. But the rains stopped falling, the Nile water decreased, seeds perished in the drought under the too hot winds, and many other ailments overtook the people. They tried to defend themselves from the heat with talismans, but after stopping for a moment the burning winds began to blow anew.
It is reported that these fatal prodigies were accomplished by a magician whose wife once Menāūs had once stolen. By the resources of his art, the magician gradually undid the talismans of Egypt, as there exist before each talisman powers capable of destroying its power and other talismans capable of fighting it. This is what allowed Bokht-Naṣṣar the Persian to conquer Egypt, although it was defended by all its princes. When therefore this magician had nullified all the talismans, he unleashed on the country all kinds of calamities. He rendered futile any spells against crocodiles, and the Egyptians were plagued by many ills, especially by water deprivation, and punished in this terrible way, as long as they were not aware of the cause of their misfortunes. They discovered one day that one of the disciples of the magician, who reproached his master for the evil he did to his people, had his master irritated with him, and the magician blew in his face and took his sight. The disciple went to complain to the vizier of king; the vizier reported the matter to his sovereign. The king summoned the disciple, who appeared and informed the king of the true cause of these evils. So Afrāūs sent a company of armed men against the magician to seize him, but the magician saw the men coming and produced a smoke that obscured their view. From the smoke a fiery vapor emerged that spread between them and him. The soldiers, filled with fear, fled and returned to inform the king of what had happened to them.
The king ordered all magicians to assemble. Now this was the custom in their body they take an oath to the sovereign, pledging to serve faithfully, never betray him, and undertake against him no harmful action. If any of them broke his word, they razed his home, the tax authorities seized his property, and the sovereign had the right to put him to death with his family. Being thus bound before the kings, they dared not betray their oaths.
When all the magicians were gathered before Afrāūs, the prince explained to them the affair which occupied him, how the magician became unfaithful to his faith and how he had induced many calamities among the people. “If you cannot find way to fight him,” he added, “I will kill all of you.” The magicians asked for time to review the case. The king, having retained their women and children as hostages, gave it to them. When they left the palace, the magicians consulted each other by saying, “We know the science of Ajnās and the power of his magic; we can do nothing against him; it is the king Menāūs who failed in his faith and committed the outrage against him by taking his wife. But nevertheless we must save ourselves.” They then agreed to return to the king and ask him for permission to go to the magician, in order to obtain from him, by promises or threats, his agreement to appear before his sovereign, under the guarantee of safe conduct. The king, having listened, received their request favorably. They then repaired to Ajnās and said gently, “We are not unaware of your rights or of your power, and we know that the crimes of which they accuse you are not as large as those they have committed against you. The evils that you loosed on your people are nevertheless a regrettable revenge, and it is not good that you have made so many people perish for the outrage inflicted on you by King Menāūs. You punished our king today, a man to whom we are all bound by our oaths, for the crime committed by his father. In the end you will be punished yourself, and we believe that you are wrong to use your knowledge for evil and to persist in your wickedness, for without doubt you will end up despised by all, and your memory will be condemned.” When he heard this, the magician acceded to their wishes. They wrote to the king, who sent him a letter of safe conduct. Ajnās came to his sovereign, renewed his vows, and became obedient to him. The king, pleased with him, gave him back his wife. But the magician, after having received her with honor, made her leave the palace of Afrāūs, saying that his religion did not allow him to touch a woman who had been in the possession of the king, because of the reverence that people were required to have toward their rulers and the exalted view of their rights that they had to preserve. All the Egyptians learned of his conduct, rejoiced, and admired his judgment and wisdom. This magician no longer refused therefore to procure boons for the king and his subjects; he executed for them a multitude of charms and wonders.
Afrāūs, who reigned 64 years, died. He left neither children nor brothers. They buried him in the pyramid and laid beside him riches, treasures, jewels, and works of art that had been made during his reign.
Armālīnūs
The people elected to succeed him, by unanimous consent, a man of the royal family called Armālīnūs. This man, having newly come to power, assembled his subjects and said, “I see around you many nations which seek your destruction and which ponder invading your land. But I will defend your country, and I will protect your homes and your lives. Already the enemy crowds your borders and has begun to march toward your homes. I want to repel attacks and prevent them from reaching you. In order to do this, I need help from your wise men, and they must build for me works to spread terror and images of the wondrous virtues.” The people gave him their blessing and wished him success and prosperity. The sages said, “We will go with the king and fight his enemies in every place he wishes; we will be the servants of the army and we will stand by their head.” Things being thus settled, the king took his place at the head of a powerful army to fight these foreign nations. He inflicted upon them terrible defeats, and he returned with valuable spoils, leaving a body of soldier in front of the enemy. The defeated nations returned, set upon them from all sides in this rearguard action and routed them. Some of the soldiers who had taken part came to announce the defeat to the king, who was very angry. But as he had fallen ill during the campaign, because of the change in climate and in water, he put in command a son of his paternal uncle called Far‘ān, son of Maīsūr. This leader was a giant whom none could resist. He is the first man who bore the name of Pharaoh, and he then gave that name to those who resembled him. Historians of Egypt say that the first man who was thus titled Pharaoh was a servant of Walid, son of Dūma‘, the Amalekite [of the name of Kar‘ūd] who rebelled against his master after he returned from his journey to the sources of the Nile, and who built a city called the City of the Eagle, which he fortified. He was given the title of Pharaoh, and we will speak more of him later.
The king dispatched his cousin Far‘ān at the head of a powerful army; Far‘ān repelled the invaders and drove them to the sea. He returned, bringing back with him many heads and a multitude of captives. The king set up the heads around the city and massacred all the men capable of fighting. There was among them a priest that the king dismembered. This was the first time that this kind of torture had been used. Armālīnūs gave great honor to his cousin Far‘ān. He dressed him in beautiful clothes, decorated with jewels. He ordered that they dance around him and celebrate his virtues with songs. Then he gave him for a residence one of his palaces. One of the wives of the king, whom the sovereign loved, fell in love with love with Far‘ān; she sent him several messages to invite him to come and see her, but he refused out of respect for the king, for it was a great crime to touch one of his wives. But because she was so agitated over him, she was visited by a priest’s wife who was a sorceress. She spoke kindly to her, befriended her and told her of the love that she had inspired in Far‘ān; she told her what obstacles opposed their love, and she begged her to give her the means to overcome them. The sorceress gave her a magic smoke that enveloped her, so Far‘ān could easily approach her. With this charm, they learned that they loved each other. But when they had spent some time in that love, the woman remembered that she belonged to the king, and she feared that if he became aware of the crime, he might kill them both. So she told Far‘ān, “We must find a way to kill him. You are the son of his uncle, so power will devolve to you after his death, and we shall be saved.” The love he had for her made him agree to this plan. He procured poison and gave it to the woman; she poured it into the king’s drink, and he died on the spot. He was buried in the pyramid with his predecessors.
Far’ān
Far’ān sat on the throne and donned the tiara. No one dared resist him, and all the people remained quiet under his government, because he had power and an extraordinary courage. He dominated the earth, and his heart was filled with pride. It was during his reign that the Flood arrived. He seized the property of his subjects, and he went further on the path of injustice than any man before him. He committed countless murders, and his courtiers followed his example. The princes dreaded him; they had to submit all his demands.
This is the Far’ān who wrote to Darmashīl son of Yamhawīl (Darshīl bin Lawīl), king of Babel, to ask him to destroy Noah. He sent messengers throughout all the lands of his empire to inquire about their gods and idols. He was told the story of Noah and he heard that the prophet wanted to wipe out from among the people the cult of idols, and he believed in a different God from them and an invisible one; it was also added that no one believed in his claims. When Noah was set to build the ark, Far’ān wanted to give the order to kill him and burn his ship. A vizier advised him not to do it because, he said, if the predictions of Noah should be true, the king might use the vessel with his household. This view was accepted, and king rescinded his order. However, he still thought to destroy Noah, but God stopped him. Knowledge of the Flood had spread among the Egyptians, but they did not know how high the waters would rise or how long they would stay on the surface of the earth. They built subterranean passages that they fitted with plated glass and within which they imprisoned the winds. The king took Philemon, the chief priest, with him that he might serve as protection for him and those of his household. He had, however, removed or exiled the priests.
One night Philemon had a dream in which he saw the city of Amsūs overthrown with all its inhabitants, and idols threw their faces against the ground. Angels descended from heaven, armed with curved sticks with which they beat the men. Philemon said, “Why do you do this, and why do you have no pity for men?” They said, “It is because they have denied the God who created them.” “And does he have for them any means of salvation?” They replied, “Yes. Whoever would be save should seek out the builder of the ark.” Philemon awoke frightened and remained undecided and sad, uncertain what to do. He had a wife and two children, a boy and a girl, and seven disciples. Together, they resolved to go find Noah. Philemon, on yet another night, had a dream in which he thought he saw a verdant garden where white birds were flying and spreading the odor of musk. While he admired the beauty of the garden, the birds began to speak to him and said: “Go and assemble the believers.” Philemon asked: “And who are these believers?” “They are,” replied the bird, “the builders of the ark.” The priest awoke, filled with confusion, and he told his vision to his parents and to his disciples, advising them to keep it secret. Then he set about reducing his possessions and selling the property he no longer needed; when he had finished the preparations in secret, he went to the king and said, “If the king wants to send me to Darmashīl, I will see the man who is building the ark. I will observe and I will discuss with him this new religion that he claims to reveal to men. Therefore, I shall recognize whether his mission is real; but it is more likely that my visit will be the cause of its forfeiture and will show the futility of his claims.” The king, delighted with this speech, gave Philemon the order to leave. He handed him a letter for Darmashīl. The priest left with his family and with his disciples, and ventured into the land of Babel. There he went to Noah and told him why he had come; then he asked him to explain his doctrine. Noah satisfied his desire, and Philemon believed in him and all his companions. Philemon did not go to Darmashīl, nor did he give him the letter from Far’ān, and he did not even see it. Noah said: “When God wants something good for a man, nothing can stop his desire to accomplish it.” Philemon stayed with Noah, busy serving him with his children and his followers, until they went up together into the ark.
Far’ān continued to walk in the way of error and injustice, consumed in pleasures. He abandoned the temples, let wither the fruits of the soil, increased injustice, and grew the number of murders. Cultivation was abandoned, and the land everywhere became barren; men committed outrages upon each other and felt no remorse. The temples and Berba (Great Temples) were closed, their doors bricked shut. Finally the flood came, and the rain fell on Egypt for twenty-four days. Far’ān, constantly intoxicated, did not budge, until the water had risen quite high; he stood up in haste to reach the pyramids. But the earth shook under him. He returned, looking for the subterranean passages, but he lost his footing and fell on his face onto the ground. He let out moans similar to those of a bull and was finally overwhelmed by the Flood. Those of his companions who penetrated into the subterranean passages were drowned. The water reached a quarter of the way up the pyramids; its mark is still visible today.
They say that some places were free from the flood. This is the opinion of the Persians, who claim not to have known the flood, and the Indians, who say the same for them. But all historians agree in affirming that the flood spread universally over the earth.
Far’ān sat on the throne and donned the tiara. No one dared resist him, and all the people remained quiet under his government, because he had power and an extraordinary courage. He dominated the earth, and his heart was filled with pride. It was during his reign that the Flood arrived. He seized the property of his subjects, and he went further on the path of injustice than any man before him. He committed countless murders, and his courtiers followed his example. The princes dreaded him; they had to submit all his demands.
This is the Far’ān who wrote to Darmashīl son of Yamhawīl (Darshīl bin Lawīl), king of Babel, to ask him to destroy Noah. He sent messengers throughout all the lands of his empire to inquire about their gods and idols. He was told the story of Noah and he heard that the prophet wanted to wipe out from among the people the cult of idols, and he believed in a different God from them and an invisible one; it was also added that no one believed in his claims. When Noah was set to build the ark, Far’ān wanted to give the order to kill him and burn his ship. A vizier advised him not to do it because, he said, if the predictions of Noah should be true, the king might use the vessel with his household. This view was accepted, and king rescinded his order. However, he still thought to destroy Noah, but God stopped him. Knowledge of the Flood had spread among the Egyptians, but they did not know how high the waters would rise or how long they would stay on the surface of the earth. They built subterranean passages that they fitted with plated glass and within which they imprisoned the winds. The king took Philemon, the chief priest, with him that he might serve as protection for him and those of his household. He had, however, removed or exiled the priests.
One night Philemon had a dream in which he saw the city of Amsūs overthrown with all its inhabitants, and idols threw their faces against the ground. Angels descended from heaven, armed with curved sticks with which they beat the men. Philemon said, “Why do you do this, and why do you have no pity for men?” They said, “It is because they have denied the God who created them.” “And does he have for them any means of salvation?” They replied, “Yes. Whoever would be save should seek out the builder of the ark.” Philemon awoke frightened and remained undecided and sad, uncertain what to do. He had a wife and two children, a boy and a girl, and seven disciples. Together, they resolved to go find Noah. Philemon, on yet another night, had a dream in which he thought he saw a verdant garden where white birds were flying and spreading the odor of musk. While he admired the beauty of the garden, the birds began to speak to him and said: “Go and assemble the believers.” Philemon asked: “And who are these believers?” “They are,” replied the bird, “the builders of the ark.” The priest awoke, filled with confusion, and he told his vision to his parents and to his disciples, advising them to keep it secret. Then he set about reducing his possessions and selling the property he no longer needed; when he had finished the preparations in secret, he went to the king and said, “If the king wants to send me to Darmashīl, I will see the man who is building the ark. I will observe and I will discuss with him this new religion that he claims to reveal to men. Therefore, I shall recognize whether his mission is real; but it is more likely that my visit will be the cause of its forfeiture and will show the futility of his claims.” The king, delighted with this speech, gave Philemon the order to leave. He handed him a letter for Darmashīl. The priest left with his family and with his disciples, and ventured into the land of Babel. There he went to Noah and told him why he had come; then he asked him to explain his doctrine. Noah satisfied his desire, and Philemon believed in him and all his companions. Philemon did not go to Darmashīl, nor did he give him the letter from Far’ān, and he did not even see it. Noah said: “When God wants something good for a man, nothing can stop his desire to accomplish it.” Philemon stayed with Noah, busy serving him with his children and his followers, until they went up together into the ark.
Far’ān continued to walk in the way of error and injustice, consumed in pleasures. He abandoned the temples, let wither the fruits of the soil, increased injustice, and grew the number of murders. Cultivation was abandoned, and the land everywhere became barren; men committed outrages upon each other and felt no remorse. The temples and Berba (Great Temples) were closed, their doors bricked shut. Finally the flood came, and the rain fell on Egypt for twenty-four days. Far’ān, constantly intoxicated, did not budge, until the water had risen quite high; he stood up in haste to reach the pyramids. But the earth shook under him. He returned, looking for the subterranean passages, but he lost his footing and fell on his face onto the ground. He let out moans similar to those of a bull and was finally overwhelmed by the Flood. Those of his companions who penetrated into the subterranean passages were drowned. The water reached a quarter of the way up the pyramids; its mark is still visible today.
They say that some places were free from the flood. This is the opinion of the Persians, who claim not to have known the flood, and the Indians, who say the same for them. But all historians agree in affirming that the flood spread universally over the earth.
Chapter 3: The Kings of Egypt After the Flood, the Dynasty of Qoftarim
Miṣraīm
All the Egyptians say that the first man who reigned in Egypt after the Flood was Miṣraīm, son of Baīṣar, son of Ham, son of Noah. He was designated by his grandfather in the following circumstances: The priest Philemon asked Noah if he could ally himself with his family, saying: “O Prophet of God, I left my family and my children; therefore, elevate me to a rank by which men might keep my memory after my death.” So Noah had married Miṣraīm son of Baīsar, son of Ham, to the daughter of Philemon. She bore a son who was called Philemon, named after his grandfather.
When Noah wanted to share the land among his children, Philemon said to him: “O Prophet of God, send me with my son into my country, that I may show him the treasures, and that I might uncover for him the sciences and interpret for him the inscriptions.” Noah sent them there with a company of people from his family. Philemon’s son was still a child who had yet to reach adulthood. When they were in Egypt, his father erected a tent made of tree branches on which he placed dry grass. Later, he built him a city in the same place, and he called it Darsān, that is to say, the door of Paradise. The immigrants sowed the land and planted trees there. They filled all the space between Darsān and the sea with cultivated fields, gardens, and homes. The companions of Miṣraīm were giants. They hewed the rocks, built monuments, and executed works of art, and they lived in great affluence. Miṣraīm married the priest’s daughter. She gave him a son who was called Qobṭīm. After the latter had lived 90 years, he married a woman by whom he had four sons: Qofṭarīm, Ashmūn, Atrīb, and Ṣā. His family became rich, cultivated the land, and continued to live in prosperity.
The number of companions of Miṣraīm was, they say, thirty men, all giants. They built a city they called Māfah, a name which in their language meant thirty. This is the city of Manf (Memphis). The priest Philemon uncovered for Miṣraīm the treasures of Egypt. He taught him to read the writing of the Berba and the inscriptions on the stones; he showed him the places of gold mining, turquoise, emeralds, and other precious materials; he taught him how to construct works of art. The king entrusted the administration of these wonders to a considerable man of his house called Moqīṭam. This man gave himself up to the study of alchemy in the eastern mountain, which took from him the name of al-Moqaṭṭam. Philemon also taught the king the art of talismans. In that time, out of the sea came monsters that devastated the harvest and all the coastal provinces. They prepared talismans against them, and they disappeared, never to return.
On the edge of the sea several cities were built, including one in the place of Alexandria [called Raqūdah (Rhakotis)]. In the middle of this city, a dome of gilded copper was set up, over which was erected a mirror of composite substances five spans in diameter. The height of the dome above the ground was five hundred cubits. If an enemy were advancing against Egypt by sea, they were warned by the mirror, and it projected on them its rays, whose flames set fire to their ships. The dome survived until the time when the sea, having advanced over land, ruined it. They say the Lighthouse of Alexandria was built on its model. They also established at the summit a mirror that allowed them to see from afar the ships coming from the country of Rūm. But a king sent men who seized the mirror by a ruse and ruined it. It was of glass and cylindrical.
When Miṣraīm was about to die, he handed over power to his sons. He divided the land of Egypt between his children. He gave the entire region extending from Qofṭ up to Aswan to Qobṭīm; to Ashmūn he gave the part extending from Aswan to Memphis. To Atrīb he gave all Jauf, and to Ṣā the maritime region adjacent to Barqah and the Maghreb. Ṣā was the master of the Ifrīqīah, and his descendants were called Africans. Misraīm ordered each son to build a capital.
At his death, he ordered them to dig a vault, which they were to dress with marble in order to bury him; they were to deposit with his body all it would hold of his treasures of gold, silver and precious stones, and engrave over it the great names of God so that he should be protected from profanation. His son then built an underground passage whose length was a hundred and fifty cubits, and within which they set up a room covered with gold leaf. They gave the room four doors: on each door, they put a golden image, wearing a tiara adorned with gems, sitting on a throne of gold with emerald feet. They inscribed on the chest of each image protective verses, and shut up the king’s body in an emerald sarcophagus with the inscription: “Miṣraīm, son of Baīṣar, son of Ham, died 700 years after the Flood. He did not worship idols, and he reached the end of his life knowing neither decay nor infirmities, nor sorrows, nor worries.” Then they laid the body with all the treasures in the underground passage and left him in the care of the great names of God. They also made an oath that no one should touch the tomb, with the exception of a king descended from seven kings who had reached the end of the age, who would serve the Lord of their religion, and who would believe the Messenger bearing the Quran and inviting men to embrace his faith. Near the body in the burial chamber, the princes placed a thousand pieces of fashioned emerald, a thousand images of rare substances, a thousand gold flagons filled with precious stones, a thousand vases full of celestial ingredients and mysterious herbs. They also set up powerful talismans, bars of gold piled on each other, and then they closed it off with huge rocks, and they backfilled the area with earth and sand until they had filled the entire valley where the tomb had been dug out. They erected columns on the site, so that they could recognize it.
Qofṭīm
After this king reigned his son Qofṭīm; it is from him, they say, that the Copts have their origin. He is the first man who made wonders, who exploited the mines, and who dug canals. It is said that the confusion of tongues occurred during his time and he came out speaking the Coptic language. He surpassed his father in the cultivation of the soil, in the construction of monuments and lighthouses, and in the execution of talismans and wonders. He reigned eighty years and then died.
His children and all the people felt great sorrow at his death. He was buried in a vault under the great mountain of Middle Egypt, and they dressed this vault in colorful marble. They opened holes for the passage of wind and there burned oils which cast a singular light. They placed therein copper thrones coated with ointments capable of illuminating lamps that never go out. His body was embalmed with myrrh, camphor, and mummia, and then they encased it in a golden coffin, dressed in clothes adorned with coral and gems. They covered his face with a kind of overlay, and the sarcophagus was arranged under a dome supported by colored marble pillars. Amid this dome gems shone like torches; between the pillars stood statues whose hands were operating wonders. They buried below the sarcophagus stone boxes filled with gems of gold, images, and objects of art, and they spread around it the sheets of wisdom; then they sealed the monument and engraved above it an inscription similar to that which had been engraved on the tomb of Miṣraīm.
Qofṭarīm
After Qofṭīm his son Qofṭarīm reigned. He was the eldest of his children, and he was a great giant. He placed secrets in the pyramids of Dahshur and other pyramids, to imitate what had been done of old. He founded the city of Dendera. The ‘Ādites perished in the wind at the end of his reign. He exploited the mines better than had been done before. He unearthed gold nuggets the size of a millstone, and emeralds as large as columns. He planted trees in the desert of the West, such as palm trees; and he performed many wonders. In the mountains of Qofṭ, he built a tall lighthouse from which they could see the East Sea. He found in the same place the mines of quicksilver, and there he dug a pond that is said to exist today. Under his reign, Iblis and his companions uncovered the idols which the Flood had submerged, and they restored their worship and their authority.
Qofṭarīm is credited with founding the cities of Middle Egypt. He filled them with wonders. In the largest, one might have seen among other things pillars fashioned from water that does not flow or liquefy, and a pond called Falesṭīn, [that is to say, the hunting of birds,] on which the birds fell down as they passed above and from which they could not extricate themselves until someone came to take them. One might also see a copper pillar bearing the image of a bird; when the big cats, lions, and snakes approached the city, the bird emitted a shrill whistle which put them to flight. The city had four gates, each topped with a copper idol. Any foreigner who approached one of those idols fell soundly asleep and remained near the door, until the guards were able to come for him. They woke him by blowing on his face. If no one came to wake him, he died in his sleep. Qofṭarīm built an elegant lighthouse of colored glass mounted on a copper base, on top of which he placed a glass idol, holding in its hand a bow which seemed soft. When a stranger appeared before this idol, he was paralyzed on the spot and could not move unless the people of the city came to save him. This idol turned itself to the winds. It is claimed that it is still standing today, but nobody goes to this city despite all the treasures and wonders it contains, for fear of the idol. A king, they say, once wanted to capture it. He killed many people in this attempt and it failed. They also say that Qofṭarīm erected in one of the Middle Egyptian cities a mirror in which everyone could see what he wanted to know. He founded beyond the mountain and outside the oasis towns where he also placed many wonders, and he entrusted their care to the spirits who forbade any approach. No one could enter until he had made an agreement with the spirits. The pact concluded, they had access to the city and they could carry away all of these treasures that they wanted without fear of evil.
Qofṭarīm reigned 400 years. Many of the wonders of Egypt were made in his time and in the time of his father. At his command they built him a tomb in the mountain of the West, near the City of Pillars. He prepared it himself before his death; it was a rotunda in the middle of an underground passage, vaulted and arranged in the manner of a very large house. Around the rotunda were carved into the mountain rooms for treasures, and their ceilings were pierced with holes for the passage of air. The underground passage and the whole sepulcher were covered with marble. At the center of this necropolis, they built a hall supported by eight pillars and covered with colorful melted glass. Jewels and bright stones adorned the roof; against each of the pillars that supported it leaned a golden statue holding in his hand a bolt of lightning. A gold inlaid pool whose edges were of emerald was placed in the middle of the room. Then they set down silk carpets, and they sat the king there on his throne, after embalming his body with drying ointments. They laid around him a thousand camphor vases. They dressed the body in clothing of gold fabric; the face remained uncovered and the head was crowned with a bejeweled tiara. On the sides of the pool they put four statues of melted glass having the figure and complexion of women, who were holding a type of fan made of gold. Atop the clothes on the chest of the king, they lay a sturdy iron sword with an emerald handle. The rooms of treasures were then filled with valuables, gold bars, crowns, jewels, medicinal ointments, herbs of all kinds, powerful talismans, sheets containing all the sciences, and wealth beyond reckoning. The door to the chamber was surmounted by a rooster in gold, standing on an emerald base. The bird’s wings unfolded and protective verses were engraved on its chest. At the entrance of each vault, two monstrous copper statues stood guard, armed with glittering swords. Before them stood a slab over which one had to pass to enter the tomb and that covered pipes full of water. Every man setting foot on the slab caused the statues to move; they struck him with their swords and killed him. Each vault was also an aperture in which they laid compounded substances capable of emitting light for an indefinite time. Finally, they stopped up the doors of the vaults with columns fitted with lead, and they covered the roof of the tomb with huge slabs of stone. Over this backfilled with sand. They carved on the door of the first vault, a colossal stone, this inscription: “This way one enters the tomb of the great, revered, and illustrious king Qofṭarīm, who had authority, strength, fame, dominion, and power. This place is consecrated by the presence of his body. His memory and reputation remain, but no one may enter his tomb by any wile whatsoever before a very long time has passed and many years will have completed their revolutions.”
Al-Būdashīr
Qofṭarim was succeeded by his son al-Būdashīr. This prince swelled with pride, devoted himself to magic, and could hide himself from the eyes of men. His uncles Ashmūn, Ṣā, and Atrib reigned in their provinces, but he was more powerful than them, which is why he was acknowledged (as king). They say he gave Hermes the Egyptian the mission to go to the Mountain of the Moon, under which is the source of the Nile, to build a temple with copper statues, and to excavate lakes into which the water of the Nile could pour itself. It is also said that he channeled the Nile, for previously the river had flowed in various places and was divided into many branches. Al-Būdashīr then commanded Hermes to explore the western region. This wise man there discovered a vast area where water was abundant and where many springs gushed in the woods. He built lighthouses and resting places, and there he stayed. Al-Būdashīr sent men of his house to populate this land. They cultivated it, built it, and made it into a flourishing country. The Egyptians stayed there a long time, living among the Berbers and making marriages between the two races. But hatred emerged between them; the two peoples were divided and there were wars which led to the downfall of Egyptian rule. The country was then devastated. The surviving Egyptians resettled in a land called the Wāḥāt.
They say many wonders were executed in the days of this king, including a dome on four pillars, each of which had a hole from which emerged clouds of smoke of various colors for one day at the beginning of each year. If it emitted green smoke, this indicated that the year would be happy and the earth would make much fruit; if the smoke were white, it meant that the year would be dry and a poor producer; if it were red, it was an omen of bloodshed, wars, and invasions; if it were black, it announced heavy rains, flooding ,and severe damage to a part of the country; if it were yellow, it was a sign that there would be fire and that prodigies would appear in the sky. Finally, when the smoke came out in a variety of colors, one could expect major troubles among the people, when men would commit crimes against each other, the sovereign would neglect the business of the state, and so on, according to the variations in color. The dome was surmounted by a lighthouse that survived through a large portion of the reign of this king; it was later destroyed with the wonders he had made to in the west and in the surrounding deserts.
The wild beasts swarmed in those days, and ravaged the crops; it was the same with the hippopotamuses. They made a copper tree that was planted in a certain place. All beasts that approached this tree were paralyzed, and they could not move until they had come to take them and kill them, and they shared their flesh. One of the neighboring kings to Egypt succeeded in seizing this tree by cunning, and he carried it off to his country to make a similar one. But as soon as he moved it, this talisman lost its virtue and became useless because only the Egyptians knew the incantations that made it effective. It had survived rather a long time in the same place.
Among the occurrences during this reign, we can also mention this: A raven put out the eye of a child, the son of a priest. The father of this child had fashioned a copper three on which a crow perched holding in its beak a snake hanging down on both sides; then he inscribed spells on the back of the bird. Crows flocked and fell all around the tree; they died on the ground or they picked them up and killed them. A large number of these animals perished as well, and the species virtually vanished from the entire region as far as Syria. But it happened one day that a king fell ill and found no other remedy for his malady than to eat cooked crows and drink their droppings. He sent for crows, and it was impossible to find one. One of his servants had to go to Syria to try to get them, but during his trip, the prince illness progressed to a grave state. Irritated, he ordered the tree cut down. As soon as they had obeyed, the crows returned. The king could begin his treatment and was cured; his envoy had not yet returned from Syria.
Under the same ruler, sand piled up on the side of the West to the point of burying the houses. Al-Būdashīr set up to oppose this scourge a black granite idol mounted on a pedestal of the same material and carrying a basket on his arm with an iron shovel. He painted inscriptions on its forehead, on its chest, and on its arms and legs enrollment, and he turned the face of the idol to the side of the West. The sands soon parted; they were blown away and formed in the deserts of the West the high dunes that we still see. Since that time, the sands never encroached beyond this idol, and it protected the country so that it no longer had to suffer any harm from them.
When Būdashīr had ruled some time, he hid himself from the eyes of men. They still saw sometimes saw in the room where he gave his audiences a bright shine, or a large face, and other times they heard him speak without seeing him. They remained obedient to him for a long time; in the end, ‘Ādim, son of this king, saw him and received from him the order to sit in his place on the throne. ‘Ādim therefore seized power and sat on the throne of his father.
‘Adīm
‘Adīm was a giant, with insurmountable strength, and the greatest of men. He ordered the quarrying of rocks and their transportation to build pyramids, as had been done in former times. In his time, two angels fell from the sky. They taught ‘Adīm many magical secrets, then they removed themselves to Babel. The inhabitants of Egypt and the Copts say they were two Satans, and called Mahlah and Mahālah, and they lived in Babel in a well where the magicians came to visit them until the hour of their deliverance. It is from this time that they worshiped idols. It was also said that Satans also erected statues and proposed their worship to men. [Some say that he who set up the idols was Badūrah, and that the first idol which was set up was that of the sun.] According to others, Nimrod was the first to erect idols and worship them.
‘Adīm invented the punishment of the gibbet. A woman was found guilty of adultery with a craftsman, so the king had them both crucified, back to back, and wrote above them their name and crime, with the date of their execution. This punishment frightened men and turned them away from adultery.
The king built four cities in which he placed a large number of wonders and filled it with talismans and wealth. On the shore of the East Sea, he built a lighthouse on top of which was placed an idol turned toward the east, its two hands held out to mark the boundary which the sands and sea monsters should not cross. They wrote on the chest of the idol the date on which it was erected. This lighthouse, it is said, still exists in our time. Without it, the salt water from the East Sea would have spread over the land of Egypt. ‘Adīm threw a bridge over the Nile in the land of Nubia and placed on the bridge four idols facing the four cardinal points; each of them held a sword with which it struck anyone approaching from its direction. These idols survived for a long time and were finally overthrown. The same king built berba that are still standing today.
It is said that in one of the four cities of which we have spoken, he established a black onyx basin wherein the water never decreased because of the humidity of the air was discharged into it. He set up in the middle of the basin a wonderful machine, and all the inhabitants of the city and the region came to drink this water or take some it, without its level diminishing. This basin was built because the country was far from the Nile and near the salty sea. The Egyptian priests explained its properties by its proximity to the sea: The sun drew forth the vapors emitted by the waves; they were then collected either by mechanical means or by talismans, and made to go down into the basin. The humidity of the air therefore maintained a constant level of the water, which did not fall throughout the course of centuries, even were all the world to have drunk from it. He also set up in front of a Berba, a similar elegant pool and arranged it on a circular base, and it was always full of water. They received atop this basin part of the atmospheric vapors, and locals came to drink of it without the water diminishing. This marvel still exists today. It was also under King ‘Adīm that a beautiful cup mounted on a stand was executed, which King Ḥawīl later presented to the Greek Alexander.
‘Adīm reigned 140 years, after which he died, aged 930 years. They say he was buried in one of the wonderful cities under a dome of colored lead and coated with yellow glass. His body was coated with the essence of musk, and were immense treasures placed all around him. His tomb was located in the middle of the city, whose custody was then entrusted to the invisible spirits. Some Copts say the tomb of ‘Adīm was excavated within a prominent rock on the surface of the earth and had the form of a large green glass dome whose pillars rested on eight vaults of the same substance. Atop the dome was a gold sphere, topped with a golden bird, decorated with stones and flapping its wings, which defended the entrance. The dome measured a hundred cubits in both directions. The king’s body was placed in the center, on a throne of gold inlaid with gems and clothed with vestments of gold fabric, his face remaining uncovered. The vaults were excavated; each had a length of eighty cubits; the height of the dome was forty cubits; it projected light throughout the surrounding region. In the tomb 170 sheets containing the precepts of wisdom were placed with the body, and seven tables holding vases of the same substance as themselves. These tables were as follows: The table of red gold of Philemon, whose brightness blinded eyes; this is the gold from which they made the crowns of kings. This table held a vase of the same material. — A table of luminous sunstone and a vase of the same. — An emerald green table whose color dazzled and emitted yellow rays; when the vipers were watching, their eyes melted. — A red copper table worked in the way that is indicated in the books of the Copts, with its vase. — A table of shiny and translucent white salt, whose brilliance made it hard to look at, with its vase atop it. — A solid quicksilver table whose edges and feet were yellow mercury and which supported a vase of red mercury. — They also placed under the dome many precious stones and crystal chests filled with wonderful secrets. Around the body were arranged seven swords endowed with magical powers and worked tin shields. They also set up seven golden horse statues wearing gold trappings, seven boxes filled with black onyx dinars struck during his reign, and the effigy of the king. Finally they set down near him all kinds of herbs, poisons, and compounded drugs in sealed vessels, and stones of all kinds, in countless numbers.
A man who visited the dome reported that after he went there with some companions, they were paralyzed in front of it for several days without being able to enter. When they were at the distance of eight cubits, the dome had turned itself from their right and to their left they could see inside; when they approached closer, it turned in another direction. Among other wonders of this tomb which they recounted, they said they had seen all the vaults in succession and that they had appeared to them to be all uniformly similar; they also claimed to have seen the face of the dead king, whose size was a cubit and a half; it was discovered thereby that his whole beard was very long; the size of his body appeared to be at least ten cubits. They described other wonders they had witnessed in this place, and different types of animals that are not found elsewhere.
We read in a Coptic book that no one can access the dome without sacrificing a white cock, and burning offerings of its feathers to the monument at a given distance; the wind carries the smoke up to the dome. It must also be that the planets are in the same position they were in when the tomb was built; Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars together in one sign, Venus and Mercury together in another, the Sun and the Moon in a third. Then one must pronounce some incantations seven times, and upon approaching the dome, sprinkle the wall with the blood of the cock that was sacrificed. One can then enter and take all the gold and all the images one wishes, as long as one does not sit down in there.
It is said that the people who visited the dome were not residents of the country; they were strangers coming for another purpose, but whom it pleased to question the residents of Qofṭ about it. They had at first found no one who could tell them what it was. Finally a sheikh replied that one day his son had departed by camel on some business and had seen the monument but could not reach it; the sheikh had then sought information about it and he learned that the inhabitants of the eastern region came to visit the dome. They had stayed at Qofṭ for a few days, went to the tomb, and not a one ever returned.
They say that before his death King ‘Adīm had advised his son to tour the empire’s provinces to found in each of them a lighthouse on which he would inscribe his name, and to also build monuments and amphitheaters. The prince then began building a lighthouse in the desert and he surmounted it with an idol with two horned heads. He then passed into the province of Atrīb and built a dome over several orders of columns, on top of which he put a small gold idol; there he also built a temple to the stars. The father of ‘Adīm, al-Būdashīr, was the first man to build a temple to the stars, and his son did nothing but imitate him. After this, he move on to the province of Ṣā, where the prince built a lighthouse atop which he placed a mirror of a compound substance, which could see all the climates of the globe. Then he returned to his father, who made him heir to the kingdom, and gave him various recommendations. Upon his death, ‘Adīm was laid in his tomb; when was in finished attending to him, Shaddāt sat on the throne.
Shaddāt
Shaddāt built the monuments of Dahshur with the stones that had been carved in the time of his father. Scholars who do not believe that the ‘Ādites ever came into Egypt claim that the error arose due to the confusion of the name of Shaddāt with that of Shaddād bin ’Ād. This resulted in the application to Shaddāt of the greatest part of the facts concerning Shaddād. According to them, no king could enter Egypt except Bokht-Naṣṣar (Nebuchadnezzar), as we have already said, because he found a way to nullify the protective power of talismans.
Shaddāt composed the tables where the names of the kings are inscribed. They are said to have some inscriptions and some writings of the priests, which the king Būdashīr son of Qofṭarīm, consecrated to the service of the celestial lights, and having their spiritual essence infused in him, he was seized with the desire to ascend to them. He refused his body food and drink, and when he had spent a long time in this penance, the celestial lights desired to join him and he desired to unite with them; they took him up among themselves, they excluded him from the earth, and they made him a star that appeared and disappeared following the movements of the sky. It is truly fortunate therefore that the priests knew all the means of the priesthood; for the successors of a king raised so high could not fail to consult the priests on ways to achieve the same level and the paths to the same glory. But this legend and others like it were intended only to seduce men, because these priests worshiped the stars, and they thus spoke to exalt their religion. But they also say that the Egyptians followed the belief in the one God, and that by giving praise to the intermediate and subordinate substances, they pretended not to insult their Creator, honoring these creatures in their thinking because of the proximity which they found themselves to him. So also did the Indians, the Arabs, and many other nations.
Shaddāt built the temple of Armant; he erected idols of the stars in gold, silver, white iron, bright tin, and solid mercury, the minerals having the nature of stars, classified according to their order. He adorned the temple in the most beautiful way. He decorated it with beautiful paintings, and he had it covered with precious stones, various colors, and gaudy silks of all kinds. There was no more precious material that he might employ in this work. In one of the cities in Middle Egypt at Anṣanā (Antinoë), he built a similar temple and he surmounted it with a dome like the one he had built at Armant. He built a temple to the east of the city of Alexandria. He erected a black granite idol of Saturn on the west bank of the Nile. In the eastern region, he founded cities and erected in one of them a standing idol; every man suffering from disabilities that prevented him from enjoying the pleasures of love touched the idol and was cured. In another of these cities, he erected an idol with the figure of a cow with two big breasts. Any woman whose milk dried up had only to touch those breasts to become healthy. Here he also built a palace following a quarrel one of his sons had with his mother. This princess was transported there in the company of many sages and artisans. It is said that Qūṣ the High was built in his time, having two statues that stood in an embrace.
When the Abyssinians and Negroes invaded part of the country, Shaddāt sent against them his son Manqāūs at the head of a powerful army. The prince created great carnage. The prisoners he brought back from this campaign were put to work in the service of the king, and this practice was always followed afterwards by the Egyptians; as they were mining gold in that time in the gold mines, they put the prisoners to work outside the mines and to transport gold, and they made the soldiers who had taken them prisoners live with them to watch over them.
Shaddāt was the first who cultivated the art of hunting, who captured birds of prey, and bred the dogs of Salūq from wolves and domestic dogs. He invented the shoes for, and everything related to, the care of the beasts of burden. The wonders and talismans he produced are countless. By magical means, he attracted the crocodiles to a pond next to Osyūṭ. He went to the pond by the Nile and he killed many of these animals. Their leather was used to make boats and other things; their flesh and their humors were used with herbs in the compounding of drugs. The Copts say that this king built at Miṣr twelve wonders and talismans. The works he did could never be equaled in any other country. Most of the monuments of his reign, although ransacked and ruined, have left vestiges behind.
Shaddāt bin ‘Adim reigned ninety years. One day he was out hunting, and his horse threw him down a slope and killed him. We read in a Coptic book that the king had once thrown one of his servants who had disobeyed him from the top of a mountain. But later he felt remorse for this act, and it was revealed to him that he would die the same way. Thus, he feared climbing mountains. It was recommended that when this misfortune should befall him, they should erect his tomb in the very place where he died and that they engrave above it these words: “Whoever has power must maintain justice. He should not carry it to extremes. This is the tomb of Shaddāt, son of ‘Adim, son of Qofṭarīm. He exceeded the bounds of what was permitted him, and he received his punishment.” Shaddāt died, so they dug him a cave at the foot of the mountain, and they erected above it a dome containing a room entirely decorated in silver. They sat his body on a throne and placed near him a quantity of gold, stones, statues, and secrets and writings. Shaddāt died at the age of 440.
Manqāūs
He was succeeded by his son Manqāūs. Manqāūs walked in the footsteps of his father; he governed with moderation and wisdom. He published writings on the sciences, he ordered their study and transcribed them into the common script that the vulgar could understand. He filled vacancies in the priesthood. He built the first hot baths. This prince loved the company of women; he married a great number, daughters of the people and daughters of priests. For each of them, he established a special residence where he built beautiful palaces decorated with graceful figures, rich carpets, and wonderful objects. According to some historians, it was he who had founded Memphis for his thirty daughters. He also founded other cities and other monuments. He built a temple to the stars to eight parasangs from Memphis, and in the same area he placed many talismans and wonders, in the execution of which he surpassed the science of his father and grandfather. He appointed twelve feasts per year, ordering that each of these festive ceremonies vary according to the signs of the zodiac each month. He used to distribute gifts to his subjects on the occasion of these festivals, and spread among them great boons. Never were the people as happy as during his reign. The mines were exploited as best they had ever been. The alchemists were forced to work and did not stop their research day or night. The treasures that the king amassed became immense; his jewels, molten glasses, and wealth of any kind were innumerable.
He preoccupied himself with preserving his wealth, and one day summoning one of his brothers in whom he had confidence, he said: “The amount of images we made and gold and jewels that we have gathered is huge; I fear that such a multitude of precious objects excites the envy of kings who might decide to attack us. So take these treasures and carry them with you into the land of the West; you will seek out a secret, inaccessible place, and you will hide them there. You will cover the place where you have laid them, and you will take note of some landmarks along with the exact description of the place and the way to it, so we can find our treasure when God pleases.” Historians say that the prince took with him 12,000 chariots, of which 300 were full of stones, and the others with gold, beaten sheets, rare and beautiful objects, tools, weapons, and vases. He traveled the south for a day, then west for a whole day and part of another, and on the third day he arrived in front of a black and barren mountain that they could not access from any of the nearby mountains. He dug in the mountain caverns and subterranean chambers in which he buried this treasure. He threw earth over it as his brother commanded him, and he noted the landmarks. He wrote out a description of the place and the road that led there, and he returned to the king. During the four years that followed the journey, the king also sent a number of chariots filled with riches to be buried in different places.
Manqāūs built a temple in which were placed idols that could cure all diseases. They wrote over the head of every idol the disease it cured. This temple, after having stood for a long time, was ruined by a king. In a city that he founded, Manqāūs set up a stone statue of a smiling woman, and no one could see the statue but that his sorrows should cease immediately. The people honored her by making a revolution around the statue, and finally, by adoring it.
They also made an image of gilded copper, a bird with outspread wings, which was placed on a column in the middle of the city. Any man or woman guilty of adultery, who passed the image, was forced to confess his crime. The people, fearing that event, abstained from fornication. The idol survived until the time of King Kalkān; at that time, they move the idol and it lost its power. Here is how it happened.
One of the wives of this king was guilty of having love for a man of his retinue. She was afraid that the king should learn of this passion and submit her to the test of this statue, following which she would be killed. She sought the means to escape this fate, and one night, as she was drinking with the king, she began to tell him about guilty women, casting blame on their conduct with great severity. The king replied by praising the idol, recalled its properties, the fear it inspired the people, and the great justice it rendered to both sexes. But the woman said: “If it is so, that is fine; however King Manqāūs was not quite wise in this case.” “How so?” asked the king. “He was wrong, and all his wise men, when he established this idol for the good of the common people without thinking of his own advantage. For how could he use it? He should have had the image placed in the house of the king, near the apartments of his wives and his slaves. If one of them was guilty, the king would have immediately known and could have raged against that person in secret, without everyone finding out. This statue would thus have served as a constant warning to anyone in the palace who would be tempted to default on her obligations, especially women dominated by passion. Women are indeed subject to more violent passions than men, because they have the lowest intelligence. Now, however, if such a crime was committed in the royal palace, I ask the pardon of the upper lights, the test that we would submit the culprit to would dishonor the king himself, making his shame public knowledge. If the king would rather punish the guilty without subjecting her to the test, he would act unjustly; and if he took the side of abetting the crime by silence, he would support an ignominy.” The king said, “You have spoken well,” and he considered her words as wise counsel and as an expression of the truth; but he understood that she had uttered them because she was guilty and that she feared a revelation. The next morning, he removed the idol and ordered it transported into his palace, to a place he appointed arbitrarily, without study, and without consulting the scholars or the wise. When the idol had been set up in this place, before it several trials were made, which led to no result. The king then repented of having moved it, and his slave could satisfy her desires and to engage her passion without fear. He had forgotten that magical work must only be performed when the stars had been observed and their positions identified in relation to time.
The inhabitants of Akhmīm say that a man of the eastern region frequented the Berba and came there every day with incense and a perfume of crocus. He burned incense and perfumed the statue set up before the door of the Berba, after which he discovered below it, at its feet, a dinar. He took it and went. He repeated this practice for a long time; in the end, he was denounced by a slave who told his story to the governor of the place. This man arrested him, and the man, having given him a large sum, left the country.
They say Manqāūs built a temple for magicians on Mount al-Quṣaīr (the Mountain of the Moon) and gave them one of their own for their leader, a man named Maslaṣ. These magicians locked up the winds and gave them to ships only under after they had paid a toll. When the king was traveling, there were frightening images before him and the men who gathered to see him were amazed. Manqāūs also built a temple to celebrate a cult that was peculiar to him; there he put the images of the sun and stars, and all around the building, he set up statues and wonders. He rode every year to this temple and lived there seven days before departing. And he inscribed on two pillars the date of its foundation. These two pillars still remain today where they are seen in a place called ‘Aīn Shams (Heliopolis). Manqāūs transported to ‘Aīn Shams treasures, gems, talismans, and drugs that were deposited in this temple.
This king of Egypt distributed the income in four fractions: one quarter was given to the king, who used it as he wished; a second quarter was allocated for the maintenance of armies; they used the third quarter for land improvement, construction of bridges, opening channels, and it was also used to force the people to cultivate the soil. The last quarter was set aside for unforeseen emergencies. The income of the country was then 103 million (dinars). It was distributed among 103 nomes (qūrah). The number of nomes is now 85, 45 of them in Lower Egypt and 40 in the Ṣa‘īd. In each nome there lived a priest to govern it, and a military leader.
Manqāūs reigned 71 years and died of the plague. According to another tradition, he was poisoned at a banquet. They built him a tomb in the desert of Qofṭ, though others say on the west of Qūṣ. They deposited sheets with him, works of art, gold statues, gems and gold coins, all in considerable quantity. Before dying, he had lost a slave who was dearer to him than all his wives and for whom he had a very lively passion. He placed his statue in all the temples; and he made one more such image with golden hair, dressed with a precious robe decorated with gems and seated on a golden throne, which was before him wherever he went, so that the view of it would console him. They deposited this statue in the tomb, and it was set before him at his feet, as if he were talking to her.
Menāūs
When all had been finished with Manqāūs, his son Menāūs sat on the throne of his father. He sought justice like him, honored the sages, and devoted considerable sums to buy the secrets that were presented to him. The names of those who had found them were enrolled in the annals of the kingdom and engraved on stone in temples.
Menāūs was the first man who worshiped cows. Here is how the cult originated. The king fell ill and despairing of his recovery, saw in a dream a great djinn who spoke to him and said, “You will not heal from this disease unless you worship cows, because the rising sign, when you were born, was the bull.” Now this djinn himself had the shape of a bull with two horns. The king, upon waking, hastened to seek a multicolored bull, the best that could be found, and he built for it in his palace a stall topped by a golden dome. He burned incense and anointed it with perfume, and he gave it choice food; one of his servants also stood with the animal to groom it and change the litter. But all this was done in secret from the people. Menāūs, according to the promises of the djinn, recovered his health.
It is said that this king was also the first to make a golden chariot. His chariot carried a cabin of gilded wood, hung with precious carpets. He sat down and it drove him to pleasant places. This he made it to do, they say, in the time of his illness, when he could not mount a horse. Bulls dragged the chariot. When passing through a happy place, the king would stop, and he when crossed a wasteland, he ordered its cultivation. One day, they say, he noticed a bull which was being dragged; it was a piebald bull with a beautiful shape and long horns. He had it take and separated from the hitch and driven ahead to a place that pleased him.
He passed the time on this road admiring it. He then dressed it with a silk cloth embroidered with gold. A few days later, the king being away from his companions, in a secluded place, he saw come to him that bull whom he had admired and which spoke to him in these words: “If the king continues to treat me with as much care and honor, and if he consents to worship me, I will give him everything he desires, and I will increase his power and I will immunize him from all diseases.” Menāūs was overcome with emotion at these words; he ordered that the bull be washed and perfumed, dressed in silk and gold, and he drove him into a temple where servants attended to all its needs and never stopped anointing it with balms and perfumes. Then he instituted rites in its honor. This bull was worshiped for a long time, and the people let themselves be seduced by this practice. Such was the origin of the cult of the bull.
Menāūs founded many cities in the desert and in the mountains. He accumulated treasures and built monuments. In the desert of the West, he founded a town called Dīmās, where a lighthouse was erected and which was filled with treasures. They say it still exists today. Men who came from the side of the West would have heard the buzzing and seen the lights of the djinn.
We read in the Coptic books that the bull, after being worshiped for a long time, commanded that they make a golden image of him, a hollow on, and to take hairs from his head and his tail, and trimmings from his horns and hooves, and to place these relics in this statue. It became known that he was at the end of his earthly existence, and he ordered that he be buried in a stone sarcophagus that would be placed in the temple and topped by his statue. Saturn should, at this moment, be in the East and the Sun in trine to this statue; and they should paint on the image the signs of the seven stars. These orders were executed, the golden statue was cast, decorated with all kinds of precious stones and white and black inlays. The bull was buried in the place it had indicated and its statue erected above it. It continued to teach men various wonders, and to reveal their futures and answer their questions. Its image was surrounded by great reverence; they made greeted it; they brought offerings to it, and they came from all the provinces of Egypt, near and far to visit it. The people received the oracles for which they asked.
Menāūs, who reigned 35 years, died of consumption. They built him a tomb in the western mountains, and he was buried in a stone coffin.
Marīnos
After him his son Marīnos reigned. Marīnos was king for 21 years. He was crippled. He built no monument, nor raised any lighthouse, and executed no wonders. He died and was buried beside his father in a lead sarcophagus.
All the Egyptians say that the first man who reigned in Egypt after the Flood was Miṣraīm, son of Baīṣar, son of Ham, son of Noah. He was designated by his grandfather in the following circumstances: The priest Philemon asked Noah if he could ally himself with his family, saying: “O Prophet of God, I left my family and my children; therefore, elevate me to a rank by which men might keep my memory after my death.” So Noah had married Miṣraīm son of Baīsar, son of Ham, to the daughter of Philemon. She bore a son who was called Philemon, named after his grandfather.
When Noah wanted to share the land among his children, Philemon said to him: “O Prophet of God, send me with my son into my country, that I may show him the treasures, and that I might uncover for him the sciences and interpret for him the inscriptions.” Noah sent them there with a company of people from his family. Philemon’s son was still a child who had yet to reach adulthood. When they were in Egypt, his father erected a tent made of tree branches on which he placed dry grass. Later, he built him a city in the same place, and he called it Darsān, that is to say, the door of Paradise. The immigrants sowed the land and planted trees there. They filled all the space between Darsān and the sea with cultivated fields, gardens, and homes. The companions of Miṣraīm were giants. They hewed the rocks, built monuments, and executed works of art, and they lived in great affluence. Miṣraīm married the priest’s daughter. She gave him a son who was called Qobṭīm. After the latter had lived 90 years, he married a woman by whom he had four sons: Qofṭarīm, Ashmūn, Atrīb, and Ṣā. His family became rich, cultivated the land, and continued to live in prosperity.
The number of companions of Miṣraīm was, they say, thirty men, all giants. They built a city they called Māfah, a name which in their language meant thirty. This is the city of Manf (Memphis). The priest Philemon uncovered for Miṣraīm the treasures of Egypt. He taught him to read the writing of the Berba and the inscriptions on the stones; he showed him the places of gold mining, turquoise, emeralds, and other precious materials; he taught him how to construct works of art. The king entrusted the administration of these wonders to a considerable man of his house called Moqīṭam. This man gave himself up to the study of alchemy in the eastern mountain, which took from him the name of al-Moqaṭṭam. Philemon also taught the king the art of talismans. In that time, out of the sea came monsters that devastated the harvest and all the coastal provinces. They prepared talismans against them, and they disappeared, never to return.
On the edge of the sea several cities were built, including one in the place of Alexandria [called Raqūdah (Rhakotis)]. In the middle of this city, a dome of gilded copper was set up, over which was erected a mirror of composite substances five spans in diameter. The height of the dome above the ground was five hundred cubits. If an enemy were advancing against Egypt by sea, they were warned by the mirror, and it projected on them its rays, whose flames set fire to their ships. The dome survived until the time when the sea, having advanced over land, ruined it. They say the Lighthouse of Alexandria was built on its model. They also established at the summit a mirror that allowed them to see from afar the ships coming from the country of Rūm. But a king sent men who seized the mirror by a ruse and ruined it. It was of glass and cylindrical.
When Miṣraīm was about to die, he handed over power to his sons. He divided the land of Egypt between his children. He gave the entire region extending from Qofṭ up to Aswan to Qobṭīm; to Ashmūn he gave the part extending from Aswan to Memphis. To Atrīb he gave all Jauf, and to Ṣā the maritime region adjacent to Barqah and the Maghreb. Ṣā was the master of the Ifrīqīah, and his descendants were called Africans. Misraīm ordered each son to build a capital.
At his death, he ordered them to dig a vault, which they were to dress with marble in order to bury him; they were to deposit with his body all it would hold of his treasures of gold, silver and precious stones, and engrave over it the great names of God so that he should be protected from profanation. His son then built an underground passage whose length was a hundred and fifty cubits, and within which they set up a room covered with gold leaf. They gave the room four doors: on each door, they put a golden image, wearing a tiara adorned with gems, sitting on a throne of gold with emerald feet. They inscribed on the chest of each image protective verses, and shut up the king’s body in an emerald sarcophagus with the inscription: “Miṣraīm, son of Baīṣar, son of Ham, died 700 years after the Flood. He did not worship idols, and he reached the end of his life knowing neither decay nor infirmities, nor sorrows, nor worries.” Then they laid the body with all the treasures in the underground passage and left him in the care of the great names of God. They also made an oath that no one should touch the tomb, with the exception of a king descended from seven kings who had reached the end of the age, who would serve the Lord of their religion, and who would believe the Messenger bearing the Quran and inviting men to embrace his faith. Near the body in the burial chamber, the princes placed a thousand pieces of fashioned emerald, a thousand images of rare substances, a thousand gold flagons filled with precious stones, a thousand vases full of celestial ingredients and mysterious herbs. They also set up powerful talismans, bars of gold piled on each other, and then they closed it off with huge rocks, and they backfilled the area with earth and sand until they had filled the entire valley where the tomb had been dug out. They erected columns on the site, so that they could recognize it.
Qofṭīm
After this king reigned his son Qofṭīm; it is from him, they say, that the Copts have their origin. He is the first man who made wonders, who exploited the mines, and who dug canals. It is said that the confusion of tongues occurred during his time and he came out speaking the Coptic language. He surpassed his father in the cultivation of the soil, in the construction of monuments and lighthouses, and in the execution of talismans and wonders. He reigned eighty years and then died.
His children and all the people felt great sorrow at his death. He was buried in a vault under the great mountain of Middle Egypt, and they dressed this vault in colorful marble. They opened holes for the passage of wind and there burned oils which cast a singular light. They placed therein copper thrones coated with ointments capable of illuminating lamps that never go out. His body was embalmed with myrrh, camphor, and mummia, and then they encased it in a golden coffin, dressed in clothes adorned with coral and gems. They covered his face with a kind of overlay, and the sarcophagus was arranged under a dome supported by colored marble pillars. Amid this dome gems shone like torches; between the pillars stood statues whose hands were operating wonders. They buried below the sarcophagus stone boxes filled with gems of gold, images, and objects of art, and they spread around it the sheets of wisdom; then they sealed the monument and engraved above it an inscription similar to that which had been engraved on the tomb of Miṣraīm.
Qofṭarīm
After Qofṭīm his son Qofṭarīm reigned. He was the eldest of his children, and he was a great giant. He placed secrets in the pyramids of Dahshur and other pyramids, to imitate what had been done of old. He founded the city of Dendera. The ‘Ādites perished in the wind at the end of his reign. He exploited the mines better than had been done before. He unearthed gold nuggets the size of a millstone, and emeralds as large as columns. He planted trees in the desert of the West, such as palm trees; and he performed many wonders. In the mountains of Qofṭ, he built a tall lighthouse from which they could see the East Sea. He found in the same place the mines of quicksilver, and there he dug a pond that is said to exist today. Under his reign, Iblis and his companions uncovered the idols which the Flood had submerged, and they restored their worship and their authority.
Qofṭarīm is credited with founding the cities of Middle Egypt. He filled them with wonders. In the largest, one might have seen among other things pillars fashioned from water that does not flow or liquefy, and a pond called Falesṭīn, [that is to say, the hunting of birds,] on which the birds fell down as they passed above and from which they could not extricate themselves until someone came to take them. One might also see a copper pillar bearing the image of a bird; when the big cats, lions, and snakes approached the city, the bird emitted a shrill whistle which put them to flight. The city had four gates, each topped with a copper idol. Any foreigner who approached one of those idols fell soundly asleep and remained near the door, until the guards were able to come for him. They woke him by blowing on his face. If no one came to wake him, he died in his sleep. Qofṭarīm built an elegant lighthouse of colored glass mounted on a copper base, on top of which he placed a glass idol, holding in its hand a bow which seemed soft. When a stranger appeared before this idol, he was paralyzed on the spot and could not move unless the people of the city came to save him. This idol turned itself to the winds. It is claimed that it is still standing today, but nobody goes to this city despite all the treasures and wonders it contains, for fear of the idol. A king, they say, once wanted to capture it. He killed many people in this attempt and it failed. They also say that Qofṭarīm erected in one of the Middle Egyptian cities a mirror in which everyone could see what he wanted to know. He founded beyond the mountain and outside the oasis towns where he also placed many wonders, and he entrusted their care to the spirits who forbade any approach. No one could enter until he had made an agreement with the spirits. The pact concluded, they had access to the city and they could carry away all of these treasures that they wanted without fear of evil.
Qofṭarīm reigned 400 years. Many of the wonders of Egypt were made in his time and in the time of his father. At his command they built him a tomb in the mountain of the West, near the City of Pillars. He prepared it himself before his death; it was a rotunda in the middle of an underground passage, vaulted and arranged in the manner of a very large house. Around the rotunda were carved into the mountain rooms for treasures, and their ceilings were pierced with holes for the passage of air. The underground passage and the whole sepulcher were covered with marble. At the center of this necropolis, they built a hall supported by eight pillars and covered with colorful melted glass. Jewels and bright stones adorned the roof; against each of the pillars that supported it leaned a golden statue holding in his hand a bolt of lightning. A gold inlaid pool whose edges were of emerald was placed in the middle of the room. Then they set down silk carpets, and they sat the king there on his throne, after embalming his body with drying ointments. They laid around him a thousand camphor vases. They dressed the body in clothing of gold fabric; the face remained uncovered and the head was crowned with a bejeweled tiara. On the sides of the pool they put four statues of melted glass having the figure and complexion of women, who were holding a type of fan made of gold. Atop the clothes on the chest of the king, they lay a sturdy iron sword with an emerald handle. The rooms of treasures were then filled with valuables, gold bars, crowns, jewels, medicinal ointments, herbs of all kinds, powerful talismans, sheets containing all the sciences, and wealth beyond reckoning. The door to the chamber was surmounted by a rooster in gold, standing on an emerald base. The bird’s wings unfolded and protective verses were engraved on its chest. At the entrance of each vault, two monstrous copper statues stood guard, armed with glittering swords. Before them stood a slab over which one had to pass to enter the tomb and that covered pipes full of water. Every man setting foot on the slab caused the statues to move; they struck him with their swords and killed him. Each vault was also an aperture in which they laid compounded substances capable of emitting light for an indefinite time. Finally, they stopped up the doors of the vaults with columns fitted with lead, and they covered the roof of the tomb with huge slabs of stone. Over this backfilled with sand. They carved on the door of the first vault, a colossal stone, this inscription: “This way one enters the tomb of the great, revered, and illustrious king Qofṭarīm, who had authority, strength, fame, dominion, and power. This place is consecrated by the presence of his body. His memory and reputation remain, but no one may enter his tomb by any wile whatsoever before a very long time has passed and many years will have completed their revolutions.”
Al-Būdashīr
Qofṭarim was succeeded by his son al-Būdashīr. This prince swelled with pride, devoted himself to magic, and could hide himself from the eyes of men. His uncles Ashmūn, Ṣā, and Atrib reigned in their provinces, but he was more powerful than them, which is why he was acknowledged (as king). They say he gave Hermes the Egyptian the mission to go to the Mountain of the Moon, under which is the source of the Nile, to build a temple with copper statues, and to excavate lakes into which the water of the Nile could pour itself. It is also said that he channeled the Nile, for previously the river had flowed in various places and was divided into many branches. Al-Būdashīr then commanded Hermes to explore the western region. This wise man there discovered a vast area where water was abundant and where many springs gushed in the woods. He built lighthouses and resting places, and there he stayed. Al-Būdashīr sent men of his house to populate this land. They cultivated it, built it, and made it into a flourishing country. The Egyptians stayed there a long time, living among the Berbers and making marriages between the two races. But hatred emerged between them; the two peoples were divided and there were wars which led to the downfall of Egyptian rule. The country was then devastated. The surviving Egyptians resettled in a land called the Wāḥāt.
They say many wonders were executed in the days of this king, including a dome on four pillars, each of which had a hole from which emerged clouds of smoke of various colors for one day at the beginning of each year. If it emitted green smoke, this indicated that the year would be happy and the earth would make much fruit; if the smoke were white, it meant that the year would be dry and a poor producer; if it were red, it was an omen of bloodshed, wars, and invasions; if it were black, it announced heavy rains, flooding ,and severe damage to a part of the country; if it were yellow, it was a sign that there would be fire and that prodigies would appear in the sky. Finally, when the smoke came out in a variety of colors, one could expect major troubles among the people, when men would commit crimes against each other, the sovereign would neglect the business of the state, and so on, according to the variations in color. The dome was surmounted by a lighthouse that survived through a large portion of the reign of this king; it was later destroyed with the wonders he had made to in the west and in the surrounding deserts.
The wild beasts swarmed in those days, and ravaged the crops; it was the same with the hippopotamuses. They made a copper tree that was planted in a certain place. All beasts that approached this tree were paralyzed, and they could not move until they had come to take them and kill them, and they shared their flesh. One of the neighboring kings to Egypt succeeded in seizing this tree by cunning, and he carried it off to his country to make a similar one. But as soon as he moved it, this talisman lost its virtue and became useless because only the Egyptians knew the incantations that made it effective. It had survived rather a long time in the same place.
Among the occurrences during this reign, we can also mention this: A raven put out the eye of a child, the son of a priest. The father of this child had fashioned a copper three on which a crow perched holding in its beak a snake hanging down on both sides; then he inscribed spells on the back of the bird. Crows flocked and fell all around the tree; they died on the ground or they picked them up and killed them. A large number of these animals perished as well, and the species virtually vanished from the entire region as far as Syria. But it happened one day that a king fell ill and found no other remedy for his malady than to eat cooked crows and drink their droppings. He sent for crows, and it was impossible to find one. One of his servants had to go to Syria to try to get them, but during his trip, the prince illness progressed to a grave state. Irritated, he ordered the tree cut down. As soon as they had obeyed, the crows returned. The king could begin his treatment and was cured; his envoy had not yet returned from Syria.
Under the same ruler, sand piled up on the side of the West to the point of burying the houses. Al-Būdashīr set up to oppose this scourge a black granite idol mounted on a pedestal of the same material and carrying a basket on his arm with an iron shovel. He painted inscriptions on its forehead, on its chest, and on its arms and legs enrollment, and he turned the face of the idol to the side of the West. The sands soon parted; they were blown away and formed in the deserts of the West the high dunes that we still see. Since that time, the sands never encroached beyond this idol, and it protected the country so that it no longer had to suffer any harm from them.
When Būdashīr had ruled some time, he hid himself from the eyes of men. They still saw sometimes saw in the room where he gave his audiences a bright shine, or a large face, and other times they heard him speak without seeing him. They remained obedient to him for a long time; in the end, ‘Ādim, son of this king, saw him and received from him the order to sit in his place on the throne. ‘Ādim therefore seized power and sat on the throne of his father.
‘Adīm
‘Adīm was a giant, with insurmountable strength, and the greatest of men. He ordered the quarrying of rocks and their transportation to build pyramids, as had been done in former times. In his time, two angels fell from the sky. They taught ‘Adīm many magical secrets, then they removed themselves to Babel. The inhabitants of Egypt and the Copts say they were two Satans, and called Mahlah and Mahālah, and they lived in Babel in a well where the magicians came to visit them until the hour of their deliverance. It is from this time that they worshiped idols. It was also said that Satans also erected statues and proposed their worship to men. [Some say that he who set up the idols was Badūrah, and that the first idol which was set up was that of the sun.] According to others, Nimrod was the first to erect idols and worship them.
‘Adīm invented the punishment of the gibbet. A woman was found guilty of adultery with a craftsman, so the king had them both crucified, back to back, and wrote above them their name and crime, with the date of their execution. This punishment frightened men and turned them away from adultery.
The king built four cities in which he placed a large number of wonders and filled it with talismans and wealth. On the shore of the East Sea, he built a lighthouse on top of which was placed an idol turned toward the east, its two hands held out to mark the boundary which the sands and sea monsters should not cross. They wrote on the chest of the idol the date on which it was erected. This lighthouse, it is said, still exists in our time. Without it, the salt water from the East Sea would have spread over the land of Egypt. ‘Adīm threw a bridge over the Nile in the land of Nubia and placed on the bridge four idols facing the four cardinal points; each of them held a sword with which it struck anyone approaching from its direction. These idols survived for a long time and were finally overthrown. The same king built berba that are still standing today.
It is said that in one of the four cities of which we have spoken, he established a black onyx basin wherein the water never decreased because of the humidity of the air was discharged into it. He set up in the middle of the basin a wonderful machine, and all the inhabitants of the city and the region came to drink this water or take some it, without its level diminishing. This basin was built because the country was far from the Nile and near the salty sea. The Egyptian priests explained its properties by its proximity to the sea: The sun drew forth the vapors emitted by the waves; they were then collected either by mechanical means or by talismans, and made to go down into the basin. The humidity of the air therefore maintained a constant level of the water, which did not fall throughout the course of centuries, even were all the world to have drunk from it. He also set up in front of a Berba, a similar elegant pool and arranged it on a circular base, and it was always full of water. They received atop this basin part of the atmospheric vapors, and locals came to drink of it without the water diminishing. This marvel still exists today. It was also under King ‘Adīm that a beautiful cup mounted on a stand was executed, which King Ḥawīl later presented to the Greek Alexander.
‘Adīm reigned 140 years, after which he died, aged 930 years. They say he was buried in one of the wonderful cities under a dome of colored lead and coated with yellow glass. His body was coated with the essence of musk, and were immense treasures placed all around him. His tomb was located in the middle of the city, whose custody was then entrusted to the invisible spirits. Some Copts say the tomb of ‘Adīm was excavated within a prominent rock on the surface of the earth and had the form of a large green glass dome whose pillars rested on eight vaults of the same substance. Atop the dome was a gold sphere, topped with a golden bird, decorated with stones and flapping its wings, which defended the entrance. The dome measured a hundred cubits in both directions. The king’s body was placed in the center, on a throne of gold inlaid with gems and clothed with vestments of gold fabric, his face remaining uncovered. The vaults were excavated; each had a length of eighty cubits; the height of the dome was forty cubits; it projected light throughout the surrounding region. In the tomb 170 sheets containing the precepts of wisdom were placed with the body, and seven tables holding vases of the same substance as themselves. These tables were as follows: The table of red gold of Philemon, whose brightness blinded eyes; this is the gold from which they made the crowns of kings. This table held a vase of the same material. — A table of luminous sunstone and a vase of the same. — An emerald green table whose color dazzled and emitted yellow rays; when the vipers were watching, their eyes melted. — A red copper table worked in the way that is indicated in the books of the Copts, with its vase. — A table of shiny and translucent white salt, whose brilliance made it hard to look at, with its vase atop it. — A solid quicksilver table whose edges and feet were yellow mercury and which supported a vase of red mercury. — They also placed under the dome many precious stones and crystal chests filled with wonderful secrets. Around the body were arranged seven swords endowed with magical powers and worked tin shields. They also set up seven golden horse statues wearing gold trappings, seven boxes filled with black onyx dinars struck during his reign, and the effigy of the king. Finally they set down near him all kinds of herbs, poisons, and compounded drugs in sealed vessels, and stones of all kinds, in countless numbers.
A man who visited the dome reported that after he went there with some companions, they were paralyzed in front of it for several days without being able to enter. When they were at the distance of eight cubits, the dome had turned itself from their right and to their left they could see inside; when they approached closer, it turned in another direction. Among other wonders of this tomb which they recounted, they said they had seen all the vaults in succession and that they had appeared to them to be all uniformly similar; they also claimed to have seen the face of the dead king, whose size was a cubit and a half; it was discovered thereby that his whole beard was very long; the size of his body appeared to be at least ten cubits. They described other wonders they had witnessed in this place, and different types of animals that are not found elsewhere.
We read in a Coptic book that no one can access the dome without sacrificing a white cock, and burning offerings of its feathers to the monument at a given distance; the wind carries the smoke up to the dome. It must also be that the planets are in the same position they were in when the tomb was built; Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars together in one sign, Venus and Mercury together in another, the Sun and the Moon in a third. Then one must pronounce some incantations seven times, and upon approaching the dome, sprinkle the wall with the blood of the cock that was sacrificed. One can then enter and take all the gold and all the images one wishes, as long as one does not sit down in there.
It is said that the people who visited the dome were not residents of the country; they were strangers coming for another purpose, but whom it pleased to question the residents of Qofṭ about it. They had at first found no one who could tell them what it was. Finally a sheikh replied that one day his son had departed by camel on some business and had seen the monument but could not reach it; the sheikh had then sought information about it and he learned that the inhabitants of the eastern region came to visit the dome. They had stayed at Qofṭ for a few days, went to the tomb, and not a one ever returned.
They say that before his death King ‘Adīm had advised his son to tour the empire’s provinces to found in each of them a lighthouse on which he would inscribe his name, and to also build monuments and amphitheaters. The prince then began building a lighthouse in the desert and he surmounted it with an idol with two horned heads. He then passed into the province of Atrīb and built a dome over several orders of columns, on top of which he put a small gold idol; there he also built a temple to the stars. The father of ‘Adīm, al-Būdashīr, was the first man to build a temple to the stars, and his son did nothing but imitate him. After this, he move on to the province of Ṣā, where the prince built a lighthouse atop which he placed a mirror of a compound substance, which could see all the climates of the globe. Then he returned to his father, who made him heir to the kingdom, and gave him various recommendations. Upon his death, ‘Adīm was laid in his tomb; when was in finished attending to him, Shaddāt sat on the throne.
Shaddāt
Shaddāt built the monuments of Dahshur with the stones that had been carved in the time of his father. Scholars who do not believe that the ‘Ādites ever came into Egypt claim that the error arose due to the confusion of the name of Shaddāt with that of Shaddād bin ’Ād. This resulted in the application to Shaddāt of the greatest part of the facts concerning Shaddād. According to them, no king could enter Egypt except Bokht-Naṣṣar (Nebuchadnezzar), as we have already said, because he found a way to nullify the protective power of talismans.
Shaddāt composed the tables where the names of the kings are inscribed. They are said to have some inscriptions and some writings of the priests, which the king Būdashīr son of Qofṭarīm, consecrated to the service of the celestial lights, and having their spiritual essence infused in him, he was seized with the desire to ascend to them. He refused his body food and drink, and when he had spent a long time in this penance, the celestial lights desired to join him and he desired to unite with them; they took him up among themselves, they excluded him from the earth, and they made him a star that appeared and disappeared following the movements of the sky. It is truly fortunate therefore that the priests knew all the means of the priesthood; for the successors of a king raised so high could not fail to consult the priests on ways to achieve the same level and the paths to the same glory. But this legend and others like it were intended only to seduce men, because these priests worshiped the stars, and they thus spoke to exalt their religion. But they also say that the Egyptians followed the belief in the one God, and that by giving praise to the intermediate and subordinate substances, they pretended not to insult their Creator, honoring these creatures in their thinking because of the proximity which they found themselves to him. So also did the Indians, the Arabs, and many other nations.
Shaddāt built the temple of Armant; he erected idols of the stars in gold, silver, white iron, bright tin, and solid mercury, the minerals having the nature of stars, classified according to their order. He adorned the temple in the most beautiful way. He decorated it with beautiful paintings, and he had it covered with precious stones, various colors, and gaudy silks of all kinds. There was no more precious material that he might employ in this work. In one of the cities in Middle Egypt at Anṣanā (Antinoë), he built a similar temple and he surmounted it with a dome like the one he had built at Armant. He built a temple to the east of the city of Alexandria. He erected a black granite idol of Saturn on the west bank of the Nile. In the eastern region, he founded cities and erected in one of them a standing idol; every man suffering from disabilities that prevented him from enjoying the pleasures of love touched the idol and was cured. In another of these cities, he erected an idol with the figure of a cow with two big breasts. Any woman whose milk dried up had only to touch those breasts to become healthy. Here he also built a palace following a quarrel one of his sons had with his mother. This princess was transported there in the company of many sages and artisans. It is said that Qūṣ the High was built in his time, having two statues that stood in an embrace.
When the Abyssinians and Negroes invaded part of the country, Shaddāt sent against them his son Manqāūs at the head of a powerful army. The prince created great carnage. The prisoners he brought back from this campaign were put to work in the service of the king, and this practice was always followed afterwards by the Egyptians; as they were mining gold in that time in the gold mines, they put the prisoners to work outside the mines and to transport gold, and they made the soldiers who had taken them prisoners live with them to watch over them.
Shaddāt was the first who cultivated the art of hunting, who captured birds of prey, and bred the dogs of Salūq from wolves and domestic dogs. He invented the shoes for, and everything related to, the care of the beasts of burden. The wonders and talismans he produced are countless. By magical means, he attracted the crocodiles to a pond next to Osyūṭ. He went to the pond by the Nile and he killed many of these animals. Their leather was used to make boats and other things; their flesh and their humors were used with herbs in the compounding of drugs. The Copts say that this king built at Miṣr twelve wonders and talismans. The works he did could never be equaled in any other country. Most of the monuments of his reign, although ransacked and ruined, have left vestiges behind.
Shaddāt bin ‘Adim reigned ninety years. One day he was out hunting, and his horse threw him down a slope and killed him. We read in a Coptic book that the king had once thrown one of his servants who had disobeyed him from the top of a mountain. But later he felt remorse for this act, and it was revealed to him that he would die the same way. Thus, he feared climbing mountains. It was recommended that when this misfortune should befall him, they should erect his tomb in the very place where he died and that they engrave above it these words: “Whoever has power must maintain justice. He should not carry it to extremes. This is the tomb of Shaddāt, son of ‘Adim, son of Qofṭarīm. He exceeded the bounds of what was permitted him, and he received his punishment.” Shaddāt died, so they dug him a cave at the foot of the mountain, and they erected above it a dome containing a room entirely decorated in silver. They sat his body on a throne and placed near him a quantity of gold, stones, statues, and secrets and writings. Shaddāt died at the age of 440.
Manqāūs
He was succeeded by his son Manqāūs. Manqāūs walked in the footsteps of his father; he governed with moderation and wisdom. He published writings on the sciences, he ordered their study and transcribed them into the common script that the vulgar could understand. He filled vacancies in the priesthood. He built the first hot baths. This prince loved the company of women; he married a great number, daughters of the people and daughters of priests. For each of them, he established a special residence where he built beautiful palaces decorated with graceful figures, rich carpets, and wonderful objects. According to some historians, it was he who had founded Memphis for his thirty daughters. He also founded other cities and other monuments. He built a temple to the stars to eight parasangs from Memphis, and in the same area he placed many talismans and wonders, in the execution of which he surpassed the science of his father and grandfather. He appointed twelve feasts per year, ordering that each of these festive ceremonies vary according to the signs of the zodiac each month. He used to distribute gifts to his subjects on the occasion of these festivals, and spread among them great boons. Never were the people as happy as during his reign. The mines were exploited as best they had ever been. The alchemists were forced to work and did not stop their research day or night. The treasures that the king amassed became immense; his jewels, molten glasses, and wealth of any kind were innumerable.
He preoccupied himself with preserving his wealth, and one day summoning one of his brothers in whom he had confidence, he said: “The amount of images we made and gold and jewels that we have gathered is huge; I fear that such a multitude of precious objects excites the envy of kings who might decide to attack us. So take these treasures and carry them with you into the land of the West; you will seek out a secret, inaccessible place, and you will hide them there. You will cover the place where you have laid them, and you will take note of some landmarks along with the exact description of the place and the way to it, so we can find our treasure when God pleases.” Historians say that the prince took with him 12,000 chariots, of which 300 were full of stones, and the others with gold, beaten sheets, rare and beautiful objects, tools, weapons, and vases. He traveled the south for a day, then west for a whole day and part of another, and on the third day he arrived in front of a black and barren mountain that they could not access from any of the nearby mountains. He dug in the mountain caverns and subterranean chambers in which he buried this treasure. He threw earth over it as his brother commanded him, and he noted the landmarks. He wrote out a description of the place and the road that led there, and he returned to the king. During the four years that followed the journey, the king also sent a number of chariots filled with riches to be buried in different places.
Manqāūs built a temple in which were placed idols that could cure all diseases. They wrote over the head of every idol the disease it cured. This temple, after having stood for a long time, was ruined by a king. In a city that he founded, Manqāūs set up a stone statue of a smiling woman, and no one could see the statue but that his sorrows should cease immediately. The people honored her by making a revolution around the statue, and finally, by adoring it.
They also made an image of gilded copper, a bird with outspread wings, which was placed on a column in the middle of the city. Any man or woman guilty of adultery, who passed the image, was forced to confess his crime. The people, fearing that event, abstained from fornication. The idol survived until the time of King Kalkān; at that time, they move the idol and it lost its power. Here is how it happened.
One of the wives of this king was guilty of having love for a man of his retinue. She was afraid that the king should learn of this passion and submit her to the test of this statue, following which she would be killed. She sought the means to escape this fate, and one night, as she was drinking with the king, she began to tell him about guilty women, casting blame on their conduct with great severity. The king replied by praising the idol, recalled its properties, the fear it inspired the people, and the great justice it rendered to both sexes. But the woman said: “If it is so, that is fine; however King Manqāūs was not quite wise in this case.” “How so?” asked the king. “He was wrong, and all his wise men, when he established this idol for the good of the common people without thinking of his own advantage. For how could he use it? He should have had the image placed in the house of the king, near the apartments of his wives and his slaves. If one of them was guilty, the king would have immediately known and could have raged against that person in secret, without everyone finding out. This statue would thus have served as a constant warning to anyone in the palace who would be tempted to default on her obligations, especially women dominated by passion. Women are indeed subject to more violent passions than men, because they have the lowest intelligence. Now, however, if such a crime was committed in the royal palace, I ask the pardon of the upper lights, the test that we would submit the culprit to would dishonor the king himself, making his shame public knowledge. If the king would rather punish the guilty without subjecting her to the test, he would act unjustly; and if he took the side of abetting the crime by silence, he would support an ignominy.” The king said, “You have spoken well,” and he considered her words as wise counsel and as an expression of the truth; but he understood that she had uttered them because she was guilty and that she feared a revelation. The next morning, he removed the idol and ordered it transported into his palace, to a place he appointed arbitrarily, without study, and without consulting the scholars or the wise. When the idol had been set up in this place, before it several trials were made, which led to no result. The king then repented of having moved it, and his slave could satisfy her desires and to engage her passion without fear. He had forgotten that magical work must only be performed when the stars had been observed and their positions identified in relation to time.
The inhabitants of Akhmīm say that a man of the eastern region frequented the Berba and came there every day with incense and a perfume of crocus. He burned incense and perfumed the statue set up before the door of the Berba, after which he discovered below it, at its feet, a dinar. He took it and went. He repeated this practice for a long time; in the end, he was denounced by a slave who told his story to the governor of the place. This man arrested him, and the man, having given him a large sum, left the country.
They say Manqāūs built a temple for magicians on Mount al-Quṣaīr (the Mountain of the Moon) and gave them one of their own for their leader, a man named Maslaṣ. These magicians locked up the winds and gave them to ships only under after they had paid a toll. When the king was traveling, there were frightening images before him and the men who gathered to see him were amazed. Manqāūs also built a temple to celebrate a cult that was peculiar to him; there he put the images of the sun and stars, and all around the building, he set up statues and wonders. He rode every year to this temple and lived there seven days before departing. And he inscribed on two pillars the date of its foundation. These two pillars still remain today where they are seen in a place called ‘Aīn Shams (Heliopolis). Manqāūs transported to ‘Aīn Shams treasures, gems, talismans, and drugs that were deposited in this temple.
This king of Egypt distributed the income in four fractions: one quarter was given to the king, who used it as he wished; a second quarter was allocated for the maintenance of armies; they used the third quarter for land improvement, construction of bridges, opening channels, and it was also used to force the people to cultivate the soil. The last quarter was set aside for unforeseen emergencies. The income of the country was then 103 million (dinars). It was distributed among 103 nomes (qūrah). The number of nomes is now 85, 45 of them in Lower Egypt and 40 in the Ṣa‘īd. In each nome there lived a priest to govern it, and a military leader.
Manqāūs reigned 71 years and died of the plague. According to another tradition, he was poisoned at a banquet. They built him a tomb in the desert of Qofṭ, though others say on the west of Qūṣ. They deposited sheets with him, works of art, gold statues, gems and gold coins, all in considerable quantity. Before dying, he had lost a slave who was dearer to him than all his wives and for whom he had a very lively passion. He placed his statue in all the temples; and he made one more such image with golden hair, dressed with a precious robe decorated with gems and seated on a golden throne, which was before him wherever he went, so that the view of it would console him. They deposited this statue in the tomb, and it was set before him at his feet, as if he were talking to her.
Menāūs
When all had been finished with Manqāūs, his son Menāūs sat on the throne of his father. He sought justice like him, honored the sages, and devoted considerable sums to buy the secrets that were presented to him. The names of those who had found them were enrolled in the annals of the kingdom and engraved on stone in temples.
Menāūs was the first man who worshiped cows. Here is how the cult originated. The king fell ill and despairing of his recovery, saw in a dream a great djinn who spoke to him and said, “You will not heal from this disease unless you worship cows, because the rising sign, when you were born, was the bull.” Now this djinn himself had the shape of a bull with two horns. The king, upon waking, hastened to seek a multicolored bull, the best that could be found, and he built for it in his palace a stall topped by a golden dome. He burned incense and anointed it with perfume, and he gave it choice food; one of his servants also stood with the animal to groom it and change the litter. But all this was done in secret from the people. Menāūs, according to the promises of the djinn, recovered his health.
It is said that this king was also the first to make a golden chariot. His chariot carried a cabin of gilded wood, hung with precious carpets. He sat down and it drove him to pleasant places. This he made it to do, they say, in the time of his illness, when he could not mount a horse. Bulls dragged the chariot. When passing through a happy place, the king would stop, and he when crossed a wasteland, he ordered its cultivation. One day, they say, he noticed a bull which was being dragged; it was a piebald bull with a beautiful shape and long horns. He had it take and separated from the hitch and driven ahead to a place that pleased him.
He passed the time on this road admiring it. He then dressed it with a silk cloth embroidered with gold. A few days later, the king being away from his companions, in a secluded place, he saw come to him that bull whom he had admired and which spoke to him in these words: “If the king continues to treat me with as much care and honor, and if he consents to worship me, I will give him everything he desires, and I will increase his power and I will immunize him from all diseases.” Menāūs was overcome with emotion at these words; he ordered that the bull be washed and perfumed, dressed in silk and gold, and he drove him into a temple where servants attended to all its needs and never stopped anointing it with balms and perfumes. Then he instituted rites in its honor. This bull was worshiped for a long time, and the people let themselves be seduced by this practice. Such was the origin of the cult of the bull.
Menāūs founded many cities in the desert and in the mountains. He accumulated treasures and built monuments. In the desert of the West, he founded a town called Dīmās, where a lighthouse was erected and which was filled with treasures. They say it still exists today. Men who came from the side of the West would have heard the buzzing and seen the lights of the djinn.
We read in the Coptic books that the bull, after being worshiped for a long time, commanded that they make a golden image of him, a hollow on, and to take hairs from his head and his tail, and trimmings from his horns and hooves, and to place these relics in this statue. It became known that he was at the end of his earthly existence, and he ordered that he be buried in a stone sarcophagus that would be placed in the temple and topped by his statue. Saturn should, at this moment, be in the East and the Sun in trine to this statue; and they should paint on the image the signs of the seven stars. These orders were executed, the golden statue was cast, decorated with all kinds of precious stones and white and black inlays. The bull was buried in the place it had indicated and its statue erected above it. It continued to teach men various wonders, and to reveal their futures and answer their questions. Its image was surrounded by great reverence; they made greeted it; they brought offerings to it, and they came from all the provinces of Egypt, near and far to visit it. The people received the oracles for which they asked.
Menāūs, who reigned 35 years, died of consumption. They built him a tomb in the western mountains, and he was buried in a stone coffin.
Marīnos
After him his son Marīnos reigned. Marīnos was king for 21 years. He was crippled. He built no monument, nor raised any lighthouse, and executed no wonders. He died and was buried beside his father in a lead sarcophagus.
Chapter 4: The Dynasty of Ashmun
Ashmūn
Marīnos was succeeded by Ashmūn. Ashmūn was the son of Qobṭīm. His empire extended from Ashmūn to Memphis, from the East to the salty sea, up to al-Barqat al-Ḥomrā, which is at the limits of Egypt’s territory; and in the Ṣa‘īd up to Akhmīm. He inhabited Ashmūn, the city he built and called by his own name. He brought there the men of his house and all his family. The dimensions of this capital were twelve miles in both directions. It is this Ashmūn who is credited with the invention of ball and stick games and more. He built palaces, planted gardens, raised lighthouses, erected monuments, and most of the cities he founded were filled with wonders. The Copts believe that the story of Ashmūn is one of those which contain the most glorious memories and the most extraordinary facts.
It is reported among other things that he built a city at the foot of a mountain and he called Ūṭirāṭis. He gave it four gates: At the gate of the East he placed the image of an eagle; on the West, the image of a bull; on the South, the image of a dog, and on the North, the image of a lion. Priests, by magical processes, introduced spirits into these images; they spoke when a stranger wanted to enter the city, and he could then enter only with the permission of the guards. The king planted in this city a tree which bore fruit of all colors, and there built a lighthouse eighty cubits tall, with a dome that changed color for seven days. After the seventh day, the color began its series anew. The dome lit up the whole town with its colorful rays. Around this lighthouse was brought water from the Nile in which was placed in the water fish of various types. The city was surrounded by talismans in the form of idols, whose bodies were men with the heads of monkeys. Each had the ability to repel certain ailments and produce certain boons. Under the idols, which surmounted the four gates, they laid treasures, and they instituted sacrifices, incense, and incantations that allowed one to approach each. The king made magicians live in this city and built at some distance another city, which the Coptic writers call the City of Wonders.
One could see in the middle of that city a body like a cloud that gave rain in winter and summer. Under brilliant domes one could see azure waters that cured all ills. There was to the east of this city a lovely Berba with four gates with two gateposts each. Each post was sculpted with a face that spoke. One could understand their words, and they provided information to those who visited at certain events. Whoever entered the Berba without being purified felt a breath on him which gave him a malady in which he could no longer rise and then died. It is said that in the middle of the city a sort of pillar of light descended; those who managed to kiss it knew all the secrets of the spirits, heard all their words, and saw all their works. At each of the gates of the city was placed a statue of a monk holding a sheet on which a science was written. Whoever wanted to acquire this science approached the statue, touched its hand, held his hand over his chest, and this science immediately entered into his heart. It is said that these two cities were called by the name of Hermes, that is to say, Mercury, and they still exist in the same state.
A tradition reports that a man came to ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ibn Marwīn, who was then governor of Egypt, and said that having been in the wilderness of the West in order to seek a stray camel, he arrived in front of a ruined city where he found a great tree loaded with various fruits. He ate of these and carried some away as a provision. A Copt explained that this city was one of the two cities of Hermes, which ought to contain great treasures. ‘Abd al-‘Azīz sent with this man some members of his household equipped with provisions for a month, in order to find the city; but in vain did they explore the whole of the desert, for they found no trace of the city.
Ashmūn was the most just of the children of his father, the one who had more taste for the arts and more zeal for work. His memory was preserved among men. It was he who built the rooms covered with colored glass in the middle of the Nile. The Copts say he excavated an underground passage from Ashmūn up to the point where the Nile empties itself, and that this underground passage was made for his daughters when they traveled to the temple of the sun. This passage was paved and its walls were richly decorated with colored glass. It is also said that Ashmūn reigned longer than all his brethren. Historians assign his reign the duration of eight hundred years. The ‘Ādites dispossessed him of his kingdom in the six hundredth year of his reign, and held power for ninety years. Then they became sick of the country and entrusted it to a vizier. They went to Ar Rāhibah (in Yemen), on the way from Wādi al-Qura in Arabia Petraea, and dwelled in this place where they built monuments, works of art, and villages (qura). Then the wind caught them and killed them. The Kingdom of Egypt fell back into the possession of Ashmūn after they had left the country.
It is said that during his reign a copper goose was made; when a stranger wanted to enter, this goose would scream and beat its wings. The people were thus warned of his approach and they could introduce him into their city or bar him entry by their choice. Snakes multiplied at the same time. Certain tricks were invented to permit taking them in hand. Their flesh and their fat were made into drugs and medicines.
Ashmūn was the first to institute the Nīrūz (New Year’s celebration) in Egypt. This festival lasted seven days in which the Egyptians proceeded to eat and drink to honor the stars. In his time al-Bahnasā was also built. Therein pillars supporting yellow glass seats were set up. The seats themselves were surmounted by a dome that, when the sun rose, reflected the rays over the city. It is said that this king reigned 830 years and then died. He was buried in one of the small pyramids. Others report that his tomb is located on the edge of Ashmūn. With him were buried large sums of money, many wonders, and innumerable treasures. They also placed idols of the seven stars that were set up in this temple; ten thousand gold and silver candlesticks; ten thousand dishes of gold, silver, and molten glass; a thousand vials full of medicinal compounds. On all this, his name was inscribed, along with the duration of his reign and the date of his death.
Menāqiūs
After him reigned his son Menāqiūs. He was a strong and experienced prince. He gave a new impetus to agriculture, founded cities, and erected monuments; he codified the rules of wisdom, made a recension of the sheets of the kings and sages, and executed wonders. He built a city in which he isolated himself. This town was fortified; it had four towers on each side, between which were placed eighty copper idols. They placed various weapons in the hands of these idols, and engraved on them their properties. There was a man in Memphis of the priestly caste who taught magic. He taught his listeners to catch crocodiles and big cats. The king built for him a city and ordered him to travel there. This was the city of Akhmīm.
Menāqiūs reigned forty years and died. He was buried in the maritime pyramid that cannot be opened. They place with him a large amount of money, jewels, vases, images, and similar things. Above it was inscribed his name and the date of his death.
This king had inherited the firmness and prudence of his father. He was great in the eyes of the Egyptians. It was he who first fashioned scales and ordered his officers to use them, and the first to found hospitals for the treatment of sick and infirm. He provided medicinal herbs, and he installed doctors whom he gave large incomes, and put them under the direction of trustworthy men. He instituted a feast in his own honor; every year on this day, his subjects came to gather around him, eating and drinking for seven days, and he spread abundant largesse among them. He sat in a hall built of pillars ringed with gold, covered himself with clothing made from cloth of gold, and having above his head a dome covered inside with gold leaf and melted glass. His subjects were free during this time to make requests of him; when the festival ended, they returned home.
Under this reign the city of Shantarah was founded in the desert oasis. It was built on a square plan, with white stones, all the same size. Each face was pierced with a gate through which passed a large artery which led to the gate on the opposite face. To the right and left of the artery opened small gates, from which roads headed into the city. They built an amphitheater in this city, around which stood a staircase of seven steps. This amphitheater was topped with a gilded wooden dome supported by large marble pillars; and at the top of the dome stood a marble lighthouse overseen by a black granite idol rotating with the sun. Other idols of precious substances, whistling and shouting in various tones, were set around the dome. The king sat on the highest level of the amphitheater, surrounded by his sons, his family, and the sons of princes. On the second level sat the chief priests and the viziers; on the third, the heads of the army. Philosophers, astronomers, doctors, and teachers of the various sciences sat on the fourth; directors of agriculture on the fifth; master craftsmen on the sixth; and the common people on the seventh. It was said to the men of every class, “Look only at what is below you, not what is above you, because you cannot attain it.” And this was a great lesson for all.
Menāqiūs had a great number of wives; he especially loved two, between which he shared his favor, and he used to seat them on the same chair. But after some time, he came to prefer one of the two. The other, seeing herself abandoned, became mad with jealousy. She took a knife, went to where the king was, at the moment when he was having sex with her rival, and struck her with the weapon. The king stood up to defend her; she struck him in turn in the head. He fell, grabbing the murderer, who was immediately stopped. He had time to order her execution, and he demanded that her head be placed on his own tomb. Then he gave up the spirit. He had reigned sixty years. Power devolved into the hands of his son Marqūrah.
Marqūrah
Marqūrah ascended the throne; the nobles of the kingdom came to congratulate him and wish him a long and happy reign. He was a strong king, handsome and intelligent. He began to govern with wisdom; he developed agriculture, filled vacancies, and instructed the chief priests to make judgments on religious matters. According to the books of the Copts, Marqūrah was the first to domesticate the wild beasts in Egypt, and to ride them. He built temples. He set up the idols that were on the west of Memphis and parts of which still stand today. His reign lasted thirty years. His tomb was built two days’ journey along the route west of Memphis.
Bilāṭis
Marqūrah left power to his son Bilāṭis, who was still a child. His mother, Morhabah, administered the kingdom for him with the help of the viziers and priests. She was a very strong woman; affairs continued under her direction just as they had before. She showed herself to be generous with the nobles, and just with the people; she lifted some burdensome taxes, and she was loved.
Under her rule, large ponds were built in the desert of the West. She erected in the middle of it a tower thirty cubits high on top of which was a stone basin from which water flowed without ever drying up. Around these basins stood idols of colored stone in all kinds of shapes: animals, reptiles, birds. Each animal was attracted to the idol that looked like it, and it could then be taken by hand near to it.
When the king had grown up, he loved hunting with a passion. His mother made him build a recreational pavilion, where there were seats mounted on marble pillars leafed with gold, beneath domes loaded with precious stones and melted and colored glasses, decorated with admirable drawings and engravings. Water gushed from mouths below the building, and poured in silver-lined channels that watered flowerbeds lined with carpets of all colors. Statues erected in these beds whistled in varied tones; trees bearing various fruits grew in the gardens, and among them were stretched great veils of precious silk. The mother of Bilāṭis then chose beautiful women for him to wed from among the cousins of her son and the daughters of princes. Around its gardens, were established rooms for the viziers, priests, and master craftsmen to come and render and account of their works to the king. Most often, the king received them in gardens. Then, when they had finished presenting their cases, he made them bring drinks and food to his table; and they spent the rest of their day and night drinking and eating. The king continued to rule in this way. His affairs went well, and his days were happy. Abundance, easy living, justice, and all good things spread among men. One day the king would go hunting. He would return to his garden and distribute gifts, food and drinks to his companions. Another day, he would sit among men; and he occupied himself with examining their requests and meeting their needs; a third day, he devoted to his wives.
This king fell ill and died of smallpox. They built him a tomb in his garden, and laid him there with his gold, precious stones, works of art, and statues, as they had done for his fathers. His reign lasted thirteen years.
Marīnos was succeeded by Ashmūn. Ashmūn was the son of Qobṭīm. His empire extended from Ashmūn to Memphis, from the East to the salty sea, up to al-Barqat al-Ḥomrā, which is at the limits of Egypt’s territory; and in the Ṣa‘īd up to Akhmīm. He inhabited Ashmūn, the city he built and called by his own name. He brought there the men of his house and all his family. The dimensions of this capital were twelve miles in both directions. It is this Ashmūn who is credited with the invention of ball and stick games and more. He built palaces, planted gardens, raised lighthouses, erected monuments, and most of the cities he founded were filled with wonders. The Copts believe that the story of Ashmūn is one of those which contain the most glorious memories and the most extraordinary facts.
It is reported among other things that he built a city at the foot of a mountain and he called Ūṭirāṭis. He gave it four gates: At the gate of the East he placed the image of an eagle; on the West, the image of a bull; on the South, the image of a dog, and on the North, the image of a lion. Priests, by magical processes, introduced spirits into these images; they spoke when a stranger wanted to enter the city, and he could then enter only with the permission of the guards. The king planted in this city a tree which bore fruit of all colors, and there built a lighthouse eighty cubits tall, with a dome that changed color for seven days. After the seventh day, the color began its series anew. The dome lit up the whole town with its colorful rays. Around this lighthouse was brought water from the Nile in which was placed in the water fish of various types. The city was surrounded by talismans in the form of idols, whose bodies were men with the heads of monkeys. Each had the ability to repel certain ailments and produce certain boons. Under the idols, which surmounted the four gates, they laid treasures, and they instituted sacrifices, incense, and incantations that allowed one to approach each. The king made magicians live in this city and built at some distance another city, which the Coptic writers call the City of Wonders.
One could see in the middle of that city a body like a cloud that gave rain in winter and summer. Under brilliant domes one could see azure waters that cured all ills. There was to the east of this city a lovely Berba with four gates with two gateposts each. Each post was sculpted with a face that spoke. One could understand their words, and they provided information to those who visited at certain events. Whoever entered the Berba without being purified felt a breath on him which gave him a malady in which he could no longer rise and then died. It is said that in the middle of the city a sort of pillar of light descended; those who managed to kiss it knew all the secrets of the spirits, heard all their words, and saw all their works. At each of the gates of the city was placed a statue of a monk holding a sheet on which a science was written. Whoever wanted to acquire this science approached the statue, touched its hand, held his hand over his chest, and this science immediately entered into his heart. It is said that these two cities were called by the name of Hermes, that is to say, Mercury, and they still exist in the same state.
A tradition reports that a man came to ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ibn Marwīn, who was then governor of Egypt, and said that having been in the wilderness of the West in order to seek a stray camel, he arrived in front of a ruined city where he found a great tree loaded with various fruits. He ate of these and carried some away as a provision. A Copt explained that this city was one of the two cities of Hermes, which ought to contain great treasures. ‘Abd al-‘Azīz sent with this man some members of his household equipped with provisions for a month, in order to find the city; but in vain did they explore the whole of the desert, for they found no trace of the city.
Ashmūn was the most just of the children of his father, the one who had more taste for the arts and more zeal for work. His memory was preserved among men. It was he who built the rooms covered with colored glass in the middle of the Nile. The Copts say he excavated an underground passage from Ashmūn up to the point where the Nile empties itself, and that this underground passage was made for his daughters when they traveled to the temple of the sun. This passage was paved and its walls were richly decorated with colored glass. It is also said that Ashmūn reigned longer than all his brethren. Historians assign his reign the duration of eight hundred years. The ‘Ādites dispossessed him of his kingdom in the six hundredth year of his reign, and held power for ninety years. Then they became sick of the country and entrusted it to a vizier. They went to Ar Rāhibah (in Yemen), on the way from Wādi al-Qura in Arabia Petraea, and dwelled in this place where they built monuments, works of art, and villages (qura). Then the wind caught them and killed them. The Kingdom of Egypt fell back into the possession of Ashmūn after they had left the country.
It is said that during his reign a copper goose was made; when a stranger wanted to enter, this goose would scream and beat its wings. The people were thus warned of his approach and they could introduce him into their city or bar him entry by their choice. Snakes multiplied at the same time. Certain tricks were invented to permit taking them in hand. Their flesh and their fat were made into drugs and medicines.
Ashmūn was the first to institute the Nīrūz (New Year’s celebration) in Egypt. This festival lasted seven days in which the Egyptians proceeded to eat and drink to honor the stars. In his time al-Bahnasā was also built. Therein pillars supporting yellow glass seats were set up. The seats themselves were surmounted by a dome that, when the sun rose, reflected the rays over the city. It is said that this king reigned 830 years and then died. He was buried in one of the small pyramids. Others report that his tomb is located on the edge of Ashmūn. With him were buried large sums of money, many wonders, and innumerable treasures. They also placed idols of the seven stars that were set up in this temple; ten thousand gold and silver candlesticks; ten thousand dishes of gold, silver, and molten glass; a thousand vials full of medicinal compounds. On all this, his name was inscribed, along with the duration of his reign and the date of his death.
Menāqiūs
After him reigned his son Menāqiūs. He was a strong and experienced prince. He gave a new impetus to agriculture, founded cities, and erected monuments; he codified the rules of wisdom, made a recension of the sheets of the kings and sages, and executed wonders. He built a city in which he isolated himself. This town was fortified; it had four towers on each side, between which were placed eighty copper idols. They placed various weapons in the hands of these idols, and engraved on them their properties. There was a man in Memphis of the priestly caste who taught magic. He taught his listeners to catch crocodiles and big cats. The king built for him a city and ordered him to travel there. This was the city of Akhmīm.
Menāqiūs reigned forty years and died. He was buried in the maritime pyramid that cannot be opened. They place with him a large amount of money, jewels, vases, images, and similar things. Above it was inscribed his name and the date of his death.
This king had inherited the firmness and prudence of his father. He was great in the eyes of the Egyptians. It was he who first fashioned scales and ordered his officers to use them, and the first to found hospitals for the treatment of sick and infirm. He provided medicinal herbs, and he installed doctors whom he gave large incomes, and put them under the direction of trustworthy men. He instituted a feast in his own honor; every year on this day, his subjects came to gather around him, eating and drinking for seven days, and he spread abundant largesse among them. He sat in a hall built of pillars ringed with gold, covered himself with clothing made from cloth of gold, and having above his head a dome covered inside with gold leaf and melted glass. His subjects were free during this time to make requests of him; when the festival ended, they returned home.
Under this reign the city of Shantarah was founded in the desert oasis. It was built on a square plan, with white stones, all the same size. Each face was pierced with a gate through which passed a large artery which led to the gate on the opposite face. To the right and left of the artery opened small gates, from which roads headed into the city. They built an amphitheater in this city, around which stood a staircase of seven steps. This amphitheater was topped with a gilded wooden dome supported by large marble pillars; and at the top of the dome stood a marble lighthouse overseen by a black granite idol rotating with the sun. Other idols of precious substances, whistling and shouting in various tones, were set around the dome. The king sat on the highest level of the amphitheater, surrounded by his sons, his family, and the sons of princes. On the second level sat the chief priests and the viziers; on the third, the heads of the army. Philosophers, astronomers, doctors, and teachers of the various sciences sat on the fourth; directors of agriculture on the fifth; master craftsmen on the sixth; and the common people on the seventh. It was said to the men of every class, “Look only at what is below you, not what is above you, because you cannot attain it.” And this was a great lesson for all.
Menāqiūs had a great number of wives; he especially loved two, between which he shared his favor, and he used to seat them on the same chair. But after some time, he came to prefer one of the two. The other, seeing herself abandoned, became mad with jealousy. She took a knife, went to where the king was, at the moment when he was having sex with her rival, and struck her with the weapon. The king stood up to defend her; she struck him in turn in the head. He fell, grabbing the murderer, who was immediately stopped. He had time to order her execution, and he demanded that her head be placed on his own tomb. Then he gave up the spirit. He had reigned sixty years. Power devolved into the hands of his son Marqūrah.
Marqūrah
Marqūrah ascended the throne; the nobles of the kingdom came to congratulate him and wish him a long and happy reign. He was a strong king, handsome and intelligent. He began to govern with wisdom; he developed agriculture, filled vacancies, and instructed the chief priests to make judgments on religious matters. According to the books of the Copts, Marqūrah was the first to domesticate the wild beasts in Egypt, and to ride them. He built temples. He set up the idols that were on the west of Memphis and parts of which still stand today. His reign lasted thirty years. His tomb was built two days’ journey along the route west of Memphis.
Bilāṭis
Marqūrah left power to his son Bilāṭis, who was still a child. His mother, Morhabah, administered the kingdom for him with the help of the viziers and priests. She was a very strong woman; affairs continued under her direction just as they had before. She showed herself to be generous with the nobles, and just with the people; she lifted some burdensome taxes, and she was loved.
Under her rule, large ponds were built in the desert of the West. She erected in the middle of it a tower thirty cubits high on top of which was a stone basin from which water flowed without ever drying up. Around these basins stood idols of colored stone in all kinds of shapes: animals, reptiles, birds. Each animal was attracted to the idol that looked like it, and it could then be taken by hand near to it.
When the king had grown up, he loved hunting with a passion. His mother made him build a recreational pavilion, where there were seats mounted on marble pillars leafed with gold, beneath domes loaded with precious stones and melted and colored glasses, decorated with admirable drawings and engravings. Water gushed from mouths below the building, and poured in silver-lined channels that watered flowerbeds lined with carpets of all colors. Statues erected in these beds whistled in varied tones; trees bearing various fruits grew in the gardens, and among them were stretched great veils of precious silk. The mother of Bilāṭis then chose beautiful women for him to wed from among the cousins of her son and the daughters of princes. Around its gardens, were established rooms for the viziers, priests, and master craftsmen to come and render and account of their works to the king. Most often, the king received them in gardens. Then, when they had finished presenting their cases, he made them bring drinks and food to his table; and they spent the rest of their day and night drinking and eating. The king continued to rule in this way. His affairs went well, and his days were happy. Abundance, easy living, justice, and all good things spread among men. One day the king would go hunting. He would return to his garden and distribute gifts, food and drinks to his companions. Another day, he would sit among men; and he occupied himself with examining their requests and meeting their needs; a third day, he devoted to his wives.
This king fell ill and died of smallpox. They built him a tomb in his garden, and laid him there with his gold, precious stones, works of art, and statues, as they had done for his fathers. His reign lasted thirteen years.
Chapter 5: The Dynasty of Atrib
Atrīb
After Bilāṭis, the empire passed to Atrīb, his uncle. Atrīb had moved after the death of his father Qobṭīm to the city that he had built for him. The length of this city was twelve thousand miles. It had twelve gates. The king built on its main thoroughfares three high domes mounted on several orders of columns; one of these domes was in the middle of the city; the other two were placed at its ends. At each corner of the city he placed lanterns that burned all night, and at every gate, many guards. In its vicinity there were amphitheaters, seats, and places of pleasure that could be seen from the top of those seats. In the west of the city a canal was dug, over which they built bridges on arches lined with seats along their length. The canal, around these bridges, sent out small branches that would irrigate orchards or meadows; and around the city extended gardens and flowerbeds. Each of its gates was adorned with wonders, statues, shifting idols, and protective talismans; and inside the door were placed images of two copper satans. When a good man entered the town, the right satan laughed; when it was a wicked man, the left satan cried. All the places of pleasure were inhabited by tame animals and chirping birds, which repeated the words of welcome; and above the domes were placed statues whistling under the force of the wind, with mirrors through which they could discover distant lands and hidden wonders.
In front of this city, towards the East, Atrīb founded another where he raised many amphitheaters and many expensive idols in separate sanctuaries. He dug a pond in the middle where the birds fell to the ground as they passed over, and where they were not able to take as many as were there. This city had a citadel and twelve gates; they put above each gate statues that were wonders. The city was surrounded by gardens. In its vicinity, towards the East, a painted room was built, raised on pillars and surmounted by a dome. A bird beating its wings was placed on the dome, and the bird sang three times each day, at dawn, noon, and evening. This city was also filled with idols and wonders.
The king also built a host of villages surrounded by cultivated countryside. He had for a minister for a man named Barsān, a very skilled alchemist; this man struck for him dinars bearing his effigy, at seven miṯqāl to the dinar, and beautifully crafted images. Atrīb reigned 360 years and lived 500. His tomb was dug into a mountain of the East, at the end of an underground gallery covered with glass and marble. He was placed there on a golden throne adorned with gems, among his treasures. The door was guarded by a statue of a dragon that killed anyone who approached. Sand was piled atop the entrance, and above it the king’s name and the date of his death were engraved.
A Queen Daughter of Atrīb
After Atrīb, his daughter reigned. She administered the kingdom with great wisdom and firmness for 35 years. Then she died.
Felīmūn
She left the throne to her sister’s son Felīmūn. This prince named viziers to each job, and placed the priests in their ranks; he governed according to their views, he endeavored to develop agriculture and to follow the advice of the wise. Under his reign was established old Tinnīs that the sea washed over; it was extremely far way. All around it stretched fields, orchards, vineyards, villages with presses for wine, and the countryside, the most beautiful imaginable. The king built rooms topped by high domes, which were magnificently decorated and painted, carpeted, and furnished. When the Nile flood began, he removed his residence there and remained there until Nīrūz. He kept in this city trusted men responsible for distributing water and giving each town what it needed. These towns had citadels with bridges. Whenever the king crossed them, he took care to improve agriculture and to increase wealth, and to construct houses of pleasure. It is said that the two gardens of which God speaks in his Book (Quran 18:32-42) belonged to two brothers of the house of the king, who held them from their sovereign; they had designed and planted them with artistry, and they had built beautiful mansions. The king sometimes came to relax there; guests then offered him the rare fruits and vegetables; they offered him food and excellent beverages; and the king, charmed, commended his visit. One of the two brothers was good and generous. He poured his fortune into good works. The other was stingy. He laughed at his brother when he became poor, and every time his brother was obliged to sell a plot of his land, he bought it from him; in the end, he became owner of all his property. The other asked him for alms; but he rebuked him with harsh words, and said: “I advised you to preserve your wealth and you did not; I who saved mine today have more money and more children than you.” And he turned away, proud of its wealth and his gardens. That is when God commanded the sea to overwhelm this country, and the waves covered it. The miser uttered moans and deplored such damage: “I wish to God,” he exclaimed, “that I had not associated Him with any other!” (Quran 18:42). And the Most High said about him: “He could not find anywhere relief against God” (Quran 18:43).
During the time of Felīmūn Damietta was built. The city received its name from a page of the king, whose mother was a sorceress. Felīmūn reigned ninety years. He built a tomb in the eastern mountain and there he carried a large amount of silver and jewels. Inside, he placed movable statues on water pipes, and with swords in hand they struck those who wished to enter. He placed along the right and left of the entrance two copper planes mounted on the pipes, which repelled anyone attempting to climb up from the bottom. On the sepulcher, he placed this inscription: “This is the tomb of Felīmūn, son of Atrīb, son of Qobṭīm, son of Miṣraīm. He lived for an age and ruled for a century, and death came to him and he could not repel it. He who would come to his tomb should not remove that which covers him and ought not to take that which surrounds him.”
Qarsūn
Felīmūn left power to his son Qarsūn. The prince sat on the throne; the great men of the kingdom, the nobles, and the people came to recognize him and offer their good wishes. He took care of the priests and temples, and he sought wisdom. He was young and handsome. One of the wives of his father fell in love with him; she undertook the care of his perfumes, pretending that the late king had commanded her to do so, and she hardly left the room where the king kept them. She sent work to ask a leading sorceresses of Memphis for a charm, offering in return a great deal of silver. But it happened that this sorceress also loved the king and with a most violent passion. She hastened to warn Qarsūn of the intentions of the wife of his father, and of the offer which she had received. He dismissed the wailing woman and denied her access to him.
At this moment, a king of Ḥimyar learned that the kingdom of Egypt had passed into the hands of a young man. He developed ambition and began to march with many troops to conquer it. The young king set out to meet him. The two armies met at Aīlah and fought a fierce battle until fatigue separated them. The sorceress then came to the king and said, “What if I gave you help you in this war and assured that you win against your enemies?” “What would you believe just?” replied Qarsūn. She received from him a written promise, with guarantees. As soon as the battle resumed, she produced a marvelous smoke and she called up frightening phantoms. The Ḥimyarite king had to flee in the company of a few surviving soldiers. The Egyptians killed the last who stayed behind and gathered all the spoils left by the enemy. The king returned to Memphis unharmed and loaded with booty. The sorceress stood before him and asked him to fulfill his promise. “Tell me what you should like,” said Qarsūn. “Silver and treasures are yours if you want them.” She replied, “I want to marry the king himself.” “Woe to you,” he cried, “if you are from no royal house, for you know that such an alliance is prohibited to the sovereign.” “Kings who were your predecessors,” she replied, “abducted women from the common people and had children by them. They were not concerned to know what breed they came from. Now, I am the daughter of a chief priest; so I do not see that the king could ask for more than that.” And she pressed him, so he allowed himself to touch her and marry her; he loved her and she enjoyed great consideration from him.
The success of the sorceress induced an intense wrath in the wife of the late king, the one who had asked for a charm to attract the favors of Qarsūn. This princess tried a ruse to get her way. She glanced at one of her slaves who was gifted with a penetrating wit, and she introduced him into the service of the chief cupbearer of the palace, among the slaves of the king. This girl managed to get hold of the cup from which the sovereign drank and poured poison into it. She immediately ran to warn her mistress of what she had done. This same wife came before the king, prostrated herself before him, and said: “I have never given the king advice, and I have always been solicitous in this respect; but he rejected me, and he gave his favors to this villainous sorceress. Yet here she prepared him a poisoned drink in a vessel of such and such a kind. Let my master make her drink, and he will know whether my words are true.” The king sent for the vessel and found it as she had described; he then summoned the sorceress and ordered her to drink a cup of this beverage. She obeyed without knowing the reason for this order; her flesh and broke away from her bones. Qarsūn had her buried in a sarcophagus on which they wrote her name and the crime she had plotted. Then he turned his love to the wife of his father and he married her. She thereafter lived with him in great honor.
Under the reign of this prince, they built a lighthouse on the sea of al-Qulzum. They placed at its summit a mirror of composite substances that drew ships to the shore, and held them there; the crew was forced to turn around or pay a tithe; when the tithe was paid, they veiled the mirror and the ship could pass.
Qarsūn reigned 260 years. He built a tomb behind the Black Mountain of the east; and he built a dome in the middle of it surrounded by twelve chapels. All these vaults were filled with wonders, varying from one to the next. They engraved on the tomb the name of the king and the duration of his reign.
After Bilāṭis, the empire passed to Atrīb, his uncle. Atrīb had moved after the death of his father Qobṭīm to the city that he had built for him. The length of this city was twelve thousand miles. It had twelve gates. The king built on its main thoroughfares three high domes mounted on several orders of columns; one of these domes was in the middle of the city; the other two were placed at its ends. At each corner of the city he placed lanterns that burned all night, and at every gate, many guards. In its vicinity there were amphitheaters, seats, and places of pleasure that could be seen from the top of those seats. In the west of the city a canal was dug, over which they built bridges on arches lined with seats along their length. The canal, around these bridges, sent out small branches that would irrigate orchards or meadows; and around the city extended gardens and flowerbeds. Each of its gates was adorned with wonders, statues, shifting idols, and protective talismans; and inside the door were placed images of two copper satans. When a good man entered the town, the right satan laughed; when it was a wicked man, the left satan cried. All the places of pleasure were inhabited by tame animals and chirping birds, which repeated the words of welcome; and above the domes were placed statues whistling under the force of the wind, with mirrors through which they could discover distant lands and hidden wonders.
In front of this city, towards the East, Atrīb founded another where he raised many amphitheaters and many expensive idols in separate sanctuaries. He dug a pond in the middle where the birds fell to the ground as they passed over, and where they were not able to take as many as were there. This city had a citadel and twelve gates; they put above each gate statues that were wonders. The city was surrounded by gardens. In its vicinity, towards the East, a painted room was built, raised on pillars and surmounted by a dome. A bird beating its wings was placed on the dome, and the bird sang three times each day, at dawn, noon, and evening. This city was also filled with idols and wonders.
The king also built a host of villages surrounded by cultivated countryside. He had for a minister for a man named Barsān, a very skilled alchemist; this man struck for him dinars bearing his effigy, at seven miṯqāl to the dinar, and beautifully crafted images. Atrīb reigned 360 years and lived 500. His tomb was dug into a mountain of the East, at the end of an underground gallery covered with glass and marble. He was placed there on a golden throne adorned with gems, among his treasures. The door was guarded by a statue of a dragon that killed anyone who approached. Sand was piled atop the entrance, and above it the king’s name and the date of his death were engraved.
A Queen Daughter of Atrīb
After Atrīb, his daughter reigned. She administered the kingdom with great wisdom and firmness for 35 years. Then she died.
Felīmūn
She left the throne to her sister’s son Felīmūn. This prince named viziers to each job, and placed the priests in their ranks; he governed according to their views, he endeavored to develop agriculture and to follow the advice of the wise. Under his reign was established old Tinnīs that the sea washed over; it was extremely far way. All around it stretched fields, orchards, vineyards, villages with presses for wine, and the countryside, the most beautiful imaginable. The king built rooms topped by high domes, which were magnificently decorated and painted, carpeted, and furnished. When the Nile flood began, he removed his residence there and remained there until Nīrūz. He kept in this city trusted men responsible for distributing water and giving each town what it needed. These towns had citadels with bridges. Whenever the king crossed them, he took care to improve agriculture and to increase wealth, and to construct houses of pleasure. It is said that the two gardens of which God speaks in his Book (Quran 18:32-42) belonged to two brothers of the house of the king, who held them from their sovereign; they had designed and planted them with artistry, and they had built beautiful mansions. The king sometimes came to relax there; guests then offered him the rare fruits and vegetables; they offered him food and excellent beverages; and the king, charmed, commended his visit. One of the two brothers was good and generous. He poured his fortune into good works. The other was stingy. He laughed at his brother when he became poor, and every time his brother was obliged to sell a plot of his land, he bought it from him; in the end, he became owner of all his property. The other asked him for alms; but he rebuked him with harsh words, and said: “I advised you to preserve your wealth and you did not; I who saved mine today have more money and more children than you.” And he turned away, proud of its wealth and his gardens. That is when God commanded the sea to overwhelm this country, and the waves covered it. The miser uttered moans and deplored such damage: “I wish to God,” he exclaimed, “that I had not associated Him with any other!” (Quran 18:42). And the Most High said about him: “He could not find anywhere relief against God” (Quran 18:43).
During the time of Felīmūn Damietta was built. The city received its name from a page of the king, whose mother was a sorceress. Felīmūn reigned ninety years. He built a tomb in the eastern mountain and there he carried a large amount of silver and jewels. Inside, he placed movable statues on water pipes, and with swords in hand they struck those who wished to enter. He placed along the right and left of the entrance two copper planes mounted on the pipes, which repelled anyone attempting to climb up from the bottom. On the sepulcher, he placed this inscription: “This is the tomb of Felīmūn, son of Atrīb, son of Qobṭīm, son of Miṣraīm. He lived for an age and ruled for a century, and death came to him and he could not repel it. He who would come to his tomb should not remove that which covers him and ought not to take that which surrounds him.”
Qarsūn
Felīmūn left power to his son Qarsūn. The prince sat on the throne; the great men of the kingdom, the nobles, and the people came to recognize him and offer their good wishes. He took care of the priests and temples, and he sought wisdom. He was young and handsome. One of the wives of his father fell in love with him; she undertook the care of his perfumes, pretending that the late king had commanded her to do so, and she hardly left the room where the king kept them. She sent work to ask a leading sorceresses of Memphis for a charm, offering in return a great deal of silver. But it happened that this sorceress also loved the king and with a most violent passion. She hastened to warn Qarsūn of the intentions of the wife of his father, and of the offer which she had received. He dismissed the wailing woman and denied her access to him.
At this moment, a king of Ḥimyar learned that the kingdom of Egypt had passed into the hands of a young man. He developed ambition and began to march with many troops to conquer it. The young king set out to meet him. The two armies met at Aīlah and fought a fierce battle until fatigue separated them. The sorceress then came to the king and said, “What if I gave you help you in this war and assured that you win against your enemies?” “What would you believe just?” replied Qarsūn. She received from him a written promise, with guarantees. As soon as the battle resumed, she produced a marvelous smoke and she called up frightening phantoms. The Ḥimyarite king had to flee in the company of a few surviving soldiers. The Egyptians killed the last who stayed behind and gathered all the spoils left by the enemy. The king returned to Memphis unharmed and loaded with booty. The sorceress stood before him and asked him to fulfill his promise. “Tell me what you should like,” said Qarsūn. “Silver and treasures are yours if you want them.” She replied, “I want to marry the king himself.” “Woe to you,” he cried, “if you are from no royal house, for you know that such an alliance is prohibited to the sovereign.” “Kings who were your predecessors,” she replied, “abducted women from the common people and had children by them. They were not concerned to know what breed they came from. Now, I am the daughter of a chief priest; so I do not see that the king could ask for more than that.” And she pressed him, so he allowed himself to touch her and marry her; he loved her and she enjoyed great consideration from him.
The success of the sorceress induced an intense wrath in the wife of the late king, the one who had asked for a charm to attract the favors of Qarsūn. This princess tried a ruse to get her way. She glanced at one of her slaves who was gifted with a penetrating wit, and she introduced him into the service of the chief cupbearer of the palace, among the slaves of the king. This girl managed to get hold of the cup from which the sovereign drank and poured poison into it. She immediately ran to warn her mistress of what she had done. This same wife came before the king, prostrated herself before him, and said: “I have never given the king advice, and I have always been solicitous in this respect; but he rejected me, and he gave his favors to this villainous sorceress. Yet here she prepared him a poisoned drink in a vessel of such and such a kind. Let my master make her drink, and he will know whether my words are true.” The king sent for the vessel and found it as she had described; he then summoned the sorceress and ordered her to drink a cup of this beverage. She obeyed without knowing the reason for this order; her flesh and broke away from her bones. Qarsūn had her buried in a sarcophagus on which they wrote her name and the crime she had plotted. Then he turned his love to the wife of his father and he married her. She thereafter lived with him in great honor.
Under the reign of this prince, they built a lighthouse on the sea of al-Qulzum. They placed at its summit a mirror of composite substances that drew ships to the shore, and held them there; the crew was forced to turn around or pay a tithe; when the tithe was paid, they veiled the mirror and the ship could pass.
Qarsūn reigned 260 years. He built a tomb behind the Black Mountain of the east; and he built a dome in the middle of it surrounded by twelve chapels. All these vaults were filled with wonders, varying from one to the next. They engraved on the tomb the name of the king and the duration of his reign.
Chapter 6: The Dynasty of Sa
Ṣā, son of Qobṭīm, son of Miṣraīm
When Qobṭīm divided Egypt among his children, Ashmūn, Atrīb, Qofṭ and Ṣā, each of whom removed himself to the land that he had been assigned. Ṣā made his way with his family, his children, and his household, to his territory, which was formed by the Maritime lands and the land of Alexandria up to Barqah. He lived in a very old city, which was Alexandria. He was the youngest child of his father and the one Qobṭīm liked best. When he began to administer his inheritance, he set about developing culture, founding cities, performing wonders, as his brothers were doing; he had the ambition to surpass them all in this. Marhūn, the surveyor, oversaw his constructions. He built towers for Ṣā at intervals along the coast of the sea, to the limits of Libya and to Marāqīah; and he placed on top of these towers mirrors composed of various substances. These served to repel sea monsters that might harm the inhabitants of the shore. Others reflected the sun’s rays onto enemy ships coming from the islands of the interior and burned them; still others made it so towns could be seen in them from across the sea, along with all their inhabitants; others showed the climate of Egypt, so they might know a year ahead the lands that would be fertile and those that would remain without fruit.
This king built in his capital baths which warmed themselves, palaces, and houses of pleasure. Every day he moved himself into another one of his residences with several of his servants and his household. He surrounded this city with gardens, filled with chirping birds and tame animals; he made channels for the waters and he them with orchards. The tops of his palaces held stones that shone under the sun’s light and threw around them sprays of light. Not a single thing that could contribute to the ease and charm of life was omitted in this venture. Agriculture extended from the sands of Reshīd and Alexandria out to Barqah; a traveler walking in Egypt did not need to take provisions, such was the abundance of fruits and supplies of all kinds; he could even walk in shade, away from the sun. The king made palaces in the deserts and established plantations, for which he brought from the Nile subsidiary canals; one could cross the entirety of Egypt from west to the east without leaving cropland.
After the people of that time had disappeared, traces of the works they made remained in these deserts. These homes were ruined, and their inhabitants wiped out; but those who have visited the place never stop speaking of the ruins and wonders that these regions contain.
Marqūnos
Marqūnos was a wise king, a friend of science and wisdom. Under his reign a dirham was struck that had the property that when the owner of this dirham wanted to buy something, he proposed to the seller that it be used for weighing the goods, such that he would take only the amount equivalent to the weight of the dirham. The merchant let himself be seduced and accepted the offer. But, after they had agreed on this, the weight of the dirham became equal to that of several ratls of ten dirhams each, and adjusted its weight to the will of the buyer. Under the Umayyads they found these coins among the treasures of the ancient kings, and everyone was amazed. The Egyptians had yet another species of dirhams also struck, they say, in the reign of this king. When one of these dirhams had been placed in the balance, its owner picked it up, kissed it, and said: “Remember your promise.” Then he left it and bought what he wanted. But when he had returned home with his merchandise, he found the dirham was already back in its place. As for the merchant, he could no longer find the coin in its place, having been replaced with a leaf or a piece of paper, or something similar.
It is also said that in this reign glass vases were made, which were weighed empty, then filled with water and, when weighed again, it was found that their weight had not increased. These vessels carried in themselves the weight of the water. They made at the same time vases such as the water put into them took on the color, flavor, and intoxicating power of wine. They found several of these vases at Aṭfiḥ in the time of Hārūn bin Khomarawaīh bin Aḥmed. One of them was an onyx cup with a blue and white handle. It was discovered by Abū’l-Hasan al-Khurāsāni. When this fellow fund it, he went to eat with some companions along the Nile. Then they drank the water they had poured in it and it all seemed like wine; they drank this wine; they began to jump; the cup fell from their hands and broke into several pieces. The one who had discovered it was greatly distressed; he carried the pieces to Hārūn, who said with regret: “If it were whole, I would have paid a portion of my kingdom for it.” As for copper vessels that changed water into wine, they were reported from the time of Cleopatra, daughter of Ptolemy, Queen of Alexandria, and a large number have been found. We shall speak of these in dealing with the secrets of the arts.
In the days of the king, images of reptiles, frogs, beetles, flies, scorpions, and various insects were manufactured; these images, placed anywhere, attracted similar beasts, paralyzed them, and kept them until they should die or someone came to kill them. All works of this sovereign were completed by relying on the signs of the zodiac, in their name and following their rising; thus were the works executed. Marqūnos erected in the desert of the West an amphitheater of colored glass and placed in its center a dome entirely composed of green and translucent glass. When the sun hit the dome, it reflected its rays a great distances. On its four sides were placed four tall glass rooms, each of which had its own color. They decorated these rooms with paintings that harmonized with their colors and representative wonderful talismans or graceful images; all these was drawn on the thin, transparent glass. The king came to the amphitheater and spent several days there. He instituted three feasts a year. The people went there on pilgrimage during these festivals; they invoked the gods for the king and recreated for seven days. This building long persisted in the same state. They came from all the foreign countries to see it because there was nowhere else anything equivalent or comparable, and no one had known a similar building. In the end, it was overthrown by a king who wanted to raise one on its model, but could not.
Marqūnos’s mother was the daughter of a king of Nubia, who loved a star called as-Suhā (in Ursa Major). This princess asked her son to build her a temple where she could practice this religion. Marqūnos consented; he erected a temple that was plated in gold and silver and lined with silk veils. His mother went there with her slaves and her household, and worshiped before her god three times a day, like priests. She celebrated in its honor festival each month, during which she brought it offerings and incense day and night. She appointed to its service a Nubian priest; he lived near the idol and busied himself with offerings and incense. The princess continued her entreaties to her son until he had decided to worship the star himself and invite the people to worship it, too.
The priest then desired to have for this god earthly images, in the form of various animals. He waited for an opportunity to carry out this plan. Eagles became very numerous in Egypt, and men suffered. The king sent for the priest and asked him about this scourge. The priest replied: “This is your god who sent them to you to make an image which we shall worship.” “If that is enough to pacify him,” said Marqūnos, “I will gladly do this.” So he gave the order to execute a statue of an eagle in cast gold, two cubits in length with a width of one cubit; they gave this statue two eyes of hyacinth; it was adorned with two pearl necklaces embedded in gold; a precious stone was suspended from its beak, and rubies sparkled among its feathers. It was placed on pedestal of silver chasing, supported by a pillar of blue glass, and it was installed under an arch to the right of the temple. Before him were thrown back silk curtains; and in its honor consecrated resins and gums were burned; it was offered the sacrifice of a black calf and first-born chicks, with the first flowers and fruits.
After seven days had past, the king invited his subjects to worship this idol and they consented. The priest displayed a great zeal for the service of the new god. When forty days were over, the satan of the statue spoke. The first thing he asked was that burned offerings be made in the middle of each month with sandalwood, and that they splash the temple with old wine taken from the surface of the jars. Then he said he had removed the eagles and stopped the harm they caused; and he promised to continue to protect the Egyptians against all the evils they would have cause to fear. The priest welcomed his speech; he reported it to the king’s mother, who was also pleased, and both rendered homage to the idol. The king had, in his turn, knowledge of the thing. He went on horseback to the temple; the idol spoke to him and gave him orders and defenses. The king worshiped it, appointed it priests, and ordered that it be covered with beautiful adornments. After this, Marqūnos often came into the temple; he loved the statue and asked it about what he wanted to know, and it answered him.
This king practiced alchemy and made of gold in larger quantities that any of the kings before him. He buried fifteen hundred loads in the deserts of the West. They say he erected at the gate of Ṣā a column on which he placed the image of a seated woman holding a mirror in her hand. They looked in the mirror to know the fate of the sick; if the patient was dying, they saw death there; if he was to live, they saw life. They also consulted this idol about travelers. When the mirror showed the face of the traveler, they knew that he was safe; when his back was visible, he was walking away; if he was ill or dead, the mirror showed him in this state.
Marqūnos established in Alexandria the image of a monk sitting on a pedestal, with his head wearing a hood and holding in his hand a curved staff. Where a trader passed by him, he had to place in his hands a certain duty, proportionate to the value of his goods; if he refused to do so, it was impossible for him to continue his journey, and he remained fixed in place.
They collected large sums of silver, which were devoted to aiding the infirm and the poor.
During this reign a great number of wonders were executed. The king had his name engraved on all of them and he had the same inscribed on scientific objects, talismans, and idols. He built a tomb within the western region in a mountain called Shadām. They dug a vault under the mountain a hundred cubits long, and thirty high and twenty wide. This tomb was covered with marble and melted and colored glass. They made the ceiling of translucent stones; they arranged on its periphery elegant tiled glass beds on which they arranged statues and wonders executed during this reign. In the middle of the underground chamber they flattened an area of colored glass, and at each corner a figure was placed which prohibited any approach. Among these figures was laid types of candlesticks equipped with luminous stones; and they placed at the center of the area a golden basin, in which the body of the king was to be shut after he was embalmed with preservative drugs. Marqūnos transported to the tomb great treasures of gold, gems, and other sorts; he ordered the door of the vault to be blocked up with rocks sealed with lead, and sand to be pushed over it. Marqūnos reigned 73 years and lived 240. He was handsome and had abundant and magnificent hair. After his death, most of his wives dedicated themselves to piety and devoted themselves to the service of the temples. This king left the throne to his son Ansād.
Ansād
Ansād came to power, being still very young, that is to say, at the age of 45. He was a great giant, with an arrogant gaze. He had seduced one of his father’s wives, and rumors of his actions spread. His main concern was fun and games. He gathered around him all the buffoons of his kingdom. Anyone who knew some game or some buffoonery had to come to him. He shut himself up in this society, neglecting the affairs of state and the conduct of his people. He gave the administration of the kingdom to his vizier and despised science, worship, and priests. He built wooden castles surmounted by golden and painted domes. These he placed on ships on the Nile and went tither to spend his time among women, servants, and jesters. He also made a chariot covered with sheets of gold and upholstered with the most beautiful draperies. His pleasure was to travel via this chariot for months at a time, pulled by oxen, and stopping in all the pleasant places he encountered.
In doing magic, he executed many inventions for which he spent the sums raised by his father. All his treasure was consumed in these pleasures, and imperial revenues were lost in these deplorable pursuits. When the evil produced by his conduct had exceeded all bounds, the people went to his vizier to explain to him how fatal the mistakes of the prince were and to ask him to account for them and make reparations. The minister promised to so. He called a meeting with the king, and he made to him the most necessary admonitions and warned him that punishment always followed excessive fault. The king remained deaf to these views. He gave the people over to the wrath of his companions. These men overwhelmed them with abuse and suffering.
One day, the king had gone to one of his pleasure places; the rooms of the villa were decorated with gold and silver plate and precious stones of every color. It had running water, and they had planted all kinds of fragrant herbs and stretched out magnificent carpets. There the king loved to go there in the company of one of his wives, who was his favorite. So while he was there, one of his pages went to a dealer for an item he needed, and wanted to take it without paying. The merchant stopped him. The page tried to hit him, but several men gathered against him and pummeled him. His blood flowed; he was dragged out and beaten to death. The vizier and the head of the army were soon informed of the situation. They went to the place where this took place. Having criticized the murderers for what they had done, they abused them. They were matched insult for insult, and much irritated, they went away and said, “We cannot hide this from the king.” They then found the king, but he paid them little attention and he contended himself with making known among the people that anyone would complain about one of the servants or companions of the king would be put to death. The people gave him their blessing and glorified his reign, but secretly they sought the means to attack his companions.
A week later, the king sent word to the vizier and the leaders of the army that he was determined to go into the wilderness of the West to hunt. He that the army escort him, and they took food for three days. His order was carried out and the troops gathered outside the palace. The king summoned the vizier, and told he told him in confidence that the people wanted revenge. He left the city with his army in his splendid machine, and they traveled to some remote place. When night came, he returned with the army to the gates of the city, and he ordered his companions to run roughshod over the people and make of them a great slaughter. He took care to burn the place where the page had been killed, and shouted, “This is the reward due to the common people and artisans who revolt against their sovereign!” The people then asked the help of the vizier, and they begged him to throw himself at the feet of the sovereign to beg their pardon. The vizier consented, and the king pardoned them. But he said: “Whoever of you will revolt again, he will pay with his life.” They went on giving him praise.
The king returned to his old habits and even worse: he hid himself from the eyes of his subjects; he affected contempt for the temples and priests. The people and the nobles hated him and loaded him with curses. Finally some of his courtiers put poison in his food and his drink, and killed him. He died at the age of 120 after having reigned 75 years. The throne passed after him to his son Ṣā. Most of the Copts believe that Ṣā is the brother of Ansād and the son of King Marqūnos.
Ṣā (II)
King Ṣā (II) sat on the throne, and his subjects came to express their good wishes. He promised to treat them with justice and benevolence. He lived in Memphis. He expelled the buffoons, musicians, libertines, and, in general, all the companions of his father. He restored the temples and established the priests in their ranks; in Memphis, he built many wonders and talismans and brought water there; and he left in place the eagle that had been made before him, restored its temple, and honored its cult. He put up in Memphis a mirror that allowed one to foresee periods of fertility and drought, and the various events that were to be fulfilled in the country. He built cities in the Oasis around which he planted many palm trees, and westward to the sea, he built many towers. He placed behind Moqaṭṭam an idol called the Idol of Insight. Anyone who was perplexed in an affair came to question this idol, which explained it to him and solved all his difficulties. This king also established on the extremities of Egypt guards who informed him of what was happening on the borders. On the west bank of the Nile, he raised lighthouses; anyone who came was lit by their light and could be seen by night as well as by day. Similar lights were placed at the edge of the salt sea, and guards were assigned to all these buildings. Ṣā is the first king to use this system. They also say he built most of Memphis and that he was the author of large buildings in Alexandria.
When he established his government over the whole country, he brought together all the wise men of Egypt. He began to observe the stars with them because he was well versed in astrology, and he recognized that his country would be overwhelmed by a great flood that would come from the Nile and which would cover it almost entirely. He also recognized that this event would cause a man to come from the direction of Syria; then he met with all the workers of Egypt and he built in Wāḥ al-Aqṣa (the extreme oasis), a city whose walls were fifty cubits high, and there he placed the secrets of science and great treasures.
It was to this city that Mūsa bin Nusayr came in the time of the Umayyads, after he had been invested with authority in the Maghreb. This fellow had come to Egypt, following the stars to the Wāḥ al-Aqṣa. He knew astronomy, and for seven days he walked in the sand, towards the southwest, and he came to a walled city with iron doors. He tried to open one of these doors, but he could not because the sand was piled so high around it. He made men climb up it, and they jumped in, not knowing what they would fall on or what they would encounter. But having found no way to enter, he abandoned this city and passed on. Several of his companions had explored the area and they had calculated that the width of the walls was twenty cubits. Mūsa lost many men on this expedition. They say that no one before or after him ever penetrated into this city.
The Egyptians had in this desert many an oasis, beautiful cities, and important treasures. But the sands have covered all these riches. All the kings who reigned in Egypt erected talismans against the sands, to send them back or arrest their progress. Then, with time, these talismans lost their power. But nobody can deny that the Egyptians have built many monuments and cities, nor that they have raised tall and grand buildings. These people had a strength that others do not have, and the ruins that remain of their power prove the truth of this statement; for example, the pyramids and the famous monuments of Alexandria, or those that can still be seen in the deserts of the West. The Egyptians also knew how to cut into the mountains, on top of which they transported their treasures in order to make them inaccessible, and they knew the secret of many compound drugs. We admire also in the Ṣā‘īd their cities and their engravings explaining their science, with which they filled them. If today a king wanted to build a pyramid similar to theirs, he would be unable to do so; and if he wanted to engrave a single monument like theirs, the operation would seem so time-consuming that he would abandon it.
It is said that the inhabitants of the western districts, having been oppressed by a governor, retreated into the deserts of the West, taking with them enough food for some time. After a day and a part of the next day, they arrived in the evening near a mountain and they caught sight of a jackass coming up out of a trail. Some of them followed the animal and they found themselves driven into inhabited areas, well-watered and planted with palms and other trees. A large population lived in these places, cultivated the land, and paid tribute to no one. The fugitives told the residents that they no longer wanted to return to the western districts, and they would return to them with their families and all their possessions; but having long sought the way back to these houses, they could not find them or learn any information about them. They returned disconsolate over this disappearance.
It is also said, according to ancient tradition, that those men were lost on the roads of the West and they reached a city abundantly watered, planted with trees and palm trees, surrounded by cultivated fields, and highly populated. They went there, ate with the locals, and spent the night in a house where there was a wine press. They drank wine and got drunk, and then they fell asleep. But when they awoke the next morning at sunrise, they found themselves in a ruined city where there were neither people nor crops.
They left in a hurry and filled with terror. Throughout the day they walked at random; and when evening came, they found themselves in a bigger city than the first, richer, more populated with men and animals, and possessed of more plantations, palm trees, and crops. They got to know its inhabitants, rested with them, and told them the story of the first city. These people laughed with them. There was a banquet at the home of one of them. The fugitives went there, ate, drank, and heard all kinds of songs. The people asked them where they came from. They replied that they had gone astray in the paths of the desert. They were told, “Your path is before you, perfectly clear: you cannot go wrong there. If you want to start right away, we will give you guides that will point you in the direction of the main road leading to your home; if instead you prefer to stay with us, we will treat you as friends and brothers.”
They welcomed these words with joy. Some of them immediately settled in the city; others, who had children and households, went to get them to bring them back to this place.
“We passed the night with these people,” they recounted, “and found ourselves very well; then we fell asleep and when we awoke the next day, we saw that we were in a large ruined city whose walls were partly collapsed, and where there was no inhabitant. Many palm trees surrounded it, whose fruit had begun to fall and gather around the tree trunks. At this sight, we were seized with terror and the emotion very nearly made us fall to the ground. We fled, thinking about what we had seen; we still sensed the smell of wine and we carried within us the signs of intoxication. All day we walked without feeling either hunger or thirst, and finally in the evening, we saw a shepherd who was grazing his flock. We asked him where there were houses and where the path was. He replied: ‘There are houses near here.’ We arrived, indeed, near to rivers full of water. We stopped there to drink and spend the night. The next morning we were in still another place; there were around us men and dwellings; and hardly had we walked half a day then we entered Ashmūn, a city of the Ṣā‘īd. Here we related our adventure, but no one would believe us.”
These cities are those of the ancient peoples who inhabited the interior of Egypt; they fell into the hands of the djinn and most have become invisible.
The Copts tell that a man, the son of one of the priests that had slain the king Ansād, went to the king of the Franks, he spoke of the treasures of Egypt and its wonders and offered make him the owner of these as well as the whole country. He undertook to destroy the talismans, so that the king could grab whatever he wanted, and let him know where the treasures were located. The Frankish king then resolved to invade Egypt. When the ruler of Egypt learned of the invasion of the Franks, he retreated to a mountain located between the Salt Sea and the eastern bank of the Nile and he brought with him almost all his riches. He built a domed palace whose exterior he covered with lead sheets. He ordered that the sides of the mountain be cut flat to a height of fifty cubits, and the bottom of the shaped portion he had carved with splendid images in relief with the depth of a cubit. This mountain has a rounded shape, but the summit is very steep.
Then the king came to Memphis to take all he could take, and returning to his place on the mountain, he waited for the king of the Franks. He came with a thousand ships and a large army. He won Egypt and whenever he met a talisman, a work of art, a lighthouse, or any wonder he took it and destroyed it. He then threw down all the idols that were in his way. He did all this with the help of the priest who accompanied him, and having reached the ancient city of Alexandria, he devastated most of its monuments. He came to the Nile, near Rashīd (Rosetta), and he went up to Memphis; the inhabitants of these regions fled before him. He advanced, destroying everything in his path. But he found Memphis defended by formidable talismans, by deep waters, and by high blocks. He laid siege for several days, but he was unable to take it. He saw many men, and the number of defenders seemed to grow by the day, while that of his companions diminished. He went into a rage against the priest and he wanted to kill him, but he could not; and the latter fled to his people.
As soon as the Egyptians learned of his flight, they armed vessels and they attacked the fleet of the Frankish king; they killed many of his companions and sank several of his ships, forcing him to seek his salvation in flight. He encountered a ship in which he was able to embark and he managed to save himself, but God sent the winds against the fleet of the Franks, which achieved their destruction, and he was not able to return to their homeland as their king, sick from the injuries he had received. The Egyptians returned to their homes; the king returned to Memphis, and left on the mountain the treasures he had accumulated there in anticipation of the future. They say they are still there today.
Following this, King Ṣā made incursions into the country of the Rūmis and among the islands. He made great havoc, and all the kings dreaded him. He reigned 67 years, and he lived 170. He died and was buried in Memphis in the tomb he had prepared in the middle of the city under the earth. They entered it from outside the city towards the west, and they carried into the tomb great wealth, stones, statues, and talismans, as they did for his royal ancestors. In the tomb there were four thousand statues in the form of various beasts of land and sea, and over the grave they placed a statue of an eagle in green stone, holding in its claws a golden dragon. They inscribed on the tomb the king’s name, his life, and the events of his reign.
Tedāris
Ṣā was succeeded by his son Tedāris. He was the first man who organized armies. His reign was prosperous. He was a king full of wisdom and experience, authority and courage, knowing affairs, carrying out all things with justice. He restored the temples are reinstated their priests, honored the priests and enriched the sanctuaries.
He erected to the West of Memphis a great temple to Venus, and he inscribed in it the secrets of many sciences. He dressed himself in silk and celebrated every year a major festival to which he summoned all his armies. The idol of Venus was of lapis lazuli inlaid with gleaming gold. She wore emerald bracelets. She had the figure of a woman with well-polished nails of blackened gold, whose feet were adorned with rings of stone as red as the hyacinth, and shod with golden shoes. Her hand held a coral wand. She made a sign with her index finger, as if to bless those who were in the temple. In front of the statue, on the other side of the room, there was placed a cow with horns and hooves of red and gold copper, adorned with lapis stones.
The visage of the cow was right in front of the face of the idol. Between these two statues there was erected on marble pillars a fountain of a compound substance, from which gushed water under the influence of Venus and that cured all diseases. The temple was lined with the grass of Venus, and they changed its covering weekly. They placed in this room thrones for priests, adorned with gold and silver, and they placed there as offerings a thousand heads of sheep, goats, deer, and birds. On the day of Venus, the king came to this temple toured the whole place. The temple was carpeted and curtains were hung to the right and left of the statue. Atop the roof was an image of Saturn mounted on a winged horse, holding a sword before him, which was pierced through the head of a man. This building survived until the time of Bokht-Naṣṣar, who laid waste to it.
They say Tedāris was the king who dug the Sakha Canal. The tribute of Egypt rose during this reign to 150 million dinars.
An Amalekite prince from Syria marched towards Egypt. At this news the king, gathering his army, went to meet him, attacked him, and scattered his troops. He entered into Palestine, killed many people and took many prisoners there. Among the captives were several scholars that the king made to reside in Egypt. Thus Tedāris made himself fearsome to all the sovereigns.
At the beginning of the thirtieth year of his reign, the Negroes of the countries of Zanj and Nubia wanted to make a foray into his empire. They gathered on the borders and they inflicted great damage. The king gathered the troops from all the provinces of Egypt, and he equipped vessels; he gave one of his generals, named Bilāṭis, command of 300,000 men, as many horsemen as infantry; he was followed by another general at the head of equal forces, and he sent three hundred ships to sea. Each of these ships had a priest in charge of doing wonders. The king himself marched at the rear with the rest of the army. The Egyptians met the army of Negroes, which had about a million men, and they routed them. They killed many men and made many their prisoners. Then they chased them until they had arrived in the land of elephants in the country of Zanj. They took many of these animals, and with them a quantity of tigers and wild animals, and they brought them back to Egypt. The king erected on the border lighthouses on which wrote the history of this campaign, the date of the invasion of the Negroes, and all the major events of his reign.
Returning to Egypt, the king fell ill, and he had a vision that warned of his death. He then made ready a tomb; they carried to it idols of the stars, gold, and other colors of stones, statues of marvelous artistry, instruments, and treasures whose value and quantity were immeasurable. The king died and was buried in this tomb, and they inscribed on the door, in the stone, his name and the date of his death. Talismans were placed around it to protect it. Tedāris left the kingdom to his son Mālīk.
Mālīk
Mālīk was an educated prince, intelligent, generous, good-looking, and accomplished. He did not imitate his father in the worship of the stars and cows. They say he was a monotheist, of the religion of Qobṭīm and Miṣraīm, and the Copts disapproved of him. The cause of his conversion was, they say, this one.
He had a vision in which it seemed that two winged figures were swooping down on him and carried off the top of the celestial sphere. He was placed in the presence of an old black man having a beard and white hair, who asked him: “Do you know me?” He was filled with fear at the sight. He was then thirty-some-odd years old. He answered the old man, “I do not know you.” The old man said, “I am Kronos, that is to say Saturn.” The king answered, “I know you; you are my God.” But Saturn said: “If I claimed that I am God, I would be a fool like you. My God and yours is the one who created heaven and earth, who created me and who created you.” “And where is He?” asked the king. “He is at the summit of all things. Thought does not reach Him, the eyes do not see Him, and nothing is like Him. It is he who has established us as the makers of the lower world and its governors.” The king said, “What shall I do?” “Hide in your heart,” replied Saturn, “the knowledge you have of His divinity. Acknowledge Him as God and know that He is eternal.” Then he gave the two winged men the order to carry back the king. He awoke, deeply troubled, and he found himself in his own bed.
Mālīk summoned the chief priest; he related his vision and he said, “It is not possible for you to take idols for gods: they can neither harm nor serve.” The priest asked, “Whom should I serve?” “The creator of heaven and earth,” answered the king, “the one who made all things. But how are we to detach the minds of men from the beliefs to which they are accustomed?” “Keep this revelation to yourself,” said the priest, “and make it your secret and let it purify your heart. When you are hidden from the eyes of men, and find yourself in solitude, you may do what you might. But outside, in front of your subjects, continue to follow the cult of your ancestors.”
The king ordered his people, following one of his visions, to bring together all kinds of war machines, a quantity of weapons chosen from the best and most perfect, and masses of supplies, and to equip two hundred vessels in the western sea. Taking his place at the head of a powerful army, he advanced on both land and sea; the Berber troops met him. He dispersed them and made a great slaughter of them. He reached the Ifrīqīah. He traveled almost the whole of it, and he emerged on the other side. All the nations through which he passed were ruined; finally he came to Spain, with the intention of entering into the kingdom of the Franks. The Franks then had a great king called Arqiūs (i.e., Rex). Troops gathered around him on all sides. The king of Egypt remained one month battling against him, and at the end of this time, the Frankish king sued for peace and gave him great presents. Having received them, the king of Egypt went into the nations that border the Green Sea and reduced to his subjects. These races there was one that had claws and small horns, hair like wolves, and sharp tusks coming out of their mouths. They fought the Egyptians with great courage and finally, forced to flee, they took refuge in dark underground passage where it was impossible to follow. The Copts say the king saw in these parts seventy wonders of which we will mention some of them below. The king of Egypt erected on this sea a boundary marker where he engraved his name. He sacked the cities of the Berbers, and their inhabitants were forced to take refuge on mountaintops. On his return to Egypt, he was received in triumph. He was received with great fanfare, and they sprayed perfumes before him and spread carpets under his feet. He returned to his palace in great pomp and then asked to see his son, who was born during his absence. He was charmed, amused himself with him, and his joy was at its height. His fame spread in the other realms and all the rulers feared him. They sent him presents from every direction.
The king heard that there was a Berber tribe devoted to magic, who knew the art of producing magical vapors, becoming invisible, and summoning terrifying ghosts; this tribe lived in a town called Qarmīdah, west of the land of Egypt, and it was governed by a sorceress queen named Aṣṭā. Aware of the harm that these foreigners were doing to his people, he marched against them. But when he came close to their city, they made it invisible and they dried up their waters. Many soldiers of the Egyptian army perished of thirst, and the king, finding no way to conquer, these Berbers, retreated from their country. He advanced to the south, then returned to them by another route than the first; he went to a temple they had the habit of frequenting on one of their feast days, and commanded his men to destroy it. Some soldiers began this task; but a big chunk of the temple collapsed and buried them. Seeing this, the king left the people and went away. The Berbers returned to their temple, rebuilt it, restored what had been ruined, fortified it with talismans, and erected above its dome an idol of gilded copper. With the approach of a stranger, that idol emitted a terrible cry, capable of frightening every living being. The Berbers would converge at this cry and slaughtered the stranger.
The queen was the most skillful magician among these people. He subjects said to her, “Prepare talismans for us against the land of Egypt, and against its inhabitants.” She replied, “I am willing.” “You’re more skilled than in the magical sciences,” they added, “so do all that you understand.” She composed drugs to enchant the Nile; she confided them to some of her subjects and ordered them to transport them into Egypt, scatter them everywhere, and throw them into the Nile upstream of this country. These men went into the borders of Egypt and to the most fertile places, and they threw their talismans.
Following this, they saw the Nile swell earlier than had been expected; the flood exceeded all measure, and water, staying long on the ground, spoiled the harvest and all the crops. Crocodiles and frogs multiplied; epidemics of all sorts attacked the inhabitants. Foxes and scorpions appeared from all sides.
The king summoned the priests and scholars and said: “Advise me about the events that are occuring in our country, without any horoscope to announce them, and which we were not prepared to fight.” he priests assembled in the house of their leader; they observed and measured, and they discovered that these events were caused by a power of the West of which a woman was the author, who had cast spells on the Nile and that had spread into many places.
When the king knew that all evil came from that sorceress, he told the priests: “Seek the means of her destruction, for she has hurt us enough.” They then met in the temple where there were images of stars, and they asked the king to join them. He could not refuse them. But, having dressed in a hair shirt and having spilled ashes on himself, he entered the shrine and began to pray, to beg, to implore God, saying, “O Lord, you are the God of gods and King of kings, the creator of all things, and there is nothing so small that is not under your authority and your power. So I ask you by all your merits, by your signs and by your name, to deliver us from the enmity of this people.” He prayed until he was overcome by sleep.
As he was asleep in this place, he saw come to him in a dream a fellow who said, “God has mercy on your complaints. He knows the secret of your heart, and he has heard your prayer. He will destroy this people and he shall destroy all their works. The poisoned water will drain away from you, the wild beasts disappear, and the fatal diseases cease.”
The next morning, the priests returned to the king and asked him to accompany them to the temple, as he had promised. He replied: “I have already settled the matter. You will see an end to the corruption of the water and the invasion of wild beasts, and nothing in the future will torment you.” At these words, the priests were silent, but they looked at each other, like men who doubt: “The word of our master gladdens us,” they said to the king, “and may God prolong his days.” And without letting him see they thought him wrong, they went away: “If such a thing is as he claims, we shall see it,” they said one to another, “but if he is wrong, we will have every opportunity to blame him when his error will become evident.”
But two days later, the corrupt water withdrew, and the places it had touched were dried by the sun; wild beasts perished, and everyone knew that the king’s words were true.
The king sent one of his generals, accompanied by a priest, at the head of a body of troops to search for news of the enemy city. These men marched and they reached the city without meeting any obstacle or any defender. Having arrived at the city, they first saw that its fortifications had fallen, and that all its inhabitants were dead to the last man. Some were burned, and their faces were blackened. The idols were lying with their faces against the ground; the dead had their wealth spread before them. The Egyptian soldiers made a tour around the city and they explored in all directions; they found alive but one man who did not follow the religion of its inhabitants, as the result of a vision he had had. They saw a quantity of wealth, jewels, objects of gold, and statues; the number and value of these spoils were immeasurable. There was, among other things, the statue of a priest that these Berbers worshiped; it was placed on an emerald and amethyst base. There was also the image of a celestial spirit in gold. His head was a red stone and his two wings, pearls. His hand was holding a sheet on which were written the sciences of Egypt and that was joined between two tables of gold, inlaid with stones of various colors. Then they saw a blue hyacinth vase, mounted on a stand of melted green glass, in which remained a bit of a medicinal water that can cure many diseases; and also a silver horse of which it was said that he who uttered some enchantments and burned incense into smoke could have it serve him by carrying him off into the air. The vanquishers also found a multitude of wonders, magical instruments, and idols of all kinds. They took away those of the objects that were both lighter and more valuable, and they loaded their beasts with them. They reported everything to the king, and they also brought back to him the man who had been found alive. The king received this booty with great joy, gave glory to God, and all the people shared his happiness. The priests revered, although he did not reveal to them his secret.
Afterward, the king sent to the same place other beasts of burden and other soldiers, and all the people of Miṣr and Ashmūn who wanted to accompany them could go searching for valuables in the city. They brought back large quantities; some of the people adorned their homes and their markets; the king filled his palace; long after these events, the ruins of this city attracted people who had the means to get there, and rarely did those who went come back disappointed.
The king brought the survivor of this people with him, and he made him relate the city’s history. This man said amazing things, including this: “That which I know about our people that is most marvelous,” he said, “happened a long time ago. A king of the Berbers, of a race of giants, came to attack our city with a great crowd of followers, a powerful army, and seemingly also terrifying ghosts. Our compatriots locked themselves in their fortresses and placed the machines on their pivots. They ran to the feet of their idols, their sheikhs and their priests, prostrating themselves in supplication. There was among us a very revered priest whose advanced age prevented him from leaving his house. The most important people of the city went to inform him of the danger we were in. This priest had himself carried to a wide and deep basin whose water watered the city. He sat on the edge of the pool and surrounded by all the other priests he began to mumble prayers on the water. After he had prayed for some time, they saw it swell and seethe, and in the middle of the basin burning fire arose, the center of which was a face with the size and brightness of the solar disk. All present bowed down to that face, whose splendor dazzled them. This disk soon grew to fill the whole basin, and it rose to the top of the dome and ascended to the sky. Then they heard a voice saying: “We have delivered justice to your enemies; go out and pick up their remains.” Our citizens out all filled with emotion and, arriving at the besieged camp, they found them all dead. They gathered everything these people had brought with them, money, clothing, and animals, and then they returned to the city, full of joy. All the people began to eat and drink. Then I said to one of the priests: “You have seen the miracle of that face. What is it?” He replied: “It is the Sun, who has appeared to us, and he made them perish to the last man, as you see.”
This story ended, the king said to the man: “Do you know now the cause of your destruction?” “I do not know,” he replied; “but while I watched this that night, I heard a loud crash at the time of the fall of the walls. I wanted to find out what it was; I heard a voice I did not recognize, I saw the light of a fire, and I felt burning vapors. I lived in a kind of khan (a type of hotel for merchants), of which there are many in the land. I cried out, but no one answered. I tried to open the gates but I found them closed. I returned to my apartment and I lit a torch in a remnant of the fire. Then I made my way all around my hotel; and all who were there, men, women, young and old, I could find not one alive. At the height of my terror, I implored God and I cried out to him. I got up in the morning and when the sun came out and the day had dawned, I did not hear any movement. Venturing out, I saw the city in the state that the king’s officers found it.” This man was intelligent and gifted with experience. The king made him a companion, a vizier, and a friend.
King Mālīk persevered in his monotheistic belief and faith in the Most High God. He administered his own kingdom, and he made many tours of it in order to prevent unrest. He ordered the construction of his tomb, in which he wished that no other person be buried with him, or that anyone deposit gold, silver, or statues. He wrote in his own hand a sheet carrying these words: “This is the tomb of King Mālīk, king of Egypt and its provinces. He died in faith in the one God; he did not serve any other than Him and he was not tainted by the worship of idols. He believed in the prophetic mission, the accounting of actions, and the judgment of works. He lived in such-and-such a way. Whosoever would be saved will follow his religion.” He buried great treasures in another place, above which he had engraved: “These treasures will be extracted by the nation of the Prophet that God will send at the end of time.” He handed the sheet that he had written to one of his ministers, ordering him to keep it hidden until his death and to engrave above his grave when he died the lines he had written on it. At the end of his life, he went to his tomb and lived in the practice of his religion, hidden from the eyes of men. When he neared death, he called his son; he revealed his monotheistic belief, revealing to him that it was his religion and he ordered him to follow it and to abjure the worship of idols. During the time he yet lived, his son was faithful to this precept. Then the king died. His body was laid in his tomb, and his son had engraved above it the inscription he had given him.
Khartabā
When all was finished with him, his son Khartabā ascended the throne and assumed power. He was a gentle prince, of easy morals and a pleasant character. After the death of his father, he forgot the promise he had made to serve only one God and he returned to the religion of his people. His mother, who was the daughter of one of the high priests, persuaded him to apostasy. She had a great influence on him; she restored the temples and showed great zeal for the worship of idols.
The king married one of his cousins, whom he loved passionately; she used slander against all his other wives, and this displeased the king’s mother. But this wife had a native housekeeper from Osyūṭ, a very clever sorceress, for which she showed a great inclination because she loved her brother. This sorceress used her art with regard to the king’s wife; she increased misunderstandings between the king and his mother to the point that the king was separated from his mother and put her into seclusion. Evil grew unchecked, through the evil spells of the woman, to the point that the king finally swore to no longer reside in the vicinity of his mother. He then resolved to travel and make excursions into foreign countries, and to return to Egypt when his mother was dead. This is what he did; and he went through the land of India and the land of Sudan.
The reason that prompted Khartabā to invade the land of India was this: A king of this country, called Maswar, had marched at the head of a large army and a powerful fleet; he had conquered countries and islands, killed many men, and took many prisoners; and having heard of Egypt, he had proposed to invade it. But having fallen ill, he turned back. Khartabā had a hundred ships built on the model of the Indian vessels and departed with a fleet of three hundred ships, taking with him his wife and his principal courtiers. In his absence he left the government of Egypt to his son Kalkān. Since this prince was a child, he placed at his side a vizier named Lāūn and a priest called Wasmūs.
The king advanced along the shore of the sea; his fleets devastated the coasts. In all the countries where he went, he erected an idol with an inscription bearing his name, his history, and the date of his passage. He reached Sarandīb and fought against its inhabitants, from whom he took great treasures and many precious stones. He took with him a sage of that country; then he reached a populated island between India and China whose men were tall, with dark skin and long hair. There he saw their games and unknown birds, trees that yield perfumes, incense, and fruits that are not found elsewhere. This people gave him their submission and brought him silver and presents; he received them and then departed. He traveled among the islands of this region for many years. His absence from Egypt lasted, they say, seventeen years.
He returned to his country laden with booty and triumphant, and he learned that his mother had died. His subjects mourned his absence. His return caused a general joy and procured the people much peace, glory and prosperity. Khartabā found his son Kalkān at the head of the kingdom, right where he had placed him, and this contented him greatly. He was feared by the kings and his power became great in the eyes of men.
After his return, the king built a number of temples, adorned them, and enriched them. He raised up idols of the stars, believing that these deities had protected him during his trip, and that he needed them to safeguard his income and rich booty. He had brought with him from India a doctor and a sage, who had retained their books and formulas. Both men made famous wonders in Egypt. He also had brought back from India of a golden idol decorated with jewels. He set it up in a temple he built and gave it the Indian sage as its servant. It was he who went about its worship and offering it sacrifices. The Egyptians asked questions of this idol, and it answered all their inquiries.
After reigning for some time in Egypt, King Khartabā went on an expedition in the regions of Syria; he subjugated the inhabitants. He returned to Egypt and then turned around and made an expedition to the regions of Nubia and Sudan. The peoples of these countries begged for their temples to be kept safe and offered to pay him tribute. He granted their request and returned to Egypt.
The reign of this king was 75 years. He built a tomb in the desert of the West, then he went to Raqūdah, where he made works of art and wonders. He stayed there until his death. During this time his son was in Memphis and governed Egypt. When he was dead, they smeared his body with mummia, camphor, and myrrh, and he was placed in a golden sarcophagus, which was carried to his grave. They placed near him large sums of silver, precious stones, statues in large numbers, wonders, drugs, and books that he had composed. His image was painted on the sides of the tomb and they engraved above it the story of his expeditions, the name of the countries he had conquered, and the vessels he had raised. Then they shut the door of the tomb and they wrote his name on it, the dates of his reign, and the date of his death. This prince was handsome and of a mild character. Many of his wives killed themselves over his body. Priests wept because of the zeal he showed for their religion.
Kalkān
After him reigned his son Kalkan. He went to be crowned in Alexandria after the death of his father and spent two months in this city before he came to Memphis. He followed the religion of his father. The people rejoiced at his coming because this prince was a friend of priests and had a taste for wonders. He summoned skilled craftsmen, whom he gave great rewards. For his entire life he cultivated chemistry (i.e. alchemy). The treasures he amassed were considerable, and they were buried in the deserts of the West in quantities that cannot be evaluated. This king is the first in Egypt to practice publicly the art of chemistry; it was previously a hidden art. The kings of Egypt had seen fit to keep it a secret so that the kings of other nations might not seize it. But Kalkān changed this mindset. He made a great deal of gold and he filled the houses of wisdom to the point that this metal had never been as abundant as during his reign. The revenues of Egypt had never been even a single digit greater. The Copts say that in this time, it reached a hundred and more tens of millions of miṯqāl. They ceased to extract gold from mines because it had become useless. The king also made, with melted stones, colored idols from which were obtained many favors. The Copts relate that the king sought especially intellectual things and that because of it he was named the “enemy of kings”; his knowledge exceeded that of all the priests. He revealed to them that which had remained hidden from them; they also revered him, and they often made recourse to his wisdom.
The Nimrod of Abraham lived at that time. It is said that when the clamor of the wisdom of Kalkān and his magical science reached Nimrod, he invited Kalkān to visit him. Nimrod was a giant and monstrous. He lived in the Sawād of Iraq. God gave him strength and extraordinary valor, through which he had made himself master of a vast portion of the earth. The Copts, wanting to exalt their king, claim that Kalkān, after receiving the invitation from Nimrod, sent word to him that he would go to see him alone and without his entourage in a particular place. Kalkān came in a train drawn by four winged horses, surrounded by a light similar to that of fire and various terrifying images. He was escorted by a dragon leashed and held by the back, which advanced with open jaws. Kalkān held a rod of green myrtle; when the dragon raised his head, he struck the rod and this forced him to sink back down. Nimrod saw him and was filled with dread, but the king of Egypt spoke to him with respect and, after having shown him his wisdom, he asked him to be his friend and assistant. These words calmed the fear of Nimrod, and the two kings separated.
The Copts say Kalkān could rise into the air and he sat on the top of the western pyramid. They even say he stayed so long atop the pyramid that other princes coveted his kingdom. A king of the West, called Sādūm, prepared to invade with a powerful army and advanced towards Wādī-Hīt to win Egypt. But Kalkān came forth to meet him, and he produced against the invaders one of the wonders of his magic: It was a type of very hot cloud that enveloped them in such a manner that they could not escape. The king left them imprisoned there and returned to Egypt to reassure his people and tell them what he had done. He then sent his companions to inquire what had become of the enemies. When they arrived at the place where they had left them, they found them all dead. The Egyptians took all the booty left by the invaders. The people were amazed at the wisdom of Kalkān, and rival kings had greater fear of him than which any other sovereign had inspired. The image of the king was placed in all the temples. His reign lasted for a long time. At the end of his life, he built a temple to Saturn, of black granite, in the region of the West and there instituted a feast. In the middle of the building, he built a tomb in which he collected a great deal of gold, gems, secrets, and drugs, and he made known that he was dying. He put talismans around the tomb, after which he hid himself from the eyes of men and no one witnessed his death.
When Qobṭīm divided Egypt among his children, Ashmūn, Atrīb, Qofṭ and Ṣā, each of whom removed himself to the land that he had been assigned. Ṣā made his way with his family, his children, and his household, to his territory, which was formed by the Maritime lands and the land of Alexandria up to Barqah. He lived in a very old city, which was Alexandria. He was the youngest child of his father and the one Qobṭīm liked best. When he began to administer his inheritance, he set about developing culture, founding cities, performing wonders, as his brothers were doing; he had the ambition to surpass them all in this. Marhūn, the surveyor, oversaw his constructions. He built towers for Ṣā at intervals along the coast of the sea, to the limits of Libya and to Marāqīah; and he placed on top of these towers mirrors composed of various substances. These served to repel sea monsters that might harm the inhabitants of the shore. Others reflected the sun’s rays onto enemy ships coming from the islands of the interior and burned them; still others made it so towns could be seen in them from across the sea, along with all their inhabitants; others showed the climate of Egypt, so they might know a year ahead the lands that would be fertile and those that would remain without fruit.
This king built in his capital baths which warmed themselves, palaces, and houses of pleasure. Every day he moved himself into another one of his residences with several of his servants and his household. He surrounded this city with gardens, filled with chirping birds and tame animals; he made channels for the waters and he them with orchards. The tops of his palaces held stones that shone under the sun’s light and threw around them sprays of light. Not a single thing that could contribute to the ease and charm of life was omitted in this venture. Agriculture extended from the sands of Reshīd and Alexandria out to Barqah; a traveler walking in Egypt did not need to take provisions, such was the abundance of fruits and supplies of all kinds; he could even walk in shade, away from the sun. The king made palaces in the deserts and established plantations, for which he brought from the Nile subsidiary canals; one could cross the entirety of Egypt from west to the east without leaving cropland.
After the people of that time had disappeared, traces of the works they made remained in these deserts. These homes were ruined, and their inhabitants wiped out; but those who have visited the place never stop speaking of the ruins and wonders that these regions contain.
Marqūnos
Marqūnos was a wise king, a friend of science and wisdom. Under his reign a dirham was struck that had the property that when the owner of this dirham wanted to buy something, he proposed to the seller that it be used for weighing the goods, such that he would take only the amount equivalent to the weight of the dirham. The merchant let himself be seduced and accepted the offer. But, after they had agreed on this, the weight of the dirham became equal to that of several ratls of ten dirhams each, and adjusted its weight to the will of the buyer. Under the Umayyads they found these coins among the treasures of the ancient kings, and everyone was amazed. The Egyptians had yet another species of dirhams also struck, they say, in the reign of this king. When one of these dirhams had been placed in the balance, its owner picked it up, kissed it, and said: “Remember your promise.” Then he left it and bought what he wanted. But when he had returned home with his merchandise, he found the dirham was already back in its place. As for the merchant, he could no longer find the coin in its place, having been replaced with a leaf or a piece of paper, or something similar.
It is also said that in this reign glass vases were made, which were weighed empty, then filled with water and, when weighed again, it was found that their weight had not increased. These vessels carried in themselves the weight of the water. They made at the same time vases such as the water put into them took on the color, flavor, and intoxicating power of wine. They found several of these vases at Aṭfiḥ in the time of Hārūn bin Khomarawaīh bin Aḥmed. One of them was an onyx cup with a blue and white handle. It was discovered by Abū’l-Hasan al-Khurāsāni. When this fellow fund it, he went to eat with some companions along the Nile. Then they drank the water they had poured in it and it all seemed like wine; they drank this wine; they began to jump; the cup fell from their hands and broke into several pieces. The one who had discovered it was greatly distressed; he carried the pieces to Hārūn, who said with regret: “If it were whole, I would have paid a portion of my kingdom for it.” As for copper vessels that changed water into wine, they were reported from the time of Cleopatra, daughter of Ptolemy, Queen of Alexandria, and a large number have been found. We shall speak of these in dealing with the secrets of the arts.
In the days of the king, images of reptiles, frogs, beetles, flies, scorpions, and various insects were manufactured; these images, placed anywhere, attracted similar beasts, paralyzed them, and kept them until they should die or someone came to kill them. All works of this sovereign were completed by relying on the signs of the zodiac, in their name and following their rising; thus were the works executed. Marqūnos erected in the desert of the West an amphitheater of colored glass and placed in its center a dome entirely composed of green and translucent glass. When the sun hit the dome, it reflected its rays a great distances. On its four sides were placed four tall glass rooms, each of which had its own color. They decorated these rooms with paintings that harmonized with their colors and representative wonderful talismans or graceful images; all these was drawn on the thin, transparent glass. The king came to the amphitheater and spent several days there. He instituted three feasts a year. The people went there on pilgrimage during these festivals; they invoked the gods for the king and recreated for seven days. This building long persisted in the same state. They came from all the foreign countries to see it because there was nowhere else anything equivalent or comparable, and no one had known a similar building. In the end, it was overthrown by a king who wanted to raise one on its model, but could not.
Marqūnos’s mother was the daughter of a king of Nubia, who loved a star called as-Suhā (in Ursa Major). This princess asked her son to build her a temple where she could practice this religion. Marqūnos consented; he erected a temple that was plated in gold and silver and lined with silk veils. His mother went there with her slaves and her household, and worshiped before her god three times a day, like priests. She celebrated in its honor festival each month, during which she brought it offerings and incense day and night. She appointed to its service a Nubian priest; he lived near the idol and busied himself with offerings and incense. The princess continued her entreaties to her son until he had decided to worship the star himself and invite the people to worship it, too.
The priest then desired to have for this god earthly images, in the form of various animals. He waited for an opportunity to carry out this plan. Eagles became very numerous in Egypt, and men suffered. The king sent for the priest and asked him about this scourge. The priest replied: “This is your god who sent them to you to make an image which we shall worship.” “If that is enough to pacify him,” said Marqūnos, “I will gladly do this.” So he gave the order to execute a statue of an eagle in cast gold, two cubits in length with a width of one cubit; they gave this statue two eyes of hyacinth; it was adorned with two pearl necklaces embedded in gold; a precious stone was suspended from its beak, and rubies sparkled among its feathers. It was placed on pedestal of silver chasing, supported by a pillar of blue glass, and it was installed under an arch to the right of the temple. Before him were thrown back silk curtains; and in its honor consecrated resins and gums were burned; it was offered the sacrifice of a black calf and first-born chicks, with the first flowers and fruits.
After seven days had past, the king invited his subjects to worship this idol and they consented. The priest displayed a great zeal for the service of the new god. When forty days were over, the satan of the statue spoke. The first thing he asked was that burned offerings be made in the middle of each month with sandalwood, and that they splash the temple with old wine taken from the surface of the jars. Then he said he had removed the eagles and stopped the harm they caused; and he promised to continue to protect the Egyptians against all the evils they would have cause to fear. The priest welcomed his speech; he reported it to the king’s mother, who was also pleased, and both rendered homage to the idol. The king had, in his turn, knowledge of the thing. He went on horseback to the temple; the idol spoke to him and gave him orders and defenses. The king worshiped it, appointed it priests, and ordered that it be covered with beautiful adornments. After this, Marqūnos often came into the temple; he loved the statue and asked it about what he wanted to know, and it answered him.
This king practiced alchemy and made of gold in larger quantities that any of the kings before him. He buried fifteen hundred loads in the deserts of the West. They say he erected at the gate of Ṣā a column on which he placed the image of a seated woman holding a mirror in her hand. They looked in the mirror to know the fate of the sick; if the patient was dying, they saw death there; if he was to live, they saw life. They also consulted this idol about travelers. When the mirror showed the face of the traveler, they knew that he was safe; when his back was visible, he was walking away; if he was ill or dead, the mirror showed him in this state.
Marqūnos established in Alexandria the image of a monk sitting on a pedestal, with his head wearing a hood and holding in his hand a curved staff. Where a trader passed by him, he had to place in his hands a certain duty, proportionate to the value of his goods; if he refused to do so, it was impossible for him to continue his journey, and he remained fixed in place.
They collected large sums of silver, which were devoted to aiding the infirm and the poor.
During this reign a great number of wonders were executed. The king had his name engraved on all of them and he had the same inscribed on scientific objects, talismans, and idols. He built a tomb within the western region in a mountain called Shadām. They dug a vault under the mountain a hundred cubits long, and thirty high and twenty wide. This tomb was covered with marble and melted and colored glass. They made the ceiling of translucent stones; they arranged on its periphery elegant tiled glass beds on which they arranged statues and wonders executed during this reign. In the middle of the underground chamber they flattened an area of colored glass, and at each corner a figure was placed which prohibited any approach. Among these figures was laid types of candlesticks equipped with luminous stones; and they placed at the center of the area a golden basin, in which the body of the king was to be shut after he was embalmed with preservative drugs. Marqūnos transported to the tomb great treasures of gold, gems, and other sorts; he ordered the door of the vault to be blocked up with rocks sealed with lead, and sand to be pushed over it. Marqūnos reigned 73 years and lived 240. He was handsome and had abundant and magnificent hair. After his death, most of his wives dedicated themselves to piety and devoted themselves to the service of the temples. This king left the throne to his son Ansād.
Ansād
Ansād came to power, being still very young, that is to say, at the age of 45. He was a great giant, with an arrogant gaze. He had seduced one of his father’s wives, and rumors of his actions spread. His main concern was fun and games. He gathered around him all the buffoons of his kingdom. Anyone who knew some game or some buffoonery had to come to him. He shut himself up in this society, neglecting the affairs of state and the conduct of his people. He gave the administration of the kingdom to his vizier and despised science, worship, and priests. He built wooden castles surmounted by golden and painted domes. These he placed on ships on the Nile and went tither to spend his time among women, servants, and jesters. He also made a chariot covered with sheets of gold and upholstered with the most beautiful draperies. His pleasure was to travel via this chariot for months at a time, pulled by oxen, and stopping in all the pleasant places he encountered.
In doing magic, he executed many inventions for which he spent the sums raised by his father. All his treasure was consumed in these pleasures, and imperial revenues were lost in these deplorable pursuits. When the evil produced by his conduct had exceeded all bounds, the people went to his vizier to explain to him how fatal the mistakes of the prince were and to ask him to account for them and make reparations. The minister promised to so. He called a meeting with the king, and he made to him the most necessary admonitions and warned him that punishment always followed excessive fault. The king remained deaf to these views. He gave the people over to the wrath of his companions. These men overwhelmed them with abuse and suffering.
One day, the king had gone to one of his pleasure places; the rooms of the villa were decorated with gold and silver plate and precious stones of every color. It had running water, and they had planted all kinds of fragrant herbs and stretched out magnificent carpets. There the king loved to go there in the company of one of his wives, who was his favorite. So while he was there, one of his pages went to a dealer for an item he needed, and wanted to take it without paying. The merchant stopped him. The page tried to hit him, but several men gathered against him and pummeled him. His blood flowed; he was dragged out and beaten to death. The vizier and the head of the army were soon informed of the situation. They went to the place where this took place. Having criticized the murderers for what they had done, they abused them. They were matched insult for insult, and much irritated, they went away and said, “We cannot hide this from the king.” They then found the king, but he paid them little attention and he contended himself with making known among the people that anyone would complain about one of the servants or companions of the king would be put to death. The people gave him their blessing and glorified his reign, but secretly they sought the means to attack his companions.
A week later, the king sent word to the vizier and the leaders of the army that he was determined to go into the wilderness of the West to hunt. He that the army escort him, and they took food for three days. His order was carried out and the troops gathered outside the palace. The king summoned the vizier, and told he told him in confidence that the people wanted revenge. He left the city with his army in his splendid machine, and they traveled to some remote place. When night came, he returned with the army to the gates of the city, and he ordered his companions to run roughshod over the people and make of them a great slaughter. He took care to burn the place where the page had been killed, and shouted, “This is the reward due to the common people and artisans who revolt against their sovereign!” The people then asked the help of the vizier, and they begged him to throw himself at the feet of the sovereign to beg their pardon. The vizier consented, and the king pardoned them. But he said: “Whoever of you will revolt again, he will pay with his life.” They went on giving him praise.
The king returned to his old habits and even worse: he hid himself from the eyes of his subjects; he affected contempt for the temples and priests. The people and the nobles hated him and loaded him with curses. Finally some of his courtiers put poison in his food and his drink, and killed him. He died at the age of 120 after having reigned 75 years. The throne passed after him to his son Ṣā. Most of the Copts believe that Ṣā is the brother of Ansād and the son of King Marqūnos.
Ṣā (II)
King Ṣā (II) sat on the throne, and his subjects came to express their good wishes. He promised to treat them with justice and benevolence. He lived in Memphis. He expelled the buffoons, musicians, libertines, and, in general, all the companions of his father. He restored the temples and established the priests in their ranks; in Memphis, he built many wonders and talismans and brought water there; and he left in place the eagle that had been made before him, restored its temple, and honored its cult. He put up in Memphis a mirror that allowed one to foresee periods of fertility and drought, and the various events that were to be fulfilled in the country. He built cities in the Oasis around which he planted many palm trees, and westward to the sea, he built many towers. He placed behind Moqaṭṭam an idol called the Idol of Insight. Anyone who was perplexed in an affair came to question this idol, which explained it to him and solved all his difficulties. This king also established on the extremities of Egypt guards who informed him of what was happening on the borders. On the west bank of the Nile, he raised lighthouses; anyone who came was lit by their light and could be seen by night as well as by day. Similar lights were placed at the edge of the salt sea, and guards were assigned to all these buildings. Ṣā is the first king to use this system. They also say he built most of Memphis and that he was the author of large buildings in Alexandria.
When he established his government over the whole country, he brought together all the wise men of Egypt. He began to observe the stars with them because he was well versed in astrology, and he recognized that his country would be overwhelmed by a great flood that would come from the Nile and which would cover it almost entirely. He also recognized that this event would cause a man to come from the direction of Syria; then he met with all the workers of Egypt and he built in Wāḥ al-Aqṣa (the extreme oasis), a city whose walls were fifty cubits high, and there he placed the secrets of science and great treasures.
It was to this city that Mūsa bin Nusayr came in the time of the Umayyads, after he had been invested with authority in the Maghreb. This fellow had come to Egypt, following the stars to the Wāḥ al-Aqṣa. He knew astronomy, and for seven days he walked in the sand, towards the southwest, and he came to a walled city with iron doors. He tried to open one of these doors, but he could not because the sand was piled so high around it. He made men climb up it, and they jumped in, not knowing what they would fall on or what they would encounter. But having found no way to enter, he abandoned this city and passed on. Several of his companions had explored the area and they had calculated that the width of the walls was twenty cubits. Mūsa lost many men on this expedition. They say that no one before or after him ever penetrated into this city.
The Egyptians had in this desert many an oasis, beautiful cities, and important treasures. But the sands have covered all these riches. All the kings who reigned in Egypt erected talismans against the sands, to send them back or arrest their progress. Then, with time, these talismans lost their power. But nobody can deny that the Egyptians have built many monuments and cities, nor that they have raised tall and grand buildings. These people had a strength that others do not have, and the ruins that remain of their power prove the truth of this statement; for example, the pyramids and the famous monuments of Alexandria, or those that can still be seen in the deserts of the West. The Egyptians also knew how to cut into the mountains, on top of which they transported their treasures in order to make them inaccessible, and they knew the secret of many compound drugs. We admire also in the Ṣā‘īd their cities and their engravings explaining their science, with which they filled them. If today a king wanted to build a pyramid similar to theirs, he would be unable to do so; and if he wanted to engrave a single monument like theirs, the operation would seem so time-consuming that he would abandon it.
It is said that the inhabitants of the western districts, having been oppressed by a governor, retreated into the deserts of the West, taking with them enough food for some time. After a day and a part of the next day, they arrived in the evening near a mountain and they caught sight of a jackass coming up out of a trail. Some of them followed the animal and they found themselves driven into inhabited areas, well-watered and planted with palms and other trees. A large population lived in these places, cultivated the land, and paid tribute to no one. The fugitives told the residents that they no longer wanted to return to the western districts, and they would return to them with their families and all their possessions; but having long sought the way back to these houses, they could not find them or learn any information about them. They returned disconsolate over this disappearance.
It is also said, according to ancient tradition, that those men were lost on the roads of the West and they reached a city abundantly watered, planted with trees and palm trees, surrounded by cultivated fields, and highly populated. They went there, ate with the locals, and spent the night in a house where there was a wine press. They drank wine and got drunk, and then they fell asleep. But when they awoke the next morning at sunrise, they found themselves in a ruined city where there were neither people nor crops.
They left in a hurry and filled with terror. Throughout the day they walked at random; and when evening came, they found themselves in a bigger city than the first, richer, more populated with men and animals, and possessed of more plantations, palm trees, and crops. They got to know its inhabitants, rested with them, and told them the story of the first city. These people laughed with them. There was a banquet at the home of one of them. The fugitives went there, ate, drank, and heard all kinds of songs. The people asked them where they came from. They replied that they had gone astray in the paths of the desert. They were told, “Your path is before you, perfectly clear: you cannot go wrong there. If you want to start right away, we will give you guides that will point you in the direction of the main road leading to your home; if instead you prefer to stay with us, we will treat you as friends and brothers.”
They welcomed these words with joy. Some of them immediately settled in the city; others, who had children and households, went to get them to bring them back to this place.
“We passed the night with these people,” they recounted, “and found ourselves very well; then we fell asleep and when we awoke the next day, we saw that we were in a large ruined city whose walls were partly collapsed, and where there was no inhabitant. Many palm trees surrounded it, whose fruit had begun to fall and gather around the tree trunks. At this sight, we were seized with terror and the emotion very nearly made us fall to the ground. We fled, thinking about what we had seen; we still sensed the smell of wine and we carried within us the signs of intoxication. All day we walked without feeling either hunger or thirst, and finally in the evening, we saw a shepherd who was grazing his flock. We asked him where there were houses and where the path was. He replied: ‘There are houses near here.’ We arrived, indeed, near to rivers full of water. We stopped there to drink and spend the night. The next morning we were in still another place; there were around us men and dwellings; and hardly had we walked half a day then we entered Ashmūn, a city of the Ṣā‘īd. Here we related our adventure, but no one would believe us.”
These cities are those of the ancient peoples who inhabited the interior of Egypt; they fell into the hands of the djinn and most have become invisible.
The Copts tell that a man, the son of one of the priests that had slain the king Ansād, went to the king of the Franks, he spoke of the treasures of Egypt and its wonders and offered make him the owner of these as well as the whole country. He undertook to destroy the talismans, so that the king could grab whatever he wanted, and let him know where the treasures were located. The Frankish king then resolved to invade Egypt. When the ruler of Egypt learned of the invasion of the Franks, he retreated to a mountain located between the Salt Sea and the eastern bank of the Nile and he brought with him almost all his riches. He built a domed palace whose exterior he covered with lead sheets. He ordered that the sides of the mountain be cut flat to a height of fifty cubits, and the bottom of the shaped portion he had carved with splendid images in relief with the depth of a cubit. This mountain has a rounded shape, but the summit is very steep.
Then the king came to Memphis to take all he could take, and returning to his place on the mountain, he waited for the king of the Franks. He came with a thousand ships and a large army. He won Egypt and whenever he met a talisman, a work of art, a lighthouse, or any wonder he took it and destroyed it. He then threw down all the idols that were in his way. He did all this with the help of the priest who accompanied him, and having reached the ancient city of Alexandria, he devastated most of its monuments. He came to the Nile, near Rashīd (Rosetta), and he went up to Memphis; the inhabitants of these regions fled before him. He advanced, destroying everything in his path. But he found Memphis defended by formidable talismans, by deep waters, and by high blocks. He laid siege for several days, but he was unable to take it. He saw many men, and the number of defenders seemed to grow by the day, while that of his companions diminished. He went into a rage against the priest and he wanted to kill him, but he could not; and the latter fled to his people.
As soon as the Egyptians learned of his flight, they armed vessels and they attacked the fleet of the Frankish king; they killed many of his companions and sank several of his ships, forcing him to seek his salvation in flight. He encountered a ship in which he was able to embark and he managed to save himself, but God sent the winds against the fleet of the Franks, which achieved their destruction, and he was not able to return to their homeland as their king, sick from the injuries he had received. The Egyptians returned to their homes; the king returned to Memphis, and left on the mountain the treasures he had accumulated there in anticipation of the future. They say they are still there today.
Following this, King Ṣā made incursions into the country of the Rūmis and among the islands. He made great havoc, and all the kings dreaded him. He reigned 67 years, and he lived 170. He died and was buried in Memphis in the tomb he had prepared in the middle of the city under the earth. They entered it from outside the city towards the west, and they carried into the tomb great wealth, stones, statues, and talismans, as they did for his royal ancestors. In the tomb there were four thousand statues in the form of various beasts of land and sea, and over the grave they placed a statue of an eagle in green stone, holding in its claws a golden dragon. They inscribed on the tomb the king’s name, his life, and the events of his reign.
Tedāris
Ṣā was succeeded by his son Tedāris. He was the first man who organized armies. His reign was prosperous. He was a king full of wisdom and experience, authority and courage, knowing affairs, carrying out all things with justice. He restored the temples are reinstated their priests, honored the priests and enriched the sanctuaries.
He erected to the West of Memphis a great temple to Venus, and he inscribed in it the secrets of many sciences. He dressed himself in silk and celebrated every year a major festival to which he summoned all his armies. The idol of Venus was of lapis lazuli inlaid with gleaming gold. She wore emerald bracelets. She had the figure of a woman with well-polished nails of blackened gold, whose feet were adorned with rings of stone as red as the hyacinth, and shod with golden shoes. Her hand held a coral wand. She made a sign with her index finger, as if to bless those who were in the temple. In front of the statue, on the other side of the room, there was placed a cow with horns and hooves of red and gold copper, adorned with lapis stones.
The visage of the cow was right in front of the face of the idol. Between these two statues there was erected on marble pillars a fountain of a compound substance, from which gushed water under the influence of Venus and that cured all diseases. The temple was lined with the grass of Venus, and they changed its covering weekly. They placed in this room thrones for priests, adorned with gold and silver, and they placed there as offerings a thousand heads of sheep, goats, deer, and birds. On the day of Venus, the king came to this temple toured the whole place. The temple was carpeted and curtains were hung to the right and left of the statue. Atop the roof was an image of Saturn mounted on a winged horse, holding a sword before him, which was pierced through the head of a man. This building survived until the time of Bokht-Naṣṣar, who laid waste to it.
They say Tedāris was the king who dug the Sakha Canal. The tribute of Egypt rose during this reign to 150 million dinars.
An Amalekite prince from Syria marched towards Egypt. At this news the king, gathering his army, went to meet him, attacked him, and scattered his troops. He entered into Palestine, killed many people and took many prisoners there. Among the captives were several scholars that the king made to reside in Egypt. Thus Tedāris made himself fearsome to all the sovereigns.
At the beginning of the thirtieth year of his reign, the Negroes of the countries of Zanj and Nubia wanted to make a foray into his empire. They gathered on the borders and they inflicted great damage. The king gathered the troops from all the provinces of Egypt, and he equipped vessels; he gave one of his generals, named Bilāṭis, command of 300,000 men, as many horsemen as infantry; he was followed by another general at the head of equal forces, and he sent three hundred ships to sea. Each of these ships had a priest in charge of doing wonders. The king himself marched at the rear with the rest of the army. The Egyptians met the army of Negroes, which had about a million men, and they routed them. They killed many men and made many their prisoners. Then they chased them until they had arrived in the land of elephants in the country of Zanj. They took many of these animals, and with them a quantity of tigers and wild animals, and they brought them back to Egypt. The king erected on the border lighthouses on which wrote the history of this campaign, the date of the invasion of the Negroes, and all the major events of his reign.
Returning to Egypt, the king fell ill, and he had a vision that warned of his death. He then made ready a tomb; they carried to it idols of the stars, gold, and other colors of stones, statues of marvelous artistry, instruments, and treasures whose value and quantity were immeasurable. The king died and was buried in this tomb, and they inscribed on the door, in the stone, his name and the date of his death. Talismans were placed around it to protect it. Tedāris left the kingdom to his son Mālīk.
Mālīk
Mālīk was an educated prince, intelligent, generous, good-looking, and accomplished. He did not imitate his father in the worship of the stars and cows. They say he was a monotheist, of the religion of Qobṭīm and Miṣraīm, and the Copts disapproved of him. The cause of his conversion was, they say, this one.
He had a vision in which it seemed that two winged figures were swooping down on him and carried off the top of the celestial sphere. He was placed in the presence of an old black man having a beard and white hair, who asked him: “Do you know me?” He was filled with fear at the sight. He was then thirty-some-odd years old. He answered the old man, “I do not know you.” The old man said, “I am Kronos, that is to say Saturn.” The king answered, “I know you; you are my God.” But Saturn said: “If I claimed that I am God, I would be a fool like you. My God and yours is the one who created heaven and earth, who created me and who created you.” “And where is He?” asked the king. “He is at the summit of all things. Thought does not reach Him, the eyes do not see Him, and nothing is like Him. It is he who has established us as the makers of the lower world and its governors.” The king said, “What shall I do?” “Hide in your heart,” replied Saturn, “the knowledge you have of His divinity. Acknowledge Him as God and know that He is eternal.” Then he gave the two winged men the order to carry back the king. He awoke, deeply troubled, and he found himself in his own bed.
Mālīk summoned the chief priest; he related his vision and he said, “It is not possible for you to take idols for gods: they can neither harm nor serve.” The priest asked, “Whom should I serve?” “The creator of heaven and earth,” answered the king, “the one who made all things. But how are we to detach the minds of men from the beliefs to which they are accustomed?” “Keep this revelation to yourself,” said the priest, “and make it your secret and let it purify your heart. When you are hidden from the eyes of men, and find yourself in solitude, you may do what you might. But outside, in front of your subjects, continue to follow the cult of your ancestors.”
The king ordered his people, following one of his visions, to bring together all kinds of war machines, a quantity of weapons chosen from the best and most perfect, and masses of supplies, and to equip two hundred vessels in the western sea. Taking his place at the head of a powerful army, he advanced on both land and sea; the Berber troops met him. He dispersed them and made a great slaughter of them. He reached the Ifrīqīah. He traveled almost the whole of it, and he emerged on the other side. All the nations through which he passed were ruined; finally he came to Spain, with the intention of entering into the kingdom of the Franks. The Franks then had a great king called Arqiūs (i.e., Rex). Troops gathered around him on all sides. The king of Egypt remained one month battling against him, and at the end of this time, the Frankish king sued for peace and gave him great presents. Having received them, the king of Egypt went into the nations that border the Green Sea and reduced to his subjects. These races there was one that had claws and small horns, hair like wolves, and sharp tusks coming out of their mouths. They fought the Egyptians with great courage and finally, forced to flee, they took refuge in dark underground passage where it was impossible to follow. The Copts say the king saw in these parts seventy wonders of which we will mention some of them below. The king of Egypt erected on this sea a boundary marker where he engraved his name. He sacked the cities of the Berbers, and their inhabitants were forced to take refuge on mountaintops. On his return to Egypt, he was received in triumph. He was received with great fanfare, and they sprayed perfumes before him and spread carpets under his feet. He returned to his palace in great pomp and then asked to see his son, who was born during his absence. He was charmed, amused himself with him, and his joy was at its height. His fame spread in the other realms and all the rulers feared him. They sent him presents from every direction.
The king heard that there was a Berber tribe devoted to magic, who knew the art of producing magical vapors, becoming invisible, and summoning terrifying ghosts; this tribe lived in a town called Qarmīdah, west of the land of Egypt, and it was governed by a sorceress queen named Aṣṭā. Aware of the harm that these foreigners were doing to his people, he marched against them. But when he came close to their city, they made it invisible and they dried up their waters. Many soldiers of the Egyptian army perished of thirst, and the king, finding no way to conquer, these Berbers, retreated from their country. He advanced to the south, then returned to them by another route than the first; he went to a temple they had the habit of frequenting on one of their feast days, and commanded his men to destroy it. Some soldiers began this task; but a big chunk of the temple collapsed and buried them. Seeing this, the king left the people and went away. The Berbers returned to their temple, rebuilt it, restored what had been ruined, fortified it with talismans, and erected above its dome an idol of gilded copper. With the approach of a stranger, that idol emitted a terrible cry, capable of frightening every living being. The Berbers would converge at this cry and slaughtered the stranger.
The queen was the most skillful magician among these people. He subjects said to her, “Prepare talismans for us against the land of Egypt, and against its inhabitants.” She replied, “I am willing.” “You’re more skilled than in the magical sciences,” they added, “so do all that you understand.” She composed drugs to enchant the Nile; she confided them to some of her subjects and ordered them to transport them into Egypt, scatter them everywhere, and throw them into the Nile upstream of this country. These men went into the borders of Egypt and to the most fertile places, and they threw their talismans.
Following this, they saw the Nile swell earlier than had been expected; the flood exceeded all measure, and water, staying long on the ground, spoiled the harvest and all the crops. Crocodiles and frogs multiplied; epidemics of all sorts attacked the inhabitants. Foxes and scorpions appeared from all sides.
The king summoned the priests and scholars and said: “Advise me about the events that are occuring in our country, without any horoscope to announce them, and which we were not prepared to fight.” he priests assembled in the house of their leader; they observed and measured, and they discovered that these events were caused by a power of the West of which a woman was the author, who had cast spells on the Nile and that had spread into many places.
When the king knew that all evil came from that sorceress, he told the priests: “Seek the means of her destruction, for she has hurt us enough.” They then met in the temple where there were images of stars, and they asked the king to join them. He could not refuse them. But, having dressed in a hair shirt and having spilled ashes on himself, he entered the shrine and began to pray, to beg, to implore God, saying, “O Lord, you are the God of gods and King of kings, the creator of all things, and there is nothing so small that is not under your authority and your power. So I ask you by all your merits, by your signs and by your name, to deliver us from the enmity of this people.” He prayed until he was overcome by sleep.
As he was asleep in this place, he saw come to him in a dream a fellow who said, “God has mercy on your complaints. He knows the secret of your heart, and he has heard your prayer. He will destroy this people and he shall destroy all their works. The poisoned water will drain away from you, the wild beasts disappear, and the fatal diseases cease.”
The next morning, the priests returned to the king and asked him to accompany them to the temple, as he had promised. He replied: “I have already settled the matter. You will see an end to the corruption of the water and the invasion of wild beasts, and nothing in the future will torment you.” At these words, the priests were silent, but they looked at each other, like men who doubt: “The word of our master gladdens us,” they said to the king, “and may God prolong his days.” And without letting him see they thought him wrong, they went away: “If such a thing is as he claims, we shall see it,” they said one to another, “but if he is wrong, we will have every opportunity to blame him when his error will become evident.”
But two days later, the corrupt water withdrew, and the places it had touched were dried by the sun; wild beasts perished, and everyone knew that the king’s words were true.
The king sent one of his generals, accompanied by a priest, at the head of a body of troops to search for news of the enemy city. These men marched and they reached the city without meeting any obstacle or any defender. Having arrived at the city, they first saw that its fortifications had fallen, and that all its inhabitants were dead to the last man. Some were burned, and their faces were blackened. The idols were lying with their faces against the ground; the dead had their wealth spread before them. The Egyptian soldiers made a tour around the city and they explored in all directions; they found alive but one man who did not follow the religion of its inhabitants, as the result of a vision he had had. They saw a quantity of wealth, jewels, objects of gold, and statues; the number and value of these spoils were immeasurable. There was, among other things, the statue of a priest that these Berbers worshiped; it was placed on an emerald and amethyst base. There was also the image of a celestial spirit in gold. His head was a red stone and his two wings, pearls. His hand was holding a sheet on which were written the sciences of Egypt and that was joined between two tables of gold, inlaid with stones of various colors. Then they saw a blue hyacinth vase, mounted on a stand of melted green glass, in which remained a bit of a medicinal water that can cure many diseases; and also a silver horse of which it was said that he who uttered some enchantments and burned incense into smoke could have it serve him by carrying him off into the air. The vanquishers also found a multitude of wonders, magical instruments, and idols of all kinds. They took away those of the objects that were both lighter and more valuable, and they loaded their beasts with them. They reported everything to the king, and they also brought back to him the man who had been found alive. The king received this booty with great joy, gave glory to God, and all the people shared his happiness. The priests revered, although he did not reveal to them his secret.
Afterward, the king sent to the same place other beasts of burden and other soldiers, and all the people of Miṣr and Ashmūn who wanted to accompany them could go searching for valuables in the city. They brought back large quantities; some of the people adorned their homes and their markets; the king filled his palace; long after these events, the ruins of this city attracted people who had the means to get there, and rarely did those who went come back disappointed.
The king brought the survivor of this people with him, and he made him relate the city’s history. This man said amazing things, including this: “That which I know about our people that is most marvelous,” he said, “happened a long time ago. A king of the Berbers, of a race of giants, came to attack our city with a great crowd of followers, a powerful army, and seemingly also terrifying ghosts. Our compatriots locked themselves in their fortresses and placed the machines on their pivots. They ran to the feet of their idols, their sheikhs and their priests, prostrating themselves in supplication. There was among us a very revered priest whose advanced age prevented him from leaving his house. The most important people of the city went to inform him of the danger we were in. This priest had himself carried to a wide and deep basin whose water watered the city. He sat on the edge of the pool and surrounded by all the other priests he began to mumble prayers on the water. After he had prayed for some time, they saw it swell and seethe, and in the middle of the basin burning fire arose, the center of which was a face with the size and brightness of the solar disk. All present bowed down to that face, whose splendor dazzled them. This disk soon grew to fill the whole basin, and it rose to the top of the dome and ascended to the sky. Then they heard a voice saying: “We have delivered justice to your enemies; go out and pick up their remains.” Our citizens out all filled with emotion and, arriving at the besieged camp, they found them all dead. They gathered everything these people had brought with them, money, clothing, and animals, and then they returned to the city, full of joy. All the people began to eat and drink. Then I said to one of the priests: “You have seen the miracle of that face. What is it?” He replied: “It is the Sun, who has appeared to us, and he made them perish to the last man, as you see.”
This story ended, the king said to the man: “Do you know now the cause of your destruction?” “I do not know,” he replied; “but while I watched this that night, I heard a loud crash at the time of the fall of the walls. I wanted to find out what it was; I heard a voice I did not recognize, I saw the light of a fire, and I felt burning vapors. I lived in a kind of khan (a type of hotel for merchants), of which there are many in the land. I cried out, but no one answered. I tried to open the gates but I found them closed. I returned to my apartment and I lit a torch in a remnant of the fire. Then I made my way all around my hotel; and all who were there, men, women, young and old, I could find not one alive. At the height of my terror, I implored God and I cried out to him. I got up in the morning and when the sun came out and the day had dawned, I did not hear any movement. Venturing out, I saw the city in the state that the king’s officers found it.” This man was intelligent and gifted with experience. The king made him a companion, a vizier, and a friend.
King Mālīk persevered in his monotheistic belief and faith in the Most High God. He administered his own kingdom, and he made many tours of it in order to prevent unrest. He ordered the construction of his tomb, in which he wished that no other person be buried with him, or that anyone deposit gold, silver, or statues. He wrote in his own hand a sheet carrying these words: “This is the tomb of King Mālīk, king of Egypt and its provinces. He died in faith in the one God; he did not serve any other than Him and he was not tainted by the worship of idols. He believed in the prophetic mission, the accounting of actions, and the judgment of works. He lived in such-and-such a way. Whosoever would be saved will follow his religion.” He buried great treasures in another place, above which he had engraved: “These treasures will be extracted by the nation of the Prophet that God will send at the end of time.” He handed the sheet that he had written to one of his ministers, ordering him to keep it hidden until his death and to engrave above his grave when he died the lines he had written on it. At the end of his life, he went to his tomb and lived in the practice of his religion, hidden from the eyes of men. When he neared death, he called his son; he revealed his monotheistic belief, revealing to him that it was his religion and he ordered him to follow it and to abjure the worship of idols. During the time he yet lived, his son was faithful to this precept. Then the king died. His body was laid in his tomb, and his son had engraved above it the inscription he had given him.
Khartabā
When all was finished with him, his son Khartabā ascended the throne and assumed power. He was a gentle prince, of easy morals and a pleasant character. After the death of his father, he forgot the promise he had made to serve only one God and he returned to the religion of his people. His mother, who was the daughter of one of the high priests, persuaded him to apostasy. She had a great influence on him; she restored the temples and showed great zeal for the worship of idols.
The king married one of his cousins, whom he loved passionately; she used slander against all his other wives, and this displeased the king’s mother. But this wife had a native housekeeper from Osyūṭ, a very clever sorceress, for which she showed a great inclination because she loved her brother. This sorceress used her art with regard to the king’s wife; she increased misunderstandings between the king and his mother to the point that the king was separated from his mother and put her into seclusion. Evil grew unchecked, through the evil spells of the woman, to the point that the king finally swore to no longer reside in the vicinity of his mother. He then resolved to travel and make excursions into foreign countries, and to return to Egypt when his mother was dead. This is what he did; and he went through the land of India and the land of Sudan.
The reason that prompted Khartabā to invade the land of India was this: A king of this country, called Maswar, had marched at the head of a large army and a powerful fleet; he had conquered countries and islands, killed many men, and took many prisoners; and having heard of Egypt, he had proposed to invade it. But having fallen ill, he turned back. Khartabā had a hundred ships built on the model of the Indian vessels and departed with a fleet of three hundred ships, taking with him his wife and his principal courtiers. In his absence he left the government of Egypt to his son Kalkān. Since this prince was a child, he placed at his side a vizier named Lāūn and a priest called Wasmūs.
The king advanced along the shore of the sea; his fleets devastated the coasts. In all the countries where he went, he erected an idol with an inscription bearing his name, his history, and the date of his passage. He reached Sarandīb and fought against its inhabitants, from whom he took great treasures and many precious stones. He took with him a sage of that country; then he reached a populated island between India and China whose men were tall, with dark skin and long hair. There he saw their games and unknown birds, trees that yield perfumes, incense, and fruits that are not found elsewhere. This people gave him their submission and brought him silver and presents; he received them and then departed. He traveled among the islands of this region for many years. His absence from Egypt lasted, they say, seventeen years.
He returned to his country laden with booty and triumphant, and he learned that his mother had died. His subjects mourned his absence. His return caused a general joy and procured the people much peace, glory and prosperity. Khartabā found his son Kalkān at the head of the kingdom, right where he had placed him, and this contented him greatly. He was feared by the kings and his power became great in the eyes of men.
After his return, the king built a number of temples, adorned them, and enriched them. He raised up idols of the stars, believing that these deities had protected him during his trip, and that he needed them to safeguard his income and rich booty. He had brought with him from India a doctor and a sage, who had retained their books and formulas. Both men made famous wonders in Egypt. He also had brought back from India of a golden idol decorated with jewels. He set it up in a temple he built and gave it the Indian sage as its servant. It was he who went about its worship and offering it sacrifices. The Egyptians asked questions of this idol, and it answered all their inquiries.
After reigning for some time in Egypt, King Khartabā went on an expedition in the regions of Syria; he subjugated the inhabitants. He returned to Egypt and then turned around and made an expedition to the regions of Nubia and Sudan. The peoples of these countries begged for their temples to be kept safe and offered to pay him tribute. He granted their request and returned to Egypt.
The reign of this king was 75 years. He built a tomb in the desert of the West, then he went to Raqūdah, where he made works of art and wonders. He stayed there until his death. During this time his son was in Memphis and governed Egypt. When he was dead, they smeared his body with mummia, camphor, and myrrh, and he was placed in a golden sarcophagus, which was carried to his grave. They placed near him large sums of silver, precious stones, statues in large numbers, wonders, drugs, and books that he had composed. His image was painted on the sides of the tomb and they engraved above it the story of his expeditions, the name of the countries he had conquered, and the vessels he had raised. Then they shut the door of the tomb and they wrote his name on it, the dates of his reign, and the date of his death. This prince was handsome and of a mild character. Many of his wives killed themselves over his body. Priests wept because of the zeal he showed for their religion.
Kalkān
After him reigned his son Kalkan. He went to be crowned in Alexandria after the death of his father and spent two months in this city before he came to Memphis. He followed the religion of his father. The people rejoiced at his coming because this prince was a friend of priests and had a taste for wonders. He summoned skilled craftsmen, whom he gave great rewards. For his entire life he cultivated chemistry (i.e. alchemy). The treasures he amassed were considerable, and they were buried in the deserts of the West in quantities that cannot be evaluated. This king is the first in Egypt to practice publicly the art of chemistry; it was previously a hidden art. The kings of Egypt had seen fit to keep it a secret so that the kings of other nations might not seize it. But Kalkān changed this mindset. He made a great deal of gold and he filled the houses of wisdom to the point that this metal had never been as abundant as during his reign. The revenues of Egypt had never been even a single digit greater. The Copts say that in this time, it reached a hundred and more tens of millions of miṯqāl. They ceased to extract gold from mines because it had become useless. The king also made, with melted stones, colored idols from which were obtained many favors. The Copts relate that the king sought especially intellectual things and that because of it he was named the “enemy of kings”; his knowledge exceeded that of all the priests. He revealed to them that which had remained hidden from them; they also revered him, and they often made recourse to his wisdom.
The Nimrod of Abraham lived at that time. It is said that when the clamor of the wisdom of Kalkān and his magical science reached Nimrod, he invited Kalkān to visit him. Nimrod was a giant and monstrous. He lived in the Sawād of Iraq. God gave him strength and extraordinary valor, through which he had made himself master of a vast portion of the earth. The Copts, wanting to exalt their king, claim that Kalkān, after receiving the invitation from Nimrod, sent word to him that he would go to see him alone and without his entourage in a particular place. Kalkān came in a train drawn by four winged horses, surrounded by a light similar to that of fire and various terrifying images. He was escorted by a dragon leashed and held by the back, which advanced with open jaws. Kalkān held a rod of green myrtle; when the dragon raised his head, he struck the rod and this forced him to sink back down. Nimrod saw him and was filled with dread, but the king of Egypt spoke to him with respect and, after having shown him his wisdom, he asked him to be his friend and assistant. These words calmed the fear of Nimrod, and the two kings separated.
The Copts say Kalkān could rise into the air and he sat on the top of the western pyramid. They even say he stayed so long atop the pyramid that other princes coveted his kingdom. A king of the West, called Sādūm, prepared to invade with a powerful army and advanced towards Wādī-Hīt to win Egypt. But Kalkān came forth to meet him, and he produced against the invaders one of the wonders of his magic: It was a type of very hot cloud that enveloped them in such a manner that they could not escape. The king left them imprisoned there and returned to Egypt to reassure his people and tell them what he had done. He then sent his companions to inquire what had become of the enemies. When they arrived at the place where they had left them, they found them all dead. The Egyptians took all the booty left by the invaders. The people were amazed at the wisdom of Kalkān, and rival kings had greater fear of him than which any other sovereign had inspired. The image of the king was placed in all the temples. His reign lasted for a long time. At the end of his life, he built a temple to Saturn, of black granite, in the region of the West and there instituted a feast. In the middle of the building, he built a tomb in which he collected a great deal of gold, gems, secrets, and drugs, and he made known that he was dying. He put talismans around the tomb, after which he hid himself from the eyes of men and no one witnessed his death.
Chapter 7: The Pharaoh of Abraham
Māliā
Kalkān had left the throne to his brother Māliā. This prince was addicted to drunkenness; he ate and drank, dealing only with his pleasures, detached from any serious business. He entrusted the administration of the country to a vizier. His reign was nevertheless happy because of the fear that the people retained for his brother Kalkān and their opinion that he was not dead. The people imagined that he had pretended to be dead to see what would result from his absence. Māliā was extremely infatuated with his power. He had eighty women; he then took another that belonged to one of the great lords of Memphis, and who was endowed with great intelligence and insight. He allowed himself to be completely subsumed by the women for whom he had great fondness, and he had from them a quantity of sons and daughters. His eldest son was called Ṭūṭīs. The stupidity of his father enraged prince; but he did not let on that he felt this way. In the end, he decided to destroy his father with a ruse. He was supported in this aim by his mother, by several of the king’s women, and a vizier. One day while Māliā, already drunk, was drinking in the company of one of his wives, Ṭūṭīs fell on him and killed him; he also killed the wife and hanged her on the gallows. Then he took over control.
Ṭūṭīs
Ṭūṭīs was a giant, endowed with a remarkable strength and courage. The nobles of the kingdom came to do him homage, offer him their vows, and implore his protection. He ordered them to return to their occupations, and not to care about that which does not concern them, and he promised to treat them gently. The Copts say this king is the first of the Pharaohs of Egypt, that he is the Pharaoh of Abraham, and that there were seven Pharaohs. He consulted the people about the murder of his father. They blamed him, and they found it awful that he had crucified the woman. He accepted these chastisements, and he took down the body from the gallows and buried her. He made generous donations to temples and priests.
We read in the history of Abraham that the patriarch, after fleeing his country and the kingdom of Nimrod, thought it unwise to remain in Syria, because he could be caught and brought back to Nimrod. He was indeed a native of Kūṯa in the Sawād of Iraq. He came to Egypt with Sarah, his wife, and he left in Syria Lot, the son of his brother. Sarah was the most beautiful woman in the world in that time. Joseph, they say, for whom she was grandmother, inherited part of her beauty. When Abraham arrived in Egypt the guards who stood at the gate of the capital saw how beautiful Sarah was, and they were filled with admiration and spoke of her to Ṭūṭīs the king. “There has come,” they said to him, “a man of the countries of the East, having with him a wife such as we have never seen one more beautiful.” The king sent his vizier to Abraham, and the vizier asked him about his situation and his country. Abraham answered his questions. “And who is this woman that you have with you?” said the vizier. “This is my sister,” said Abraham. The vizier reported this to the king, who said he wanted to see her for himself. Abraham was informed of this desire; he felt great annoyance, but it was impossible to resist. As he knew also that God does not want evil for his people, so he said to Sarah, “Go to the king, who wishes to see you. It is an order to which one must submit.” “What shall I do before the king?” Sarah asked. “He has never seen me, and I am afraid of him.” “I trust,” replied Abraham, “that good things will result from this.” And they both came together to the king in his palace.
The latter, at the sight of Sarah, gazed upon her in a way that shook Abraham. He ordered him taken away. The patriarch went out; he repented now of having said Sarah was his sister. Yet he had wanted to convey that she was his sister in religion. He felt in his heart the torment of men who are robbed their greatest boons, and he wished he had never come to Egypt. He implored God, saying, “Do not let Abraham suffer dishonor in the eyes of his nation.” Then God showed him what was happening behind the wall, which became for him similar to a thin glass. He saw the king and saw Sarah. The king asked Sarah to give herself to him; she refused. He threatened to lay hands on her; she replied, “If you touch me, you will forfeit your life because I have a master capable of defending me against you.” The king did not heed her words, and he placed his hand on her. But his hand withered away before he had touched her. He remained stunned and said to Sarah, “Heal me of the evil that has just befallen me.” She replied, “This I cannot do, if it is not the will of my Lord. However, if you promise not to do it again, I will entreat him and he might heal you.” The king said, “I will not do what I did again.” So Sarah, having invoked God, saw that his pain had passed. But no sooner had he recovered his health than he began to flatter her and attempt to seduce her. She defended herself and said, “You know what happened to you.” Nevertheless, he tried again to take hold of her, and his hand withered and all his limbs were shaken. He began to beg again, swearing by his gods that if she stopped this evil he would cease his solicitations; she agreed to pray to God, and the evil was again healed.
The king, returned to health, told Sarah: “Certainly, your master is great and will not let you perish.” He admired the power of this woman, and then he questioned her about Abraham. She replied that he was her husband and her companion. “But,” said the king, “he said you were his sister.” “He spoke truly,” she answered, “for I am his sister in religion and anyone of our religion is our brother.” The king said, “This is a beautiful religion which you profess.” Then he brought before Sarah his daughter Hūriā.
Hūriā was an intelligent and perfect princess. God put in her heart a love for Sarah. She honored her, respected her, received her with magnificence, and gave her money and jewels. Sarah brought these treasures to Abraham, who said: “Give them back to her, for we do not need them.” She relayed this, and Hūriā reported it to her father, who was amazed, saying “These really are illustrious people and a pure race.” Hūriā used every means to convince Sarah to accept these gifts, but she refused them. She offered her a Coptic slave-girl of great beauty and implored her to take her.
When Abraham wanted to leave Egypt, the king’s daughter brought Sarah many treats and things to eat and drink; she had filled several baskets, each in basket and she had hidden under the treats a quantity of precious stones and magnificent gold objects. When Sarah came to see her to say goodbye, she handed her the baskets, saying: “Take this for your trip.” “I want to consult my husband,” said Sarah. She looked at him and he said to her: “If they are only things to eat, take them.” She therefore accepted them; and, having said goodbye to the king’s daughter, she turned toward Abraham.
The patriarch went along with Sarah and Hagar; after they had traveled a ways, Sarah took one of her baskets to eat and placing her hand inside, she found the jewels. She searched the other baskets and found still more. She made this discovery known to her husband and gave him all these treasures.
Abraham sold part and with the price he had obtained he dug wells along the way; with another portion he provided alms and generosity to the people he met on the road, and he let Sarah keep the last portion for future needs.
Ṭūṭīs lived for such a long time that Hagar could eventually come to find him from Mecca. She told him she lived in a barren land and asked for his assistance. He then ordered the digging of a canal to the east of Egypt, and cut the mountain so this canal could reach the landing place of the ships in the sea. In this way they brought wheat and various foodstuffs to Jeddah, where they were carried on the backs of beasts to Mecca. The Hejaz was nourished in this way for some time. Hagar is also said to have come from the Hejaz to visit Ṭūṭīs because she had wanted to see her birthplace. The king was happy to receive her and gave her gold and jewels, which she used to make clothes for her child. She adorned the Kaaba with some of those present. All the decorations of the Kaaba in this century were due to the king of Egypt. Remembering everything Ṭūṭīs brought to the Hejaz, Hagar and the Arabs gave him the sobriquet of the Just (Ṣādiq), under which named he is designated by several historians.
It is said that Ṭūṭīs implored Abraham to bless him and his children, and he also asked his blessing for all Egypt. Abraham told him that his descendants would remain masters of this country, from generation to generation, until the end of time.
This Ṭūṭīs was the first of the Pharaohs of Egypt. It is said he killed many of his family, his friends, his cousins, his servants, and his wives, and even some priests and scholars. He was very keen to shed blood; he was miserly to his children and he raised up none but his daughter Hūriā. She was an intelligent and erudite princess, and she exercised over him a very great influence which she tried to use to prevent these killings, but she did not succeed. Everyone trembled for his life; even his daughter regarded him with horror; both the great and the common people saw in him an abomination. Hūriā, fearing that she would see power slip from the hands of her house because of him, finally poisoned him. He died after a reign of seventy years.
Kalkān had left the throne to his brother Māliā. This prince was addicted to drunkenness; he ate and drank, dealing only with his pleasures, detached from any serious business. He entrusted the administration of the country to a vizier. His reign was nevertheless happy because of the fear that the people retained for his brother Kalkān and their opinion that he was not dead. The people imagined that he had pretended to be dead to see what would result from his absence. Māliā was extremely infatuated with his power. He had eighty women; he then took another that belonged to one of the great lords of Memphis, and who was endowed with great intelligence and insight. He allowed himself to be completely subsumed by the women for whom he had great fondness, and he had from them a quantity of sons and daughters. His eldest son was called Ṭūṭīs. The stupidity of his father enraged prince; but he did not let on that he felt this way. In the end, he decided to destroy his father with a ruse. He was supported in this aim by his mother, by several of the king’s women, and a vizier. One day while Māliā, already drunk, was drinking in the company of one of his wives, Ṭūṭīs fell on him and killed him; he also killed the wife and hanged her on the gallows. Then he took over control.
Ṭūṭīs
Ṭūṭīs was a giant, endowed with a remarkable strength and courage. The nobles of the kingdom came to do him homage, offer him their vows, and implore his protection. He ordered them to return to their occupations, and not to care about that which does not concern them, and he promised to treat them gently. The Copts say this king is the first of the Pharaohs of Egypt, that he is the Pharaoh of Abraham, and that there were seven Pharaohs. He consulted the people about the murder of his father. They blamed him, and they found it awful that he had crucified the woman. He accepted these chastisements, and he took down the body from the gallows and buried her. He made generous donations to temples and priests.
We read in the history of Abraham that the patriarch, after fleeing his country and the kingdom of Nimrod, thought it unwise to remain in Syria, because he could be caught and brought back to Nimrod. He was indeed a native of Kūṯa in the Sawād of Iraq. He came to Egypt with Sarah, his wife, and he left in Syria Lot, the son of his brother. Sarah was the most beautiful woman in the world in that time. Joseph, they say, for whom she was grandmother, inherited part of her beauty. When Abraham arrived in Egypt the guards who stood at the gate of the capital saw how beautiful Sarah was, and they were filled with admiration and spoke of her to Ṭūṭīs the king. “There has come,” they said to him, “a man of the countries of the East, having with him a wife such as we have never seen one more beautiful.” The king sent his vizier to Abraham, and the vizier asked him about his situation and his country. Abraham answered his questions. “And who is this woman that you have with you?” said the vizier. “This is my sister,” said Abraham. The vizier reported this to the king, who said he wanted to see her for himself. Abraham was informed of this desire; he felt great annoyance, but it was impossible to resist. As he knew also that God does not want evil for his people, so he said to Sarah, “Go to the king, who wishes to see you. It is an order to which one must submit.” “What shall I do before the king?” Sarah asked. “He has never seen me, and I am afraid of him.” “I trust,” replied Abraham, “that good things will result from this.” And they both came together to the king in his palace.
The latter, at the sight of Sarah, gazed upon her in a way that shook Abraham. He ordered him taken away. The patriarch went out; he repented now of having said Sarah was his sister. Yet he had wanted to convey that she was his sister in religion. He felt in his heart the torment of men who are robbed their greatest boons, and he wished he had never come to Egypt. He implored God, saying, “Do not let Abraham suffer dishonor in the eyes of his nation.” Then God showed him what was happening behind the wall, which became for him similar to a thin glass. He saw the king and saw Sarah. The king asked Sarah to give herself to him; she refused. He threatened to lay hands on her; she replied, “If you touch me, you will forfeit your life because I have a master capable of defending me against you.” The king did not heed her words, and he placed his hand on her. But his hand withered away before he had touched her. He remained stunned and said to Sarah, “Heal me of the evil that has just befallen me.” She replied, “This I cannot do, if it is not the will of my Lord. However, if you promise not to do it again, I will entreat him and he might heal you.” The king said, “I will not do what I did again.” So Sarah, having invoked God, saw that his pain had passed. But no sooner had he recovered his health than he began to flatter her and attempt to seduce her. She defended herself and said, “You know what happened to you.” Nevertheless, he tried again to take hold of her, and his hand withered and all his limbs were shaken. He began to beg again, swearing by his gods that if she stopped this evil he would cease his solicitations; she agreed to pray to God, and the evil was again healed.
The king, returned to health, told Sarah: “Certainly, your master is great and will not let you perish.” He admired the power of this woman, and then he questioned her about Abraham. She replied that he was her husband and her companion. “But,” said the king, “he said you were his sister.” “He spoke truly,” she answered, “for I am his sister in religion and anyone of our religion is our brother.” The king said, “This is a beautiful religion which you profess.” Then he brought before Sarah his daughter Hūriā.
Hūriā was an intelligent and perfect princess. God put in her heart a love for Sarah. She honored her, respected her, received her with magnificence, and gave her money and jewels. Sarah brought these treasures to Abraham, who said: “Give them back to her, for we do not need them.” She relayed this, and Hūriā reported it to her father, who was amazed, saying “These really are illustrious people and a pure race.” Hūriā used every means to convince Sarah to accept these gifts, but she refused them. She offered her a Coptic slave-girl of great beauty and implored her to take her.
When Abraham wanted to leave Egypt, the king’s daughter brought Sarah many treats and things to eat and drink; she had filled several baskets, each in basket and she had hidden under the treats a quantity of precious stones and magnificent gold objects. When Sarah came to see her to say goodbye, she handed her the baskets, saying: “Take this for your trip.” “I want to consult my husband,” said Sarah. She looked at him and he said to her: “If they are only things to eat, take them.” She therefore accepted them; and, having said goodbye to the king’s daughter, she turned toward Abraham.
The patriarch went along with Sarah and Hagar; after they had traveled a ways, Sarah took one of her baskets to eat and placing her hand inside, she found the jewels. She searched the other baskets and found still more. She made this discovery known to her husband and gave him all these treasures.
Abraham sold part and with the price he had obtained he dug wells along the way; with another portion he provided alms and generosity to the people he met on the road, and he let Sarah keep the last portion for future needs.
Ṭūṭīs lived for such a long time that Hagar could eventually come to find him from Mecca. She told him she lived in a barren land and asked for his assistance. He then ordered the digging of a canal to the east of Egypt, and cut the mountain so this canal could reach the landing place of the ships in the sea. In this way they brought wheat and various foodstuffs to Jeddah, where they were carried on the backs of beasts to Mecca. The Hejaz was nourished in this way for some time. Hagar is also said to have come from the Hejaz to visit Ṭūṭīs because she had wanted to see her birthplace. The king was happy to receive her and gave her gold and jewels, which she used to make clothes for her child. She adorned the Kaaba with some of those present. All the decorations of the Kaaba in this century were due to the king of Egypt. Remembering everything Ṭūṭīs brought to the Hejaz, Hagar and the Arabs gave him the sobriquet of the Just (Ṣādiq), under which named he is designated by several historians.
It is said that Ṭūṭīs implored Abraham to bless him and his children, and he also asked his blessing for all Egypt. Abraham told him that his descendants would remain masters of this country, from generation to generation, until the end of time.
This Ṭūṭīs was the first of the Pharaohs of Egypt. It is said he killed many of his family, his friends, his cousins, his servants, and his wives, and even some priests and scholars. He was very keen to shed blood; he was miserly to his children and he raised up none but his daughter Hūriā. She was an intelligent and erudite princess, and she exercised over him a very great influence which she tried to use to prevent these killings, but she did not succeed. Everyone trembled for his life; even his daughter regarded him with horror; both the great and the common people saw in him an abomination. Hūriā, fearing that she would see power slip from the hands of her house because of him, finally poisoned him. He died after a reign of seventy years.
Chapter 8: The Invasion of the Amalekites and the End of the Dynasty of Sa
Hūriā
After the death of Ṭūṭīs, the Egyptians vied among themselves for the election of a new king. They said, “We must no longer appoint someone from his family.” Some were proposing to put on the throne a prince of the family of Atrīb; but a vizier said, “You know the merit of Hūriā, the daughter of Ṭūṭīs, her wisdom, her opposition to the crimes of her father, and the service she rendered us by delivering us from him. Why should we search for a sovereign other than her?” Most of the great officers agreed with this sentiment, and power was given to Hūriā.
Hūriā sat on the throne. Her subjects came to pay homage to her, honor her and offer her their vows. She promised to treat them gently. She occupied herself in amassing silver and cash, so that after some time she found herself in possession of a quantity of money, jewels, precious stones, and clothing, greater than any ever owned any other king. She held in high honor the wise men, priests, and heads of the magicians; she increased their prerogatives, and she restored and beautified the temples.
At her election, disgruntled Egyptians gathered in the city of Atrīb, and they proclaimed king a descendant of King Atrīb called Andāḥos. This man donned the tiara and many of his cousins and relatives joined his cause. Hūriā sent an army to fight him. When he saw that she would not surrender, he offered to make peace, and he asked for her hand. He reminded her that kingdoms are generally governed by men and suggested that she be concerned that she might lose her empire.
But Hūriā resorted to cunning: she ordered her subjects to assemble in their houses to eat and drink as on festival days. She gave them largesse, and she revealed that Andāḥos had asked to marry her. Some thought it was a good idea, others reproved of it, saying, “We want no other than her to reign over us, because we know her mind, her wisdom, and her merit. She is also the heir of the kingdom.” And when some refused to share their opinion, they fell on them and killed them.
Then supporters of the queen gathered a large army and advanced against the army from Atrīb; they overtook them and routed them, after making them suffer very large losses. Andāḥos fled to Syria, the land of the Canaanites, the descendants of ‘Amlāq, whose king he asked for asylum. He told of his adventures and inspired in him the desire to conquer Egypt, by representing it as a great and rich kingdom, whose conquest would be easy; he promised to help with the remainder.
The king of Syria therefore equipped a large army for invading Egypt, and put at its head, next to Andāḥos, a great general. The people of all the provinces of Egypt fled close to Hūriā; she opened to them the treasury of her father and she distributed most of it to them. This generosity made her popular and assured her the devotion of her subjects. She also showered with presents the magicians, whom she promised greater benefits in the future. Andāḥos advanced with the Syrian army. Hūriā ordered the magicians to prepare their wonders against it. This army was commanded by one of the most illustrious Canaanite generals named Jirūn, When this general had entered the land of Egypt, Hūriā sent to him her nurse, who was a woman of rare intelligence. The queen had given her the mission to observe, unbeknownst to Andāḥos, and tell Jirūn that the queen had a great desire to marry; that she wanted for her husband any man of his house; that if he killed Andāḥos in any way he pleased, she would give him the empire of Egypt with her hand, and that she would defend it against his master. This message moved Jirūn. He conceived a great joy and he hastened to bring dishes to the tent of Andāḥos, as though to honor him as usual, but instead poisoned him. Andāḥos ate of these and died.
Jirūn immediately summoned the queen, having fulfilled his promise. She said to him, “It is not possible that I marry you before you have given my country proof of your strength and your wisdom. Build me a wonderful city.” It was indeed in that time the style to illustrate this by constructing buildings, building towers, erecting idols and performing wonders. The Queen added, “You shall transport yourself from where you are to the west of our country, and you shall restore some of the ruins found there in large numbers, which are the remnants of towers or various monuments.”
Jirūn went to the place she indicated, and built in the deserts of the West the city of Andūmah. There he brought a canal linked to the Nile; he embellishes the plantations, and he erected a very tall lighthouse on top of which was a room he overlaid with gold, silver, copper, marble, and colored melted glass. He worked wonders in this construction with the help of the workers and with the resources that the queen had sent him. Meanwhile, without his knowledge, Hūriā exchanged letters and gifts with the king of the Canaanites.
When the city was complete, Jirūn informed the queen, who replied: “We have another city which was powerful in the time of our ancestors. It is now ruined and its walls are dismantled. Go ahead and try to rebuild it, to put it back into good condition, to make it powerful and beautiful again. I will go to the city which you have built; move there all that is needed, and when you have finished building this other city, let me know. I will join you there, because I want to be away from my city and my people when I see you; he displease me to go there with you in the sight of all my people.” He went to the place she had told him about, and he began to build the second Alexandria, for it was here that she had sent him.
* * *
Some historians do not know of the adventure of Andāḥos; they say that the man who invaded Egypt was al-Wālīd, son of Dūma‘, the Amalekite, who was the second of the Pharaohs. The motive that led him to this expedition was this: He was working under an evil from which he suffered for a long time, and he had sent trustworthy servants to all parts to fetch him waters that could cure him. One of these men had come into the land of Egypt, and having been struck by its size, its resources, and its beauty, he had, upon his return to his master, spoken of it with great praise. He had also reported on it water and its secrets.
It was then that al-Wālīd marched forth at the head of a large army to invade Egypt. This empire was at that time ruled by Queen Hūriā. The Amalekite proposed to her. She sent someone to his camp for information. This emissary saw tall warriors that it would be difficult to defeat. The queen then answered Wālīd that she would marry him; but she imposed on him the condition that he build a city that would show his strength and would serve as the place of their meeting. He accepted and entered into the land of Egypt. He crossed to the regions of the West in order to build the city in the place where Alexandria once stood. He brought the queen perfume and fruit.
Alexandria had been in ruins since the departure of the ‘Ādites. Al- Wālīd gathered up all the stones and barrels of columns he found there, and he laid the foundation for a vast city. He received from the queen a team of a thousand workers and domestics. The work lasted a long time; he saw himself run out of the silver he had at his disposal. Every night after the workers had placed the stones of the foundations for the day, upon leaving the sea beasts tore up the stones, ruined the walls, and upset all the work. This occurrence repeated itself for months; the city’s founder conceived a violent grief and constantly sought ways to remedy this evil.
Hūriā had sent Wālīd one thousand head of sheep, that he might have milk for his food. He had awarded custody to a shepherd he trusted. This shepherd led the flock to graze around the ruins. But as he brought them there one evening, he saw come out of the sea a young slave-girl of great beauty. He immediately fell in love with her and he confessed his desires. She promised that if they wrestled and he won, she would be his; but if it was she who had the victory she would win two beasts of the herd. She returned the following days, and the love of the shepherd only increased. He had a burning desire to ravish her. But the girl still had the upper hand, and every time she came she carried off two beasts. After some time, she had taken half the herd; the other half wasted away because the shepherd was fully occupied with his love for the girl and had no concern for his livestock. He himself had become thin and pale.
His master was passing near him and he saw the change in him and that the animals were in such poor shape, so he asked him the cause. He also noticed that the herd was reduced and he wanted to know why. The shepherd, for fear of his wrath, told him the whole truth. He asked him, “What time does she appear?” “In the evening she approaches,” said the shepherd. Al- Wālīd donned the clothes of a shepherd and took care of the flock. He waited until evening. The young slave-girl appeared. He expressed his desire for her, and she laid out her condition. They wrestled together, and Wālīd took the win. He grabbed her and chained her securely. But she said: “Now that I have been taken, let me be with my first lover. He well deserved me, and I did wait too long.” So he gave her to the shepherd, and he said: “When you are alone with her, talk to her of these buildings which we work on by day and which by night are overthrown. Ask her if she knows something about it and if she knows a way to ward off this evil.” Following this recommendation, he went away and left them together.
The shepherd inquired of the slave-girl, and she replied: “There are monsters in the sea that come out at night and wreck your constructions.” “Do you know,” he asked, “any way to keep them away?” “Yes,” she said. “And what might that be?” She replied, “I will teach you something that you will need to write on sheets of paper attached to small stones. Painters should get into boats, equipped with the stones, and venture out in the middle of the day to such-and-such a point in the sea. There they should stop and throw the inscribed stones into the water on the right and the left, then wait about an hour. All the beasts of the sea will be gathered together in this place, will revolve around the boat, and will show themselves above the water. The painters must seize this moment to draw their images; they should make them as lifelike as possible and they should bring back the most they possibly can. When they return, you must build on the model of these images, statues of gold, copper, or stone, which you must place between the foundations of the city and the sea. When the monsters coming out of the waves notice these figures, they will run away, never to return.” Then she taught the shepherd the magic word, until he had learned it by heart.
At daybreak the shepherd went to find his master; he related to him the whole conversation, wrote out the magic word, and al-Wālīd, who acted according to his plan, finally saw the monsters disappear. He was able to complete the buildings to found and build the city, which became habitable and beautiful.
* * *
According to other historians, the author of these buildings and the owner of the herd is Jirūn al-Mūtafki. This fellow entered Egypt before al-Wālīd, who would then have come after the time of Hūriā, and went on to become master of the country.
All the riches available to Jirūn were spent in the construction of this city before it was completed. He then ordered the shepherd, as reported by these historians, to ask the slave-girl if there were hidden treasures near that location. She said, “In such-and-such a place of the ruined city is a round amphitheater around which are raised seven columns each surmounted by a golden statue. Offer each of these statues a fat bull, sprinkle each column with the blood of the bull, and burn before it the hair of its tail with the trimming its horns and nails, saying, “Accept what I supply” and “Give me what you have.” After completing this ritual, measure from the base of each column in the direction that the statue faces, a distance of a hundred cubits and dig at the end. Do this when the moon is full and Saturn is straight on. When you have pressed fifty cubits, you will find a large slab; smear it with the bull’s gall, then remove it. You will find below a door through which you will gain access to an underground passage fifty cubits long, after which you will see a locked door. The keys to the lock will be on the threshold of the door. Take them, smear the padlock with the gall of the bull and the blood and smoke it with burned hair and parings from its nails and horns. Then open the door and enter, after first leaving time for air to enter inside. When you go in, you will see before you a stone idol wearing around its neck a small yellow gold tablet, on which is written a list of all the treasures contained in this place: coins, jewels, statues, utensils, various remedies, and wonders. You may take all that you want. You can do the same thing to each column, and in front of each statue and you will find every time equal wealth. These are the tombs and treasures of ancient kings.”
The shepherd repeated to his master all that the young slave-girl had told him. Jirūn, hearing this, was exceedingly glad, and followed his advice as soon as it was possible. Having discovered the priceless treasures and countless wonders, he was able to complete the construction of the city. He then sent word to Hūriā that everything was done. She was very upset because she had had no other intention than to fatigue the invader, to occupy him, and to exhaust all his resources.
It is said that among the wonders Jirūn discovered in this place was a gold arcade where an emerald was sealed in a casket containing a green powder with red pearls. Whoever had white hair and dyed it with this powder became young again; his hair and beard blackened, and his eyesight was so sharp he could see even the spirits. He also found the stone image of a raven that cried when questioned and responded to questions. It is said that there were in each of these treasuries ten wonders.
When Jirūn had finished building the city, he informed the queen and invited her to come to him. He complained about the length of time that had elapsed and all the evils he had endured with his companions. She sent him a magnificent carpet, saying: “Lay it out in the room where we shall sit down and divide your army into three bodies; send me the first body. As soon as it arrives, I will leave. When I have arrived in such-and-such a place along the way, send me the second body, and when I am two-thirds of the way, join me with the third, because I want all your men behind me, so that they do not see me when I go into your place. I want everything with you, to serve you, to give you children in whom you have confidence. I will bring servants who will render us all the necessary care. Thus we will not be bothered by anyone.”
Jirūn followed the orders of the queen. She began to send her clothes, with objects of all kinds, and every day she had sent him something else, until she sent word that she was ready to leave. He then sent her the first third of his army. She prepared to receive them with food and poisoned beverages in large quantities, and as soon as the men came, and the servants and the children were eager to make them eat and drink, perfuming them and dressing them. The next morning there remained almost none alive; those who were not dead were killed; the queen had appointed some of her soldiers for this task. She dispatched men immediately in all directions to guard and cut off the roads, so that no news could reach the invader. Then she took the spoils left by the dead soldiers, and she had them brought to Memphis. She went on, and she met Jirūn’s second contingent of soldiers. She did what she had done to the first, and she wrote to Jirūn that she had sent all the troops who had reached her to Memphis and the provinces, so that they might maintain the country during the time she would be with him. Finally, there appeared the third body, and she did the same with him as with the other two.
She arrived at the residence of Jirūn, accompanied by a contingent of dedicated men, her main familiars and her women. But she did not show herself to him before her companions had surrounded the palace that the general had built in Alexandria. She entered it with her nurse and her slaves; the nurse breathed on the face of Jirūn, a breath that chilled him to the heart, and she sprinkled a liquor she carried with her. All the members of this warrior were shaken and his strength left him. “He was wrong,” said the queen, “to think women could be conquered; it is women who have conquered.” Then she cut his vein and drank his blood, saying: “The blood of kings gives health.” Finally, she killed him, cut off his head, and sent it to her palace, at the summit of which it was hoisted. She sent all his spoils to Memphis. She built the Lighthouse of Alexandria and inscribed her name on it, along with the name of the general and what she did to him, with the date of the events.
Following this victory, the fame of Hūriā spread among the princes who coveted the land of Egypt; they dreaded her, feared her plans, and promised her their fidelity; they sent her presents and solicited her friendship. She also made, in Egypt, many wonders; she ordered, among other things, to build on the border of Egypt, on the side of Nubia, a fortress and a bridge under which the Nile would flow, and this was done.
Hūriā began to fall ill; her subjects gathered around her and they begged her to designate a successor she deemed worthy. There was not, in that time, any children of her father, nor in all her house, which were worthy of the throne. She called then for power to go to the daughter of her uncle, and she gave them her for a queen. This was Dulaīfah, daughter of Mamūn. Dulaīfah was a young girl of great intelligence who enjoyed high esteem among women. Hūriā obtained for her the allegiance of the people of Memphis and all the inhabitants of Egypt. They swore not to deliver the country to her enemies and defend it against anyone who would attack. Hūriā handed her the keys to its treasures; she made her mistress of all the wealth she had amassed and that which her fathers had accumulated. Then she ordered that when she died her body was to be embalmed in camphor and born to the city she had built in the desert of the West. She had prepared in this city a wonderful tomb where there stood idols of the stars. She had decorated this tomb magnificently; she had established for it priests and slaves, and she made priests and sages reside in the city, with troops to protect it. This city became very prosperous, and it remained in that state until Bokht-Naṣṣar came to ruin it and seize its treasures.
Dulaīfah
Dulaīfah ascended the throne. Her subjects came before her and they renewed their oaths. She showed herself to be good to them, and she discharged for that year a part of their taxes.
Aīmin of Atrīb marched against her, in a desire to avenge his uncle Andāḥos. He asked the support of the king of the Amalekites, who granted it because of the relationship he had had with Andāḥos. The king gave him one of his generals with a great army. Dulaīfah, warned of their approach, sent against them several of her officers; they joined the enemy at a place called al-‘Arīsh. Both sides deployed their knowledge of magic, they made prodigies appear and caused frightening voices to sound that chilled hearts with fear. They stayed a long time in this state, alternating between fighting and truces. Many men died on both sides. Finally supporters of Dulaīfah were routed and sent in retreat from Memphis.
Aīmin pursued them doggedly; Dulaīfah with all her army took refuge in the Ṣa‘īd, and removed her residence to Ashmūn. She threw against the invaders all the troops she could muster and great fighting took place in the Fayum region. Supporters of Dulaīfah were the losers, because of the strength and endurance of their enemies. They asked for help from the inhabitants of the cities of the Ṣa‘īd. They joined them to fight the troops of Aīmin; they managed to push them out of Memphis, which they had already conquered and devastated. Then they routed them, and forced them to go back into their ships to retreat northwards. Among those who contributed to this victory was a magician, an inhabitant of Qofṭ. He raised a magic fire that arose between the soldiers of Aīmin and those of Dulaīfah, which forced the former to retreat.
Aīmin made new preparations, and his supporters began again to spread in the Memphis area. The people of this country were frightened by the length of the war and powerlessness of the armies of the queen to repel the invaders; desperate to wrest Egypt from their hands, they asked that the two parties should share the empire between them. This proposal was accepted, and peace was concluded.
But Dulaīfah, after having sworn to it, broke her word. She distributed large sums and jewels among the people; moreover, a portion of her subjects had blamed her for accepting a compromise. So she recommenced the war, and fierce fighting continued between the two parties for three months. At the end of this time, Aīmin was victorious and the army of Dulaīfah routed. The queen retired to Qūs; the enemy pursued her and occupied the whole kingdom. When Dulaīfah saw the point which things had reached, she knew of the retreat of her army and the inability of her priests and magicians to achieve success. Certain now of being defeated, she poisoned herself.
After the death of Ṭūṭīs, the Egyptians vied among themselves for the election of a new king. They said, “We must no longer appoint someone from his family.” Some were proposing to put on the throne a prince of the family of Atrīb; but a vizier said, “You know the merit of Hūriā, the daughter of Ṭūṭīs, her wisdom, her opposition to the crimes of her father, and the service she rendered us by delivering us from him. Why should we search for a sovereign other than her?” Most of the great officers agreed with this sentiment, and power was given to Hūriā.
Hūriā sat on the throne. Her subjects came to pay homage to her, honor her and offer her their vows. She promised to treat them gently. She occupied herself in amassing silver and cash, so that after some time she found herself in possession of a quantity of money, jewels, precious stones, and clothing, greater than any ever owned any other king. She held in high honor the wise men, priests, and heads of the magicians; she increased their prerogatives, and she restored and beautified the temples.
At her election, disgruntled Egyptians gathered in the city of Atrīb, and they proclaimed king a descendant of King Atrīb called Andāḥos. This man donned the tiara and many of his cousins and relatives joined his cause. Hūriā sent an army to fight him. When he saw that she would not surrender, he offered to make peace, and he asked for her hand. He reminded her that kingdoms are generally governed by men and suggested that she be concerned that she might lose her empire.
But Hūriā resorted to cunning: she ordered her subjects to assemble in their houses to eat and drink as on festival days. She gave them largesse, and she revealed that Andāḥos had asked to marry her. Some thought it was a good idea, others reproved of it, saying, “We want no other than her to reign over us, because we know her mind, her wisdom, and her merit. She is also the heir of the kingdom.” And when some refused to share their opinion, they fell on them and killed them.
Then supporters of the queen gathered a large army and advanced against the army from Atrīb; they overtook them and routed them, after making them suffer very large losses. Andāḥos fled to Syria, the land of the Canaanites, the descendants of ‘Amlāq, whose king he asked for asylum. He told of his adventures and inspired in him the desire to conquer Egypt, by representing it as a great and rich kingdom, whose conquest would be easy; he promised to help with the remainder.
The king of Syria therefore equipped a large army for invading Egypt, and put at its head, next to Andāḥos, a great general. The people of all the provinces of Egypt fled close to Hūriā; she opened to them the treasury of her father and she distributed most of it to them. This generosity made her popular and assured her the devotion of her subjects. She also showered with presents the magicians, whom she promised greater benefits in the future. Andāḥos advanced with the Syrian army. Hūriā ordered the magicians to prepare their wonders against it. This army was commanded by one of the most illustrious Canaanite generals named Jirūn, When this general had entered the land of Egypt, Hūriā sent to him her nurse, who was a woman of rare intelligence. The queen had given her the mission to observe, unbeknownst to Andāḥos, and tell Jirūn that the queen had a great desire to marry; that she wanted for her husband any man of his house; that if he killed Andāḥos in any way he pleased, she would give him the empire of Egypt with her hand, and that she would defend it against his master. This message moved Jirūn. He conceived a great joy and he hastened to bring dishes to the tent of Andāḥos, as though to honor him as usual, but instead poisoned him. Andāḥos ate of these and died.
Jirūn immediately summoned the queen, having fulfilled his promise. She said to him, “It is not possible that I marry you before you have given my country proof of your strength and your wisdom. Build me a wonderful city.” It was indeed in that time the style to illustrate this by constructing buildings, building towers, erecting idols and performing wonders. The Queen added, “You shall transport yourself from where you are to the west of our country, and you shall restore some of the ruins found there in large numbers, which are the remnants of towers or various monuments.”
Jirūn went to the place she indicated, and built in the deserts of the West the city of Andūmah. There he brought a canal linked to the Nile; he embellishes the plantations, and he erected a very tall lighthouse on top of which was a room he overlaid with gold, silver, copper, marble, and colored melted glass. He worked wonders in this construction with the help of the workers and with the resources that the queen had sent him. Meanwhile, without his knowledge, Hūriā exchanged letters and gifts with the king of the Canaanites.
When the city was complete, Jirūn informed the queen, who replied: “We have another city which was powerful in the time of our ancestors. It is now ruined and its walls are dismantled. Go ahead and try to rebuild it, to put it back into good condition, to make it powerful and beautiful again. I will go to the city which you have built; move there all that is needed, and when you have finished building this other city, let me know. I will join you there, because I want to be away from my city and my people when I see you; he displease me to go there with you in the sight of all my people.” He went to the place she had told him about, and he began to build the second Alexandria, for it was here that she had sent him.
* * *
Some historians do not know of the adventure of Andāḥos; they say that the man who invaded Egypt was al-Wālīd, son of Dūma‘, the Amalekite, who was the second of the Pharaohs. The motive that led him to this expedition was this: He was working under an evil from which he suffered for a long time, and he had sent trustworthy servants to all parts to fetch him waters that could cure him. One of these men had come into the land of Egypt, and having been struck by its size, its resources, and its beauty, he had, upon his return to his master, spoken of it with great praise. He had also reported on it water and its secrets.
It was then that al-Wālīd marched forth at the head of a large army to invade Egypt. This empire was at that time ruled by Queen Hūriā. The Amalekite proposed to her. She sent someone to his camp for information. This emissary saw tall warriors that it would be difficult to defeat. The queen then answered Wālīd that she would marry him; but she imposed on him the condition that he build a city that would show his strength and would serve as the place of their meeting. He accepted and entered into the land of Egypt. He crossed to the regions of the West in order to build the city in the place where Alexandria once stood. He brought the queen perfume and fruit.
Alexandria had been in ruins since the departure of the ‘Ādites. Al- Wālīd gathered up all the stones and barrels of columns he found there, and he laid the foundation for a vast city. He received from the queen a team of a thousand workers and domestics. The work lasted a long time; he saw himself run out of the silver he had at his disposal. Every night after the workers had placed the stones of the foundations for the day, upon leaving the sea beasts tore up the stones, ruined the walls, and upset all the work. This occurrence repeated itself for months; the city’s founder conceived a violent grief and constantly sought ways to remedy this evil.
Hūriā had sent Wālīd one thousand head of sheep, that he might have milk for his food. He had awarded custody to a shepherd he trusted. This shepherd led the flock to graze around the ruins. But as he brought them there one evening, he saw come out of the sea a young slave-girl of great beauty. He immediately fell in love with her and he confessed his desires. She promised that if they wrestled and he won, she would be his; but if it was she who had the victory she would win two beasts of the herd. She returned the following days, and the love of the shepherd only increased. He had a burning desire to ravish her. But the girl still had the upper hand, and every time she came she carried off two beasts. After some time, she had taken half the herd; the other half wasted away because the shepherd was fully occupied with his love for the girl and had no concern for his livestock. He himself had become thin and pale.
His master was passing near him and he saw the change in him and that the animals were in such poor shape, so he asked him the cause. He also noticed that the herd was reduced and he wanted to know why. The shepherd, for fear of his wrath, told him the whole truth. He asked him, “What time does she appear?” “In the evening she approaches,” said the shepherd. Al- Wālīd donned the clothes of a shepherd and took care of the flock. He waited until evening. The young slave-girl appeared. He expressed his desire for her, and she laid out her condition. They wrestled together, and Wālīd took the win. He grabbed her and chained her securely. But she said: “Now that I have been taken, let me be with my first lover. He well deserved me, and I did wait too long.” So he gave her to the shepherd, and he said: “When you are alone with her, talk to her of these buildings which we work on by day and which by night are overthrown. Ask her if she knows something about it and if she knows a way to ward off this evil.” Following this recommendation, he went away and left them together.
The shepherd inquired of the slave-girl, and she replied: “There are monsters in the sea that come out at night and wreck your constructions.” “Do you know,” he asked, “any way to keep them away?” “Yes,” she said. “And what might that be?” She replied, “I will teach you something that you will need to write on sheets of paper attached to small stones. Painters should get into boats, equipped with the stones, and venture out in the middle of the day to such-and-such a point in the sea. There they should stop and throw the inscribed stones into the water on the right and the left, then wait about an hour. All the beasts of the sea will be gathered together in this place, will revolve around the boat, and will show themselves above the water. The painters must seize this moment to draw their images; they should make them as lifelike as possible and they should bring back the most they possibly can. When they return, you must build on the model of these images, statues of gold, copper, or stone, which you must place between the foundations of the city and the sea. When the monsters coming out of the waves notice these figures, they will run away, never to return.” Then she taught the shepherd the magic word, until he had learned it by heart.
At daybreak the shepherd went to find his master; he related to him the whole conversation, wrote out the magic word, and al-Wālīd, who acted according to his plan, finally saw the monsters disappear. He was able to complete the buildings to found and build the city, which became habitable and beautiful.
* * *
According to other historians, the author of these buildings and the owner of the herd is Jirūn al-Mūtafki. This fellow entered Egypt before al-Wālīd, who would then have come after the time of Hūriā, and went on to become master of the country.
All the riches available to Jirūn were spent in the construction of this city before it was completed. He then ordered the shepherd, as reported by these historians, to ask the slave-girl if there were hidden treasures near that location. She said, “In such-and-such a place of the ruined city is a round amphitheater around which are raised seven columns each surmounted by a golden statue. Offer each of these statues a fat bull, sprinkle each column with the blood of the bull, and burn before it the hair of its tail with the trimming its horns and nails, saying, “Accept what I supply” and “Give me what you have.” After completing this ritual, measure from the base of each column in the direction that the statue faces, a distance of a hundred cubits and dig at the end. Do this when the moon is full and Saturn is straight on. When you have pressed fifty cubits, you will find a large slab; smear it with the bull’s gall, then remove it. You will find below a door through which you will gain access to an underground passage fifty cubits long, after which you will see a locked door. The keys to the lock will be on the threshold of the door. Take them, smear the padlock with the gall of the bull and the blood and smoke it with burned hair and parings from its nails and horns. Then open the door and enter, after first leaving time for air to enter inside. When you go in, you will see before you a stone idol wearing around its neck a small yellow gold tablet, on which is written a list of all the treasures contained in this place: coins, jewels, statues, utensils, various remedies, and wonders. You may take all that you want. You can do the same thing to each column, and in front of each statue and you will find every time equal wealth. These are the tombs and treasures of ancient kings.”
The shepherd repeated to his master all that the young slave-girl had told him. Jirūn, hearing this, was exceedingly glad, and followed his advice as soon as it was possible. Having discovered the priceless treasures and countless wonders, he was able to complete the construction of the city. He then sent word to Hūriā that everything was done. She was very upset because she had had no other intention than to fatigue the invader, to occupy him, and to exhaust all his resources.
It is said that among the wonders Jirūn discovered in this place was a gold arcade where an emerald was sealed in a casket containing a green powder with red pearls. Whoever had white hair and dyed it with this powder became young again; his hair and beard blackened, and his eyesight was so sharp he could see even the spirits. He also found the stone image of a raven that cried when questioned and responded to questions. It is said that there were in each of these treasuries ten wonders.
When Jirūn had finished building the city, he informed the queen and invited her to come to him. He complained about the length of time that had elapsed and all the evils he had endured with his companions. She sent him a magnificent carpet, saying: “Lay it out in the room where we shall sit down and divide your army into three bodies; send me the first body. As soon as it arrives, I will leave. When I have arrived in such-and-such a place along the way, send me the second body, and when I am two-thirds of the way, join me with the third, because I want all your men behind me, so that they do not see me when I go into your place. I want everything with you, to serve you, to give you children in whom you have confidence. I will bring servants who will render us all the necessary care. Thus we will not be bothered by anyone.”
Jirūn followed the orders of the queen. She began to send her clothes, with objects of all kinds, and every day she had sent him something else, until she sent word that she was ready to leave. He then sent her the first third of his army. She prepared to receive them with food and poisoned beverages in large quantities, and as soon as the men came, and the servants and the children were eager to make them eat and drink, perfuming them and dressing them. The next morning there remained almost none alive; those who were not dead were killed; the queen had appointed some of her soldiers for this task. She dispatched men immediately in all directions to guard and cut off the roads, so that no news could reach the invader. Then she took the spoils left by the dead soldiers, and she had them brought to Memphis. She went on, and she met Jirūn’s second contingent of soldiers. She did what she had done to the first, and she wrote to Jirūn that she had sent all the troops who had reached her to Memphis and the provinces, so that they might maintain the country during the time she would be with him. Finally, there appeared the third body, and she did the same with him as with the other two.
She arrived at the residence of Jirūn, accompanied by a contingent of dedicated men, her main familiars and her women. But she did not show herself to him before her companions had surrounded the palace that the general had built in Alexandria. She entered it with her nurse and her slaves; the nurse breathed on the face of Jirūn, a breath that chilled him to the heart, and she sprinkled a liquor she carried with her. All the members of this warrior were shaken and his strength left him. “He was wrong,” said the queen, “to think women could be conquered; it is women who have conquered.” Then she cut his vein and drank his blood, saying: “The blood of kings gives health.” Finally, she killed him, cut off his head, and sent it to her palace, at the summit of which it was hoisted. She sent all his spoils to Memphis. She built the Lighthouse of Alexandria and inscribed her name on it, along with the name of the general and what she did to him, with the date of the events.
Following this victory, the fame of Hūriā spread among the princes who coveted the land of Egypt; they dreaded her, feared her plans, and promised her their fidelity; they sent her presents and solicited her friendship. She also made, in Egypt, many wonders; she ordered, among other things, to build on the border of Egypt, on the side of Nubia, a fortress and a bridge under which the Nile would flow, and this was done.
Hūriā began to fall ill; her subjects gathered around her and they begged her to designate a successor she deemed worthy. There was not, in that time, any children of her father, nor in all her house, which were worthy of the throne. She called then for power to go to the daughter of her uncle, and she gave them her for a queen. This was Dulaīfah, daughter of Mamūn. Dulaīfah was a young girl of great intelligence who enjoyed high esteem among women. Hūriā obtained for her the allegiance of the people of Memphis and all the inhabitants of Egypt. They swore not to deliver the country to her enemies and defend it against anyone who would attack. Hūriā handed her the keys to its treasures; she made her mistress of all the wealth she had amassed and that which her fathers had accumulated. Then she ordered that when she died her body was to be embalmed in camphor and born to the city she had built in the desert of the West. She had prepared in this city a wonderful tomb where there stood idols of the stars. She had decorated this tomb magnificently; she had established for it priests and slaves, and she made priests and sages reside in the city, with troops to protect it. This city became very prosperous, and it remained in that state until Bokht-Naṣṣar came to ruin it and seize its treasures.
Dulaīfah
Dulaīfah ascended the throne. Her subjects came before her and they renewed their oaths. She showed herself to be good to them, and she discharged for that year a part of their taxes.
Aīmin of Atrīb marched against her, in a desire to avenge his uncle Andāḥos. He asked the support of the king of the Amalekites, who granted it because of the relationship he had had with Andāḥos. The king gave him one of his generals with a great army. Dulaīfah, warned of their approach, sent against them several of her officers; they joined the enemy at a place called al-‘Arīsh. Both sides deployed their knowledge of magic, they made prodigies appear and caused frightening voices to sound that chilled hearts with fear. They stayed a long time in this state, alternating between fighting and truces. Many men died on both sides. Finally supporters of Dulaīfah were routed and sent in retreat from Memphis.
Aīmin pursued them doggedly; Dulaīfah with all her army took refuge in the Ṣa‘īd, and removed her residence to Ashmūn. She threw against the invaders all the troops she could muster and great fighting took place in the Fayum region. Supporters of Dulaīfah were the losers, because of the strength and endurance of their enemies. They asked for help from the inhabitants of the cities of the Ṣa‘īd. They joined them to fight the troops of Aīmin; they managed to push them out of Memphis, which they had already conquered and devastated. Then they routed them, and forced them to go back into their ships to retreat northwards. Among those who contributed to this victory was a magician, an inhabitant of Qofṭ. He raised a magic fire that arose between the soldiers of Aīmin and those of Dulaīfah, which forced the former to retreat.
Aīmin made new preparations, and his supporters began again to spread in the Memphis area. The people of this country were frightened by the length of the war and powerlessness of the armies of the queen to repel the invaders; desperate to wrest Egypt from their hands, they asked that the two parties should share the empire between them. This proposal was accepted, and peace was concluded.
But Dulaīfah, after having sworn to it, broke her word. She distributed large sums and jewels among the people; moreover, a portion of her subjects had blamed her for accepting a compromise. So she recommenced the war, and fierce fighting continued between the two parties for three months. At the end of this time, Aīmin was victorious and the army of Dulaīfah routed. The queen retired to Qūs; the enemy pursued her and occupied the whole kingdom. When Dulaīfah saw the point which things had reached, she knew of the retreat of her army and the inability of her priests and magicians to achieve success. Certain now of being defeated, she poisoned herself.
Chapter 9: The Amalekite Dynasty: Al-Walid, son of Duma‘
Aīmin of Atrīb
Aīmin of Atrīb ruled Egypt after the death of Dulaīfah. He was haughty and hard and destroyed many men who supported the queen’s party. Al-Wālīd, son of Dūma‘, was at that time set to march with a great army, intending to traveling through different countries, to overthrow their rulers and spend some time in each; he wanted to look for waters capable of bringing some improvements to his health, as we have already said, when we spoke of his illness. When the conqueror had arrived in Syria, he heard there about Egypt and praise of its beauty; he also learned that the country had fallen into the hands of women and that the dynasty of its kings had ended. He therefore sent one of his servants called ‘Ūnā, with a powerful body of troops. This man came to Egypt when Aīmin and Dulaīfah were at war with each other. He began to conquer the country, and he seized considerable wealth and great treasures. He, however, refrained from sending news of this to Wālīd, who consequently had become convinced that he had perished with his whole army, for he had heard frightening things about the wisdom of the Egyptians and the magical power of their priests. But after some time, he learned that his servant had made himself master of the country. Then he advanced to Egypt; he found ‘Ūnā and came to meet with the latter, who told him that he had heretofore been slow to send him news because he wanted to complete his conquest and pacify the country. Al-Wālīd, having accepted that excuse, entered Egypt and became its king. He oppressed the inhabitants, seized their wealth, and extracted all the treasures he could find. Aīmin sent him the submission of the Ṣa‘īd, on behalf of all the cities in the region; then he helped in its conquest and supported him with all his might, until he himself avenged the murder of his uncle Andāḥos. Then he retired and authority was concentrated in the hands of Wālīd.
Al-Wālīd, son of Dūma‘
The idea came to Wālīd to save himself by trying to reach the sources of the Nile and to conquer at the same time all the nations of that region. He spent three years preparing the expedition. When he had gathered everything he needed, he entrusted the government of Egypt to his servant ‘Ūnā, and he went forth with a powerful army and a considerable train. He destroyed all the nations through which he passed. It is said that it took several years to make this trip. He passed among populations of Negros, crossed through them, went into the land of gold, and saw in some places gold pressed into rods. This land forms the limits of the country Gānah.
Al-Wālīd, continuing to move forward, reached the lake whence the waters of the Nile discharge themselves; they are fed by the rivers that flow from the Mountain of the Moon. The Mountain of the Moon is a steep mountain, very wide and very long. It received this name because the moon rises in relation to it, because of the position it occupies far below the equator. Al-Wālīd saw how the Nile emerges from under this mountain, and how it flows in many beds forming small rivers; some of these rivers meet in a large basin, the others meet in another area, and from each of these two reservoirs a wide river flows to the large lake. This lake where the two rivers lead is located between the line of the equator and the limits of the first climate. The Nile comes out as a single river, crosses the equator and goes on to Egypt. It is joined by another stream coming from the side of Makrān [in India, which also has its source in the Mountain of the Moon]. It is claimed that the Mahrâān rises and falls like the Nile, and he saw crocodiles and fish of the same species as those of the Nile. [This river also comes out from under the Mountains of the Moon].
Wālīd, it is said, found the palace where the copper statues were erected by the first Hermes in the time of the first Būdashīr, son of Qofṭarim, son of Miṣraīm, son of Ham, son of Noah. These statues numbered eighty-five, arranged to receive all the waters that come down from the mountain; a system of pipes equipped with rounded mouths brought water into their bodies, which then went up into their throats, in a fixed quantity and measured by graduated cubits. Water gushed from the mouths of the statues and formed many rivers that flowed into two lakes, which then flowed together, as we have said, to meet altogether in a great lake. Hermes arranged everything with geometric precision, and he regulated the amount of water that poured through each statue so that it was sufficient for the country’s prosperity and should meet the needs of its inhabitants, but never flow in excess. This quantity was measured in this place to a height of eighteen cubits, the cubit being thirty-two fingers. When this limit was reached, all the water that still poured out was rejected to the right of the statues; it entered conduits that led it to the right of the palace, where it emptied into the marshes and into uninhabited sandy plains.
* * *
Some scholars have claimed that the four rivers emerge from a common origin, which is a high dome in the land of gold beyond the Dark Sea. These four rivers are: the Saīḥūn, the Jaīhūn, the Nile, and the Euphrates. There are those who have argued that the four rivers emerge from Paradise, that the dome is made of emerald, and their waters, before crossing the Dark Sea, have the taste of honey and the scent of musk. Some travelers have ventured into these areas, about which Ibn Ṣāliḥ [i.e. Abimelech], secretary of al-Layth, and others, have reported traditions regarding it. According to them, a man from the seed of Esau, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, called Ḥāīd saw the dome. The story of his journey is long. Here is what al-Mas‘ūdi says:
“Although this story is long,” he said, “I want to tell it here because it is about this place. It is extracted from the Book of Divine Majesty, made in Baghdad by Faqīh Abū’l-Ḥasan ‘Ibād bin Sarḥān. The author of this book had the following tradition from his masters in Baghdad, and he relied on references who had traced its origin to Abu Huraīrah. This latter said: ‘I heard the Prophet of God say: The Nile comes out of Paradise; if you immerse the hand as it boils, you remove the foliage of Paradise.
“‘I have this other tradition from Abu at-Ṭaīb and Aḥmed bin Rūḥ, which he had from ‘Ali bin Dāūd himself, through whom it goes back to ‘Abd Allah bin Salih, and through him, to al-Layth ibn Sa‘d: It is believed that a descendant of Esau, a man called Ḥāīd, son of Abu Sālūm, son of Esau, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, who had fled home for fear of a king, came to Egypt. He stayed there for several years, and, having witnessed the wonderful properties of the Nile and all the benefits that this river procured for the country, he made a vow before God to follow along the shore to its origin, and he swore that he would be stopped only by death.
“‘So he walked along the river bank for thirty years; according to others, he walked fifteen along the river and fifteen years in the land; and he came to a lake. He saw the Nile emerge before him; and, having advanced, he ascended the heights that surrounded the lake; there he found a man who stood and was praying under a tree covered with fruit. He went up to him, greeted him, and the man asked him, “Who are you?” “I am,” he replied, Ḥāīd, son of Abu Sālūm, son of Esau, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. And who are you yourself?” He replied: “I am ‘Amrān. What brings you, O Ḥāīd, to this remote place?” “God revealed to me that I would stay here until the coming of a man he would send.” Ḥāīd said, “O ‘Amrān, teach me what you know regarding the Nile. Have you heard that any child of Adam ever reached its sources?” “I heard,” said ‘Amrān, “that a man, a descendant of Esau, would make it there. I do not think it could be anyone but you, O Ḥāīd.” “Tell me the way, in that case,” said Ḥāīd. “I will not show it to you, answered ‘Amrān, “before you have given me what I shall ask for.” “And what is that, O ‘Amrān?” “When you return here, if I am still alive, I want you to stay with me until God shows me something about you; and if you find me dead, I want you to bury me.” “This I shall do for you,” replied Ḥāīd. ‘Amrān then said, “Walk in the direction where you find yourself, along the lake. You will come to a place where you will find a monstrous beast, of which you will see the beginning but not the end. Do not be afraid and goes up on top of it. This beast is the enemy of the sun. When the sun rises, he swoops up to swallow it, and is stopped by the heat of its rays. When the sun sets, it rushes on it in the other direction, still hoping to swallow it. Mount then this beast and ride it until you to have joined the Nile. Dismount then, and set yourself to marching forth: you will find yourself at the place where you can go down into a land of iron, having mountains, trees, and plains all of iron; you will cross it, and you will come into a land of copper, where the mountains, trees, and the plains are copper; out of the land of copper you will come into a land that will be all of silver; and after the land of silver, you will come to a land of gold: it is in this one that the mysteries of the Nile will be revealed to you.”
“‘Ḥāīd traveled thus until he reached the land of iron; from there, he reached that of copper; then that of silver, and from the land of silver to the land of gold. After walking for some time in the last of these, he reached a golden wall with golden niches in which was a golden dome, pierced with four doors. He saw water descend this wall, and gather under the dome; it then divided and it was reflected in the four rivers; three of these rivers, out of three doors, sank under the ground, the fourth flowed to the surface of the ground; it was the Nile. Ḥāīd drank of its water and took a little rest; then he approached the wall and tried to climb it. But an angel appeared to him and said, “Do not advance farther, O Ḥāīd; you have now acquired full knowledge of the Nile, and the enclosed place is Paradise. This water comes from Paradise.” “I want to see what is in Paradise,” replied Ḥāīd. “You are not allowed,” said the angel, “to enter it at this time.” “But can you at least tell me,” he asked, “what the thing I see here is?” “This is the sphere in which revolve the sun and moon. You can see that it looks like a millstone.” “I want to go up on it,” said Ḥāīd, “and turn with it.” Some say he indeed went up there, and others deny it. The angel permitted him then to receive some food from Paradise: “You will prefer nothing earthly,” he added, “because we should prefer nothing to what comes out of Paradise. This food will sustain you as long as you live.” While the angel finished speaking, Ḥāīd saw him place before him a bunch of grapes of three colors: it was the green color of emeralds, the white of pearls, and the red of the hyacinth. Then the angel repeated: “O Ḥāīd, you now have complete knowledge of the Nile.” But the traveler asked again: “What are these three rivers that plunge beneath the earth?” “The first,” the angel said to him, “is the Euphrates; the second, the Saīhūn and third, Jaīhūn.”
“‘Ḥāīd then turned around, and walked until he found the beast. He mounted it; when the sun sank to sleep, he sprang up onto it, and the traveler found himself back where he had first climbed up. He went on his way and returned to place of ‘Amrān This fellow was already dead. Ḥāīd buried him spent three days at his tomb. Then he saw an old man of a most venerable figure coming. He approached the tomb of ‘Amrān and wept. This stranger then turned to him and greeted him: “O Ḥāīd,” he asked, “what discoveries have you made with respect to the Nile?” The traveler told what he had seen, and the old man said: “This is indeed what we find explained in books.” However, wonderful fruit had appeared on a tree; the stranger picked some and said to Ḥāīd, “Do you not eat?” Ḥāīd said, “I am sustained on the food of Paradise which was given to me from on high, and I prefer it to any food down here.” “You are right, O Ḥāīd. We should prefer nothing earthly to something that comes from Paradise. But have you ever seen in this world anything comparable to these fruits? It is God who made grow a tree of Paradise for ‘Amrān, that there he should find his sustenance; and he transplanted it into this place. This tree is not of this world. It was left here for you. When you are gone, God will remove it.” And the old man continued to insist on this until Ḥāīd decided to take one of those fruits and bite into it. But immediately the angel appeared before him and said, “Do you recognize it now? It is the one your father brought out of Paradise. If you had been able to keep the grapes that were given to you, the men of the earth might also have eaten of them, and the amount would remain the same forever. But now, you will seek in vain to get back in, as your father once sought.”
“‘Ḥāīd returned to Egypt and related his adventure to his countrymen. He is dead. May God have mercy upon him!’ Here I finish this history, which I have taken from a reliable source; I did not say anything for which I may be blamed.”
* * *
The discourse now resumes at the point where it was interrupted.
Others say that these rivers divide into seventy-two arms corresponding to the seventy-two languages of the known nations. According to others, they come from snow falling in abundance in certain seasons and that melts under the action of solar heat, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. They spread into the regions that God, the Most High, charged them to water, according to the plan of creation.
* * *
Now back to the story of Wālīd. After this king had reached the Mountains of the Moon, he saw a high peak which he ascended to see what was beyond it. His gaze took in the black and fetid Sea of Poison. He also saw the Nile emerge in the form of thin streams. But pestilential breath from the sea spread around; several of his companions perished. He himself nearly succumbed, and he had to come down in haste from the mountain. Some people said he did not see at this point either moon or sun, but a kind of red light, like the sun at sunset.
Al-Wālīd spent, they say, twenty years in this journey. His servant ‘Ūnā, who ruled Egypt, viewed his growing absence and after seven years grew arrogant and wanted to be king. He claimed that he had never been the servant of Wālīd, but he was his brother, so it was to him that power would fall after his brother’s death. Then he began to oppress men; he used magic to dominate; he increased the magicians and tolerated their crimes and privileges. The people submitted to him, and suffered under his authority. ‘Ūnā married all the daughters of the princes of Egypt; he took all the fortunes and killed their owners. However, he honored the priests and attended to the care of temples; his subjects departed from him for fear of the magicians with which he was surrounded.
One day this minister saw Wālīd in a dream, and he appeared to him and said, “Who commanded you to take the title of king? Do not you know that he who usurps the title is worthy of death? You also forcibly married the daughters of princes and confiscated fortunes without due cause.” And Wālīd gave orders to fill cauldrons with pitch and place them on the fire. The pitch began to heat up and ‘Ūnā knew they were going to immerse him in it. Indeed, when the pitch was boiling, Wālīd commanded him to remove his clothes. But at this moment a large bird like an eagle swooped down on the intended victim, grabbed him, tore at the hands of the executioners, and carried him through the air on the top of a mountain. Then ‘Ūnā seemed to fall from the top of the mountain, into a valley where hot and stinking water sources gushed.
This fall woke him. He found himself filled with anguish and almost without feeling. It had already been so long that he had become accustomed to ruling supreme, so that when the memory of Wālīd returned, he almost lost his reason. He also knew the value of this prince, his strength, and his courage. Sometimes he had thought Wālīd had died because he went for years without anyone hearing tell of him; sometimes he was concerned that he was still alive; but when he had this vision, he could no longer doubt his continued existence, and he thought only to seek ways to escape from Egypt, carrying away its wealth.
He expressed his trouble a few magicians whom he trusted, and he said, “I fear Wālīd, and I propose to leave Egypt. What do you think?” They replied, “We will defend you against him, if you follow our advice.” “Speak,” he said. “We will make you an eagle and you shall worship it; because the bird in your dream which tore your tormentors from you is a spirit that desires us to fashion his image for you to adore.” “I am ready to obey you,” answered ‘Ūnā. “Tell me where you need to put that statue and I will do the rest.” They continued, “We will explain it to you.”
After he heard the opinions of the magicians, he crafted a golden eagle whose eyes were jewels and whose body was covered with wonderful ornaments. He built a very beautiful temple, where he placed the image, and he draped in front of it silken veils. Then he invited the magicians to implore this statue, by incense and sacrifices, until it spoke to them. He therefore made this idol into his god, and he called all the people to worship it. The people consented; after some time, the eagle ordered ‘Ūnā to build a city and retreat there, and this city would serve as defense and a refuge against any aggressor.
The rebel then gathered all the workers of Egypt; he sent his companions into the deserts of the West to look for a flat ground to which they could access by narrow passes and through mountains. He advised them to choose a place that was in the vicinity of ponds. At that time, Fayum was a pond formed by the Nile water; and remained in that state until Joseph drained it. ‘Ūnā had insisted that they should choose a location near a pond, that they might get water to the city.
His emissaries then went through the desert for a month, and they finally discovered the place he wanted. Then they called together all that Egypt had of engineers and surveyors, workers able to break the rocks, carve the stones, and execute any part of construction works, and they sent all these men to the site of the new city. A thousand horsemen were under their command, and they brought all the tools with them. They spent a month carrying the supplies they would need; all these objects were brought on carts; the wheel tracks are still apparent today in the desert of the West, behind the pyramids, which are the famous monuments that researchers visit.
When the builders had finished extracting and hewing the rocks, they took measurements and fixed the location of the city. They gave the city two parasangs in each direction; in the middle they dug a well and they placed in this well a statue of copper with the figure of a pig, whose face they turned toward the east. They fixed this by the time Saturn was rising moving straight, escaping the stars that are opposite it. So they took a pig and sacrificed it; they sprinkled its blood on the face of the statue and they smoked it by burning its hair. They collected a little hair of the victim, its bones, its flesh, its blood and its gall, and they placed all of this in the interior of copper pig. They engraved on the image the signs of Saturn. Then they dug on the banks of the well slots oriented in the direction of the four sides of the city, and laid out from the center major roads, each of which ended at one of the city gates. The space between these large thoroughfares was covered with rich mansions and busy paths. Around a dome surmounting the well, they erected copper idols, which were holding swords and whose faces were each turned toward their respective gates. The foundations of the city were fourfold: the deepest was of black stone; the one above, red stone; the third green stone, and the fourth yellow stone. The walls rose above this foundation, and they were built of translucent white stone. The joints between each course were of lead, and each block was provided in its center with an iron rod, according to the same procedure that was used in the construction of the pyramids.
All around the city stood a fortified wall of seventy cubits and a half; the top of each gate, which was opened into the enclosing wall, was topped by large images of eagles, hollow, in gold and composite substances, with outstretched wings. At each corner of the city was placed the image of a horseman holding a sword in his hand, and looking to the outside of the city. The water supply to the city, entering in the vicinity of the eastern gate, was taken from there to the western gate, where it emptied into the ponds. They also led the water to the south gate, where it flowed to the northern one. They offered these images of eagles male eagles as sacrifices and sprinkled them with their blood. The winds that entered the gates below idols made terrifying sounds; all who heard them were terrified. The gates were also defended by magical scorpions, who stopped strangers whenever an inhabitant of the city did not accompany them. ‘Ūnā set up the eagle he adored in the high dome at the center of the city, on a square base; and at each corner of the base he placed the image of a monstrous Satan. The dome rested on emerald pillars; the eagle was mobile; it turned successively to the four cardinal directions, and it remained in one position for each season of the year.
When the foundation was finished, the rebel himself carried into the city all the gold, all the jewels, and all the treasures of Memphis, and all that was in the treasuries of the kings: statues, secrets of science, powders and herbs, armor, etc. He made to immigrate to that city the chiefs of the magicians and priests, and master artists and craftsmen. He distributed to them the mansions he built, so that the different castes were not confused. He built a suburb around the walls of the city, where he built homes for artisans of various trades, laborers, farmers, and others. Over the canals coming into the city, he built bridges, on which they had to pass either to enter or to exit the city. He circulated water in the suburbs, and along its course raised columns. Finally, he planted around the perimeter of the city different species of rare trees, and there arranged gardens, decorated with beautiful and useful species. Beyond these gardens stretched the fields that produced grains of all kinds and various commodities. Each year there was amassed in this city enough to live there for ten years. This city was located three days’ walk from Memphis. ‘Ūnā came there and resided there for ten days, after which he returned to Memphis. He instituted four festivals a year, at the time when the eagle changed its direction. When this city had been built, the soul of ‘Ūnā had rest and his mind became quiet.
One day the rebel received a letter from Wālīd who was then in Nubia; the prince ordered him to send him food and livestock. ‘Ūnā executed his orders with great care; he sent food in vessels on the backs of beasts, but at the same time he led all his family, and all the daughters of the princes and the great of Egypt he had married to the city he had built; and when Wālīd was about to return to Egypt, he fled himself to his city and fortified it. One of his lieutenants was commissioned to hold his place and make a stand before the king.
This man returned to Memphis; the people came to meet him and complained to him of the tyranny of ‘Ūnā. Wālīd asked where he was, and he was told this: “He fled on your approach and he is fortified against you.” At that news the king became angry and ordered the preparation of a large army against the rebel. But the people of Memphis explained to him how he had built a fortified city and how he lived surrounded by magicians. They showed him that it would be difficult to destroy it, and that it could possibly be done with difficulty and after great preparations. Therefore, Wālīd contented himself with summoning ‘Ūnā to present himself to him. He warned him about the consequences of rebellion, and he swore to him that if he did not comply, he would perish under torture as soon as he had him in his power.
‘Ūnā replied, “The king has no reason to complain about me. I did not attack his kingdom, and I do not seek to harm anything that is his. Rather, I am his servant. If I retreated into this region, it is to defend his empire against enemies who try to invade the provinces of the West; I cannot at this moment appear before him because of the fear I have of his anger, but if the king confirms me in my station and it pleases him consider me as one of his governors, then I will send him at all times the revenues and presents he will require of me.” Together with his response, ‘Ūnā did sent to his sovereign considerable sums and a quantity of stones. When the king had received his message it subsided him, and he no longer thought of him.
Al-Wālīd ruled Egypt, oppressing its people, assaulting their wives, and taking their property, for the space of a 120 years. All the people hated him and loaded him with curses. One day he was out hunting, and his horse threw him off while on a hill, and God delivered the people from him. Ar-Rayān, the son of Wālīd, condemned the government of his father and declared that he opposed it. When his father died, he built him a tomb near the pyramids. It is also said that this king was buried in one of the pyramids.
Aīmin of Atrīb ruled Egypt after the death of Dulaīfah. He was haughty and hard and destroyed many men who supported the queen’s party. Al-Wālīd, son of Dūma‘, was at that time set to march with a great army, intending to traveling through different countries, to overthrow their rulers and spend some time in each; he wanted to look for waters capable of bringing some improvements to his health, as we have already said, when we spoke of his illness. When the conqueror had arrived in Syria, he heard there about Egypt and praise of its beauty; he also learned that the country had fallen into the hands of women and that the dynasty of its kings had ended. He therefore sent one of his servants called ‘Ūnā, with a powerful body of troops. This man came to Egypt when Aīmin and Dulaīfah were at war with each other. He began to conquer the country, and he seized considerable wealth and great treasures. He, however, refrained from sending news of this to Wālīd, who consequently had become convinced that he had perished with his whole army, for he had heard frightening things about the wisdom of the Egyptians and the magical power of their priests. But after some time, he learned that his servant had made himself master of the country. Then he advanced to Egypt; he found ‘Ūnā and came to meet with the latter, who told him that he had heretofore been slow to send him news because he wanted to complete his conquest and pacify the country. Al-Wālīd, having accepted that excuse, entered Egypt and became its king. He oppressed the inhabitants, seized their wealth, and extracted all the treasures he could find. Aīmin sent him the submission of the Ṣa‘īd, on behalf of all the cities in the region; then he helped in its conquest and supported him with all his might, until he himself avenged the murder of his uncle Andāḥos. Then he retired and authority was concentrated in the hands of Wālīd.
Al-Wālīd, son of Dūma‘
The idea came to Wālīd to save himself by trying to reach the sources of the Nile and to conquer at the same time all the nations of that region. He spent three years preparing the expedition. When he had gathered everything he needed, he entrusted the government of Egypt to his servant ‘Ūnā, and he went forth with a powerful army and a considerable train. He destroyed all the nations through which he passed. It is said that it took several years to make this trip. He passed among populations of Negros, crossed through them, went into the land of gold, and saw in some places gold pressed into rods. This land forms the limits of the country Gānah.
Al-Wālīd, continuing to move forward, reached the lake whence the waters of the Nile discharge themselves; they are fed by the rivers that flow from the Mountain of the Moon. The Mountain of the Moon is a steep mountain, very wide and very long. It received this name because the moon rises in relation to it, because of the position it occupies far below the equator. Al-Wālīd saw how the Nile emerges from under this mountain, and how it flows in many beds forming small rivers; some of these rivers meet in a large basin, the others meet in another area, and from each of these two reservoirs a wide river flows to the large lake. This lake where the two rivers lead is located between the line of the equator and the limits of the first climate. The Nile comes out as a single river, crosses the equator and goes on to Egypt. It is joined by another stream coming from the side of Makrān [in India, which also has its source in the Mountain of the Moon]. It is claimed that the Mahrâān rises and falls like the Nile, and he saw crocodiles and fish of the same species as those of the Nile. [This river also comes out from under the Mountains of the Moon].
Wālīd, it is said, found the palace where the copper statues were erected by the first Hermes in the time of the first Būdashīr, son of Qofṭarim, son of Miṣraīm, son of Ham, son of Noah. These statues numbered eighty-five, arranged to receive all the waters that come down from the mountain; a system of pipes equipped with rounded mouths brought water into their bodies, which then went up into their throats, in a fixed quantity and measured by graduated cubits. Water gushed from the mouths of the statues and formed many rivers that flowed into two lakes, which then flowed together, as we have said, to meet altogether in a great lake. Hermes arranged everything with geometric precision, and he regulated the amount of water that poured through each statue so that it was sufficient for the country’s prosperity and should meet the needs of its inhabitants, but never flow in excess. This quantity was measured in this place to a height of eighteen cubits, the cubit being thirty-two fingers. When this limit was reached, all the water that still poured out was rejected to the right of the statues; it entered conduits that led it to the right of the palace, where it emptied into the marshes and into uninhabited sandy plains.
* * *
Some scholars have claimed that the four rivers emerge from a common origin, which is a high dome in the land of gold beyond the Dark Sea. These four rivers are: the Saīḥūn, the Jaīhūn, the Nile, and the Euphrates. There are those who have argued that the four rivers emerge from Paradise, that the dome is made of emerald, and their waters, before crossing the Dark Sea, have the taste of honey and the scent of musk. Some travelers have ventured into these areas, about which Ibn Ṣāliḥ [i.e. Abimelech], secretary of al-Layth, and others, have reported traditions regarding it. According to them, a man from the seed of Esau, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, called Ḥāīd saw the dome. The story of his journey is long. Here is what al-Mas‘ūdi says:
“Although this story is long,” he said, “I want to tell it here because it is about this place. It is extracted from the Book of Divine Majesty, made in Baghdad by Faqīh Abū’l-Ḥasan ‘Ibād bin Sarḥān. The author of this book had the following tradition from his masters in Baghdad, and he relied on references who had traced its origin to Abu Huraīrah. This latter said: ‘I heard the Prophet of God say: The Nile comes out of Paradise; if you immerse the hand as it boils, you remove the foliage of Paradise.
“‘I have this other tradition from Abu at-Ṭaīb and Aḥmed bin Rūḥ, which he had from ‘Ali bin Dāūd himself, through whom it goes back to ‘Abd Allah bin Salih, and through him, to al-Layth ibn Sa‘d: It is believed that a descendant of Esau, a man called Ḥāīd, son of Abu Sālūm, son of Esau, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, who had fled home for fear of a king, came to Egypt. He stayed there for several years, and, having witnessed the wonderful properties of the Nile and all the benefits that this river procured for the country, he made a vow before God to follow along the shore to its origin, and he swore that he would be stopped only by death.
“‘So he walked along the river bank for thirty years; according to others, he walked fifteen along the river and fifteen years in the land; and he came to a lake. He saw the Nile emerge before him; and, having advanced, he ascended the heights that surrounded the lake; there he found a man who stood and was praying under a tree covered with fruit. He went up to him, greeted him, and the man asked him, “Who are you?” “I am,” he replied, Ḥāīd, son of Abu Sālūm, son of Esau, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. And who are you yourself?” He replied: “I am ‘Amrān. What brings you, O Ḥāīd, to this remote place?” “God revealed to me that I would stay here until the coming of a man he would send.” Ḥāīd said, “O ‘Amrān, teach me what you know regarding the Nile. Have you heard that any child of Adam ever reached its sources?” “I heard,” said ‘Amrān, “that a man, a descendant of Esau, would make it there. I do not think it could be anyone but you, O Ḥāīd.” “Tell me the way, in that case,” said Ḥāīd. “I will not show it to you, answered ‘Amrān, “before you have given me what I shall ask for.” “And what is that, O ‘Amrān?” “When you return here, if I am still alive, I want you to stay with me until God shows me something about you; and if you find me dead, I want you to bury me.” “This I shall do for you,” replied Ḥāīd. ‘Amrān then said, “Walk in the direction where you find yourself, along the lake. You will come to a place where you will find a monstrous beast, of which you will see the beginning but not the end. Do not be afraid and goes up on top of it. This beast is the enemy of the sun. When the sun rises, he swoops up to swallow it, and is stopped by the heat of its rays. When the sun sets, it rushes on it in the other direction, still hoping to swallow it. Mount then this beast and ride it until you to have joined the Nile. Dismount then, and set yourself to marching forth: you will find yourself at the place where you can go down into a land of iron, having mountains, trees, and plains all of iron; you will cross it, and you will come into a land of copper, where the mountains, trees, and the plains are copper; out of the land of copper you will come into a land that will be all of silver; and after the land of silver, you will come to a land of gold: it is in this one that the mysteries of the Nile will be revealed to you.”
“‘Ḥāīd traveled thus until he reached the land of iron; from there, he reached that of copper; then that of silver, and from the land of silver to the land of gold. After walking for some time in the last of these, he reached a golden wall with golden niches in which was a golden dome, pierced with four doors. He saw water descend this wall, and gather under the dome; it then divided and it was reflected in the four rivers; three of these rivers, out of three doors, sank under the ground, the fourth flowed to the surface of the ground; it was the Nile. Ḥāīd drank of its water and took a little rest; then he approached the wall and tried to climb it. But an angel appeared to him and said, “Do not advance farther, O Ḥāīd; you have now acquired full knowledge of the Nile, and the enclosed place is Paradise. This water comes from Paradise.” “I want to see what is in Paradise,” replied Ḥāīd. “You are not allowed,” said the angel, “to enter it at this time.” “But can you at least tell me,” he asked, “what the thing I see here is?” “This is the sphere in which revolve the sun and moon. You can see that it looks like a millstone.” “I want to go up on it,” said Ḥāīd, “and turn with it.” Some say he indeed went up there, and others deny it. The angel permitted him then to receive some food from Paradise: “You will prefer nothing earthly,” he added, “because we should prefer nothing to what comes out of Paradise. This food will sustain you as long as you live.” While the angel finished speaking, Ḥāīd saw him place before him a bunch of grapes of three colors: it was the green color of emeralds, the white of pearls, and the red of the hyacinth. Then the angel repeated: “O Ḥāīd, you now have complete knowledge of the Nile.” But the traveler asked again: “What are these three rivers that plunge beneath the earth?” “The first,” the angel said to him, “is the Euphrates; the second, the Saīhūn and third, Jaīhūn.”
“‘Ḥāīd then turned around, and walked until he found the beast. He mounted it; when the sun sank to sleep, he sprang up onto it, and the traveler found himself back where he had first climbed up. He went on his way and returned to place of ‘Amrān This fellow was already dead. Ḥāīd buried him spent three days at his tomb. Then he saw an old man of a most venerable figure coming. He approached the tomb of ‘Amrān and wept. This stranger then turned to him and greeted him: “O Ḥāīd,” he asked, “what discoveries have you made with respect to the Nile?” The traveler told what he had seen, and the old man said: “This is indeed what we find explained in books.” However, wonderful fruit had appeared on a tree; the stranger picked some and said to Ḥāīd, “Do you not eat?” Ḥāīd said, “I am sustained on the food of Paradise which was given to me from on high, and I prefer it to any food down here.” “You are right, O Ḥāīd. We should prefer nothing earthly to something that comes from Paradise. But have you ever seen in this world anything comparable to these fruits? It is God who made grow a tree of Paradise for ‘Amrān, that there he should find his sustenance; and he transplanted it into this place. This tree is not of this world. It was left here for you. When you are gone, God will remove it.” And the old man continued to insist on this until Ḥāīd decided to take one of those fruits and bite into it. But immediately the angel appeared before him and said, “Do you recognize it now? It is the one your father brought out of Paradise. If you had been able to keep the grapes that were given to you, the men of the earth might also have eaten of them, and the amount would remain the same forever. But now, you will seek in vain to get back in, as your father once sought.”
“‘Ḥāīd returned to Egypt and related his adventure to his countrymen. He is dead. May God have mercy upon him!’ Here I finish this history, which I have taken from a reliable source; I did not say anything for which I may be blamed.”
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The discourse now resumes at the point where it was interrupted.
Others say that these rivers divide into seventy-two arms corresponding to the seventy-two languages of the known nations. According to others, they come from snow falling in abundance in certain seasons and that melts under the action of solar heat, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. They spread into the regions that God, the Most High, charged them to water, according to the plan of creation.
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Now back to the story of Wālīd. After this king had reached the Mountains of the Moon, he saw a high peak which he ascended to see what was beyond it. His gaze took in the black and fetid Sea of Poison. He also saw the Nile emerge in the form of thin streams. But pestilential breath from the sea spread around; several of his companions perished. He himself nearly succumbed, and he had to come down in haste from the mountain. Some people said he did not see at this point either moon or sun, but a kind of red light, like the sun at sunset.
Al-Wālīd spent, they say, twenty years in this journey. His servant ‘Ūnā, who ruled Egypt, viewed his growing absence and after seven years grew arrogant and wanted to be king. He claimed that he had never been the servant of Wālīd, but he was his brother, so it was to him that power would fall after his brother’s death. Then he began to oppress men; he used magic to dominate; he increased the magicians and tolerated their crimes and privileges. The people submitted to him, and suffered under his authority. ‘Ūnā married all the daughters of the princes of Egypt; he took all the fortunes and killed their owners. However, he honored the priests and attended to the care of temples; his subjects departed from him for fear of the magicians with which he was surrounded.
One day this minister saw Wālīd in a dream, and he appeared to him and said, “Who commanded you to take the title of king? Do not you know that he who usurps the title is worthy of death? You also forcibly married the daughters of princes and confiscated fortunes without due cause.” And Wālīd gave orders to fill cauldrons with pitch and place them on the fire. The pitch began to heat up and ‘Ūnā knew they were going to immerse him in it. Indeed, when the pitch was boiling, Wālīd commanded him to remove his clothes. But at this moment a large bird like an eagle swooped down on the intended victim, grabbed him, tore at the hands of the executioners, and carried him through the air on the top of a mountain. Then ‘Ūnā seemed to fall from the top of the mountain, into a valley where hot and stinking water sources gushed.
This fall woke him. He found himself filled with anguish and almost without feeling. It had already been so long that he had become accustomed to ruling supreme, so that when the memory of Wālīd returned, he almost lost his reason. He also knew the value of this prince, his strength, and his courage. Sometimes he had thought Wālīd had died because he went for years without anyone hearing tell of him; sometimes he was concerned that he was still alive; but when he had this vision, he could no longer doubt his continued existence, and he thought only to seek ways to escape from Egypt, carrying away its wealth.
He expressed his trouble a few magicians whom he trusted, and he said, “I fear Wālīd, and I propose to leave Egypt. What do you think?” They replied, “We will defend you against him, if you follow our advice.” “Speak,” he said. “We will make you an eagle and you shall worship it; because the bird in your dream which tore your tormentors from you is a spirit that desires us to fashion his image for you to adore.” “I am ready to obey you,” answered ‘Ūnā. “Tell me where you need to put that statue and I will do the rest.” They continued, “We will explain it to you.”
After he heard the opinions of the magicians, he crafted a golden eagle whose eyes were jewels and whose body was covered with wonderful ornaments. He built a very beautiful temple, where he placed the image, and he draped in front of it silken veils. Then he invited the magicians to implore this statue, by incense and sacrifices, until it spoke to them. He therefore made this idol into his god, and he called all the people to worship it. The people consented; after some time, the eagle ordered ‘Ūnā to build a city and retreat there, and this city would serve as defense and a refuge against any aggressor.
The rebel then gathered all the workers of Egypt; he sent his companions into the deserts of the West to look for a flat ground to which they could access by narrow passes and through mountains. He advised them to choose a place that was in the vicinity of ponds. At that time, Fayum was a pond formed by the Nile water; and remained in that state until Joseph drained it. ‘Ūnā had insisted that they should choose a location near a pond, that they might get water to the city.
His emissaries then went through the desert for a month, and they finally discovered the place he wanted. Then they called together all that Egypt had of engineers and surveyors, workers able to break the rocks, carve the stones, and execute any part of construction works, and they sent all these men to the site of the new city. A thousand horsemen were under their command, and they brought all the tools with them. They spent a month carrying the supplies they would need; all these objects were brought on carts; the wheel tracks are still apparent today in the desert of the West, behind the pyramids, which are the famous monuments that researchers visit.
When the builders had finished extracting and hewing the rocks, they took measurements and fixed the location of the city. They gave the city two parasangs in each direction; in the middle they dug a well and they placed in this well a statue of copper with the figure of a pig, whose face they turned toward the east. They fixed this by the time Saturn was rising moving straight, escaping the stars that are opposite it. So they took a pig and sacrificed it; they sprinkled its blood on the face of the statue and they smoked it by burning its hair. They collected a little hair of the victim, its bones, its flesh, its blood and its gall, and they placed all of this in the interior of copper pig. They engraved on the image the signs of Saturn. Then they dug on the banks of the well slots oriented in the direction of the four sides of the city, and laid out from the center major roads, each of which ended at one of the city gates. The space between these large thoroughfares was covered with rich mansions and busy paths. Around a dome surmounting the well, they erected copper idols, which were holding swords and whose faces were each turned toward their respective gates. The foundations of the city were fourfold: the deepest was of black stone; the one above, red stone; the third green stone, and the fourth yellow stone. The walls rose above this foundation, and they were built of translucent white stone. The joints between each course were of lead, and each block was provided in its center with an iron rod, according to the same procedure that was used in the construction of the pyramids.
All around the city stood a fortified wall of seventy cubits and a half; the top of each gate, which was opened into the enclosing wall, was topped by large images of eagles, hollow, in gold and composite substances, with outstretched wings. At each corner of the city was placed the image of a horseman holding a sword in his hand, and looking to the outside of the city. The water supply to the city, entering in the vicinity of the eastern gate, was taken from there to the western gate, where it emptied into the ponds. They also led the water to the south gate, where it flowed to the northern one. They offered these images of eagles male eagles as sacrifices and sprinkled them with their blood. The winds that entered the gates below idols made terrifying sounds; all who heard them were terrified. The gates were also defended by magical scorpions, who stopped strangers whenever an inhabitant of the city did not accompany them. ‘Ūnā set up the eagle he adored in the high dome at the center of the city, on a square base; and at each corner of the base he placed the image of a monstrous Satan. The dome rested on emerald pillars; the eagle was mobile; it turned successively to the four cardinal directions, and it remained in one position for each season of the year.
When the foundation was finished, the rebel himself carried into the city all the gold, all the jewels, and all the treasures of Memphis, and all that was in the treasuries of the kings: statues, secrets of science, powders and herbs, armor, etc. He made to immigrate to that city the chiefs of the magicians and priests, and master artists and craftsmen. He distributed to them the mansions he built, so that the different castes were not confused. He built a suburb around the walls of the city, where he built homes for artisans of various trades, laborers, farmers, and others. Over the canals coming into the city, he built bridges, on which they had to pass either to enter or to exit the city. He circulated water in the suburbs, and along its course raised columns. Finally, he planted around the perimeter of the city different species of rare trees, and there arranged gardens, decorated with beautiful and useful species. Beyond these gardens stretched the fields that produced grains of all kinds and various commodities. Each year there was amassed in this city enough to live there for ten years. This city was located three days’ walk from Memphis. ‘Ūnā came there and resided there for ten days, after which he returned to Memphis. He instituted four festivals a year, at the time when the eagle changed its direction. When this city had been built, the soul of ‘Ūnā had rest and his mind became quiet.
One day the rebel received a letter from Wālīd who was then in Nubia; the prince ordered him to send him food and livestock. ‘Ūnā executed his orders with great care; he sent food in vessels on the backs of beasts, but at the same time he led all his family, and all the daughters of the princes and the great of Egypt he had married to the city he had built; and when Wālīd was about to return to Egypt, he fled himself to his city and fortified it. One of his lieutenants was commissioned to hold his place and make a stand before the king.
This man returned to Memphis; the people came to meet him and complained to him of the tyranny of ‘Ūnā. Wālīd asked where he was, and he was told this: “He fled on your approach and he is fortified against you.” At that news the king became angry and ordered the preparation of a large army against the rebel. But the people of Memphis explained to him how he had built a fortified city and how he lived surrounded by magicians. They showed him that it would be difficult to destroy it, and that it could possibly be done with difficulty and after great preparations. Therefore, Wālīd contented himself with summoning ‘Ūnā to present himself to him. He warned him about the consequences of rebellion, and he swore to him that if he did not comply, he would perish under torture as soon as he had him in his power.
‘Ūnā replied, “The king has no reason to complain about me. I did not attack his kingdom, and I do not seek to harm anything that is his. Rather, I am his servant. If I retreated into this region, it is to defend his empire against enemies who try to invade the provinces of the West; I cannot at this moment appear before him because of the fear I have of his anger, but if the king confirms me in my station and it pleases him consider me as one of his governors, then I will send him at all times the revenues and presents he will require of me.” Together with his response, ‘Ūnā did sent to his sovereign considerable sums and a quantity of stones. When the king had received his message it subsided him, and he no longer thought of him.
Al-Wālīd ruled Egypt, oppressing its people, assaulting their wives, and taking their property, for the space of a 120 years. All the people hated him and loaded him with curses. One day he was out hunting, and his horse threw him off while on a hill, and God delivered the people from him. Ar-Rayān, the son of Wālīd, condemned the government of his father and declared that he opposed it. When his father died, he built him a tomb near the pyramids. It is also said that this king was buried in one of the pyramids.
Chapter 10: The Pharaoh of Joseph
Al-Wālīd was succeeded by his son ar-Rayān. This is the Pharaoh of Joseph. The Copts call him Nahrāūs. He sat on the throne of the empire. He was a prince of a high stature, a handsome face, intelligence, and knowledgeable about many sciences. His subjects stood before him to express their good wishes. He spoke to them kindly, promised to treat them well, and began to discharge three years of taxes. They blessed him and gave thanks. He opened the treasuries and divided all they contained between the leaders and the common people who were there. He then dismissed them, and they departed full of gratitude and affection for him.
Ar-Rayān began his reign in a very commendable way, then he let himself be dominated by his passions, and gave the government to a man of his house called Kitfir (i.e. Potiphar), whom some historians call al-‘Azīz (Quran 12:30). He was a son of the vizier, very intelligent, self-possessed, firm in his views, full of pleasure and charm, occupied in exercising justice and procuring the good for the people. He installed in the king’s palace a silver throne; in the morning and in the evening he went to the king and he made to pass before him all the officers, secretaries, and viziers, before entering there and when he went out. He continued to govern for a long time, removing all burdens from the king, taking care of all affairs; he visited the provinces; he spread great security across the country and made justice prevail among the people. Meanwhile, King Nahrāūs was deep in his pleasures and absorbed by his passions. He glanced over no affairs, nor did he worry about anything, and no one came to speak to him. This state of affairs lasted for many years. The empire was prosperous and its revenues increased. It is said that the income of Egypt reached in that time 98 million miṯqāl. The minister made the distribution; of the part which he kept for himself, his wives, and his table, he had it carried there; the one that was intended for the maintenance of armies, priests, philosophers, master artisans, supervisors of the country, stewards of buildings, crops and plantations, and various master craftsmen, he had it dropped off to each of them, and what was left after both of these distributions, was collected in the treasury in the king’s palace.
Nahrāūs, however, without noticing any of this, and without asking about any of it, looked to build as many pleasure houses as there are days in the year. Each day he changed his residence, and these houses were adorned with carpets and vases that varied from one to the other.
When this became known to the kings neighboring Egypt, they thought of seizing a country where a prince reigned so miserably. An Amalekite named ‘Alkan, son of Sajūm, nicknamed Abū-Qābūs (variant: Anāfānūs), advanced with the intention of invading Egypt to the vicinity of its border. Al-‘Azīz sent against him an army commanded by a general called Barnāsh. This general was defeated and his army was put to flight. The Amalekite entered Egypt, destroyed many monuments and works of art, and his desire to reach Memphis and its region knew no bounds. The people of Memphis, informed of his approach, found themselves in a great peril, and they came together to ask the help of al-‘Aziz. He sent them to the king’s palace. They went there and they began to wail and implore the assistance of the sovereign. Nahrāūs heard them and asked them what they wanted. They informed him that the Amalekites had invaded Egypt, had already crossed its borders, and had begun to ravage the country, to spoil its harvest, and to destroy works of art and ruin monuments. They added that the enemy was approaching and was marching on the king’s palace.
On hearing this report, the prince shook. He was ashamed of himself, and he awoke from his torpor. The Copts say that he had heard the djinn cry for his father and that he was moved. He gathered his troops, equipped them, and led them to meet the enemy. He drove them to the borders of Syria, and killed many men; then, having invaded the country of the Amalekites himself, he devastated the crops, cut the trees, burned homes, and crucified all the enemy soldiers he had captured. At the places where he stopped, he set up boundary markers on which he wrote: “I challenge all those who would pass beyond this place.” They say he went to Mosul, that he imposed tribute on the people of Syria, and that he built near al-‘Arīch a great city into which he transported inhabitants. He filled all these regions with troops, and then he returned to Egypt. Following this expedition, the kings respected and feared him; loudly informed and feared; they spoke of him with great praise, sent him gifts, and solicited his friendship.
When he had rested a while in Egypt, Nahrāūs gathered troops from all provinces to attack the kings of the West. He left at the head of 900,000 men. The kings were warned of his approach; one moved away from their path, while others submitted to him, and others offered him large sums of money and treasures, begging for peace for their countries; and those who resisted him were subdued and reduced to servitude. He went into the land of the Berbers, of which he conquered the majority. He sent forth a general called Marītos, and himself followed with a fleet the shores of the sea. Some Berber tribes tried to resist him. He devastated their country. Others asked him for peace and brought gifts. He went from there into Ifrīqīah and into the region of Qarṭājanna (Cartagena). The people asked him for peace at the cost of silver and works of art. He passed through, and he reached the place where the Green Sea enters the sea of Rūm. There he set up a copper idol. This is the place where they found the idols of old. He raised his on a high tower, on which he inscribed his name, the date of his passage, and the history of his journey. He imposed a tribute on the inhabitants of these places, then entering the continent, he invaded the lands of the Franks and the Spaniards. The chief of these was called in those days Lūḏrīq. He fought for days, and killed many of his companions. The Spaniards begged for peace at the cost of a high tribute in gold they promised to pay each year, promising they would never invade, either by sea or by land, any dependent country of the Egyptian empire and instead they would fight all enemies of the empire.
Nahrāūs headed back toward the east, marching along the seashore in the land of the Berbers; wherever he went the people came to him, and brought him presents, made their submission to him, and enlisted among his troops. He went in the direction of the south, into the land of Kūshān, which is a great nation. The people resisted and he killed many. He dispatched one of his lieutenants to a town on the shore of the Dark Sea. The king of the city and all the people came to meet this general to ask him who he was and what he wanted. The general explained to them who ar-Rayān was, and how all the kings obeyed him and begged him for peace. They answered him: “As for us, no one thought to submit, and we have not thought about submitting to any person. No one attacked us and we have never attacked anyone.” Then they brought gifts and jewels, and they demanded security for their city. The general received their presents; he wanted to know if some sailors had sailed on the sea. All of them replied that it was impossible to navigate, and they told him that very often clouds hovered over it and darkened it for days. Later, King ar-Rayān came in person to that place; the people came to meet him, bringing him gifts and fruits that were mostly blackberries and black stones that became white when thrown into the water.
From there, the king passed into the place of the Negro races and he reached the land of the Damdam, who eat men. They came out to meet him naked and armed with iron swords. Their king was mounted on a huge, horned beast. He was very big with red eyes, and he fought with great valor. Ar-Rayān defeated him and put his people to flight. They hid in the lowlands, in covered places, in caves, and on steep mountains where it was impossible to go after them.
After crossing the country, the king arrived in a nation of monkeys who had very light wings without feathers, by which they flew; then he embarked on the Dark Sea and when he had sailed for some time that sea darkened with clouds. Returning from there to the right, he reached the mountain Butāris, on top of which he saw a red stone statue that made a sign of the way that one should return. This statue had written on his chest: “Let no person pass behind me.” The king was now near to the city of copper, but he could not reach it.
He passed into the Valley of Darkness, where he heard a great noise and where he saw nothing because of the intensity of the darkness. He kept walking and came to Valley of Sand, at the end of which he saw idols bearing the names of the kings who had come there before him. And he set up another idol on which he engraved his name.
After he crossed the Valley of Sand, he went into a desert adjoining the black Sea of Darkness. There he heard screams and roars, and he advanced with some of his bravest companions to search whence these sounds came. They saw huge beasts and bizarre shapes, with ferocious faces, that were tearing at one another and eating each other. The king knew he could not push forward any further.
They continued walking until they reached the land of Salūqah, where they found a snake of a great size and a disproportionate bulk. They saw it lying on the ground, and they believed it was dead. But when they came to examine it, they realized it was alive. They fled immediately and took care of it by magic. The Copts believe they charmed the snake and rendered him unable to move, so he remained motionless and died in that place. They say it was a mile long and that it swallowed elephants.
The king then came to the city of al-Kand, which is the City of Sages. The people fled to a high mountain, which they accessed from within their city by roads where neither the king nor his companions could pass. He laid siege for a long time, until the water finally failed, and he could find no more anywhere. The companions of the king suffered greatly and were about to die of thirst.
One of ascetics called Mandūs then came to them. He was one of the most prominent among these sages; his hair covered his whole body. He told the king, “O foolish king, what are you looking for here? You already possess all kinds of goods and you have food beyond your needs. Why you do you fatigue yourself and your army? Are not you satisfied with what you have, and do you not trust your Creator, who gave you so much wealth, and has placed so much of the world beneath you?” Nahrāūs was astonished at this address and asked the ascetic to give him water. The ascetic having indicated to him that he would, the king asked where they lived because he could not find in their city a drop of water to drink. He replied, “We live in places where no one can enter.” “And what do you eat?” asked the king. “We eat of the roots of plants the very small amount which is enough for our sustenance.” “And what do you drink?” “We drink water from ponds that are under the ground and gather their water from rain and snow.” “Why did you run away?” “Due to our distaste for your proximity and fear we would be defiled by your contact, we felt horror at your approach; otherwise there is nothing we have to fear you.” “Where do you take shelter when the sun is too fiery?” “In caves in this mountain.” “Do you need some silver, which I could give to you?” “Silver is only useful for the arrogant. We serve it not, and we have enough other things to do without it. Indeed God has provided us with treasures such as if you saw them, you would judge all yours worthless.” “Bring them for me to see then,” said the king. “Follow me,” replied the ascetic.
And he took the king with a group of his companions into a large area at the foot of a mountain where goldenrod grew. Then he pointed to a valley whose slopes were covered with emeralds and turquoise stones. Nahrāūs ordered his companions to choose the best of these stones, and bring back as many as they could. They obeyed and brought back these treasures to Egypt.
The wise man saw some of the king’s army who were carrying an idol that they worshiped. It grieved him much; he asked the king not to stay in this land, and he urged him to abandon the service of idols. Nahrāūs asked him to show him the way back. The sage consented, and he bade him farewell.
The Egyptians then resumed their march in the direction that was given to them; in every nation they crossed, the king left a monument in memory of his visit. He arrived in the land of Nubia; the inhabitants, bringing him treasures, asked him for peace. Then he came to Dongola, where he erected a column on which he inscribed his name, details of his itinerary, and all the facts of his journey.
He returned to Memphis. All the inhabitants of his kingdom came with al-‘Aziz to meet him, equipped with all kinds of perfumes, scents, and incense, accompanied by players of instruments and singers of all kinds. Al-‘Azīz had built for the king a room of precious white glass with colored ornaments. Therein he placed a basin of celestial glass, at the bottom of which he set glass fish. When the king arrived at Memphis, al-‘Azīz brought him down to this room. The people devoted several days to celebrations and festivities, drinking and eating. Nahrāūs mustered his army, he found he had lost 70,000 men; he was left with one million and he had been gone for eleven years. When other kings heard all that the king of Egypt did on this journey, which nations he had subdued and which countries he had conquered, and how many men he had killed or captured, they respected and feared him, because of the greatness of his courage and the extent of its power.
Nahrāūs was proud; he built in the area of the west marble palaces flanked with high towers; he came to stay there from time to time. Egypt’s income during his reign reached 99 million miṯqāl. [He wanted to raise the figure of 100 million.] He sought out anything that could increase crop yields, improve roads, restore bridges, and channel water so it could be distributed favorably on all the lands. Following this work, the income of the country reached the amount he had desired, and surpassed all previous figures.
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The Copts say the in days of this king, into the land of Egypt was brought a young man from Syria whose brothers were jealous of him, and they had sold him to merchants who traveled in Egypt. The caravans of Syria which came into this country would stop in this era at the same stations that they do nowadays: it was at one of those stations that they stopped with this young man to sell him, and they sent him to auction. This was Joseph the righteous; may the salvation of God be upon him!
His price reached a golden talent and a talent of silver. Al-‘Azīz bought him to give to the king. When he had returned to his home, Zulaīkha his wife saw him; she was the daughter of the paternal uncle of her husband. She said to him, “Leave him with us, we will feed him.” He consented. This was the beginning of the adventure that this woman had with Joseph, and God relates the story in his Book (Quran 12:23-35).
At first she hid the passion she had conceived for Joseph; but the time came when she could no longer contain it. Then she prepared herself, went to Joseph, revealed her love, and promised him that she would obey him in all things; she said that she could not live without him, and she offered him a large sum of money. Joseph rejected her propositions, but he could not get rid of her; she tried to kiss him, he resisted; she threw herself on him and fought with him, with him still resisting her, until her husband arrived. He saw Joseph, who tried to flee. Al-‘Azīz had an infirmity that prevented him from having sex with women. Then he said, “What is this?” Joseph began to apologize, but the woman interrupted him: “I was sleeping,” she said, “and he came seeking me.” But al-‘Aziīz understood that the fault came from her, and he said to Joseph, “Let it be”; that is to say, “Stop apologizing,” and turning to his wife: “Ask forgiveness for your crime,” he said, “because you are guilty.”
Meanwhile, the king had heard of the Syrian’s youth and beauty, and learned that al-‘Azīz had bought him for him. When he did not come, he asked the minister if the market was over. Al-‘Azīz told him what had happened, but without mentioning his own disability. The king allowed him to keep the young man; Joseph was imprisoned in the palace of the Minister, where he was forbidden to go out, and the king forgot about him.
Nahrāūs returned to his passion for pleasure, and he hid from the eyes of men, relying on al-‘Azīz to concern himself with communicating with his subjects and to rule the empire. The passion which Zulaīkha had conceived for Joseph came to the attention of several wives of the king’s courtiers, who spoke of it among themselves severely. Zulaīkha invited these women to a feast, and after they had eaten, she brought them drinks and made them sit on two long golden seats arranged facing each other; these seats were covered with yellow silk and gold cloth, and above them she had stretched plain or silk curtains. The women sat on them to drink; they brought them many fruits and knives embellished with gems. Zulaīkha told them: “You will cut the fruit with these knives.” They say that she offered them oranges, that is to say mitk. Then she ordered her stylists to prepare Joseph and bring him into the room where the women were busy drinking. The sun was just overlooking the entrance to this room. The stylists took hold of Joseph, adorned his hair with stones of all kinds, dressed him in a yellow silk robe with gold circles in the middle of which were little green patterns; they lowered his hair in bangs over his forehead, to the vicinity of eyebrows. They made it fall in curls over his ears and brought its ends onto his chest, and then they put in his hand a flyswatter of gold with green feathers.
When the women had eaten, they then sat down to drink, and Zulaīkha brought them fruit, cups, and knives. “I knew,” she told them then, “what you think of the adventure I had with my slave.” And they said, “Indeed, our judgment is that which was reported to you. We believe that a similar passion is unworthy of you; a woman of your beauty, your rank and your mind should claim only the love of the king’s son. How could you satisfy yourself with your slave?” Zulaīkha said, “You do not know what you say; the one I contented myself with was not so vile, and if I liked him, it is because he was worthy.”
Thereupon she made a sign to her stylists; they lifted up the outstretched curtain-doors at the back of the room, and Joseph walked in with the flyswatter in his hand. He came into the sunlight, and his face lit up the room and all that was there, and it seemed to reflect the sunlight so brightly that the women were almost blinded. They followed him with their eyes. He stopped before them, and began to cast out the flies; but they did not realize it, for they were lowering their knives onto their hands and their fingers, and cutting them instead of the fruit without realizing it and without feeling the pain of the injury. Zulaīkha spoke to them, but they did not hear, because of the stupefaction that fell upon them at the sight of Joseph. “What,” asked Zulaīkha; “does the sight of my slave stop you from hearing my words?” “God forbid,” they replied, “that we believe that this is your slave; it would be a wicked thought; it can only be a great king.” And there was none among them who did not feel herself seized and shot through with love for him (Quran 12:30-31).
Zulaīkha then said, “That is the one that earned me your disapproval.” “Much more than that would be needed,” they answered, “for anyone to reprove you now, for to blame you would be an outrage. Demand that he give himself to you!” “I’ve already asked him,” replied Zulaīkha, “and he refused; talk to him, all of you, and see if you can convince him. Promise him many good things from me if he gives in, and threaten him with punishment if he resists.” And each woman began to entreat him, secretly hoping to have him for herself, and promised him everything at their disposal. But he refused them all. When they could not obtain him for themselves, they solicited him on behalf of Zulaīkha. “Your mistress loves you,” they said to him, “and yet you refuse her. It is not necessary that you oppose her wishes. She will place you in beautiful mansions, and she will give you riches and jewels that will exceed all your desires.” “I do not need this,” Joseph replied.
When they saw that he did not give in, they were all of the opinion to do him violence. But Zulaīkha said, “This is not allowed and cannot be; but if he continues to refuse, I will cut him off from all pleasure, I will take from him all that I gave him, and I will send him to prison.” “O Lord,” cried Joseph, “prison pleases me more than what she asks of me.” Then Zulaīkha swore by her god, which was an emerald idol named Mercury, that if he did not consent to love her as she wanted, she would soon have to carry out her threats. Then she begged and implored that divinity’s assistance against Joseph. She then stripped off his clothes and dressed him in wool, and she begged her husband to imprison him so that she would no longer think of him. Al-‘Azīz willingly gave her what she asked, as a way to dismiss public suspicion of her and avoid all slander. Joseph was then incarcerated; he remained in prison seven years.
The king had a dream in which he saw coming towards him a man saying to him, “Such and such are plotting your downfall,” and he pointed to his baker and his cupbearer. The next morning, the king and asked them to come to him; both confessed. It is also said that one confessed and the other denied it. The king had them thrown, one and the other, into jail. The name of the baker was Rāsān and that of the cupbearer Marṭis. Joseph took care of many prisoners, he made them be patient, exhorted them, predicted their release, and interpreted their dreams. The baker and the cupbearer of the king told him the dreams they had had, as recounted in the Quran (12:36-41). Both then got out of prison, and according to what Joseph had predicted to them, the one who had confessed was put to death, and the other, that is to say the cupbearer, who had denied the accusation, was saved.
When the king had seen cows and ears in a dream, and he wanted to know the meaning, the cupbearer told him about Joseph. The king sent for him in prison, and Joseph interpreted the dream. It is also said that king told the envoy: “Question him about the vision before telling him of it”; the envoy obeyed and, hearing the answer he brought from Joseph, the king said: “Bring him to me.” The cupbearer returned to the prison to find him and bring him back. But Joseph said, “I will not leave here until a report is made to the king about my adventure with the women who cut their fingers and have been the cause of my imprisonment.” As soon as the king had been made aware of this matter, he sent for Zulaīkha and the women. He questioned them and recognized the truth. Zulaīkha and her companions confessed their sin. The king sent for Joseph; he was taken from prison, scrubbed of its dirt, purified, and clothed with garments similar to those which adorns kings.
As soon as he appeared before his sovereign, the latter was touched with love at the sight of him. He had him stay with him, paid him honors, and asked him about his vision. Joseph explained it to him, as God the Most High says in his Book. “And that will remedy the evils that threaten us?” he asked Joseph. “I will,” he said, “because I have the necessary science.” Then the king gave him the empire’s government, placed a tiara on him, and willed that all should dance around him; he gave him an escort of troops, had him reside in the royal palace, and had him sit on the throne of al-‘Azīz. He gave him the place of this minister and appointed to him his title al-‘Azīz (the powerful). Some authors say that al-‘Azīz had died and Joseph married his wife. When he was alone with her, he said, “This is better than what you wanted.” “My husband was sick,” she replied, “and it was impossible for a woman to see you, with your beauty and modesty, without her heart being inclined toward you.”
Joseph therefore set about governing the empire of Egypt according to his will. The years of plenty came; Joseph gathered fruit and placed it into storage with the greater part of the ears of grain; he bought from the people the plump kernels, and he amassed in his granaries a quantity that cannot be measured. Then came the years of drought. The Nile flood began to fail and each year its height decreased compared to the previous year; prices rose to the point that they bought comestibles with jewelry, money, clothing, vases, and buildings. The people of Egypt were about to emigrate, and they would have done so without the foresight of Joseph.
The people of Syria also suffered from the drought. Joseph had the adventure with his brothers that God has related in the Quran (12:58-98). He sent for his father and brought him to Egypt. He brought him to meet with the greatest lords of Egypt, and brought him to the king, who showed him great affection and esteem; he asked him, “O old man, what is your age and what is your profession, and what do you serve God?” “My age,” Jacob replied, “is 120 years; as for my occupation, I graze herds, which is what sustains me. The God I love is the Lord of the Worlds; He is the Lord of my fathers and your fathers, my God and your God, and the God of all creatures and the creator of all things.” There was at this meeting with the king a priest who enjoyed great authority among the Egyptians, whose name was Fīnāmīm. When he heard the words of Jacob, he could not help but intervene and said to Nahrāūs in the Egyptian language: “Egypt will be devastated at the hands of the descendants of this man.” “Give us proof,” replied Nahrāūs. Fīnāmīm turned to Jacob and said, “Any god that the eyes cannot see is nothing.” Jacob answered in rage: “You lie, enemy of God, and you are impious in this life. God Almighty is indeed something, but He is not like other things; He is the creator of them all and there is no other God but Him.” “Describe him to us,” retorted Fīnāmīm. “One can only describe the creature,” says Jacob, “not the Creator, because He is above all quantification. He is the unique, ancient, first, imperishable, judge of all things, ruler of all. He is present everywhere, and no atom escapes his knowledge, not in the darkness of the sea, nor in the depths of the land, nor the levels of heaven. He sees, but the eyes do not see Him; intelligence does not understand Him, no place can enclose Him as He existed before space and time, and he himself made space and time.”
And Jacob, irritated, rose to leave. The king sat down, and he ordered Fīnāmīm not to upset him on that matter and to talk to him about something else. The priest asked, “How many men did you bring with you? “Sixty,” replied Jacob?” “This is,” said Fīnāmīm, “the number that we find mentioned in our books. Egypt is to be devastated because of men like these, who come from Syria threescore in number.” “Does it happen in our time?” asked the king. “No, it will not happen until much later. However it is wisest to kill this man, and leave only person of his race.” Nahrāūs replied, “If things are as you say, we cannot prevent it. Besides, this man is not dangerous to us, since we do not have to fear that these threats will be fulfilled in our time. If we kill him, instead, these foreigners, whose power seems great, will bring onto us the calamity we fear for another. It is better to look more closely at the situation. The words of this old man have touched my heart; I admire his authority. He is a great and glorious leader, and we cannot harm him. Talk to him then in a softer tone, and dispute with him, if he agrees to debate with you.” Then began between Jacob and Fīnāmīm a dispute that was conducted with moderation and in which Jacob had the advantage. The patriarch then wanted to know Egypt, its towns and its wonders, its talismans and its magic. Fīnāmīm, having retired with him, told him all these things as a whole and in detail, obeying the command that Pharaoh had given him, concealing nothing. He explained everything to Jacob and revealed to him all the secrets so that no mysteries of Egypt remained hidden from him.
Jacob lived in Egypt, treated with great honor by Nahrāūs until his death. He asked that his body be transported to his home in Syria. He was placed in a coffin, and Joseph, accompanied by the principal Egyptians, went to inter him in the place of his burial. It is also said that Esau objected to him being buried in the place he had appointed, saying that the land was given to him by Isaac. But Joseph bought it from him at a decent price and placed therein the body of Jacob. Joseph then returned to live in Egypt where he had children.
It is claimed that Nahrāūs believed in Joseph, but he hid his faith, for fear of losing the empire. This Pharaoh reigned 120 years. It was under his reign that Joseph drained the Fayum for the king’s daughter. The people of Egypt had begun to speak ill of their sovereign, and they repeated: “The king is old, and his intelligence decreases.” Joseph warned Nahrāūs about this, and the king said, “I do not care for me. But here I gave my daughter a region of such and such, all filled with ponds and swamps. I would like to divert the water that is lost there and that which is stagnant, to make this a habitable and fertile land. Investigate this project and see how we can achieve it.” Joseph went to this place and there he sent the workers. He removed the waters, regularized their courses, established roads, filled holes, and transformed these wetlands into a vast land, rich and fertile, and he called the land Fayum. He completed this work in a very short space of time, and the people were in admiration of the intelligence of the king and the wisdom of his minister.
They say Nahrāūs is the first man who made geometric measurements in Egypt, and that he dug the Manha (a canal of Fayum) and built the Lāhūn (reservoir); he dispensed water in set quantities. This king died and was succeeded by his son Dārīmūs, whom the historians call Dārim, son of ar-Rayān.
Dārim
Dārim was the fourth Pharaoh. When new to power, he had a temperament opposite to that of his father. He kept Joseph as his lieutenant, because his father had made him promise with an oath to do so. Joseph gave him good advice that he sometimes followed and sometimes rejected. Under this king a silver mine was discovered three miles from the Nile. It was very productive. Dārim made with this metal a silver idol of the Moon, and set it up in stone fortress that his father had built to the east of the Nile. And he set up all around her silver idols he dressed in red silk robes. He instituted in honor of the chief idol a feast that was celebrated each month when the moon entered Cancer.
The king transported himself to diverse places of pleasure. Whenever he wanted to cause harm to his subjects, Joseph resisted and tried to dissuade him by every means in his power. But then Joseph died, aged 123. Dārim buried his body in the clothes of kings and laid him in a marble sarcophagus. This sarcophagus was buried on the west bank of the Nile, which became fecund while the eastern side stood barren. They removed the sarcophagus from the West Bank and carried it to the eastern shore, where they buried him again; now it was the western bank which remained barren. They then agreed to transport the sarcophagus each year from one side to the other of the Nile. Later they had the idea to add to the sarcophagus a strong copper ring to which they could attach it securely taut strings, and drag it to the middle of the Nile, where they let it go; since then both banks have been fecund at the same time.
They say that after Joseph Dārim took for a vizier the priest Bilāṭis. Bilāṭis advised him tp dp everything of which Joseph had disapproved. He pushed him to harm his subjects and to seize their property, and injustices soon exceeded all measure. His tyranny grew to the point that he made all of the comely women live in Memphis, and any time he heard talk of a beautiful woman, he sent for her and had her brother tither. The clamor over these excesses spread in the kingdom, and all the men were moved. Bilāṭis feared a revolt; he tried to persuade the king to change his behavior; he went to find him and persuaded him to be friendly in front of his subjects, to apologize to them, and to give them back their women. The king asked him to bring them together in his presence. He donned his richest garments, and gave the order to have them enter; they advanced, not knowing what would happen. But the king made an apology and canceled taxes for three years.
After that, Dārim built a wooden fortress that he filled with wonders. He went up in there with his wives and household. Soon he renewed his injustice; he began to abduct women and take the property of the people; and he allowed the nobles and key Copts to use the Israelites as slaves. Then he went back up into his wooden fortress. One night while he was there, as the Nile was already spreading over the land, as water filled the space between the hills and the moon cast its rays on the water, he wanted to move from one bank to another. He was unable to move the fortress of wood fast enough because of its heaviness, so he got into a small vessel with three of his servants and the woman who was his father’s sorceress. When the boat reached the middle of the river, there arose a violent wind. The ship capsized and the king and his people were drowned with him. The next day the court was perplexed, not knowing what had happened to the king, until his body was discovered by Shaṭnūf. They recognized him by his ring and a jewel he wore around his neck, and they brought him back to Memphis.
Ma‘ādiūs
The vizier gave power to the son of Dārim, Ma‘ādiūs, and seated him on the throne. He was a child. He was proclaimed by the army. Ma‘ādiūs canceled the taxes as did his father, and even for one more year; he promised his subjects to treat them well, and that he would obey them; he hastened to return their women. He was the fifth of the Pharaohs.
Under the reign of this king a flood took place that covered part of the country. His father’s vizier was dead, and Ma‘ādiūs appointed in his place a priest named Amlādah. When the king saw how the Israelites behaved, he was displeased, and he fixed a country in which they would reside there alone without being mixed with another population. They settled in a place opposite Memphis, and there they built a temple for worship, where they read the sheets of Abraham. A man attached to the house of the king loved an Israelite woman and wanted to marry her, but the Israelites did not consent. A Canaanite king made himself master of Syria and forbade the inhabitants to pay tribute to the king of Egypt.
Ma‘ādiūs attached himself to the care of temples and there devoted himself to the worship of the gods. The people surrounded him with great reverence. His soul was proud; he commanded his subjects to call him their Lord. He thought himself too lofty to deal with affairs of state, and bringing together men, he said: “I have seen fit to hand over power to my son Aqsāmis. I will be behind him until my person becomes invisible, as I promised.” They were satisfied with these words and said, “Let the king decide as he pleases; we are his slaves and those of any master the gods give us.” The king saw that the people submitted to his will and they said nothing against him, so he established in his place his son Aqsāmis.
Ar-Rayān began his reign in a very commendable way, then he let himself be dominated by his passions, and gave the government to a man of his house called Kitfir (i.e. Potiphar), whom some historians call al-‘Azīz (Quran 12:30). He was a son of the vizier, very intelligent, self-possessed, firm in his views, full of pleasure and charm, occupied in exercising justice and procuring the good for the people. He installed in the king’s palace a silver throne; in the morning and in the evening he went to the king and he made to pass before him all the officers, secretaries, and viziers, before entering there and when he went out. He continued to govern for a long time, removing all burdens from the king, taking care of all affairs; he visited the provinces; he spread great security across the country and made justice prevail among the people. Meanwhile, King Nahrāūs was deep in his pleasures and absorbed by his passions. He glanced over no affairs, nor did he worry about anything, and no one came to speak to him. This state of affairs lasted for many years. The empire was prosperous and its revenues increased. It is said that the income of Egypt reached in that time 98 million miṯqāl. The minister made the distribution; of the part which he kept for himself, his wives, and his table, he had it carried there; the one that was intended for the maintenance of armies, priests, philosophers, master artisans, supervisors of the country, stewards of buildings, crops and plantations, and various master craftsmen, he had it dropped off to each of them, and what was left after both of these distributions, was collected in the treasury in the king’s palace.
Nahrāūs, however, without noticing any of this, and without asking about any of it, looked to build as many pleasure houses as there are days in the year. Each day he changed his residence, and these houses were adorned with carpets and vases that varied from one to the other.
When this became known to the kings neighboring Egypt, they thought of seizing a country where a prince reigned so miserably. An Amalekite named ‘Alkan, son of Sajūm, nicknamed Abū-Qābūs (variant: Anāfānūs), advanced with the intention of invading Egypt to the vicinity of its border. Al-‘Azīz sent against him an army commanded by a general called Barnāsh. This general was defeated and his army was put to flight. The Amalekite entered Egypt, destroyed many monuments and works of art, and his desire to reach Memphis and its region knew no bounds. The people of Memphis, informed of his approach, found themselves in a great peril, and they came together to ask the help of al-‘Aziz. He sent them to the king’s palace. They went there and they began to wail and implore the assistance of the sovereign. Nahrāūs heard them and asked them what they wanted. They informed him that the Amalekites had invaded Egypt, had already crossed its borders, and had begun to ravage the country, to spoil its harvest, and to destroy works of art and ruin monuments. They added that the enemy was approaching and was marching on the king’s palace.
On hearing this report, the prince shook. He was ashamed of himself, and he awoke from his torpor. The Copts say that he had heard the djinn cry for his father and that he was moved. He gathered his troops, equipped them, and led them to meet the enemy. He drove them to the borders of Syria, and killed many men; then, having invaded the country of the Amalekites himself, he devastated the crops, cut the trees, burned homes, and crucified all the enemy soldiers he had captured. At the places where he stopped, he set up boundary markers on which he wrote: “I challenge all those who would pass beyond this place.” They say he went to Mosul, that he imposed tribute on the people of Syria, and that he built near al-‘Arīch a great city into which he transported inhabitants. He filled all these regions with troops, and then he returned to Egypt. Following this expedition, the kings respected and feared him; loudly informed and feared; they spoke of him with great praise, sent him gifts, and solicited his friendship.
When he had rested a while in Egypt, Nahrāūs gathered troops from all provinces to attack the kings of the West. He left at the head of 900,000 men. The kings were warned of his approach; one moved away from their path, while others submitted to him, and others offered him large sums of money and treasures, begging for peace for their countries; and those who resisted him were subdued and reduced to servitude. He went into the land of the Berbers, of which he conquered the majority. He sent forth a general called Marītos, and himself followed with a fleet the shores of the sea. Some Berber tribes tried to resist him. He devastated their country. Others asked him for peace and brought gifts. He went from there into Ifrīqīah and into the region of Qarṭājanna (Cartagena). The people asked him for peace at the cost of silver and works of art. He passed through, and he reached the place where the Green Sea enters the sea of Rūm. There he set up a copper idol. This is the place where they found the idols of old. He raised his on a high tower, on which he inscribed his name, the date of his passage, and the history of his journey. He imposed a tribute on the inhabitants of these places, then entering the continent, he invaded the lands of the Franks and the Spaniards. The chief of these was called in those days Lūḏrīq. He fought for days, and killed many of his companions. The Spaniards begged for peace at the cost of a high tribute in gold they promised to pay each year, promising they would never invade, either by sea or by land, any dependent country of the Egyptian empire and instead they would fight all enemies of the empire.
Nahrāūs headed back toward the east, marching along the seashore in the land of the Berbers; wherever he went the people came to him, and brought him presents, made their submission to him, and enlisted among his troops. He went in the direction of the south, into the land of Kūshān, which is a great nation. The people resisted and he killed many. He dispatched one of his lieutenants to a town on the shore of the Dark Sea. The king of the city and all the people came to meet this general to ask him who he was and what he wanted. The general explained to them who ar-Rayān was, and how all the kings obeyed him and begged him for peace. They answered him: “As for us, no one thought to submit, and we have not thought about submitting to any person. No one attacked us and we have never attacked anyone.” Then they brought gifts and jewels, and they demanded security for their city. The general received their presents; he wanted to know if some sailors had sailed on the sea. All of them replied that it was impossible to navigate, and they told him that very often clouds hovered over it and darkened it for days. Later, King ar-Rayān came in person to that place; the people came to meet him, bringing him gifts and fruits that were mostly blackberries and black stones that became white when thrown into the water.
From there, the king passed into the place of the Negro races and he reached the land of the Damdam, who eat men. They came out to meet him naked and armed with iron swords. Their king was mounted on a huge, horned beast. He was very big with red eyes, and he fought with great valor. Ar-Rayān defeated him and put his people to flight. They hid in the lowlands, in covered places, in caves, and on steep mountains where it was impossible to go after them.
After crossing the country, the king arrived in a nation of monkeys who had very light wings without feathers, by which they flew; then he embarked on the Dark Sea and when he had sailed for some time that sea darkened with clouds. Returning from there to the right, he reached the mountain Butāris, on top of which he saw a red stone statue that made a sign of the way that one should return. This statue had written on his chest: “Let no person pass behind me.” The king was now near to the city of copper, but he could not reach it.
He passed into the Valley of Darkness, where he heard a great noise and where he saw nothing because of the intensity of the darkness. He kept walking and came to Valley of Sand, at the end of which he saw idols bearing the names of the kings who had come there before him. And he set up another idol on which he engraved his name.
After he crossed the Valley of Sand, he went into a desert adjoining the black Sea of Darkness. There he heard screams and roars, and he advanced with some of his bravest companions to search whence these sounds came. They saw huge beasts and bizarre shapes, with ferocious faces, that were tearing at one another and eating each other. The king knew he could not push forward any further.
They continued walking until they reached the land of Salūqah, where they found a snake of a great size and a disproportionate bulk. They saw it lying on the ground, and they believed it was dead. But when they came to examine it, they realized it was alive. They fled immediately and took care of it by magic. The Copts believe they charmed the snake and rendered him unable to move, so he remained motionless and died in that place. They say it was a mile long and that it swallowed elephants.
The king then came to the city of al-Kand, which is the City of Sages. The people fled to a high mountain, which they accessed from within their city by roads where neither the king nor his companions could pass. He laid siege for a long time, until the water finally failed, and he could find no more anywhere. The companions of the king suffered greatly and were about to die of thirst.
One of ascetics called Mandūs then came to them. He was one of the most prominent among these sages; his hair covered his whole body. He told the king, “O foolish king, what are you looking for here? You already possess all kinds of goods and you have food beyond your needs. Why you do you fatigue yourself and your army? Are not you satisfied with what you have, and do you not trust your Creator, who gave you so much wealth, and has placed so much of the world beneath you?” Nahrāūs was astonished at this address and asked the ascetic to give him water. The ascetic having indicated to him that he would, the king asked where they lived because he could not find in their city a drop of water to drink. He replied, “We live in places where no one can enter.” “And what do you eat?” asked the king. “We eat of the roots of plants the very small amount which is enough for our sustenance.” “And what do you drink?” “We drink water from ponds that are under the ground and gather their water from rain and snow.” “Why did you run away?” “Due to our distaste for your proximity and fear we would be defiled by your contact, we felt horror at your approach; otherwise there is nothing we have to fear you.” “Where do you take shelter when the sun is too fiery?” “In caves in this mountain.” “Do you need some silver, which I could give to you?” “Silver is only useful for the arrogant. We serve it not, and we have enough other things to do without it. Indeed God has provided us with treasures such as if you saw them, you would judge all yours worthless.” “Bring them for me to see then,” said the king. “Follow me,” replied the ascetic.
And he took the king with a group of his companions into a large area at the foot of a mountain where goldenrod grew. Then he pointed to a valley whose slopes were covered with emeralds and turquoise stones. Nahrāūs ordered his companions to choose the best of these stones, and bring back as many as they could. They obeyed and brought back these treasures to Egypt.
The wise man saw some of the king’s army who were carrying an idol that they worshiped. It grieved him much; he asked the king not to stay in this land, and he urged him to abandon the service of idols. Nahrāūs asked him to show him the way back. The sage consented, and he bade him farewell.
The Egyptians then resumed their march in the direction that was given to them; in every nation they crossed, the king left a monument in memory of his visit. He arrived in the land of Nubia; the inhabitants, bringing him treasures, asked him for peace. Then he came to Dongola, where he erected a column on which he inscribed his name, details of his itinerary, and all the facts of his journey.
He returned to Memphis. All the inhabitants of his kingdom came with al-‘Aziz to meet him, equipped with all kinds of perfumes, scents, and incense, accompanied by players of instruments and singers of all kinds. Al-‘Azīz had built for the king a room of precious white glass with colored ornaments. Therein he placed a basin of celestial glass, at the bottom of which he set glass fish. When the king arrived at Memphis, al-‘Azīz brought him down to this room. The people devoted several days to celebrations and festivities, drinking and eating. Nahrāūs mustered his army, he found he had lost 70,000 men; he was left with one million and he had been gone for eleven years. When other kings heard all that the king of Egypt did on this journey, which nations he had subdued and which countries he had conquered, and how many men he had killed or captured, they respected and feared him, because of the greatness of his courage and the extent of its power.
Nahrāūs was proud; he built in the area of the west marble palaces flanked with high towers; he came to stay there from time to time. Egypt’s income during his reign reached 99 million miṯqāl. [He wanted to raise the figure of 100 million.] He sought out anything that could increase crop yields, improve roads, restore bridges, and channel water so it could be distributed favorably on all the lands. Following this work, the income of the country reached the amount he had desired, and surpassed all previous figures.
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The Copts say the in days of this king, into the land of Egypt was brought a young man from Syria whose brothers were jealous of him, and they had sold him to merchants who traveled in Egypt. The caravans of Syria which came into this country would stop in this era at the same stations that they do nowadays: it was at one of those stations that they stopped with this young man to sell him, and they sent him to auction. This was Joseph the righteous; may the salvation of God be upon him!
His price reached a golden talent and a talent of silver. Al-‘Azīz bought him to give to the king. When he had returned to his home, Zulaīkha his wife saw him; she was the daughter of the paternal uncle of her husband. She said to him, “Leave him with us, we will feed him.” He consented. This was the beginning of the adventure that this woman had with Joseph, and God relates the story in his Book (Quran 12:23-35).
At first she hid the passion she had conceived for Joseph; but the time came when she could no longer contain it. Then she prepared herself, went to Joseph, revealed her love, and promised him that she would obey him in all things; she said that she could not live without him, and she offered him a large sum of money. Joseph rejected her propositions, but he could not get rid of her; she tried to kiss him, he resisted; she threw herself on him and fought with him, with him still resisting her, until her husband arrived. He saw Joseph, who tried to flee. Al-‘Azīz had an infirmity that prevented him from having sex with women. Then he said, “What is this?” Joseph began to apologize, but the woman interrupted him: “I was sleeping,” she said, “and he came seeking me.” But al-‘Aziīz understood that the fault came from her, and he said to Joseph, “Let it be”; that is to say, “Stop apologizing,” and turning to his wife: “Ask forgiveness for your crime,” he said, “because you are guilty.”
Meanwhile, the king had heard of the Syrian’s youth and beauty, and learned that al-‘Azīz had bought him for him. When he did not come, he asked the minister if the market was over. Al-‘Azīz told him what had happened, but without mentioning his own disability. The king allowed him to keep the young man; Joseph was imprisoned in the palace of the Minister, where he was forbidden to go out, and the king forgot about him.
Nahrāūs returned to his passion for pleasure, and he hid from the eyes of men, relying on al-‘Azīz to concern himself with communicating with his subjects and to rule the empire. The passion which Zulaīkha had conceived for Joseph came to the attention of several wives of the king’s courtiers, who spoke of it among themselves severely. Zulaīkha invited these women to a feast, and after they had eaten, she brought them drinks and made them sit on two long golden seats arranged facing each other; these seats were covered with yellow silk and gold cloth, and above them she had stretched plain or silk curtains. The women sat on them to drink; they brought them many fruits and knives embellished with gems. Zulaīkha told them: “You will cut the fruit with these knives.” They say that she offered them oranges, that is to say mitk. Then she ordered her stylists to prepare Joseph and bring him into the room where the women were busy drinking. The sun was just overlooking the entrance to this room. The stylists took hold of Joseph, adorned his hair with stones of all kinds, dressed him in a yellow silk robe with gold circles in the middle of which were little green patterns; they lowered his hair in bangs over his forehead, to the vicinity of eyebrows. They made it fall in curls over his ears and brought its ends onto his chest, and then they put in his hand a flyswatter of gold with green feathers.
When the women had eaten, they then sat down to drink, and Zulaīkha brought them fruit, cups, and knives. “I knew,” she told them then, “what you think of the adventure I had with my slave.” And they said, “Indeed, our judgment is that which was reported to you. We believe that a similar passion is unworthy of you; a woman of your beauty, your rank and your mind should claim only the love of the king’s son. How could you satisfy yourself with your slave?” Zulaīkha said, “You do not know what you say; the one I contented myself with was not so vile, and if I liked him, it is because he was worthy.”
Thereupon she made a sign to her stylists; they lifted up the outstretched curtain-doors at the back of the room, and Joseph walked in with the flyswatter in his hand. He came into the sunlight, and his face lit up the room and all that was there, and it seemed to reflect the sunlight so brightly that the women were almost blinded. They followed him with their eyes. He stopped before them, and began to cast out the flies; but they did not realize it, for they were lowering their knives onto their hands and their fingers, and cutting them instead of the fruit without realizing it and without feeling the pain of the injury. Zulaīkha spoke to them, but they did not hear, because of the stupefaction that fell upon them at the sight of Joseph. “What,” asked Zulaīkha; “does the sight of my slave stop you from hearing my words?” “God forbid,” they replied, “that we believe that this is your slave; it would be a wicked thought; it can only be a great king.” And there was none among them who did not feel herself seized and shot through with love for him (Quran 12:30-31).
Zulaīkha then said, “That is the one that earned me your disapproval.” “Much more than that would be needed,” they answered, “for anyone to reprove you now, for to blame you would be an outrage. Demand that he give himself to you!” “I’ve already asked him,” replied Zulaīkha, “and he refused; talk to him, all of you, and see if you can convince him. Promise him many good things from me if he gives in, and threaten him with punishment if he resists.” And each woman began to entreat him, secretly hoping to have him for herself, and promised him everything at their disposal. But he refused them all. When they could not obtain him for themselves, they solicited him on behalf of Zulaīkha. “Your mistress loves you,” they said to him, “and yet you refuse her. It is not necessary that you oppose her wishes. She will place you in beautiful mansions, and she will give you riches and jewels that will exceed all your desires.” “I do not need this,” Joseph replied.
When they saw that he did not give in, they were all of the opinion to do him violence. But Zulaīkha said, “This is not allowed and cannot be; but if he continues to refuse, I will cut him off from all pleasure, I will take from him all that I gave him, and I will send him to prison.” “O Lord,” cried Joseph, “prison pleases me more than what she asks of me.” Then Zulaīkha swore by her god, which was an emerald idol named Mercury, that if he did not consent to love her as she wanted, she would soon have to carry out her threats. Then she begged and implored that divinity’s assistance against Joseph. She then stripped off his clothes and dressed him in wool, and she begged her husband to imprison him so that she would no longer think of him. Al-‘Azīz willingly gave her what she asked, as a way to dismiss public suspicion of her and avoid all slander. Joseph was then incarcerated; he remained in prison seven years.
The king had a dream in which he saw coming towards him a man saying to him, “Such and such are plotting your downfall,” and he pointed to his baker and his cupbearer. The next morning, the king and asked them to come to him; both confessed. It is also said that one confessed and the other denied it. The king had them thrown, one and the other, into jail. The name of the baker was Rāsān and that of the cupbearer Marṭis. Joseph took care of many prisoners, he made them be patient, exhorted them, predicted their release, and interpreted their dreams. The baker and the cupbearer of the king told him the dreams they had had, as recounted in the Quran (12:36-41). Both then got out of prison, and according to what Joseph had predicted to them, the one who had confessed was put to death, and the other, that is to say the cupbearer, who had denied the accusation, was saved.
When the king had seen cows and ears in a dream, and he wanted to know the meaning, the cupbearer told him about Joseph. The king sent for him in prison, and Joseph interpreted the dream. It is also said that king told the envoy: “Question him about the vision before telling him of it”; the envoy obeyed and, hearing the answer he brought from Joseph, the king said: “Bring him to me.” The cupbearer returned to the prison to find him and bring him back. But Joseph said, “I will not leave here until a report is made to the king about my adventure with the women who cut their fingers and have been the cause of my imprisonment.” As soon as the king had been made aware of this matter, he sent for Zulaīkha and the women. He questioned them and recognized the truth. Zulaīkha and her companions confessed their sin. The king sent for Joseph; he was taken from prison, scrubbed of its dirt, purified, and clothed with garments similar to those which adorns kings.
As soon as he appeared before his sovereign, the latter was touched with love at the sight of him. He had him stay with him, paid him honors, and asked him about his vision. Joseph explained it to him, as God the Most High says in his Book. “And that will remedy the evils that threaten us?” he asked Joseph. “I will,” he said, “because I have the necessary science.” Then the king gave him the empire’s government, placed a tiara on him, and willed that all should dance around him; he gave him an escort of troops, had him reside in the royal palace, and had him sit on the throne of al-‘Azīz. He gave him the place of this minister and appointed to him his title al-‘Azīz (the powerful). Some authors say that al-‘Azīz had died and Joseph married his wife. When he was alone with her, he said, “This is better than what you wanted.” “My husband was sick,” she replied, “and it was impossible for a woman to see you, with your beauty and modesty, without her heart being inclined toward you.”
Joseph therefore set about governing the empire of Egypt according to his will. The years of plenty came; Joseph gathered fruit and placed it into storage with the greater part of the ears of grain; he bought from the people the plump kernels, and he amassed in his granaries a quantity that cannot be measured. Then came the years of drought. The Nile flood began to fail and each year its height decreased compared to the previous year; prices rose to the point that they bought comestibles with jewelry, money, clothing, vases, and buildings. The people of Egypt were about to emigrate, and they would have done so without the foresight of Joseph.
The people of Syria also suffered from the drought. Joseph had the adventure with his brothers that God has related in the Quran (12:58-98). He sent for his father and brought him to Egypt. He brought him to meet with the greatest lords of Egypt, and brought him to the king, who showed him great affection and esteem; he asked him, “O old man, what is your age and what is your profession, and what do you serve God?” “My age,” Jacob replied, “is 120 years; as for my occupation, I graze herds, which is what sustains me. The God I love is the Lord of the Worlds; He is the Lord of my fathers and your fathers, my God and your God, and the God of all creatures and the creator of all things.” There was at this meeting with the king a priest who enjoyed great authority among the Egyptians, whose name was Fīnāmīm. When he heard the words of Jacob, he could not help but intervene and said to Nahrāūs in the Egyptian language: “Egypt will be devastated at the hands of the descendants of this man.” “Give us proof,” replied Nahrāūs. Fīnāmīm turned to Jacob and said, “Any god that the eyes cannot see is nothing.” Jacob answered in rage: “You lie, enemy of God, and you are impious in this life. God Almighty is indeed something, but He is not like other things; He is the creator of them all and there is no other God but Him.” “Describe him to us,” retorted Fīnāmīm. “One can only describe the creature,” says Jacob, “not the Creator, because He is above all quantification. He is the unique, ancient, first, imperishable, judge of all things, ruler of all. He is present everywhere, and no atom escapes his knowledge, not in the darkness of the sea, nor in the depths of the land, nor the levels of heaven. He sees, but the eyes do not see Him; intelligence does not understand Him, no place can enclose Him as He existed before space and time, and he himself made space and time.”
And Jacob, irritated, rose to leave. The king sat down, and he ordered Fīnāmīm not to upset him on that matter and to talk to him about something else. The priest asked, “How many men did you bring with you? “Sixty,” replied Jacob?” “This is,” said Fīnāmīm, “the number that we find mentioned in our books. Egypt is to be devastated because of men like these, who come from Syria threescore in number.” “Does it happen in our time?” asked the king. “No, it will not happen until much later. However it is wisest to kill this man, and leave only person of his race.” Nahrāūs replied, “If things are as you say, we cannot prevent it. Besides, this man is not dangerous to us, since we do not have to fear that these threats will be fulfilled in our time. If we kill him, instead, these foreigners, whose power seems great, will bring onto us the calamity we fear for another. It is better to look more closely at the situation. The words of this old man have touched my heart; I admire his authority. He is a great and glorious leader, and we cannot harm him. Talk to him then in a softer tone, and dispute with him, if he agrees to debate with you.” Then began between Jacob and Fīnāmīm a dispute that was conducted with moderation and in which Jacob had the advantage. The patriarch then wanted to know Egypt, its towns and its wonders, its talismans and its magic. Fīnāmīm, having retired with him, told him all these things as a whole and in detail, obeying the command that Pharaoh had given him, concealing nothing. He explained everything to Jacob and revealed to him all the secrets so that no mysteries of Egypt remained hidden from him.
Jacob lived in Egypt, treated with great honor by Nahrāūs until his death. He asked that his body be transported to his home in Syria. He was placed in a coffin, and Joseph, accompanied by the principal Egyptians, went to inter him in the place of his burial. It is also said that Esau objected to him being buried in the place he had appointed, saying that the land was given to him by Isaac. But Joseph bought it from him at a decent price and placed therein the body of Jacob. Joseph then returned to live in Egypt where he had children.
It is claimed that Nahrāūs believed in Joseph, but he hid his faith, for fear of losing the empire. This Pharaoh reigned 120 years. It was under his reign that Joseph drained the Fayum for the king’s daughter. The people of Egypt had begun to speak ill of their sovereign, and they repeated: “The king is old, and his intelligence decreases.” Joseph warned Nahrāūs about this, and the king said, “I do not care for me. But here I gave my daughter a region of such and such, all filled with ponds and swamps. I would like to divert the water that is lost there and that which is stagnant, to make this a habitable and fertile land. Investigate this project and see how we can achieve it.” Joseph went to this place and there he sent the workers. He removed the waters, regularized their courses, established roads, filled holes, and transformed these wetlands into a vast land, rich and fertile, and he called the land Fayum. He completed this work in a very short space of time, and the people were in admiration of the intelligence of the king and the wisdom of his minister.
They say Nahrāūs is the first man who made geometric measurements in Egypt, and that he dug the Manha (a canal of Fayum) and built the Lāhūn (reservoir); he dispensed water in set quantities. This king died and was succeeded by his son Dārīmūs, whom the historians call Dārim, son of ar-Rayān.
Dārim
Dārim was the fourth Pharaoh. When new to power, he had a temperament opposite to that of his father. He kept Joseph as his lieutenant, because his father had made him promise with an oath to do so. Joseph gave him good advice that he sometimes followed and sometimes rejected. Under this king a silver mine was discovered three miles from the Nile. It was very productive. Dārim made with this metal a silver idol of the Moon, and set it up in stone fortress that his father had built to the east of the Nile. And he set up all around her silver idols he dressed in red silk robes. He instituted in honor of the chief idol a feast that was celebrated each month when the moon entered Cancer.
The king transported himself to diverse places of pleasure. Whenever he wanted to cause harm to his subjects, Joseph resisted and tried to dissuade him by every means in his power. But then Joseph died, aged 123. Dārim buried his body in the clothes of kings and laid him in a marble sarcophagus. This sarcophagus was buried on the west bank of the Nile, which became fecund while the eastern side stood barren. They removed the sarcophagus from the West Bank and carried it to the eastern shore, where they buried him again; now it was the western bank which remained barren. They then agreed to transport the sarcophagus each year from one side to the other of the Nile. Later they had the idea to add to the sarcophagus a strong copper ring to which they could attach it securely taut strings, and drag it to the middle of the Nile, where they let it go; since then both banks have been fecund at the same time.
They say that after Joseph Dārim took for a vizier the priest Bilāṭis. Bilāṭis advised him tp dp everything of which Joseph had disapproved. He pushed him to harm his subjects and to seize their property, and injustices soon exceeded all measure. His tyranny grew to the point that he made all of the comely women live in Memphis, and any time he heard talk of a beautiful woman, he sent for her and had her brother tither. The clamor over these excesses spread in the kingdom, and all the men were moved. Bilāṭis feared a revolt; he tried to persuade the king to change his behavior; he went to find him and persuaded him to be friendly in front of his subjects, to apologize to them, and to give them back their women. The king asked him to bring them together in his presence. He donned his richest garments, and gave the order to have them enter; they advanced, not knowing what would happen. But the king made an apology and canceled taxes for three years.
After that, Dārim built a wooden fortress that he filled with wonders. He went up in there with his wives and household. Soon he renewed his injustice; he began to abduct women and take the property of the people; and he allowed the nobles and key Copts to use the Israelites as slaves. Then he went back up into his wooden fortress. One night while he was there, as the Nile was already spreading over the land, as water filled the space between the hills and the moon cast its rays on the water, he wanted to move from one bank to another. He was unable to move the fortress of wood fast enough because of its heaviness, so he got into a small vessel with three of his servants and the woman who was his father’s sorceress. When the boat reached the middle of the river, there arose a violent wind. The ship capsized and the king and his people were drowned with him. The next day the court was perplexed, not knowing what had happened to the king, until his body was discovered by Shaṭnūf. They recognized him by his ring and a jewel he wore around his neck, and they brought him back to Memphis.
Ma‘ādiūs
The vizier gave power to the son of Dārim, Ma‘ādiūs, and seated him on the throne. He was a child. He was proclaimed by the army. Ma‘ādiūs canceled the taxes as did his father, and even for one more year; he promised his subjects to treat them well, and that he would obey them; he hastened to return their women. He was the fifth of the Pharaohs.
Under the reign of this king a flood took place that covered part of the country. His father’s vizier was dead, and Ma‘ādiūs appointed in his place a priest named Amlādah. When the king saw how the Israelites behaved, he was displeased, and he fixed a country in which they would reside there alone without being mixed with another population. They settled in a place opposite Memphis, and there they built a temple for worship, where they read the sheets of Abraham. A man attached to the house of the king loved an Israelite woman and wanted to marry her, but the Israelites did not consent. A Canaanite king made himself master of Syria and forbade the inhabitants to pay tribute to the king of Egypt.
Ma‘ādiūs attached himself to the care of temples and there devoted himself to the worship of the gods. The people surrounded him with great reverence. His soul was proud; he commanded his subjects to call him their Lord. He thought himself too lofty to deal with affairs of state, and bringing together men, he said: “I have seen fit to hand over power to my son Aqsāmis. I will be behind him until my person becomes invisible, as I promised.” They were satisfied with these words and said, “Let the king decide as he pleases; we are his slaves and those of any master the gods give us.” The king saw that the people submitted to his will and they said nothing against him, so he established in his place his son Aqsāmis.
Chapter 11: The Pharaoh of Moses
Aqsāmis
Aqsāmis sat on the throne, crowned with the tiara of his father. The Nāzirs stood before him. He filled vacant offices, delimitated the nomes and districts, encouraged agriculture, and spread largesse among the people. His authority was great and his reign happy.
[Aqsāmis is the king historians call Kāshim, son of Ma‘dān, son of Dārim, and he was the sixth Pharaoh]. He founded many towns in the lower region, and he performed many wonders too numerous to list. Bokht-Naṣṣar, when he conquered Egypt, took a great number.
The first seven years of the Aqsāmis government were happy and prosperous. Then the vizier of his father died, and he appointed in his place a man of the royal house called Ṭalmā son of Qūmis. This man was brave, versed in magic and divination, a good scribe, wise, prudent, and knowing all things. He maintained the prosperity of the kingdom and the people loved him. He erected many monuments, cultivated the wasteland, and founded cities. Having learned from his astrological observations that a drought and misery should occur, he did what the king Nahrāūs did, as we have mentioned above. He built temples. They say the Lighthouse of Alexandria was built in the time of Aqsāmis. Under the same rule, the salt sea transgressed its limits and submerged a number of villages, gardens, and works of art.
It is reported that Aqsāmis spent some time hidden from the eyes of men. Others say that he died and his death was not divulged. His reign until the time of his disappearance lasted 31 years. Ṭalmā then administered the empire for eleven years. But men could no longer be received by the king, were alarmed, and the rumor spread among them that Ṭalmā had killed him by poison. Therefore, hey said to the vizier, “It is essential that we see the king.” Ṭalmā informed them that he had removed himself from power and that he had put in his place his son Lāṭis. But they did not believe his word. He had to call the troops. Their squadrons went forth with weapons, and the people departed.
Lāṭis
Lāṭis sat on the throne, and crowned himself with the tiara. He was brave and handsome. He made large promises to the men: “If you conduct yourselves well with me,” he said, “I will conduct myself well with you; but if you stray from your duties to me, I will move away from you.” He lashed the craftsmen to their work; he stripped the dignities from several major personages, and he dismissed Ṭalmā, son of Qūmis, from whom he took the title of vizier. He chose in his place a man named Lāhūq, the offspring of Ṣā the elder, son of Tedāris, and he gave him his seal; this man was a priest. Ṭalmā was relegated to the Ṣa‘īd with the title of governor, and the king sent with him a colony of Israelites. He then set about rebuilding monuments, restoring temples, and building towns; they exploited in his time many mines and treasures.
Lāṭis loved wisdom. But he swelled with pride and became unjust. He forbade all those who came to visit him in his palace, priests or others, to sit down; they were forced to stand until they departed. He sought to harm his subjects and treated them with increasing harshness; he seized their property and filled his treasury; he coveted their wives and took many. The people suffered painfully his violence and outrages. He reduced to slavery the children of Israel; many priests perished by his orders. The great men and all the people hated him.
Ṭalmā, who was relegated to the government of Ṣa‘īd, gathered troops against him, and he marched on Memphis with a great army. Lāṭis set out to meet him. Ṭalmā gave him battle, assailed Lāṭis, and killed him. He continued his march, entered Memphis, and sacked the city.
Ṭalmā
Ṭalmā, son of Qūmis settled in the king’s palace and sat on the throne. He took all that was found in the royal treasures. This prince, according to the Copts, is the Pharaoh of Moses. Historians call him al-Welīd ibn Muṣ‘ab, and they believe him an Amalekite; they say there were seven Pharaohs. Ṭalmā, it is reported, was small, with a long beard, dark blue eyes shot through with red, the left eye smaller than the other; he had a black spot on the forehead, and it is said he limped. Some scholars believe he was Coptic, and they give evidence in the form of the preference he had for the people of this race and that he contracted marriages from among them.
When he was seated on the throne, the people were divided in their opinion about it. He began by giving largesse; he showed kindness to those who obeyed him, but killed those who resisted him. His authority strengthened. He gave all his attention to establishing men in their ranks, strengthening monuments, founding cities, and digging ditches. In the neighborhood of al-‘Arīsh he built a fortress, and he placed more along the borders of Egypt. He took for a vizier Hāmān (Quran 28:6), who was one of his relatives. He exploited the treasury, spending to build cities, expand agriculture, and cut a number of canals. He is credited with building the canal of Sardūs. Whenever he passed through one of the towns of Jauf, the inhabitants brought him money; and he amassed large sums and then returned them to those who had given them to him. In his time, Egypt’s income reached 97 million [dinars]. He let people in charge remain in possession of their jobs. They say he is the first who instituted such a policy.
Among the Israelites who had accompanied him, was a man called Amrī, who is the same as ‘Amrān, the father of Moses. He appointed him guardian of his palace, and he ordered the closing and watching of the gates at night. Ṭalmā, who knew the art of divination, saw its loss happen because of an Israelite child. He forbade the Israelites to approach their wives for three years, because he knew that this child would be born during this time. But the wife of Amrī or ‘Amrān, having come to bring something to her husband during the night, something she had prepared, he made her pregnant with Aaron; and in the third year he made her pregnant with Moses. Ṭalmā knew by his art that the child was conceived. He then ordered the death of all the Israelites’ male newborns; but he forbade harming ‘Amrān because he was of his house and guard of his palace. It is in these conditions that Moses [whom the Copts called Mush or Mosīs] was born.
What then became of him is what God has told in his Book: his mother put him in a box and threw it into the Nile. The box was brought to the king’s palace, where one of his wives gathered the child; and the king gave him to his mother. He did not want him killed; and when Moses had grown up and was strong, he delegated to him a share of his authority, and he made him one of his generals; the young man was endowed with great bravery. The king then sent him to battle the Kūshān that caused damage to the borders of Egypt. He led a powerful army against them and God gave him the victory; he killed many, made many of them prisoners, and he returned safe and laden with booty. Pharaoh and his wife welcomed his victory; he gave him, despite his youth, a considerable part in the administration of the empire, and he used him as his principle vizier, until the day that Moses, having killed a noble Copt, close to the king, fled.
Moses then came into the land of Midian; he received in marriage the daughter of Yaṭrūn or Sho‘aīb, whom he promised to graze his cattle for a while; he remained in his service until the agreed time. Then God sent him to Pharaoh. Then his wife had conceived a child. He went to find fire for them, but God spoke to him on the mountain of the Ṭūr. “Go to Pharaoh,” he said, and he gave him his brother Aaron to help. Moses left his wife in the state she was in, and he went to fulfill the mission of his Lord. His wife brought the child into the world; God sent Jibrīl who brought all that was needed for the time of childbirth; she had a son of great beauty. The herds were grazing away from her at this moment; they returned without a shepherd. Jibrīl took the child and carried him to Moses, who was marching to Egypt. Moses kissed him, put his saliva into his mouth, and gave him back to his mother. She was then met by a man of the family of Sho‘aīb, who brought her back to Midian.
Moses arrived in Egypt and he met his brother Aaron; he did not at first recognize him because of the long time that had passed in his absence. Aaron was in the process of washing himself on the banks of the Nile. Moses asked him for hospitality and he granted it; he made him eat peas in which he had cut bread into small pieces. The two brothers recognized each other and were happy to meet again. Moses told Aaron that God had sent him, he had chosen him as his prophet, and his brother to be his assistant.
So they went together to Pharaoh, and they spent several days waiting. Both were dressed in long woolen tunics, and Moses carried his rod given to him by Sho‘aīb. This staff was one of his signs. Every day the two brothers returned to sit before the king’s door; but they were unable to see him because of the severity of the guards. Finally a buffoon of the Pharaoh put to him the fact of the matter: “There are at your door,” he said, “two men who ask to enter your house; they think it is their God who sends them.” The king ordered that they should by admitted. Moses spoke to him, and showed him the sign of the rod and the sign of whiteness that was in his hand. These were two of his signs, which in total were nine in number. He held a discourse that God recorded in the Quran.
The presumption of Moses angered Pharaoh. He wanted him to die, but God stopped him and turned his anger against him. They say that Ṭalmā saw a personage mounted on a gigantic figure, who touched his hand to the eyes of soldiers armed against Moses and made them blind. He gave others orders to kill him, but he saw a fire spring up, burning them.
These prodigies merely increased his anger. He asked Moses, “Where did you obtain these great secrets? Was it the magicians of my country who have taught them to you, or did you discover them after you fled from me?” Moses said, “These are the secrets of heaven; they do not come to me from the earth.” “And who is the master?” replied the king. “He is the master of the palace on high.” “I still think,” Pharaoh said, “that you obtained them in our country.” And he commanded the magicians and priests to gather and all those who possessed some mysteries. Then he said, “Prepare your most difficult works, because I wish to see whether the secrets of the magicians are profound.” They told him what they could do. Their proposals pleased him, and summoning Moses, he said, “I have overcome your magic, because I found men who surpass you.” Thereupon he summoned them for the day of az-Zīnah (adornment), which was one of their festivals, and he proposed the condition that the winner would be followed by the others. But already many people in the country had begun to follow Moses.
The magicians presented themselves, 140,000 in number. They cast spells in which their faces seemed colorful and misshapen. Some were stretched long, others widened; some were reversed, with the forehead on the bottom and the beard on top; some grew horns; others became as big as shields; still others were adorned with long ears or became similar to monkeys. They thus produced illusions of all kinds, and among them, a massive body that reached the clouds, giant flying snakes that rose into the air and turned against each other, a snake whose mouth emitted a fire that almost seemed to burn the world, snakes with heads and hair and tails tipped with faces, and many other satanic figures. They then made a smoke appear which darkened the eyes of those present to the point that they were not able to see, and more smoke which went up in the air in the fiery forms riding different types of beasts, which clashed with each other; one could hear the rattling and rumbling of the clashes. Other forms appeared, mounted on green steeds, and black shapes on black steeds.
When he saw all their prodigies, and Pharaoh rejoiced, along with his entourage and all the people that were with him. Moses, however, was grieved; and those who believed in him disowned their faith, fearing a movement of the people against them. The magicians had three leaders, [though the Copts say seventy-two]. So when Moses saw all these things, he was in extreme anxiety. But God sent Jibrīl, who said: “Fear not; for you are the strongest; just throw down that which you hold in your right hand.” These words returned to Moses the joy and the desire to convert people; his anguish ceased. He spoke to the leaders of the magicians and said, “I have seen what you are capable of; if I am able to defeat you, will you believe in God?” They replied, “Certainly, we will believe.”
Pharaoh, who had come into the middle of the magicians, heard Moses and was angry. He thought about sending back the multitude; then he returned to his place to see how the matter would end. The excited crowd taunted Moses and his brother. They were both dressed in woolen shirts and girded with palm ropes.
Moses, invoking the name of God the merciful and compassionate, lifted his staff and let it float in the air. Jibrīl took it and carried it until it disappeared from the eyes of those present. Then the staff returned as a huge ṭu‘bān snake with two eyes as big as shields and all aflame. Fire also came from its mouth and nostrils; it was animated by God in a rage that was growing, and every drop of its slime falling on a man gave him leprosy. Pharaoh’s daughter was touched by this leprosy. The snake descended, opening its mouth and devouring all the ghostly products of the magicians; he swallowed two hundred boats that were on the river, loaded with timber and ropes, with all that they contained and the sailors who manned them. There was a canal that passed through the house of Pharaoh, with many columns and stones, gathered there to be used in planned buildings. The snake swallowed them all. He then advanced towards the palace of Pharaoh to swallow it. Pharaoh was in a dome, built on one side of the castle, where he had watched the spectacle of all the previous prodigies. The serpent engaged his lower jaw under the palace and placed its upper jaw above the dome; its mouth exhaled a fire, and part of the palace was burned. Pharaoh began to cry, and he implored the help of Moses. The prophet removed the snake from him, and it turned itself against the crowd. It reached several people whom it devoured; others fled and fell down in heaps; the snake was about to engulf them when Moses caught it; it immediately became a staff in his hand as it had been before. There remained no trace of the vessels or timber they contained, or the ropes, or the sailors who manned the ships, or the columns and stones, or the water that the snake had been drinking in the canal, of such quantity that it was almost dry.
When the magicians saw that all these things had disappeared without a trace, they said: “This must be a work of a son of Adam; we can produce many illusions, but none to remove things before our eyes.” Moses answered them: “Therefore keep your promise; otherwise I will give the serpent power against you to devour you as it has devoured others.” Then the magicians believed in him and they rebuked Pharaoh, saying, “This is the work of God in heaven, not the gods of the earth.” But Pharaoh replied, “I see you are all united against me and against my empire, and talk of me only in hate.” And he had a hand and foot cut off of each of them on the opposite side, after which he crucified them; before giving up the ghost, they saw their place in Paradise. Pharaoh’s wife also disapproved; she suffered the same fate. Anyone who then declared himself a believer perished through the same punishment.
A spirit had told the king: “I am the lord of heaven, and you are the lord of the land; I will make you my minister and I will make you the master of all creatures that inhabit the land.” The king puffed with pride at these words and pretended to divinity. Then he dug the canals and planted trees. But when the mission of Moses began, the spirit which had spoken to the king lost its power; talismans, lighthouses, and several temples fell; the idols fell with their faces against the ground. Moses brought out his wonderful rains, locusts, flies, frogs, and turned water to blood. Israelite women then poured water from their mouths into the mouths of the Copts, and this water on their lips changed into freshly spilled blood. Coptic women took flour cakes to eat and they found they had bitten into frogs. Grasshoppers and flies destroyed the crops of the Egyptians; water ruined their monuments and parts of their homes; they realized that nothing could divert these scourges.
Pharaoh was in great confusion. He tried to negotiate with Moses and he promised to appoint him his lieutenant over the whole empire; but Hāmān and priests disapproved of these concessions. Pharaoh then ordered his men to kill Moses. They went in a body to him to execute the order; but there arose a fire that burned them all. The king, meanwhile, had a vision in which he was seized by the feet and knocked down, upside down, on top of a fire; he begged for mercy, saying: “I believe in Moses and his Lord,” and then he was freed. He called Hāmān, told him of these facts and said, “We do not have enough resources, so I will declare myself as believing in Moses.” But Hāmān said, “It is he who sent this vision to scare you. Would you then become a slave after being a god? Your subjects will despise you and will tear away your empire.” Thereupon the king abandoned his project. He negotiated with Moses in secret, and asked him for delays. After each expired and Pharaoh had done nothing, disastrous calamities fell upon the Egyptians; their houses were ruined, their crops devastated, and fatal prodigies multiplied in their homes. The people began to fear and respect Moses, and many believed in him secretly. As soon as someone believed, he was spared the plagues.
With horrors constantly increasing, Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “If I yield to you, what will you give me in return?” The Prophet replied, “I will restore your youth, I will double the time you have to live, and I will turn away from you all infirmities. You will be assured of your empire and your power will extend over all the kings who try to battle you. You will have plenty of pleasures, food, and beverages.” “If it is so,” said Pharaoh, “you act with generosity. So wait for me a day.” And the king returned to consult Hāmān; he depricated the agreement and said: “Better to die tomorrow.” When Moses saw that he could convince Pharaoh, he said: “Free for me at least the children of Israel.” “You want to remove them from my country,” said the king, “only to become their leader and sovereign. I have need of their services, and what you are asking me is out of hatred for me.” Moses said, “At least cease to anger the divine.” “If I do, I will be diminished in the eyes of my people.” “Well, then,” Moses said, “God will kill you and your men will perish, and he will throw your souls into hell to burn.” Pharaoh said: “I want to do what you demand secretly, for I cannot do it in public, and I will bring your God beautiful offerings.” “My God,” said Moses, “will be satisfied only if all the people believe in him; for you to be faithful to him alone and secretly will not satisfy Him. He will receive nothing from you in secret; He wants public worship. If you do not resolve yourself to what is commanded of you,” said the Prophet, “God will cause you to perish with all that you have; the omen of your loss will be the ruin of temples and falling idols. Here you have long delayed giving me what I demand. I warned you of the danger of the delay; God will rush punishment to you without delay.”
And Pharaoh let the deadline pass that Moses had set him for fulfilling his promises to the children of Israel. The Prophet, seeing that he could not receive justice and that his patience was futile, conceived of affliction; he feared that the king would take cruel measures against the Israelites, and he decided to take them out of the country.
Around that time, the Israelites were to come together to celebrate a festival. Moses ordered their wives to exchange ornaments with those of Coptic women, they borrowed all the dresses or jewels they could to adorn themselves on the day of the festival. They obeyed, and then they invited Coptic women to eat and drink with them. Moses put the Israelites a bit further towards the east, and he ordered them to be ready at this point. When the crowd had eaten and drunk, Moses struck the Copts with numbness that made them unable to move. Then he left in the beginning of the night with all the Israelites. They numbered 640-odd thousand.
The Israelites retrieved the coffin of Joseph from the middle of the Nile and carried it with them. An old Coptic woman who believed in Moses had told them the place. This woman took part in their Exodus. The Israelites went toward the sea of al-Qulzum so their footprints might not be seen.
At the end of the night, Pharaoh was warned of their departure. They told him how the Israelite wives had borrowed ornaments from the Coptic women and summoned them to their festival. Pharaoh immediately sat down to take counsel; he assembled his men, and when they came, he ordered them to ready themselves to leave to pursue the Israelites. He gave them three days to make these preparations. All those who lived near the palace and all those who were distant belonging to the king’s troops and squadrons were ordered to leave and join him in the greatest hurry. On the morning of the fourth day, the men marched, led by their king, in the footsteps of Benū Israel. There was no son of a prince nor any person attached to the service of the great and distinguished in any capacity who was not a part of this army. The number of soldiers outnumbered the soldiers of Moses by six million. [Variant: The number of Egyptian soldiers was one million.]
Moses met no monument he did not overthrow, and no idol but that he made it fall on its face. He led his people carefully and brought them to the vicinity of the sea. As soon as he saw the waters, Moses said to his brother, “Advance into the sea, and call out the name of Abu’l-Abbās, and order him to smooth the waves and suspend its motion until I arrive with those who follow me.” Aaron went ahead to execute this order. Then Moses moved forth with all the people, guided by Aaron. Arriving at the seaside, the Prophet struck it with his rod; the sea split before his eyes, and opened twelve dry paths. Each tribe took one of these paths; they were separated by thin arches of water through which other groups could be seen. All the people went in through these pathways. Moses went in last.
Pharaoh immediately came up behind the Israelites. When he saw them in the sea, he wanted to give up his pursuit, for fear of the waves. But Jibrīl appeared on a horse with white markings, and walked in the footsteps of the Israelites. The horse of Pharaoh, seeing that of Jibrīl, rushed impetuously to follow without Pharaoh being able to restrain him because he was a blood horse (thoroughbred) and he himself was old. When the king had entered into the open path through the waters, his army followed him to the last man. He arrived in the middle of the sea at the moment when Moses and the tribes exited on the other side. So God, through the voice of Jibrīl, commanded the Prophet to close the waters over Pharaoh and his people; and Moses obeyed.
The king, seeing that he was lost, exclaimed: “I believe in one God who is the God of Benū Israel. I am one of the Muslims!” But he did not say this sincerely. Jibrīl heard, and stoning him with a handful of stones, he struck him in the face and closed his mouth, lest the Almighty have mercy upon him because of his words. The sea swallowed the whole army of the Egyptians; none of them was saved; and their souls were thrown into hell. When they were dead, God threw back several of their bodies, including that of Pharaoh, on the seashore in a high place; these bodies served as witnesses and examples. This is what God told in the Book revealed by Him to the Prophet Muhammad.
This completes and ends the book of the history of time and that which was destroyed by revolutions, the wonders of countries, of seas and of the land [variant: Here ends the digest of wonders and rarities]; with the help and strength of God, to whom be praise and glory for all His gifts, His graces, and His blessings.
Aqsāmis sat on the throne, crowned with the tiara of his father. The Nāzirs stood before him. He filled vacant offices, delimitated the nomes and districts, encouraged agriculture, and spread largesse among the people. His authority was great and his reign happy.
[Aqsāmis is the king historians call Kāshim, son of Ma‘dān, son of Dārim, and he was the sixth Pharaoh]. He founded many towns in the lower region, and he performed many wonders too numerous to list. Bokht-Naṣṣar, when he conquered Egypt, took a great number.
The first seven years of the Aqsāmis government were happy and prosperous. Then the vizier of his father died, and he appointed in his place a man of the royal house called Ṭalmā son of Qūmis. This man was brave, versed in magic and divination, a good scribe, wise, prudent, and knowing all things. He maintained the prosperity of the kingdom and the people loved him. He erected many monuments, cultivated the wasteland, and founded cities. Having learned from his astrological observations that a drought and misery should occur, he did what the king Nahrāūs did, as we have mentioned above. He built temples. They say the Lighthouse of Alexandria was built in the time of Aqsāmis. Under the same rule, the salt sea transgressed its limits and submerged a number of villages, gardens, and works of art.
It is reported that Aqsāmis spent some time hidden from the eyes of men. Others say that he died and his death was not divulged. His reign until the time of his disappearance lasted 31 years. Ṭalmā then administered the empire for eleven years. But men could no longer be received by the king, were alarmed, and the rumor spread among them that Ṭalmā had killed him by poison. Therefore, hey said to the vizier, “It is essential that we see the king.” Ṭalmā informed them that he had removed himself from power and that he had put in his place his son Lāṭis. But they did not believe his word. He had to call the troops. Their squadrons went forth with weapons, and the people departed.
Lāṭis
Lāṭis sat on the throne, and crowned himself with the tiara. He was brave and handsome. He made large promises to the men: “If you conduct yourselves well with me,” he said, “I will conduct myself well with you; but if you stray from your duties to me, I will move away from you.” He lashed the craftsmen to their work; he stripped the dignities from several major personages, and he dismissed Ṭalmā, son of Qūmis, from whom he took the title of vizier. He chose in his place a man named Lāhūq, the offspring of Ṣā the elder, son of Tedāris, and he gave him his seal; this man was a priest. Ṭalmā was relegated to the Ṣa‘īd with the title of governor, and the king sent with him a colony of Israelites. He then set about rebuilding monuments, restoring temples, and building towns; they exploited in his time many mines and treasures.
Lāṭis loved wisdom. But he swelled with pride and became unjust. He forbade all those who came to visit him in his palace, priests or others, to sit down; they were forced to stand until they departed. He sought to harm his subjects and treated them with increasing harshness; he seized their property and filled his treasury; he coveted their wives and took many. The people suffered painfully his violence and outrages. He reduced to slavery the children of Israel; many priests perished by his orders. The great men and all the people hated him.
Ṭalmā, who was relegated to the government of Ṣa‘īd, gathered troops against him, and he marched on Memphis with a great army. Lāṭis set out to meet him. Ṭalmā gave him battle, assailed Lāṭis, and killed him. He continued his march, entered Memphis, and sacked the city.
Ṭalmā
Ṭalmā, son of Qūmis settled in the king’s palace and sat on the throne. He took all that was found in the royal treasures. This prince, according to the Copts, is the Pharaoh of Moses. Historians call him al-Welīd ibn Muṣ‘ab, and they believe him an Amalekite; they say there were seven Pharaohs. Ṭalmā, it is reported, was small, with a long beard, dark blue eyes shot through with red, the left eye smaller than the other; he had a black spot on the forehead, and it is said he limped. Some scholars believe he was Coptic, and they give evidence in the form of the preference he had for the people of this race and that he contracted marriages from among them.
When he was seated on the throne, the people were divided in their opinion about it. He began by giving largesse; he showed kindness to those who obeyed him, but killed those who resisted him. His authority strengthened. He gave all his attention to establishing men in their ranks, strengthening monuments, founding cities, and digging ditches. In the neighborhood of al-‘Arīsh he built a fortress, and he placed more along the borders of Egypt. He took for a vizier Hāmān (Quran 28:6), who was one of his relatives. He exploited the treasury, spending to build cities, expand agriculture, and cut a number of canals. He is credited with building the canal of Sardūs. Whenever he passed through one of the towns of Jauf, the inhabitants brought him money; and he amassed large sums and then returned them to those who had given them to him. In his time, Egypt’s income reached 97 million [dinars]. He let people in charge remain in possession of their jobs. They say he is the first who instituted such a policy.
Among the Israelites who had accompanied him, was a man called Amrī, who is the same as ‘Amrān, the father of Moses. He appointed him guardian of his palace, and he ordered the closing and watching of the gates at night. Ṭalmā, who knew the art of divination, saw its loss happen because of an Israelite child. He forbade the Israelites to approach their wives for three years, because he knew that this child would be born during this time. But the wife of Amrī or ‘Amrān, having come to bring something to her husband during the night, something she had prepared, he made her pregnant with Aaron; and in the third year he made her pregnant with Moses. Ṭalmā knew by his art that the child was conceived. He then ordered the death of all the Israelites’ male newborns; but he forbade harming ‘Amrān because he was of his house and guard of his palace. It is in these conditions that Moses [whom the Copts called Mush or Mosīs] was born.
What then became of him is what God has told in his Book: his mother put him in a box and threw it into the Nile. The box was brought to the king’s palace, where one of his wives gathered the child; and the king gave him to his mother. He did not want him killed; and when Moses had grown up and was strong, he delegated to him a share of his authority, and he made him one of his generals; the young man was endowed with great bravery. The king then sent him to battle the Kūshān that caused damage to the borders of Egypt. He led a powerful army against them and God gave him the victory; he killed many, made many of them prisoners, and he returned safe and laden with booty. Pharaoh and his wife welcomed his victory; he gave him, despite his youth, a considerable part in the administration of the empire, and he used him as his principle vizier, until the day that Moses, having killed a noble Copt, close to the king, fled.
Moses then came into the land of Midian; he received in marriage the daughter of Yaṭrūn or Sho‘aīb, whom he promised to graze his cattle for a while; he remained in his service until the agreed time. Then God sent him to Pharaoh. Then his wife had conceived a child. He went to find fire for them, but God spoke to him on the mountain of the Ṭūr. “Go to Pharaoh,” he said, and he gave him his brother Aaron to help. Moses left his wife in the state she was in, and he went to fulfill the mission of his Lord. His wife brought the child into the world; God sent Jibrīl who brought all that was needed for the time of childbirth; she had a son of great beauty. The herds were grazing away from her at this moment; they returned without a shepherd. Jibrīl took the child and carried him to Moses, who was marching to Egypt. Moses kissed him, put his saliva into his mouth, and gave him back to his mother. She was then met by a man of the family of Sho‘aīb, who brought her back to Midian.
Moses arrived in Egypt and he met his brother Aaron; he did not at first recognize him because of the long time that had passed in his absence. Aaron was in the process of washing himself on the banks of the Nile. Moses asked him for hospitality and he granted it; he made him eat peas in which he had cut bread into small pieces. The two brothers recognized each other and were happy to meet again. Moses told Aaron that God had sent him, he had chosen him as his prophet, and his brother to be his assistant.
So they went together to Pharaoh, and they spent several days waiting. Both were dressed in long woolen tunics, and Moses carried his rod given to him by Sho‘aīb. This staff was one of his signs. Every day the two brothers returned to sit before the king’s door; but they were unable to see him because of the severity of the guards. Finally a buffoon of the Pharaoh put to him the fact of the matter: “There are at your door,” he said, “two men who ask to enter your house; they think it is their God who sends them.” The king ordered that they should by admitted. Moses spoke to him, and showed him the sign of the rod and the sign of whiteness that was in his hand. These were two of his signs, which in total were nine in number. He held a discourse that God recorded in the Quran.
The presumption of Moses angered Pharaoh. He wanted him to die, but God stopped him and turned his anger against him. They say that Ṭalmā saw a personage mounted on a gigantic figure, who touched his hand to the eyes of soldiers armed against Moses and made them blind. He gave others orders to kill him, but he saw a fire spring up, burning them.
These prodigies merely increased his anger. He asked Moses, “Where did you obtain these great secrets? Was it the magicians of my country who have taught them to you, or did you discover them after you fled from me?” Moses said, “These are the secrets of heaven; they do not come to me from the earth.” “And who is the master?” replied the king. “He is the master of the palace on high.” “I still think,” Pharaoh said, “that you obtained them in our country.” And he commanded the magicians and priests to gather and all those who possessed some mysteries. Then he said, “Prepare your most difficult works, because I wish to see whether the secrets of the magicians are profound.” They told him what they could do. Their proposals pleased him, and summoning Moses, he said, “I have overcome your magic, because I found men who surpass you.” Thereupon he summoned them for the day of az-Zīnah (adornment), which was one of their festivals, and he proposed the condition that the winner would be followed by the others. But already many people in the country had begun to follow Moses.
The magicians presented themselves, 140,000 in number. They cast spells in which their faces seemed colorful and misshapen. Some were stretched long, others widened; some were reversed, with the forehead on the bottom and the beard on top; some grew horns; others became as big as shields; still others were adorned with long ears or became similar to monkeys. They thus produced illusions of all kinds, and among them, a massive body that reached the clouds, giant flying snakes that rose into the air and turned against each other, a snake whose mouth emitted a fire that almost seemed to burn the world, snakes with heads and hair and tails tipped with faces, and many other satanic figures. They then made a smoke appear which darkened the eyes of those present to the point that they were not able to see, and more smoke which went up in the air in the fiery forms riding different types of beasts, which clashed with each other; one could hear the rattling and rumbling of the clashes. Other forms appeared, mounted on green steeds, and black shapes on black steeds.
When he saw all their prodigies, and Pharaoh rejoiced, along with his entourage and all the people that were with him. Moses, however, was grieved; and those who believed in him disowned their faith, fearing a movement of the people against them. The magicians had three leaders, [though the Copts say seventy-two]. So when Moses saw all these things, he was in extreme anxiety. But God sent Jibrīl, who said: “Fear not; for you are the strongest; just throw down that which you hold in your right hand.” These words returned to Moses the joy and the desire to convert people; his anguish ceased. He spoke to the leaders of the magicians and said, “I have seen what you are capable of; if I am able to defeat you, will you believe in God?” They replied, “Certainly, we will believe.”
Pharaoh, who had come into the middle of the magicians, heard Moses and was angry. He thought about sending back the multitude; then he returned to his place to see how the matter would end. The excited crowd taunted Moses and his brother. They were both dressed in woolen shirts and girded with palm ropes.
Moses, invoking the name of God the merciful and compassionate, lifted his staff and let it float in the air. Jibrīl took it and carried it until it disappeared from the eyes of those present. Then the staff returned as a huge ṭu‘bān snake with two eyes as big as shields and all aflame. Fire also came from its mouth and nostrils; it was animated by God in a rage that was growing, and every drop of its slime falling on a man gave him leprosy. Pharaoh’s daughter was touched by this leprosy. The snake descended, opening its mouth and devouring all the ghostly products of the magicians; he swallowed two hundred boats that were on the river, loaded with timber and ropes, with all that they contained and the sailors who manned them. There was a canal that passed through the house of Pharaoh, with many columns and stones, gathered there to be used in planned buildings. The snake swallowed them all. He then advanced towards the palace of Pharaoh to swallow it. Pharaoh was in a dome, built on one side of the castle, where he had watched the spectacle of all the previous prodigies. The serpent engaged his lower jaw under the palace and placed its upper jaw above the dome; its mouth exhaled a fire, and part of the palace was burned. Pharaoh began to cry, and he implored the help of Moses. The prophet removed the snake from him, and it turned itself against the crowd. It reached several people whom it devoured; others fled and fell down in heaps; the snake was about to engulf them when Moses caught it; it immediately became a staff in his hand as it had been before. There remained no trace of the vessels or timber they contained, or the ropes, or the sailors who manned the ships, or the columns and stones, or the water that the snake had been drinking in the canal, of such quantity that it was almost dry.
When the magicians saw that all these things had disappeared without a trace, they said: “This must be a work of a son of Adam; we can produce many illusions, but none to remove things before our eyes.” Moses answered them: “Therefore keep your promise; otherwise I will give the serpent power against you to devour you as it has devoured others.” Then the magicians believed in him and they rebuked Pharaoh, saying, “This is the work of God in heaven, not the gods of the earth.” But Pharaoh replied, “I see you are all united against me and against my empire, and talk of me only in hate.” And he had a hand and foot cut off of each of them on the opposite side, after which he crucified them; before giving up the ghost, they saw their place in Paradise. Pharaoh’s wife also disapproved; she suffered the same fate. Anyone who then declared himself a believer perished through the same punishment.
A spirit had told the king: “I am the lord of heaven, and you are the lord of the land; I will make you my minister and I will make you the master of all creatures that inhabit the land.” The king puffed with pride at these words and pretended to divinity. Then he dug the canals and planted trees. But when the mission of Moses began, the spirit which had spoken to the king lost its power; talismans, lighthouses, and several temples fell; the idols fell with their faces against the ground. Moses brought out his wonderful rains, locusts, flies, frogs, and turned water to blood. Israelite women then poured water from their mouths into the mouths of the Copts, and this water on their lips changed into freshly spilled blood. Coptic women took flour cakes to eat and they found they had bitten into frogs. Grasshoppers and flies destroyed the crops of the Egyptians; water ruined their monuments and parts of their homes; they realized that nothing could divert these scourges.
Pharaoh was in great confusion. He tried to negotiate with Moses and he promised to appoint him his lieutenant over the whole empire; but Hāmān and priests disapproved of these concessions. Pharaoh then ordered his men to kill Moses. They went in a body to him to execute the order; but there arose a fire that burned them all. The king, meanwhile, had a vision in which he was seized by the feet and knocked down, upside down, on top of a fire; he begged for mercy, saying: “I believe in Moses and his Lord,” and then he was freed. He called Hāmān, told him of these facts and said, “We do not have enough resources, so I will declare myself as believing in Moses.” But Hāmān said, “It is he who sent this vision to scare you. Would you then become a slave after being a god? Your subjects will despise you and will tear away your empire.” Thereupon the king abandoned his project. He negotiated with Moses in secret, and asked him for delays. After each expired and Pharaoh had done nothing, disastrous calamities fell upon the Egyptians; their houses were ruined, their crops devastated, and fatal prodigies multiplied in their homes. The people began to fear and respect Moses, and many believed in him secretly. As soon as someone believed, he was spared the plagues.
With horrors constantly increasing, Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “If I yield to you, what will you give me in return?” The Prophet replied, “I will restore your youth, I will double the time you have to live, and I will turn away from you all infirmities. You will be assured of your empire and your power will extend over all the kings who try to battle you. You will have plenty of pleasures, food, and beverages.” “If it is so,” said Pharaoh, “you act with generosity. So wait for me a day.” And the king returned to consult Hāmān; he depricated the agreement and said: “Better to die tomorrow.” When Moses saw that he could convince Pharaoh, he said: “Free for me at least the children of Israel.” “You want to remove them from my country,” said the king, “only to become their leader and sovereign. I have need of their services, and what you are asking me is out of hatred for me.” Moses said, “At least cease to anger the divine.” “If I do, I will be diminished in the eyes of my people.” “Well, then,” Moses said, “God will kill you and your men will perish, and he will throw your souls into hell to burn.” Pharaoh said: “I want to do what you demand secretly, for I cannot do it in public, and I will bring your God beautiful offerings.” “My God,” said Moses, “will be satisfied only if all the people believe in him; for you to be faithful to him alone and secretly will not satisfy Him. He will receive nothing from you in secret; He wants public worship. If you do not resolve yourself to what is commanded of you,” said the Prophet, “God will cause you to perish with all that you have; the omen of your loss will be the ruin of temples and falling idols. Here you have long delayed giving me what I demand. I warned you of the danger of the delay; God will rush punishment to you without delay.”
And Pharaoh let the deadline pass that Moses had set him for fulfilling his promises to the children of Israel. The Prophet, seeing that he could not receive justice and that his patience was futile, conceived of affliction; he feared that the king would take cruel measures against the Israelites, and he decided to take them out of the country.
Around that time, the Israelites were to come together to celebrate a festival. Moses ordered their wives to exchange ornaments with those of Coptic women, they borrowed all the dresses or jewels they could to adorn themselves on the day of the festival. They obeyed, and then they invited Coptic women to eat and drink with them. Moses put the Israelites a bit further towards the east, and he ordered them to be ready at this point. When the crowd had eaten and drunk, Moses struck the Copts with numbness that made them unable to move. Then he left in the beginning of the night with all the Israelites. They numbered 640-odd thousand.
The Israelites retrieved the coffin of Joseph from the middle of the Nile and carried it with them. An old Coptic woman who believed in Moses had told them the place. This woman took part in their Exodus. The Israelites went toward the sea of al-Qulzum so their footprints might not be seen.
At the end of the night, Pharaoh was warned of their departure. They told him how the Israelite wives had borrowed ornaments from the Coptic women and summoned them to their festival. Pharaoh immediately sat down to take counsel; he assembled his men, and when they came, he ordered them to ready themselves to leave to pursue the Israelites. He gave them three days to make these preparations. All those who lived near the palace and all those who were distant belonging to the king’s troops and squadrons were ordered to leave and join him in the greatest hurry. On the morning of the fourth day, the men marched, led by their king, in the footsteps of Benū Israel. There was no son of a prince nor any person attached to the service of the great and distinguished in any capacity who was not a part of this army. The number of soldiers outnumbered the soldiers of Moses by six million. [Variant: The number of Egyptian soldiers was one million.]
Moses met no monument he did not overthrow, and no idol but that he made it fall on its face. He led his people carefully and brought them to the vicinity of the sea. As soon as he saw the waters, Moses said to his brother, “Advance into the sea, and call out the name of Abu’l-Abbās, and order him to smooth the waves and suspend its motion until I arrive with those who follow me.” Aaron went ahead to execute this order. Then Moses moved forth with all the people, guided by Aaron. Arriving at the seaside, the Prophet struck it with his rod; the sea split before his eyes, and opened twelve dry paths. Each tribe took one of these paths; they were separated by thin arches of water through which other groups could be seen. All the people went in through these pathways. Moses went in last.
Pharaoh immediately came up behind the Israelites. When he saw them in the sea, he wanted to give up his pursuit, for fear of the waves. But Jibrīl appeared on a horse with white markings, and walked in the footsteps of the Israelites. The horse of Pharaoh, seeing that of Jibrīl, rushed impetuously to follow without Pharaoh being able to restrain him because he was a blood horse (thoroughbred) and he himself was old. When the king had entered into the open path through the waters, his army followed him to the last man. He arrived in the middle of the sea at the moment when Moses and the tribes exited on the other side. So God, through the voice of Jibrīl, commanded the Prophet to close the waters over Pharaoh and his people; and Moses obeyed.
The king, seeing that he was lost, exclaimed: “I believe in one God who is the God of Benū Israel. I am one of the Muslims!” But he did not say this sincerely. Jibrīl heard, and stoning him with a handful of stones, he struck him in the face and closed his mouth, lest the Almighty have mercy upon him because of his words. The sea swallowed the whole army of the Egyptians; none of them was saved; and their souls were thrown into hell. When they were dead, God threw back several of their bodies, including that of Pharaoh, on the seashore in a high place; these bodies served as witnesses and examples. This is what God told in the Book revealed by Him to the Prophet Muhammad.
This completes and ends the book of the history of time and that which was destroyed by revolutions, the wonders of countries, of seas and of the land [variant: Here ends the digest of wonders and rarities]; with the help and strength of God, to whom be praise and glory for all His gifts, His graces, and His blessings.
Translation © 2015 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.
