CHAPTER III.

Upper Egypt — Baush — Dilas — Biba — Bahnasa Minyat Ibn Khaslb — Manlavn — Marifalut —
Esoyut — Ekhmim — Hawwa — Kana — Kaus — El Aksar — Armanat — Esna—E^u — Ajarna El
Ell — El Atwarii — Dugain — Homaitara — Aidhab — Cairo.

The traveller continues: I then left Cairo, with the intention to go on
the pilgrimage by way of “Upper Egypt, and came to the '“Der El Tin (or
monastery of clay). From this place I went to ‘'Baush, then to ‘^Dilas, then
to Biba, then to •^Bahnasa, then to the ^Minyet of Ibn Khasib,J which
was formerly attached to the government of Cairo. It is said, that one
of the Califs of the house of Abbas was displeased with the people of
Egypt, and took it into his head to place over them one of the meanest of
his slaves, by way of punishment, and that he might afford an example
to others. At this time Khasib was the lowest slave in the palace, and
his business was to get the baths warmed. He was accordingly appointed
to the government, with the hope that he would sufficiently punish them
by his tyranny, as it is usual with those who have not been brought up for
such a station. But when Khasib was established in Egypt, his con-
duct was exemplary in the extreme ; and, for this, his fame was spread far
and wide : the consequence was, he was visited by the relations of the Calif,
and other persons attached to the court, and these he loaded with presents.
Upon one of these occasions the Calif missed some of his relations, and upon

. U .

* Annales Muslemici, tom. v. p. 300-1. f See D'Herbelot, under Abou-Haian.

t This place is noticed in an extract given in M. de Sacy’s Cbrestoniathie Arabe, tom. ii, pp. i
and 3 of the French translation; as also in the Annales Muslemici, vol. iii. p. 750, where, as well
as in the Appendix to M. de Sacy’s Relations d’Egypt, by Abd el Latif, the first of these words
is written Moniat or Monyet. It could have been wished that M. de Sacy had, in his Chresto-
mathie, given his reasons for changing his orthography.

EGYPT.

15

inquiry found, that one of them had absented himself. After a time this man
presented himself to the Calif, who interrogated him as to his absence. The
man replied, that he had been paying a visit to Khasib in Egypt : he then
told him of the gifts he had received, which were indeed of great value.
This enraged the Calif so that he ordered the eyes of Khasib to be put out,
that he should be expelled from Egypt, and cast out into one of the streets
of Bagdad. When the order for his apprehension arrived, it was served
upon him by an artifice, at some distance from his palace. He had with
him, however, a large ruby, which he had hidden by sewing it up in his
shirt during the night. His eyes were then put out, and he was thrown out
in a street of Bagdad. Upon this occasion a poet happened to pass by,
who said, O Khasib, it was my intention to visit thee in Egypt, in order
to recite thy praises : but thy coming hither is the more suitable to me.
Will you then allow me to recite my poem ? How, said Khasib, shall I
hear it? You know what circumstances I am in. The poet replied, my
only wish is that you should hear it : but as to reward — may God reward
you, as you have others ! Khasib then said, go on with your verse. The
poet proceeded :

Thy bounties like the swelling Nile,*

Made the plains of Egypt smile, &c.

When he had got to the end of the poem Khasib said, open this seam.
He did so. Khasib then said. Take this ruby. The poet refused ; but being

* The words of the original are:

Thou art khasib (or plentiful year, for the word has this meaning), and this Egypt increases and
abounds with plenty, like the Nile. The poini of this distich seems to consist in the play upon the
word khasib, which could not be transfused into the English translation, unless by some such
circumlocution as the following :

Stores of the richest bounty ! This thy name.

Spreads like the Nile, at once its blessings and thy fame, &c.

I notice this merely to shew how difficult it is to preserve the spirit of this kind of poetry in a
translation. The thirty-ninth story of the first book of Saadi’s Gulistan (Persian Rose-garden)
is founded on the history of this man. In some of the editions the name is erroneously pointed

L, L Khosaib for l. Khasib.

The line above cited is of the species ^ and of the measure

with its varieties. See Clarke’s Prosody, p. 60.

16

EGYPT.

adjured to do so, he complied; he then went to the street of the jewellers, and
offered it for sale. He was told that such a stone could belong to none but
the Calif. The account of it was accordingly carried to him, who ordered
the poet to be brought into the presence. When he came there, he was
interrogated on the subject, and his answers developed the whole matter.
The Calif was then sorry for what he had done to Khasib, and ordered
that he should be brought before him. When he came, the Calif gave him
some splendid presents, and ordered that he should have whatever he might
wish. Khasib requested to have this Minyet given to him, which was
done ; and he resided there till the time of his death. After this his
descendants held it, until the family became extinct. — I then proceeded
to the city of * Manlawl, then to 'Manfalut, then to^Esoyut, then to ^Ekh-
mlm, and then to ™Hawwa. Here I visited the Sheikh, Sayyud ”Abu Moham-
med Obaid Allah El Hasanl, who was one of the great saints. When he
asked me what my object was, I told him, that it was my wish to perform
the pilgrimage by way of "Judda. He replied, you will not succeed in this,
upon this occasion ; you had better return, therefore : for, the first pilgrimage
you will perform, will be by the plain of ^ Syria. When I left him, I made no
effort to follow his advice, but proceeded on my way till 1 arrived aCAidhab,
and found that I could not go on. I then returned to ’’Cairo, and after that
to * Syria (or Damascus) ; and the way I took, in my first pilgrimage, was
just as the ‘Sherif had told me, by the plain of Syria.

From Hawwa, therefore, I proceeded to“Kana, then to ’’"Kaus, then to
the city of ^E1 Aksar, then to “Armanat, then to “Esna, then to *'Edfu,
then to “’Ajarna El Fil, then to the village of "^El Atwanl, in company with
a tribe of Arabs known by the name of ®Dugaim. Our course was through
a desert, in which there were no buildings, for a distance of fifteen days.
One of the stages at which we halted was -^Homaitara, the place in which
the grave of ^E1 Wall Abu’l Hasan El Shadhell is situated. After this we

Jilih

EGYPT.

17

came to the city of *Aidhab, the inhabitants of which are the 'Bejah,*
who are blacks. Among these people the daughter never succeeds to
property.

* On these people see Hamaker’s Liber de expugnatione Memphidis et Alexandriae, pp. 57, 58.
Biirckhardt’s Travels in Nubia, pp. 192-228. In this part of Mr. Haraaker’s work a notice
is given of the Berbers ; and, as he seems to have mistaken its import, I may be excused in

transcribing and translating it. jLj ^ ti ^

. (lego The Berbers are another people whose country is

situated upon the southern sea, between the districts of the Abyssinians and those of the Zinj ;
they are called Berbera. They are blacks, and are the people who make the dower for wives
(this) that they (the men, not the women, as Mr. Hamaker proposes, by inserting the reading
) shall cut off the virilia of a man (perhaps an enemy), and also steal. They are more
like beasts than men. Mr. Hamaker seems to have forgotten, that in the East, the person who
marries a wife must provide the dower, just as gentlemen in this country make the jointure.
Something like this seems formerly to have prevailed in Palestine ; see 1 Sam., xviii. 25, 27 ;
2 Sam., hi. 14* ; and if these Berbers are actually of the same stock with those on the north of
Africa, which Mr. Hamaker thinks to be the case, it is not improbable that this custom was
brought with them from Palestine, as it is very probable these people are a part of those formerly
expelled that country by Joshua. No one, perhaps, has taken so much pains to examine this
question as Ibn Khaldun has done; and his opinion decidedly is, that the Berbers are derived
from Palestine, and descendants of Canaan. He also affirms that they are brothers to the
Abyssinians, Copts, and Nubians; his words are:^( Ij j>j^\ i 1;;,

bU-yi Jb c-jbb' (j ^ jjI Jlii bbi Wj

b^

Ij'bj .... j4>b>- ^ ^

b>-

,bjo

.r«

L-^wj bcl .... 1^,

\\l

i

|*Jbj ijJ j^bs-

l^bMib c ^ ^ ^ -sbjl c I i b^^o bib'

. ^btib yj As to their genealogy {i. e. the Zenata tribe) among

the Berbers, there is no discrepancy among the genealogists, that they are of the posterity of
Shana ; and to him is their origin referred. As to this Shana, Abu Mohammed Ibn Hazim
has said, in the book called the Jamharat (or collection), some have affirmed that this person is
Jana, son of Yahya, son of Bidyan, son of Canaan, son of Ham, which is the truest statement.
Of these are the tribe of Zenata and others, as we have already said ; but they are the brothers
of the Berbers because they all trace their descent up to Canaan the son of Ham. But, as to
his (a certain writer) entering the pedigree of Goliath in that of the Berbers, since he is of

D

18

EGYPT.

At this time, two-thirds of the revenue of Aidhab went to the king of
the Bejah, whose name was *E1 HadrabI, the remaining third to the king
of Egypt. The cause of our not proceeding thence to Judda, was a war
that had broken out in these parts between the 'Bejahand ™Barnau
people. I accordingly returned with the Arabs to ”Kaws in Upper Egypt,
and descended by the Nile to Cairo, where I lodged one night, and then
set out for Syria. This happened in the month ” Shaaban in the year
twenty-six (A. H. 726 — A. D. 1326).