CHAPTER IV.

Balbis — El Salihia —El Sa'wada — El Warid —Kafia—Matilab — El Arish — El Kharuba — Rqfaj —

Gaza — El Khalil.

After this I arrived at “Balbis,* then at ''El Salihia. From this place I
entered the sands (Desert), in which are the stages “El Sawada, ‘'El Warid,

the posterity of Madaghls and Sakat, it is an error ; and, in the same manner, is his tracing
them to the Amalekites (also an error). For the truth is, Goliath is of the sons of Philistin,
son of Kasluhim, son of Misraim, son of Ham, one of the nations of Ham the son of Noah :
but these are the brothei’s of the Copts, Berbers, Abyssinians, and Nubians, as we have said in
the genealogy of the sons of Ham. Between these Philistins, however, and the children of
Israel, there were many wars ; for there were in Syria many of the Berbers, their (u e. the
Philistines) brothers, and of the rest of the descendants of Canaan. Ibn Khaldun explodes the
opinion held by IdrIsI (see part i. dim. 3) and others, that the Berbers are descended from the
Himyarites of Arabia Felix. See an extract to the same effect in Pococke’s Specim. Hist.
Arab., by M. de Sacy, pp. 462, 340. A very curious article on this subject, too, is to be found
^n the Descriptio Africae by Leo Africanus (pp. mihi 12, 13), where he states the opinions of
IdrIsI, and in almost the same words, of these people coming from Arabia Felix, as well as that
held by Ibn Khaldun of their coming from Palestine; adding, that they were driven out by the
Assyrians, which must put every body in mind of the story of Phenician Dido. We are told
somewhere in the discourses of Psalmezer, that an inscription formerly appeared on a column
in one of the Barbary states, saying, that the people who had erected it had been expelled
from Palestine by Joshua. It is highly probable, I think, that the Tuarick of Major Denham’s
Narrative are Berbers, as the letters he gives at page Ixviii are, as far as they can be traced,
evidently Phenician. (See also The Universal History, vol. xvii. p. 220, &c. ed. 1748.)

* This word is pronounced either Balbis or Bilbis ; it is, according to the ,

ten farsangs from Fustat in Cairo, on the road to Syria. ifjjLs- juxo ^ ^

SYRIA.

19

®Katia, ■'’El Matilab, ^El Aarish,| *E1 Kharuba, and ‘Rafaj. At each of
these there is an inn, which they call ^E1 khan. Here the travellers put up
with their beasts : here are also watering camels, as well as shops, so
that a traveller may purchase whatever he may want either for himself or
his beast.

I next arrived at 'Gaza, and from thence proceeded to the city of “El
Khalil Ibrahim {Abraham the friend). In the mosque of this place is the
holy cave, and in this are the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with
those of their wives. This cave I visited. As to the truth of these being
the graves of those persons, the following is an extract made by me, from
the work of Ali Ibn Jaafar El Razi, entitled El Musfir Lilkulub, on the true
position of the graves of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ;* and which rests on
a tradition from "Abu Horaira, who has said. It was related by the prophet,
that when he was on his night journey to Jerusalem, Gabriel took him by
the grave of Abraham and said, descend and perform two prostrations, for
here is the tomb of Abraham thy father. He then took him by Bethlehem

h

\ ^

•

Jo See an interesting note on this place in Hamaker’s Liber de expugnatione

Memphidis, &c., pp. 48, 49. The following from Makrizi I cannot forbear copying and translating :

UJ ^ (Jf Wj (I read (jIaU-) i^j\ f j

do- WIj

^ J-Jj (jjUUiq Balbls is called, in

the law of Moses, Jashan (Goshen), and is the place to which Jacob went down after he had
presented himself to his son Joseph. So he went down to the country of Jashan (Goshen), which
is Balbis, to the pasturage on account of their cattle. Ibn Said, who was governor of this place,
has said, that its territory extends to El Waridat, which is the extreme limit of Egypt. To this
place is the common silver coinage current : but beyond it, and to El Arlsh, which is the first
place of Syria, but as some say, the last of Egypt, are the fulus {i. e. a sort of small copper coin)
in circulation.

* On this place, which is the Rhinocorura or Rhinocolura of the ancients, see Hamaker’s
Liber de expugnatione Memphidis et Alexandria, p. 15.

f The name of the author with the whole title runs thus ; jAxo ' 4".^

D 2

20

SYRIA.

and said, perform two prostrations, for here was born thy brother Jesus.
He then went on with him to El Sakhrat, and so on, as recorded in the
tradition.

In the city of El Khalil was the aged saint and Imam, "Borhan Oddln Ei
Jaabari, him I asked respecting the truth of the grave of Abraham being
there. He answered. Every learned man I have met with has considered
it as the fact, that these three graves are the graves of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob ; and that the three graves opposite to them are those of their
wives ; nor does any one, continued he, think of contradicting accounts so
generally received from the ancients, but the heretics.