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which are not of such dubious authenticity as the "Imrút hamin vasé” (“This is enough for you to-day ") which the Persian lexicographers delight to adduce as proof that 'Alí could converse with the faithful Salmán, the converted Magian, in his own tongue. Here are materials, as it seems to me, wherewith we may hope to bridge, at least in part, the gulfs which still exist in our knowledge of the history and developments of the Persian language.

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ART. XXV.-Arabic Inscriptions in Egypt. By HENRY C. KAY.

I.

On the occasion of a visit to Egypt last winter, I occupied myself in copying some of the inscriptions in the old graveyard of Assuan (Aswan, or Uswan)-as many, that is to say, as the limited time at my disposal would permit.

Many stones have of late years been removed, but large numbers remain, bearing witness to the once flourishing condition of the old frontier town. Under the protection of the garrison, an Arab settlement formed itself on the spot soon after the Muhammadan conquest of Egypt, and its members, besides employing themselves in agriculture, carried on an active trade with their southern neighbours, deriving also a not unimportant source of wealth, from their relations with the workers of the gold and emerald mines, in the neighbouring country of the Bujahs. Makrīzi makes special mention of the prosperity which the citizens of Assuan enjoyed in those days, and, in illustration, quotes from a native historian an incident which occurred in the middle of the third century of the Hijrah. An Arab adventurer, Abu 'Abd ar-Rahman al-'Omari, had contrived to establish his supremacy over the people of the gold mines. Their numbers had rapidly grown and were now largely composed of Arabs, who had flocked to the mines on the conclusion of the war between the Bujahs and the troops sent against them by the Khalifah al-Mutawakkil in A.H. 241. The Arabs, it may be added,

1 See Tabari, ser. iii, pp. 1428-33.

entered into terms of friendship with the native inhabitants, even to taking their daughters in marriage, whilst the Bujahs, on their side, began to adopt the religion of Islām, in a form, it is true, which could meet with but little approval on the part of its orthodox teachers in Egypt. Their Islām, it is said, was very "weak.”

Returning, however, to Makrīzi's anecdote, al-'Omari, he tells us, finding himself in want of supplies, wrote to the merchants of Assuan, one of whom responded by setting forth with no less than a thousand camels laden with provisions and stores. Sixty thousand camels, it is added, were (yearly) employed in carrying supplies from Assuan to the country of the Bujahs, irrespective of the merchants' caravans from Kulzum (Clysma) to 'Aydhāb (on the Red Sea opposite Juddah).1

On the completion of the Arab conquest of Egypt throughout the Nile valley, as far as the first cataract, 'Amru ibn al-'Ās, by command of the Khalifah 'Omar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, made war upon the Nubians, with no result that I find mentioned, excepting that his troops appear to have been grievously impressed by the skill of the Nubian archers. 'Abd Allah ibn Sa'd, after having been Amir of Upper Egypt, succeeded 'Amru on the latter's recall. In A.D. 651-2 he renewed the war, and penetrated as far as Dongola, where the Nubian king, according to Arab authorities, was compelled to sue for peace, and it is stated, was put to an annual tribute. From other incidental statements in these narratives, as well as from the earlier historians, it may rather be gathered that what really occurred was an arrangement for the mutual exchange of

1 See for Abu 'Abd ar-Rahman al-'Omari, Ibn al-Athir, vol. vii, pp. 181 and 182. But is it not through some error that the Bujahs are said to have been the enemies against whom al-'Omari entered into his campaign? It is stated that after defeating them, he invaded their country, looted it, captured many prisoners, and afterwards followed up his first successes with repeated raids. The story cannot be reconciled with what we know of the barren and desolate wastes inhabited by the Bujahs, and I find no account of al-'Omari's enterprise in Makrizi's Khitat, but he incidentally mentions al-'Omari's return to the mines after the conclusion of a war with the Nubians.-Khiṭaḥ, vol. i, pp. 196 and 199.

presents-slaves on the one part, corn and clothing on the other.1

The relations thus established between the two nations. remained in substance unchanged for several centuries, and throughout the period to which the Cufic gravestones of Assuan belong, with only casual interruptions, the result, according to Arab accounts, of aggressions on the parts of the Nubians, and on other occasions, of remissness in the payment of tribute. One dispute, it may be mentioned, of which particulars have been handed down to us, and which occurred in the early years of the third century of the Hijrah, concerning the possession by the Muslims of certain lands on the Nubian side of the border, was attended with some rather sharp practice on the part of the Arabs, but was peacefully settled in their favour.

After the sixth century a decline in the prosperity of Assuan, which had already been in progress, became more and more marked. A great Arab family, the Banu'l-Kanz, obtained command over the border country. They were driven forth by the troops of Saladin, but regained their footing soon after A.H. 790, and entered into a series of struggles with the local rulers. Under the troubled reign of an-Nașir Farraj over Egypt (A.H. 801-808), governors ceased to be appointed from Cairo, and the Banu❜l Kanz became absolute masters of the country. But in A.H. 815 (A.D. 1412) they were attacked by the powerful tribe of Hawwarah, who at that time held Upper Egypt at their mercy. They captured Assuan, plundered and ravaged the town, pulled down its walls, and massacred large numbers of its people. On their departure, carrying off the women and children into slavery, they left the place in ruins and utterly desolate.2

1 See Tabari, ser. i, p. 2593, Ibn al-Athir, vol. ii, p. 443, and Makrizi, vol. i, p. 200.

The author of the Taj al-'Arūs gives a brief account of the tribe of Hawwarah, drawn partly from a treatise composed by himself on the genealogy of the tribe, and partly from a small work by Makrīzi, on the Arab tribes in Egypt, Al-Bayānu wa'l-I'rāb‘amman fi Mişra min Ķabā'ila'l-A'rāb, of which a copy, I believe, exists at Paris.

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