Al-Aswany's text

Al-Aswany's text about Nubia and Beja

Quoted from Al-Maqrizi plans

* Mention of gondolas and some news from the land of Nubia *

The jandal is what a man can reach from the stones, and it was said that it is the entire stone, one jandal, and the jandal is the jandal. Sibawayh said, and they said jandal, meaning the jandals, and they used it because of the lack of construction. Workers go away, and the land of jandalah has a jandal, and it was said that the jandal is the place with thick stones and the place of a jandal with many jandals. A fortress for the Muslims is an island known as Balaq between it and the village of Nubia, which is a mile away from the coast of the country of Nubia. From Aswan to this place there are many stone gondolas that boats cannot take except by trickery, and the evidence of those who tell this is from the fishermen who fish there, because these gondolas are intermittent and cross reefs in the Nile, and in their effusion there is a great roaring sound that can be heard in the distance. This village is armed and a door to the country of Nubia, and from there to the first gondolas of the country of Nubia in ten stages, and this is the area in which the Muslims act. They have properties near them, and they trade in the upper part of it, and there are a group of Muslims living in it, none of them speak Arabic, and its trees are many, and it is a narrow area with many mountains and what goes out from the Nile, and its villages line its shore, and its trees are palm trees and palm trees, and its highest part is wider than the lowest, and at its highest is the crown, and the Nile does not irrigate its farms due to the height of its land, and its crops are acres and two acres, and the three are on the necks of cows with wheels, and they have little wheat. There is more barley and salt, and they hound the land due to its narrowness, so they plant it in the summer after softening it with dung and earth. Millet, corn, jaros, sesame, and cowpea. In this area is Najrash, the city of Al-Maris, the castle of Ibrim, and another castle below it. It has Mina known for medicines attributed to it by Luqman the Wise and Dhul-Nun, and it has amazing usury. This area and the great ruler of Nubia is known as the owner of the mountain for the sake of their governors due to his proximity to the land of Islam and whoever goes out to it. The country of Nubia is from the Muslims, so you deal with him in trade or as a gift to him or to his master. He accepts everyone and rewards him with slaves, and no one is permitted to ascend to his master, whether to a Muslim or to anyone else. The worst side I saw for them is because of its difficulty, its narrowness, and the difficulty of its paths. As for its sea, there are barrages and mountains intervening in it, so that the Nile flows into reefs and narrows in places until its width between the two sides is fifty cubits. Its mainland is narrow hollows, high mountains, and narrow roads so that a rider cannot climb from them, and a weak man is unable to travel on them, and sands in its west and east. These mountains are their fortress, and to them the people of the connected side before them are terrified. In the land of Islam, and on its islands, there are few palm trees and poor crops, and most of them eat fish and grease it with its fat, and it is from the land of Maris and the owner of the mountain and to them, and the one armed with the highest cutter was possessed by their chief who was very careful of her, so much so that when the greatest of them came with it, the armed man stopped by him and made him think that he was being searched until He finds the way to his son and his minister, and whoever is less than them, and it is not permissible for a dinar or a dirham, since they did not make a pledge of allegiance for this except without the gondolas with the Muslims, and beyond that, there is no buying or selling between them, but rather it is an exchange of slaves, livestock, ropes, iron, and grains, and no one is allowed to pass it except with the permission of the king, and whoever disobeys, his penalty is death, whoever he may be. With this precaution, their news is kept secret, to the point that the military among them attacks the country into the desert, and others do not know about it. The pulp with which the substance is rubbed comes out of the Nile. In these places, it is immersed in it and its body is found cold, unlike the stones. When it is formed, blow on it with the mouth and it sweats, and from this armed city to a village known as Sai Janadal as well, which is the last of Kirasim, and they have a bishop in it, and in it usury. Then the district of Saqlouda, which is interpreted as the Seven Governors, and it is the land most similar to the land adjacent to the land of Islam in terms of spaciousness and narrowness in places, palm trees, vineyards, crops, and maqal trees, and it contains something. It is made of cotton trees and makes clothes and rags from it, and it has olive trees. It is governed by the eldest of them and under his hand are governors who dispose of it. It has a castle known as Amnun. It is the first of the three catapults, and it is the most difficult of the catapults because it contains a mountain that intersects from east to west in the Nile. The water pours from three gates and may return to two gates when it recedes intensely with a strange-looking trickle. The water descends on it from the height of the mountain, and before it is a bed of stones in the Nile about three hailstones to a village. You know Bisto, which is the last of the villages of Maris and the first town of Maqra. From this place to the border of the Muslims, their tongue is Marissi, and it is the last work of their possession. Then the district of Baqun, whose interpretation is wonder, and it is according to its name because of its goodness. And what I have seen on the Nile is wider than it. I estimated that the breadth of the Nile in it from east to west is a journey of five stages. Algeria crosses it, and rivers flow from it on low land, continuous villages, and beautiful architecture with towers of pigeons, livestock, and cattle. And the most beautiful of their city is it, and its birds, the squills and the Nubians. And parrots and other beautiful birds, and the largest of them used to travel in this area. * He said, “I was with him at times, so our walk was in the shade of trees on both sides of the narrow bays, and it was said that the crocodile does no harm there. I saw them crossing most of these rivers swimming, and then they settled in a cereal, which is a narrow area similar to the beginning of their country, except that it contains beautiful islands, and in it, below the two stages, are about thirty villages with beautiful buildings, churches, monasteries, many palm trees, vineyards, orchards, crops, and large meadows. There are redwoods ripe for production, and many of them enter it frequently, because its front side is adjacent to Dongola, their city, and from the city of Dongola, the House of the Kingdom, to Aswan, fifty stages. He mentioned its description, then said that they roof their sitting rooms with acacia wood and teak wood, which the Nile brings in the season of increase, carved scaffolding. It is not known where it comes from. I have seen strange marks on some of them, and the distance between Dongola to the first town is greater than between it and Aswan, and in that there are villages. The countryside, the islands, the livestock, the palm trees, the trees, the pastures, the crops, and the vineyards are many times greater than what is on the side that follows the land of Islam. And in these places there are great islands a distance of days away, in which there are mountains, wild beasts, wild beasts, and encroachments in which they fear thirst, and the Nile is kind to them. These areas go to the rising of the sun and to its setting, a journey of days until the rise becomes like a slope, and it is the area that reaches Al-Atuf from the Nile to the mineral known as Al-Shillah, which is a country known as Shanqir, and from it Al-Omari emerged and prevailed in this area until he was as good as he was. Seahorses abound in these places, and from this place he made roads to Suakin, Ba’id, Dahlak, and the islands of the sea, from which those who survived the Umayyads crossed when they fled to Nubia, and in it there was a creation of... known as the niggas. They moved to Nubia in the past and lived there, and they were unique in their pastoralism and language. They did not mix with the Nuba and did not live in their villages, and they were influenced by the people of the Nuba tribe.

* Mention of the bifurcation of the Nile from the country of Alwa and the nations that live on it *

I know that Nubia and Makuria are two races with two tongues, both of them on the Nile. The Nubia are the Maris, neighboring the land of Islam, and between the beginning of their country and Aswan is five miles. It is said that Suha is the ancestor of Nubia, and Makri is the ancestor of Makuria, from Yemen. It is said that Nubia and Makri are from Himyar, and most genealogists say that they are all descendants of Ham, son of Noah. There were wars between Nubia and Makuria before Christianity. The beginning of the land of Makuria is a village known as Tafa on one stage of Aswan, and the city of their king is called Najrash, at least. Of the ten stages of Aswan, and it is said that Moses, may God’s prayers be upon him, invaded them before he was sent in the days of Pharaoh, so he destroyed a trifle. They were Sabians who worshiped the stars and erected statues, and then they were all Christianized. Nubia, Makuria, and the city of Dongola were the home of their kingdom, and the first country of Alwa. Villages in the east on the shore of the Nile were known as Al-Abwab, and this side and the one before the owner of Alwa was known as Al-Rahrah. The turbidity of the water dries up in the summer until its belly is calmed. When it is time for the Nile to rise, water springs in it and the pools in it increase, and rain and torrents come throughout the entire country, and the increase in the Nile occurs. It is said that the end of this river is a great spring that comes from a mountain. The historian of Nubia said, and Simeon, the reigning ruler of the country of Alwa, told me that in the belly of this river there is a scaleless whale that is not of any kind in the Nile. It digs a fathom and more on it until it emerges, and it is large, and on it is a genus of birth between Alwa and Beja. It is said that They have the Digians and a race called Bazza. From them comes a bird known as the Bazin pigeon. After these are the first country of Abyssinia, then the White Nile, which is a river that comes from the west, very white like milk. He said, “I asked the Moroccans from the roads of Sudan about the Nile that they have and about its color. He mentioned that it comes out of the mountains of sand or the mountain of sand, and that it gathers in the country of Sudan in bone pools and then pours into what is not known, and that it is not white. Either it acquired that color from what it passes over or from another river into which it flows. On both sides of it are streams: the bend of the Green Nile, which is a river that comes from the qibla. The east is very green, very pure in color. One can see the fish at its bottom, and its taste is different from the taste of the Nile. The drinker becomes thirsty quickly, and the whales are all the same, but the taste is different, and the time of increase comes in it. Teak wood, bugs, and scum, and wood that has a smell like the smell of frankincense, and thick wood from which he is carved and intrepid, and on its shore this wood is also fixed, and it was said that incense sticks were found in it. He said, “I saw it on some scaffolds.” The carved teak that comes in it at the time of increase is a strange sign, and these two rivers, the white and the green, meet at a city owned by the country of Alwa, and they maintain their colors close to a stage, and then they mix after that, and between them are large, great waves as they crash. He said, “And tell me who transported the White Nile and poured it into the Green Nile, so it remained in it like milk for an hour before they mixed. And between these two rivers is an island whose destination is unknown, and likewise these two rivers have no known end. The first of them knows its width, then it expands and becomes a distance of a month, then you do not realize its capacity.” Because of the fear of those who live in them from one another, because there are many species and great morals in them, he said, “It has reached me that some of them possess The country of Alwa, where he walked, wanting the furthest of it, but he did not reach it after years, and on its tribal side there is a race that lives and their animals in underground houses like basements during the day due to the intense heat of the sun, and they wander at night, and among them are naked people. The remaining four rivers also come from the qiblah, which is also near the east, at one time, and their end is also unknown, and they are less than the White and Green rivers in width, and the large number of bays and islands, and all the four rivers flow into the green, and so does the first one that I mentioned. Then it meets with the white, all of which is inhabited and filled with ships and other things, and one of these four comes once from the country of Abyssinia. He said, “I asked a lot about it and explored it from people on the authority of people, but I did not find an informant who said that he stood at the end of all these rivers, and what I have reached is the knowledge of those who informed me from others that it is in ruins, and that at the time of increase in these rivers there comes a machine of boats, doors, and other things, which indicates construction after the destruction. As for the increase, they gather that it is from rain with a substance that comes from itself, and the evidence is for that river.” Which dries up and its stomach is still, then it emerges at the time of increase, and one of its wonders is that its increase in rivers together and all the regions and countries in Egypt and beyond, and Upper Egypt and Aswan, and the country of Nubia and Alwa, and beyond that in a single time, and the most that has been observed of this increase is that it may be found, for example, in Aswan, but it is not found in Qus, and then it comes after that, so if the rains increase among them and the torrents continue, it is known that it is a year of irrigation, and if the rains are short, it is known that it is a year of thirst. He said, “And as for the roads of the lands The Zanj, they told me about their journey in the China Sea to the land of the Zanj with the north wind, sailing to the eastern side of the island of Egypt until they reached a place known as Ras Hafri, which according to them is the end of the island of Egypt. Then they saw a star by which they were guided, so they headed to the west. Then they returned to the sea, and the north became in their faces until they came to a tribe from the land of the Zanj, which is a city they owned, and their qibla for prayer became as far as Jeddah. He said, “And some of the four rivers come from the land of the Zanj because it contains sulfur wood and Soba, a city.” The upper part is east of the Great Peninsula, which is between the White and Green Seas, at the northern end of which is where they meet, and to the east of it is the river that dries up and settles its belly, and it has beautiful buildings, spacious houses, and churches with a lot of gold, and orchards, and it has a district in which there is a group of Muslims, and Alwa owns more wealth than the one who owns the headquarters, and has a greater army, and he has more horses than Al-Maqri has, and his country is more fertile and wider, and palm trees and generosity are abundant, and most of their grains are white corn, which is like rice, and of them is their bread, pasture, and meat. They have a lot of livestock and vast meadows so vast that it cannot reach the mountain except in a matter of days. They have freed horses and red-brown camels, and their religion is Jacobite Christianity, and their bishops from the ruler of Alexandria are like the Nubians, and their books in Romans are interpreted in their own tongue, and they are less understanding than the Nubians. Their king enslaves whomever he pleases from his subjects, for or without a crime, and they do not deny it to him, but rather they prostrate to him and do not disobey his command despite the bad thing that happens. They call out to the king: “Long live, let his affairs be done.” He is crowned with gold, and gold is abundant in his country. Among the wonders in his country is that on the Great Island Between the two seas is a race known as the Karnina. They have a wide land cultivated from the Nile and the rain. When the time of planting came, each one of them went out with whatever seed he had and planned according to the amount he had and sowed a little in the four corners of the plan. He put the seed in the middle of the plan and some of the ale and left it. When morning came, he found that what he had planned had been planted and drank the ale. Then when it was harvest time, he reaped a small amount of it and placed it in the place he wanted, with an ale and he left and found the entire crop had been harvested. And if he wanted to thresh and winnow it, he did that with it. Perhaps one of them wanted to purify his crops of weed, so he would say that he had uprooted some of the crops, and in the morning he had uprooted all of the crops. This is the region that has what you mentioned, large countries two months in two months, all of which are planted at the same time, and Mira is the country of Alwa, and they own it from this side. They direct the boats, and they come together, and perhaps a war erupts between them. And they do not doubt it, even if it were not for the fact that its fame and spread are something that it is not permissible to conspire against, since I mentioned some of it due to its heinousness. As for the people of the region, they claim that the jinn do that, and that they appear to some of them and serve them with stones that they obey, and that they work wonders for them, and that the clouds obey them. I have seen a group and groups of those mentioned above, most of whom acknowledge the Creator, Glory be to Him, and draw near to Him through the sun, the moon, and the planets. Some of them do not know the Creator and worship the sun and fire. Some of them worship everything that they found good, whether it be a tree or an animal. He mentioned that he saw a man in a great gathering in Al-Maqarah. He asked him about his country, and he said his distance to the Nile is three people’s family. He asked him about his religion, and he said, “My Lord and your Lord, God, Lord of the kingdom, and all people are all one.” And he said to him, “So where is he?” He said, “In the sky alone,” and he said. If the rain slows down for them, or an epidemic strikes them, or a disease strikes their animals, they ascend the mountain and pray to God, and they are answered immediately and their needs are fulfilled before they descend. He asked him, “Has a messenger been sent among you?” He said, “No.” Then he mentioned to him the mission of Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, may God’s prayers and peace be upon them, and the miracles they were supported by. He said, “If they had done this, then they were truthful.” Then he said, “I have believed them if they had done it.” They owned it a year ago and built a mosque in Dongola where strangers could shelter. I know that also on the bank of the Nile is Al-Kanim, and its king is Muslim, with a very long distance between him and Mali. The base of his kingdom is a town called Himy, and the first of his kingdom on the Egyptian side is a town called Zarla, and the last of it is a town called Kaka, and there is about three months between them. They are masked, and their king is veiled. He is only seen on the days of the two Eids, morning and afternoon, and throughout the year. No one speaks to him except behind a veil, and their livelihood is mostly Rice, which grows without seed, and they have wheat, corn, figs, lemons, eggplant, turnips, and dates. They deal in a cloth woven by them called Dandi. The length of each garment is ten cubits. They buy it from a quarter of a cubit or more. They also deal in wada, beads, and copper. Crushed paper, paper, and all of that is at the price of that cloth. And in its south, there are shari and deserts with wild people like elephants, close to the shape of a human. The horse does not catch them. They harm people. At night, a kind of fire appears as well. If someone walks to catch it, it is far away from him, and if he runs to it, he does not reach it. Rather, it remains in front of him. If he throws a stone at it and hits it, sparks splinter from it, and the gourd is magnified with them until boats are made from it for crossing the Nile. And this country is between Africa. Barqa extends in the south to the height of the Middle West, and it is a country of drought, drought, and bad temper. The first to spread Islam there was Al-Hadi Al-Uthmani, who claimed that he was the descendant of Uthman ibn Affan, may God be pleased with him. After him, it became the Yazanites from Banu Saif ibn Dhi Yazan, and they follow the doctrine of Imam Malik ibn Anas, may God have mercy on him, and justice exists among them, and they are stubborn in religion and do not relent. They built in the city of Egypt a school for the Malikis, known as the Ibn Rashiq School, in the year six hundred and forty, and it became Their delegations will visit it and it will be mentioned in schools, God willing.

* Mention of the Beja and it is said that they are Berbers *

I know that the beginning of the country of Beja is from a village known as Al-Hazba, the emerald mineral in the Qus desert, about three stages. Al-Jahiz mentioned that there is no mineral in the world for emeralds other than this place, and it is found in distant, dark caverns that are entered with lamps and ropes used to indicate the return for fear of going astray. It is dug on with shovels, and it is found in the middle of the stones, and around it is a thick cloud below it in pigment and jewels, and the last of the countries of Beja is the first country of Abyssinia, and they are in the interior of this island, I mean the island of Egypt, to the sword of the sea, which is as follows. The islands of Suakin, Bida, and Dahlak. They are deserters, following the pasture wherever there is pasture, with hides of skins and their lineages on the part of the women. Each tribe has a chief, and they do not have a property, nor do they have any debt. They inherit the daughter’s son and the sister’s son, not the offspring. They say that the birth of the sister’s son and the daughter’s son is more correct, for if he is from her husband or from someone else, then he is her son in any case. And in the past, they had a chief to whose rule all their chiefs returned. He lived in a village known as Hajar, which is the farthest part of the island of Beja. They ride the red-brown sheep and produce among them, as well as the Arab camels that are many among them, and their livestock of cows, sheep, and sheep are extremely numerous, and their cows are beautiful, shiny with bone horns, including camels, and their rams are also red and have milk. Their food is meat and drinking milk, and their eating of cheese is few, and among them are those who eat it. They are patient with it and with thirst. They race with horses on it and fight on it, and it takes them around as they desire, and they cross over it from various countries, and they chase it in war. Each one of them shows me the spear. If it falls in the throw, the camel flies to it and its owner takes it. If it falls to the ground, the camel strikes the ground with its paw, and its owner takes it. At times, one of them excelled at times was a man known for his extreme and fearless clamor, and he had a camel that had never heard of anything like it in speed. He was one-eyed, and his companion was like that. He adhered to his people. He is supervising the prayer place of Egypt on the day of the Eid, and the Eid was approaching so close that it would not be possible to reach it in its likeness. So he fulfilled that and supervised Al-Muqattam, and the horses struck behind him, but he did not catch up. This is what made it necessary for him to be at the foothills at the beginning of the Eid day. The Tulunids and other princes of Egypt used to station at the foot of the mountain Al-Muqattam, which is next to the place known as Ethiopia, a dense army, caring for the people, so that they would leave their festival every Eid, and they were subject to a duty, so if he betrayed One of them raised a garment over a spear for the one who was betrayed, and said, “This is the throne of so-and-so,” meaning the father of the treacherous. It will be bad for him until he is satisfied with him, and they go to extremes in hospitality. If one of them knocks on the guest, he slaughters for him. If three people pass by, he slaughters for them one of the closest livestock to him, whether it was his or someone else’s. And if there is nothing, he slaughters the guest’s camel and replaces it with something better than it. Their weapon is seven-pointed spears, the length of which is three cubits, and the length of the spear is four cubits, and thus it is called a heptagon, and the spear is not as wide as the sword. They take it out of their hands, except at certain times, because at the end of the stick there is something similar to a flask that prevents it from leaving their hands. The makers of these spears are women in a place where no man mixes with them except the one who buys from them. If one of them from among those who have sold them gives birth to a slave girl, she is free to live, but if she gives birth to a boy. They killed him, and they say that men are affliction and war, and their pelts are made of hairy cow hides and inverted pellets, known as the oxuma, from buffalo skins, as well as the dahliki, and from an animal in the sea, and their bows are large, thick Arabian ones made of sidr and saffron. They throw poisoned arrows at them, and this poison is made from the veins of the foreskin tree and is cooked over fire until it becomes like agar. If they want to try it, one of them pricks his body and the blood flows, then he smells this poison. If the blood recedes, he knows that it is good and wipes it off. Blood so that it does not return to his body and kill him. If it hits a person, he is killed immediately, even if it is like a cupper’s police, and he has no business in reproaching the wound or blood, and if he drinks from it, it does no harm. Their countries are all minerals, and the higher they are, the better and more gold they have, and in them are the minerals of silver, copper, iron, lead, magnetite stone, marqashita, hamste, emerald, and beveled stones. If the bevel of it is wet with oil, it is burned like a wick, and other things that preoccupied them with the search for gold minerals. Other than that, the Beja are not subjected to the action of any of these minerals. In their valleys there are trees such as maqal, elliptical, athkar, wormwood, senna, colocynth, banyan trees, and other things. And in the farthest part of their country are palm trees, vine trees, palm trees, and other things that no one has cultivated. In them are all the beasts of prey, elephants, leopards, leopards, monkeys, ground huggers, civets, and an animal resembling a deer, beautiful in appearance, with two horns the color of gold, of little survival if hunted. Among the birds are the parrot, the macaw, and the Nubian. And the gamblers, and the turkey fowl, and Pazin pigeons, and other things, and there is no man among them except the one with the right egg removed. As for the women, their private parts are cut off, and they are joined alive, cutting off the part of the married person to the extent of the man’s penis. Then this practice was rare among them, and it was said that the reason for this was that a king of the kings fought them in the past, then he reconciled with them and stipulated that they cut off the breasts of the women born to them and cut off the males of the men born to them. He wanted to cut off the offspring from them, so they fulfilled the condition and accepted the meaning in that they made the breasts cut off for the men and the private parts for the women. They cut off their chins and say, “We will not imitate donkeys.” And among them is a warmer race in the hottest country of Beja. They are called “Bazha,” women, all of whom have one name, and so do the men. Their ways were at the time of a Muslim man who had camels. So they called one another and said, “This is God who has descended from the sky, and he is sitting under the tree.” So they began to look at him from afar. It was seen that its fat had come out of its anus due to the force of pressure, and it contained a snake that had no head and its two limbs were both engraved, not large. If a person walked on it, he would die. And if it was killed, and the killer held what he killed her with, whether a stick or a spear, in his hand, and did not throw it away, he died, and a snake from it was killed with a piece of wood, and the piece split. And if someone contemplates this snake while it is dead or alive, its harm will befall him, and there is evil in it, and there is harm in it, and in Islam and before it, there is harm to them. In the east of Upper Egypt, they destroyed many villages, and the Pharaohs of Egypt invaded them and sometimes bid farewell to them due to their need for minerals. Likewise, the Romans, when they owned Egypt and had famous monuments in the minerals, and their companions were there, and Egypt had been conquered. On the shore of the Nile in Beja, he asked about their affairs and was told that they had a king to return to, so their matter was easy for him and he left them, so they had no contract or peace. The first to make peace with them was Ubayd Allah ibn al-Hijab al-Saluli. It is mentioned that he found in Ibn al-Hijab’s book that they had three hundred virgins every year when they descended on the countryside, passing non-resident merchants, on the condition that they would not kill a Muslim or a non-Muslim. If they killed him, they would have no covenant, nor would they give shelter to Muslim slaves, and that they would return the rest of them if they fell. To them, and it is said that they were being punished for this, and for every sheep that Al-Bajjawi took, he must pay four dinars, and ten dinars for a cow, and their agent was residing in the countryside as a hostage in the hands of the Muslims. Then the Muslims increased in the metal, so they mingled with them and married among them, and many of the race known as the Hadrabs converted to a weak Islam, and they were the thorn of the people and their faces, and they were from the borders of Egypt from the beginning of their border to Al-Alaqi and Aidab, the crossing from it to Jeddah and beyond that, and among them was another race known as the Zinajes. They are more numerous than the Hadarib, except that they follow them, and their guards protect them and love them, the livestock. And every leader of the Hadarib has a group of harriers in his campaign, so they are like slaves who inherit them after the harriers were in ancient times. Then their harm to the Muslims increased, and the governors of Aswan were from Iraq. He reported their news to the Commander of the Faithful, so Abdullah ibn al-Jahm brought out the harrier, and he had incidents with them. Then he bade them farewell and wrote between him and the identity of their great chief. Which is in their village, Hajr. Al-Muqaddim mentioned it in a book that I copied. This is a book written by Abdullah bin Al-Jahm, the client of the Commander of the Faithful, the owner of the army of the invaders, the governor of Prince Abu Ishaq bin the Commander of the Faithful, Al-Rashid. May God preserve him in the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal in the year two hundred and sixteen. To Kanun bin Abdul-Raziz, the great of Beja, in Aswan, that you asked me and asked me to protect you and the people of your country from Beja, and to guarantee you and them a guarantee for me and for all the Muslims, so I responded to you by guaranteeing a certain guarantee for you and all the Muslims. I have been upright, and they have been upright, in what you have given me, and you have stipulated for me in this letter of mine, that the plain and mountains of your country, from the end of the Aswan border, from the land of Egypt to a point between Dahl and Baday, should be the property of Al-Mamun Abdullah bin Harun, the Commander of the Faithful, may God Almighty honor him, and you and all the people of your country are slaves to the Commander of the Faithful, except that you will be king in your country as you are in Beja, and you will pay to him the tax every year, as was the case of the predecessors of Beja, and that is one hundred camels or Three hundred dinars are weighed within it in the treasury, and the choice in that matter is with the Commander of the Faithful and his governors, and you do not have the right to deprive you of anything of the tax, and that every one of you who mentions Muhammad, the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, or the Book of God, or his religion in a way that should not remind him of it, or kills any of the Muslims, free or slave, has been absolved of the obligation of God and the obligation of His Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, and the obligation of the Commander of the Faithful, may God bless him, and the obligation of the community of Muslims. His blood is permissible just as the blood of the people of war and their descendants is permissible. And if any of you helps the fighters against the people of Islam with money or guides him to one of the Muslims’ private parts or affects their honor, then he has broken his covenant and his blood is permissible. And if any of you kills any of the Muslims intentionally, negligently, or by mistake, whether a free man or slave, or one of the people of the Muslim dhimma, or harms anyone, If any of the Muslims enter the country of Beja as a trader, resident, passerby, or pilgrim, then he is safe in you as one of you until he leaves your country. And do not give refuge to any of the remaining Muslims. If someone comes to you, you must return him to the Muslims, and you must return the Muslims’ money if they are in your country without supplies. You must do so, and if you go down to the countryside of Upper Egypt for trade or for passage, you must not display weapons, and you must not enter cities and villages under any circumstances, and you must not prevent any Muslim from entering your country and trade therein by land or sea, and you do not intimidate the path, and you do not block the road for any Muslim or the people of the Dhimma, and you do not rob any Muslim or You have not pledged your wealth and that you do not demolish any of the mosques that Muslims have built by shouting and abandoning you and all of your countries across the length and breadth. If you do that, you have no covenant or obligation, and that Kanun bin Abdulaziz resides in the countryside of Upper Egypt as an agent who fulfills the conditions for the Muslims regarding the payment of the tax and the return of blood and money to the Muslims of what Beja has befallen them, and that no one from Beja obstructs the border of a palace to a village called Qabban from the country of Nubia, the border of the pillars of the contract. Abdullah bin Al-Jahm, the client of the Commander of the Faithful, to Kanun bin Abdul-Azir, the chief of Al-Baja, security according to what we have named and stipulated in this book of ours, and that the Commander of the Faithful fulfill it. If Kanun deviates or rebels, then there is no covenant or obligation for him, and Kanun bin Abdulaziz is required to enter the country of Al-Bajah to collect alms from those who have surrendered from Al-Baja, and Kanun must fulfill what he stipulated for Abdullah in Al-Jahm, and thus he took God’s covenant upon him with the greatest loyalty and covenant he has ever taken from his creation, but Kanun bin Abdulaziz has a covenant with all of the Bejah. God and His covenant, the liability of the Commander of the Faithful, the liability of Prince Abu Ishaq bin Commander of the Faithful, Al-Rashid, the liability of Abdullah bin Al-Jahm, the liability of the Muslims, by fulfilling the fulfillment of what Abdullah bin Al-Jahm gave him, what Kanun bin Abdulaziz fulfilled all his stipulations. If he changed Kanun or replaced someone from Al-Baja, then the protection of God Almighty is his name. And he translated everything in this book, word for word, by Zakaria bin Saleh Al-Makhzoumi, a resident of Jeddah, and Abdullah bin Ismail Al-Qurashi. Then he coordinated a group of Aswan’s witnesses, so he led the raid on that for a while. Then they returned to the invasion of the countryside from Upper Egypt, and there was a lot of noise from them to the Commander of the Faithful, Jaafar, who trusts in God. He mourned for their war, Muhammad bin Abdullah Al-Qummi, and he asked to choose from among the men whom he liked, and he did not want a large number due to the difficulty of the paths, so he went out to them from Egypt with a small number of men. The ships were chosen and sailed on the sea, and the camels gathered to them in a great and large number. They rode on the camels, so the Muslims were afraid of that. He occupied them with a long book that he wrote in a tomar and wrapped it in a garment. They gathered to read it, so he carried bells on them, and around the horses’ necks, the camels fled with the camels and did not stand still for the ringing of the bells, so the Muslims rode off. I defeated them and killed a great number of them, and killed the eldest of them. After him, his nephew rose up and asked for a truce, so he made peace with them on the condition that he would step on the carpet of the Commander of the Faithful. So he marched to Baghdad and presented to Al-Mutawakkil the secret of who he had seen in the year 241 AH. So he made peace with the performance of the tools and tools and stipulated that they should not prevent the Muslims from working in the metal. Al-Qumi stayed in Aswan for a while and left in its treasures what weapons and equipment he had with him, so the governors continued to take Khatti from him. Nothing remained of it. When the Muslims increased in minerals and mixed with the people of Beja, their evil decreased, and righteousness appeared due to the large number of students seeking it and people hearing about it. They came from countries and Abd al-Rahman bin Abdullah bin Abdul Hamid al-Amri came to them after fighting Nubia in the year two hundred and fifty-five, and with him Rabi’ah, Juhayna and other Arabs, and the buildings in Beja multiplied until the camels carrying the beer to them from Aswan became sixty thousand packs, not robes. Which carried from Al-Qalzum to Aidhab, and the Beja turned to Rabia and married to them, and it was said that the Beja soothsayers, before the conversion of those among them to Islam, mentioned about their idol obedience to Rabia, but they were together and they understood that. When Al-Amri was killed and Rabia took control of Algeria, and most important of all, the Beja, so they expelled the Arabs who disagreed with her, and they married to the leaders of the Beja, and thus they stopped their evil from the Muslims and the Beja that entered the desert of the country of Alwa, which is next to the salt sea to the first. The Abyssinians and their men in terms of livestock, pastures, livelihood, boats, and weapons are like the Hadarib, except that the Hadarib are braver and more guided than those entering them in their disbelief in worshiping Satan and following their soothsayers. And for every belly there is a priest who places a dome made of Adam for his temple in it. When they see him informing about what they need, he strips naked and enters the dome, turning away, and comes out with traces of madness and epilepsy. The devil says, greeting you, and tells you to depart from this robe. Such-and-such a group will fall upon you, and you ask about an invasion into such-and-such a country, so march, for you will triumph and take such-and-such spoils, and the camels that you take from such-and-such a place are mine, and such-and-such a slave girl that you find in such-and-such a hideout, and the sheep that are of such-and-such a character, and the like, then they claim that he believes them in more than that, so if they take spoils, they take out of the spoils what he mentioned and give it to the priest, and he will finance it, and they will deprive the camels of their camels. On those who did not accept, and if they wanted to leave, the priest placed this dome over a single camel, and they claim that that camel does not rebel except with effort, as well as its walking and sweating, and the tent is empty and there is nothing in it. A group remained in the camps following this doctrine, and some of them adhere to that despite their conversion to Islam. Their dogs have little plunder, so is the Beja, and as for the Kaja, I do not know them. End of what was mentioned by Abdullah bin Ahmed, the historian of Nubia. Al-Baja until Islam became strong and appeared, and a group of Muslims lived in the gold mine and the country of Al-Alaqi and Aidhab, and a group of Arabs lived in those lands, from Rabi’ah bin Nizar bin Ma’ad bin Adnan, so their affliction increased and they married Al-Baja, so Al-Baja became strong, then some people from Rabi’ah married her to Al-Baja, so Rabi’ah strengthened her with Al-Baja over those who mourned for her and her neighbors from Qahtan and others who lived in those lands and the owner of the mineral in our time, which is the year thirty-two. And three hundred Bishr bin Marwan bin Ishaq bin Rabia riding with three thousand thousand from Rabia and its allies from Egypt and Yemen and thirty thousand bayonets on the Negeb of Bejja in Al-Hajf Al-Tahawiyya, and they are the Hadarib, and they are Muslims from among the rest of Beja, and those entering from Bejah are like infidels who worship an idol of theirs. And Beja, which owns the emerald mineral, connects its homes to Al-Alaqi, which is the gold mineral, and there are fifteen stages between Al-Alaqi and the Nile, and the closest building to it is the city of Aswan. And the island of Suakin is less than a mile in a mile, and between it and the Abyssinian Sea is a short, wading sea. Its people are a sect of the Beja called the Khasa, and they are Muslims and they have a king over it. The Abyssinians have darker hair and their colors are darker than the Abyssinians. They dress like Arabs, and they do not have cities, villages, or farms. Their livelihood is something that transports people from the land of Abyssinia, the land of Egypt, and Nubia. The Beja worshiped idols, then they converted to Islam in the emirate of Abdullah bin Saad bin Abi Sarh. They have generosity and tolerance. They are tribes and thighs for each chief’s thigh. They are poor people, and their food is meat and milk only.

Moving on to the topics of the third issue of Anthropology Magazine