f\ EL-MAS'UDf S f\ HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA, ENTITLED MEADOWS OF GOLD AND MINES OF GEMS" TRANSLATED FROM THE ARABIC BY ALOYS SPRENGER, M.D. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. SOLD BY JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET; AND PARBURY, ALLEN, AND Co., LEADENHALL STREET. MDCCCXLI. 5)17 LONDON : HARRISON AND CO., PRINTERS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE. THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF MUNSTER, BY THE TRANSLATOR, 790984 PREFACE. "SOME authors treat in their works exclu- sively on history, as el-Mas' udi in his book entitled THE MEADOWS OF GOLD ; in which he describes the state of the nations and countries of the East and West, as they were in his age, that is to say, in 330 (332), A.H. He gives an account of the genius and usages of the nations, a description of the countries, mountains, seas, kingdoms, and dynasties ; and he distinguishes the Arabian race from the Barbarians. El-Mas'udi be- came, through this work, the prototype of Uf fAxl>* VI PREFACE. all historians to whom they refer, and the authority on which they rely in the critical estimate of many facts, which form the subject of their labours. "Then came el-Bekri, who followed the example of el-Mas'udi, but only in geogra- phy, and not with respect to other subjects (ethnography and history) ; for the changes which had taken place in his time, since el-Mas'udi, in the relative position and state of nations, and in the spirit of times (literally, the generations) were not material. But, at present, at the end of the eighth cen- tury, a complete revolution has taken place with the Maghrib, where we live. "I take advantage, in this book, of all the opportunities of collecting information PREFACE. VII which are at my command here in the Maghrib, to give an idea (of human society and its history), and a systematical and full account (of the facts referring to this subject). But my particular object is to describe the Maghrib, and the condition of the inhabitants of this part of the globe in different periods (literally, the condition of the generations) and of its various nations, and to give a narrative of the kingdoms which flourished here, and of the dynasties which ruled over it. I must exclude the history of other countries, for I do not know the condition and circumstances in which the Eastern countries, and the nations who live there, are ; and mere report, however exact it may be, does not enable me to accomplish the task which I have in view. El-Mas'udi has fully accomplished this task, having made very extensive journeys, and PKEFACK. examined almost all countries, as we learn from his book ; but where he speaks of the Maghrib, his account is too short/' (Ibn Khaldun, Proleg.) The frequent quotations and extracts from el-Mas'udi, in other Arabic authors, show that Ibn Khaldun' s opinion of our author was universal. And we cannot hesi- tate to compare him with the Jonian histo- rian : If it is the warmth for his own nationality and tenets without prejudice against what is foreign; the elasticity of mind to receive impressions, and to appre- ciate opinions, without want of firmness and principles ; the thirst for correctness of information without preconceived criticism, which rejects what is unknown, if it differs from known facts ; the vastness of experi- c .s MS. of Leyden, No. 1350, foL 12; addit. MS. of the British Museum, No. 9574, fol. 23. PREFACE. IX ence and deep learning acquired through extensive journeys, frequent intercourse with men of all nations and opinions, with- out neglecting that self-knowledge which is acquired in solitary self- contemplation and the basis of history ; and if it is that ex- tensive knowledge and enlarged mind which embraces all the past, reflecting on the present; and that sound criticism, which, entering into the feelings of nations, and penetrated by those ideas, imaginations, and tendencies, which mankind feel at all times, selects what is national and charac- teristic although it may not always bear the stamp of logical reasoning ; if it is for these merits that Herodotus has acquired the name of Father of History, and of the great- est of all Historians, el-Mas'udi has a just claim to be called the Herodotus of the Arabs. Combining, like Herodotus, ethno- graphy and geography with history, and learning with experience and oral informa- tion, he distinguishes between the various nations of the East, and gives us a picture of their innate character ; then he follows up those ideas and principles, which, under the X PREFACE. form of religion for the uneducated, and as philosophy or as an instrument to lead the great mass, for men in power, have grown up from the character of each nation, or were embraced by the nation, if they had been first pronounced by one man or a prophet. He shows us particularly, in the second part, how such opinions served as a spiritual link to connect man with man, to strengthen the ties of blood and language, and to cover interests with the veil of sacredness ; and how religious opinions brought nations into conflict with each other. El-Mas' iidi has the merit of treating the tenets of all sects with equal attention; and ancient traditions which had existed in the East for thousands of years, seem to have been melted, as it were, in his mind, into one original idea, as they had flowed from one common source. In this respect, even his History of the Creation is of interest ; for he unites the traditions respecting cos- mogony which were kept up in the East, together with the documents of Moses and Sanchoniaton, with the Scriptural accounts*. * This may be shown by the classification of the fruit trees PREFACE. XI Although the praise which Ibn Khaldun gives to El-Mas'udi, considering him as the Imam of all Arabic historians, does not apply to the first period of Arabic literature ; yet he may indeed be considered as the re- presentative of the learning of the second period : the importance of his work must therefore be identified with that of Moham- medan literature generally. But the useful- ness of Oriental studies has been questioned by a class of men whose opinions deserve which el-Mas'udi gives, p. 60 infra, which is a tradition of the Guebres, and agrees as well with the Zend-Avesta, as if it were a translation: " Tout arbre qui vient dans les deux Mondes, (dont) le bois (est) sec ou humide, et qui est cultive (par la main de 1'homme), porte des fleurs et des fruits, est de trente especes. Dix (de ces) especes (portent des fruits) dont on peut manger le dedans et le dehors, comme le figuier, le pommier, le coignas- sier, 1'oranger, la vigne, le murier, le dattier, le myrthe, et les autres arbres de cette espece. Dix (especes portent des fruits), dont on peut manger le de- dans, comme le dattier, le pecher, 1'abricotier blanc, et les autres arbres de cette espece. Ceux-ci (les dix dernieres especes, portent des fruits), dont on peut manger le dedans, et dont on ne doit pas manger le dehors, s^avoir, le noyer, 1'amandier, le grenadier, le cocotier, le noisetier, le chateignier, le pistachier sauvage, le noyer, dont le fruit a la coquille tendre. II y a encore beaucoup d'arbres fruitiers de cette espece." (Boun Dehesch xxvii., vol. ii., p. 406.) Xll PREFACE. respect. These dry grammatical studies, being mostly a task for memory, enslave the mind, and contract its horizon, instead of enlarging it ; whereas, all pursuits which have no practical use should contribute to raise the energies of man, to enlarge his views on the condition of mankind, and to make him more free. This is their language. It is, therefore, the best introduction for the reader to our author, and for our author to the reader, to devote this Preface to some considerations on the relation of Oriental studies to the present state of European knowledge. It is the more necessary to speak on this point, that the reader may know the tendency of the notes of the trans- lator, otherwise he might be blamed for his endeavour, because it cannot be denied, that the senseless learning displayed by some philologists, of all denominations, in their notes, full of useless quotations, are the overflowings of a weak brain, but industrious hand, and as offensive to common sense as the eructations of a weak but overloaded stomach, with which they may be compared. It may be presumed that, if we had an PREFACE. Xlll exact picture of the rise, progress, height, and downfall of a nation, we might, by compari- son, come to the result, that there are cer- tain laws in the growth of nations, as we observe them in individuals, which develope certain faculties and feelings at certain periods of historical life.* And how should it be otherwise, since we find that certain tendencies, wants, and ideas, are as con- stantly met with in the mind of man, under every climate and circumstance, as the laws of nature are in matter ? So, for instance, there is no human being who has not a ten- dency to rise above others, as there is no mat- ter without gravity. The spirited feels this tendency as ambition, the idle as vanity, the weak as fashion, the affectionate mother as love and foresight for her child, and only the self-conceited carries his vanity so far as to think that he is free from it. In a society * Ibn Kaldun, who started this idea four or five centuries before Herder and Lessing, devotes a chapter of his Prolego- mena to it, which is inscribed 3UxA>Jb j\\ l$! J^jJJ /.^J ^ (jolacvJi $ " that ruling nations go through natural periods of life like individuals." XIV PREFACE. where all are equal, every one will strive to raise himself above the rest, and to|rule; and if one man stands so high that he cannot be outdone, it will appear a worthy prize of exertion to approach him, and to gain his favour by servility. The ambition of youth consists in noble enthusiasm; but as soon as man has been taught by disappointment to be wise, and as soon as he is rooted and fet- tered to life by wife and children, his objects are morematerial. There is no great action, good or bad, to which youth cannot be led by imagination, as there is no baseness and dishonesty to which a married man is not ready, provided it promises a safe profit for himself and his race. We find exactly the same in nations. What high actions were per- formed by the Arabs when they first came forth from their deserts ; and to what baseness did they sink when their state had become old and rotten ! The Greek and Roman history presents us with more known, but not more decided, examples ; for the rest there is no need of going so far; we find examples at home. The history of modern Europe dates since the Crusades, when the sceptre of the PREFACE. XV world was wrested from the hands of the Arabs, who had pushed their conquests over Europe as far as they wished. Is not the enthusiasm which then enlivened nations compared with the tendency of our age, in which wealth alone gives claim to the honours and privileges of the Peerage, like the noble impetuosity of youth in comparison with senile avarice ? Ibn Khaldun believes, there- fore, that the following are the periods of life through which a nation that has arrived at power will go: " On the phases of the dynasty and the changes of its state and condition. The nomadic manners of the members of the dynasty (who have subjected the country through their nomadic bravery^ in the va- rious phases. " Know that the dynasty passes through various phases and revolutions ; and the members of the dynasty (the men in power) XVI PREFACE. show in every phase a different character which is consistent with the circumstances of the respective phase, and different from that of every other phase, for we are crea- tures of circumstances (literally, for the cha- racter of man follows in its nature the crisis of the circumstances under which he is placed). The conditions and phases of a dynasty may generally be reduced to five. " The first is the phase of conquest, by invading the country, overcoming resistance and any difficulties which may be opposed, and by making one's self master of the sove- reign power, and wresting it from the hand of the preceding dynasty. In this phase the man (or family) who stands at the head of the dynasty (i. e. conquerors) will be on a level with the rest of the conquering nation, *AJ yfc g&l ^ilaJi ;> b$\ j\J J30,\ PREFACE. XVI and be distinguished neither by majesty nor by a greater share in the revenue, nor will his person be particularly protected and sacred. He will not enjoy any privilege before the rest, as a natural consequence of patriotism, which alone gives conquest, and which does not (immediately) cease after victory. "In the second phase the man who stands at the head of the dynasty, ac- quires the sovereignty over his own nation : he appropriates to himself exclusively the royalty (over the conquered nation), and * By rendering the word XxXAaxJI, I change an Arabic idea into an European notion. The Arab loves his family, his tribe, and his nation: they are his parents, his brothers, his children. But the free Bedouin is not attached to the soil. We have a similar predilection for our native soil. Compare the note to page 176, infra. C Xviii PREFACE. keeps his tribe at a distance, instead of allow- ing them an equal share (in the emoluments of the conquest), and of associating with them. The characteristics of this phase are, that the sovereign will connect a great num- ber of men with his personal interests, by office and adoption, with whom he sur- rounds himself to counteract the overbearing character of his countrymen (relations) who have assisted him in the conquest ; and who, having equal claims by birth, demand an equal share in power. He excludes them from the administration, keeps them at a distance from his person, and repels them if they should intrude, to the end that the power may remain in his hands, and that his family may be distinguished by the ma- jUii, 3U4UJ5 (UU-o) Uxx^j^UJ *k ^ XJ^xJt PREFACE. XIX jesty of which he has laid the foundation. He is now as anxious to keep them off, and to subdue them, as the first conquerors were in their contest for the kingdom : and he goes still further than they did ; for they had to do with foreigners, so that the differ- ence between the two parties was distinctly marked, for they were all connected by patriotism in their wars, whereas he has to contend with his relations; and his assistants in his manoeuvres are the minority, consisting of strangers : he must therefore brave diffi- culties. " In the third stage he gives himself up to comforts, for he has attained his object, and is now enjoying the fruits of the supreme power, indulging in pleasure, for which the XX PREFACE. human mind has a natural inclination : as to increase the revenue, to found lasting monu- ments, to have great fame. The sovereign, therefore, directs his intentions towards the revenue department and increases it j he keeps the balance between income and expend- iture; he calculates the expenses and the object which he gains by them ; he erects numerous buildings, great fabrics, extensive cities, and lofty public monuments ; he re- ceives the nobles of the nation and the chiefs of the tribes who come as envoys to his court to do him homage ; and he is kind to those who are in his service. His favourites and suite enjoy at the same time great wealth and importance ; his standing army is kept *.> PREFACE. XXI in good order ; they have ample pay, which is regularly received every new moon ; the consequences of this regularity are to be seen in their dress, uniform, and appearance, on parade days. The allies of the sovereign in this phase boast of his friendship, and his enemies are filled with fear. This is the last phase of the sovereignty of those who stand at the head of the dynasty (i.e. the conquerors), for, hitherto, the conquerors have had absolute power to follow their views ; they were distinguished by grandeur, as luminaries to posterity. "The fourth phase is that of being contented^ and of conservatism. The man who stands at the head of the conquerors XX11 PREFACE. will content himself with keeping up what his predecessors have done ; (he is no longer the mere Emir of the conquering tribes,) but he is equal to any other king, being an auto- crat : he confirms what his predecessors have done and imitates them step by step (lite- rally, he follows their slippers and shoes with his shoes). He acts in all instances after precedents, considering any deviation from their institutions as destructive, for he thinks they must have best understood the principles upon which they built his majesty. "The fifth phase is that of prodigality and extravagance (and reform). The sove- reign will squander away in this phase what his predecessors have gathered ; giving him- self up to pleasure and lust, and by prodigality PREFACE. XX111 towards his intimates and courtiers, by pa- tronising favourites of bad character, and a numerous rabble without principles, whom he appoints to the most important offices, which they are unable to manage ; for they know neither what they have to do, nor what they have to avoid. Thus the great men who guide the (ruling) nation (by moral influence) and those who had come to impor- tance through the favour of former sove- reigns, are injured; hence, they take a dislike to the sovereign, and refuse to lend him their assistance : his army will thus be ruined, for the luxurious court spends the means in pleasures, instead of giving them their pay; he excludes them from every office in the administration, and does not show them any attention. Thus he destroys XXIV PREFACE. what his predecessors have built. In this phase the symptoms of the decline of the dynasty manifest themselves,, and it suffers under a chronic disease, of which it can- not be cured: it hastens to dissolution. " The English reader will be surprised to find in the last two phases the outlines of the history of the present state of his own country, the struggle between conservatism and reform, written by an author who lived more than four centuries ago, in Africa, and hardly knew the name of England. Thus, his idea, " That ruling nations go through natural periods of life, like indivi- duals," is confirmed; and this is the indivi- dual life, or historical career, of nations, and the result and object of particular his- tory. By comparing a great number of biogra- phies of such nations as succeeded each other l$J &jt $3 MS. Of Leyderi, No. 1350, i., fol. 66, verso. MS. of the British Museum, No. 9574, fol. 100, verso. PREFACE. XXV on the stage of history in the rule of the world, and in whom all the activity of man- kind was concentrated and represented as at present in Europe, it might, perhaps, be proved by facts, what philosophers presume, that there are even certain laws as to when and how different nations enter on the stage of history, and what part they are to per- form ; for although certain qualities are universal to all men, every nation has an innate national character which constitutes its individuality, and predestines it to a cer- tain career, just as a woman is destined to a different vocation from that of a man. This is by no means to be taken in a mystical sense, for nothing can, for instance, be more natural than that the sober and simple Arab, who used thousands of years ago to make inroads upon Persia, should be so successful as to plant the standard of the doctrine of the unity of God upon the graves of the Khosraws, at the period when the Parthian rulers had outlived their time, their minds being corrupted by the vices of the most luxurious court, by the most artificial religion, and the grossest superstition. The XXVI PREFACE. Arabs were the liberators of the subjects who suffered under an artificial, over-refined state of society, and under the arbitrary spoliations of an insatiable and innumerable nobility. In the same way, it is not less natural that the stage of history should, in its origin, have been in the south (in Asia), and that modern European civilization should have begun in the congenial climate of Italy and Spain, than it is, that those countries have their spring in advance of the more northern regions. If the general road which nations have to go could be laid down and deduced from incontrovertible facts, the results would be more valuable than all other human know- ledge. They would give us an insight into the condition and object of mankind. " Be- hold the tales of the time," says an Arabic author, "and when thou knowest where we come from, see where we are going to." They would prove that the fate of nations does not depend upon chance or the arbi- trary actions of a few individuals. Men who are the actors in a great crisis are the pro- duct of time, and not time the product of PREFACE. XXV11 their talents ; they will not succeed if they act against the spirit of the age. A history in this sense would also point out the sphere of individual activity in public life ; for if the periods of the life of nations are laid down in certain laws, and if the attempts of the privileged cannot change their course, it would follow that the grievances of man- kind arise from those desperate attempts of men in power to interfere w T ith the course of things, and to retard their natural progress, or from those men of a destructive character who, misled by enthusiasm, mean to accele- rate events beyond their natural course; and if we could determine, by such a view of his- tory, for a given period (for instance for the present moment), what is the unalterable course which a nation will pursue, the men who do their best to smooth the way could be po- sitively distinguished from those who, under pretence of principle, attempt to interfere with the course of the nation, turning it to their own advantage ; and history would show the final triumph of the former over the latter, pointing out, that talent counter- balances wealth, that reason stands against XXV111 PREFACE. prejudice, energy against the power of public opinion and inherited privileges, persuasion and faith against hypocrisy and ecclesiastical tyranny, enthusiasm against fashion, and freedom against the power of interest and servility, and that the struggle between these different tendencies is decided by eternal laws, by Providence, in favour of moral power. Individual stands against individual, and he is victorious who goes with the spirit of the times : he may be a prince or a beggar. European history, however, will lead us neither to a correct idea of the individual life of nations, nor of their mutual succession on the stage of history, without a knowledge of the East. There is not one nation in European history whom we can follow from the moment it entered upon the stage of ac- tion down to its fall. The period of existence of modern nations is not yet elapsed. The origin of the Greeks and Romans is fabulous; and the documents which we possess respect- ing them do not reach higher up than the time of their power. There are only one or two great revolutions related in European history, in which the rule over the world PREFACE. XXIX passed from one race to another under the rise of new ideas, which exemplify the suc- cession of nations. The few accounts of Greek authors, of the ancient dynasties of Babylon and other countries of the East, derive their value only if they are illustrated by the history of later parallel facts from more modern Eastern history, of which we possess exact and numerous accounts in Arabic authors. Lest it should be denied that the history of the Greeks is very imper- fect, and that their ideas and institutions are secondary, and mere fragments of a more ancient nation, it will be necessary to enter into some details before it can be shown that the study of the East furnishes us with materials both for ascertaining the natural periods of the individual life of a nation, and the succession of nations on the stage of history. The Greeks had escaped from the tyranny of a priest caste which kept their northern and southern neighbours in ignorance, mo- nopolizing knowledge. Freedom inspired them with love for their native country and fame ; and patriotism brought them to the XXX PREFACE. highest perfection that mankind has yet attained. Worship of arts was their religion, sublime poetry their code of laws, refined taste their moral guide, and freedom their tie of union. But although their originality of conception cannot be disputed, the mate- rial of their science, as well as of their arts, is not their own : they derived it either from imperfect recollections of their former home, or imported it from the East, and gave to it a more popular form. Creuzer has lately collected some passages of Greek authors in proof of this assertion. Facts are a stronger proof than testimony ; and as scat- tered fragments of a vessel, for instance, are posterior to the whole, and the germ anterior to the plant, so we may rest satisfied that a country in which we find all ideas coherent, understood and derived from one source, although less developed, is anterior to ano- ther in which we find them sacredly preserved, but not understood, and numerous beyond measure . In order to show that this is the relation of the East and Greece, it will be necessary to anticipate a theory of the nine spheres of the heaven, which may be consi- PREFACE. XXXI dered as the creed of the esoteric in Babylon, and in many other Eastern countries, and the basis of the religious notions of the Greeks, although they never understood it. The origin of existence is the great pro- blem of all philosophy ; for the Lord of life and death is the God whom the mortal feels bound to worship. It is certainly the most natural idea, that all life should be derived from an ultimate male and female principle. The male principle was the fifth and divine element, the ether*, of which the stars are only the concentrations ; the female principle was the earth, which rests quiet and passive in the centre of the circumvolving ether, according to the ideas of the ancients. Hence Aristotlef says, " The principle of motion, which gives the first impulse to generation, * On the ether see the note to page 179 infra) and the Fih- rist apud Hottinger, Historia Orientalis, edit. alt. p. 283. f De Generations Animalium, lib. L, cap. 2. The Chinese have the same idea, but apply it particularly to their emperor as the representative of the creation, (see the note to page 326, infra). Respecting the change which this idea underwent among the Semites. See the note to page 58, infra. XXX11 PREFACE. is called male (and father), and the (passive) principle which yields the material, is called mother . . . Hence the earth is considered as female, and the mother (of all that exists), and the heaven (ether) as the male, and the father." If motion is the characteristical quality of Divinity, the planetary sphere which is most remote from the earth has the greatest claim to divinity, for its revolutions are the most rapid. Saturn will, therefore, be the highest and oldest god; he is the Sator. Opposite him stands his wife and sister the Earth, which is eternal and un- created like him ; and from them proceed all other beings, Festus seems, therefore, to be correct in deriving the name of this planet a satu. He was, however, dethroned as soon as this theory was further developed, as the reader will soon perceive. As soon as these two poles were once defined as the male and female principle, the poets in their imagination, and philosophers in their abstraction, knew no bounds in commenting upon them. The principle of motion, or the male pole, was conceived to be active, possessed of the supreme intellect; PREFACE. XXX111 the female pole passive, but feeling, mild, and affectionate, whilst the male principle was thought to be harsh and selfish. About forty million miles above the female pole, and nearly as many under the male pole, in the middle between both, there must be perfect equilibrium. This was, therefore, the place of the sun, according to the ideas of the ancients, although he is in reality about nine times more distant from Saturn than from the earth. Ptolemy's agreeing with this wrong computation shows us whence he derived his information. The sun is, therefore, the son and mediator be- tween heaven and earth ; for, in him, the nature of both is combined; in him rests the affection of his parents, which, in a phy- sical sense, is warmth, and, in mysticism, the law of love ; and he is indeed the source of heat. In all ancient religions, the sun is the regenerator and redeemer, not the creator ; but this has been frequently mis- understood by the exoteric. Having now developed the trinity of the ancients, we may proceed to state whence the qualities attributed to the planets, which d XXXIV PREFACE. were the souls or individuals (J 2>\*\ of the ether, took their origin ; for the insignifi- cant peculiarities which may be observed in them, and some of which have been noticed in the notes to page 222, infra, cannot sa- tisfactorily account for the same attributes being given to the planets throughout all the world. In Oriental psychology, of which the reader will find farther details in another part of this work, all the qualities of men are said to be based either on sympathy sAil,- which is female and passive, or on antipathy and selfishness s^UxM, which is male and active : they are both neither good nor bad in themselves. These two fundamental qua- lities are manifested either with warmth and violence *\xj|, or with system, and tempered by justice XMX*H, or with coolness and re- flexion &\. The female qualities, based on sympathy, must be predominant under the sun, according to what has been said, and the male qualities, founded on antipathy, above this luminary. Now, as the sun is at the same time the source of warmth in a mystical as well as physical sense, we may form the following scale : PREFACE. XXXV Antipathy with coolness = the ill-natured SATURN. Antipathy tempered = the royal* JUPITER. Antipathy with warmth = the pugnacious MARS. The SUN. Sympathy with warmth = the enamoured VENUS. Sympathy tempered = the meek MERCURY. Sympathy with cool reflection = the tender MOON. The Arabic astrologers allude to this theory, for they had been the initiated before Mohammed; and when they found it more expedient to serve as companions to the khalifs, professing the Islam, than as priests in their temples, they gave to their doctrines a different shape. This theory is the soul of all ancient religions, and pervades their phi- losophical sciences and those of the Arabs. The testimony of authors, in proof that this has been the theory of the initiated in the East, and the farther development of the changes which new discoveries pro- duced in it, and of the political revolutions which were occasioned by such changes, will be explained in another volume of this * It must be observed that the sovereign is considered in the East as the moderator c. \\ ^Jl, and as prohibiting for the sake of his own selfishness ; for he is the head of the soldier caste XLxH , so that Jupiter stands in his right place. ds XXXVI PREFACE, work. Our purpose here is to show, that the Greek history of mythology consists of misunderstood fragments, of a more ancient system ; and, therefore, that Greek history has, without the knowledge of the East, no beginning, and does not lead to those results of the study of history which gives it an infinite importance. The Greeks, uninitiated in the myste- ries of the priest class, and superior to the lower classes, continued to attribute to the planets these characters, without knowing why. They personified, therefore, the idols,* and invented fables, in explanation of the worship, being ignorant of the reasons. From these fables grew up their poetry; from the personifications their fine arts ; and this, as we have said, was the object of their life. But even in their fables they remained faithful to eastern notions, which tradition had preserved, contenting themselves with giving to them a more pleasing form. In the same way, every theory of the natural philosophy of the Greeks had been * See note to page 218, infra. PREFACE. XXXV11 previously known in the East. If Aristotle, in whom all the knowledge of antiquity on this head is concentrated, who sub- jected to the laws of reasoning what the uninitiated believed on authority, and who profaned the mysteries of the initiated as far as he had a knowledge of them, quotes mostly Greek authors, in speaking of sub- jects connected with natural philosophy, and alludes but seldom to the wisdom of the Chaldeans and Egyptians, it must be borne in mind, that most of their opinions had been imported into Greece long before the Stagirite, and had thus become Greek, or they had been inherited from the first Greek settlers, and thus always been in the nation; and that he has followed the dia- lectic system of didactics, in which every- thing is founded on reason, authority being named only of well-known opinions which are rejected, and form the subject of pole- mics, in order to explain and exemplify those which are defended as laws of reason, not of authority, which is, therefore, not named. The doctrine of the ether, of the five XXXV111 PREFACE. elements, and other central theories of Aris- totle's natural philosophy, are found in Ta- tary, China*, Persia, Egypt, and all other nations of the East. Nearly half of the names of medicines in Dioscorides and Galen may be derived from the Persian, Arabic, and other Oriental languages, and the use of those exported from India must naturally have first been known in their native country before they were exported. When Alexander had opened the East, not only Greek science but even Greek arts took a more decided Eastern character. Their poetry became more romantic; their sculpture less grotesque ; in former times their gods had been represented as men, and now they received the character of genii ; their schools of astronomy and medicine partook more and more of Eastern ideas, as they proceeded, and they proceeded as they were guided by these -new materials. Pto- lemy adopts even the chronology of the Babylonians. And the temperaments of * See Visdelou, apud D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. Suplem. and the note to page 179, infra. PREFACE. XXXIX Galen are as ancient as the world; they are connected with star worship*, and pervade the whole of Galen's or rather Eastern ideas on anatomy, physiology, and pathology f; even in materia medica the same idea is followed, and every medicine has its crasis (or temperament). The Greeks had the merit of bringing the materials which they collected in the East (I doubt whether from books) into a system, to compare them with experience, and to found them upon reason; whereas, they had existed as faith or mystery amongst Eastern nations. When the East was re- vived by the Arabs, the works of the Greeks were so very welcome, because the Eastern nations found in them their own ideas sys- tematically arranged. These few hints may be sufficient to show that the ancient history of Europe is incohe- rent and incomplete in itself. Even many * Compare page 206, infra. f In the literary history of the Arabs, down to el-Mas'udi,some curious eastern theories from Ibn Jauzi, of which the translator possesses a beautiful manuscript, which is probably the only one in Europe, will be given, to confirm what is asserted here. XL PREFACE. forms of Greek grammar cannot be explained without the assistance of the Sanscrit and Zend languages. The Roman history is still more in the dark. The fables with which it is headed by Roman historians are a confes- sion that their institutions want an historical explanation ; but that they did not find any either in their annals or in their popular traditions. There is, therefore, no nation in Europe, nor has there ever been any, of which we have a complete account, from the moment when it entered upon the stage of history to the end of its career, and from the progress and fall of which we could draw a picture of the life of nations : and it can still less be expected that the history of Europe should give us an idea of the succession of nations on the stage of history. The periods of life are much slower in the North. The East, on the contrary, is rich in experience : the periods of life rapidly suc- ceed each other, and are decided in their character; the revolutions, so violent, that they cannot remain unobserved ; one empire was founded upon the ruins of another ; PREFACE. XL1 dynasties rose and faded with the rapidity and splendor of meteors. Towns, like Bagdad, el-Kufah, el-Kahirah, were built like camps ; and on the Oxus, for instance, we see the Tatars, Persians, Greeks, Parthians, Arabs, and Uzbeks, as rulers, within the compara- tively short period of three thousand years. On account of these frequent, rapid and de- cided changes, the idea of the mutual rela- tion and succession of nations was, at least with reference to Iran, known to the ancient Persians, and forms one of the theories of the Zend-Avesta; and a perfectly correct division of the then known human races in the Semitic, Negroes (Hamites), and Tatars, including the Caucasian race (Japhetites), is even found in Genesis. We cannot better illustrate and confirm what has been said above, than by following up the ideas of the Zend-Avesta. Such an inquiry enters the more into the plan of this preface as it will enable the reader to form a correct judgment respecting the place which the history of the Arabs occupies, with reference to other nations. First, we must have a clear notion of XL11 PREFACE. Iran, or rather Khunnerets, as connected with irrigation. "If the water/' says our author*, who gives us some precious notices on this subject, "retires four hundred cubits from its original place, this place will be waste." He exemplifies his statement by the different state in which el-Hirah was in his time, and that in which it had been a few centuries previously. The country in which Niniveh was situated is now a desert, and the gardens of the khalifs are covered with sand. As the sun produces the most luxuriant vegetation, if his rays fall on wa- tered ground (the female element), so are they destructive if they meet no humidity. It is for this reason that the sun is represented in these two opposite characters in Siwa. There is, therefore, no cultivation of the ground possible without irrigation. To keep up the irrigation is nothing less than to con- trol enormous rivers, to dig new ones, and to drain countries ; it is a much more gigantic work than all the railroads of Europe. Hence, an almost infinite number of hands * Page 254, infra. PREFACE. XL111 must be employed for this purpose ; and this, in the infancy of society, can only be done by a powerful government which rules extensive countries, and, as a great govern- ment can never be free by a despot. This is borne out by the system of gathering the taxes of these countries Abu Yusof says, in a letter to Hariin er-Rashid which must be considered as an official document, 66 Such land as was waste and is now cul- tivated and irrigated by the water of the heaven (rain), or from wells or brooks, or large rivers, which are nobody's property, (like the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Oxus, or Saihun) pays only the Tithes ; but if the land is watered by the canals which were dug by the ancient Persians, as the Nahr el-Melik, or Nahr Yezdejerd, the Kheraj is to be paid for it, although it may be cultivated by a Moslim." As these regulations have been copied from the Persians *, it is evident that * Whenever the Arabs conquered a town or province of Persia, they called the Dihkans, asked them what taxes had been paid under the Khosraws, and confirmed generally the ancient regulations. En-Nowa'iri (MS. of Leyden N. 2 D.) gives us, in the History of the Sasanians, an account of their regulations of XL1V PREFACE. the land tax was levied for the irrigation, since those lands which did not require arti- ficial irrigation were exempt. This formed the character of the popu- lation of such countries (deltas), amongst which Babylonia (Khunnerets) at present claims our attention. As the cultivation of the soil was dependent upon a powerful monarch, the very existence of the culti- vators was connected with despotism. No wonder, therefore, if servility is so deeply impressed on the character of all nations who live in deltas. The king is the god of fertility, who, by directing his attention to irrigation, may double the number of inha- bitants in less than twelve years, as they perish by thousands if it is neglected. It has been asserted, that the climate forms the character of a nation, and Oriental the land tax, which agrees literally with what Abu Yusof con- siders as law under the 'Abbaside khalifs. And as the Sasanians had been the restorers of the ancient state of things, to what they were before Alexander, we may trace the same institution to the ancientPersians. Lands, under artificial irrigations, are called cU, which has been rendered in this translation by estates. PREFACE. XLV despotism has, for this reason, become pro- verbial. History shows, however, that now monks celebrate their processions in the streets through which the triumphant Ro- man citizens marched, and that the slavish Babylonian lives between the Bedouin the freest and happiest man on earth and the independent Kurd. The national charac- ter depends upon institutions and education. A rich country will soon produce men of talent and cunning, who earn their living by teaching or deceiving; and they are the priests, who will form a caste as soon as a man rises amongst them who unites their doctrines into one system, which, in order to be adopted by the nation, must of course be in harmony with their institutions, and will therefore be kept sacred as long as those institutions last. Thus, we have the three fundamental classes of society of the population of deltas, fat and slavish cul- tivators, cunning priests, and a luxurious court and soldiery ; or, applying it to Baby- lon, the Nabateans, Magi, and the Daulat X!_5*xM (dynasty). The first of these three classes are fixed to the soil ; the third is XLV1 PREFACE. constantly changing, passing through the phases and revolutions which Ibn Khaldun describes in the passage quoted above ; and the priest caste is intermediate between both. The priests were the masters of the king and kingdom, as long as the state was founded upon their theories ; and they formed an amusing society of savans round the courts of the Khalifs when their doc- trines no longer found faith. When such a monarchy (daulat*) is in the height of its activity, it will extend its grasp after conquests, as it will be the aim of conquerors when it is in decay. The nearest object to excite the avarice of Babylonia are the fertile banks of the Oxus, as a Bac- trian monarch can find no worthier object of his ambition than Babylonia. These two countries were, therefore, united under one ruler at all periods when Western Asia was in a flourishing state, and they form Iran, in its greatest extent, the stage of history of Western Asia, and the object of our present observations. * The primary meaning of the root of Daulat is, the vicissi- tudes of fortune. PREFACE. XLV11 South-west of Iran extend the deserts of Arabia, which are bounded on the south by a fertile mountainous country. This may be considered as the native soil of the Semitic race. History has recorded several success- ful Arabic invaders who have subdued Iran. Scripture names Nimrod ; from the third volume of el-Mas'udi we shall learn the names of Sheddad Ben 'Ad and many others; and in Persian traditions Zohak is mentioned as a Semitic conqueror, previous to the Mohammedan conquests. In the same manner it is reported by Herodotus, by Mongolish traditions and Persian poets, that the Tatars, who have their original seats in the steppes north-east of Iran, conquered this country in ancient times, previous to the Seljuks, Jingiz-Khan, and Tai'mur. These two nations stand like the two magnetic poles, opposite each other, with reference to Iran, in their national character as well as in their geographical position. Both were originally nomades : and the main body of the nation, continuing wandering habits, remained at all times in the primitive condition of man. But the Tatars are pas- XLV111 PREFACE. turing soldiers, whilst the Arabs are warlike shepherds. The Tatars are used to blind obedience and discipline. The basis of all their social institutions is hereditary aristo- cracy. A Tatar magnate has, amongst other privileges, that of committing nine crimes. To be a slave is the pride of a Tatar ; and they have acted as such at all periods, at Eastern courts. If they become masters, they dig their own graves by imbecility, idleness, and cruelty. An example of their passive obedience are the Cossacks. Jingiz- Khan may be considered as the repre- sentative of the national character of the Tatars. His strict discipline, order in the camp, and simple regulations, render him one of the greatest generals recorded in history, and the extent of his conquests, and the valorous opposition of some of his enemies, fill the reader of his life with astonishment ; but no man ever shed more blood, laid waste more countries, and committed greater cruelties, than Jingiz Khan. The captive enemies had to serve him as shields against their brothers, and were forced to fight against them before PREFACE. XL1X they were slaughtered. When he took a town (Balkh, for instance), the lives of the inhabitants were spared until their temples were profaned, their wives and daughters ravished, and their houses burnt ; and when he had thus tortured their feelings, men and women were promiscuously put to the sword. The Tatars were called the nation of Mars by the Iranians. The Bedouin, who is the prototype of the Semitic race, on the contrary, is per- fectly free and independent *. He is capable * Harith Ben Keldah described the character of the Arabs before Khosraw Anusharwan, in the following terms: "Their minds are liberal, their hearts cheerful ; their language is expres- sive, their tongues are eloquent, their pedigrees pure and genuine, their ancestors noble ; the words flow from their mouths like arrows from the bow, but milder than the breezes of spring, and sweeter than honey; (literally, the water of a certain spring of Paradise ;) they feed the hungry in the time of need; they fight the strong in war; they do not permit that their high feelings should be hurt, that their neighbour should be injured, that their wives or daughters should be profaned, or, that the noble should be hum- bled." PREFACE. of the noblest enthusiasm, but he has less imagination than any other nation, hence his poetry is lyric* ; the long- winding epos and drama are unknown to him ; his reason- Ibn Abi Osaibiah, MS. of the Brit. Museum, No. 7340, fol. 44 verso. The variants are from a MS. of the Royal Library at Paris. * Nothing can better illustrate the peculiar character of Arabic poetry than the verses of the Koran, given in the follow- ing page. (Sura, 91, translation of Sale.) God swears: " By the sun and its rising brightness ; by the moon, when she followeth him ; by the day, when it showeth its splendour ; by the night, when it covereth him with darkness; by the heaven and Him who built it ; by the earth and Him who spread it forth; by the soul and Him who completely formed it, and inspired into the same wickedness and piety ; now is he who has purified the same happy." Heaven and earth are too narrow for the spirit of Mohammed, whilst the hero of Homer swears by so trifling an object as a stick, which he paints in several verses: " Yes, by this sceptre, which will no longer shoot either leaves or rind, for it once left its stem on the mountains, nor will it ever blossom again ; the sharp knife has pruned around both the leaves and bark. Now this sceptre is intrusted into the hands of the judging sons of Greece, Jove's delegates, from whom all wise laws emanate, thus I utter a great and solemn oath to you." As the rhyme of the Arabic original is as characteristic for sublime, and romantic poetry as the grave Hexameter for the apos, the original is here added: PREFACE. LI ing is clear and logical ; and thus the Bedouins were the founders of the spirit of the middle ages. The Arab is, therefore, not the tool of dreams and hopes ; his object is to enjoy the moment, and to be to be good, to be wise, to be free, to be happy ; whilst the endeavour of other nations is to have, and to be possessed to have goods, to be possessed of knowledge, to have power, to have the means of rendering them- selves happy and thus they are possessed, U j, Ul&b ttl JJJJ j Nai /ia ToSc (ncrjirTpov, TO KCV ovirorf <^uXXa KOL oovf firireidfj TrpStra TO/JLTJV ei/ opo-^A>J!), or the Luminary (j^jtH or ^V^O* if the impression of its colour or splendour is prevalent in his mind, and so with other notions. The reader will find, for the same reason, numerous hysteron-proterons in Ara- bic expression which have been preserved in this translation ; for, as the Arab expresses even facts as sentiments, he says^r^jf what makes the greatest impression upon him. Thus we read& first, that Zakariya was put to death 3 and then it is described how he was killed. As long as the government of Iran was in the vigour of life, these two nomadic nations assisted it against other powers. We find them in the account by Herodotus of the army of Xerxes; and under Khosraw Anusharwan fifty thousand Tatar troops came on the Persian frontier, demanding to be taken into his service: "For," said they, "we gain our living by the sword; * See page 122, infra. LV1 PREFACE. and, as our country cannot give us food, we must be thy enemies, if thou wilt not re- ceive us as friends, and provide for us and our families." It appears from el-Wakedi's genuine account of the Mohammedan con- quests, as quoted by early authors, that the inhabitants of Yemen were driven by a si- milar motive to join the banners of the Islam. The population was too dense, and so they came, uncalled for, to Medinah, and asked 'Omar to send them against some enemies of the faith. When the rulers of Iran had passed through the periods of life described by Ibn Khaldun, and sunk under their own weight, the Arabs and Tatars made predatory incur- sions upon the unprotected cultivators, as they did under the successors of Anushar- wan. For, dependent as nomades in some measure are upon civilized nations, they are always on the alert for making plunder. The Arabs and Tatars are like two reservoirs of water over Iran ; if a breach is opened, they will naturally come down upon Iran, and make the breach wider, to irrigate it if guided, and to inundate it if not controlled. Success fills them with PREFACE. LV11 self-confidence ; the prospect of rich booty attracts new invaders, and unites them. And what can resist them if they are united ? A tradition is related of Mohammed, that he expressed sanguine hopes of the rise of the Arabic power, on the occasion of a victory of a predatory corps of the Temimites over the Persians ; so that it is very likely, that his religious enthusiasm was heightened by the prospect of victory and political ascendancy; the more so as he exhorts the Koraishites, in one of the last Surahs of the Koran, to be united, for union would give to them wealth and power. The conquests of Iran by these nations appear to have been alternate. Thus, under 'Omar, the Arabs poured over Iran, and pushed their conquests to other countries, until the surplus population* of Arabia was exhausted. When the storm had subsided, they passed as Daulat XJ^j of the country [that is to say, as the soldier caste and nobility, as the Normans were in England], through the periods of life described by Ibn * Ibn Khaldun, who defends this idea, gives an estimate of the number of conquering Arabic populations of that time. But it does not seem very correct. LV111 PREFACE. Khaldun*. In the mean time, the Tatar steppes were over populous and full of vigour, whilst the Semitic rulers were drowned in luxury. Thus it was their turn to inundate Iran, after the Arabs had possessed it four centuries f. We find on the banks of the Tigris a pure Semitic population ; and as Babylon was the seat of Semitic learning and civili- zation, so the name of Bokhara is derived from a Mongolish word meaning, according to Abulghazi-Khan, "wisdom," because it was the centre of Tatar civilization:]:; and the main population on the banks of the Oxus seem at all times to have been Tatars. From whence came the Persians, and other Hindo-Germanic nations, who are of a race distinct from the Tatars and Semites, and to whom no delta is left in western Asia ? It seems they are the product of the mixture of those two opposite nations, as their lan- guage combines the character of the tongues of both, having compositions and internal organization ; so that it must be posterior * Page xv., supra. f The Seljuks came in 432 A.H. % Page 46 of the Tatar edition. PREFACE. L1X to the Tatar and Semitic languages, for a more perfect development is naturally pos- terior to a more simple structure. Although I could not defend this theory of the origin of the Hindo-Germanic nations, so much is certain, that they are the nations of civiliza- tion, and that civilization will no more rise without the intercourse of opposite nations, than one sex alone can give birth to a child. These alternate conquests of the Arabs and Tatars must be considered as having given birth to civilization. They illustrate, there- fore, the succession and mutual relation of nations in history better than anything else. Our author*, Hamza of Ispahan, and the Zend-Avesta mention four other nations, the Semites, Tatars, and Iranians included which answer to the seven Kishwars or climates f , and which surround the passive inhabitants of Iran, like six stamina the pistillum, invading and reviving it in their turn. South of Iran live the Hindus. A suc- cessful inroad of some Hindu conqueror is * In his Tauluh ; and after him Haji Khalfa, in his Bibliog. Diction. f Compare page 1 98, infra. LX PREFACE. recorded in the eighteenth chapter of this work ; and they were, even at the time of Anushirwan, so strong, that he expresses his fears of them in his last speech. As the Germans, fortheirhighintellectual character, their tendency to mysticism, their political passiveness and insignificance, bear a resem- blance to the character of the slavish culti- vators of Iran, so India may be compared in its geographical position and character with Italy. The Italians, like the Hindus, are buried under the ruins of their former gran- deur, and vegetate, in unmanly occupation, in the plundered temples of their Benares, on the Tiber. The French bear a resem- blance to the Arabs ; both have shown themselves equally capable of fighting for principles, and of being united by enthu- siasm, and not by the fear of a master. The Russians are the Tatars of Europe, and the main body of the subjects of the Autocrat are of Tatar origin. South-east of Iran lie Thibet and China, which have been compared with the Turks by Hager in a learned article in the Fundgrubens des Orients. Egypt is situated in the West, from whence the Persians have experienced PREFACE. LX1 several invasions. Tyrus and the empire of Croesus, whose attack upon the Persian empire failed, were north-west of Iran, and may be called the Great Britain* of the ancient world. Subsequently, the Byzan- tine empire succeeded, and was at constant war with the rulers on the Tigris both the Khosraws and Khalifs. The struggles of these six nations, but particularly of those of the Arabs and Tatars, their mutual relation, and their power over Iran, offer a wide field for studying the succession of nations in the stage of history ; whereas the contests of India, China, Egypt, and Asia Minor, against Iran, and among themselves, are less important ; for here doulat fights against doulat. Their conflicts do not give us a view of the connexion of the first prin- ciples from which states grow up, but only of the opposition of the interest of states and monarchs. Thus far as to the relative position of nations to each other, and their succession on the stage of history. We may nowpro- * This comparison of the nations of Asia with those of Europe could be carried much futher into detail ; for similar circumstances have similar effects, and similar processes of life produce, in physi- ology, similarly organized formations. LX11 PREFACE. ceed to show, that the history of the power of the Arabs furnishes us with better mate - rials for studying the individual life of nations than that of any European country. Their history is complete, and we have trustworthy accounts from the moment when they entered upon the stage of action, to the time when they went back into their deserts again. Their own poetry and traditions, as well as foreign authors, show us the Arabs before Mohammed exactly in the same condition as they are now. They have no state, but sim- ply families ; and they make, therefore, no progress, nor are they subject to decay as a nation. Their endeavour is, as we have said, not to possess, but to be : existence ends with the life of the individual, whilst his possession remains. The Bedouin history is the genealogy only of those to whom they owe their existence ; they cannot point to changes in state, nor to progress in arts and literature, nor to any beneficial influence in society which their fathers have made, for all these things are connected with posses- sion ; and revolutions in states are effected because rights and property are transferred PREFACE. Lxiii from one class to another by the change of ideas. The ideas of nomades can make no progress, for the natural feelings of man are at all times the same ; and knowledge is a possession which changes with new discove- ries, and is useless, if not applied to life and and property. When the Persians and Byzantines were enervated by luxury, and drowned in the forms of civilization, the spirit of which was gone, the constant inroads of the Arabs were more successful, and a too dense population had made them more reflective ; for necessity is the mother of invention. Prophets arose in all parts of Arabia ; and the Mohammedan doctrine of the unity of God was crowned with success six centuries after the introduction of the Christian religion, and about three after Arius had first declared himself against the trinity. The Koraishite tribe stood first, as the head of the Arabs, and they thought it safer for their freedom to have the Oma'i- yides as their Khalifs than the Alites, who raised their claims by divine grace. The Oma'iyides, who were merely Emirs, went through the five phases of life, but in XL1V PREFACE. them the first two were particularly de- veloped. Hejjaj Ben Yusof drowned the spirit of freedom in el-Kufah and el-Basrah in their own blood. The baptism of mo- narchy the mild and fatherly form of go- vernment cost the lives of twenty-one thou- sand men. Their death did not give so much alarm; for they did not fall in the open field, but under the hand of the exe- cutioner, in prison, and the servile part of the population was well fed. The victims who fell in the open field were innumerable. Hejjaj was the precursor of the ' Abbasides, although he was their enemy. This new dynasty went through the five phases. They were 'Alites and Kings (no longer Emirs), supported, in spite of the Kora'ishites and their allies, by the Nizar tribes, who lived near the Tigris, and who were more used to a master by divine right, and by the Khorasanians ; for the first want which they felt after they had recovered from the shock of the Arabic conquest, was that of having a monarch, to counteract the rapacity of the governors, and to promote irrigation. The 'Abbasides represent particularly the third and fourth phases. At the beginning of the PREFACE. LXV fourth century, the 'Abbaside power was at an end; physical force and money* now alone gave right to power, and every gover- nor made himself independent in his pro- vince. Each of these moluk et-Tawa'if went through the above periods of life ; but they represented particularly the last phase that of reform and dissolution. Till now the power of the kings was owing to the Arabic conquests, although some were Tatars ; whereas the sovereignty of the Seljukians, Jingiz-Khanians, and Ta'imurians, rested on the success of the Tatar arms. The Arabs, by degrees, turned back into the deserts, or were humbled to the state of cultivators. Their original character vanished, and they became like the Nabatheansf,who had been deposited there by the Bedouins thousands of years ago, and so they remain at present. Thus the periods of life are distinctly marked in Arabic history, and nothing can exceed the fidelity of their historians. They believe till they are persuaded of the contrary, * Thus the Ghaznewides and Khowarezmshahians owed their power entirely to the treasures of India. j- The Nabatheans were looked on with such contempt by the Bedouins, that their name had become a nickname, at the time of the author of the " Nabathean Agriculture." LXV1 PREFACE. and adhere closely even to the terms of the source whence they derive their information, naming the whole series of persons through whom they have received traditions. Orien- talists should study the lives and characters of the traditionists before they enter into his- tory, for this alone can enable them to form an estimate of the critical value of the accounts. El-Mas'udi gives us only one instance of such a way of treating history, in the first volume*; but many in the last. An Arabic historian will relate a fact without changing it, although it may be against his views. An instance is found in our author, where he relates the ridiculous ideas of el-Jahit respecting the unicornf . How much more valuable such simplicity is, in history, than modern criticism, may be shown in an ex- ample. Goethe, the German poet, speaks, in his Westwstlichen Diwan, on the march of the Israelites from Egypt to Syria, and means to prove that they would not have been longer in the desert than two years ; the reasons which he alleges are too ridi- culous to be recounted here. Ibn Khaldun, adhering to the text of Scripture, thinks * Page 57, infra. f Page 392, infra. PREFACE. LXV11 that the Israelites, debased by the slavery which they had endured in Egypt, were unable to oppose the Philistines, until the old generation had died off, and a new one grown up in the hardy life of the desert. It has been our endeavour to show, that the fruits of the study of history ought to be, to obtain a view of the individual life of nations; and to ascertain, by connecting these particular histories, the laws of the succession of nations in the rule of the world. European history, it has been as- serted, does not lead to these results ; for modern nations have not yet arrived at the end of their career; and the Greeks and Ro- mans, (as it has been shown at some length, for fear of the prevailing Helenomania among the learned of Europe,) borrowed their institutions and the material of their science and arts from the East : hence the study of the East alone can lead us to the above-mentioned results. We attempted to illustrate the succession of nations by a few hints bearing on this subject as far as Iran is concerned ; for this is the stage of the history related by our author; and, finally, we meant to intimate, that the his- LXvifi PREFACE. tory of the power of the Arabs is the only complete biography of a nation which can serve as the standard in judging others. Now this would be the place to show how far our author contributes towards these two objects. It is, however, much better for the reader to peruse The Meadows of Gold, and judge for himself. It may suffice to say, that he treats, besides history, on almost all the branches of Arabic science, poetry, and common life. It seemed, therefore, well, occasionally, to supply, from other authors, what is wanting, to give to the reader a perfect insight into the life of the Arabs at the time of their power ; to show whence el-Mas'udi derived his historical information; to assist the reader in the criticism of facts ; and to throw some light on the time and manner in which the Arabs cultivated various sciences and arts. The first will be done in additional notes, or little memoirs, which were first intended to be added at the end of each volume ; but for want of time they must be postponed to the end of the last volume of each of the two sections of which the whole work con- sists, and the latter will be done in a sepa- PREFACE. LX1X rate volume, which will form the last part of this work, and contain the literary his- tory of the Arabs, down to the time of el- Mas'udi, together with our author's own life* and literary connections. I have already collected for this purpose notices on the lives and works of several thousand authors, partly from their own writings, and partly from extracts and notices found in later authors, where the original works are lost. I have seen, and partly perused, nearly twenty copies of the whole or part of The Meadows of Gold, preserved in public or private collections, at Paris, Leyden, Oxford, * The reader may find an excellent Memoire on the life and writings of el-Mas'udi, written by M. Quatremere de Quincy, in the Journal Asiatique, (Ille serie, tome vii., No. 37, Janvier, 1839, p. 5 to 31,) with which he may compare D'Herbelot, article Massoudi; Abulfeda, Ann. Mosl. vol. ii., adnot. 208, p. 118, adn. hist.; Deguignes, not. et extr., vol. i.; Silvestre de Sacy, ibid., tome viii., p. 132; idem, Chrestom. Arabe; Langles, Voyage en Egypte et Nubie de Norden, tome iii., p. 292, note 1; Hamaker, Spec. Catalogs pp. 46, 48 ; d'Ohson, Des Peuples du Caucase, pref. iii., viii.; Fraehn, Ibn Fozlan; Charmoy, Sur les Slaves, in the Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburgh, t. vii., Nov. 1832 and 5 July 1833; Nicolls, catal. Bibl Bodleyana-, Gilde- meister, de Indis, Bonn, 1836. Mr. Gildemeister has translated into Latin, and published the whole of the seventh chapter of el-Mas'udi. I have to regret that I could not take advantage of his excellent work, having been in the country when my translation of that chapter went through the press. The difference of the MSS. will account for the difference of the translation of some passages. LXX PREFACE. Cambridge, and London. Including the ex- tracts found in other authors, the number of copies of which I possess some knowledge may be calculated to be above fifty. They all agree in certain faults ; the variants are material and innumerable. It seems that the autograph was written in a bad hand : per- haps it was the bad state of the MSS. of the first edition of The Meadows of Gold which induced the author to publish a second edition, of which he speaks in the Tanbih ; but as this edition is nowhere to be found, criticism on the work is rendered difficult, if not impossible. The reader will do better to consider what has been done in this trans- lation, than what remains to be done. The translation of this volume has been made from a manuscript of Ley den (No. 537, a), which ends with the thirty-second chapter. It is very ancient, made by a man of great learning, and therefore very correct. Sometimes, however, when he found a corrupt passage, he gave a wrong sense to it in his corrections. But it is, at all events, the best copy in existence. On the margin one sometimes finds valuable ^ariants, written by a later hand. I am PREFACE. LXX1 indebted for the perusal of this copy to the kindness of Professor Weijers, D.D., and the liberal institutions of the library of the University of Leyden : hence it has resulted that nowhere in Europe has so much been done for Oriental literature as in Holland ; and yet not one MS. of the rich collection of that university has been lost or damaged. How many useful works would be saved from the worms, and how much credit would it throw on the literary character of the University of Oxford, if they would follow this example! Before I sent the translation to press, I compared it with several other copies : as, A manuscript of my esteemed friend, M. de Gayangos, who, although he is enriching Oriental historiography with his own labours, throws open his valuable collection of Orien- tal manuscripts to his friends with as much liberality as if he had collected them solely for their use. This copy is modern and carelessly written, but complete. A manuscript of the Asiatic Society of Paris, which contains only the first chapters, and those not complete. The manuscript of Leyden marked No. LXX11 PREFACE. 282, A, which contains the whole of the first part, that is to say, the first sixty-nine chap- ters. It is better than most other copies of el-Mas'udi, however numerous its faults are. A manuscript of Cambridge, which had been imperfect ; but Mr. Burckhardt, its for- mer owner, took care to have it completed. Besides, I had several extracts from the MSS. of the Royal Library at Paris, and others. Lord Munster had the kindness to go over the whole translation, to correct faults against the English idiom. But as it is im- possible to reconcile the Arabic style with the genius of the English language, without working over sentence after sentence afresh, the mistakes which may still be found in this translation in English diction, must not be ascribed to his Lordship, whereas the translator has to avow, that he had, in many difficult expressions of the original, recourse to his Lordship, and derived a great deal of information from him for the notes, and a lucid understanding of the text. In many instances, aliteral translation has been prefer- red to an idiomatical English expression, for reasons which the reader will easily discover. Brighton, April, 1841. EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, AND MINES OF GEMS. IN the name of God, the Merciful, the Clement ! Praise be to God, to him is due all praise and glory! Blessed be Mohammed, the highest of the Prophets, and his pure family. FIRST CHAPTER. The Object of this Work. El-Mas'udi says: We have described, in the in- troduction to our work, called Aklibdr ez-zemdn 1 (on the history of time), the figure of the earth, its towns, wonders, and seas, its heights and depths, mountains and rivers, the produce of the mines; the various waters, marshes, and the islands of the sea and of lakes. We have also given descrip- tions and historical sketches of large edifices and lofty temples, an account of the beginning and last origin of things, and notices of inhabited districts, and of such tracts as had been land and became sea, or which had been sea and became land ; together with the causes of those changes, both proceeding from sidereal and natural influences. We proceeded then, in that work, to divide the 2 EL-MAS'uDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, climates according to the stars which preside over them, and the lines on the globe, and the extent of the districts. We also entered into details on the discussions on history, and on the different opinions of its beginning, and on the priority of the Hindus and other pagans. We have men- tioned the accounts of sacred and other books, and the traditions of the Rabbis 2 . After this intro- duction 5; we have related in that work the history of ancient kings, former nations, and distinguished men, and of tribes of past times, according to their different origin, classes, and religion. We have given an account of all their wise institutions, the sayings of philosophers, and of the history of their kings and emperors (Csesars 3 ) who have passed on the wings of time. In another chapter we have followed up the history of the prophets, holy men and devotees, until God completed his bounty by sending MOHAMMED his prophet. We continued our history in relating his birth, youth, and pro- phetic mission, his flight, his military expeditions, both those commanded by himself, and those com- manded by his leaders 4 , down to his death. Thus we have followed up the history of the Khalifs and of their empire, which grew up attended with constant disputes and wars with the Talebites *M plural of AND MINES OF GEMS. O who descended from Fdtimah 5 , down to the time when we write this book, which is during the reign of el-Mottaki Lilian, in the year 332, A. H. After the Akhbar ez-zeman, we wrote our book the Kitdb el-ausat', which is also a historical work, chronologically arranged from the creation down to the time when we concluded our great work, and the Kitab el-ausat which follows it. Subse- quently we thought it useful to reduce into a smaller compass what is said in detail in the larger work, and to shorten what we have related in the Kitab el-ausat, so that we may give the essence of the contents of those two works in a less voluminous book, in which we shall mention, besides, different sciences which are not noticed in those two works. We have to excuse ourselves, if it should be found too short, and to apologize, as our mind got disturbed and our strength reduced by the privations of travelling, and by crossing seas and deserts. The object of these journeys has been to satisfy our thirst for knowledge, and to learn the peculiarities of the various nations and parts of the world, by witnessing them, and the state of foreign countries, by seeing them ; in this way we travelled to INDIA 7 , Ez-ZiNj 8 , ES- UiH ^AAxJlkJl. LUM^I V UT The middling work. 7 A. & B. Jsi^Ji; C. Js^JI. 8 go^JU 9 A. c^u^ll; B. cJuaM; C. jJuflJl; C. adds f j and China." B 2 4 EL-MAS*Ul>i'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, EZ-ZANIJ*. We have also traversed the East and the West. Sometimes we were in the ex- tremity of KHORASAN, other times in the centre of ARMENIA 11 and ADHERBUAN IS! , ER-RiN 13 and EL- BAILKAX U , then again in EL-'!RAK and in ESH-SHAM (Syria). We went from one quarter of the earth to the other as the sun makes his revolutions. As some poet says: " We rambled through the dif- ferent parts of the country,, sometimes we were in the extreme east and other times in the west, like the sun, the ardour of the mind which remains unimpaired, is unsatisfied until it reaches the region (the other world,) which cannot be approached by travelling." Then we had intercourse with kings of different 10 A. & c. ^Jj; B. 13 A. & B. ^yi; C. 14 A. & B. ^ * Arabic Geographers seem not to have been very well acquainted with this name from the various ways of spelling it. Jaubert's translation of Edrisi (vol. I. page 59, et seq.) alone presents us with four varieties; er-Rdnij, ez-Zdlij, ez-Zdnij, and er-Rabij. The MSS. of Mas'udi add to this list er-Rdbih, ^\A\ and ez-Zdbih. The reading adopted by most authors is er-Ranij g\j\\ I preferred " ez-Zanij" on the authority of a most ancient and carefully written MS. of the British Museum, (N. 7496, add. MSS.) which seems to be an extract from Beladori's Kitdb el-bolddn and the autograph of the abbreviator. AND MINES OF GEMS. 5 usages and politics, and by comparing them we have come to the result, that illustrious actions have faded in this world, and its luminaries are extinguished. There is a great deal of wealth but little intellect. You will find the self-sufficient and ignorant, illiterate and defective, contented with opinions, and blind to what is near them. Subsequently, this sort of knowledge did not appear to us a worthy task,, nor did we consider it worth our while to devote ourselves to these pursuits, so we wrote rather our works on the different opinions and various beliefs, as the book on the " Exposition of the Principles of the Religion 15 /' and the " Tracts on the Principles of the Religion 16 ," the work on " The Secret of Life 17 ," and another on the " Argu- ments of the Principles of Dogmatics (philoso- phically) arranged/' The last-mentioned book contains the principles of jurisdiction and the rules of passing decisions : as defence against argumentation, and deciding on one's own authority; rejecting opinion and grace; the knowledge of what is abrogated (in law), and what is put instead of it, and of how far and in what points there is only one opinion ; the distinc- tion between particular and general, between positive 15 1C 7 6 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, and negative commands, and between disapproved and permitted, then the traditions which are generally acknowledged as true, and those originally reported only by one man, the example of the prophet, and the juristical decisions founded thereon. We added our own opinions on the subject, both those which are controversial, and those which are in accordance with others 18 . " Reflections on the Imamship, and statement of the opinions of those who maintain the rights of the Imam to be hereditary, and of those who make him elective, together with the passages (of the Koran, &c.,) which both parties bring forward in proof of their opinions 19 ," and "The Book 18 As every word of this sentence is a technical expression, I add the original. \^,\ Lo ft\\ 1^1 w *M *** ^ or an explanation of these terms I refer the reader to the additional notes at the end of this volume. AND MINES OF GEMS. of Sincerity (the impartial book) on the Imam- ship 20 ." We have, besides, inserted occasional remarks on these subjects in our works on various sciences, empirical and mystical, evident and occult, passed or still existing. We have called attention to those subjects which the vigilant observe, and upon which the intelligent reflect, and to what they mention of the splendour which enlightens the world and is diffused over its barrenness, and to the results of researches in the ruins, which ever have been famous and glorious in their origin, and which may lead to further explanations. We entered into the art of government, as the government of cities, and its natural laws, and the division of the parts of these laws. We entered into speculations on the first origin and the composition of the world and the heavenly bodies, and of what is tangible and not tangible, and what is dense, and what is the reverse. We have been prevailed upon to write these books on history, and the explanation of the events of the world, by the unanimous example of the wise men and philosophers who have done their best, that there may be kept up in the world the recollec- 8 EL-MAS'lJOl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, tion of what there is praiseworthy and digested in science. We found that authors have observed two ways in writing hooks, the one to explain the matters in full length, the other to shorten them ; and, again, the one elucidates whilst the other abridges. But we found that the accounts are in- creasing in number with the progress of time. The learned stands frequently higher than the intelligent and clever. But each of them has a part assigned to his faculties. Every climate has some wonders which the inhabitants do not understand, and no man who has zeal for science can rest satisfied and content, with what natives may report of their coun- tries ; but he can trust to a man who has spent his life in travelling, and passed his days in researches, and who has minutely explored the mines (of knowledge), and carefully collected all that can interest. Men have written books on history at all times, some are of more, some of less, value. Every one has exerted himself according to his powers, and has deposited therein the stores of his wit and talent, as 1 Wahb Ben Monabbih \ c*^. 2 Abu Mikhnaf * Lut Ben Yahya el-'Ameri #\ \ f*&* * The most copies of Mas'udi bear Mohnifand. this is the reading adopted by Kosegarten in his edition of Tabari. The AND MINES OF GEMS. 3 Mohammed Ben Ishak 4 El-Wakedi 5 Ibn el-Kelbi 6 Abu 'Obaidah Ma'mer Ben el-Mothanni 7 Ibn 'Ayyash* jiU* ^1. 8 El-Haithem Ibn 'Adi et-Tayf 9 Esh-Sharki Ibn el-Ketami 10 Hemmad er-Rawiyah * 11 El-Asma'i { juo^ 12 Sahl Ben Harun 13 Ibn el-Mokaffa' 14 El-Yezidi sr ^ JJ+& ^Zs. ^\. 24 AbuZeid'Omar Ben Shabbehen-Nomairi Joj >J 25 El-Azraki el-Ansari 26 Abu Saib el-Makhzumi 27 'All Ben Mohammed Ben Sole'j'man en-Naufeli 28 Ez-Zobair Ben Bekkar J6* ^ j*>^- 29 El-Injili 30 Er-Riyashi 31 Ibn 'Abid U or * Other readings are X - ^j *u* * ^jU The reading which I have adopted in the text rests on the authority of Ibn Khallikan. f The readings differ \ or Jt or ^\ or JI. AND MINES OF GEMS. 11 32 'Arnrnar Ibn Wathimah * X 33 Abu Hassan ez-Ziyadi ( 34 'Isa Ibn Lahi'ah el-Misri (&ux$J) ***jJ 35 'Abd-ur-Rahman Ben 'Abd-ullah Ben Abdul Hokm el-Misri 36 Abu Keisan el-Hadi 37 Mohammed Ben Musa el-Khowarezmi 38 Abu Ja'fer Mohammed Ben Abi-s-Sari 39 Mohammed Ben el-Haithem Ben Shebamah (Shebabah) el-Khorasani ^^^ fj^tt ^> J^sx ^Ujil (S^UJK) SUUA the author of the Book ed-daulat (%j*M the dynasty.) 40 Ishak Ibn Ibrahim el-Mausili, the author of the Song-book, and of other works *J^j1 .jj vJu * There is a great difference in the readings of this name. The MS. in M. Schultz's collection in the Royal Library at Paris gives the reading which I have adopted in the text. The MS. of Leyden bears cf^oU XAJJ ^\ ^Xc and another copy has c5?jAaU ^jl*c I believe it is the same man whom Haji Khalfa (N. 2120) calls 'Omdrah Ben Wathimah. 12 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, 41 El-Khalil Ibn el-Haithem el-Harthemi JJlil ^j*$r$\ fAAgH ^jJ the author of the book on Stratagems and Manoeuvres in War ^A\ ^UT Vj^i J NJ&|j aa d f other works. 42 Mohammed Ben Yezid el-Mobarred el-Azdi 43 Mohammed Ben Soleiman el-Minkari el- Jauheri 44 Mohammed Ben Zakariya el-Ghallabi^ el-Basri (el-Misri) (^^0 cfj^ui^ 3-^x)^ ^0 (^j^*^^, the author oif the j^^i i^UT and other works. 45 Ibn Abi-d-Dunya (er-Raini) the preceptor of el-Moktefi Billah (^0 USjJl ^^ ^j^^ 46 Ahmed Ben Omar (Mohammed) el-Khoza'i, known under the name of el-Khakani of Antiochia o 47 'Abdullah Ben Mohammed Ben Mahfiith el Beladi el-Ansari l^yL^v^ ^j *x^ ^.^ ^J^ iXxc ^Uaj^\ (tf>^0 tf*xX>Ji the companion of Ibn Yezid 'Imarah Ben Zaid of Medina (Ibn * All the copies of Mas'udi bear &xJJ instead of I prefer the latter on the authority of the Fihrist. His work is called in some copies jl^^SH v^ an( ^ ^ n ^ e Fihrist 2>f^.y\. Haji Khalfa contains none of these titles. AND MINES OF GEMS. 13 Othman Ben Zaid of Medina) *,Ux Ju 48 Mohammed Ben el-Barki Ben Khalid el-Waki el-Katib* -oKN ^\ *\!U. (^ ^xiJ Cj _^ \ 51 Ahmed Ben Abi Tdher^lfc ^? ^.j J^! the * This name is found only in M. de Gayangoz's copy. It is evidently very incorrect. Comparing it with the next following name, which is also only met in Gayangoz's MS., I consider "el- Waki " as a corruption of "el-Barki ", which is to be left out the first time. The name runs therefore : Mohammed Ben Khalid el-Barki el-Kdtib. Haji Khalfa (N. 2405 edit. Fliigel) ascribes a work called "Exposition of the History of Bagdad" to Ahmed Ben Mohammed Ben Khalid el-Barki el Kdtib. This name agrees exactly with the name of the next following author. As in M. de Gayangoz's copy frequently a sentence is written twice, I almost think the father must abdicate as an author in favour of his son. f This author is mentioned only in a copy of the Royal Library at Paris, (collection of M. Schultz) and in M. de Gayangoz's MS. The later MS. adds, He is the author of the work i-^xl^ *^W^ "P ems of the Arabs (Bedouins^)" in the Fihrist and in Haji Khalfa (edit. Fliigel, N. 38.) This book bears the title UJJ C>UjSN " Popular Poems." 14 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, author of the " History of Bagdad" j+\ v ^ Jjjob and other works. 52 Ibn el-Wesha U^J ^\ 53 'All Ben Mojahid X4>Ls=s.<> (JJ j ^ the author of the ''History of the O may y ides "^,U=U V UT (^.jju^oSM and other works. 54 Mohammed Ben Saleh Ben el-Betah (en- Nettah*.) ( C U*N) ^U^l ^ ^\# ^ *+=s^ the author of the " History of the Abbaside Dynasty'^ X/^UxJ^ XJ 3 *xJ^ t_lxT and other works. 55 Yusuf Ben Ibrahim ^&>jA (j_^ <-**-^. the author of the " History of Ibrahim Ben el- Mahdi " and other works. 56 Mohammed Ben el-Hareth et-Taghlebi (eth- Tha'lebi) (c^xn) gteX\ cL^^ ^^ Jl J 59 History of Ahmed Ben Yahya el-Belddori v^" cfji^xJ^ ^^ (J jj js,*^^ &j^ an ^ the work of the same author which has the following title, 16 EL-MAS'lJDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, " The countries and their subjection to the Mohammedans, by treaty or force, after the Hijrah of the prophet, and all the conquests of Mohammed, and of the Khalifs after him, also the traditions illustrative of this subject;" <-A^ The author describes in this book,, all the countries east and west, south and north. We do not know of any better work on the conquest of the countries than this. 60 The history of Ddwud Ben el-Jerrdh, A^J <->^ gJJCM <5* ^4>\ (.jj. This is the great reposi- tory of the history of the Persians, and of other nations. The author is the grandfather of the vizier 'All Ben 'Isa Ben Dawud Ben el- Jerrah. 61-4 history containing the events, state, and times before the Islam and after, by Abu 'Abdullah Mohammed Ben el-Hasan Ben Siwdr, known under the name of Ibn Okht 'Isa Ben Ferklidn- shdh, ^k ^.^j. His history goes down to the year 320. 62 History of Abu 'Isa Ben el-Monajjim (the astrologer) principally based on the Pentateuch, AND MINES OF GEMS. 17 It treats also on other prophets and kings. 63 History of the Omayyides, their virtues, the qualities by which they distinguished themselves from other great families, and the new line of conduct which they adopted when in power ; by Abu ! 'Abd-ur-Rahmdn Khaled Ben Heshdm el-Omawiy ^AjljU 64 T%e history of Abu Bishr ed-Dauldbi ^ 65 And the excellent book of Abu Bekr Mo- hammed Ben Khalaf Ben Waki\ the Kadi, on history, with notices on other subjects ; 66 Biography and History by Mohammed Ben Khaled el-Hdshemi 67 History and Biography by Ishak Ben Sola'iman el-Hdshemi; j 68 Biography of the Khalifs by Abu Bekr Mo- hammed Ben Zakariyd er-Rdzi, liXi^^x** JxT ; the author of 18 EL-MAS' i DI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, the " Kitab el-Mansuri"^^;uJJ V UT and other medical works. 69 The works of 'Abdullah Ben Moslim Ben Ko- taibah ed-Dinaweri XAAA? (.+-> fiwo /.jj aM! *XAC tf^jJJ, which are numerous and extensive, as his Encyclopedia ( _ 5,1*^ t v^UT and other works. 70 The history of Abu Ja'fer Mohammed Ben Jarir et-Tabari ^jvUl^j^ ^ tX^yLx^ ^\ jsjlj- No other book can be compared with this, which forms a supplement to all other works. He has collected different historical traditions and documents, so that his book contains a variety of information, which renders it very useful. And how could it be otherwise? the author having been the most learned Divine* of his age, and the most religious person of his time. He united the knowledge of the * " Divine," v^^JJ sing* jj*a+$\ Hence j+j&+j means "to form such a cantonment." Similar cantonments were founded by the same Khalif, and for the same purpose, in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Although they were in their origin little more than camps, they rose soon to importance, being the site of the govern- ment of the conquered countries, and the rich booty collected there from all quarters of the world, changed them into splendid cities. In these cantonments the veterans who had fought with Mo- hammed were stationed. When peace was restored, their minds were turned to religious speculations, and their imagination was filled with the recollections of the prophet ; the absence from the original spot may have contributed to exalt and embellish these recollections. They related the sayings and history of the prophet to their children, who were anxious to gather as many of these sacred traditions as they possibly could, and to compare the accounts of the same fact, as related by different persons. So in every one of those stations of the veterans, or " leading cities," to which Mekka and Medina may be reckoned, a corpus of tra- ditions was formed which was first orally taught, but soon committed to writing, studied and commented upon by the divines These cantonments may be compared, in an ecclesiastical point of view, witli the primitive Christian churches, (Jerusalem, Alex- andria Antiochia, &c.), with this difference, that they were at the same time the sites of learning, and that their chivalrous feelings were so strong, that the blood of more than a hundred thousand C 2 20 KL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, 71 Of the same description is the history of Abu 'Abdullah Ibrahim Ben Mohammed Ben 'Orfah el-Wdsiti, the grammarian, known by his nick- name, Niftawaih His history is full of elegant extracts from the best works, and of useful matter. He was the best writer of his time. 72 Mohammed Ben Yahya es-Suli ^$& ^j tX+2x JyH followed his example in his book called The papers on the history of the Abbasides and their poetries u Ju?&\ ^ UX^UrU ^J o^^J t->\tf ^,U-2^ and in his work on the history of the Viziers of the Beni 'Abbas ^1^ ^A^t? ^JvS- He relates anecdotes which are not to be found in any other author, for he had the opportunity of witnessing them personally ; he was besides very learned and well- informed, and a good writer. 73 Of the same kind is the work on the Viziers, men who fell in el-Kufah under the executioner of Hejjaj Ben Yusuf could not quench their thirst for independency. This is the original acceptation of the word VAO^O which was lost when the cities to which it had been applied, lost their import- ance and character. Modern writers use sometimes the plural ,Uo*J in order to make a sentence more pompous, and in this case it means "provinces" in a vague acceptation of the word. AND MINES OF GEMS. 21 by Abul- Hasan 'All Ben el-Hasan, who is known under the name of Ibn el-Mdshitah*, This work goes down to the end of the reign of er-Radhi Billah. 74 Equal merit has Abul-Faraj Koddmah Ben Ja'fer el-Kdtib c-^j'KH yL*^ ^ 3UJA* ^^\ ^\. He was a good and elegant writer, who chose such words which expressed best the meaning, as one may see from his historical work, which has the title, flowers of the spring, ^-ktf t>j$\r*j but his best work is the book on the tribute, ^*\ <-ur. In these two works he justifies fully the praise which is given to him. 75 Abul-Kdsim JcCfer Ben Mohammed Ben Ham- dan el-Mausili el-Fakih wrote his histo- rical work called el-Bdhir j&kjA\ ^\jS (the admi- rable) in opposition to the Kitab er-Raudhat 'tejjti c^UT (the garden) of el-Mobarred 76 Ibrahim Ben Mdhawaih el-Far esi ^> xy>Lo. He imitates a work of el- * Haji Khalfa (No. 242 edit. Fliigel) writes the name of this author Abul-Hosam 'AU Ben Mohammed el-Meshshdtah XlsUUJI but this is wrong. Compare the Tenbih (337 MSS. of St. Germain, fol. 195 vers.) 22 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, Mobarred called "el-Kamil" _UKU V UT (the perfect book.) 77 The work of Ibrahim Ben Musa el-Wdsiti on the history of the Viziers, &}* &> ^^ v^~ \j-j\ J^\ ^ is \s^\^\. He wrote this book in opposition to Mohammed Ben Ddwud Ben el-Jerrah's book on the same subject. 78 The work of 'AH Ben el-Fath* el-Katib known under the name of el-Motawwak, on the history of several Viziers of el-Moktader, ^^ _AxT 79 El-Misri's work named Flowers of the eyes and brightness of the heart, (jj>**M 80 TAe history of 'Abdur-Rahim Ben Mohammed el-Warrak, generally called el-Jorjdni es-Sa'di-f, 81 History of el-Mausil and other places, by Abu Zokra * Haji Khalfa (No. 242) is wrong in writing the name of this author 'Alt Ben Abil-Fatah. t Haji Khalfa (No. 2193) calls this author 'Aid er-Rah- mdn Ben 'Aid er-Rezzdh es-Sadi el-Jorjdnt. One of my copies bears Ben el- Warrdk I The name of this author in Haji Khalfa (No. 2320) is Zakariya el-Mausili. AND MINES OF GEMS. 23 82 The chronicle of Ahmed Ben AU Ya'kub el- Misri* embracing the history of the Abbasides and other families, 83 The history of the Khalifs, from the house of Abbas, and others, by 'Abdullah Ben el-Hosdin Ben Sa'd el-Kdtib, f ^U^i 84 Mohammed Ben Abil-Azhar's J ^ work on history, and other subjects. * Haji Khalfa (No. 2151) writes this name Ahmed Ben Yakub el-Misri. f Haji Khalfa writes 'Abdullah Ben Hosa'in Ben Maad I Haji Khalfa calls this author Abul-Azhar Mohammed Ben Mozid) a grammarian, who died 325. This is wrong, as we see from es-Soyutl (lives of grammarians and lexicographers y an Arabic MS. of Dr. J. Lee). This author says, " Mohammed Ben Mozid Ben Mahmud Ben Mansur Abu Bekr el-Khoza'i, known under the name of"Ibn Abll-Azhar" the grammarian, is called by some writers Mohammed Ben Ahmed Ben Mozid.... He is the author of the work el-harj wal-marj, &c." With this account agrees the author of the Fihrist (Vol. I., No. 874, MS. Arab. anc. fonds., in the Royal Library at Paris, fol. 200 verso.), who gives to the author of the el-harj wal-marj the name of Ibn Abil-Azhar Abu Bekr Mohammed Ben Ahmed of Bushanj 24 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, This book has the title of rebellion and revo- lutions) dLA]^jsU; or he ought to have entered into an explanation of the systems of Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle, treat- ing on the system of the heavens* X>UJJ UA5M, on meteorological phenomena xj^XxH jl^t, or on natural temperaments. On causes, their connexion and conclusions ^yU^J- On proposi- tions cijUJoiU, and compound syllogisms U>^ djlxTj.*!!. On the distinction between natural and supernatural oU$lsn. Also on the science of the matter, dimensions, figures, and the mensuration of forms (stereometry), and other problems of philosophy. If he had written on these subjects, no blame could be cast upon * This is the Arabic title for Aristotle's work, De Ccelo, and the following one for his Meteorologica. 26 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, him for his labour, for he would have produced a work which is consistent with his professional science. But the learned are defective in their abilities, and the wise have some weak points. Hence, 'Abdullah Ben el-Mokaffa' says: "Whosoever writes a book exposes himself: if it is good he will earn fame, and if it is bad he will reap shame." We mentioned only those chronicles, histories, biographies, and documents, the authors of which are known, and omitted the historical works of the persons who have written on the traditions, con- taining the names, lives, and classes, of men ; for this volume is too limited to contain all that. Besides, in our work entitled Kitdb Akkbdr ez-zemdn and Kitdb el-ausat, we have named the persons who have made themselves in any way remarkable, with their biographies, and anecdotes of their lives, and we have given an account of the persons of science, and their classes; beginning from the time of the companions of the prophet and the fol- lowers* after them, we have followed up the great men of every age, in chronological order, till the year 332, according to the difference of their * Those who lived at the time of Mohammed, and knew him, are called " companions," c-A^t and those who knew the compa- nions, but not the prophet himself, are called "followers," AND MINES OF GEMS. 27 pursuits and opinions, whether they were divines of the leading cities, or other persons who espoused the cause of some opinion, sect, system, or contro- versy. We have given to the present work the title, MEADOWS OF GOLD, AND MINES OF GEMS, <_A>^ jjiyll ^yiljco ^ 4-*jfr m order to excite a desire and curiosity after its contents, and to make the mind eager to become acquainted with history, the prominent and leading facts of which are com- prised in this book, whilst they are related in full detail in our former works on the same subject, and with the interesting accounts selected for these pages from our other writings. We have dedicated this book as a present to kings and men of learning, having treated in it on every subject which may be useful or curious to learn, and on any knowledge which arose in the lapse of time. We have pointed to the subjects of our former works, repeating here everything that a clever and well-informed man ought to know. There is no branch of science, nor any object of interest, of which we do not speak ; nor is there any important fact which we do not distinctly mention in this book. We have compressed it into the form of a summary, interspersed with various hints, and illustrated with occasional observations. Whosoever changes in any way its meaning, removes one of its foundations, corrupts the lustre 28 EL-MAs'ui)i's MEADOWS OF GOLD, of its information, covers the splendour of one paragraph-, or makes any change or alteration, selection or extract; and whoever ascribes it to another author, may he feel the wrath of God! Quick may come the vengeance, and may the blows of misfortune fall upon him with such violence that he is unable to bear his fate in patience, and that he loses his intellect over it. May God make him an example to the reflecting, and may He take from him what he had given to him. May He who is the Creator of heaven and earth bereave him of the strength and other graces which he had bestowed upon him, to whatever sect or opinion he may belong. We have put this intimidation at the beginning of this book, and at the end, that it may deter any one who might have an inclination, and be bad enough, to do such a thing. God will see him, and watch his doings. The space (of life) is short, and the distance (to the other world) is small, and to God we shall all return*. Here we subjoin a list of the chapters of this book, showing the contents of every one of them * This expression of reliance on God is borrowed from the Koran, and is constantly in the mouth of the Moslims if they see themselves wronged. AND MINES OF GEMS. 29 SECOND CHAPTER. A List of the Chapters contained in this Book. WE have explained in the preceding chapter the object of this work ; in this chapter we will give a list of the contents of the chapters, in the same systematical order which we have observed in the body of the book, to the end that the reader can easier refer to them. 3. The first origin. The process of the creation, and the first generations from Adam to Ibrahim. 4. The history of Ibrahim, and the prophets after him. The kings of the children of Israel. 5. The reign of Rakhobo'am Ben Solaiman Ben Dawud and the Israelite kings after him. Concise account of the prophets. 6. Those who lived in the Fatrah, that is to say, in the time between Christ and Mohammed. 7. An abridged account of the Hindus, their opinions, the origin of their kings, and their lives, also their usages in holy service. 8. On the globe, the seas, the beginning of rivers, the mountains, and seven climates, and the stars which preside over them, and other subjects. 9. A concise account of seas that have changed their places, and of great rivers. 30 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, 10. Account of the Abyssinian sea, its extent, gulfs and straits. 11. The different opinions on ebband flow, and all that has been said on this subject. 12. The Greek (Mediterranean) sea, its length and breadth, and its beginning and end. 13. The Sea of Nitus* and Manitus, and the strait of Constantinople. 14. The sea of Bab el-Abwab and Jorjan (the Caspian Sea), and a view of the connexion of all the seas. 15. The Chinese Empire, its kings ; their lives, government, &c. 16. A comprehensive view of the accounts of the seas, and their wonders, and of the nations who live in the islands of the sea, or on the coast, the succession of their kings, &c. 17. On the Caucasus, and accounts of el-Lan (Alans), es-Serir, el-Khazar, and various races of Turks f, and el-Bulghar, also of Derbend and the nations and kings of those regions. .*J is a corruption of Q^Lju Pontus, which is so universally found in Arabic authors, that it seems to be sanctioned by use. t The word "Turk" throughout this work is not to be taken in the meaning it generally has in the English language. For the nation which we call "Turks" are named in the east "Othmanlis," whilst the name "Turk" has with good Arabic writers about the AND MINES OF GEMS. 31 18. The Assyrian kings. 1 9. The kings of Mausil and Ninive, who are the same as those called el-Aturyiin*, ^.j$f.j3W 20 The kings of Babel of Nabatsean, and other origin. They are called the "Chaldseans." 21. The first Persian kings; their lives, with historical sketches. 22. The kings of the Satrapies, and the Ash- ghanians. These were between the first and second Persian dynasties. 23. The origin of the Persians, and what the historians say on this subject. 24. The Sassanian kings, who are the second series of Persian sovereigns, and collections from their history. 25 The Greeks t> their history, and opinions on their history. same meaning as with us, " Tatars." I refer the reader for a more scientific explanation of this word to the 17th chapter and the additional notes to it. * He means probably the kings of "Aturia," which is the name of the country belonging to Niniveh, in Strabo, (edit. Basil. 1549, page 669.) f The Greeks, before they were subjected by the Romans, are called by oriental writers " Yunaniyun, , . . ^.xj U^/J \ or lonians . The term is originally Syriac UJQ-i, for the Arabs derived their knowledge of the ancient Greeks originally from the Syrians, and these were, of course, best acquainted with those Greeks who 32 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, 26. The history of Alexander in India. 27. The Greek kings, after Alexander. 28. The Roman Empire, and what historians say on the origin of the Romans, the number of their kings, and their chronology. Also sketches from the lives of those kings. 29. The Christian sovereigns of the Byzantines, we mean the emperors of Constantinople, with some notices of what has happened during their reigns. 30. The emperors after the beginning of the Islam down to the emperor Romanus, who is now reigning in 332 A. H. 31. Accounts of Egypt, and the Nile, wonders of Egypt, and its sovereigns. 32. Alexandria, the edifices of this town, and the kings who resided there. 33. The Sudan (Negroes), their origin and different races. 34. The Slavonians, the countries where they lived nearest to them, who were the "lonians." After the conquest ^of the Romans, the eastern empire was called Rum p^JJ I translate ^/JU^AH by "Greeks," and +^\ for distinction's sake, by " Byzantines." Whosoever wishes for further explanation on this subject may consult Hamaker's note to the " Liber de expugnatione Memphidis et Alexandria ", Leyden 1 825, p. 60. AND MINES OF GEMS. 33 live, their kings, and the divisions of the Slavonian nations. 35. The Franks and Galicians, XxJ&lJ their kings, sketches from their history and biography, and their wars with the inhabitants of Andalus, (Moors in Spain.) 36. The Longobards, and their kings, together with an account of the country which they inhabit*. 37. The 'Adites, and their kings; a view of their history, and the opinions respecting the length of the time which they flourished. 38. The Themudites and their kings; Salih their prophet, and some sketches from their history. 39. Mekka, an historical account of this city, and of the holy house, (the Ka'bah,) also of the supremacy which the Jorhomites, and other tribes, held there ; and what besides enters under this head. 40. On the description of the earth, and the various countries. Love to the native soil. 41 . The dispute on the reason why " el- Yemen," * M. De Guignes, (Notices et Extraits des MSS. de la Bibliotheque du Roi, Vol. i. p. 4.) and Hamaker, (Specimen Catal.) read the word Aj^TyJJ Nogorod. We have no doubt but that $jjS^&\ is a corruption of Jj.x&jJJ "el-Liingobard,'' although all MSS. agree in this corrupt reading. We are con- firmed in our opinion by Nowai'ri, (MS. of Leyden, Nro. 273, page 50,) who spells it Jj^&^J " Alangobard." D 34 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, " el-Irak," 6^*n "esh-Sham," ^l&l and "el-Hejaz," jl^J have received these names. 42. Yemen, the origin of the inhabitants of this country, and the various opinions thereon. 43. Yemen, and the kings called ct Tobba's," and others, together with their lives, and the years which they reigned. 44. The kings of el-Hfrah, who came from Yemen, and others, together with their history. 45. Kings of Syria who came from Yemen, and others, together with their history. 46. Wandering people of the Arabs, and of other nations ; the reasons why they inhabit the deserts, and the Kurds the mountains; their origin and history, and all that is connected with this subject, 47. The different beliefs and opinions of the Arabs, before the Islam; their dispersion. The history of the elephant, and the invasion of the Abyssinians, Abdul Motallib, &c. 48. Opinions of the Arabs on the soul, intellect, and animal life. 49. What the Arabs say on ghosts and witch- craft, and what other nations say on this and other subjects of the same nature. 50. On ominous sounds, demons and the like, according to the opinions of the Arabs and others, both those who believe it and who deny it. 51. The ideas of the Arabs on augury, divina- AND MINES OF GEMS. 35 tion, physiognomies, and lucky or unlucky omens, taken from the circumstance whether game turns from the left to the right, or from the right to the left. 52. Soothsaying, how it is done, and various accounts thereof; the distinction between a rational and irrational soul, and opinions on visions, dreams, and other subjects connected with them. 53. The history of Seil el-'Arem in the country of Saba and Marib. The dispersion of the Azd, and their settling in other countries. 54. The years and months of the Arabs com- pared with those of other nations, how far they agree, and how far they differ. 55. The months of the Kopts and Syrians, the difference of their names. A view of chronology, and what is connected with these matters. 56. The months of the Syrians; how they agree with the months of the Greeks; how many days in a year. 57. Months of the Persians. 58. The years and months of the Arabs, and the names of their days and nights. 59. What the Arabs say on the nights of the lunar months, and what is connected with this subject. 60. The revolutions of the sun and moon*. * Mas'iidl states at the end of this index that the number of chapters is 132. All MS. copies fall short of this number, D 2 36 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, 6 1 . The influence on this world ascribed to the sun and moon, and the various opinions on this subject. 62. The quarters of the world, and what is peculiar to every part of them in the east and west, south and north, and other influence of the stars. 63. Sacred edifices and lofty temples ; on the houses sacred to the worship of fire and idols. The idolatry of the Hindus, on the stars and other strange things in this world. 64. Sacred houses of the Greeks, and their description. 65. Sacred houses of the ancient Romans. 66. The sacred houses of the Slavonians, toge- ther with their description. 67. The high temple of the Sabeans of Harran, and of other Sabean sects. The various things preserved in these temples, and the like. 68. Account of the houses of fire worship, their construction, and the account of the Magi respecting those houses, and their construction. omitting frequently the chapter heads. Taking the chapter heads of all the copies at my disposal, I brought the number of chapters to 131. De Guignes, who gives this list, although very incomplete, in the first volume of the Notices et Extraits des MSS., after the MSS. of Paris, mentions the above chapter head, which I the readier adopt to make complete the number of 132, as Mas'udi speaks also on the course of the sun and moon in the chapter inscribed in my copies "The influence on this World, &c." AND MINES OF GEMS. 37 69. Conspectus of the chronology of the world, from the beginning down to the birth of Mo- hammed. 70. The birth of Mohammed, his pedigree, and what enters besides under this head. 71. The prophetic mission of Mohammed,, and his history till his flight. 72. The flight of Mohammed, and the heads of his history, till his death. 73. Account of his history, and circumstances connected with it, from his birth to his death. 74. New dogmas which commenced with the prophet, and which had never existed before him. 75. The Khalifat of Abu Bekr es-Sadik: his pedigree, and sketches from his life and history. 76. The Khalifat of 'Omar Ben el-Khattab: his pedigree, and sketches from his life and history. 77. Khalifat of 'Othman Ben el-'Affan. 78. Khalifat of 'Ali Ben Abi Taleb: his pedi- gree, and sketches from his life and history: his brothers and sisters. 79. Account of the battle of the camel, how it began, and what there happened. 80. The occurrences between the Arabs of el- Trak, and esh-Sham (Syria), at Siffin. 81. The two arbitrators, and the beginning of the arbitration. 82. 'All's wars with the people of Nahrwan, who were called " esh-Shorrat," (SchismaticksJ ; and the result of this war. 38 EL-MASU'DI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, 83. 'All's assassination. 84. Sayings of 'Ali, examples of his abstemious- ness, and some anecdotes of this nature. 85. The Khalifat of el-Hasan Ben 'All Ben Abi Taleb. 86. Reign of Mo'awiyah Ben Abi Sofyan. 87. History of Mo'awiyah, his government, and anecdotes from his life. 88. The companions of the Prophet, their praise. 'Ali and el-' Abbas. 89. The reign of Yezid Ben Mo'awiyah Ben Abi Sofyan. 90. El-Hosain, the son of 'Ali, is killed, and many of his family and followers share his fate. 91. The names of the children of 'Ali Ben Abi Taleb. 92. Sketches from the life and history of Yezid; some extraordinary actions of his. His wars, &c. 93. Reign of Mo'awiyah Ben Yezid, Merwan Ibn el-Hakam, el-Mokhtar Ben Abi 'Obaid and 'Abdullah Ben ez-Zobair, and sketches from their lives and history, and some occurrences which happened at this period. 94. Reign of 'Abdul-Melik Ben Merwan: sketches from his life and history. 95. El-Hejjaj Ben Yusof ; his speech, and part of his history. 96. Reign of el-Walid Ben 'Abdul-Melik: sketches from his history, and the history of el- Hejjaj during his reign. AND MINKS OF GEMS. 39 97. Reign of Soleiman Ben 'Abdul-Melik : sketches from his life and history. 98. Khalifat of 'Amr Ben 'Abdul-' Aziz Ben Merwan Ben el-Hakam: sketches from his life and history. 99. Reign of Yezid Ben 'Abdul-Melik: sketches from his life and history. 100. Reign of Hesham Ben 'Abdul-Melik, and sketches from his life and history. 101. Reign of el-Walid Ben Yezid Ben 'Abdul- Melik, and sketches from his life and history. 102. Reigns of Yezid Ben el-Walid Ben 'Abdul- Melik, and Ibrahim Ben el-Walid Ben 'Abdul- Melik, and anecdotes from the history of their reigns. 103. The party spirit between the descendants of Yemen, and the Nizarians. And the rebellion against the Omayyides which was the result. 104. The reign of Merwan Ben Mohammed Ben Merwan Ben el-Hakam. 105. The number of years which the Omay- yide dynasty has been in power. 106. The 'Abbasside dynasty : further history of Merwan ; his murder, his wars, and life. 107. The Khalifat of es-Seffah, his life and history, and the history of his time. 108. The Khalifat of el-Mansur; his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 109. The Khalifat of el-Mehdi: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 40 EL-MAS'UDi's MEADOWS OF GOLD, 110. The Khalifat of el-Hadi : his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 111. The Khalifat of er-Rashid; his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 112. The Barmekides, their history, and their influence upon their time. 113. The Khalifat of el-Amin: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 114. The Khalifat of el-Mamun: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 115. The Khalifat of el-Mo'tasem: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 116. The Khalifat of el-Wathik: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 1 1 7. The Khalifat of el-Motawakkel : his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 118. The Khalifat of el-Montaser; his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 119. The Khalifat of el-Mosta'in: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 120. The Khalifat of el-Mo'tazz: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 121. The Khalifat of el-Mohtadi: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 122. The Khalifat of el-Mo'tamed : his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 123. The Khalifat of el-Mo'tadhed : his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 124. The Khalifat of el-Moktafi: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. AND MINES OF GEMS. 41 125. The Khalifat of el-Moktader: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 126. The Khalifat of el-Kahir: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 127. The Khalifat of er-Radhi: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 128. The Khalifat of el-Mottaki: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 129. The Khalifat of el-Mostakfi: his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 130. The Khalifat of el-Moti': his life and history, and sketches from the history of his time. 131. The second conspectus of the chronology, containing the period from the Hijrah, down to the present time, i. e., Jomadal-ewwel of the year 336. Thi sis the date when I finished this book. 132. Names of the leaders of the pilgrimage. El-Mas'udi says, these are all the chapters contained in this book. We shall give, in every chapter, the contents pointed to in the preceding list,, and besides, various other histories and accounts not mentioned in this list, but they form only sepa- rate paragraphs of the mentioned chapters. So we give in our chronicles of the Khalifs, and the length of their lives, in a separate paragraph their bio- graphy and history; and then we add another paragraph containing an account of the occurrences during their reigns, the history of the Viziers, and the sciences which were the object of their literary 42 EL-MAS'uDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, circles. We have put into a different shape what we have said in our former works on the same subject. The number of chapters contained in this book is one hundred and thirty two. The first chapter contains the object of our work, and the second the list of chapters contained in it, and the last chapter contains the names of the leaders of the pilgrimage from the beginning of the Isldm down to 335, A.H. AND MINES OF GEMS. 43 IN the name of the Merciful and Clement God ! THIRD CHAPTER. On the beginning of all things, process of the creation, and the progress of generation. ABUL-HASAN (el-Mas'udi) says : the learned Mos- lims, of all sects, agree that God, the Almighty, created the universe without model, and from nothing. The first thing created, acccording to a tradition based on the authority of Ibn el-'Abbas and others, was water ; upon it was the throne of God, and when God intended to accomplish the work of creation, he produced smoke * from the water, which rose over it, and he called it *WlJ heaven. He made the water dry, and changed it into one earth, then he divided it into seven earths t. This was done in two days, on Sunday and Monday. * i. e. The exhalation of the waters, as he says soon after. f The Arabs received the theory of seven earths without knowing what they were. Some believe that there are six earths under the one which we inhabit; in the sixth is the throne of Iblisy whilst others divide the globe known to the Arabs into seven earths. (Kitab el-Bold&i, add. MS. of the Brit. Museum, 7496). 44 EL-MAS'fJDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, He created the earth upon a fish CL>^* which is mentioned in the Koran, in the Surah, " Nun f " "by the reed (pen) and what they write, and by the FISH." This water again rests upon alarge smooth stone, and the stone upon the back of an angel, who stands upon a rockt, and this rock is supported by the wind. The rock is also mentioned in the Koran : in the words of Lokman to his son, "O my Son, if the weight of one mustard-seed pushes on the rock, or on the heavens, or on the earth, or wherever it may be, God is aware of it, for God is clear-sighted and omniscient." When the fish shakes, an earthquake is produced. God, however, placed firmly the mountains upon it, and the earth remains firm. To this alludes the passage of the Koran ^[, "He has thrown upon the earth mountains firmly rooted, lest it should move with you." He created the mountains, the nourishment of the inha- bitants of the earth, and the trees, in two days, on Tuesday and Wednesday. Therefore we read in * This fish is named >_ ^A._I Bahmut or Hamut, (Ibn Shohna, MS. of the Asiatic Society at Paris.) L ^ jj is hardly ever used but as the name of the pisces of the zodiac. This fable seems to have been originally an astronomical allegory. t Surah Lxviii, verse 48. % Ibn Shohna and others say this rock rests upon a bull (the sacred animal of the Hindus), which is called ^ISjxT Kayuthdn. Koran edit. Fliigel, Surah xxxi, verse 15. IT Surah xvi, verse 15. AND MINES OF GEMS. 45 the Koran, "Say (O Mohammed) how can you disbelieve on him who has created the earth in two days? and how can they associate a companion with him who is the Lord of the worlds, and who has put firmly-rooted mountains, and spread his blessing in it. He provides equally for those who pray to him for it. Then God ascended to the heavens,, which were smoke. He said to the heavens and to the earth, "come whether you like or not; " they answered, "We come by good will." This smoke was the breath of the water. God made first one heaven, then he divided it into seven heavens. This was done in two days, on Thursday and on Friday. Friday was called the day of assembling (*xirt ^) for God has assembled (+^) (completed) on that day, the creation of the heavens and earth. Then he said I will reveal in every heaven what belongs to it, that is to say, he created what there is in it, as angels, seas and the mountains of el-Bord ^ jJt JU^. The heaven of the world is green, and consists of emerald ; the second heaven is white, and of silver ; the third heaven is red, and of ruby; the fourth heaven is white, and of pearls; the fifth heaven is (j+z\) of gold ; the sixth heaven is of a yellow gem, (Topaz) ; the seventh heaven is of light, and it is all covered with angels who stand on one foot, and praise God, because they are so near him. Their legs go through the seventh earth, and a space of 46 EL-MASUDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, five hundred years' journey below the seventh earth, and their heads are under the throne of God, which they do not reach. They say, THERE is NO GOD, BUT GOD*; HE SITS ON THE THRONE OF GLORY; so they say, from the moment of creation, to the hour of the judgment. Under the throne is a sea, from which comes the food for all living beings. God commands, and there flows, what he likes, from heaven to heaven, till it comes to the place called \ instead of ulLvAjJj). This reading is very probable, for the tradition seems to be a fabrication of the Shiites in order to prove that the supreme power, in state and religion, is not elective, but pre- destined from the moment of the creation, for the family of Mohammed, and his descendants, the 'Alites. f This well-known formula which constitutes the whole essential part of the Islam runs: " There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God." } The words are X/ *j ^ The meaning of this sentence is meta- physical and dark, so that I am not quite sure of the correctness of my translation. In M. de Gayangoz's copy, the words and meaning are quite disfigured. I conceive the sense to be this. AND MINES OF GEMS. 53 When God had assumed these qualities, he proclaimed to the creation, the election of Mo- hammed as his lieutenant on earth, and he showed to the creation that the Divine guidance was with him, and that the light was his, and the spiritual All the qualities which we assign to God are only expressions of his essence with respect to the creation as, supreme power, X-Jjj* bounty, &c., so that it was the first act of creation to " assume" these relative qualities. It is for the rest only by the qualities relative to the creation, that we have any knowledge of God, so much so, that Aristotle, Spinoza, and the Buddhists and Pythagoraeans before them, believed the world to be eternal, like God; for, they say, God cannot exist without the world, as high not without deep. The difference of Aristotle's and Mas'udi's philosophy is, that Aristotle acknowledges only the relative qualities of God, and not the absolute ones (i. e. the essence of God), which, as they are not relative to the creation, are incom- prehensible to man. The only way of coming to some words which may express the absolute qualities of God are negations of the qualities of the creation (^^.1) for instance, " he is not finite, he is not composed of parts," &c., so that there remains nothing else but that he is " one," and consequently " eternal,' and this is the meaning of /Jt ^^ yo^^] " but he is dis- tinct from his creation, and uninfluenced by it: for he is one;" or as Hegel expresses it (as the creation is for created beings every- thing that we can conceive), "he is the eternal nihilum (Nichts.)" The reader will find such passages from Arabic authors which may prove that the above ideas are truly Mohammedan, together with a further developement of this system of metaphysics, in our introduction to this work. 54 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, empire (Xx>UJ) in his family, previous to the promul- gation of the law of justice (the Mohammedan religion), for its glorious success was predestined. Then God hid the act of creation amongst the mysteries of his knowledge. After that God extended the earth, he expanded the time, he made the waters ebb and flow, he raised up the foam and smoke; he established his throne over the waters, he raised the earth over the level of the seas, and he called the creation to obey him, and it acknow- ledged him as its Lord. God made now the angels partly from the lights which he created on purpose, partly from lights derived from those already created, and he joined the profession of the prophetic mission of Moham- med with the creed of his own usity. So it was known in heaven before it became known on earth *. When God had created Adam he acquainted the angels with his high dignity, and that he had distinguished him with superior knowledge, in proof of which he made him give the names to every object. * This is one of the grandest fables in explanation of a reli- gions belief (My thus) ever framed; it tends to make the Mo- hammedan religion eternal truth, and to justify the sublime words of the Koran : the Islam is the religion of the heavens and earth. AND MINES OF GEMS. 55 God made the angels consider Adam as a Mihrab, Ka'bah and Kiblah*, to which the lights and the righteous spirits were to pray. God informed now Adam of what rested in him f . But he concealed from him the high dignity which * Kiblah XXxi* is that quarter of the world to which the believers turn their faces in their prayers. This was, with the Moslims, first the temple of Jerusalem, but Mohammed changed it, and chose the Kabah, or the temple of Mekka. The part of a mosque which is turned towards Mekka is, therefore, the same as the high altar in Christian churches, and is called Mihrab. There stands the chief person present at the prayers, and per- forms the ceremonies, his face turned towards Mekka, and the rest of the assembly follow his example. t That is to say that he was one of the ancestors of Moham- med. This and the next three following chapters contain the bibli- cal history in the light in which Mohammed and his followers con- ceived it. The highest object of mankind is truth, which is eternal and immutable, hence the religion which is all truth and, according to some, even the Koran, or the expression of truth is eternal. God sent, from time to time, prophets to all nations, so that the number of all the prophets amounts to not less than 1 24,000 ! in order to keep up the profession of this religion on earth. The last and greatest of all the prophets was Mohammed, he was for all nations, and for all subsequent times. The reader has become acquainted with the creation of the corporeal essence of the prophetship or light which became fully incarnated in Mo- hammed, by the perusal of the preceding pages. This essence of the prophetship rested in more or less latent life in his ancestors. They were distinguished by a light which shone from their fore- heads, till they had begot a sou to whom it was transmitted. The 56 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, he had conferred upon him, for he had called him Imam before the angels. He was the bearer of our beatitude and of our light which God had kept concealed under the veil of time until MOHAMMED made his appearance*. ancestors of Mohammed were therefore all, more or less, prophets. They were at the same time the guardians of the sanctuary of the Arabs (the Ka'bah) which did not lose its sacredness by the new law. This will explain the following- pages of el-Mas'udi. This idea appears to us not to be in contradiction with the notions of the Jews, if we pay attention to their genealogies, right of primogeniture, &c. The more striking it is that modern theologists see in the Old Testament only a preparation and propaedeutic to the doctrine of our Saviour, although they ac- knowledge that the natural progress of mankind is so unsafe that since Christ, serious corruptions of that doctrine had taken place , For the rest their idea is certainly more philosophical than the. Mohammedan one. * Copies disagree here materially; one bearing / . ^ JJ ^\ LcJo CM^A&H %..d>U3 *j ^ until (God) ordered Mohammed to detail the laws or dogmas. However, the second reading is very improbable, for cMJCJ would be an unusual plural of cyC3 and the sense of this sentence would logically cohere with the preceding only in the case if we explain light as truth, whilst it is evident from what preceded (page 51) that the light ivhich was transmitted through the channels, (ancestors,) is the essence of the prophetship. But I must add that the par- ticle o^ Eve at Jiddah "Je=* Iblis at Baisan (^U*AJ) and the serpent at Isfahan. Adam was placed on mount ez-Zahun ((V^*jJ1 orj^$iJO in Ceylon; there were leaves with which he covered his body, and as they were dry, the wind carried them off, and dispersed them throughout India. It is said that the frequency of perfumes in India arises from these leaves, but some have a dif- ferent opinion: God knows best. They say, hence are, aloes wood aydl the clove JjLyM madder (?) x^U^J musk JC*U and other perfumes particular to India. In this mountain sparkle diamonds and other at Paris), believes the name Hawwd L^ to be derived from "living," for, he says, she was created from something living. But it is evident that the name of Eve ought to be written ^Lifc ffawdj which means air. Gaia and Uranos have changed their sexes amongst the Semites; if we enter into the spirit of the mythus, and consider that spontaneous generation must go forth from the earth, under the influence of the air, temperature, &c., this changing of the sexes leads us to the important historical fact that the Semites have not understood the mythus, and can there- fore not be the inventors of it, but that they have borrowed it from elsewhere. 60 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, precious stones. In the islands of India is the smyris u>l>JUJ! and in the bottom of the sea are pearls. When Adam descended from the Paradise he took a grain of wheat, and thirty cuttings of the fruit-trees of the Paradise, ten of them have shells; viz., the nut (Juglans regia) j^il the common almond, (Amyg- dalus communis) j^AJ! the filbert-nut, (Nux avellana) ^M^i the pistachio nut cJix^iJi the poppy the chestnut JsjJUAliJJ the pomegranate the banana,, or plaintain (Musa paradisiaca) ^U the Syrian oak (Quercus Ballota) kjJuM* Ten of them have kernels : the peach y^ the apricot (jk*U the Damascene plum, (Pruna nigra seu Damascena) y^U^l the date-tree i_Jbyi Ruellia guttata J^AAxM the lote-tree (Rhamnus nabeca Forsk. Flora Egypt., p. Lxiii), vJuJJJ the medlar-tree * Ibn el- Ward! quotes this passage of Masudi adding the pine-tree, and *=^UJ\ the orange; but he leaves out It is ver y probable that ,bJl>J) and 5sj\^>\*A\ are synonymous in some countries, as such they are considered by Banquiero (Libro de agricultura su autor Abu Sacaria, Madrid 1802.) But Avicenna (Lib. II. p. 14S,) and Kazwini make a distinction between these two fruits, so that there is no reason why Mas'udl should not have mentioned them both. Tlie latter author says (MS. of the East India House, Nro. 1377, fol. 164, verso) "Shdhballut is a tree of Syria which is also found in Arran, The fruits of this tree are neither so dry nor so styptic as those of the Ballut tree, &c." AND MINES OF GEMS. 61 (Mespillum) j^^\ the jujube-tree (Zizipha rubra) vLUJt the fruit of the Lontaris domestica* JJiU the cherry U-JjXJJ (U*>|jBJ) Some of them have neither shell nor any other covering besides the part to be eaten, nor a kernel; viz., the apple the quince Jc^JuJI the grapes *-U*Jt the pears the fig ^^\ the mulberry d^XM the orange ^^\ the cucumber (Cucumis pepo) lixH another sort of cucumber (Cassia fistula) ^U^O! the melon Adam married the twin -sister of Habil to Cain, and the twin-sister of Cain to Habil, so that the twins should be separated in marriage. The law of marriage adopted by Adam, was, therefore, to separate, as much as possible, persons allied by relationship, in order to prevent, by separating them, the bad consequences, and the weakening influence upon the offspring; The Magians are of opinion * The word which in this case means had in Arabic is from Cana. so that it is a jeu de mots with the name C'am. AND MINES OF GEMS. 63 that Adam did not object to the marriage of rela- tions ; hence, they are not against it. They have some mystery respecting this, according to which they think it good that a man should marry his sister, and the mother her son. We have given the details thereof in the 14th Fenn ^iM of our book Akhbdr ez-Zemdn. Habil and Cain brought a sacrifice. Habil selected the best of his flocks, and of his provision, and brought it as a sacrifice. Cain took the worst that he possessed for this purpose*. What oc- curred after this is related by God in the Koran f; viz., that Cain murdered Habil in the desert of Ka' ^Ij' which is in the country belonging to Damascus, in Syria. There he struck him with a stone on his forehead. Hence it is said the beasts learnt from man to be atrocious; for he began to do evil and to * En-Nowairi (MS. of Leyden) informs us that the Bedouins used to sacrifice animals, whilst the inhabitants of towns in Arabia brought unbloody sacrifices. Hence it may be that this tale was invented by the Bedouins, in order to throw the odium of the first crime on the people of towns amongst whom the ties of relation- ship are so much looser than amongst Bedouins. f Surah v. verse 31, et seq. 64 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, murder. When he had murdered him, he was anxious to conceal his body, carried it (on his shoulders) and wandered about with it (not knowing what to do). God sent two ravens, one of which killed and buried the other. When Cain saw this he was struck with horror, and exclaimed the words related in the Koran* Wo is me! I had not sense enough to do like this raven, to hide my brother's shame. Then he buried him. When Adam heard of the murder, he was downcast, and mourned. El-Mas'udi says: There is a poem popular amongst the people which they put into the mouth of Adam when he mourned, it runs : " The country is altered, and all that is in it. The whole earth has changed for the worse. All that has life and colour is different ; and the sea has lost its lovely appearance. The inhabitants have turned the produce of the fields into poison and bitterness, and an enemy infests us. The cursed has not overlooked man, as we per- ceive ; for Cain has cruelly slain Habil, and that amiable countenance is withered. My lot is to shed tears ; for Habil rests in the grave. I see a life before me full of sorrow, and all that I may meet in it will be gloomy." * Surah v. verse 34, edit. Flugel. AND MINES OF GEMS. 65 I have found in many books on history, biogra- phy, and genealogy, that when Adam said these words, Iblis replied from a place where he could hear but not see him " Thou now complainest about the country and its inhabitants, and thou dost feel the earth narrow. " Thou and thy wife Hawwa were merry, not- withstanding the badness of the world ; but my intrigues and machinations were at work until their abundant fruits were matured. " And if I was not prevented by the pity of the Almighty, I should destroy the everlasting beatitude of heaven." In another book I found a distich standing by itself, which Adam heard from a voice, without seeing who uttered it: " O, Adam! both are killed ; for the living falls a sacrifice to the dead*/' When Adam had heard this, his pains and sor- rows were increased, both for him who was no more, and for him who was still alive ; for he knew that the murderer was to be killed. God revealed to Adam: " 1 will produce from thee my light, which shall flow through splendid channels and noble roots (ancestors). I will exalt * This means, that Cain would be killed ; after the general idea that " He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword." (Apocal. xiii. 10.) F 66 EL-MAS'tJDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, this light ahove all other lights, and make it the seal of the prophets (Mohammed). He shall be succeeded by the best of Imams in a continual series to the end of time. I will make the world answer to their call, and I will enlighten it through their followers. Purify and sanctify thyself, and praise God : then approach to thy wife, after she has been purified, and my promise will descend from thee through the child which thou wilt beget." Adam did what he was ordered ; and when Hawwa was with child, her forehead was covered with a lustre, and light shone in her eyes and eyebrows till her confinement. Then she gave birth to Shith C!AA (Seth.) He was the most beautiful child, strong and perfect in his form and in the symmetry of his body. He was imbued with a light which sparkled from the marks and protuberances of his forehead. Adam gave him the name of Shith. The gift of God was slumbering in him till he grew up ; and when he came to riper age, Adam acquainted him with his mission and the promises of God, and told him that he would be the agent of God*, and his own successor after his death, to support truth on earth. This mission was to be inherited * &\ SLsS This expression is wanting in Arabic diction- aries, although it is not unusual: ^5CX^o &5r A* 3y*i means a representative of the king. AND MINES OF GEMS. 67 by his descendants, who were to be distinguished and glorious. When Adam told this to Shith, he kept it secret, and guarded it for the moment as a mystery, as it was only to be revealed publicly at another time. Adam died soon after, on Friday, the 6th of Nisan, at the same hour when he had been created; he had lived nine hundred and thirty years. Shith was the guardian of the children of Adam. It is said that he left forty thousand children and grandchildren. There is some dispute about Adam's grave. Some pretend that it is in Mina*, cfU in the mosque * Mina is a valley near Mekka, and, together with the mosque el-Khai'f, one of the sacred spots where the Moslem pil- grims resort. Mohammed kept up the Pagan ceremony of throw- ing there pebbles on a pillar of stone. It has probably the same origin as the usage of the Romans and Greeks, of casting stories on the statue of Mercury. The seven idols which were in the valley of Mina, before Mo- hammed, according to el-Azraki, (apud Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia, p. 275,) prove at once that the place was sacred to the seven planets. We see that the sacredness of the place dates from a very remote period, from its being connected with the father of mankind ; and we conclude that it has been celebrated from the circumstance that its name (although it is so far from the coast) reached the ears of Ptolemy, who mentions the Manitae. The ceremony of casting stones on the pillar is probably as ancient as the place, having ever formed the main object of the pilgrimage there. Ibn Ishak, an Arabic writer of the second century of the Hijrah, states thus the origin of this ceremony: When Ibrahim returned from his pilgrimage to 'Arafat, and came to the valley F 2 68 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, of el-Khaif i^Lt. Others believe it to be in a cavern of the Mount Abu Koba'is u**>J* ^*- Shith exercised the office of judge amongst his co- temporaries, and taught them the sacred books (revealed to the prophets before him), and other books which God revealed to him. Shith begot Anush ^ (Enos). When his wife was pregnant with him,, the light was trans- ferred to her till she was delivered, then the child was imbued with the light. When Anush was grown up, Shith informed him of what was latent in him, and of his pre-eminence; and he ordered him to give to his children an education adequate to their distinction and high position, and to tell them to give to their children the same instruction, of Mina, Satan (Iblis) contrived to obstruct his passage; but the Angel Gabriel advised him to throw stones on the foe, which he did, and, after pelting him seven times, Iblis retired. Ibrahim did the same with equal success in the middle and end of the valley when Iblis had again made his appearance. It is difficult to say whether this tradition is a mystification, to justify the Pagan cere- mony, or whether it was current before Mohammed, and his motive for keeping it up. If it was more ancient than Mohammed, further researches about Ibrahim, son of Azer (i. e. fire), res- pecting whom the Arabs have preserved many traditions, inde- pendent of the biblical account of Abraham, son of Terah, may point out an intimate connexion between Mercury, the god of knowledge, and Ibrahim, who rebuilt the Ka'bah and imported civilization from the Sabeans of Harran to the Semites. * Abu Koba'is is the name of a mountain of Mekka. AND MINES OF GEMS. 69 when they would be able to understand it. This legacy went from generation to generation, until the light came to 'Abdul-Motalleb (the grandfather of Mohammed), his son 'Abdullah, and the PROPHET. This is a topic of controversy between the fol- lowers of different sects, particularly between those who adhere to the doctrine of evidence ^jXAxJl oaiJL and the followers of the doctrine of election jUxiOM i^ls^t. The defenders of the doctrine of evidence are Imamists 3UU2J JjM, and form a fraction of the sectarians (Shi'ites) Xx/w&l of 'Ali Ben Abi Taleb and his children by Fatimah*. They believe that God does not leave mankind at any time without a man who keeps up the religion of God (and stands at the head of the believers). Such men are either prophets or guardians f, who bear the evidence of their rights in their names and * The words of the original sJvL /.%.- ,.v iv^UaJJ mean literally " the pure ones amongst his ('All's) children." -.MJo is the usual epithet for the family of Mohammed. See page 3. t Guardians IAAC^! sing, .y^ means the executor of a will, or a guardian of an orphan, and hence, in opposition to pro- phet, as in the above sentence, it means him in whose hands is the executive power of the laws (civil and religious) which God has revealed through the prophets, and which must not be changed. The first seven Imams are called ^^MO^\ (De Sacy Chrest., Tom. I. p. 158.) The origin of the Shi'ite sect, and of the technical meaning of the word ^ is attributed to a sentence of 70 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, pedigree from God and his prophet. The doctrine of election is defended by the divines of the leading cities, the Mo'tazilites X^XxU, a section of the Khawarij ^k\JJ, the Morjiites Xv^U, and by many of those who admit the traditions and the generally received opinions (the orthodox;, and by a section of the Zeidians j^Ju^-H. They believe that it is the will of God and his prophet that the nation should choose a man amongst themselves, and make him their Imam, for there are times when God does not send a legate. The Shi'ites consider such Imams as usurpers of the dignity. We shall have an opportunity in the course of this work to throw some light on the differences of opinions and religious controversies. Anush cultivated the earth. Some consider Shith as the father of mankind, after Adam, and do not allow that the other children of Adam had a share in the propagation of our race; but some differ from this opinion : God knows best. In the time of Anush, Cain, the murderer of his brother Habil, was killed. His murder is variously related. We refer the reader to our works, the Akhbar ez-zeman, and the Kitab el-ausat. 'Abdullah Ben Saba es-Sauda, who lived under 'Othman: go J! ^X ^j!. This sentence became the watch-word of the Shi'ites (En-Nowa'iri, MS. of Leyden, No. 2 13, p. 1056). AND MINES OF GEMS. 71 Anush died the 3rd of Teshrfn, 960 years of age. He had a son of the name of Raman ^Uxi'. The prophetic light sparkled from his forehead. His father took from him the oath of his office, and he cultivated the earth till he died. He reached the age of 910 years, and died in the month of Tamuz. The son of Ka'inan was Mahalayil J^^-o (Mahalaleel) . He begot Lud (^j) who was the heir of the prophetic light, and gave the oath of keeping up truth. It is said that many musical instruments were invented in his time by the chil- dren of Cain. The wars of Lud and other stories have been related in our Akhbar ez-Zeman. The children of Shith had wars with the descendants of Cain. A race of Hindus, who descend from Adam, derive their origin from the children of Cain. They inhabit that part of India which is called Komdr ^Ui* : from this country the Komdri Aloe t^U&tayi has its name. Lud lived 962 years,, and died in Adar (March). He was succeeded by his son Akhnukh (Enoch), who is the same person as Edris (instructor) the prophet. The Sabeans* believe that he is identical with Hermes ^^jb which name means 'Utarid sjlas. (the planet Mercury). * One copy bears XjLsAjei!J the companions (of the prophet), instead of 72 EL-MASUDPs MEADOWS OF GOLD, God says of him in his book *, " that he exalted him to a high place." He lived on earth 300 years or more. He was the first man who taught the com- forts of life and sewed with a needle. To him thirty books were revealed, and to Shith twenty- nine, in which there are the two formulas, ''There is no God but God," and " Praise be to Godf." He was followed by his son Matushalekh ^JL&yU who bore the prophetic light on his forehead, and cultivated the land. Matushalekh had many chil- dren. Some persons say that the Bulgars the Russians (j^ 9 and Slavonians are his descendants. He lived 960 years, and died in the month of Ilul. He was succeeded by his son Lamek jCL. In his time was a great con- fusion amongst mankind. He died 999 years of age. His son was Nuh ^5 (Noah). In his age corruption and injustice were great on earth. Nuh rose to be a preacher of God, but the people were too rebellious and ungodly, so that they would not listen to him. God ordered him to construct a ship; and when he had finished it, the angel Gabriel * Koran, Surah xix., vers. 58, edit. Fliigel. "I" *\A**J * \/Jl4J Perhaps these two words are to be taken in the more extensive meaning : they contain the profession of the unity of God, and hymns to his praise. J Another copy \jLx!t. AND MINES OF GEMS. 73 brought him the coffin of Adam, in which there was his corpse*. They went into the ship on Tuesday, the ninth of Adar. Whilst Nun and his family were in the ship, God kept the earth five months under water. Then he ordered the earth to swallow up its waters, and the heaven to withhold its rains f, and the ark stood on the mount el-Jiidi tfJ^iL El-Judi is a mountain in the country of MasurJ ^U Cc_5J>**^)> an( ^ ex tends to Jezirah Ibn 'Omar j+& ^Y^y^ which belongs to the ter- ritory of el-Mausil. This mountain is eight farsangs from the Tigris. The place where the ship stopped, which is on the top of this mountain, is still to be seen. They say some tracts of the earth did not im- mediately swallow up the water, whilst others * ,x>Lci &+* f\ dj^-jlj I was tempted to read " his covenant" as one copist writes. I shall state the reasons for which it must run *A*OJ. t Koran, Surah xi., verse 46. J Masur seems to be the same word as Masius, which is the Greek name of the mount el-Judl. (Strab. pp. 501 and 506.) The word e\-Judi has been compared by Bochart with the Gordycei montes. El-Kazwini (MS. of the East India House, N. 1377.) informs us that there was still, to the time of the 'Abbasides, a temple on the mount Judi which was said to have been con- structed by Noah, and covered with the planks of the ark. Epi- phanius (Haeres. 18) reports nearly the same tradition for his 74 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, absorbed it rapidly when they were commanded to do so. The lands which obeyed give good water on digging; but those lands which were less sub- missive were punished by God, the water on digging being salt, and the country sandy. The water which could not be absorbed went into the depths of the earth, and in particular places. This is the origin of the seas: they are the remains of the waters by which God has destroyed the nations. The account and description of the seas will call our attention hereafter in this book. Nuh went forth from the ark, and with him his three sons, Sam -U, Ham *b>, and Jafeth c^L, together with his three daughters-in-law, and forty men and forty women. They went upon the plat- form of this mountain, and built there a town, which they called Themanin ^^^ (eighty). It bears this name till our time [332 A.H.] The children of these eighty persons became extinct, and God peopled his creation with the descendants of Nuh. To this allude the words of the Koran, "We have preserved his progeny, and they are those who still exist." God knows best the mean- time. The vicinity of Harran, which was the seat of learning since Abraham, and the centre of Sabean worship, makes it more than probable that this temple was connected with the Sabean religion, and the history of the ark owes perhaps its origin to the priests of those places. AND MINES OF GEMS. 75 ing of these words. The name of the person who refused the offer of Nun, when he said to him " Embark with us, my son*," is Yam -b. Nuh divided the earth amongst his sons, and gave to every one of them a part as property. He cursed his son Ham on account of his well-known behaviour towards his father. He said, " Cursed be Ham and his children may he be the slaves of his brethren ; but Sam be blessed ; and God shall en- large Yafeth, and he shall dwell in the places allotted to Samf." Nuh lived, according to the Pentateuch |, after the flood 325 years. Some historians differ in this point. Sam went away, followed by his children ; and they took possession of the places allotted to them in the land and sea. We shall describe them in this book. Now we shall speak on the separation of man- kind, and the division of the earth amongst the three sons of Nuh, Yafeth, Sam, and Ham. * Koran, Surah ix., verse 44. f These words are literally transcribed from the holy Bible, (Genesis ix., 25, 26, 27,) except that they run there, cursed be Canaan, instead of Ham. And not without reason, for the Canaanites were the victims of those cruelties which might be justified by this story as being the fulfilment of the curse of their father, and, consequently, according to their ideas, a divine decree. Genesis ix. 28. 76 EL-MASU'Di's MEADOWS OF GOLD, Sam inhabited the middle of the earth, from the sacred land pJ>J ^^ (i. e. the country of Mekka and Medina) to Hadhramaut >^*a^, 'Oman ^Uc, and 'Alij U. Amongst his children we name Arem ^\ and Arfakhshad iX^^J,!. One of the descendants of Arem Ben Sam is 'Ad Ben 'Us (Uz) Ben Arem*; he settled in the Ahkaf er-Raml *\ ^^ oUb*lt God sent the prophet Hud ^_jfc to the 'Adites, Another of his descendants is Themud Ben 'Ad Ben Arem *j*5 fj m* *l* cu^ They settled in el-Hijr^! (Arabia Petrea), between Syria and the Hejaz. God sent to them their brother Saleh -LU> His history is well known, and we shall insert a summary account of it, as well as of the histories of other prophets, in the progress of this work. Tasm f.*Jb and Jadis (j*o*x^ sons of Laud '^ (Lud) Ben Arem, took possession of el-Yemamah and el -Bahrein, and the descendants of their brother 'Amalik vJiJL^ Ben Laud Ben Arem settled in subsequent times, partly in the sacred land, and partly in Syria. To them belong the 'Amalikites * One MS. bears * \ / . ^ io *.c / . *j M^ls an d another instead f This means the " sand-hills," i. e. the desert of southern Arabia. AND MINKS OF GEMS. 77 who were scattered all over the country. Another brother of theirs, named Ommaim ^\ Ben Laud, settled in Faris. We shall speak on this subject in the (twenty-third) chapter of this book, which is inscribed " The Origin of the Persians, and what the historians say on this subject;" for some authors connect Kayumerth with Ommaim. Others believe that Ommaim settled in the land of Webar J^^ ; that is, the country inha- bited by the Genii, according to the opinion of some Arabic historians. The descendants of ' Abil Ben 'Us ^^s. ^s ^.^9 the brother of 'Ad Ben 'Us, settled in Medina. Another grandson of Sam is Mash ^U Ben Arem Ben Sam. He went to Babel ; his son is Nimrud Ben Mash yiU ^^ ^j** (Nimrod), who built the Tower of Babel, and a bridge over the Shat-el-Forat. He reigned five hundred years, and was the king of the Nabataeans k*JM jX, In his time God divided the languages ; so that the descendants of Sam spoke nineteen different tongues, the descendants of Ham seventeen, and the children of Yafeth thirty-six. We will speak further on in this work as to the dispersion of the nations over the earth, and the poems which they composed at their separation in el-'Irak. Some believe it was Falegh iJU who divided the earth amongst the nations, and hence he was named 78 EL-MAs'uni's MEADOWS OF GOLD, "Falegh;" for this name means "Divider:" Shalekh li is the son of Arfakhshad Ben Sam Ben Nub, and the father of Falegh, who divided the earth; and Falegh is one of the ancestors x^. of Ibrahim el-Khalil X/IiOi (the friend of God). 'Aber ^U another son of Shalekh, is the father of Kahtan ^UajS.. Kahtan 's son, Ya'rob <_^ju was the first man who was greeted with the title of KING JJlU by his children. This is the most glorious and most cursed name. Some say this title had been in use before him, with the kings of el-Hirah. Kahtan is the father of all the Yemenites, as we shall mention in the (forty-second) chapter of this work, which is inscribed " Yemen, the Origin of the Inhabitants of this Country, and the various opinions thereon." He was the first man who spoke Arabic; at least, he first made the meaning clear by terminations vlr^l* Yoktan ^IkSu Ben 'Aber Ben Shalekh was the father of Jorhom +&}*- who was the cousin of Ya'rob. The Jorhomites dwelt originally in Yemen, and spoke Arabic ; in subsequent times they emigrated to Mekka, according to the traditions respecting them, which we shall give. The children of Katura \jJaS are their cousins. In subsequent time, God made Isma'il settle amongst them, and he married into them, so that they were the uncles of his children. AND MINES OF GEMS. 79 The believers of the Old Testament maintain that Lamek JC*J is still alive; for God said to Sam, " I will preserve him for ever, whom I make the guardian of the body of Adam." Sam buried the coffin &jj\3 of Adam in the middle of the earth, and appointed Lamek as guardian. Sam died on Friday, in the month of Ilul, six hundred years of age : he was succeeded in his mission by Arfakhshad J^^L,? who attained an age of four hundred and sixty-five years: he died in the month of Nisan. After him followed his son Shalekh : he died four hundred and thirty years old, and was succeeded by his son 'Aber, who cultivated the country. In his days quarrels arose in different places of the earth: he died in an age of three hundred and forty years. His son Falegh succeeded him : he was two hundred and thirty-seven years old when he died. We have spoken of him and of the confusion of languages Ulxj which took place during his life at Babel. His successor was his son Ar'au ^s.j\ (Reu), and during his life Nimrud the giant was born, according to some accounts. Ar'au died in the month of Nisan, two hundred years of age. His son Sharukh ^l^ took his place: during his days the worship of idols and of images is said to have been introduced, owing to several causes. He attained an age of two hundred and thirty years. He was replaced by his son Nahur.j^U who followed the good exam- 80 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, pie of his fathers: during his life were earthquakes: there had never been any before him. He is the inventor of the arts of life (^^j^Jl, and of different instruments. In his lifetime the Hindus and other nations formed themselves into bodies. He lived one hundred and forty-six years, and was suc- ceeded by his son Tarah ^^3 ; this is the name for Azar* yj\ the father of Ibrahim. In his days Nim- rud Ben Kan 'an rose. Under en-Nimrud the prac- tice of worshipping fire and light f came first in use, and he introduced certain (holy) orders in their cultus. There were great troubles and wars in this age in the world. New empires and provinces were formed in the east and west. It was at this time when the stars and their predictions began to be an object of study. The heavens were divided into regions, and astronomical instruments were invented. Man began to understand the meaning of all these things. The astrologers observed the aspect of the * Azar is the name of the father of Abraham in the Koran (Surah vi. v. 74) ; Terah is his name in the Bible (Genesis xi. 26). The name Azar, which means "fire," and the "planet Mars," is by no means of Arabic invention ; for Abraham's father is called Athar by Eusebius. It is a favourite name amongst the star-and-fi re-worshippers. (HYDE, de Relig. vet. Pers. p. 64). t The Moon was considered as the concentration of light, whilst the Sun is the centre of fire. (Tradition of Wahb Ben Monabbih.) * AND MINES OF GEMS. 81 heaven for the coming year*, and its prediction, and told en-Nimrud that a child would be horn, who would expose the folly of their dreams, and do away with their worship. En-Nimrud ordered the child to be killed ; but Ibrahim was concealed. Tarah, who is the same person as Azer, died at the age of two hundred and sixty years. * The words of the original are xJlk Jt- Tali' means originally the point of the horizon where it is cut by the parallel of the observer in the east, or the section of the horizon of which that point is the middle. It is therefore one of the four cardinal points of Arabic astrology XX-M^ s\.'jj\ (literally the four tent-poles) ; viz., the Zenith, # U**M \amy ti 16 Nadir ^aji\ JO^, the Tali', and the same point of the horizon in the west <_j.lxSJ. The planet which is in the moment when the sun enters into the sign of the Aries, in the Tali', or in the ]0th, 7th, 4th, llth, 9th, 5th, or 3rd degree of ascen- sion, or comes soonest to one of these points, is the Regent of the HJ year l$J ^jj^ ^ SUUJt ^^(^. And as the Regent exercises the greatest influence upon the destiny of the world during the year, the whole constellation of the beginning of the vernal equinox is called &UJJ xJUs by the way of ellipsis, instead of 1 JlkH UJ ^ ( Ab * Ma ' sher > G 82 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, FOURTH CHAPTER. The history of Ibrahim (Abraham) (**&>jj\, the prophets after him, and the kings of the Children of Israel. WHEN Ibrahim was grown up, he went out from the cavern where he had been concealed, contem- plated the phenomena of nature, and reflected on their meaning. Looking at the planet Venus, and observing how it rose, he said: " This is my Lord !" When the moon rose, and he saw that it was much brighter, he exclaimed: " This is my Lord!" But when the sun displayed its splendour, he cried out full of astonishment, " This is my Lord*!" The commentators do not agree in the meaning of the words of Ibrahim " This is my Lord." Some believe this to be related by the way of induction and parable; whilst others are of opinion that it happened before he had come to the knowledge of truth, when he was still striving. Gabriel came now to him, and taught him his religion, and God chose him as his prophet and friend JJl^. (I have to observe against this explanation that) Ibrahim had * El-Koran, Surah vi. verses 76 78. AND MINES OF GEMS. 83 received the strength* of God; and he who is strengthened by God will be kept pure from sin and fall, and from any worship besides the One the Eternal. Ibrahim blamed his people for their idolatry. When they were annoyed by the disdain with which Ibrahim scorned their gods, and which had attracted public notice, en-Nimrud threw him into the fire : but God converted the fire into coolness, and he was preserved t. The fire did not flame any- where on earth on that day. * *W xj or f*X$M h as nearly the same meaning as " divine grace," only pushed a little further. Education, or interest and the spirit of the time, is with most persons the sole foundation of their religious and political principles ; and, as their selfishness, or want of intelligence and experience, does not allow them to appreciate the opinions of others, or to defend their own, they take refuge to divine authority, maintaining that their own infatuation is the effect of divine inspiration or predestination, and the principles of their adversaries a diabolical artifice. El- Mas'udi shows himself here, and in his opinion on the Imamship, much more in favour of the doctrine of predestination, than was general in his time amongst the Sonnites. t El-Koran xxi. verse 20 (edit. Fliigel). In order to increase the number of miracles, and to find an opportunity for an edifying comment, the Rabbins rendered DHttO TIN " Ur of the Chal- dees" (Gen. xi. 31) by fire of the Chaldees;" for T)N, ur, means " fire ;" and added the above story, which Mohammed inserted in the Koran. G 2 84 EL-MAS'tJDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, After Ibrahim had passed the eighty-sixth or ninetieth year of his age, Isma'il was born to him by Hajir ^=.U> who was a slave-woman to Sarah 'ij^. Sarah was the first person who believed on Ibrahim. She was the daughter of Batuwil, the son of Nahur, and uncle of Ibrahim. This, however, is contro- verted, as we shall mention hereafter. Lut^J, the son of Haran Ben Tarikh Ben Nahur, was Ibrahim' s nephew, and one of those who believed on him. God sent Lut to the five towns; viz., Sodum px*w, Ghomura ]^r, Adruma U^J, Saghura \jj&e, and Safura ]^JU>. The f people of Lut were Mutafikah* X&j^U. Some com- mentators derive this word from ^31, afak, " a lie." God alludes to this in the Koran in the words tSj&\ X&j^Xf ) These five cities were situated be- tween esh-Sham and the Hejaz, near the two Syrian provinces Jordan and Palestine. The spot of these towns is barren up to our time (332 A.H.), and the stones are marked with shining black lines. Lut lived about twenty years amongst these people, and preached to them; but they would not believe: * El-Koran, Surah xi. verse 91 (edit. Fliigel) ; comp. M. L. Dubeux' note to his translation of Tabari, vol. i. p. 144 ; I suspect Mutaftkah is a corruption of some Hebrew word. AND MIXES OF GEMS. 85 therefore this punishment of God came down upon them, as it is related in the Koran*. When Hajir had borne Isma'il to Ibrahim, Sarah became jealous of her; Ibrahim took, there- fore, Isma'il and Hajir to Mekka, and settled them there. This is related in the Koranf , in the words of Ibrahim: " O, my Lord, I made some of my children dwell in a barren valley, at thy sacred house !" God, hearing their prayers, gave them the Jorhomites and 'Amalikites joJUxM ^ p&j*> as companions in their solitude, and made men love them. The people of Lut were destroyed in the time of Ibrahim, on account of their corruption, as it is related in the Koranf God ordered Ibrahim to sacrifice his son: he showed himself ready to obey; but when he had laid him down on his face, God ransomed him with a noble victim $. Then Ibrahim and Isma'il laid the foundation of the house (the temple of Mekka) . When Ibrahim was more than one hundred and twenty years old, Sarah bore him Ishak. There is some dispute about the sacrifice of Ibrahim; some think that * Surah vii. vers. 78 82 ; xi. xv. and xxvii. f Surah ii. | Surah xi. El-Koran xxxvii. verse 107 (edit. Fliigel). 86 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, Ishak was to be the victim, whilst others maintain it was Isma'il. If it was to take place in Mina (a valley near Mekka), it was Isma'il, for Ishak never came into the Hejaz; and if it was to take place in Syria, it was Ishak; for Isma'il had never been in Syria again, after he had been carried away from that country. Sarah died, and Ibrahim married Kitura \)^**3 9 who bore him seven sons ; Zimran ^5rj? Yokshan tjtlxij Medan ^Ix*, Madyan ^.jjJcc, Nishan ^J^ (Ishbak), Shukh ^K, and Kir jj*. Ibrahim died in Syria, one hundred and seventy years of age : God revealed to him ten sacred books. Ishak married Rabeka, a daughter of Batuwll 1 , after the death of his father, and she gave birth to el-'A'isu and Ya'kub 2 , who were twins, but el-'Aisu was first born. Ishak was sixty years of age, and nearly blind, when they were born. He made Ya'kub the chief over his brothers, and the succes- sor in the prophetic mission. To el-'Aisu he gave the sovereignty over his children. Ishak was one hundred and eighty -five years of age when he died, and he was buried with his father, the " Friend of * See 1 Chron. i. 32. AND MINES OF GEMS. 87 God." The place where they were buried is well known; it is eighteen miles from Jerusalem, in a mosque which is called the mosque of Ibrahim, and the fields of Ibrahim. Ishak ordered his son Ya'kub to go to Syria, and commissioned him and his twelve children with the prophetic office. Their names are Rubil, Shima'un, Lawi, Yehuda, Yessajir, Zebalun, Yusof, Benyamin 3 . Ya'kub was in great fear of his brother el-'Aisu, but God protected him: Ya'kub possessed five thousand five hundred sheep, and gave to his bro- ther el-'Aisu the tenth part of these, in order that he might not do him any harm, and for fear of his impetuosity. After God had protected him, he had no longer to be in fear; (hence he refused to deliver the tithes;) but he was punished in his children, for having broken his promise. God said to him: " Thou hast not obeyed my command; hence the children of el-'Aisu shall dominate five hundred and fifty years over thy children." This was the space of time from the destruction of Jeru- salem by the Romans to the conquest of that city by 'Omar Ben el-Khattab, during which period the Children of Israel were in slavery. 88 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, Yiisof was the favourite of Ya'kub. His bro- thers envied him, and their jealousy gave origin to the story between Yusof and his brothers, which God relates through the tongue of his prophet in the Koran *. Ya'kub died in Egypt, at the age of one hundred and forty years : Yusof carried him to Palestine, and buried him at the tomb of Ibrahim and Ishak. Yusof died also in Egypt, one hundred and ten years old. They laid his body into a coffin of stone, closed it with lead,, and covered it with a varnish which keeps out air and water, and threw it into the Nile, at the town of Memphis v^iJU, where there is the mosque of Yusof. Some say Yusof ordered that he should be buried in the grave of his father Ya'kub, at the mosque of Ibrahim. In his time lived Ayyub (Job) ; his full name is Ayyub Ben Amus Ben Dezaj (Zeerah?) Ben Da'wayil (Reul?) Ben el-Aisu Ben Ishak Ben Ibrahim He was in Syria, in the district of Hauran in the highland of Damascus, from whence * In the twelfth chapter, which is therefore inscribed " The Surah of Joseph." AND MINES OF GEMS. 89 the plain is watered, and in el-Jabiyah*. He had a great fortune, and was blessed with many chil- dren. God proved him, bereaving him of his pro- perty and children. He bore this trial with patience, and God restored to him what he had possessed. His story is related in the Koranf . The mosque of Ayyub, and the spring in which he washed his body, are famous to this day (332 A.H.): they are not far from Nawa ^ and el-Jaulant (^j^it in the pro- vince of the Jordan, between Damascus and Tiberias. The distance of this mosque and spring from the town of Nawa is about three miles. The stone on which Ayyub rested at the time of his affliction, when his wife died of puerperal fever, is still in that mosque. Those who believe in the Pentateuch and other ancient books^ maintain that Musa Ben Misha Ben Yusof Ben Ya'kub cJL*^ (^ ^^ <^jv ^grr ^j was a prophet before Musa Ben Amran ^f (Moses), and that it was he who sought el-Khidhr Ben Melkan Ben Falegh Ben * El-Jabiyah XxjliJ is the name of a hill and village belong- ing to Damascus (Athar el-Bilad). f Surah xxi. verse 83, and Surah xxxviii. verse 40. J This is probably the valley of Ajalon : the author of the Jihannuma (p. 559) gives this name to a mount near Damascus. 90 EL-MAs'fJDl'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, 'Aber Ben Shaleh Ben Arfakhshad Ben Sam Ben Nuh* Some of those who believe in the Old Testa- ment say el-Khidhr was the same person as Hidh- run Ben 'Imayil Ben Elifaz Ben el-'Aisu Ben Ishak Ben Ibrahim 4 ; he was sent as prophet to his nation, who were converted by him. Musa Ben 'Amran Ben Fahit Ben Lawi Ben Ya'kiib 5 was in Egypt at the time of Fir 'aim (Pharaoh) the giant. Fir'aun's name was el-Walid Ben Mos'ab Ben Moawiyah Ben Abi Nomair Ben Abil-Holus Ben Leith Ben Haran Ben 'Amr Ben 'Amalik 6 . He was the fourth of the Pharaohs of Egypt, and a man of great stature, who enjoyed a long life. The Children of Israel had fallen into * Khidhr is said to be meant under the " Servant of God," mentioned in the Koran (Surah xviii. 64), as having been met by Moses. ( AND MINES OF GEMS. 91 slavery after the death of Yusof, and lived under great afflictions. The soothsayers, astrologers, and conjurors informed Fir'aun that a child would be born,, which would make an end to his power, and perform great things in Egypt. Fir'aun was frightened by this prediction, and gave orders to kill the children. The mother of Musa exposed her child on the Nile ^ by the command of God, as it is related in the Koran *. At the same time lived the prophet Sho'aib. His full name is Sho'aib Ben Thoriel Ben Da'wayel Ben Marik Ben 'Anka Ben Madyan Ben Ibrahimf, He spoke Arabic and was sent to the inhabitants of Madyan (as a preacher). When Musa had taken flight from Fira'un, he went to the prophet Sho'aib, and married his daughter, as it is related in the Koran f. God ordered Musa to lead the * Surah xx. 39. t The names of the forefathers of Sho'aib are variously spelt in different MSS., and by different authors; but all agree that one of them was Madyan, i. e., that he was a Madyanite. He is identified with Jethro, but I think without sufficient reason, probably the destruction of Madyan by an earthquake gave an opportunity for inventing the story of a preacher to whom the inhabitants did not listen, and to assign the fatal catastrophe to this sin. Compare the note at the bottom of the next page. 1 Surah vii. verse 83. 92 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, children of Israel into et-Tih AAX!| *; their number amounted to six hundred thousand adults, besides those who had not attained ripe age. The tables which God gave to Musa on the mount Sina UA** j^s were of emerald, and the writing was in gold. When Musa descended from the mount, and saw that the children of Israel were worshipping the calf, he was so much shocked at it that the tables fell from his hands, and broke. He gathered the pieces and put them, with other things, into the Tabut es-Sakinah &*!! ^1? which was placed in the tabernacle J$A$M. The tabernacle was intrusted to Harun, for he was the bearer of the prophetic office of this age, ^UjJl ^*S. The revelation of the Pentateuch to Musa Ben 'Amran was completed when he was in the desert. Harun died, and was buried in the mount Mowab, v^ (or w ^-<) which is not far from the mountains of esh-Sharah 'i\jtA\ and from the mount Sinaf. His grave is well known; it is in a frightful cavern, in which, sometimes at night, a great murmur is heard which frightens every living being J. Some say he is not buried, but only laid * The desert near mount Sinai. f Another copy bears from et-Tohur,^^IiJ| I The volcanic action which manifests itself in some places near the mount Sinai, by a great noise which proceeds from the bowels of the earth, raising sometimes the sound to which this pas- AND MINES OF GEMS. 93 into that cavern. This cavern is very curious, as we have said. Seven months after, Musa died at the age of one hundred and twenty years. Some authors state that Musa died three years after Harun,, and that he entered esh-Sham (Syria), and fought there with the 'Amalikites (Jut UxJI, Korba- nites (^j^oLj-XM Madyanites, and other tribes., as is mentioned in the Pentateuch. God gave to Musa ten books, which completed the number of one hundred sacred codes. Subsequently God revealed to him the Pentateuch in Hebrew, which contains commands and prohibitions, permissions and inter- dictions, regulations and decrees. It is in five sifr jju,*, which means "books/' Musa had made the ark in which the covenant, SUxCj! was preserved, of six thousand seven hundred and fifty mithkals of gold. The high-priest after Harun was Yusha' Ben Ni'm, ^ ^.j-t y. who was of the tribe of Ephraim. Although Musa died one hundred and twenty years old, he bore not a trace of an advanced age; nor sage alludes, has been observed in ancient times, and mentioned by Procopius, and by modern travellers, (M. Gray, Dr. Seetzen, &c.,) and it is very probable that Madyan, and the other places which are said not to have listened to the exhortation of Sho'ai'b, have been destroyed by a volcanic eruption and earthquakes, as Abul-Feda, (Hist. Anteislamitica, ed. Fleischer, page 31,) relates. * The word is Hebrew *)P)p and is hardly ever used by the Arabs but in speaking of the Bible. 94 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, appeared Harun old : both retained the appearance of youth. After Musa's death Yusha 3 led the Israelites into Syria. This country was then in possession of giant kings of the 'Amali kites iJi/JUc and others. Yusha' sent expeditions against them, and had many engagements. He conquered Ariha ls?jJ (Jericho) and Za'r*, in the Ghaur^yyj, or low country on the Dead Sea, which repels divers, and in which no fish or living creature can exist, as it has been observed by the author of the logic (Aris- totle) f, and other authors of ancient and modern time. The Dead Sea receives the waters of the lake of Tiberias through the river Jordan. The * I take this for the Arabic name of Kirjath-Jearim, which was one of the first cities conquered by the Israelites (Josh, xi, 1 7); there is, besides, some analogy of sound between Jearim or Ye'arim, which is the plural of JT'UP Ya'rah, and *.. Za'r; the meaning, however, is opposite to the Hebrew word, which means a forest, or a place rendered impenetrable by shrubs, whilst *CjSJJ is explained in the Kamus as a place without herbs. But Yearim is perhaps the name of the tribe who had their quarters in this town; for Kirjah JTHp means generally a city. El-Firuzabadi j-j mentions a town of the name of j\ so called after a daughter of Lot, and Abul-Feda (edit. Reinaud, p. 48.) gives this name to the Dead Sea, so that it is very likely we ought to read Zoghar instead of Za'r. This, however, would not alter the affinity of this name with Jear, for as there is no A in Hebrew, c. must be used instead of it. t Ei 8' eoTiv a><77Tfp pvOoXoyovai rives fv HaXaKTTiinj roiavrr) Xi/ii/)?, fls TJV eat Tts" e'/^aXAfl a-vvftr)*f *> which is in the dis- trict of Damascus. The Jordan runs a great dis- tance through the Dead Sea without mixing with its water; but in the middle the water of the Jordan sinks. Nobody knows how it comes that the water of the lake is not increased by the accession of this river, which is very considerable. There are long stories and accounts related respecting the Dead Sea, which we have inserted in our 'Akhbar ez-Zeman and Kitab el-Ausat, together with an account of the stones found there, which have the shape of a melon, and are of two varieties. They are called the Jews'-stone, and have been described by philosophers, and used by physicians against the stone of the bladder f ; this stone is either male Kara TOV vSaros. (Meteor., lib. ii. cap. 3, p. 432, a ; Genevae, 1605.) * The name of this lake is variously spelt in various MSS., and I have not been able to determine which is the correct reading; for other Arabic authors (Abul-Feda, edit. Reinaud, p. 48; Jehannuma, p. 555, &c.) call it the lake of Banias, from a neighbouring town which had anciently the name Paneas, or Caesarea Philippi, and on coins VTTO Ilcu/ao, as if Paneas had been the name of the snow mountain on which the town is situated. With ancient authors the lake has the name Samochonitis, which has also no reference to the name which el-Mas'udi gives to it. Per- haps it is connected with Kaferla, which is the name of a town twelve miles from Paneas, in Shultens' Index Geographicus. t Ibn en-Nafis (p. 43, edit. Calcut.) and other Arabic phy- 96 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, or female: the male stone is useful for men, the female for women. Another production of this lake is bitumen, which is called ^-*,=>. There is only one lake on earth in which no living being is to be found, and this is a lake in Aderbijan, on which I have sailed. It is situated between the city of Ormiah* and el-Maraghah, and is known there by the name of Kabiidanf. Some ancient writers enter into the causes why no living being can exist in the Dead Sea. Now, although they do not reflect upon the lake Kabudan, one must naturally conclude that the same causes must be active there. sicians praise this stone against lithiasis, and it may be that this volcanic production is of an alcalish nature. Avicenna (lib. ii. p. 180), however, denies its litholytic properties. Mr. Maundrel found a kind of bituminous stone, which answers to the descrip- tion given by Arabic authors of the Jews'-stone, excepting the size ; for he says that he saw stones of this sort two feet square. Dr. Daubeny found it to be similar to that of Ragusa, in Sicily. * Although all copies bear Armenia, I thought it quite safe to change it into Ormiah XA^,! ; for this is a celebrated city in the vicinity of this lake, from which it has its name in other writers, being called the lake of Ormiah, and which claims the honour of being Zoroaster's birth-place. f The copy of Cambridge comes nearest to the true reading of this name (jjta^AT), bearing j^J^jJ", of which the copyists made generally ^l^xiT or ^J^-xT. After the researches of Saint Martin (Memoires sur 1'Armenie, Paris, 1818, torn. i. p. 17), there can be no doubt but that all these corruptions are intended to express the Armenian name of this lake, which is K'habodan. AND MINES OF GEMS. 97 The king of Syria, es-Soma'ida' Ben Hauber Ben Malik, marched against Yiisha', and they came to several engagements; the result of which was, that the king was killed, and Yusha' took possession of his whole kingdom. Yusha' came in contact with other kings of the Giants and Amalekites, and sent corps towards Damascus. Yusha' lived one hun- dred and twenty years. His full name was Yusha' Ben Nun Ben Ephraim Ben Yusof Ben Ya'kub Ben Ishak Ben Ibrahim. Some say Yusha' opened his military operations with the war against the Amalekite king Samaida' Ben Hauber x-**w ^^CU'. whose dominions were in the country of Ailah, towards Madyan. 'Auf Ben Sa'id el-Jor- homi 0$j^\ (jou*) XAJU (jjo c5j.fi says, in allusion to this: " Doest thou not see Ibn Hauber the 'Amalekite at Ailah: he is heated and thin on account of the agitation which he is in, being invaded by an army of eighty thousand Israelites, partly without, partly with armour. " The forces of the 'Amalekites, who march after him on foot, climbing and running, offer the same appearance : as if they had never been amongst the cavalry of Mekka. " Soma'ida' has never been in calamity before*." * The last two distichs are only in the copy of Cambridge. H 98 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, In some village of the Belka, in Syria, there was a man of the name of Bala'am Ben Ba'ur (Beor) Ben Samum Ben Ferstam Ben Math Ben Lut Ben Haran, who had answered the call*: his people urged him to curse Yusha' Ben Nun ; but he was unable to do it. He advised, therefore, some 'Amalekite king to send handsome women towards the army of the Israelites. They ap- proached to the women, and were punished with the plague, which killed seventy thousand of their men. Bala'am is the person of whom it is said in the Koran f, that he had received the signs of God, and that he apostatized. Yusha' Ben Nun died when he was one hundred and ten years of age. After him Kaleb Ben Yiifenna Ben Baridh Ben Yehuda stood at the head of the children of Israel. Yusha' and Kaleb en- joyed the particular grace of God. El-Mas'udi says, I found in another copy (of the Pentateuch) that Kushan el-Kofri^: was eight * To answer the call of somebody, means generally to join one's party; here it means that he professed the religion of God, to which everybody is called. The Arabs give to the history of Balaam a somewhat different version from that which it has in the Bible. (Numb, xxii.; xxiv. 14 5 Mic. vi. 5; 2 Pet. ii. 15; Judeii.; Rev. ii. 14.) See D'Herbelot, voce Balaam. f Surah vii. J He means Cushan-rishataim. El-Kofri means the unbe- liever. AND MINES OF GEMS. 99 years the ruler of the Israelites after Yusha', until he died. 'Othnayil Ben Amayayil Ben Kazin (Othniel, the son of Kenaz), of the tribe of Juda, ruled forty years, and killed Kush J^^ (Cushan- rishataim), one of the giants, who resided at Marib v-^U of the Belka. After him the children of Israel fell into idolatry, and God permitted that the Kana'anites should subject them ten years. After this period they were ruled by 'Amlal el-Ahbari* cSjlpOM J& (the high-priest) forty years. His suc- cessor was Shamwil (Samuel), who reigned until Talut ujj.!lk (Saul) came to the throne. During his reign the invasion of Jalut >^U- (Goliath), the king of the Berbers of Palestine, took place. El-Mas'udi says, according to the version after which we began to relate this history, the head and administrator of the affairs of the children of Israel, after Yusha', was Kaleb Ben Yvifenna, and after him Finehas Ben el-'Oziz Ben Harun (Aaron) Ben 'Amranf, who was twenty years the judge of the * Probably Heli is meant : in this case his name ought to be written ^JUr 'Ilan. Compare p. 102, infra. El-Ahbari means generally a Jewish doctor, and not high- priest as here. t jydl QJJ (j\s& The copy of Leyden bears el-'Ozir. Phinehas the high-priest was the son of Eleazer, and not of Oziz. We learn from the Chronicon of the Samaritans, which has been translated by Hottinger, that Oziz, the fifth high-priest from H 2 100 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, Israelites. He put the books of Moses into a cop- per vessel, shut its opening with lead, and took it to the rock of the temple of Jerusalem. This was before the temple was built. The rock split, and in the cavity so formed another projecting rock presented itself. When Finehas had placed the vessel upon this rock, the cavity closed, and was as before*. After Finehas Ben el-'Oziz, the Israelites Aaron, has concealed some sacred vessels. It is very likely that el-Mas' udi, and the author of the said Chronicon, who is Abul- Fath Ben Abul-Hasan, have used the same sources. * This rock, which rises about man's height from the level of the ground, is covered with a cupola, and on the side of the rock stands a chapel, and it enjoys still the veneration of the Moslims. (Jihannuma, Constant. 1732, p. 565.) El-Kazwlni gives in his work, Athar el-bilad, several other instances of veneration for stones in Syria, as the stone sacred to Sho'a'ib at Kafermendah k'iXxxjviT, the stone sacred to Job in the Jaulan, &c. Taking into consideration the various stones which were almost worshipped in Arabia, besides the black stone of Mekka, one might almost suppose this gross fetishism formed one time a part of the national religion of the Semitic nations, owing, no doubt, to aerolithes, which may be very frequent in those volcanic coun- tries ; hence, Sanchoniathon ascribes the origin of this practice to the god Coelus, saying they are living and animated stones. As further instances of the practice of consecrating or wor- shipping stones, may be brought forward, the example of Jacob (Gen. xviii. 18), the testimony of Clemens of Alexandria (Strom., lib. vii.), and the practice of Arnobius (Cont. Gen., lib. i.) : " Si quando conspexeram lubricatum lapidem, et ex olivsB unguine lubricatum, tanquam inesset vis praesens, adulabar, affabar." (Compare Calmet, voce Stone, ") AND MINES OF GEMS. 101 were ruled by Kushan el-Atim (Cushan-rishataim), the king of Mesopotamia, for they were fallen into idolatry, for which they had to endure night years' hardship. Then was 'Othnayil (Othniei) Ben Yufenna, the brother of Kaleb, of the tribe of Juda, judge, forty years. After him they were subjected by Aglum (Eglon), the king of Mowab, who kept them under great oppression eighteen years. Then was Ahud, of the tribe of Ephraim, their judge fifty-five years. When he had been thirty-five years judge, the age of the world was four thousand years: this, however, is controverted by chronolo- gers. He was succeeded by his son Sha'an (Sham- gar, the son of Anath). Then they were conquered by Bills (Jabin), the Kanaanite, king of Syria, twenty years. Then ruled a woman, of the name of Dabura (Deborah), who was, according to some authors, the daughter of her predecessor. She joined with herself a man of the name of Barak, forty years. After her they were conquered by the chiefs of the Madyanites, viz., 'Urib (Oreb), Zerneb (Zeeb), Buria, Dara' (Zebah), Salana (Zalmunna), seven years and three months. Then Jida'un (Gideon), of the family of Menasha, forty years. He killed the kings of the Madyanites, and was succeeded by his son Abu Malikh (Abimelech). Then Thula' (Tola), of the tribe of Ephraim, twenty-three years. Then Nas (Jair), of the family of Menasha, twenty-two years. Then the kings of 102 EL-MAS'lJOl'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, Amman (Ammon), eighteen years and three months. Then Yehtim (Jephthah), of Beit Lehm, seven years*. Then Samsun, twenty years. Then they were sub- jected by the kings of Palestine forty years. Then Tlan (Heli), the high-priest, forty years. In his time the Babylonians conquered the children of Israel, took the ark, through which the Israelites had expected to gain the victory over them, and they carried it to Babel. They made the Israelites and their children captives, and carried them off from their homes. At the same time happened what is related of the people of Hizkil (Ezekiel), who went out from their homes for fear of death (of the enemy), although they were thousands in number. God said to them "Die;" and when they were dead, he restored them to life again. Then they were visited with the plague, and only three tribes of them escaped death f. One tribe took refuge on the sea-shore, the other to some island of the sea, and the third to U^AJ Bethlehem, the city of flesh, or incarnation. The form more frequently used to express incarnation and naturali- sation, is *l^\J^J (Ibn Khaldun, Proleg., lib. i.) f Koran, Surah ii. verse 244, edit. Fliigel. The tendency of this story of the Koran is to show that it is of no avail to fly from an enemy ; for God can restore the dead to life, and destroy men in thousands by the plague as well as by war. The fable owes its origin probably to Rabbinical traditions invented as a comment upon the thirty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel. AND MINKS OF GEMS. 103 the summits of the mountains: after many adven- tures they came back to their homes, and said to Hizkil, " Hast thou ever heard of a people that had to experience what we have encountered?" Hizkil answered, ' ' No, I have never heard of a people who have taken flight from God as you have done." God sent after seven days again the plague amongst them, and they died all to the last man. After 'Ilan, the high-priest, ruled Ashmawil Ben Baruha Ben Nahur (Samuel). He was a prophet, and administered the state of the Israelites twenty years. God gave them peace, and blessed them. But subsequently, when they were in new troubles, they said to Ashmawil, " Send us a king, and we will fight in the way of God." He was ordered to make Talut, who is Saul Ben Kish Ben Abiyal Ben Sarur Ben Bakhurat Ben Asmida' (Aphiah) Ben Benyamin Ben Ya'kub Ben Ishak Ben Ibrahim, their king: he gave him power, and the Israelites had never before been all united as they were under Talut. From the emigration of the Israelites from Egypt, under Musa, to the accession of Talut, elapsed five hundred and seventy- two years and three months. Talut was originally a tanner, and made leather. Their prophet Ashmawil announced to them, 4< God has set Talut king over you." They answered, according to what God says*, * Koran, Surah ii. \erse 248. 104 EL-MAS'uDi's MEADOWS OF GOLD " How shall he reign over us ? We are more worthy of the sovereignty than he; and he is not in possession of a great fortune." " The proof of his sovereignty," said Samuel, "shall be the ark, in which there is tranquillity * from your Lord, and * The word which I render by tranquillity is sekinah -> j /.T-O xu-j. This is not considered as an Arabic word by lexicographers, and I have found it only in one instance, besides in the above sentence from the Koran, in a passage of Ibn Khaldun (Prolegomena, MS. of Ley den, folio 112, verso), which runs thus, if the MS. is correct: jjf *L*>JJ SL ''The rulers will have obtained an arbitrary and absolute power over the subjects; hence they will encroach upon all their money by introducing customs, or monopolies, or confiscations of private property on or without suspicion. The soldiers will become daring in this phasis towards the rulers ; for they have lost their vigour, and the enthusiasm for their own cause and caste is declining: they have, therefore, nothing better to expect. The attempt to remedy the evil by settling the gratuities (and changing them into regular pay), and by making enormous expenses for them, will fail, and they will find no friend/' Maracci and Sale, in their commentaries to the Koran, and after them De Sacy, in his Chrestom. Arabe (torn, ii., p. 77), AND MINES OF GEMS. 105 the relics of the signs (which God had given to former prophets)." The ark remained ten years follow the opinion of some Arabic interpreters of that book, and consider the word as the Hebrew pWQttf shekinah, which is derived from /.jX*j> to rest, to be quiet) to be present, and means the divine presence in the temple of Jerusalem, which drove from thence the princes of the air (genii of the Arabs), and made it quiet: then it means also inspiration, and in the Targums or the Chaldee paraphrases it is used for Holy Ghost (Calmet, Diet, of the Bible) . This signification, however, would be quite con- trary to the ideas of Mohammed, who probably took up the term without connecting a clear idea with it : for things of which we do not understand the meaning, or which have none at all, are most edifying. Some commentators of the Koran say, therefore, the tabut es-sakmah was an ark given to Adam, which contained the portraits of all the prophets up to Mohammed. For as there are many false prophets who have wrought miracles, whilst the Arabic legate of God professed that he did not perform any other but moral wonders, it would indeed have been the best to have a portrait to verify the man who is to be believed. This fabrica- tion seems to have been forged in opposition to the Jenahians, Xx^UiJ, who considered descent as the evidence of the pro- phetic mission of a man ; and as our author seems to have been very much in favour of the latter doctrine, as it appears from what he says above, p. 54, (compare the second note to p. 55, supra,) he must have rejected this explanation of sakinah, and have taken the word in its first meaning as tranquillity. This justifies also the suggestion contained in the first note to p. 73, supra, which is besides confirmed by the first six lines in p. 79, supra, from which it appears that el-Mas'udi believed that the tabut (ark, coffin) of Adam contained his body, and not the portraits of the prophets. 106 EL-MAS'tJDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, at Babel. They heard at dawn the noise of the angels flying round the ark, and it was carried away. Jalut iS^U. (Goliath) was very powerful, and his troops and leaders were numerous. When Jalut (Goliath), whose full name is Jalut Ben Balud Ben Diyal Ben Hattan Ben Faris Ben Nasud Ben Sam Ben Nuh ^U^ ^ JUS ^ S^L & ^U gy ^ *L ^.jj Jj>*sU ^.j^ u^jL5 (^j-it heard that the Israelites had put Talut (Saul) on the throne, he marched with several races of Berbers j*jA\ from Palestine, towards the Israelites. Samuel ordered Talut to go out with the children of Israel to fight against Jalut. God sent them the trial at a river between the districts of the Jordan and Palestine, which he has related in his book*. When they were very thirsty, they were ordered how they should drink: those who doubted, lapped like dogs, and they were killed by Jalut to the last man. Saul selected from his best troops three hundred and thirteen men, amongst whom were the brothers of Dawud (David), and Dawud himself. The two armies met, but the battle was undecided. Talut encouraged his men, and promised to any one who would go out against Jalut one-third of his king- * Koran, Surah ii. verse 250. Mohammed has confounded Saul and Gideon. (Judg. vii.) AND MINES OF GEMS. 107 dom, and his daughter in marriage. Dawud went out against him, and killed him with a stone which he had in his forage-bag. He threw it with a sling, and Jalut fell on the ground. This is related in the Koran *, where God says, " Dawud slew Jalut . . . These are the signs of God." Some say, Dawud had three stones in his forage-bag, which united, and became one stone; and this they say was the stone with which he killed Jalut. There exist several comments on this stone, which we have related in our former works. Some pretend that it was Talut (Saul) who slew those who lapped from the river, and acted con- trary to the command of God, and not Jalut (Goliath). We have related the story of the coat of mail, of which their prophet had predicted that nobody could conquer Jalut except whom it fitted; and which fitted Dawud: we have given details respecting these wars, and the river which dried up : and we have related the history of the kingdom of Talut (Saul)f, and the Berbers, and their origin, in our book called the Akhbar ez-zeman, and we shall speak on it in the following pages of this work, in a more adapted place, where we give a brief account of the history of the Berbers, and their dispersion over the earth. * Koran, Surah ii. verse 250. f It should probably run, the kingdom of Jalut, or Goliath. 108 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, God made the name of Dawud glorious, and that of Talut obscure; for Talut refused to keep his promise to him. But when he saw that Dawud became popular, he married his daughter to him, and gave him the third part of his possessions, the third part of the revenue, the third part of his jurisdiction, and the third part of his subjects. After he had done so, he envied him, and intended to deprive him of them. But God did not permit it, and Dawud declared himself against his inten- tions. All what Dawud did prospered. Saul died in the night, under great depression of spirits, whilst he was sitting on his throne. After his death the whole empire came under Dawud. Talut reigned twenty years. The spot where Dawud killed Jalut is said to be Baisan, in the Ghaur, which is a district of the Jordan. God rendered the iron soft for Dawud,, and he made coats of mail. God made the mountains and birds subservient* to him, and they praised God with him. David had wars with the people of Mowab, in the country of el-Belka. God re- vealed to him the Book of Psalms, in Hebrew, consisting of one hundred and fifty Surahs. He divided them into thirds: one third fortells the history of Bokhta Nassar ^a5 tlXir (Nebuchadnez- * Koran, Surah xxxviii. verses 17 and 18. AND MINES OF GEMS. 109 zar) with the Israelites ; another third predicts what would happen to them from the people of Athur j>\; and one third contains admonitions, exhor- tations, and hymns. There are neither laws nor interdicts, nor permissions nor prohibitions, in the Psalms. Dawud was successful in all that he did; and even those unbelievers who had a rebellious spirit, were filled with respect for him, in all parts of the earth. He built a house for holy service at Kurat el-islam*,, that is to say, in Beit el-Makdis. This temple is standing in our time [332 A.H.], and it is known under the name of Mihrab of Dawud. There is at present no building in Jerusalem which is higher than this temple. You can see from its top as far as the Dead Sea and the River Jordan. To Dawud happened the story of the two adver- saries, to which an allusion is made in the Book of Godf. Dawud, before he had heard the other, passed the sentence: " He has wronged thee in asking from thee (thy ewe), &c." The commen- *. jj Kurat el-isldm, means the district of the islam, and is a play of words with the name of Jerusalem, with which it has some similarity of sound, it being pro- nounced by the Arabs, Uraslam, or Aurashlim j^^JLiUJ, or simply Shallam ^& (el-Kamus, p. 1647). Compare the twenty- eighth chapter, infra. t Koran, Surah xxxviii. verse 21, et seq. 110 EL-MAS'lIDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, tators to the Koran do not agree respecting the fault of Dawud (for which he is blamed in the Koran). Some give the same explanation which we have just given, and which is justified by the words *, " We have made thee our lieutenant on earth, &c." But some say that the story of the two adversaries was a parable in allusion to Uria Ben Kenan, and his being killed, as it is mentioned in the " boohs of the beginning" *JXAA)U u*xT, and in oilier works. Dawud underwent a repentance of forty days' fasting and weeping. He had no less than one hundred wives. Solaiman was his son: he showed great talents, and used to be present when his father exercised the duties of a judge; and God gave him \visdom in speech and judgment, as it is said in the Koran f, " We gave to all of them wisdom and knowledge, &c." When he was dying, he made Solaiman his heir. Dawud reigned forty years over Palestine and the Jordan. He had an army of sixty thousand soldiers, with swords, shields, and good horses; they were men in the prime of life, full of courage and vigour. * Koran, xxxviii. verse 25. After the words quoted stands, in this, and in several other instances, 3Lj5N> which I render by "&c.;'' for it cannot mean anything else but "and the rest of this verse." Surah xxi. verse 79. AND MINKS OF GEMS. Ill In his age flourished Lokman the Wise, in the country of Ailah and Madyan: his full name is Lokman Ben 'Anka Ben Madyan Ben Merwan He was a Nubian, and a freed slave of Lokain Ben Jesr *& ^JU. Lokman was born in the tenth year of the reign of Dawud. He was a slave, full of virtue, and God gave him wisdom. He lived distinguished by his wisdom and abste- miousness until Yunos Ben Matt a csU ^ u*A*H (Jonas) was sent to Ninive, in the country of el-Mausil. After the death of Dawud his son Solaiman was the bearer of the prophetic office, and the judge. He extended his justice over all his subjects, his government was firm, and he held the armies in due submission. Sola'iman began to build the Beit el-Makdis (the temple of the sacred city), which is called the most remote temple ^taSW oU*iJ, in which Dawud is said to be buried. God gave to Solaiman greater favours than to anybody before him, and he made subservient to him men, genii, birds, and winds, as it is related in the Book of Godf. Solai- man ruled forty years over the Beni Israel. He died in an age of fifty-two years. * This is probably the church which Haji Khalfa (p. 565) calls the Church of the Virgin Mary ; for the place where it is situated has with him the name el- Jesmaniyah. I suppose Jes- maniyah means corporis Christi; for the Christian Arabs have formed a number of words after the genius of the Syriac and 3 > Greek languages, as *J&'^, plur. *jotS'i person (of the Trinity); iII^AwUM the human nature (of Christ) ; uj^&JJ Godhead implying a somewhat different idea from 5U6 Jil| ; *>lcr?"Mj the union (of the three persons of the Trinity), and hence quite different from the pure Mohammedan idea expressed by the word ] ! (Mefatih el-'olum.) f Koran, Surah xxi. and xxxviii. AND MINKS OF GEMS. 1J3 FIFTH CHAPTER. The reign of Rakhobb'am Ben Solaiman Ben Ddwud, and the Israelite kings who succeeded him. Concise account of their Prophets. AFTER the death of Solaiman, his son Rakhobo'am *ju^!j came to the throne. He ruled at first over all the tribes; but subsequently they separated themselves from him, except the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. He reigned seventeen years. The king of the ten tribes was Yeruboham (Jeroboam), who had several wars, and worshipped a calf of gold and jewels. God destroyed him after a reign of twenty years. Then reigned Abya (Abijah), the son of Rakho- bo'am Ben Solaiman, three years. Then reigned Ahar (Asa) forty years. Then reigned Yuram (Jehoram), who introduced the worship of idols (stars), statues, and images: he reigned one year. Then reigned a woman, of the name of 'Athalan (Athaliah), who destroyed the descendants of Dawud, and only one boy of this family was spared. The children of Israel, indignant at her cruelty, killed her, after a reign of seven years, and made this boy their king. He was seven years of age when he came to the throne, and reigned forty 114 EL-MAS'uDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, years, or less. Then reigned Amasyd (Amaziab) fifty- two years. During his reign lived the prophet Sha'ya U*~ (Isaiah), with whom he came in frequent contact. He had some wars,, which we have re- lated in our book Akhbar ez-zeman. Then reigned Yutham (Jotham) ten years ; according to others, sixteen years. After him reigned Ahaz : he intro- duced idolatry, and was an unjust king. One of the greatest kings of Babel, named Baghin* ^L,, marched against him. After long wars between Ahaz and the king of Babel, the latter made Ahaz prisoner, and destroyed the towns of the (Israelite) tribes, and their dwellings. During his reign religious quarrels took place between the Jews and the Samaritans *^U-^J. The Samaritans deny the prophetic mission of Dawud, maintaining that there was no prophet after Musa. They chose their chiefs from the descend- ants of Harun (Aaron) Ben 'Amran, and live in our time [A.H. 332], in separate towns, in the Jordan and Palestine, as, for instance, in the town called 'Ara r,U, which is between er-Ramlah and Tiberias, and other towns as far as Nabolos * This is a corruption for Tiglathpileser, instead of which one copy bears y^aX* ', so that it may be inferred, from the great difference which exists between the two copies, that el- Mas'udi wrote the name correctly, but that it was corrupted by the copyists, as it happened with other names. AND MINES OF GEMS. 115 (Naplous). In this last-mentioned city they are most numerous. They have a (sacred) mount which they call Tur* j^Jb, and they offer there prayers at certain times. They sound bells of silver at prayer time, and it is they who say, " Do not touch me !" They believe that Nabolos is the sacred town (Beit el-makdis)t, and the town of Ya'kub, and that there is the place where his flock grazed. The Samaritans are of two sects, which are separate -3. These are the words of the original in the copy of Leyden. De Sacy quotes this passage thus, in his Chrestomathie Arabe (torn. ii. pp. 342 and 343): jo &\ jUu Ja>- *^ Igj'U^f ^i C>JjXo axXc s^oLj&J JojJ, and translates ac- cordingly: Us ont la une montagne nominee Tor-berik. Les Samaritains font la priere sur cette montagne dans les temps destines a ce pieux exercice. The MS. of Cambridge bears t Isstachri (edit. Moeller, p. 31) says nearly the same thing: here are his words : syc l^! El-Edrisi transcribed this passage in his work, and corrupted it thus: - - - '[^\ XAJX Lc *yc . Nabolos is the town of the Samaritans, and the people of Jerusalem believe that nowhere Samaritans are found but in this I 2 116 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, from each other, as they are separate from the other Jews. One of the two sects is called Kushan * ^Uj.r, and the other Dushan (or Rushan) e t*^ (jiZjj). One of these two sects believes that the world has no beginning f, and other dogmas of this nature, which I forbear to mention, for fear of being too tedious in a work which professes to treat on history, and not on opinions and doctrines of sects. Ahaz had reigned seventeen years before he was made a prisoner by the king of Babylon. In his captivity a son was born to him, who received the name Hizkiya U*^ (Hezekiah). He kept up the religion of the true God, and gave orders to destroy images and idols. During his reign Senna- harib <-o^L^\Mo the king of Babel, marched against Jerusalem. He had several wars with the Israel- town, &c. ( Rosenmiiller, Analecta Arabica, pars iii. p. 3. Compare Jaubert's Translation, torn. i. p. 335.) This may serve as an example how Oriental writers are some- times misled by corrupt readings, and may illustrate the note to page 1 1 7 of this volume ; for there can be no doubt that this fault is to be attributed to el-Edrisi himself, and not to the copyists, since it is found in the copies of Oxford and Paris. * If the Cuthaeans derive their name from Cush, or Scythia, the spelling is here more correct than in the Bible (2 Kings xvii. 24, 30; Ezra iv. 1, 2) ; for there it is /TO Kuth, Xov0. f Arabic scholastics make a distinction between rjj, which is the term used here, and JjJ: the former meaning what has no beginning, and the latter what has neither beginning nor end. AND MINES OF GEMS. 117 ites, and suffered great loss; but finally he took many tribes prisoners. Hizkiya reigned till he died, twenty-nine years. After Hizkiya his son Manasha (Manasseh) reigned. He killed the prophet Sha'ya, and gave a bad example, which was followed by his subjects. God sent Constantine, the king of er-Rum*, against * "The Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God . . . . And [God] brought him again to Jerusalem, into his kingdom." (2 Chron. xxxiii. 11, 12, 13.) Petavius believes that this Assyrian king was the Berodach-baladan of the Scriptures (2 Kings xx. 12), and Map8oKfp,7ra8os of the Chronological Tables of Ptolemy. As the copyists put frequently a known word instead of a name of less frequent occurrence, we may suppose that el- Mas'udi wrote Mardokempad, king of Atur, (see our note to page 31 of this volume,) of which the copyist made Constantine, king of er-Rum; for el-Mas'udl was well acquainted with Ptolemy's Chronological Tables, and quotes them in the Tanbih. But in comparing this passage with the words of et-Tabari (who was one of the sources whence el-Mas'udi derived his infor- mation), preserved by Ibn Khaldun (MS. of Leyden, No. 1250, vol. ii. fol. 44, verso), we feel inclined to ascribe this gross anachro- nism to our author's want of attention: XxjU "In the fifty-second (year of the reign of Manasseh) Byzan- tium was built : the founder of this city was King Yuros. It is the same town which has been renewed by Constantine, and 118 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, him, who invaded his country with several armies, put his troops to flight, made him a prisoner, and kept him twenty years in er-Rum, in captivity ; but changing his former conduct, he was restored to his kingdom. He reigned till he died, twenty-five, or, as others say, thirty, years. His successor was 'Amun (Amon), who neither believed nor obeyed God, but worshipped images and idols. When his ungodliness had reached the utmost, Fir'aun the Lame gjs-W u**j* marched from Egypt, with a large army, against him, and after he had made a great slaughter amongst the Israelites, he took him as prisoner to Egypt, where he perished. He reigned five years. Some authors differ in their account. After him reigned his brother Tufil J^yT, who is the father of the prophet Danial jUib. During his reign el-Bokhta Nassar (Nebuchadnezzar), the governor of el- 'Irak, and the Arabs * ^xJ^oV^xJi, under the king of Persia, who called after his name." (Compare Eusebius, Chronicorum Canonii ad Olympiadem 30, A. H.) Now seeing the account of the cap- tivity of the Israelites on the same page with the name of Con- stantine, he, probably overlooking a line, took him for the king who made them prisoners. For a similar mistake of el-Edrisi, owing to the perusal of a corrupt copy of the author whence he was compiling, see the note to page 115 of this volume. * Perhaps it ought to read 'Irak el-' Arab, which is the name for Babylonia, and I should not have hesitated to change the read- ing, if Herodotus did not give nearly the same title to Sennaherib, calling him BcwiAe'a *Apa/3tW re *cai ' AND MINES OF GEMS. 119 was then residing in Balkh, the capital of his em- pire, marched against the Israelites; and after he had slain many of them,, he took them to el-'Irak, into captivity. He carried also the Pentateuch and the books of the prophets and the histories of the king away, which were in the temple at Jerusalem, and threw them into a well. The ark of the cove- nant fell also into his hands, and he preserved it in some place of his country. The number of the Israelites who were in captivity is said to have been eighteen thousand. In his time lived Jeremiah the prophet. El-Bokhta Nassar made a campaign against Egypt, and killed Pharao the Lame., who was at that time the king of Egypt. Thence he proceeded towards the West, took the kings pri- soners, and conquered many towns. The king of Persia had married a woman of the Israelite captives, who bore him a child, and he sent the children of Israel back into their homes after two years' captivity. When they had re- turned into their native country, reigned Zorobabil Ben Salsal (Zorobabel, the son of Selathiel). The town of Jerusalem was rebuilt, and what had been destroyed was re-established. They got the Penta- teuch out of the well, and their state became flourish- ing. This king devoted forty-six years to the culti- vation of the country ; and he ordered them to keep the prayers and other obligations prescribed by the Law, which had been neglected during the captivity. 120 EL-MAS'UDl's -MEADOWS OF GOLD, The Samaritans believe that the Pentateuch which was recovered from the well, was not the same which Musa had given to them,, but that it is full of fictions, changes, and alterations. The author of the new Pentateuch which the Jews have is Zorobabil, who collected it from the accounts of those who knew it by heart, whilst the genuine Pentateuch is in the hands of the Samaritans. This king reigned forty-six years. Another version of this history says, that the person who married a Jewish lady was el-Bokhta Nassar himself, and that he released the Jews from the captivity. After Ibrahim his son Isma'il took charge of the house (Ka'bah, at Mekka). God made him a pro- phet, and sent him to the 'Amalikites, and to some tribes of Yemen, to forbid to them idolatry. Some of them became believers ; the most part, however, remained faithful to the false religion. Ismael was blessed with twelve sons, viz., Nabet (Nebaioth), Kidar, Abdil, Mibsam, Maisa' (Mishma), Duma, Dowam*, Mita (Massa), Heddad, Taim (Tema), Yetura, and Nan's, **AXI; p**^ J^l; ^\& ^L* \* U. Ibrahim * Dowam is not mentioned in the Bible (Chronicon i. 29, 30): it crept in probably by writing Duma twice, once wrongly spelt ; and then, in order not to have thirteen names, the copyists left out Kedemah, which is the name last mentioned in the Bible. AND MINES OF GEMS. 121 declared Isma'il as his successor, and Isma'il in- stalled Nabet, or according to others, Kidar, to succeed him. When Isma'il died, he was one hundred and thirty- seven years of age, and was buried in the mesjid el-Haram (the temple of Mekka), on the spot where the black stone is. After him the charge of the temple was intrusted to his son Nabet, who followed the good example and religion of his father. There were several prophets and men distin- guished by godliness between Solaiman, son of Dawud, and the Masih (Messiah), as Aramaya Uc^l (Jeremiah), Daniyal (Daniel), 'Ozair ^y. (Ezra) [whose prophetic dignity is controverted], Sha'ya (Isaiah), Hizkial (Ezekiel), llyds (Elias), el- Yasa' (Elisha), Yunos* (Jonas), Dul-Kifl * I preserve here, and in other Scriptural names, the Arabic sound; for some changes are as much sanctioned by use with them, as in English to say John instead of Joannes. Besides, these corruptions may yet point out whence the Arabs have originally derived their Biblical knowledge. Some Hebrew names seem even to have been originally Arabic, and to have been pre- served in the language of this nation, as well as in the Scriptures. Only, in putting the vowels, I follow in preference the Scriptures, when Arabic authors do not agree: some authors write the Kamus Nomrud, whilst others write Namrud and Nimrud. I prefer the latter. t The name of Dul-Kifl is twice mentioned in the Koran; the first time (xxi. 85) with Isma'il and Idris, and the second 122 EL-MAs'tJDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, and el-Khidhr* j*a.\. A tradition reported by Ibn Ishak (or Ibn ' Abbas) makes Aramaya a pious and godly man (but not a prophet). Another pro- phet of this period was Zakariya (Zacharias), who was the son of Adan, of the children of Dawud and the tribe of Juda. He was married to Lishya' (Elizabeth), the daughter of 'Imran, and sister of Maryam (Mary), the mother of Christ. 'Imran, who was the son of Maran Ben Yo'akim, was also a descendant of Dawud. The name of the mother of Lishya' (Elizabeth), and of Maryam,, was Han- nah. Elizabeth gave birth to Yahya (John), who was the cousin of Christ. His father Zakariya was a carpenter. The Jews spread the rumour that he had ravaged Maryam, and put him to death. When time (xxxviii.) with Isma'iland el-Yasa' (Elisha), so that one may infer that he is a Hebrew prophet who received this name from some action or event, as Jonas was called Dul-Nun, from the fish which swallowed him. Sale adds the following note to the second passage of the Koran: " Al-Beidawi here takes notice of another tradition concerning this prophet ; viz., that he enter- tained and took care of a hundred Israelites, who fled to him from a certain slaughter; from which action he probably had the name Dul-Kifl given him; the primary signification of the word cafala being to maintain, or take care of another. If a conjecture might be founded on this tradition, I should fancy the person intended was Obadiah, the governor of Ahab's house." * About el-Khidhr see page 90 of this volume. AND MINES OF GEMS. 123 he was aware of their intention, he took refuge in a tree, and hid himself in its cavity ; but Satan, the enemy of God, pointed him out to them. They split the tree in which he was, and cut him to pieces in so doing. When Elizabeth, the sister of Maryam, the mother of Christ, had given birth to Yahya Ben Zakariya, she took flight with her child from some king to Egypt. When he had grown up God sent him to the children of Israel. He preached to them what God has commanded and forbidden, and they put him to death. There were many rebellions* amongst the Israelites. God sent, therefore,, a king, of the name of Hardush (Herodes), from the East. Under him the righteous men had the same fate as Yahya, the son of Zakariya; and it was only after long troubles, that he put a stop to shedding blood. When Maryam was seventeen years of age God sent the angel Gabriel to her, and he breathed the spirit into her. She was with child of the Masih, Jesus the son of Maryam, and she gave him birth in a country town,, called Beit Lehm, which is some miles from Jerusalem. This was in the twenty- fourth of the first Kanun. His history is related The copy of Leyden bears ^ There were many traditions among the Israelites." 124 EL MAS'tJDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, by God in the Koran*, and the Christians believe that Jesus observed the old religion of his nation. He read (lectured on) the Pentateuch and other ancient books for twenty-nine or thirty years, at Tiberias, in the province of the Jordan, in a syna- gogue called el-Madras u^JsJU. A certain day he was reading the Book of the prophet Esaias, and he saw in it the passage, "Thou art my prophet and my elect: I have chosen thee for me:" he closed the book, gave it to the minister of the synagogue, and went out saying, " The word of God is now fulfilled in the Son of Manf." Some say Christ lived in a town called Nasarah (Nazareth), in the district of el-Lajjun ^^.J^, in the province of the Jordan. Hence the Christians have (in Arabic) the name Nasraniyah lo^A^U I have visited that church: it is in high veneration with the Christians. There are some coffins of stone, with dead bodies in them, from which oil comes out, of the consis- ~ j tency of the inspissated juice of fruits (Roob v^0> in which the Christians find their blessing. The Masih came to the lake of Tiberias, where he found some fishermen, who were the sons of Zabada, and some fullers. Matta (Matthew), Yo- hanna (John), Markush (Mark), and Luka (Luke), * In the third Surah, and passim. t Lukeiv. 1621. AND MINES OF GEMS. 125 are the four apostles who wrote the Gospel, and preserved the history of the Masih: they have related in it his birth and his baptism by Yahya Ben Zakariya, who is called John Baptist ^.^ tXfrxJJ, in the lake of Tiberias, from which the water runs into the Jordan ; the wonders wrought through him, the miracles with which God honoured him, and how the Jews treated him, till he ascended into heaven, when he was thirty-three years of age. There are long accounts of the Masih, Mary am, and Yusof the carpenter, in the Gospel, which we forbear inserting; for God does not mention them (in the Koran), nor has his prophet Mohammed related them. 126 EL-MA$'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, SIXTH CHAPTER. Those who lived in the Fatrah ; that is to say, in the time between Christ and Mohammed. EL-MAS'UDI says, many persons who lived between Christ and Mohammed, in the Fatrah, professed the unity of God, and believed that he sends (pro- phets). But whether there has been a prophet amongst them or not is controverted. Some allege that Hantalah Ben Safwan ^yu* ^^ XXk;^, who was a descendant of Isma'il Ben Ibrahim, has been a prophet, and was sent to the Ashab er-Rass*, The Ashab er-Rass are brought forward as an example in the Koran (xxv. 40), together with the 'Adites and Themudites, as a nation, who have been punished for not having listened to their prophet. The commentators of the Koran conceive ashab to mean inhabitants^ and believe, therefore, er-Rass to be a town. They have, however, been so much at a loss to find the site of this town, that they thought it might be on the river er-Rass, or the Araxes of the ancients I Now sahib hardly ever means inhabitants. El-Fairuzabadi (p. 763) gives the following opinion : " Er-Rass is the name of a well of rem- nants of the Themudites, in which they smothered \y^ their prophet, not believing on him." This leads me to think that rass is to be taken as an infinitive, and ashab er-rass to be rendered by smotherers. AND MINES OF GEMS. 127 who were equally descended from Isma'il, and divided into two tribes, one of which was called o * Kodman ^LctXS, and the other Yamin (^-j-<^> or Ra'wil J^y^j? both of which were in Yemen. When Hantalah Ben Safwan rose amongst them, by the command of God, they killed him. A prophet of the children of Israel, of the tribe of Juda, received therefore the revelation of God, that Bohkta Nassar would march, by divine command, against them : and he vanquished them. To this allude the words of God: " When they felt our strength, they were agitated .... dying and perishing." It is said that they were Himyarites, and this is sup- ported by one of their (Himyarite) poets in an elegy: " My eyes flow in tears for the Ashab er-Rass, the Ra'wil, and Kodman: the punishment which the tribe of the Kahtanites suffered caused those to submit to God who had refused to do so." It is stated on the authority of Wahb Ben Monabbih that Dul-Karnein, who is the same per- son with Alexander*, lived after Christ, in the * Other passages of this work evince an intimate acquaintance of el-Mas'udi with the history of Alexander the Great, and the Alexandrian era. But it is the habit of Arabic historians, and particularly with our author, to give the different traditions which they have received literally as they heard them, even if they 128 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, Fatrah. He had a vision, in which he saw himself so near the sun that he seized its two extremities ^/JjjtM, the eastern and western. He related this dream to his people, and they called him " One who has both horns" (or sides of the sun) ^jjtt^i. Many different opinions respecting him have been advanced, which are to be found in our works, the Akhbar ez-zeman and the Kitab el-ausat, and we shall give a view of his history in those chapters of this book which treat on the Greek and Byzan- tine sovereigns. In the same way the historians do not agree on the men of the grotto (the Seven Sleepers): some say they lived in the Fatrah ; others think other- wise. We shall insert a concise account of their history in the (twenty-eighth) chapter on the Roman emperors in this book. For the rest we have their adventures related in the Kitab el-ausat, and in the work which preceded it, the Akhbar ez-zeman. One of the persons who lived after Christ, in the Fatrah, was George UMA^S*. His birth fell should be convinced they are not true. Here he states, more- over, his authority. This anachronism had its origin probably in a king of Yemen, who had the name Dul-Karnein from two curls of hair, and who was confounded with Alexander, as he had the same epithet. I shall again speak of this name in the chapter on the kings of Yemen. The name Dul-Karnem is mentioned in the eighteenth chapter of the Koran. AND MINES OF GEMS. 129 within the lifetime of some of the apostles. God sent him to the King of el-Mausil, to call him to the true religion, and though the king killed him, God restored him to life, and sent him a second time to him : the king killed him again ; but God resuscitated him once more, and sent him a third time: now the king burnt him, and threw the ashes into the Tigris. God destroyed the king, and all his subjects who had followed him. So the story is related by believers of the Scriptures, and in the books on the beginning and on the biography (of Mohammed), by Wahb Ben Monabbih and other authors. Another man of the Fatrah was Habib en-Nejjar ^Ls\M s^*^ wn lived at Antioch, in Syria, where there reigned a tyrant, who worshipped idols and images. Two disciples of the Masih went to him, to call him to God. He imprisoned and ill-treated them, till they were aided by God, who sent a third man. Who he was is controverted; but most authors say that he was Peter, which is the Greek name of the apostle who is called Sim'an w lx~> in Arabic, and Sham'iin in Syriac. This is Sham'un the brasser. But many historians and the Christians of all sects are of opinion, that the third apostle, through whom they were aided, was Paul, and the two others who had been committed to prison, were Thomas and Peter. They had a long interview K 130 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, with the king, showing him miracles and proofs: they healed those born blind, and the lepers, and restored the dead to life. Paul succeeded in ob- taining an audience: he gained his favour, and the king set free his two colleagues from prison. Habib en-Nejjar* came, and he believed on them when he had seen their signs. God relates this in the Koran t, in the words, " When we sent two men to them; but they charged them with imposture. Wherefore we strengthened them with a third one," &c., down to the words " a man came in haste." Peter and Paul were killed in Rome. Many persons relate that they were crucified with their heads downwards, after they had been a long time in contact with the emperor and Saiman ^^ 0$*) the sorcerer^. After the Christian religion had become victorious, they were laid in a coffin of crystal, and deposited in a church of that city. We have related this in oar Kitab el-ausat where we speak of the curiosities of Rome, and where we trace the history of the disciples of Christ, and their dispersion over the earth. We * A mosque in the middle of the market of Antioch, sacred to this Habib, was much visited by pilgrims at the time of el- Kazwini ( Athar el-bilad). f Surah xxxvi., from verse 13 to 19. t Simon Magus, to whose aeronautics the prayers of St. Peter made a fatal end. AND MINES OF GEMS. 131 shall exhibit a summary of their history in this book. The contrivers of the pit* ^J^i ^->\^\ lived * An allusion to this story being found in the Koran, it is related in the commentaries to that book, and almost in every Arabic work on geography. But modern authors enrich it with edifying additions and pious alterations. The fact, as it is related by our author, is historical, and happened in 522 A.D. The heroism of a Najranite matron, and of a boy who threw himself into the flames, gave rise naturally to the popular tradition of the miracle which el-Mas'udi relates, and to which Mohammed alluded three hundred years before him. Baronius (Annal. Eccl. ; Lucas 1741, Tom. ix., pp. 309 et seq. ad annum 522 et 523) reproduces the acta St. Aretha* martyris, who was the chief of the Najranites. These acta are exceedingly curious; and to judge from the spirit in which they are written, I feel confident they come from the pen of an Arab, and were possibly originally composed in that language. This would be an important addition to the history of the civilization of the Arabs. The frequent allusions to the Scriptures evince an intimate acquaintance of the author with the Bible. Lam- beccius speaks for the rest of another work which exists in the emperor's library at Vienna, and which was written in Tifar .lili at this period, and may serve as a proof of the literary activity of the Arabs before Mohammed : it has the title " Abrahii regis Homeritarum leges a St. Gregentio Tapharensi Episcopo compositae." The persecution of the Najranite Christians, and the conquest of the Abyssinians, are also mentioned by Procopius (De bello Persico i., 20), Cedrenus (ad annum 522), Zonaras, Nicephorus, K 2 132 EL-MAS'UDl'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, also in the time of the Fatrah, in the capital of Najran, in Yemen, during the reign of Du &c. Comparing the Arabic accounts with the Greek authors, it is possible the fact was this. Najran was favoured by nature, and so famous since ancient times, that it seems to have formed one of the objects of the invasion of JElius Gallus. The inhabitants, ever anxious, as it seems, to lead the Bedouins to their interests, raised a temple in opposition to the Ka'bah of Mekka, which was called the Ka'bah of Najran, in order to attract pilgrims. But it seems that they did not fully succeed, since the town is not mentioned amongst the markets of the Arabs. This failure is to be accounted for by their situation between Mekka and San'a, both of which were sacred by age and many popular traditions, acknowledged by habit, and the one protected by the league of the Modhar tribes, whose centre it was, whilst the other was the capital of all the Himyarite tribes: hence the tenets of the Arians, which were preached to them by a monk in the fourth century of the Christian era, were welcome to them, as they condemned the black stone and the idols of the Ka'bah, to which the Korai'shites owed their power, and gave them hope to come to the possession of the Ghomdan at San'a. The sacred well of this Capitolium reminds one of the Zemzem ; and the four sides, painted in white, red, yellow, and green, seem to have the same origin as the Ka'bah (i.e., square building), of which there were several in Arabia, besides that of Mekka; and, although the Ghomdan was chiefly sacred to the planet Venus, the seven stories, or roofs, imply a clear allusion to the seven planets. The mystifications of Arianism, however, made no impression upon the sound minds of the Bedouins. The Najranites sought, therefore, in treason what they had in vain contended for through enslaving their minds; and it is allowed by Christian authors that AND MINES OF GEMS. 133 Nowas*, who killed Du Shenatirf yU-fc ^. He was a Jew: and having heard that there were fol- lowers of the religion of the Messiah in Najran, he came himself there, sank pits in the ground, filled them with glowing fire, and called the inhabitants to the Jewish religion: those who followed him were free; but those who refused to obey were thrown into the fire. There came a woman, with a child of seven months, who refused to abjure her they had betrayed their country to the King of Abyssinia, " Dunaanus (Du Nowas) rex, tarn, ut genus Christianorum vexaret, quam, ut Eleslaano regi ^Ethiopum molestiam crearet, graviter afflixit cives urbis Nagran in Homeritide sitse, cui pra3- fectus erat St. Arethas." Dii Nowas, was Lord of Phare, which is spelt Taphar in an ancient Greek Menologium, quoted by Pagius ; so that there can be no doubt but that Tifar JJ& is meant. He professed the Jewish religion; for the law of Moses had found many prose- lytes in Arabia by its sublime simplicity; and being the protector of Yemen, he was of course obliged to check the conduct of the Najranites, and decided to eradicate the evil which was owing to their religion. But the /Ethiopians revenged the blood of their brethren, and took possession of Arabia, until a reaction took place, in which the Persians were called in. * Du Nowas means the man with the curl, for he had a black curl hanging over his back. t Du Shenatir means the man with ear-rings, shenatir being the Himyarite word for ear-ring 3&j.i'. El-Fairuzabadi says, Du Shenatir had this surname, because he had one finger too many. His proper name was Lakhti'ah XxxAiL . 134 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, religion. She was taken to the fire, and when she was frightened God gave speech to the child, and it said, "Go on, mother, in thy faith; thou wilt not meet a fire after this." They were both thrown into the fire. They were true believers, professing the unity of God, and did not belong to the Christian creed of this age (who profess the trinity). Shocked at these cruelties, a man of the name of Du Tha'leban* j,UX*S' ^ ( 6 Ubm) went to Caesar to ask him for his aid. The emperor wrote to the Nejashi (the king of Abyssinia) about the case, as he was nearer. This gave origin to the invasion of the Abyssinians in Yemen, who kept this country in subjection till (Yusoff ) Du Yasan ^y*j* solicited the assistance of several kings, which was at last granted to him by Anushirwan, as we have de- scribed in our books, the Akhbar ez-zeman and the Kitab el-ausat; and we shall give a summary of these events in the (forty-third) chapter, where we speak on the Adwa^ and kings of Yemen. The story of the contrivers of the pit is mentioned in the * Procopius gives him the name Kais. f The name Yusof is only in the Cambridge copy. Yazan is a Wadi (in Yemen), and Du Yazan a Himyarite king who was in possession of this Wadi. (Kamus, p. 1 81 6.) I Adwa \j&\ is the plural of Du, and means literally pos- sessed of: here it implies the chiefs whose surnames began with Du. AND MINES OF GEMS. 135 Koran*, from the words, "Killed are the con- trivers of the pit/' to the words, "They had nothing to revenge on them but their belief on the almighty and glorious God." Khaled Ben Sinan el-Absi lived also in the Fatrah: his full name was Khaled Ben Sinan Ben'Ayyath (Ghaith?) Ben J Abs ^U- ^ ^ y^xc ^ dvx ^>. He has been mentioned by the Prophetf, who says, "" There was a prophet who has been destroyed by his nation." The story is this : a fire rose in Arabia, and caused a great commotion and disturbances amongst the Arabs; so that fire-worship was making its way amongst them. Khaled took a club, and struck on the fire, exclaiming, "Begin! begin! every grace from God alone we win : I enter the flames, and they blaze high; I come out from them, and my reward is nigh^:" and he extinguished the fire. When he was dying, he said to his brothers, " When I am * Surah Ixxxv., from the fourth to the eighth verse. t When the Beni 'Abs sent delegates to Mohammed he seems jiot yet to have been aware of Khaled's death ; so that it appears this religious commotion was contemporaneous with Mo- hammed. (Siyar el-Halebi, Cairo, 1248, A.H. p. 378.) J The copies differ materially; I followed this reading: JJ (read 136 EL-MAS'UDi's MEADOWS OF GOLD, buried, a herd of wild asses, of the Himyarites, will come, and an ass without a tail, who goes in front of them, will kick with his hoof on my grave. When you see that, open the grave, for I shall come forth from it, and give you information about everything." When they had buried him, they saw what he had foretold; and they intended to take him out. Some of them, however, objected to it, and said, " We fear the Arabs will blame us if we disturb the rest of the dead." When his daugh- ter came to the Prophet, and heard him reciting (the words of the Koran): cc Say! he is the only God the Eternal," she said, " The same words have been used by my father." We shall further speak of this man in another part of this book. El-Mas'udi says, Riat esh-Shanni &A\ v^L^, (tfUJJ v^) li ve d also in the Fatrah: he belonged first to the tribe of 'Abd el-Kais*, and then to the Shann tribe. He was a believer in the religion of the Messiah (?), previous to the mission of Moham- med. [They heard a voice from heaven : " Three persons on earth are good: Riat esh-Shanni,, * 'Abd el-Kais Ben Aksa iS *aS\ /.jj (j*A*H >^ ft was the father of a tribe which belonged to the Asad family, and had its quarters in el-Bahrain. (Add. MS. of the Brit. Museum, 7596.) The Abucei of Ptolemy seem to imply this tribe, which was very powerful. Shann was also a son of Aksa. AND MINES OF GEMS. 137 Bohairah the monk, and another man who is to come." By the last the Prophet was meant*.] It was observed that the grave of every child of Riat was bedewed by a slight rain. Another man who lived in the Fatrah was As'ad Abu Karib el-Himyarit. He was a believer in the Prophet seven hundred years before his mission. He said, cf I declare that Ahmed is a prophet of God, the Creator of life ; and if I was to live to his time I should be his Vizier and his nephew." He was the first who clad the Ka'ba with leather, saying, " I clothe the house which is to be sacred by the command of God, surrounding it with a rich cover of various colours." Koss Ben Sa'idah, of the tribe of lyad Ben Nizar Ben Ma'add j\y /.^ J ^ sJtcLa ^.j u*o * x ** CU^ 0>0 was a philosopher of the Arabs, and believed that God sends prophets. It is him who said, " Who lives dies, and who dies flies; and all what is growing devours what is going." His wisdom and intelligence became proverbial. El- * This sentence is only in the copy of Leyden. f His full name is L*jXT /.w <-^J" ^\ Xx*t I he was the middle Tobba'. 138 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, A'sha ,<&fi5M says, " Wiser * than Koss, and braver than the inmate of the cavern, in the thick wood at Khaffan" (i.e. the lion). There came delegates from lyad to the Pro- phet, and he asked them about Koss. They replied that he was dead; and Mohammed said, '" It is as if I saw him in the fair of 'Okatf l&Ke: he was sitting on a red camel,, and said, ' O people! assemble, hear, and cry, Who lives dies, and who dies flies; and what is growing devours what is going. But then, the heaven gives us information, * El-Mas'udf writes y^Jj A, +.s\ ; but the saying seems to have been (Jf Jf ^ t^k^J. See el-Mai'dani, vol. i. p. 467, and p. 189; and D'Herbelot. t 'Okat is the fair in the open country between Nakhlah XX=? and et-Tayif. It began in the new moon of Dul-Ki'dah and lasted twenty days. The Arabic tribes used to assemble there to recite their poetries, each tribe boasting of their glory ^^TlxAj. From this fair the 'Okati leather has its name. The Arabs used also to ransom their prisoners at 'Okat, to pay the price of blood, and to settle their quarrels before an arbitrator *J*Ls., that the pilgrimage to which they proceeded from 'Okat might be a ceremony of national unanimity and peace. (MS. of the Brit. Museum, 7353.) The words j^' ^ *-! seem to refer to arbitration ; for en-Nowairi informs us that he used to say, the prosecutor .^cjJ ^ is to bring evidence, and the defendant, if he denies the charge, is to swear. Hence it would appear that he acted as arbitrator. Perhaps I ought to have translated the above words, " a better arbitrator than Koss. AND MINES OF GEMS. 139 and the earth calls us to contemplation : the seas raise waves, and the stars set: the roof (of the heavens) is raised, and the ground (of the earth) is firmly placed*.' Koss swore by God: ' There is a faith which is more acceptable to the Lord than your religion. What may be the reason that men pass away, and do not return ? Do they like to be there? or have they ended, and do they sleep? They all go the same way, although their actions are different/ He said (continued the Prophet) some verses, which I have forgotten." Abu Bekr es-Sadik rose, and said, " I recollect those verses, O Prophet of God ;" and he recited them thus : " We have an example in the famous men who passed before us, since I observe they went towards death without resistance. I observed the same in my contemporaries: they fade, great and little. En-Nowairl (p. 137 MS. of Leyden, N. 273) quotes these words of Koss, adding, ^\ &\* ^l^^ ^ ^ j^'j ^ 'if^'f The solemn protestation which follows begins in en-Nowa'iri, "If there was pleasure on earth, we should have to expect sorrow after this life. There is a faith, &c." These words explain the meaning of the sentences which follow. 140 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, He who is gone will never return ; and those who are still alive will not remain behind. I am sure no exception will be made where they all go to*. The Prophet said, ' l God may be merciful to Koss, and I hope he will honour him with his bounty." El-Mas'udi says, Koss made himself known by many poems, sentences of wisdom, and distin- guished actions, for an account of which we refer our readers to our book., the Akhbar ez-zeman and Kitab el-ausat, where we have also spoken of his researches in medicine and soothsaying from birds and other omens, and his knowledge in other branches of natural philosophy . Another famous man of the Fatrah was Zeid Ben 'Amr Ben Nofai'l ,>/ju ^j ^^^ ^j Abu Za'id, the son of Zeid Joj ^...j *XA*** ^.j!, was one of the Tenf (whom Mohammed had promised that they would enter the Paradise) , and the nephew of 'Omar Ben el-Khattab. Being against idolatry, he expressed freely his opinion. El-Khattab informed the ignorant of Mekka about it, and gave him into * Death is the phenomenon which calls man to reflexion, although he may still live in that happy social state in which his vital spirits are healthy enough to enjoy the present, regardless of the past and future : hence elegies of this character are frequent amongst the Bedouins, and their tunes are melancholy. A beau- tiful specimen is in the Hamasa, p. 44. f He must mean Sa'd. See Reiske's note to Abulfeda, Annales Muslemici, vol. i. to p. 245. AND MINES OF GEMS. 141 their power. They persecuted him, and he took up his abode in a cavern, in Hera *Jj*. He came secretly to Mekka, whence he took flight to Syria ; and there he continued his speculations on religion, till he was poisoned by the Christians. He died in Syria. There passed several things between him, the king, and the interpreter, and between him and some Ghasanite king, at Damascus, which we have related in our former works. Omaiyah Ben Abi-s-Salt eth-Thakefi ^ **\ c/j&Jt \ ujW c> **** (jj-^ *)* <&t wno ^ s the same person as Abu Hantalahj and has the surname Ghasil el- Malayikah xL^I J^^, was a chief, and had lived abstemious, in rough clothes, at the time of igno- * In the second Surah. AND MINES OF GEMS. 149 ranee. When the Prophet came to Medina, he had a long conversation with him: subsequently he left that city, with fifty slave boys, and died in Syria, as a Christian. Another man of the Fatrah is 'Abdullah Ben Jahsh el-Asadi tf*x*^ (jksi /^j <*MI &*.&. : he was of the tribe of Asad Ben Khozai'mah X^iy^, and the husband of Omm Habibah, who was the daughter of Abi Sofyan Ben Harb, before she was married to the Prophet. He had read the Scriptures, and inclined to Christianity. When Mohammed had entered his prophetic office, he emigrated, with other Moslims, to Abyssinia, and with him his wife, Omm Habibah. There he apostatized from the Islam, and died as a Christian. S- He used to say ^'A^^ USSVAJ t>! that is to say,, " We see, and you attempt to open your eyes." The expressions of this saying are taken from young dogs; for it is said of a dog, when he opens the eyes after birth, ^Jij &3 (he opens his eyes) ; but if he attempts to open his eyes, and is unable * to do it, it is said U>U>. After his deatlv, the Nijashi (the king of Abyssinia) married Omm Habibah, the daughter of Abi Sofyan to the Prophet, and gave her a dowry of four hundred dinars. O-j Bohaira l^os? the monk, lived also in the Fatrah; he was a believer on Christ, and his name in 150 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, Christian books is Serjis (Sergius) u*^.**. Bohaira was of the Abdulkais tribe. When Mohammed went to Syria with Abu Taleb, Abu Bekr, and Belal, at an age of thirteen years, on mercantile business, they passed by Bohaira, who was sitting in his cell, and he recognized the Prophet, com- paring his appearance and the signs which he bore on him with what he had found in his books, and observing the cloud which shaded him whenever he sat down. Bohaira received them as guests, paid them great respects, and gave them refresh- ments. He went forth from his cell to see the seal of the prophetship, between the shoulders of the Prophet, he placed his hand upon it and believed on him. Bohaira informed Abu Bekr and Belal of his destination, and he asked him to come back with him the same way. He guarded them to be watchful for him against the believers on the Scriptures. His uncle, Abu Taleb, having received this information, returned with him. When he was come back from his journey to Mekka, he began his acquaintance with Khadijah, and the signs were wrought which, together with the account which she received of his journey, made her believe that he was a prophet. El-Mas'iidi says, This is a review of the history from the Creation as far as we have followed it up. We attended only to those facts which are stated in the revelation and related in the books (Scriptures, AND MINES OF GEMS. 151 particularly the Koran,) and which have been explained by the prophets. Now we shall trace the beginning of the kingdoms of the Hindus and review briefly their religious speculations, then we will follow up the history of other empires, having given an account of the history of the Kings of the Israelites, as we have found it in the sacred books. 152 EL-MAS'IIDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, SEVENTH CHAPTER. An abridged account of the Hindus, their religious opinions, and the origin of their kingdoms. EL-MAS'UDI says, all historians who unite maturity of reflexion with depth of research, and who have a clear insight into the history of mankind and its origin, are unanimous in their opinion, that the Hindus have been in the most ancient times that portion of the human race which enjoyed the bene- fits of peace and wisdom. When men formed themselves into bodies, and assembled into commu- nities, the Hindus exerted themselves to join them with their empire, and to subject their countries, to the end that they might be the rulers. The great men amongst them said, " We are the beginning and end; we are possessed of perfection, pre-emi- nence, and completion. All that is valuable and important in the life of this world owes its origin to us. Let us not permit that anybody shall resist or oppose us; let us attack any one who dares to draw his sword against us, and his fate will be flight or subjection." They were prevailed upon by these consider- AND MINES OF GEMS. 153 ations to elect a king. He was the highest Barahman, the greatest king, and the foremost Imam. In his days flourished philosophy, and the wise men stood at the head of the nation. They extracted iron from the mines, and forged swords, daggers, and several sorts of warlike instruments : they raised temples, adorned them with precious stones of the finest lustre, represented in these tem- ples the spheres of the heavens, the twelve zodiacal signs, and the stars. They gave by representation an idea of the system of the worlds, and went even so far as to show by these means the influence of the stars on this world, and the way in which they produce the different animals, both rational and irrational. There was the position of the greatest ruler to be seen, that is to say, the SUN. The Barahman wrote a book, which contained the proofs of all these subjects, and conveyed a clear idea of them to the minds of the Exoteric J^xJt, whilst he implanted into the minds of the Esoteric <_j^iLl the knowledge of what is above all that, pointing to him who is the first cause, and called all beings to existence, embracing them with his bounty. The Hindus obeyed this king. Their country was well cultivated, and he made them enjoy the utmost of worldly prosperity. He assembled the wise men, and they composed 154 EL MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, during his reign the book es-Sind-hind, which means ''The last end of the ends*." Upon this Ja*sls\j j^^y\ i_AxT <_*XjJ C^ejJ xLejjj&M +&* * M. Colebooke( Dissertation on the Algebra of the Hindus,) identifies the Sind-hind with the Siddhanta of Brahmegupta, who lived about twelve hundred years ago. The meaning of Sind- hind, as explained by our author, confirms the identity of the two words, for Siddhanta means the perfect end. But the Sind-hind in question must be another astronomical work of the name of Siddhanta, than that of Brahmegupta; for the Arkand and Arjabhar are more ancient than Brahmegupta, whereas they are here stated to be derived from the Sind-hind ; besides, it seems that the theories here alluded to by el-Mas 'udi are of an earlier date than those of Brahmegupta. This is of importance for the history of astronomy, and particularly for the history of the dis- covery of the precession of the equinox, and the connexion of this theory with some ancient chronologies ; for it would appear that the Arabs had no original translation of the Siddhanta ; but that only the system had been known to them ; and if later authors allude to the Sind-hind, the system of the Siddhanta, as laid down in the work el-Khowarezmi, which bears the title es-Sind- hind, is meant. This is clearly stated by the author of the Fihrist, who must be considered as the highest authority in these points, on account of his exactness in bibliography and proximity in time, having written 377 A.H. : ^^Jyu *<**^ **>j& J**' O"^J ^ J04 JuuSL ^iJj*^ Jlx!^ b$\ *&j ^c "The astrono- mers trusted before and after the observation on his two tables, which together were known under the name of Sind-hind." He means the tables of Mohammed Ben Musa el-Khowarezmi, who was one of the astronomers of el-Mamun. Would they not have taken the Siddhanta itself as a standard work, if they had had another translation than a paraphrase of a Persian work on this system. Compare chapter 126 infra, note. AND MINES OF GEMS. 155 book other works are founded, as the Arjab- The statement of the Fihrist is further explained and con- firmed by el-Kefti (Bibl. Philosoph. MS. of Leyden, No. 159), who states, that el-Khowarezmi was a follower of the Sind-hind, which was one of the three Hindu systems of astronomy. I insert his own words, without correcting the faults, and without translation; for I have at this moment no means of verifying the proper names which occur in the passage : (3"*** (^ * X * :SS But if the Arabs have not been in possession of a translation of the Siddhanta, how could they be acquainted with the system ? Various reasons make us believe that they received it from the Persians, whose literary connexion with the Hindus is historically proved. First, the theory, as it is exhibited here, seems to be a combination of that of Persia and India, as further notes tend to show. Second, almost all Arabic astrology comes from the Per- sians, and their astronomy was derived from the same source previous to the translation of the ^eyia-rr] trvvral-is. For this rea- son most terms are borrowed from the Persians, although some of them may ultimately be Sanscrit ; and the most early Arabic astronomers were natives of such parts of Persia, which had ever been famous schools of science, as Balkh, &c., or of Harran. Third, Hamzah, of Isfahan, a contemporary of el-Mas'iidi, (apud Anquetil Du Perron, torn, ii., p. 352,) refers to a book based upon 156 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, bar* and the Almagest: from the Arjabharthe Ark- the Avesta of Zoroaster, which contains a similar theory. " Le dieu supreme a fixe a 12,000 ans la vie (la duree) du monde, du commencement a la fin. Le monde resta sans mal pendant 3000 ans, dans sa partie superieure," &c. Es-Sind-hind was. therefore, as the above passages unequivo- cally prove, at the same time the name of the Siddhanta system of astronomy, the only astronomical system of the Hindus known to the Arabs; and of an original Arabic work on this system. Admitting that it was considered in the first sense as a Sanscrit word, meaning the perfect end, I should suppose, in order to account for the seemingly arbitrary alteration of the sound, that it is in the second sense an imitation of the Sanscrit term in two Arabic words, (as the Arabs are very fond of plays on words,) and that one ought to read Ls \JJ, sing. f~\'fi\. This word is derived from the Persian *\ (a corde), and means the Astronomical Tables upon which the Astronomical Kalendar is made. From this word &s:!yj is to be distin- guished, which is derived from the Persian J-,\ (birth), and 158 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, numeric system of the Hindus*. Barahman was the first who explained the apogseon of the sun; and stated that the apogseont is three thousand years]; in every sign of the Zodiac: at present, i_#I S5ULS z^$ J ^ W j*> u"*^J ^ 4 (Jtf means the square or circle drawn round the stars in a certain region of the heavens by astrologers in casting nativity. (MS. of Leyden, N. 514.) * The Zero, which is expressed by a dot by the Arabs, is not considered as a figure. -j- Auj, apogeum, is a term borrowed from the Persian, in this language it is written, x.^ or S$\ ug. g>}$\ jfo the orbit of the apogeum is the name for the ecliptic, which is also called the excentric orbit %TJMjr JULj , it may not be amiss to add examples where it has very nearly the same meaning as in the text. XXfeUJt Jult \ (read Sulx&t) V U&1 ^ LJ/i < l (Ibn Khaldun's Proleg. in the last chapter of the fifth book). AND MINES OF GEMS. 163 poreal existence sleeps in latent life; but their nature is mighty, and their essence is immutable. They define the limits, and fix the time required for the process (of the re-incarnation of these powers), which forms the great cycle and developement. They place it into the abyss of ages, and calculate the time from its beginning to the end to thirty-six thousand years, repeated in twelve thousand years (periods)*. This forms with them the Hazerwan, " We have already stated with respect to penmanship, that it exists in the rational soul of man as faculty (power), which will not be developed from possibility (power) to reality except by the introduction of sciences." The same author uses this word exactly in the same meaning in several other instances as, JjuW JJ s ^UU ^ vw.UxH wyu, JJ ^ " One must know the relation of these quantities in order to be able to bring plans into execution, (literally to draw plans out from power to reality,) according to certain rules." * This gives four hundred and thirty-two millions of years If we take two zeros away, we have the number of years assigned by Aryabhatta to the maha yuga, and if we add one, we have that of the calpa of Brahmegupta. But all MSS. agree, and the expression is such, that each of these changes would be arbitrary, The one factor, thirty- six thousand, is the anciently supposed time M 2 164 EL-MAS'uDi's MEADOWS OF GOLD, which developes and influences the powers. The (lesser) cycles render everything that exists in them longer or shorter (according to the age of the world). The life of things is longest at the begin- ning of the renovation (or great cycle); for as it is just opened, the powers are more free in their action; whereas the lives are shortest at the end of the renovation, for the cycle is more narrow ; they are confined: and the frequent repetitions (of the of one re volution of the equinox through the zodiac, and the other factor, twelve thousand, expresses the number of an age of the Gods according to Menu (Institutes, i. 71), and corresponds with the great cycle of the Persians, after which Ormuzd would be victorious over Ahriman: perhaps, every one of these years has been considered by the Persians, at a later period, as a revo- lution of the equinox or thirty- six thousand years; in order to make agree the chronology of their sacred books with that of Hindu astronomers, just as our geologists make the seven days of the creation longer periods of time. This explains the some- what singular expression of the original " repeated in twelve thousand years ;" for only one copy bears the more natural expression, " multiplied." There is, therefore, not one date in this theory which is not found in the Persian cosmogony, as well as in that of the Hindus. AND MINES OF GEMS 165 incarnation or becoming life of the powers) are injurious to the lives; because the powers of the bodies and the purity of matter are predominant at the beginning of the cycle, and free in their mani- festation: for purity is anterior to impurity, and limpidity is above the dregs, and the length of life is in proportion with the purity of the crasis ; and the powers which animate the elements (or matter)., extend the influence of their perfection to the mix- tures (bodies) which, as they form the wordly existence, are the source of deterioration, alteration, and decay. But at the latter part of the great cycle, and the end of the great developement, the appearance of things will be deformed, the souls weak, and the crasis impure; the powers are im- paired, what is perishable goes to decay, and every- thing goes in inverted narrow cycles ; wherefore the U * (read 166 EL-MAS'tJDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, space of life is no longer computed by a period of ages (but only by years). The Hindus assign the reasons upon which the theories which we have just given are based. They allege proofs on the first origin (of all things), and on the distinctions of the cycles of the Hazarwans, as we have explained them ; and they teach various mysteries and subtilties respecting the soul; its connexion with supernatural things, and its origin which proceeds in the direction from above down- wards ; and other doctrines which have been laid down by el-Barahman in the beginning of the time. El-Barahman reigned until he died, three hun- dred and sixty-six years. His descendants have the name Brahmins x$\j^\ up to our time. They are in high respect with the Hindus, and form their highest caste and their nobility. They abstain from all animal food, and men and women wear a yellow thread on their necks, which is put on like the belt AND MINES OF GEMS. 167 of a sword, as a mark of distinction between them and other castes of their nation. In ancient time and during the reign of el- Barahman, there assembled seven sages (Rishis?) of the Hindus, to whom the nation looked up, in the golden house; and they said to one another, (f Let us unite our speculations to decypher what is the state and mystery of this world ; where we come from, and where we are going to ; and whether we are created from nothing to proceed to the essence of wisdom or the reverse ? and whether the Creator who is the cause of our existence and who gives growth to our bodies, derives any benefit from having made us? or whether he averts any disadvantage from himself in making us fade from this world? Whe- ther he is susceptible of want and diminution as we are, or whether nothing influences him? but if so, why does he destroy and annihilate us, after he has called us to existence, and after we have enjoyed ourselves?" The first of 'the sages, to whom all others looked up, said,, "Do you find one man who has a correct notion of things, present or distant, and who is certain and positive (in his knowledge)." The second wise man said, " If the wisdom of the Almighty had come into any one's mind, it would be a diminution of his wisdom. The object is incomprehensible, and human reason is too short to understand matters." The third sage said, " We must begin our study 168 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, with the knowledge of ourselves, for this is the thing nearest to us, before we enter into investiga- tions of what is distant from ourselves*." The fourth sage said, " The experience of every man, whatever field he may have chosen, proves that he requires in it self-knowledge. " The fifth sage said, " Hence it is required to be in connexion with wise men, in order to be assisted by their wisdom." The sixth wise man said, " It is necessary for any man who loves his own happiness, not to neglect it, particularly since the stay in this world is limited, and since it is certain that we must leave it." The seventh sage said, c< I do not understand what you say, but I know that I came into this world without my will ; that I lived in it astounded with what I see; and that I am sorry to leave it." The Hindus agreed at all times respecting the opinions of these seven sages. Everybody followed * This sentence is not to be understood in the moral meaning, that one ought to know one's own frailties, but that man is the microcosmos, which, if well understood, leads to the knowledge of everything else, or rather, that the human mind is the mirror of the universe. Quid mirum noscere mundum Si possent homines, quibus est et mundus in ipsis ; Exemplumque Dei quisquis est in imagine parva? (Manilius.) F. Hegel believes that the yva>6i atavrov of Solon, is to be taken nearly in the same meaning. AND MINES OF GEMS. 169 (originally) their doctrines and professed their system; but in subsequent times, they no longer agreed respecting their systems and doctrines, and they split into seventy distinct sects. El-Mas'udi says, in the book of Abul-Kasim el-Balkhi, called " The Fountains of questions and answers," tSUl^i^ JoUJll ^#& and in the work of el-Hasan Ben Musa en-Nubakhti * ^^ ^j ( jju^.!, which has the title, " On the philosophical and religious doctrines and the sects of the Hindus; their opinions, the causes which gave rise to them, and the reasons why they burn themselves and inflict various torments upon themselves ;" v^* not a word is said of all we have just explained, nor do they allude to the subject on which we have spoken. Authors do not agree concerning the Barahman: some believe him to be Adam and a prophet for the Hindus; others think that he was a king, as we have stated ; and this is the opinion most universally received. * This patronymic is variously spelt, o&c'JJJt (MS. of Cambridge,) CfjvaCyJJ (MS. of Leyden;) y&UJj). He followed the example of his father in his government; he had the best views, built new temples, invested the wise men with power, increased their dignity, encouraged them to teach wisdom, and sent them out to acquire it (by travelling). He reigned till he died one hundred years. In his reign the game of tables or backgam- mon* JjxM was invented. This game shows how one obtains gain, for it is neither the result of sagacity and contrivance, nor is subsistence earned by cleverness in this world. Some say Azdeshirf Ben Babek invented the game of the tables and played it first. He expressed in this game the acti- vity of the world and its inhabitants, and the differ- ence of their conditions. The twelve points of the tables answer to the twelve months of the year, and the thirty tablemen <->*& are expressive of the thirty days of the month. The dice are meant as symbols * T. Hyde wrote a prodigiously learned Historia Nerdiludii, which forms the second book of his Historia Shahiludii. t r>-JjU The MS. of Leyden which is very correct, writes this name constantly with instead of .. Compare the observa- tion of Fleischer on this subject, (Abulfeda, p. 206.) AND MINES OF GEMS. 171 of fate and the way in which it deals with mankind; for the player who is favoured by luck, will attain in this game what he wishes, whilst the clever and provident is less lucky than another, if the other is favoured by fortune ; for gain and good fortune are a mere chance in this world. After el-Bahbud reigned Ramah st^, ( W U^ or ^LoJj), about one hundred and fifty years. There are different histories and accounts extant of this king. He had several wars with the kings of Persia and China,, the leading points of which are related in our former works. After him came Fur ^ (Porus) to the throne. Alexander gave him a battle, and killed him in a single combat, after a reign of one hundred and forty years. Then succeeded Daisalem jJu*oJ (fa f UMJ,) who is the author of Kalilah wa Dimnah, which has been translated by Ibn el-Mokaffa'. Sehl Ben Harun composed a book for el-Mamun, entitled " The fox and the boar" a^ic ^ sxXxS ^->\3S, in which he imitates the Kalilah wa Dimnah, writing on the same heads, and narrating the same parables; but his book is superior in beauty of style. He reigned one hundred and twenty years. Some give a different number of years. Then succeeded Balhit dv^Xj (clv^Xj). In his reign the game of chess g^ax* was invented, and he recommended the play in preference to back- 172 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, gammon, pointing out that the clever is the winner, and not the idiot. He studied the numbers (of the product of the squares) of this game^ and wrote a work* on the subject for the Hindus^ which is known under the title Tor ok Hankd ta'idd By these means chess became their favourite game, and he used to play it with the wise men (of his court), and gave to the pieces the figure of men and animals, distinguishing them by certain degrees and ranks, as the king *1&J, the administrator jo*xU (the queen), the officer yMjjJI (the bishop) ; similar offices are represented in other pieces. He laid also an allegory of the higher bodies in the chess, that is to say, of the stars of the heavens, observing the number seven and twelve. Every piece was consecrated to a star. This game served also to preserve the empire ; for whenever they had to do with an enemy and the stratagems of war, they represented on the chess-board the movements of the troops, both light and heavy ^^ J^-U. The Hindus have a method in the multiplica- * A similar work has been written by the Arabic mathema- tician, Abu Yusof el-Missisi] ^aAXOtJij whose full name was Ya'kiib Ben Mohammed, under the title O AND MINES OF GEMS. 173 tion of the squares of the chess-board, which they keep secret. The result of this multiplication is a number which exceeds the astronomical dates, and those of the first cause, amounting to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615. The series of the thousands is this: the first number is to be pro- nounced with six times thousand*, then comes thousand five times, then four times,, then three times, then twice, then thousand is to be pronoun- ced once. The Hindus attribute to itf a meaning by which one may explain what is to happen in future ages and centuries, and the influence which the heavenly bodies have on this world ; and by it may be predicted how long the human soul is to dwell in this world. The Greeks, Romans, and other nations, con- nect equally various theories with chess t. It is * The Arabs, like the Teutonic languages, have no words which comprises a higher number than a thousand. They express therefore a million by thousand times thousand, and so on with any higher number. In order to avoid mistakes, they add at the end how often thousand is to be taken or multiplied with itself, as is here the case. f The author leaves it uncertain whether he means the game of chess, or the above number. J It seems, indeed, that the game of chess attracted even in Europe, a much greater attention in the middle ages than at present; as may be exemplified by the existence of some 174 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, played in different ways, as is explained in the books written by the Shatrenjees* on this subject, by early writers, as well as by es-Suli and el-'Adeli J*xx!^ d**A\> wno are the best players in our days. Belhith ci^^L reigned till he died, eighty years, or, according to other copies (of the work from which we derive our account), one hundred and thirty years. German manuscript, which contains a poem on this subject, in the Library of the Arsenal at Paris, (MS. Allem. No. 6). It is a thick quarto written in the year 1418, but the author, whose name is MICHAEL SCHERER of Strasburg, says himself, that he com- posed it in 1337, after a Latin work on the same subject. The allegorical meaning of the pieces, moral precepts, and even theological disquisitions, form the greater portion of its contents, but there are also some curious historical facts related in it. The Dutch are in possession of a similar poem of ancient date. * As the luxurious Mamun happened to be fond of the chess- board, a number of men studied the game and wrote on the subject, collecting and inventing traditions to prove that this game was permitted, enquiring into the history and fixing the rules to be observed in playing. These men were called *^J[a.A\. An Arabic work of this nature, by el-Hasan el-Basri, is in Mr. Rich's collection in the British Museum in London, (No. 75 15,) but it contains no historical facts not found in Hyde's Historia Shahi- ludii and Sir W. Jones' works, (vol. i. p. 521.) More curious are the details which en-Nowa'iri furnishes on this subject, in his Encyclopaedia. On the literary history previous to el-Mas'iidi, concerning this subject, as well as any other of which our author speaks, the reader may consult the additional notes. AND MINES OF GEMS. 1/5 He was succeeded by Kurush*, who introduced new religious ideas amongst the Hindus, as he thought them suited to the spirit of the time ; and adapted to the tendency of his contemporaries, relinquishing former systems. In his reign lived es-Sondbad ^L^x^, who is the author of the book The seven Vezirs, the teacher and boy, and the wife of the king jkx+Wj &***\\ \jj\ <-A^* JJJIJ s!j*t* *&*J\j. This is the book which bears the name Kitdb es-Sondbdd ^UXJUJ1 v lxf. In the library of this king the large work " On pathology and therapeutics" CLjW^xU^ * \^\ j J^M AJ^JUJ ^ was compiled J^, with drawings and pictures of the plants. This king reigned till he died, one hundred and twenty years. After his death the Hindus disagreed in point of religion : they divided them- selves into parties, and formed distinct states; and every chief made himself independent in his district. Es-Sind was ruled by its own king; another king reigned in el-Kinnauj; another over Kashmir jx^3 yoj\ ; and another resided in the city of el- Mankir (Monghir?) j+&&\> which is the great metropolis. He was the first who had the name * LTJU^* This is the way in which Abulfaragius (Hist- dynast, p. 82.) writes the name of Cyrus. En-Nowairi writes the name of this Hindu king ni*J" Kush. 176 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, el-Ballahra c^XxM (^JuJ\), which became subse- quently the title of every sovereign of that great capital, down to our time, which is the year 332 A.H. India * is a vast country, having many seas and 0j\ Literally, the country of the Hindus, which, it must be remembered, comprizes only the south and east of the peninsula : whereas the north-eastern part is called by the Arabs, the country of the Sind nation. As in the translation the name of the country in most cases is substituted for expressions like bilad es-Sin, (the dominions of the Chinese,) ardh er-Rum, (the country of the Byzantines,) memlekat el-Jelalikah, (the kingdom of the Galicians,) &c.: it is well to notice the peculiarity of the Arabs in this respect, which is characteristic, and which may also be observed in Genesis. As we adapt our notions of others to our own ideas as pro- duced by circumstances and education, just as the hump-backed will paint every body with a hunch; the wandering- Arabs who have no country, being solely connected by the feelings and pride of their tribes Xxxxax!!, cannot conceive how any nation can be so degraded as to be dependent upon a country or any other possession : they estimate the honesty and value of a man after what he is, and not (as it is the case in modern legislation,) after what he possesses. Hence they consider the name of every country as that of a tribe, and are most anxious to find out or to invent the genealogy of the patriarch (father) of such a tribe, as they know the ancestors of their own tribes ; so, for instance, they received from the Persians the name of Chin ^>~, which means China (the country), but the Arabs consider it as the name of the father of the nation (tribe), and consequently of the AND MINES OF GEMS. 177 mountains, and borders on the empire of ez-Zanij, which is the kingdom of the Maharaj g|j$U the king of the islands, whose dominions form the frontier between India and China, and are con- sidered as part of India. The Hindu nation extends from the mountains of Khorasan and of es-Sind as far as et-Tubbet. But there prevails a great difference of feelings, nation itself; and they called the country the territory of the Fin or Sin (Chinese). In subsequent times, however, when the victorious Arabs had settled in cities, the tribe feeling gave way to the habits of settled life, and the names of countries are in later authors again con- sidered as such. This will explain the form of the word XxJ&Jj (Galicia,) and some other proper names which else must appear arbitrary ; it is the plural of cJiXiJ or Gallic (Gallicus), just as X*a^clJJ is the plural of (jaJl or comes, (count). In the history of Europe, we find that proper names have changed in the same way their meaning by the change of facts, as with the Arabs by the change of notions ; so were the Parisii, Lugduni, &c., originally tribes, and now they are cities. Here an addition to the note, p. 19 supra, may find place. It is stated there that the military cantonments were called Misrs, which means Egypts. The Western Arabs being in constant contact with the Egyptians, became necessarily aware of their settled condition ; and Misr means, therefore, the country of Egypt (and not the nation,) at all periods of the Arabic language. It was therefore very natural that they should say, we Egyptianize yj&+j, when they settled in those cantonments. Hence y^oaJJ means with Ibn Khaldun constantly a country where the inha- bitants are settled and civilized. N 178 EL-MAS'uDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, language, and religion, in these empires; and they are frequently at war with each other. The most of them believe on the metempsychosis, or the transmigration of the soul. The Hindus are dis- tinct from other black nations, as the Zanj gjtt> ed-Demadem ^UxJl (-aUyj), and others, in point of intellect, government,, philosophy, colour, appear- ance, good constitution, talent, and intelligence. Galen says that the Negroes have ten qualities which are peculiar to them, and not found in any other nation : crisp hair, scanty eye-brows, expanded nostrils, thick lips, sharp teeth, stinking skin, black complexion, fissures in the skin of their hands and feet, long am mentulam, and great levity. The same author states further, their levity is owing to the bad quality (organisation) of their brains ; for this renders their intellectual faculties weak. What other authors say on the levity of the Negroes, and their gay temper, and on the still higher degree of levity, which is peculiar to the Zanj, and which distinguishes them from other Negroes, is to be found in our former works. Ya'kub Ben Ishak el-Kindi ui*\ ^j vy^ c^jJ^M asserts, in a memoir on the influence of the higher individuals (i.e. stars) and heavenly bodies upon this world -U*.=^ *tjkd\ ^sUsSM JUit ^ *^ fUxil *k ^ Xj^UvJ!, that God has arranged it so that everything that he has created acts at AND MINES OF GEMS. 179 the same time as cause upon others, and the cause produces an effect in the object upon which it acts, which corresponds with the cause; but the object, which is passive, does not create any impression upon the cause, which is active. Spirit is the cause of heaven jfaJJ*, and not its effect: hence it does * Arabian astronomers express thus their notions of the heaven or sphere. Lnw^JJ ^c Jf^s=U> tf^ " The heaven is a simple body (not compounded,) which has the shape of a ball (ii. 4), and turns round its own centre, which it fully surrounds (i. 2). It has neither levity nor gravity (i. 3), and it possesses not heat, cold, moisture, nor dryness, nor is it susceptible of separation or coalition." With this may be compared the words in the Ayeen Akberi, (vol. iii. 2,) where it is said that this is the opinion of the ' er- sians, Egyptians, and Greeks, and that the heaven is eternal, and endowed with reason. The references which I added in the translation, refer to Aristotle's book de Ccelo, where the same ideas are expressed. Here another passage of Aristotle, relative to the same subject, may be quoted, which sets the belief, that the heaven exercises an influence upon the earth and its inhabitants, in its proper light, and connects the notions of the Hindus, Persians, and Greeks, on this subject. Qvpavov 8e KOI aorpow ova-Lav p.ev alOepa ffaXov/MP, ovx coy nvcs, 8ta ro TTvpos &r) ov(rav, cu&cr&u, Tr\r)p,p.\ovvTcs Trepl rr\v ir\f1crTov Trvpos aTnjAXa-yfiei/?;!/ Swap-iV aXXa 8m TO deWc'iv KVK\ov recro-apwj/, a^parov re KOI Selov. Arist. de Mundo, cap. 2, vol. i. p. 465. <; We call the matter, of which the heaven and the stars con- N 2 180 EL-MAS'uDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, not receive impressions from it. It is, however, a sist, ETHER ; not because it is a fire as some believed, who had exceedingly wrong notions respecting that power (matter), which is very far from being a fire; but because it is an ELEMENT which observes the circular form in its motion, and it is different from the four other elements, being everlasting and divine." It is strange that this fifth element of Aristotle has never been noticed, although the four elements have found advocates in the German Metaphysico-physiologists, (see Carus, Lehrbuch der Physiologic, vol. i.,) in whose system it would suit admirably well. But the doctrine of a fifth element is much more ancient than Aristotle, even amongst the Greeks. Ocellus, (translation of Taylor, p. 10,) who lived about five centuries before Christ, at the time of Pythagoras, seems to have had the same notions of it as Aristotle. " But the Fates themselves distinguish and separate the impassive part of the world from that which is perpetually moved (mutable). For the course of the moon is the isthmus of immortality and generation. The region indeed above the moon, and also that which the moon occupies, contain the genus of the gods; but the place beneath the moon, is the place of strife and nature." The idea of Jive elements is general amongst the Hindus. They call the ether, Akas; and, although its natural place is, as with the Greeks, above the other elements, it pervades every- thing and is the vehicle of sound. Amongst the ancient Persians it seems to have been considered even as the principle of vege- tative life, hence the Zend-Avesta calls it " un feu qui ne brule pas et qui anime tous les etres." It was probably after the Per- sian idea that some Greek philosophers believed the ether was a fire. The Arabs have probably found this theory of the heaven in the schools of Persia, before they have been acquainted with the writings of the Greeks, after which they have put it in a scientific shape. AND MINES OF GEMS. 181 law in nature that the spirit* follows the organisa- tion of the body, if there is nothing in the way. So it is with the Zanji. His country being very hot, the heavenly bodies exercise their influence upon it, and predispose in the humours a tendency to go to the upper parts of the body: hence their eyes are large, the lips thick, the nose flat and big, and the head high. The crasis of the brain is, therefore, out of proportion, and the mind cannot perfectly manifest its action ; the nicety of dis- tinctions and the action of the understanding are confused. Ancient and modern authors have The heavens, or spheres, which preside, according to the astrologers, over the destiny of this world are, therefore, not different from the ether of the philosophers, which is the divine element of life ; nor from the Zeus of the Greeks, and the Hawa which was worshipped by the Arabs, before the Islam, as we learn from the Koran, where it is said, ^ CoLsl x\*> ^ t-^U? jl^l u^lk u^U*!! would not eat any meat slain (or sacrificed) by a Zanji. He used to say, a Zanji was a hideous slave. We have heard that Abul-'Abbas er-Raddhi Ben el-Moktader would never take anything from the hand of a black man, saying he was a hideous slave. I do not know whether he has initiated Tawus in his system, or in a sort of philosophical and religious sect. 'Amr Ben Bahr el-Jahit k^ lit j^s? ^j ^ wrote a book " On the national pride of the Negroes, and their disputes with the white men." No king can succeed to the throne, according to Hindu laws, before he is forty years of age, nor for physicians acknowledge that their art originated from astro- logy to this day, in this as well as in some other names, as lunar caustic (Nitrate of silver). Mercury, crystals of Venus (neutral sulphate of copper), &c. Not only metals, but everything on earth had a patron in one of the planets with the astrologers, and almost everybody was as far an astrologer as his scientific education went. And it appears that in the dark ages a medicine was considered as the mediator between its respective star and the patient; and hence it had frequently no efficacy if not prepared under a certain constellation. These follies seem to have origi- nated in the ancient religion of the Sawad of the Tigris and Euphrates. Compare Maimonides, English Translation of Dr. Townley, p. 158; and Zend-Avesta, i. 2, p. 28. 184 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, appears their sovereign ever before the public, except at certain times, which are fixed at long intervals, and then it is only for the inspection of state affairs; for, in their opinion, the kings lose their respect and give away their privileges if the public gazes at them*. The measures of govern- ment must be carried by mildness in India, and by degradation from a higher rank. El-Mas'udi says., I have seen in the country of Serendib (Ceylon), which is an island of the sea, that when a king dies, he is laid upon a car, with small wheels, and made for the purpose. His hair touches the ground, and a woman with a broom in her hand sweeps dust on his head, crying out, " O people, this was yesterday your king, and you were bound to listen to his orders. See what now has become of him! He has left this world, and the King of the kings has taken his soul (life) f . He alone is living, and dies not. Do not be given to life after this example." These words have the ten- dency to exhort to a pious and abstemious life in this world. After a procession with the body * Institutes of Menu, vii. 6, " Nor can any human creature on earth gaze on him (the king)." f " The king of death has taken his soul into eternal *oX life. Thus bears the copy of Cambridge, but *jX5 has not the signification which the context would give to the word, if the passage was correct. AND MINES OF GEMS. 185 through the streets of the town, they divide it into four parts, and burn it with sandal- wood, camphor, and other perfumes which they have prepared: the ashes are thrown to the winds. This is the funeral ceremony for kings and their courtiers of the most nations of India *. They state the reason for so doing, and the object which they have in view. The royalty is limited upon the descendants of one family, and never goes to another f. The same is the case with the families of the vizier, kadhi, and other high officers. They are all (here- ditary and) never changed nor altered J. The Hindus abstain from (spirituous) liquors i_>^.!\$, not in obedience to some religious precept, but because they do not choose to take a thing which overwhelms their reason, and makes cease the dominion which this faculty is to exercise over men. If it can be proved of one of their kings, that he has drunk (wine) , he forfeits the crown ; for he is (not considered to be) able to rule and govern (the empire) if he is given to such habits ||. They hear frequently songs and musical per- formances <|&U^ ^UvJi, and they have various sorts * Compare ancient accounts of India and China, p. 31. f Ibidem, p. 32. J The king must appoint seven or eight ministers whose lineage is noble. Menu, vii. 84. Ancient accounts of India and China, p. 33. || Compare Institutes of Menu, v,ii. 47, 50. 186 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, of musical instruments which produce on man all shades of impressions between laughing and crying. Sometimes they make girls drink (wine), to excite them to show their mirth in their presence, and in order to be inspired with gaiety by their merriment. The Hindus have various interesting institu- tions, and are rich in curious facts. We have given many sketches from their history and biogra- phy (manners) in our book, the Kitab Akhbar ez- zeman, and Kitab el-ausat. A specimen, however, shall be inserted here. One of the most curious stories of the kings of the Hindus, and a strange (yet characteristic) ex- ample of the line of conduct of the most ancient Hindu kings, and their institutions., is (exhibited in the following narration) of a king of el-Komar* j($l\ (Comorin). From this kingdom and tract of India the Komdri aloes c?^l$Jl J^c has its name. This country is not an island of the sea, but it belongs to the continent, and is very mountainous. Few parts of India are more populous than this, and the inhabitants distinguish themselves before the other Hindus by their agreeable breath, which they acquire by rubbing their teeth with aloes- wood, as it is the habit amongst the Mohammedans. They consider, like the Mohammedans, fornication * Compare ancient accounts of India and China, p. 65, et seqq. AND MINES OF GEMS. 187 to be unlawful, and they avoid (like them) unclean- liness, and the use of wine. In this practice the Hindus of the higher ranks are like those of the lower classes. They (the inhabitants of el-Komar) are for the most part infantry, on account of the mountain- ous character of the country, which is broken by rivers, and has few plains, or high table-lands ^Lcr'J. The country of el-Komar is the point of communi- cation with the dominions of the Maharaj ^\^^\ 9 the king of the islands, as the Isle of ez-Zanij, Kolah XXT, Serendib i-vA>j~ (Ceylon), and other islands. It is related that an inconsiderate man ruled in ancient times over el-Komar. One day he sat on the royal throne in his palace, which stood on a large river of sweet water, like the Tigris or Eu- phrates, and was one day's journey from the sea. The vizier was with the king, who said to him, "The splendour and high civilization of the empire and islands of the Maharaj are celebrated. This excites a desire in my mind which I wish to realize." The vizier, a prudent man, who knew the levity of his master, asked him "What is thy desire, O king?" " I wish," replied the king, " to see the head of the Maharaj, the king of ez-Zanij, laying (in a dish) at my feet." The vizier saw that envy had inspired him with these thoughts, 188 EL-MAs'uni's MEADOWS OF GOLD, and he said, after some consideration, " I do not think the king will permit this idea to rest in his mind, as there has never existed any difference between us and that nation, neither of yore, nor of late; nor have they ever done us any harm. Be- sides they are far from us, in islands, and by no means neighbours ; nor have they any design against our possessions. The distance between the dominions of the Maharaj and those of el-Komar, is from ten to twenty days across the sea. It is therefore better, O king," continued the vizier, " not to persist in this scheme." The king made no reply, he was enraged with anger, and shut his ear to advice. He acquainted his officers and the chiefs of his men, who were present, with his project ; and so it was divulged, and went from tongue to tongue till it reached the Maharaj, who was a prince of great prudence, and a middle-aged man. The Maharaj called his vizier, related to him the account which he had received, and said, " Con- sidering the project of this madman, which has come to publicity, and the intentions which he has formed, with his inexperienced and overbearing spirit, and after his words have become generally known, we can no longer preserve peace with him, he has forfeited the crown, and deserves to be deposed." The king ordered his vizier to observe secrecy of what had passed between them, and to AND MINES OF GEMS. 189 prepare a thousand of the best ships V^XJ ksjt, with full equipment, to provide them with the arms necessary, and to man them with a sufficient number of the best soldiers. He pre- tended that these preparations were meant for an excursion into his islands, and he wrote to the kings (governors) of these islands, who were under his sway, and his subjects, that he had the intention to pay them a visit, and to make an excursion to their islands. This rumour spread, and the king of every island made all possible preparation for the reception of the Maharaj. When everything was ready and in order, he went on board and sailed with the army to the kingdom of el-Komar. The king of el-Komar was not aware of the expedition before he came up the wadi (river,) which washes the walls of the royal palace. The Maharaj ordered his men to make an assault upon (the palace,) and they surrounded it unaware, and took possession of it. The inhabitants appeared before the Maharaj, he ordered to proclaim "quarter," and sat on the throne on which the king of el-Komar used to sit, who was now a prisoner, and commanded to bring the king and his vizier in his presence, and said, " What gave rise to those intentions which are beyond thy power? And if thou hadst attained thy object thou wouldst not have been the happier." The facility of the execution of the project did not afford any excuse (to the captive king), and so he remained 190 EL-MAS'tJDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, silent. "If thy desires/' continued the Maharaj, "to see my head before thee in a dish had been joined with the intention to make thyself master of my dominions, and the throne, and to spread destruction in any part of the country, I should do the same thing to thee. But thou hast dis- tinctly expressed thy object, and I will now visit it on thee; and I will return to my country without touching anything in thy empire either small or great. Thou shalt be an example for posterity, that none may dare to transgress the portion which Providence has given to him*." After these words he beheaded him ; and turning to the vizier, "Thou hast tried all," said he, " that a good vizier can do: I know thou gavest good advice to thy master, which he ought to have accepted : consult who may be most fit to succeed this madman, and put him on the throne." The Maharaj returned immediately to his country, and neither he nor anybody of his army touched anything in the kingdom of el-Komar. LAJK CyJ* 1 JJJ jCx3 *XT Jji ^ M. Renaudot had evidently the same words which are transcribed here ; but he differs from the above translation. AND MINES OF GEMS. 191 When the Maharaj was come back into his dominions, he sat on his throne, from whence he enjoyed the view over a hay which was called the Bay of the Ingot of Gold -^jJJ ^xJ* ^^5 and before him was placed the dish with the head of the king of el-Komar. He assembled the great men of his kingdom, narrated to them his exploits, and exposed the reason which had brought him under the necessity of undertaking them. He was received with the marks of admiration, and prayers for his welfare. Then he gave orders to wash the head of the king of el-Komar, to embalm it, and to send it in a vase to the king who had succeeded him in el-Komar; and he wrote to him: ll Our motive in acting as we have done with thy prede- cessor having been his hostile intentions towards us and to offer an example to his equals, it appears to us well to send back his head to thee, since we have obtained our object, as there is no use in keeping it, for this trophy would not add to the glory of our victory." The news of this action reached the ears of the kings of India and China, and the Maharaj rose greatly in their estimation ; and since this time, the kings of el-Komar turn their faces every morning towards ez-Zanij, and prostrate them- selves to express their veneration for the Maharaj. * ..^A! Seems to be the technical term for ingot, in Arabic coinage; at least it is used as such by en-Nowairl. 192 EL-MAS'tJDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, El-Mas'udi says, the meaning of the words v-^> &\ ^J ^j^Xc (the bay of the ingot of gold) is this, the palace of the Maharaj stands on a little bay ^Jvr, which is in connexion with the greatest strait of ez-Zanij. At high tide this strait is filled with sea water, and at low tide sweet water flows in it. The treasurer ^Lc^j of the king goes every morning into this bay, carrying an ingot of gold with him of several pounds UuJ, but we do not know its exact weight. He throws it before the king into the bay. When the tide comes in, the water covers this and other ingots which may be there; and when the water retires, it appears again, and it shines in the sun. The king sits in the room of reception from which he delights to see it .The habit of throwing every day a golden ingot into this bay, is continued during the whole reign of the same king, and they are never touched. When the king dies, his successor has them all taken out, and none of them are put into the bay again; but they are counted, melted, and distributed among the royal household; amongst the men,, women, children, leaders, and servants ; to every one according to his station, and the class to which he belongs; and what remains is given to the poor and indigent. The number of golden ingots and their weight is registered, and it is said such and such a king reigned so many years, and left such and such AND MINES OF GEMS. 193 a number of ingots, of such a weight in the royal bay, for distribution after his death. Kings who had a long reign, set their glory on leaving many ingots. The greatest king of India in our times is the Ballahra, the lord of El-Mankir. The most kings of India turn, in their prayers, their face towards him; and they pray (adore?) his messengers yiT^ when they receive them. The dominions of the Ballahra border on many other kingdoms of India. Some kings have their territory in the mountains, and are not in possession of a sea, as the er-Ray <$VjJJ (Raja), who is the king of el-Kashmir J*C&A!I > and the king of et-Tafi ^UUt (^UJl or and other Hindu sovereigns. Others are in possession of land and sea. The country of the king el- Ballahra is eighty Sindi farsangs ^w ^ x>jJLo, from the sea; every such farsang has eight miles. His troops and elephants are innumerable, and his army consists mostly of infantry, for his dominions are mountainous. At some distance from him is the territory of Barudah 22^ (*#^ or *f> or *jjj}) 9 who is one of those kings of India who have no sea, and resides in the town of el-Kinnauj*. This is the name for every sove- * In other passages of this work the title of this king is O 194 EL-MAS'tJDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, reign who rules over this country. He has large armies garrisoned in the north and south, and in the east and west; for he is surrounded by warlike neighbours. We shall insert a general account of the kings of es-Sind and India, and of other places of the world, farther on in this book, where we speak of the seas,, their wonders, and of the nations, kings, &c., in them, and round them. We have treated on these subjects in our former works. There is no strength nor power except in God. clearly written Budah k'^j. The name or title of the king of el-Kinnauj, at the time of the conquest of Mahmud of Ghizna, was Rajbal AND MINES OP GEMS. ] 95 EIGHTH CHAPTER. On the globe, the seas, the beginning of rivers, the mountains, the seven climates, the stars which preside over them, the order of the spheres, and other subjects. EL-MAS'UDI says, the mathematicians have divided the earth into four quarters, the east, west, north, and south. Another division is into the inhabited and uninhabited, cultivated and uncultivated world. They say the earth is round, its centre falls in the midst of the heaven, and the air surrounds it from all sides. It is the dot (centre) in reference to the zodiac. The cultivated land is considered to begin from the Eternal Islands (Fortunate Islands) jo^il okxJlii, in the Western Ocean, which is a group of six flourishing islands, and to extend as far as the extremity of China ^xaJJ. They found that this is a space of twelve hours (of the daily revolution of the sun) ; for they know that when the sun sets in the extremity of China, it rises again in the cultivated islands of the Western Ocean ; and when it sets in these islands, it rises in the extremity of China. This is half the circumference of the earth, o 2 196 EL-MAS'UDl'.S MEADOWS OF GOLD, and the length of the cultivated parts of the globe, which, if reduced into miles, amounts to thirteen thousand five hundred geographical miles *. The researches into the breadth of the culti- vated land have shown that it extends from the equator as far north as the isle of Thule Jp, which belongs to Britannia XAJU^J, and where the longest day has twenty hours. They state that there is a point of the equator of the earth between east and west, which falls in an island between India and Habesh (Abyssinia), somewhat south of these two countries; and as it is in the middle, between north and south, so it is in the middle between the Fortunate Islands and the utmost cultivated districts of China; and this is known by the name of the Dome of the earth u*j $\ Xxi', and defined by the description which we have just givenf. * Literally "of those miles which are in use in measuring the circumference of the earth." f Messrs. Reinaud and Baron Slane, (Aboulfeda, p. 376,) collected the most important passages from Arabic authors, bearing on this dome of the earth, and traced the origin of the idea to India. But it appears it also existed amongst the ancient Greeks. 6s ('OSuo'evs) 8) drjdd relates from Khaled Ben 'Abdul-Melik el-Marwazi tfj^Xt G^jJtAO' and the others who have observed the sun in the plains of Sinjar ^l^uw, in Diyar Rabi'ah, by order of el-Mamun, that the length of one degree the chief of this climate is there (Boun-Dehesch, cap. xxx, p. 408), said to be Schaschega, which is clearly the name of the Sesak of the Scriptures. It would not be difficult to find out the name g of the chiefs of the other climates, if it was worth while. * One copy adds " and er-Rum," the Byzantine empire. f These nations and countries were all on the coasts of the Caspian. f Perhaps Daibol, which is the last seaport in es-Sind, is to be read. The llabi'ah tribe held the South of Mesopotamia. AND MINES OF GEMS. 201 of the earth is equal to fifty-six miles : they mul- tiplied this number with three hundred and sixty, and found the circumference of the globe, which is covered with land and seas, to be twenty thousand one hundred and sixty miles. The circumference of the earth, multiplied with seven, gives as pro- duct one hundred and forty-one thousand one hun- dred and twenty; and this, divided with twenty- two, gives the length of the diameter ^3 of the earth as the result, viz., six thousand four hundred and fourteen miles, and nearly half a tenth of a mile. The length of the radius of the earth is three thousand two hundred and seven miles, six- teen minutes, and two-thirds of a second, which is equal to one-fourth and the fourth part of one-tenth of a mile (eleven-fortieths). A mile has four thou- sand black cubits : these are the cubits which have been introduced by the Khalif el-Mamun for mea- suring cloths, buildings, and grounds: one cubit has twenty-four inches *j&\. The philosopher o^X/jUt (Ptolemy) gives an account in his book entitled "Gighrafia" loiyL*. (yecoypa^ia) of the world, its towns, mountains, seas, islands, rivers,, and wells. He describes the inhabited towns and cultivated tracts. There were, according to him, four thousand five hundred and thirty towns in his time. He names these towns, adding to every one of them in what climate it is situated. He says in his book what colour the 202 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, mountains of the world have, red, yellow, green, or any other colour. There are about two hundred mountains (named by Ptolemy). He gives their dimensions, mentions the mines which are in them, and the mass of which they consist (or the gems found in them). The philosopher says that the seas which surround the globe are five seas. He names the islands which are in them, stating whe- ther they are cultivated or not; but only the more celebrated islands are mentioned, and not those which are less known. So, for instance*, there is an Archipelago in the Abyssinian Sea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands, called ed-Dinjat L*u&Jl (^LsryjjOi), all of which are cultivated. The distance from one island to another is two or three miles, more or less. He states in his geography that the sea of the Byzantine empire and of Egypt (the Mediterranean) begins from the sea of the idols of copper (Columrus Herculis) ; that the number of all the great springs on earth is two hundred and thirty, not counting the lesser ones; that there are two hundred and ninety great and perennial rivers; and that the extent of every one of the seven climates, which we have just mentioned, is nine hundred farsangs The Cambridge copy bears Aj ^ j$*j an( ^ ^ le mentions that there is an Archipelago. AND MINES OF GEMS. 203 square. Some seas have cultivation (in islands); others have none. Into the number of the latter enters the ocean, or the sea, which surrounds the world kxsi?J ^i. The reader will find in the fol- lowing pages a description of the division of the seas. They are all represented in the geography (of Ptolemy) in drawings of different colours, di- mensions, and forms. Some have the form of a cloak ^U^Xxk, some of an armour, and others of intestines*, and are round, or triangular; but the names in that book are in Greek : hence they are unintelligible. The diameter of the earth is two thousand one hundred farsangs [but the correct number is one thousand six hundred farsangs f] : a farsang is equal to one thousand six hundred cubits. The orbit of the lowest star is the sphere (or heaven) of the moon, and has one hundred and twenty-five thousand six hundred and sixty far- sangs in circumference. The diameter of the heaven, from the limit of the head of the Aries to the limit of the head of the Libra, measures forty thousand farsangs. * This word L*ax>, intestine, is, I believe, not found in any dictionary. It is, however, used in vulgar Arabic, and fre- quently found in books. f This correction is only in one copy. 204 EL-MAS'uDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, There are nine spheres (or heavens) cftUi. The first; which is the smallest, and nearest to the earth, is the sphere of the Moon^W*; the second is the sphere of Mercury JjlkxJ!; the third, of Venus *jj*>j$\; the fourth, of the Sun y^^t; the fifth, of Mars jtt ; the sixth of Jupiter an d the direction from east to west longitude J^. The spheres are round; they include the world (earth), and turn round the centre of the earth, which stands like the centre of a circle in the middle of them. The * This explains why the Signs of the Zodiac were called boruj, sing, borj, which means stronghold, or fortress, and answers to the Persian word Alborj, and the German Burg, Berg. 206 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, spheres of the heaven are nine; the nearest is the sphere of the moon, above it is the sphere of Mer- cury, then that of Venus, then the sphere of the sun, which is in the middle between the seven spheres (of the planets); above the sphere of the sun is that of Mars, then the sphere of Jupiter, then the sphere of Saturn. In every one of these seven spheres there is only one star. Above Saturn is the eighth sphere, in which are the signs of the zodiac, and all other stars. The ninth sphere is the largest and widest, it is called the greatest sphere, and includes all others which we have just enumerated, with the four temperaments and all qualities*. There is no star in it. It turns from east to west, making one com- plete revolution every day. And in its revolution it carries with itself all the spheres which are below (within) it. But the seven spheres (of the planets) turn from west to eastt. The ancients prove what * XJuXiU A^ ZxjjM >ULM, literally "the four natures, and every quality." The four natures imply warmth and cold, dryness and wet. Two of these qualities were consi- dered as necessary for the existence of a body as the three geo- metrical dimensions. Arabic pharmacologists begin, therefore, the description of drugs by stating which two of these qualities, or temperaments, they possess. Quality XJuXiJ is the characteristic property which distin- guishes one individual from another. (Bahr el-Jewahir.) f This astronomical theory is copied from Ptolemy, and is of AND MINES OF GEMS. 207 we have said with many arguments, but it would be too long to repeat them here. The stars visible to the eye and all others are in the eighth sphere, which does not make its revolu- tions round the pole of the general sphere (being excentric). They bring as proof for the difference of the motion of the sphere of the zodiac from that of the other spheres, that the twelve zodiacal signs follow each other in their course, without change in their relative position and alteration in their motion in rising and setting. Every one of the planets has a different motion, for there is a discrepancy in their course ; sometimes the motion is quicker, sometimes little interest. I give the explanation of the idea of the seven spheres in the precise words of La Place (Exposition du Systeme du Monde, Paris, 1808, p. 343): " Ptolemee 1'adopta (the theory of the circular and uniform motion), et pla^ant la terre au centre des mouvements celestes, il essaya de representer leur inegalite dans cette hypothese. Que Ton imagine un mouvement sur une premiere circonference, dont la terre occupe le centre, celui d'une seconde circonference sur laquelle se meut le centre d'une troisieme circonference, et ainsi de suite jusqu'a la derniere, que 1'astre decrit uniformement. Si le rayon d'une de ces circonference s surpasse la somme des autres rayons, le mouvement apparent de 1'astre autour de la terre sera compose d'un moyen mouvement uniforme, et de plusieurs inegalites dependantes des rapports qu'ont entre eux les rayons des diverses circonferences et le mouvement de leur centre et de 1'astre ; on peut done, en multi- pliant, et en determinant convenablement ces quantites, repre- senter toutes les inegalites de ce mouvement apparent." 208 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, it goes towards the south, other times to the north. They (the astronomers), define the SPHERE JjjU! as the end Sul^iM (universe), for it embraces the higher and lower nature*. The definition in reference to its natural quality is, that it is a round form, and the largest (concrete) form which includes all others f. The rapidity of the motion of these stars is different, so the moon stays in every sign (of the zodiac) two days and half a day, and she goes through all the heaven in one month ; the sun stays in every sign one month; Mercury stays fifteen days; Venus twenty-five days; Mars stays in every sign of the zodiac forty-five days; Jupiter stays in every sign of the zodiac one year, and Saturn remains thirty months in every sign of the zodiac. Ptolemy, the author of the Almagest ^- * The ether and the four elements of the earthly bodies : the former has its natural place above the lunar region, and is the essence of life ; whilst the latter form the dead mass of bodies. Compare the note to p. 179, supra. f El-Khalil, the great grammarian, defines the word better: *UwJJ i*fijj* *& jfollj "felek (sphere) is the round of the heaven:" the word has, therefore, originally only reference to the form, and not to the matter; and this is borne out by the original signification of the word, for it means anything round : hence it would appear that all these ideas have not been in the nation, but have been imported, for else they would have a word. AND MINES OF GEMS. 209 states, the circumference of the earth, with all its mountains and seas, is twenty-four thousand miles; and its diameter, that is to say, its width and depth, seven thousand six hundred and thirty-six miles. These data were found by taking the northern alti- tude in two towns which are under the same meri- dian, namely, at Tadmor, which is in the desert between Syria and el-Trak, and at er-Rakkah. They found the town of er-Rakkah to be under the thirty-fifth and one-third degree of northern alti- tude, whilst the elevation of the north pole in Tadmor is thirty-four degrees. The difference between both is one and one-third degree. Then they measured the distance between Tadmor and er-Rakkah ; and they found it to be sixty-seven miles. Sixty- seven miles of the earth is therefore the known quantity yfclliM of the circle jfoW. They divided the whole circle into three hundred and sixty degrees, for a reason which they state ; but it would be against our object to demonstrate it here. This division is correct in their opinion; for they found that the heaven is divided into twelve parts by the zodiacal signs, and the sun, remaining in every sign one month, goes through the whole heaven in three hundred and sixty -five days. The sphere which makes the daily revolution turns round an axle and two poles, just like the wheel of the carpenter or turner, who makes balls, boxes, and other articles of wood. Those who live p 210 EL MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, in the middle of the earth, that is to say, on the equator, have all the year round day and night of equal length; and they see both poles, the north and south poles ; whilst those who inhabit the northern hemisphere, see only the north pole and the Bear, but not the south pole, nor the stars near it. For this reason they never see the Canopus in Khorasan, whilst it may be observed in el-'Irak some days in the year. If a camel looks at this star it will die, according to the common belief which we have related, together with the reason which is assigned that it should be fatal only to this species of quadrupeds. In the northern coun- tries they never see the Canopus all the year round. The different schools of the sciences of the spheres and stars do not agree about the axles upon which the heaven rests, whether they are immoveable, or whether they have a rotatory motion. Most of them are, however, of opinion that they do not move. The reader may find a further develope- ment of the opinions, whether these axles are immoveable, or whether they form part of the sphere (and turn)*, in our former works. * There seems, notwithstanding the gross notions alluded to in this passage, to have prevailed a dark idea of the mutual attraction of the heavenly bodies, amongst the Arabs, at least el- Makrizi informs us that some astronomers suppose that the earth is attracted from all sides by the heaven, as by a magnet. AND MINES OF GEMS. 211 The philosophers are at variance about the form of the seas. Most of the ancients, such as the mathematicians of the Hindus and Greeks, believe that they are convex ^\A**O (round). This hypo- thesis, however, is rejected by those who follow strictly the revelation*. The former bring for- ward many arguments in proof of their statement. If you sail on the sea, land and mountains disap- pear gradually, until you lose even the sight of highest summits of the mountains, and, on the contrary, if you approach the coast, you gra- dually perceive, first, the mountains, and, when you come nearer, you see the trees and plains. This is the case with the mountain of Doma- wand jJ^Ufc> between er-Rai and Taberistan. It is to be seen at a distance of one hundred farsangs, on account of its height: from the summit rises a smoke ; and it is covered with eternal snow, owing to its elevation. From the foot of the mountain gushes forth a copious river, the water of which is impregnated with sulphur, and of a yellow hue like the colour of gold. The mountain is so high They probably oppose passages of the Koran, like these, or P 2 01 UJ 212 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, that about three days and nights are required to ascend it. When on the top, a platform is dis- covered, of about a thousand cubits square ; but as seen from below, it appears as if terminating in a cone. This platform is covered with red sand (scoriae?), into which the feet sink. No animal can reach the summit, not even a bird, on account of the height, the wind, and the cold. On the top are about thirty holes, from whence issues clouds of sulphurous smoke, which is seen from the sea. From the same wind-holes < AJJ^ pro- ceeds, sometimes, a noise to be compared with the loudest thunder, which is accompanied with flames. It frequently happens that a man who exposes himself to danger, by climbing up to the highest mouths of these holes, brings a yellow sulphur back like gold, which is used in different arts, in alchemy, and for other purposes*. From * 'Ali Ben Zorairah g^, ^^ ( ^^ ^c, a man well versed in natural philosophy, who made himself known through many works, says, that he has ascended this mountain, with several persons of Khorasan, and gives almost literally the same descrip- tion as el-Mas'udi ; so that it is probable our author has derived his account from him if he is earlier. El-Kazwini, in whose 'Ajaib el-Makhlukat the above author is quoted, gives, under the head jebal en-nar (volcanoes), the following account: " Volcanoes are numerous. There is one in Turkestan with AND MINES OF GEMS. 213 the top the mountains all around appear like hillocks, however high they may be. This mountain is about twenty farsangs from the Caspian. If ships sail in this sea, and are very distant, they will not see it ; but when they go towards the mountains of Taberistan, and are within a distance of one hun- dred farsangs, they perceive the north side of this mountain of Domawand ; and the nearer they come to the shore the more is seen of it. This is an evident proof of the spherical form of the water of the sea, which has the shape of a segment of a ball. In the same way if a man sails on the sea of er-Rum, which is the same as that of Egypt and of Syria, he loses sight of the mount el-Akra* ^*^ which has a height beyond measure, and is near Antakiyah (Antioch) X/J1W, and of the mountains of el-Ladikiyah 3ui'i&H (Laodicea), Atrabolos (Tripolis), and those of the Isle of Kobros (Cyprus), and other places in the Byzantine empire ; a grotto, which may be compared to a large house ; and every animal that goes into it dies instantly : another is in Kolistan (?) /. ^ There is a place in this mountain which causes instant death to every bird that approaches it : it is therefore surrounded with dead animals. In the neighbourhood of Domawand is another mountain, like the mountain of Domawand: at night fire is seen burning on the summit, and smoke issues during the day.] 214 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, and he does not see these places although nothing is between him and them. We shall give a more complete account of the mountain of Domawand in this book, relating what the Persians say of it. Edh-Dhahhak, with many mouths*, is bound with iron on the summit of this mountain. The holes on its top are some of the great chimnies (craters) f of the earth. There are many disputes respecting the size of the globe. Most mathematicians believe that the distance from the centre of the earth to the limit of air and fire (atmosphere) amounts to one hundred and sixty-eight thousand miles. The earth is somewhat more than thirty-seven times greater than the moon, thirty-two thousand times greater than Mercury, and twenty-four thousand times greater than Venus; but the sun is one hundred and sixty times and one-fourth and one-eighth times greater than the earth, and two thousand six hundred and forty times larger than the moon; so that the whole earth is equal only to half a tenth (one-twentieth) of one degree of the sun. The J'lxv/oJi "the Laugher," is one of the Arabic names for Zohak, the Semitic invader, in the Persian empire. Some identify him with Nimrod. The popular tradition, that he is tied on mount Domawand, is confirmed by Ferdusi and the Zend books. t Ubl sing. AND MINES OF GEMS, 215 diameter of the sun is forty-two thousand miles. Mars is sixty-three times larger than the earth ; its diameter is eight thousand seven hundred miles. Jupiter is eighty-two times and one-half and one- fourth (three-quarters) larger than the earth ; its diameter is thirty-three thousand two hundred and sixteen miles. Saturn is ninety-nine and a half times as large as the earth; its diameter being thirty-two thousand seven hundred and eighty-six miles. The bodies of the fixed stars of the first magnitude, of which there are fifteen, are every one of them ninety-four and a half times greater than the earth. DISTANCES OF THE STARS FROM THE EARTH. When the moon is nearest to the earth the distance is one hundred and twenty-eight thousand miles, and when it is remotest from our globe, it amounts to four million one hundred and nineteen thousand six hundred miles. The greatest distance of the sun from the earth is four million eight hundred and twenty thousand miles and a half : the greatest distance of Mars is somewhat more than three hun- dred and thirty million six thousand miles. The greatest distance of Jupiter from the earth is some- what more than fifty-four million one hundred and sixty thousand miles: the greatest distance of Saturn is more than seventy-seven million miles. The greatest distances of the fixed stars are in the same proportions. Upon the divisions, degrees, 216 EL-MAS'uDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, and distances, which we have mentioned, the calcu- lations of time and eclipses are founded. The principal instruments for astronomical observation are the astrolabes CL>lj^k-^I (armillary spheres). Books have been written entirely on this subject. We have devoted this chapter to the explanation of some of those matters which are the subject of so many discussions. Our observations may serve as a guide to enter deeper into this subject, on which we have treated more fully in our former writings. Those inhabitants of Harran* who profess the * Abulfaragius states, that Harran was built by Kainan, and so called after his son. This town is mentioned in Genesis, and by several Latin and Greek authors. The passages of the classics respecting Harran, have been collected by Vadianus. It is probably owing to its advantageous situation, that Mer- wan the last Oma'iyide Khalif in the East, chose it as his residence, and built there a palace at the expense of several millions of Dir- hems. The Abbasides may have felt repugnance to take their resi- dence in this town, in which Ibrahim the predecessor of es-Seffah the founder of their dynasty, suffered death after long imprison- ment. But under the Seljuks, Atabeks, and as late as the crusades, Harran was a place of importance and frequently the site of one of the feudal sovereigns; it flourished particularly under the Beni Hamdan, who ruled over Mesopotamia, at the beginning of the fourth century of the Hijrah. It seems that Harran has always been one of the principal sites of learning. Near this town was a sacred place of the Sabeans , and the Harranians continued faithful to their religion, which was that of the ancient Chaldeans, after the rise of the Abasside dynasty, although the population round them had twice AND MINES OF GEMS. 217 religion of the Sabeans*, and who aspire by trum- changed their faith: first they embraced Christianity, and then they professed the tenets of Mohammed. Their yearly pilgrimage to the pyramids in Egypt, brought them into contact with the Alexandrians ; this led to an exchange of ideas which is very perceptible in the writings of the latter, and which encouraged the literary activity amongst the Sabeans of Harran, so much, that the greatest share in the regeneration of the philosophical sciences amongst the Arabs is owing to them. All armillary spheres and other astronomical instruments were originally made by them ; and a number of Harranians distinguished themselves as translators or original authors, at the earliest period of Arabic literature, as Thabet Ben Korrah, his master in astro- nomy BenKamita UiA+5, el-Battam ^IxxJJ, Ibn er-Ruh _. ^\ 9 the Sabean, and many others, which will be mentioned in another place of this book. * Hottinger devotes the eighth chapter of the first book of his Historia Orientalis to the exposition of the Sabean religion. He follows up his subject with much learning, and had a most excel- lent guide, having made use of the Fihirst of Mohammed Ben Ishak en-Nadim, (not el-Kadim or prisons as he writes,) known under the name of Abul-Faraj Ben Abi Ya'kub, who wrote in 377, A,H., and died in 385. Hottinger knew neither the title of the book nor the age when the author lived. Both are of importance, for the date shows that he was contemporary with men who professed this religion; and to be the author of the Fihirst gives him the character of an exceedingly learned and exact writer. He lived most likely in Babylonia, and was thus in constant contact with Sabeans. We may therefore perfectly rely on what he says. His treatise on Sabeanism and other religions, forms the last chapter of the Fihrist; this is the third of the last volume, of which there is an ancient and perfectly correct MS. at Leyden. 218 EL-MAS'tJDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, pery pretensions*, to the knowledge of ancient philosophy,, although they are uninstructed in the With more caution the extracts which Hottinger gives from Maimonides must be used. It has been advanced by Spencer (De Leg. Hebr.) that the Sabeans are very modern and not more ancient than Mohammed, for they are the first time mentioned in the Koran. Now Sabi is an Arabic word, applied to almost all Gentiles ; therefore, no wonder if the word is found only in the writings of Arabic or Rabbinical authors, and the Koran is the most ancient book in Arabic litera- ture, excepting some poems collected afterwards. Hamzah, of Ispahan, (MS. of Leyden,) informs us that the name of Sabeans meant originally a sect of Christians, and has not been applied to the Harranians before the time of el-Mamun, when they adopted this name in order to escape a prosecution. Still more pre- posterous is the opinion expressed in Calmet's Fragments, DC XIII., where Sabeism is derived from St. John the Baptist. Arabic authors who have lived with the Sabeans, state unani- mously that they worshipped principally the seven planets. Sup- posing this worship had been recently introduced in Harran, it was certainly ancient amongst their brethren the Canaanites, (both the Harranians and Canaanites spoke the Aramean language) ; for Manassah received from them the same religion (2 Kings, xxxiii.), we may therefore safely suppose that the Sabeans were not materially different from the Chaldeans, who are called astrologers on account of their star worship. Perhaps the Sabeans of Harran are the Orcheni of Strabo (Lib. xvi., p. 701), who were a sect of Chaldeans in Mesopotamia. Strabo and other Greek authors agree with the Arabs in making the Chaldeans astrologers and star worshippers ; but we have to account for the allusions made to them in the Scriptures, from which it might appear that they worshipped almost merely * Literally, " And are the rabble of ancient philosophers." AND MINES OF GEMS. 219 wisdom of the Greeks (Chaldeans?), have idols. On examining the names of those idols, we find that they are the Semitic names of the planets. Aserah JTV10N <> r Astarte, is az-Zohrah syfc-JN the Arabic name for the planet Venus ; which was also called Balthi ^XxJ\ (Beltis in Greek authors). Thamus may be taken for shomus u*j.$JJ, plural of shams, the sun, for Adonis, with whom this deity is identified by Jerom, is the sun as well; Merodach is Merrikh, the name of the planet Mars in Arabic, the word is derived from mar ad ^w, which means to be rebellious both in Arabic and Hebrew; and as the original meaning of marad is the same as that of maras ^wo and marakh }<*, it seems that only mar is the primitive syllable, it is therefore not surprising to find the name of this planet written Merodach, Merrikh, and Mars. Nebo means a prophet, which is the name of Mercury or 'Utarid amongst the Sabeans; for this planet is the patron of the priestclass ; as it has already been noticed by Norberg, who establishes the fact by the testimony of the Syro-Chaldeans. Baal means lord, and is the name for Jupiter, but frequently applied to the sun ; perhaps some of the sects of Chaldeans con- sidered the sun as lord, and called it consequently Baal : the identity of Baal with Jupiter is confirmed by the testimony of Herodotus, which is worth more than that of all later authors, who transcribed one another as far as it suited their purpose, and referred in their learned ignorance to books and never to what they could have witnessed themselves. See also p. 1 99 supra note. More examples could be added and errors of mythologists cor- rected, but these will do for our purpose. The representations of the stars as idols, seem therefore to have been intended for the exoteric; for we must distinguish here more than with any other nation between the notions of the exoteric and those of the un- initiated. The reader will find a developement of the former in the additional notes to this chapter. 220 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, adopted a gradation of the priests in their temples, which is an imitation of the system of the nine spheres*. The highest priest is called rds * El-Makrizi (MS. of the Earl of Munster, vol. iii., Korrah 40) says nearly the same thing of the priests of ancient Egypt ; " A priest who has served the seven planets seven years, has the title Bahir jJ&L, and a priest who has served them forty-nine years, seven years each, has the title Katir k|y '> he enjoys such high honours that the king rises before him, allows him to sit down on his side, and consults him in every action which he does. Then the other priests come in, and with them the artisans, and stand opposite the Katir. Every one of their priests is exclusively destined for the service of one planet, and he must not pass to another. He is called a servant of such a planet, so one says the servant of the moon, the servant of Mercury, the servant of Venus, the servant of the sun, the servant of Mars, the servant of Jupiter, and the servant of Saturn. When they are all mar- shalled, the Katir says to one of them, Where is thy Lord to day ? and he answers, in such a sign of the zodiac, and in such a degree and minute. Then he asks the next, and so he goes through all of them ; and when he knows their position in reference to the sphere of the zodiac, he says to the king, you ought to do such and such a thing to-day: he tells him what he is to eat, when he may go into his harem, when he is to go on horseback, and so on, to the most minute thing. A secretary writes down every word that he says. Then the Katir turns to the artisans, and orders them what they are to do/' &c. f The word Stt^T is not in the copy of Cambridge. The variants between crotchets are all from the Cambridge copy. AND MINES OF GEMS. 221 Komorr*. The Christians, who came after them, arranged the orders of priests in their hierarchy after the system which had been laid down by the Sabeans. The Christians call this gradation ordina- (read * This word is met with in the Scriptures (2 Kings, xxiii. 5, &c.), where it is exactly spelt as here "1D3. The Hebrew language does not afford an explanation of its meaning ; for those which have been advanced, as that it means black, or priest of the moon ^5 (o and not with a J), are not founded. In Arabic it means penis, or longum penem habens vir, and it is exceedingly likely that this word was taken in this meaning, for the office of the Komorr answered to that of Batrick, which represents, as we may observe, something higher than the ninth sphere. Arabic astrology, which is the daughter of the Pagan religions of Asia, places there the procreative power, which the Arabs sometimes call God, and sometimes the throne of God ; for an incorporeal being is not so well adapted to the system. In the first mean- ing, says our author, page 46, supra, " God commands, and there flows what he likes from heaven to heaven (or sphere to sphere)," &c. And in the second meaning, we read, in el-Kazwini, " Some Moslims make agree the revelation of God and the opinion of the philosophers, and think that this sphere is the stool, and the tenth sphere, which is the greatest of all, is the throne of God." 222 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, tion (el-'Atab). The first (lowest) order is es-Salt*, * The Salt answers to the Ostiarius in the Roman degrees of ordination, and to the sphere of the moon, in ancient astrology. As it may lead to interesting comparisons between the exoteric notions and the various forms under which they were made available to the uninitiated, the characteristics of the seven spheres and planets are detailed in this and the following notes after Abu Ma'sher, Balinos, and el-Kazwmi, and occasionally their views have been compared with those of the Greeks, and of the Zend-Avesta, to show the identity of ancient religions, philo- sophy, and astrology. The moon is a female planet (Zendavesta, vol. ii., 382; Arist. Hist. Anim., vii., 2; Pliny, lib. ii., 104), and has an affi- nity with the female element the water which she attracts ; and hence she causes the tide (Zendav., tome ii., 370, 385 ; Pliny, ibidem). She is the concentration of light, and was, before the introduction of Greek astronomy amongst the Arabs, believed to shine with her own light (Zendavesta, vol. ii., 18, and p. 80, supra). She is the planet which gives fertility, increases the seed, animal warmth, and affection (Zendavesta, i. 26, p. 426 ; Aristotle, de Generat. Animalium, ii. 4). To the moon silver is sacred amongst the metals, and white amongst the seven colours, every one of which, it seems, was considered to be fixed in a metal, and sacred, together with the respective metal, to one of the seven planets. All white or grey animals, of a meek tem- per, are equally consecrated to her, particularly such birds, also mules, fruit-trees, &c. The sphere of the moon is the isthmus of immortality ; under it is the fire and air (atmosphere) of the earth, which is mutable ; but above the moon everything is pure and divine (supra lunam pura omnia ac diuturnae lucis plena: Pliny, lib. ii., cap. 7) : hence she is called the gate of the heaven, and s AND MINES OF GEMS. 223 the second Aghsat *, the third Nudakirf, the the order of priests sacred to her sphere must naturally be the Ostiarius, or Porter. The moon, considered as a goddess, is frequently not distin- guished from Venus. * To this order answers the atmosphere, or sphere of Mer- cury, which is three hundred and eighty-eight thousand four hundred and eighty-miles thick. The planet itself is described as radians by Pliny (ii., 29), an epithet which is equally given to the sun by the same author. It is probably this quality of diffus- ing its rays which has also been noticed by astrologers, that this planet is considered to diffuse the light of wisdom and knowledge. He is the god of penmanship XjlxXf \, and a child born under the influence of this planet will be meek and clever. It was, at all events, a correct notion, that the next step after the gate of the heaven should be the pons asinorum, and that wisdom should be the first degree in heaven, and in the hierarchy within the gate : hence this order in the Catholic Church is called Lectorship, and the Lector receives a book at the Ordination. The astrologers are probably equally right in calling the patron of the Savans and priests cJi^UU (the unprincipled, or hypocrite). They say that he adds energy both to lucky and unlucky constellations, as he happens to meet them. ) This order answers to the sphere of Venus, which is three million seven hundred and ninety-five thousand and ninety- two miles thick. The lovely star which animates this sphere, and keeps always near the sun like a lover, and approaches to him, or recedes for a short time like a coquette, was represented as the 224 EL-MAS'UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, fourth Shemasheryam *, the fifth Kissis f, the sixth beauty of the heavens at all times and by all nations. Arabic astrologers call her the lesser luck JU^M <>sx*JJ, and ascribe to her influence mirth and love. Pliny and the Zend-books agree with them in assigning to her the procreative (not generative) power. To this star brass was sacred, and the green colour (verdigris); also fish, serpents, bees, grapes, sparrows. The ancient Christian Church seems to have found no higher ideas respecting the lucky influence of this star amongst the Sabeans, than that it averts evil; hence this order has the power of destroying the bad effects of evil spirits, and the priests of this order are called Exorcistes in Greek and Latin. If there was no other evidence of the mixed nature of the Ritual of the Romish Church, the gross superstition of having an order of exorcists would be proof enough. * The Greek name of the order is Acoluthos (follower) : he has the same office as the clerk in the Anglican Church. The order answers to the sphere of the sun, which is ten million one hundred and seventy-six thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight miles thick, and was considered as the mediator, as will be shown in the additional notes. The Acoluthos is the highest of the four minor orders, and is also the mediator between the people and higher orders, as the sun between the lower and higher planets. f The sphere which corresponds with this order is that of Mars, which is ten million one hundred and seventy-six thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight miles thick. The blood-red colour of this planet has brought it into discredit with astrologers, who call it the lesser misfortune JU^J y**^\J!, besides its course appeared to the ancients (Pliny, ii., cap. 15) so irregular, that AND MINES OF GEMS. 225 Barduth *, the seventh Huzabiskatos f : he is after they are justified in calling him the Marikh, rebellious. He is the god of iron, and the red colour (peroxyde of iron), of war, lions, tigers, hyaenas, of the Turks, and everything terrible. Under his protection are birds of a red colour, and the lapwing \^>J^J!, which is one of the best known ill omens in Oriental superstition. * This order was the representation of the sphere of Jupiter, and is called Diaconate in Greek and Latin. I am not suffi- ciently acquainted with its office and ceremonies to know its relation to this sphere. Jupiter is the greatest of all the planets, and if the ether was the essence of the heavens, and the stars like the souls of the ether, this star had a natural claim to be the lord of all other planets. The astrologers call him the great luck rS$\ JuuJl* and ascribe to him all the good. To Jupiter, blue (the colour of the sky), and copper (vitriol, or sulphate of copper), is sacred ; also emerald, onyx, jasper, ruby, and all sorts of precious stones ; farther musk, wheat, and every thing that is esteemed. f This order represents the highest of all the planetary spheres ; that of Saturn, which is twenty-one million six hundred and six miles thick. Saturn is represented as an old man, and this is the name of this order in the ancient Christian Church; for Presbyter has the same signification. Arabic astrologers call Saturn the great misfortune jS$\ ^r^xM, and Pliny seems to think that this planet must be cold and dreary, on account of its great distance from the sun. To Saturn the heavy and ignoble metal lead, and black is sacred, and all unclean animals, as pigs, dogs, &c. [The Reader Q 226 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, the Bishop. The eighth is the Akkaf *; the ninth is the Mitran (Metropolitan), which means the head of the town. And above all these ranks is the Batric (Patriarch), which means father of the fathers, or of the mentioned orders, and the laymen. The reader will find in the additional notes to this chapter at the end of this volume, more philosophically accounted for, the qualities attributed to the spheres of the heaven and the planets. * This is a corruption of eVto-KOTroy, Bishop, or literally who inspects from above. This appellation is very well chosen ; for the order represents the signs of the zodiac which do look down from above on the planets. f I transcribed the copy of Mr. Gayangos, with all its faults in order to give to the reader the variants which it presents in the names of the orders: Lf* Lo ^C l^Jol^ ^ Xi^Xfj XA-J^J \\ AND MINES OF GEMS. 227 This is the opinion of the Esoteric Christians respecting these orders ; but the Exoteric give other reasons, alleging that a king had introduced them and other things which it would be useless to relate. These are the orders of the Melikites (Orthodox), who form the main body, and are the original Christians ; for the Eastern Christians, or 'Ibad*, who are called Nestorians and Jacobites, are branches of them, and their imitators. The Chris- tians took, as we have said, the whole of the insti- * Other Arabic authors take the name 'Ibadites in a more limited sense, applying only to the Christians of el-Hirah. Q 2 228 EL-MAS UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, tution of their orders from the Sabeans: Kissis, Shemas, and other ranks. Manes rose as Heresiarch after the Messiah, and Ibn ed-Dai'san and Marcion followed his ex- ample. From Manes the Manicheans have their name ; from Marcion the Marcionites ; and from Ibn ed-Daisan the Daisanites. In subsequent times rose from them the Mozdakians, and other sects, who follow the Dualistie doctrine. The reader will find in our books,, the Akhbar ez-zeman, and the Kitab el-ausat, a number of anecdotes respecting these sects, and an account of the fabulous stories which they tell, and of their laws which they assign to God, although they are made by man. We have also treated on these sects in our book " On the various opinions on the principles of religion ^\ J c^UiU ^ V UT CjUUx!!. We have spoken of the books of these religious opinions, and the destruction of these sects, in our work entitled the "Explanation of read) AND MINES OF GEMS. 229 the principles of religion" In these chapters we enter on the points on which scholastic theology dwells, and which are the prin- ciple objects to be described. We allude only to striking facts, by way of narrative, and with the view to give an insight into the history of the sects, lest this book should be found defective in such in- formation respecting them, as a well-informed man ought to know; but we do not mean to enter into any polemic discussions. 230 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, NINTH CHAPTER. A concise account of seas that have changed their places, and of great rivers. THE author of the Logic xc j^e, and not the Okianos (the Atlantic). Others suppose that the water is in the earth in the same way as the veins in the body. Some reason thus : It is a law of nature that the surface of the water be level, but as the earth is in some places high and in others deep, the water goes to the deepest part, and when it is enclosed in caverns it has a tendency to form steam, which produces a pressure on the earth from beneath ; it gushes forth and gives origin to springs and ( rivers. Frequently water is the product of the air which is in the bowels of the earth, for water is no element djJU&wf o-rot%etoz/), but it is the product of the rottenness* and the exhalations of the earth. We forbear mentioning here the various controver- sies which are extant on this head for fear of tres- * X>*A This is a medical term which means gangrene, and implies the last stage of inflammation which precedes it. 232 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, passing our limits, for we mean to abridge what we have said in other works in detail. Much has been said on the beginning, course, length, and end of large rivers; like the Nile,, the Euphrates, the Tigris, the river of Balkh or Jaihun, the river Mihran j,|^-o in es-Sind JsJUJJ cSo^-*' the Ganges which is a large river in India, and the Atanabus u*oUkJ (Danube), which falls into the sea Nitus (Black Sea), and other large rivers. I saw in the geography (of Ptolemy), a drawing of the Nile as it comes forth from the mountain el-Komr j$\ J,**-, rising from twelve sources ; then the water falls into two lakes which are like the marshes (of Babylonia between Wasit and el-Basrah) ; further on the water is collected in its course into one stream which passes sandy districts, and (on the foot of) mountains. It pro- ceeds, flowing through that part of the country of the Sudan (Negroes), which borders on the country of the Zanj, and a branch g^L goes off from it into the sea of the Zanj ^'^j^ This is the sea of the island Kanbalu* which is well cultivated, and the inhabitants are Moslims but they speak the Zanjee language. The Mahomedans have conquered this island and made the inhabitants prisoners, just as they have taken the isle of Crete (jiJajjj'J in the * The MS. bears AND MINES OF GEMS. 233 Mediterranean. This happened at the beginning of the 'Abbaside and end of the Omaiyide dynasties. From this island to 'Oman, the distance is, according to the account of the sailors, about five hundred farsangs by sea. This however is a mere conjecture, and not geometrically measured. Many of the sailors of Smlf and 'Oman who visit this sea, say, that they found in it, at or before the time when the Nile increases in Egypt, different colours within the small space in which the river continues its course in the sea, for it forces its way to some distance on account of its rapidity. The river comes from the mountains of the Zanj and is above a mile wide. The water is sweet and becomes muddy at the time of the increase. There live in it susmdr (alliga- tors) ^Uw^xJ! which means crocodiles like those in the Nile of Egypt, they are also called Warl ^\. El-Jahit supposes that the river Mihran in es-Sind is the Nile, alleging as a proof that cro- codiles live in it. I cannot understand how this proof can be conclusive. This he states in his book " on the leading cities and the wonders of the coun- tries" (^tXXxJJ 4-^b^^La^^! i_>ur. It is an excel- lent work, but as he has never made a voyage and few journies and travels through kingdoms and cities, he did not know that the Mihran of es-Sind comes from the well-known sources of the highland of es- Sind, from the country belonging to Kinnauj 234 EL-MAS J UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, in the kingdom of Budah **#, and of Kashmir 5, el-Kandahar ^Lfrjafl!, and et-Takin (sfU&\ , the tributaries which rise in these coun- tries run to el-Multan and from thence the united river receives the name Mihran. El-Multan ^lU^U means meadows of gold. The King of el-Multan is a Kora'ishite, and of the children of Osamah Ben Lawi Ben Ghalib ^j c5>J ^j 2UL-J -*Jlc. His dominion extends as far as the frontier of Khorasan. The lord of the kingdom of el- Mansurah ^y^JLtJ! is a Koraishite, who is descended from Habbar Ben el-Aswad* Jy-^J ^^ J^ 9 who has been one of their t kings. The crown of el- Multan has been hereditary, in the family which rules at present, since ancient times, and nearly from the beginning of the Islam. From el-Multan the river Mihran takes its course to the country of el-Mansurah, and falls about ed-Daibol into the Indian ocean. In this sea are many crocodiles, for it has several estuaries and gulfs as the estuary of Sindabur j^^^o (^^tX^) in the kingdom of Baghar ^L (L>.) in India; ' The reader finds a notice of this family in Reiske's notes to Abulpeda's Historia Islamitica. Vol. I. f El-Mansurah is taken as the name of the inhabitants, and for this reason the plural is used here. Compare the note to p. 176, supra. AND MINES OF GEMS. 235 the estuary of ez-Zanj in the dominions of the Maharaj and the gulfs of el-A'nab v Us^M (grapes), which extend towards the island Serendib (Ceylon). The crocodiles live particularly in sweet water, and, as we said, in the estuaries of India the water of which is for the most part sweet, on account of the streams which arise from rain and fall in them. Now we return to the description of the Nile of Egypt. The philosophers say, that its course on the face of the earth, through cultivated and waste countries, is nine hundred or one thousand farsangs before it comes to Oswan in Upper Egypt. The boats from el-Fostat go as far up the river as Oswan ; but some miles from Oswan are mountains and rocks, and as the Nile takes its course through the midst of them, the navigation is rendered impracticable. These rocks form the line of separa- tion between the Nile navigation of the Abyssinians and Moslims. This part of the Nile has the name of huge stones and rocks j^*aJi ^jUij (cataracts). Having passed through Upper Egypt the Nile comes to el-Fostat. It passes the mount et-Tilemun ^^^wJaM, and the dam of el-Lahun ^yfc&H at el- Fayyum. In this place is the island which Joseph had chosen for himself and which was granted to him kju. The history of Egypt, of the landed property there, and the buildings raised by Joseph, will be related in the thirty-first chapter. As the 236 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, Nile continues its course it is divided into many branches which go to Tinms, Dimyat, Rashid, and el-Iskandariyah (Alexandria), but the canal which goes to Alexandria had no water previous to the inundation of this year 332. I have heard [I am in Antakiyah (Antioch) and the Syrian frontiers], that the Nile rose to eighteen cubits, but I do not know whether the water runs through the canal of Alex- andria or not. Alexander, the son of Philip of Macedonia, has built Alexandria on this branch of the Nile. The most part of the water of this river had then its course to it, and irrigated the country round Alexandria and Maryut ^^, so that it was in the most flourishing state of cultivation, and an unin- terrupted line of gardens extended from Maryut to Barkah Xi^j in the Maghrib. Vessels went up the Nile, and came down as far as the markets of Alexandria. The bed of the Nile in the town was paved with stones and granite. In subsequent times the water deposited so much mud that the canal was filled, and the passage of the water ob- structed. Others assign a different cause, which rendered it impossible to keep the bed of the canal clear. We cannot enter on their opinions ; for the plan of our book excludes such details. The Alexandrians began to drink the water of wells ; for the Nile runs about one day's journey from Alexandria. We shall give a full historical account AND MINES OF GEMS. 237 of this town in the chapter devoted to the descrip- tion of Alexandria. The water which, as we stated, falls into the sea of the Zanj, forms an estuary, which comes to the upper part of the course of this river through the country of the Zanj, arid separates this country from the remotest provinces of Ahyssinia. If it was not for this gulf, interjacent deserts, and marshes, the Abyssinians could not defend their country against the Zanj ; for they are superior in numbers and bravery. The river of Balkh, which has the name Jaihun (Oxus), rises from several sources, and, having passed et-Tirmid xy3J, Asfarayin ^y.iyu-k and other places of Khorasan, it takes its course through Khowarezm : there in several places it branches off: the rest falls into a lake, on which the town of el-Jorjaniyah X/JU*^it is situated in the lowest part of Khowarezm. This is the greatest lake there, and many believe that it is the greatest lake in the cultivated world; for it is about one month's journey long and wide. There is some navigation carried on in this lake : it also receives the river* of Ferghanah and esh-Shash, which runs through the country of el-'Adat cihUSJ and the * The Sirr Suyi ^y0\~* of the Tatars, and Sa'ihun of the Arabs. 238 EL-MAS'uof S MEADOWS OF GOLD, town of Hai's JJMA^, on which boats go down into the lake. On this river the Turkish city named Newtown x>xiJ &jj\ ^ s^W ^^, on which the kingdom of Kai'makf Baighur % ^ybo ^V(u^) is situated, who are also Turks, beyond the river Jaihun. On these two rivers live the Ghaznians (Ghiz?) X/JytM (SujpjJl), who are equally Turks. Euphrates, and even the Nile, with the Mediterranean, were taken into account in the west. The Tigris (Arg roud) conti- nued, nevertheless, to be the sacred river, as it is in the Zend- Avesta; and even under the Khalifs, there was no Mohammedan festival celebrated with so much pomp as that on the Tigris, at the time of the summer solstice. The Tigris separated the sacred land from the three other Keshvars or climates; Arabia (Shave), the West and Egypt (Arze), Mesopotamia and Asia Minor (Vo- robereste?); so that it is literally true that these two lines of rivers water (mangent) all seven climates, or Keshvars. The division into these seven climates (which el-Mas'udi has described p. 199, supra) is, therefore, originally relative to the place where the division was made. As the Arg and Veh roud consist ultimately of four rivers, as many flow in the paradise of Moses. * If the nations on this river are the Uigurs, this name should be written Irtish, else it may be the Sirr (the Saihun of Arabic geographers, and the Jaraxes of Strabo), which is also called Ariss, or Arsh. -j- Perhaps it is the same name as the Ka'imar l^f mentioned by Abulghazi (Edit. Tatarica, Kasan, 1825) in the genealogy of the Turks as one of the fathers, which always means a tribe or nation. There is for the rest a Turkish horde of the name of Ka'imak, mentioned in the Jihannuma apud J. v., Hammer, Hist, de 1'empire Ottoman. | Probably ^yfcx-j instead of ,ybJ Ighur, or Uighur. AND MINES OF GEMS. 245 Many tales are related about those two rivers. We do not know the length of their course. Various accounts are current respecting the Ganges u^s^*, which is the river of India: it rises in the mountains of the most remote parts of India, towards China, not far from the Turkish frontier, and falls, after a course of four hundred farsangs, into the Abyssinian Sea ^^^>sr, on the coast of India. The Euphrates ci|;iH has its sources in the country of Kalikala &u)|? (Arzen-er-Rum., vulgo Erzerum), on the Armenian frontier, from the mountains called Afradohosf yM^^! about one day's journey from Kali-kala The course of the Euphrates goes through the By- zantine territory, till it enters (into the Moslim territory) at Malatiyah jUkXx>. A Moslim, who has been a prisoner of war in the Christian countries, tells me that the Euphrates receives in its course through the Byzantine territory many tributaries. One of them comes from the lake of el-Mazerbun j which is the largest lake in the * The Mohammedans had lost sight of the Ganges when Alahmud of Ghiznah conquered India; and they called it then iT, after the Persian way of spelling, f Compare St. Martin, Mem. sur I'Armenie, vol. i., p. 45. 246 EL-MAS'uDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, Byzantine empire; for it is one month long and wide, or more. They ply boats on it. The Euphrates comes to Jasr Manbij ^y after it has passed the castle of Somaisat which is built of clay: then it comes to Balos L and passes Siff in ^^A*?, the field of the battle be- tween the Moslims of el-'lrak and Syria (under 'Ali): farther on it passes er-Rakkah, er-Rahabah Su^ll, Hit iJlAx4>, and el-Anbar ^Uttl, In these places several canals are derived from it, like the 'Isa canal, which passes Bagdad, and joins the Tigris. The Euphrates continues its course to Stir j**> G!***)> Kasr Ibn Hobairah SJAX* el-Kufah, el-Jami'in ^^lii, Ahmedabad(?) * el-Yerman j^N (u~j&\), and et-Tafuf ; then it runs into the marshes between el- Basrah and el-Wasit. The whole course of the Euphrates is five hundred farsangs or more. The greatest part of the water of the Euphrates had once its course through el-Hirah: the bed may still be traced, and it has the name of 'Atik (ancient). On it was fought the battle between the Moslims and Rostam (at the time of 'Omar), called the battle of el-Kadesiyah. The Euphrates fell at that time into the Abyssinian sea, at a place which is now called en-Najaf cju?UJ ; for the sea came up to this place, and thither resorted the ships of China and India, destined for the kings of el-Hirah. Many AND MINES OF GEMS. 247 ancient historians, who are well acquainted with the battle days of the Arabs, as Hesham Ben Mo- hammed el-Kelbi csvJKit, Abu Mokhnif Lut Ben Yahya, and esh-Sharki Ben el-Katami ^j ^*j~\\ ^LkJfJ!, relate that the inhabitants of el-Hirah for- tified themselves in the white tower of el-Kadesiyah, and in that of the Beni Bokailah(or Bakilah) XXxJu csu, when Khaled el-Mekhzumi ^^^\ marched against them, in the reign of Abu Bekr, from el- Yemamah, with the victorious army which had slain the false prophet of the Beni Hanifah csu XJux-*. These were the towers of el-Hirah, which lay now [in 332 A.H.] in ruins, and nobody lives there. The site of the town is three miles from el- Kufah. When Khaled saw that the Hirians were fortifying themselves against him, he encamped his army not far from en-Najaf: he himself rode with Dhirar Ibn el-Azur el-Asadi er3w>^J j*$\ ^jjj ^\j*>, who was one of the Bedouin horsemen, to the city ; and they came to the tower of the Taghlebites j*. The Christians ^^Uc threw pots jjyaL on them, which made his horse shy. Dhirar said, "May God make thee quiet, for this is the greatest stratagem which they are prepared to make." Khaled returned to his camp, and sent to them that they should depute an intelligent aged man to him, that he could ask him about their affairs. They sent 'Abd el-Mesih Ben 'Amr 248 EL-MAS J uni's MEADOWS OF GOLD, Ben Kais Ben Hayyan Ben Bokailah el-Ghassani to him, who had built the white citadel. Bokailah had this name because he went out one day in a green silk dress ; and the people said, who is this bokailah? (herb XXJu). This is the same ' Abdul - Mesih who went to Satih *4-\. We were become (united) like the flock on a rainy day, after the (tribe) Abu- Kais have perished. We have slain the Ma* add tribes in open combat like camels destined to be sacrificed. We raise tribute like the Kings of Per- sia, and it is paid to us by the (Jewish tribes of Khaibar), the Beni Korai'tah j&jjjiJl, and en-Nad- hir j#ti\. So the chances which lay in the bosom of time are uncertain, to-morrow may bring joy or sorrow." We have inserted this story here in confirmation of our statement, respecting the changing places of the seas and the shifting of the waters and rivers in AND MINES OF GEMS. 253 the course of time, and daring the lapse of ages. When the waters did not run any longer to this place the sea became land, and at present there is a distance of several days between el-Hirah and the sea. Whoever has seen the Najaf will fully enter into our views. In the same way the Tigris has changed its course; there is a great distance between the pre- sent course of the river and the dry bed which is stopped by the sand, and called Batn el-fauhi gf=L\ L .J*j ; it runs close on the town of Bados u^L, in the district of Wasit of el-Irak to Dafiri turning towards Sus u*^ in Khuzistan < whilst the new bed passes east of Baghdad, at a place called Rakkah esh-Shemasiyah 3u*U&!J >,; and an inundation has brought the river to the west where it runs at present between Kotrobbol Jo^k* and the Town of peace (Bagdad), so that it passes the villages called el-Kobb v^* esh- Shark! &j"&9 and other estates, which belong to Kotrobbol. The inhabitants of these places have had a law -suit, with those of the eastern side, who are in possession of Rakkahesh-Shemasiyah, in the reign of el-Mokta- der, in the presence of his Vizier, Abul-Hasan 'Ali Ben 'Isa. What well-informed men have deposed at this occasion, and what we have stated are facts which are well known at Bagdad. If the water changes its course in about thirty years the seventh 254 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, part of a mile it will make nearly one mile in two hundred years ; and if the water of a river retires four hundred cubits from its original place, this place will be waste. Through these causes places are rendered uncultivated, and if the water finds a declivity or a descent it widens by its course and rapidity the bed as it carries the ground away to an immense distance, and wherever it finds a wide and low place it fills it and forms lakes, marshes, and lagunas. By these means places which have been cultivated become deserts, and those which were without cultivation become cultivated. Everybody of common sense will understand and appreciate what we have said. El-Mas'udi says, all historians who possess just ideas respecting the history of the world and its kings, know, that in the year in which the Prophet of God sent messengers to the Kisra ^^J**, and this was the seventh year after his flight from Mekka to Medinah, the Euphrates and Tigris were so much swelled that they never had been so before; the water made immense breaches and holes which were greater than the canals, and as the canals could not hold the water the dams and mounds gave way, and the water filled the lower country. The Persian King, Abrawaiz ^^ (Perwiz), * This is the Arabic pronunciation of the Persian title Khosraw j^.**i, which means possessed of an extensive kingdom. AND MINES OF GEMS. 255 endeavoured to confine the water again, to repair the dams, and to open the trenches olj^Lfc; but he was unable to control the river, it took its course towards the place where, in our time, are the marshes. The cultivation and fields were sub- merged, and whole districts were changed into the marshes which are there at present, his exertions to stop it being inefficient. The Persians were soon after occupied with the Arabic wars; the water broke through its limits, and nobody could turn his mind to the reparation of the dams, so the marshes became wider and more extensive. When Mo'awiyah had come to the Khalifat he appointed his adoptive 'Abdullah Ben Derraj *XAC &\j* cj^ ^ over the tribute of el-'Irak, and he raised from the lands on the marshes fifteen million (of Dirhems*) worth by cutting the reeds grown in these marshes, and taking the whole as property of the state. In subsequent times the water made more breaches through the dams and mounds, and when Hassan en-Nabti, the adoptive of the Beni Dhobbah, was revenue cellector under the Khalifat * Arabic authors frequently mention the sums without stating what sort of money is meant. In these cases it is a general rule that Dinars are understood if they speak of those countries which had been under the sway of the Byzantine empire ; and Dirhems, if the provinces in question had formed part of the Persian monarchy. 256 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, of el-Walid for Hejjaj Ben Jusof, he gained some lands from the marshes. The whole extent of the marshes which the water occupies at present, is about fifty far sang s long and as many broad. In the centre is a round place in which the ground rises; this is a city covered with water, and if the water is clear one may see at the bottom the ruins of buildings; some stones are still standing in their place whilst others have fallen down. One may still trace the plan of the buildings. The same is the case with the lake of Tinnis and Dimyat (Damietta) , in which may be seen the farms and towns as we have related in another place in this book, and in other works. Now we will resume our subject and describe the Tigris, its sources, course, and mouths. It comes from the country of Amid >r -o (^uy*) and Satid JuSU-, which come from the country of Arzan, and Mayyaf arikin (^b'Uc ; and other rivers, as the river Dusha l^J, el-Khabur, which comes from Arminiah, and falls between the country of Masura* and Faiz-Sabur f , in the countries of or \ jy * or j or jUai' or AND MINES OF GEMS. 257 Kerda and Bazenda*, into the Tigris, and the A'wari cf j}Z\ (jJv$L>), which comes from el-Mausil and its dependencies, the country of the Beni Hamdan. The poets say of these rivers, "On the Karda and Bazenda it is delightful to spend the summer and spring ; for their water is as cool as the Salsabil (a spring in Paradise), whilst the ground of Bagdad is as hot as live coals, and the heat is oppressive." The river el-Khabur is not the same which has its sources at the town of Ras el- 'ain, and falls below the city of Karkisia IA^A^J into the Euphrates. The Tigris passes in its course the towns of Balad jJL and el-Mausil : it receives below el-Mausil and above the Hodaibiyah (the rough country) of el-Mausil J^U jU^x-*, the river ez-Zab vl>M from Arminiyah; this is the greater Zab, farther on the other Zab, which comes equally from Arminiyah and Aderbaijan, pours its waters into it. The Tigris proceeds to Tikrit, Samarra J^oL*, and Bagdad, receiving the Khandak ojjil!, es-Sorah x\j*d\ (*\j&\), and nahr-'Isa ^^AC ^: these are the canals which we have said run from the Euphrates into the Tigris. When the Tigris has or copy of Leyden bears J^JL! from the country of Karenda, and the (river) Zahadra comes from el-Mausil. S 258 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, quitted Bagdad, it receives a great many rivers (canals), like the Badnal jbjo (iL^j or and No'maniyah XoLjJJL Having passed the town of Wasit, the Tigris is divided into several branches ; some of which run into the marshes of el-Basrah, as the river called Baradud V^> or the el-Yahudi river, and the Shami (or Samarri) branch. On the stream which goes to el-'Akar jjud\ (^k!j), the greatest part of the navigation from Bagdad and Wasit to el-Basrah, is carried on. The whole course of the Tigris is about three or four hundred farsangs. We have omitted many rivers, describing only the larger ones, which are better known; for we entered into details in our works, the Akhbar ez- zeman and the Kitab el-ausat. We shall give further notices in this book of rivers which have been named, and of such as we have omitted to mention. El-Basrah has several great rivers, like the Nahr-Shirin (.ju^ Nahr-ed-Dair ^*xM> and the Nahr-Ibn-'Amr. There are also some considerable rivers in the province of el-Ahwaz and the country between this province and el-Basrah. We forbear entering upon them here, having given accounts of them, and of the shores of the Persian Gulf at el- AND MINES OF GEMS. 259 Basrah and el-Obollah, and of the place known under the name of Hezarah *j^.=U (or el-Herarah), which is a strip of land projecting into the sea*, close to el-Obollah, and which is the cause that the sailors go into the harbour of el-Basrah. There are marks of wood erected for the sailors in the sea, at Hezarah, on the side of el-Obollah and 'Abbadan, which look like three seats in the middle of the water, and upon which fires are burnt by night, to caution the vessels which come from 'Oman, Siraf, and other ports, least they run against the Hezarah; for if they run there, they are wrecked and lost. * The MS. of Leyden differs from the other two copies, and bears on the contrary, there is a bay *^\ ^ j^^^ u- in which the vessels lay. S '2 260 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, TENTH CHAPTER. Account of the Abyssinian sea, its extent, gulfs, and straits. ESTIMATES have been made respecting the extent of the Indian sea, which is identical with the Abyssi- nian sea : its length from the most western part of Abyssinia as far as China in the east, is eight thou- sand miles, and its breadth is in one place two thou- sand seven hundred, and in another one thou- sand nine hundred miles, for it varies in different places. These dimensions have been disputed, but \ve will not enter into the different statements, because there are no proofs upon which they rest. This is the greatest sea of the habitable world. It has a gulf extending from Abyssinia as far as Ber- bera, a country situated between the territory of the Zanj and the Abyssinians. This gulf is called the Berberian gulf \n who live west of Afrikiyah (Africa pro vincia), for that is a different country although it has the same name. The sailors of 'Oman go on this sea as far as the island of Kanbalu f>JUj, in the sea of the AND MINES OF GEMS. 261 Zanj. This island is inhabited by Moslims, and by Zanj who have not embraced th Islam. The sailors of 'Oman to whom we have just alluded, believe that this gulf, which is called the Berberian gulf, and with them the sea of the Berbers and of the country of Jofuni ^yL^ *&j, is much greater than we have said. The waves of this sea are huge like high mountains. These are blind waves ^S^^-o; this (marine) term means waves which rise as high as mountains, and between which abysses open like the deepest valleys but they do not break; hence no foam is created like that produced by the collision of the waves, in other seas. They believe that these waves are enchanted. The sailors of 'Oman who sail on this sea are Arabs, of the tribe of el-Azd ^W, and when they are on board a ship, sometimes lifted up by these waves, and then again sinking between them ; they say verses whilst they are at work, as, " O Berbera and Jofuni and thy enchanted waves. Jofuni,, and Barbera, and their waves,, as thou seest them." These sailors go on the sea ez-Zanj as far as the island of Kanbahi ^JUxi* and the Sofalah (low coun- try), of the Demdemah*, which is on the extremity ' One copy bears JJ^LJJ ^ XJU-o S&j and another MS. XJUL*. It does not require any explanation why these two readings have been changed in the translation. 262 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, of the country of the Zanj and the low countries JJUJ thereabout. The merchants of Siraf ^j^jl j**Ji are also in the habit of sailing on this sea. I have made a voyage on it from Sohar*, which is the capital of 'Oman, with a crew of Sirafians ; they are the owners of the vessels like Mohammed Ben Zindibud and Jauher Ben Ahmad, known under the name of Ibn Shirah ^\ ^ y*y^ "K*^j &t ^ l n g> these are the cubits in use in this sea. The usual length of this fish is one hundred perches ^L. Frequently when it swims through the sea only the extremities of the two fins are to be seen, and it looks like the sail of a ship \jid\ j&j X*. Generally the head of the whale is out of water; and when it powerfully ejects water, it gushes into the air more than one bowshot high. The vessels are afraid of it by day and night, and they beat drums <_^lj j and wooden poles to drive it away. This fish drives with its tail and fins other fish into its open mouth, and they pass down its throat with the stream of water. When the whale sins God sends a fish about one cubit long called esh-Shak &z\\* , it adheres to the root of its tail * Quatremere translates this passage in his Memoires sur 1'Egypte, vol. ii., p. 491, and found this word written sal; one of my copies bears 264 EL-MAS'UDl'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, and the whale has no means to make itself free from it. It goes therefore to the bottom of the sea and beats itself to death; its dead body floats on the water and looks like a great mountain. The fish called esh-Shak, adheres frequently to the whale. The whales, notwithstanding their size, do not approach vessels; and they take flight when they see this little fish, for it is their destruction*. In the same way a little animal which lives on the banks and islands of the Nile, is the destruction of the crocodile. The crocodile has no natural passage through its body; and whatever it eats is turned into worms in its belly: when it feels any inconvenience it goes out on the land and lays on its back, opens its mouth, and there come the water- birds like the Taitawif cf^LJaJJ, the Hasani jU^it QUait), the Shamirek J^clwJJ, and other sorts of birds, to eat the large worms which may be * The translation of M. Quatremere of this sentence runs, " L'okal qui ose attaquer un vaisseau, quoique grand qu'il soit, prend la fuite des qu'il appergoit ce petit poisson qui est son plus terrible ennemi." This sounds much better than the transla- tion which I give. Since probability and the authority of this distinguished orientalist is against me, I transcribe the original after three copies, ^ 1^3 Xj'l? ^ L*^ ^ would certainly be more natural if the words did run l^IoxJ _ J^| t See Calilah et Dimnah, p. 124. AND MINES OF GEMS. 265 in the belly of the crocodile. This little animal watching in the sand, seizes this opportunity to jump on its scales, and goes down its throat. The crocodile throws itself violently on the ground, and goes to the bottom of the Nile. The little animal devours its intestines and gnaws its way out. This little animal is generally about one cubit long, resembles a weasel, and has legs and claws. In the sea of the Zanj are many and variously shaped species of fish, if people do not tell stories to cover their ignorance. But as it is not our object to relate the wonders of the sea, nor to describe the aquatic animals, serpents, and other strange crea- tures, which live in it, we will now return to the description of its various divisions, gulfs, inlets, and tongues of land. Another gulf of the Abyssinian sea is that which comes up to the town of el-Kolzom fjAjiH* which belongs to Egypt, and is three days from Fostat. On this gulf is the city of Allah, the Hejaz*, Joddah *x^, and Yemen. It is one thou- sand four hundred miles long, and where it is widest two hundred miles broad. Opposite the mentioned places as Ailah and the Hejaz, on the western coast of this gulf is el-'Allaki, el-'Aidab v^**J'> which belongs to Upper Egypt, the country of el-Bojah s\M &>j\ ; then Abyssinia and Nigritia * The MSS. bear \ and *)A. 266 EL-MAS'uDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, , which form the coast of the Red Sea, as far as the frontiers of the Sofalahs, (low district,) _ U3UJ of the Zanj. At the Sofalah of the country of the Zanj another gulf branches off, and this is the Persian sea which comes up to el-Obollah,, to the Khashabat, cijU^ 1, (the wooden sea-marks), and to 'Abbadan j,bU, which belongs to el-Basrah. The length of this gulf is one thousand four hun- dred miles, and the breadth at the entrance five hundred miles, but in some places it is not above one hundred and fifty miles wide. This gulf has a triangular shape, at one angle el-Obollah is situated, thence the gulf extends towards the east along Faris. Of the places situated on this coast, we name Persian Daurak u^iM ^^9 Maherban ^LjjfcU (Mahruban), and Shiniz ; from this town the embroidered Shinizee cloth has its name; for this and other sorts of clothes are manu- factured there: farther the town of Jannabah, whence the Jannabee cloth X>oUil v^t has its name*; the town of Najiram p*^0, belonging to Siraf JJjA-a, then the countries of Ibnf 'Imarah ? the coast of Kerman and the coast * 'ITiese manufacturing and other towns were destroyed at the time of Abul-Feda owing to the rule of the Turkish soldiers, whom the 'Abbasides had called in to keep up the course of absolutism against their own nation. f Some copies leave out the word Ibn. AND MINES OF GEMS. 267 of Mokran ^JC*, which is the country of the Khawarij, who are Heretics *\jS\ ^^ gjl*^* The whole of this coast is a palm country: then comes the coast of es-Sind there are the mouths of the river Mihran ^jfr*> which is the river of es-Sind (Indus), and has been described. In the es-Sind is the town of ed-Da'ibol. Then comes the coast of India, the country of Borudh u^' whence the Borudhi cinnabar has its name. Thence extends one interrupted coast as far as China, partly cultivated, partly waste. On the coast opposite the mentioned countries as Kerman and es-Sind is el-Bahrain, the islands of Kotr ^33, the Shatt of the Beni Jadimah ^ k &: there live the Beni Ma'n ^.j** ^ij, the Beni Mismar J^** 9 and a great number of other Arabs. It is about one day or less from the towns of the coast of 268 EL-MAS J UDIS MEADOWS OF GOLD, Meran, which belongs to el-Bahrain. On this coast which is called the coast of Hajar jz&&, are the towns ez-Zarah i^tyi and el-Katif. uLlaxH. After the isle of Awal are many other islands as the isle Lafit L^O^, which is also called the island of the Beni Kawan ^\J6 csu. It has been con- quered by 'Amr Ben el-'Asi, and there is his mosque standing to this day. This island is very populous well cultivated, and has several villages. At a short distance from it is the island of Haijam ^ Urufc. There the sailors take in water. Then the mountains known under the name of Kosair, Owair, ^s. ^ ?*$> and a third one the name of which is not known. Then ed-Dordur, which is called the terrible Dordur > and by the sailors the father of hell; ^\) at these parts of the sea rise enormous black rocks high overhanging the water, neither plants nor animals can live on them, and under them the sea is very deep and stormy, hence every- body who sails there is filled with fear; they are between 'Oman and Siraf, and vessels cannot help sailing through the midst of them. There is a constant current of the water which makes it foam. This sea, I mean the Persian gulf, which is also called the Persian sea, is skirted by the countries and towns which we have enumerated, as el- Bahrein, Faris, el-Basrah, and Oman, and extends as far as the promontory of el-Jomjomah. Between the Persian AND MINES OF GEMS. 269 gulf and the gulf of el-Kolzom and Ailah (the Red Sea,) is the Hejaz and el- Yemen ; this land extends fifteen hundred miles between the two gulfs, forming a peninsula which is surrounded for the most part by the sea before described. On this sea extending from China along India, Faris, 'Oman, el-Basrah, el-Bahrain, Yemen, Abyssinia, the Hejaz, el-Kolzom, ez-Zanj, es-Sind, and in the islands which it surrounds, are so many and various nations, that their description and number is known only to the Almighty who has created them, and every section of them has a name by which it is distinguished from the rest. The water forms one uninterrupted sea. There are many places in this sea where they dive for pearls s. s- jM. On these coasts, cornelians, Madinj which is a sort of coral, and different sorts of rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and turquois are found. There are mines of gold and silver in the country of Kolah X# and Serirah '^^ and on the coast of this sea are mines of iron, in the countries about Kerman. 'Oman produces copper. From the countries which form the coast of this sea, come different sorts of perfumes, scents, am- bergis, various drugs used in medicine, plantane, cinamon, cinnabar, and ruscus ^1,^x^01. We shall hereafter specify the places where all those precious stones, perfumes, and plants are found. 270 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, This sea which we have described, bears the general name of the Abyssinian Sea ^z^\ J&- The winds of the different parts of this sea which we have described, and every one of which has a distinct name, as the Persian gulf, the sea of Yemen, the sea of el-Kolzom, the sea of Abyssinia, and the sea of ez-Zanj, are different. In some seas the wind comes from the bottom of the sea, stirring up the water ; waves rise therefrom as in a boiling kettle, where the particles J^ of the heat of the fire come from underneath. In others winds and storms come partly from the bottom of the sea, partly from the air, and in some seas the wind arises wholly from an agitation of the air without any wind coming from the bottom of the sea. Those winds which, as we have stated^ come from the bottom of the sea, arise from the winds which blow from the land and penetrate into the sea, from whence they rise to the surface of the water. God knows best how this comes. There are several winds in those seas which are known to the sailors to blow in particular directions at certain times. This peculiar knowledge is ac- quired by theory, practice, and long experience. They also have a knowledge of certain signs and indications by which they can tell whether the wind will be high or not, and when a storm maybe expected. What we have said here of the Abyssinian Sea, may be applied in some measure to the Mediterranean, AND MINES OF GEMS. 271 where the Byzantines and Moslims have certain signs by which they can tell if the wind will change. The same is the case with the sailors of the sea of the Khazar, (the Caspian) who go to Jorjan, Taberistan, and ed-Dailem. We shall give in the following pages, a view and some details of the description and history of those seas, and their wonders, if it is the will of God, for there is no strength but in God. 272 ELEVENTH CHAPTER. The different opinions on ebb and flow, and all that has been said on this subject. FLOW ,x*JJ means the coming in of the water according to its nature and the laws of its motion. The ebb j^ii is the going out of the water, and rests on laws which are the reverse of those of the flow. This may be observed in the Abyssinian sea, which comprehends the seas of China, India, and the gulfs of el-Berbera and Faris, as we have said in the pre- ceding chapter. With respect to the ebb and flow, the seas may be divided into three classes, the first of which comprehends those seas in which ebb and flow take place, and are apparent and evident ; the other in which ebb and flow take place, but are not perceptible ; and finally, there are seas in which there is no ebb and flow at all. In those seas which have no ebb and flow, the cause of their absence may be threefold. The first cause is this : if the water remains some time quiet it becomes salt, heavier, and denser: it happens frequently that the water goes into certain places for one cause or another, and forms a sort of lake, diminishing in AND MINES OP GEMS. 273 summer, and increasing in winter, and one may observe that it is increased by the accession of rivers and springs. To the second class belong those seas which are far from land and extensive, a cir- cumstance which renders it impossible to observe the ebb and flow. The third class comprehends such seas as are on volcanic ground, for if the ground is in volcanic action the water is in a constant current to another sea, being increased in volume and swelled by the air which is originally in the earth, and thence communicated to the water. This is particularly frequent with seas that have an exten- sive line of coast and many islands*. A variety of opinions have been started respecting the causes of the ebb and flow. Some ascribe them to the influence of the moon, for she being congenial ju *iu \j Means an increase in volume without an (apparent) addition of matter. If this increase be effected by heat it is c>Jiij J^fsW^, and if by the absorption of another stuff as air and humidity, it is called UAJJ JlxiJI have their name, for they are made in this and the neighbouring towns like Sindanf and Stibarah s^L^w (Sufarah) . I visited this place in 303, A.H., during the government of Babina UoL * The text is probably corrupted and should run, and if the sun happens to meet with the moon or another planet, &c. f Some MSS. bear JJ^^XXA*, and others ^l^&; supposing the first part of the word being correctly spelt in the first reading, and the finale ^ in the second, we have the name which Abul- feda gives to a town on the coast of India, viz., AND MINES OF GEMS. 279 lo'L), who was appointed there as Brahman <& by the Ballahra* ^^XxJI, the sovereign of el- Mankir jJolXU This Babina liked to enter into disputations with Moslims or persons of any other religion, who visited his province. The above-men- tioned town is situated on an estuary which is as wide as the Nile, or like the Tigris antl Euphrates. On the banks of the estuary one sees towns, villas, cultivation, gardens, palms, cocoanut-trees, guinea- fowls, parrots, and other Indian birds. The city of Kambayah is two days or less distant from the mouth of this estuary. The ebb is so marked in this estuary that the sand lays quite bare, and only in the middle of the bed remains a little water. I saw a dog on this sand, which was left dry by the water like the sand of a desert ; the tide coming in from the sea like a mountain caught him although he ran as fast as he could to the land to escape, and the poor animal was drowned notwithstanding his swift- ness. Between el-Basrah and el-Ahwaz in the places called el-Basiyan ^U* UM and el-Kaidem f~ (Ceuta), the distance between the two coasts is not more than ten miles; EL-MAS 5 UDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, hence it is the route to cross over from the Maghrib to el-Andalos, and from el-Andalos into the Magh- rib. It is generally called the Zokak oli'j^l (lane). We shall speak in our account of Egypt of the bridge, which joined the two coasts, and of the navi- gation on this sea; also that the island of Kobros u~j* (Cyprus) and el-'Arish (fit j.x$\ were once connected by land, so that caravans passed from one place to another. On the limits where these two seas, the Mediter- ranean and the Ocean join, pillars of copper and stone, have been erected by King Hirakl the giant*. Upon these pillars are inscriptions and figures, which show with their hands that one cannot go further, and that it is impracticable to navigate beyond the Mediterranean into that sea (the ocean), for no vessel sails on it: there is no cultivation nor a human being, and the sea has no limits neither in its depths nor extent, for its end is unknown. This is the sea of darkness, also called the green sea or the surrounding sea l*^\ ^ ^*a^l ^ cAiJsJJ ^i Some say that these pillars are not on this strait, but in some islands of the ocean and their coast. Some people consider this sea as the origin of all * Hirakl JJf jjfc is generally the Arabic name for Heraclius but here, as the reader perceives, the pillars in question are the Herculis. AND MINES OF GEMS. 283 others. There are some wonderful stories related respecting it, for which we refer the reader to ourbook the Akhbar ez-zeman ; there he will find an account of those crews who have risked their lives in navigating this sea, and who of them have escaped, and who have been shipwrecked, also what they have encoun- tered and seen. Such an adventurer was a Moor of Spain, of the name of Khoshkhash J, and Sicily *JuU>. We shall speak of Sicily when we treat of the mount Borkan ^ ^ (^Etna), which throws out fire variously shaped, representing sometimes enormous carcases. Ya'- kub Ben Ishak el-Kindi and Ahmad Ben et-Taib es-Sarakhsi c^i ^ ^^^ U or not dotted at all. I suppose it is the same nation as the Tyragetes of Herodotus. AND MINES OF GEMS. 287 Nagaiz*, who are three nations of Turkish origin, is the same as the Pontus. We shall speak of these nations in the progress of our work if it is the will of God the Almighty, distinguishing those who sail on this sea from those who do not navigate it. * Amongst the various readings rutf v^ seems to be the most correct. The Nagaiz live north-east of the Black Sea towards Stavropol. 288 EL-MAS'lTDl's MEADOWS OF GOLD, FOURTEENTH CHAPTER. The sea of Bab el-Abwdb, of the Khazar and of *7orjdn (the Caspian), and the relation in which the seas stand to each other. THE sea of the Barbarians* ^U^l ^s? which is so called because their abodes are on its coast, is sur- rounded from all sides with cultivation; it is generally known under the name of the sea of Bab el-Abwabf v^^ v^>^> the sea of the Khazar, of el-Jil (Ghilan), of ed-Dailem, of Jorjan, and of Taberistan. On this sea live various nations of Turkish origin. It extends along Khowarezm which forms a province of Khorasan, and is eight hundred miles long, its breadth is six hundred means any person who is not Arab, but particularly the Persians. In this passage it must be taken in the more extensive meaning, in which it answers exactly to the Latin barbarus. Ibn Khaldun uses in this sense the expression l " a wild animaL " -j- Our author writes this name in all instances Bab wal- Abwab, i.e., the gate and the gates, instead of Bab el-Abwab, i.e., the gate of the gates, and comes therefore nearer to the ancient name Portce Caucasia. AND MINES OF GEMS. 289 miles, and it has nearly a round shape. In the progress of our work we will describe all the nations who live on this sea, which has the name of the sea of the Barbarians. In this sea are many Tenanin*, which is the plural of Tinnin. They are equally frequent in the Mediterranean, particularly about Tripolis, Laodicea, and Jebel el- Akra', in the district of Antioch, for under this mountain the sea is deep and boisterous ; hence this place is called the Knot of the Sea j.s\!\ *J-=M- On the coast of this sea are situated Antioch, Rashid, Sakandarunah'!' (Alexandria Cilicise), Hisn el-Markab^, on the mountain el-Lokkam, Missi- sah, where the river Jaihan falls into the sea, Adanah XJit with the mouth of the Saihan, Tarsus with the river el-Berdan ^b jJJ, which is the river of Tarsus ; further on is waste land, which forms the frontier between the Moslim and the Byzantine * It appears from what follows, that tinnin (in Hebrew, tannin), which is the usual word for dragon, means originally water- spout, and that the signification dragon owes its origin to the popular belief, that the water-spout is a sea-monster, which, according to el-Kazwinl, has sometimes a length of two farsangs. Some further details, respecting the fables to which this pheno- menon has given rise, as those of the Gorgons, of Perseus and Andromeda, of St. George, &c., will be given in the additional notes. f The MSS. bear Alexandria, although it comes later. i. The MSS. bear tyJu^Jl and o^i^Jl. U 290 EL-MAS'lJDi's MEADOWS OF GOLD, territory: then we come to the towns of Kalamiah 3UjlJ', Yunos u*^.j and Kerasia U~jj ; then to Solukiah a/Ji^X*, which has a large river that falls into the Mediterranean; from thence the sea is skirted with a line of fortresses, which extends as far as Constantinople. We have omitted many rivers of the Byzantine dominions which fall into this sea, as the Cold River ^UJt^xM, the Honey River J^xJt ^ 3 and many others. The coast of the Maghrib, beginning from the strait on which Tan- giers is situated, is equally in a flourishing state of cultivation all along the coast of Afrikiya, Susah, Tripolis, the Maghrib, (in its narrower sense), Alexandria, Rashid, and Dimyat, up to the Byzan- tine frontier, which joins the coast formed by the Byzantine dominions: further on is the coast of Rome, and beyond it the coast of Spain as far as the coast opposite Tangiers, on the strait from which we began our description. The whole coast just de- scribed presents an uninterrupted line of well-culti- vated countries, belonging partly to the Moslims, partly to the Roman dominions, and intersected by several rivers which fall into the sea and the strait of Constantinople, which is only one mile wide. This sea has several gulfs and estuaries, but they are merely inlets, and do not communicate with any other sea. The shape of this sea has been compared to a AND MINES OF GEMS. 291 cabbage *-**j&\, of which the strait of Gibraltar forms the stalk ; but it will appear, by comparing the length and breadth which we have given, that it is not round. The Tinnins (dragons) are quite unknown in the Abyssinian sea and in its numerous estuaries and bays. They are most frequent near the Atlantic (jluUs'l- Different opinions have been advanced as to what the dragon is : some believe that it is a black wind in the bottom of the sea, which rises into the air, that is to say, the atmosphere j4-\, as high as the clouds, like a hurricane whirling dust aloft as it rises from the ground, and destroying vegetation. The shape of the dragon becomes longer the higher it ascends in the air. Some people believe that the dragon is a black serpent which rises into the air, the clouds are at the same time black, all is dark, and this is suc- ceeded by a terrible wind. Some are of opinion that it is an animal which lives in the bottom of the sea, and that, when it is haughty and overbearing, God sends an angel in a cloud, who draws it out. It has the shape of a black shining serpent. When it is carried through the air it goes so high that it does not touch any thing with its tail, excepting, perhaps, very high buildings or trees ; but it frequently damages many trees. It is carried in the clouds to Yajuj and Majuj (Gog and Magog). The clouds u 2 292 EL-MAS'UDI'S MEADOWS OF GOLD, kill the dragon through cold and rain, and give it to Gog and Magog to devour. This is the opinion of Ibn 'Abbas. There are various other popular traditions respecting the dragon, which are recorded by biographers of Mohammed and other prophets, but we cannot insert them all here. They say, for instance, that the dragons are black serpents which live in the desert, whence they pass, by rivers swelled by rains, into the sea. They feed there on sea animals, grow to an immense size, and live a long time ; but when one of them has reached an age of five hundred years, it becomes so oppressive to sea animals, that there happens something like what we have related, as being the account of Ibn 'Abbas. Some, they state, are white, and others black like serpents. The Persians do not deny the existence of dragons. They believe that they have seven heads*, they call them ^U