The lost oases

by Ahmad Muhammad Hasanayn

THE MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERY MADE AT OUENAT

Rock drawings found in the valley chiseled on the granite rock. The drawings are similar to those found in Egypt of prehistoric age. There are drawings of giraffes, gazelles of every kind, lions, ostriches, cattle, but none of the camel, yet no traveler can reach this oasis now except with the camel because of the absence of water on the route and of any grains which could make the journey possible for a donkey or a horse. The remains of routes found in the Egyptian oasis west of the Nile Valley point toward the oasis of Ouenat, and it is probable that in the old times the route from the Mediterranean coast to central Africa was through this oasis and not through Kufra, as is the case now.

It is not easy to move about, for books and chests of books are ranged along the walls and in the middle of the room as well.

There are many very ancient chests used as cup-boards and at the same time fitted with attachments at the sides which enable them to be straightway loaded upon a camel in case of need. The library is somewhat out of order, books piled carelessly one on top of another, for Sayed Idris has long been absent. There is a great number of manuscripts inclosed in beautifully tooled morocco covers. There are modern books printed in Cairo and in India. There are manuscripts from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia. With the exception of a few books in the Persian language, all are in Arabic. There are two or three manuscripts of the Koran illuminated in gold. It was a great privilege for me to be allowed to go into this library, for as a rule no one is admitted.

I found many manuscripts laboriously written on ancient parchment, works on philosophy, the Arabic language, theology, Sufism, a few on poetry and mysticism, another on talismans and magic. Many were the interesting and pleasant hours that I spent among the collection. The surroundings and the atmosphere were just right; so remote, so many miles from the world, one felt in the mood to absorb the thought to be found in these manuscripts. Sit in a comfortable chair in the midst of civilization and try to read such books; one ring of the telephone would be enough to make them appear archaic.

Saturday, April 7. A fine pair of shoes came as a present from Sharrufa. The chiefs of the Zwayas came to pay me another visit. We talked over our coffee about Zwaya history. I learned that it was not the Zwayas who first conquered Kufra from the Tebus, but the Ghawasi and Jahama tribes. The names of two of the Kufra villages, Tollab and Zurruk, are family names of the Jahama tribe.

I gave each of my visitors a photograph of the group which I had taken several days before, and they were delighted with them.

I realized to the full that day the perils of Kufra. Rohlfs almost lost his life here by violence; I almost lost mine by kindness. I lunched prodigally at El Abid’s, as usual, and the meal was followed by coffee, three glasses of tea, with amber, rose-water, and mint, and three glasses of milk enriched with almond pulp. Then Sharrufa insisted that I should come to his house and offered me three glasses of perfumed tea, followed again by three glasses of almond-flavored milk. I reflected that to refuse was to offend, and gulped down the beverages, which, by now, had become somewhat nauseating. The end was not yet. Shams El Din hauled me off to his house and set before me biscuits and nuts and a huge glass of sweet syrup. It was almost more than flesh and blood could endure, but—to refuse was to offend. There followed three glasses of coffee, but I stalked forth with all the dignity of a man going to the gallows or the Spartan boy with the fox gnawing at his vitals.

As I lay down in my room to recuperate, many thoughts surged through my brain. Would that the Bedouin, whoever he was, who selected “three” as the mystic number to characterize desert hospitality, had died unborn! But it was lucky that he did not hit on seven instead of three. I came to the desert perfectly prepared for destruction by the hand of nature or hostile men, but the idea of perishing through indigestion did not commend itself to my sense of the fitness of things.