At Assouan were settled the Beni el Kenz, a tribe of Rabya, very praiseworthy people, celebrated by many verses. El Fadhel el Sedyd Abou el Hassan Ibn Aram has written their history. When Salah eddyn Ibn Ayoubi[166] sent an army against Kenz el Doulai[167] and his party, they left this territory.i[168] The soldiers entered their houses, and found therein verses of those who had sung their praises, and among the rest a poem of Mohammed el Hassan Ibn Zebeyr, in which was this passage:
They help him whom the times have betrayed or oppressed;
People they are, who never dwell where dishonour abides;
When they grant their protection, no man under the stars fears;
When they dispense with their generosity, no want remains upon the earth’s surface.
For which the author received 1000 Dinars, and a water-wheel (with its field) was entailed upon him, worth 1000 Dinars.i[169] regular armed garrison had always been stationed at Assouan, to guard the harbour against the inroads of the Nouba, and the blacks. When the reign of the Fatimites terminated,i[170] this port was neglected. The king of Nouba, with 10,000 men, fell then again upon the island opposite Assouan,i[171] and took prisoners all its Moslim inhabitants.i[172] After this period the affairs of this harbour declined. After the year 790, the tribe of El Kenz became masters of it. They behaved vilely, and had many wars with the governors of this town, until the destructive epoch of 806.i[173] Upper Egypt was then ruined and depopulated, the Sultan drew off his hand from Assouan, and he no longer kept a governor there. It remained in a deserted state for many years. In the month of Moharram, of the year 815, the Arabs Howarai[174] proceeded to Assouan and attacked the Beni Kenz, and obliged them to fly.i[175] They killed many of them, and reduced to slavery all the women and children whom they took prisoners.i[176] They destroyed the walls of Assouan, departed with their captives, and left the city in ruins, without inhabitants. In this state the town remained, of which Selym el Assouany relates, that when Abd el Hamyd el Amry took the mines, he wrote to Assouan to demand from the merchants to supply him with provisions, upon which one man of the name of Othman Ibn Hauthale el Temymy, carried to him 1000 loads of provisions and corn. (Here follows a few other notices on Assouan of little interest.)
Belak.
Belak is the last fortified place of the Moslims. It is an island in the neighbourhood of the cataract, surrounded by the Nile, with a large town upon it, well inhabited, with a number of date trees, and a Mambar (pulpit) in a mosque.i[177] Between this and the city called Kaszer, which is the first town of Nouba, is one mile, and between Assouan and Belak four miles. Between Assouan and Belak are cataracts in the river, over which the ships cannot pass but with great caution, and guided by the fishermen of these parts, who are acquainted with the passage. At the Kaszer is a garrison post, and it is a gate towards Nouba.
On the Desert of Aidab or Aizab.
The pilgrims from Egypt and Barbary remained upwards of 200 years without taking any other road to Mekka, may God honour her, than by the desert of Aidab. They embarked on the Nile at the plain of Fostat, and ascended as far as Kous. From thence they mounted camels, and crossed this desert to Aidab, where they afterwards embarked in vessels for Djidda, on the coast of Mekka. In the same manner the merchants of India, and Yemen, and Habesh, arrived by this sea at Aidab, reached through this desert the town of Kous, and from thence Mesr. This desert continued to be peopled and frequented by caravans of merchants and of pilgrims going and coming, in so much that loads of spices and drugs, as pepper, cinnamon, and others were found on the road, while caravans were ascending and descending, and nobody touched them until their owner took them away.i[178] The pilgrims in going to Mekka and returning from thence, continued to frequent that road more than 200 years, from the year 453 and upwards, to the year 663 and upwards, at which time happened the great misfortune during the reign of the Khalif Mostanser b’illah Aly Temim Mad Ibn el Dhaher,i[179] and the pilgrim caravans were interrupted by land and by sea until the Sultan Dhaher Roken eddyn Bybars el Bondokdary clothed again the Kaba, and made a key to it. A caravan then departed by land in the year 66—.i[180] But the passage of pilgrims through this desert became less frequent, although it continued to be the road by which the merchandises were carried from Aidab to Kous, until the year 760, when it was abandoned, after which the affairs of Kous declined. This desert from Kous to Aidab is seventeen days journey across, during which no water is found for three, and once for four, successive days.i[181] Aidab is a town on the coast of the sea of Djidda. It has no walls, and most of its houses are built of mats.i[182] It was formerly one of the first harbours of the world, because the ships from India and Yemen brought here their merchandise, and set sail again in company with the ships of the pilgrims that passed to and fro. When the Indian and Yemen ships ceased to arrive at this place, then Aden, of the Yemen, became the great harbour, until after 820 and upwards, Djidda became the first harbour of the world, and likewise Hormuz, which is a fine anchoring place. Aidab is situated in a desert devoid of any vegetation; all the provisions, even the water, are imported. Its inhabitants derived immense gains from the merchants and the pilgrims; they had certain established dues from every camel’s load belonging to the pilgrims,i[183] and hired their ships to them to cross over the sea to Djidda, and from thence back to Aidab; by which they accumulated great riches. There was no inhabitant of Aidab who had not one or more ships, in proportion to the amount of his property. In the sea of Aidab, at some islands in the vicinity of it, is a pearl fishery.i[184] The divers issue from Aidab every year at a fixed period, in small boats. Arrived at the island, they remain there some time, and come back with whatever has fallen to their good fortune. They find the pearls in water of little depth.