You have turned to Nedjed after your mansion was in Tehama.

فيا دمع انجد ني علي ساكني نجد

O tears! help me against the inhabitants of Nedjed.

(78.) The author of these verses, which convey the highest praise that can be given to an Arab, is probably the same Ibn Zebeyr who is known as the author of a history of Assouan.

(79.) I suppose this attack to be that mentioned by the Egyptian historians, to have taken place in the time of the before mentioned Salah eddyn; of which I however know no more particulars, than that during his reign the King of Nouba fell upon Assouan.

(80.) The Arab tribe of Howara (هوارة) occupy all the villages on both sides of the Nile from near Siout up to Farshiout and Haou on the west, and to near Kenne on the east; at least the principal and most wealthy peasants of these villages belong to that tribe. Until the time of Mohammed Aly they were very powerful, and a branch of them, the Oulad Yahya (اولاد يحيي), settled on the east banks from Badjoura to Kenne (comprising the large villages of Salmye, Kaszer e’Seyad, Faoun, and Disher), were very conspicuous for their rebellious behaviour. The province of the Howara is of all Egypt the richest in horses, and the best breed of Egyptian horses is reared there. Every wealthy peasant kept his horse, and a large corps of cavalry could thus be collected at a moment’s notice.i[206] The Hamam, the principal family of the Howara, had within the last century assumed the whole government of Upper Egypt, south of Siout, and the Mamelouks had been obliged to cede it to them by treaty. Their government was certainly more just than that of the Osmanlis, and although Mamelouks, far from being entitled to praise. The soil was moderately taxed: one Fedhan at Esne, which now pays 14 Patacks to Mohammed Aly, then paid only two Patacks; but extortions were practised upon all merchants, especially at Kenne, and Farshiout, and Girge; and the numerous relations of the Hamam governed in their own districts with great oppression and pride. None had more to suffer from the Howara than the Copts. Such of these people as were not in the service of the Shikhs Hamam, as financiers or writers, but who were employed, as many of them still are, in agriculture or in crafts, especially weaving, were so much exposed to the extortions of the Hamams and the Howara in general, who appear to have been very fanatic, that they found no other means for ensuring repose and protection than by offering themselves in slavery to their oppressors. It thus happened that in every village of southern Egypt, where Copts were settled, the latter chose one of the Howara Shikhs as his master; whom he called “my Bedouin,” (بدويّ), and was called by the Shikh “my Christian,” (نصرانيّ). He became now like a member of his master’s family; if he was poor, the latter sent to his house provisions of corn and butter, and gave him a dress every year; but in return, he was obliged to be constantly attending to his master’s orders; assisting him in his field labours, doing all kind of work for him, and accompanying him on an ass like a servant, whenever the Shikh rode out to meet his equals or superiors. If the Copt happened to be in good circumstances, he was obliged to make occasional presents to his master, who exempted him on that account from hard work, and protected him from the oppressions of any other Shikh. If the daughter of the serf was to be married, the master entered her house on the wedding night; and put an iron chain round her ankles, which he secured with a padlock, and the bridegroom was obliged to make him a present in order to have the padlock opened, and the girl restored to liberty. The possession of these Christians was transmitted by the Shikhs to their descendants, who seldom parted with them, unless they were themselves reduced to poverty, when they sometimes sold them to the protection of other Shikhs. In 1812 a Christian family residing on the east bank, opposite to Siout, was thus sold for two Erdeybs of corn. I am ignorant of the exact time in which this custom took its origin, but I believe it has subsisted only since the establishment of the Hamam. It is still in usage in Upper Egypt, in many parts of the open country, and especially in the most southern districts, where the peasants, although quite in subjection to the Pasha, are left in their own villages to act at pleasure, the government caring little for the impositions practised by the village Shikh upon poor individuals, provided the land tax be regularly paid. During my stay at Esne, I was well acquainted with several Christians who were thus the hereditary slaves or servants of great Shikhs, and I have myself assisted at the ceremony of tying the chain at the wedding. The Hamams were not quiet possessors of Upper Egypt even after the Mamelouks had made peace with them. They were exposed on the northern side to continual attacks from the Libyan Bedouin tribes of Tarhoun, Amaym, Djahame, Rabaya, and others, who dwell in the desert west of Siout and in the plain towards Beni Ady, and many accounts of battles fought between them and the Howara are still related. On the south, the tribe of Kaszas (قصاص) who people the country on the west banks from Thebes to near Esne, and to whom belong the inhabitants of Gourne, Orment, and Reheygat (all celebrated for their bold plundering enterprises) were their determined enemies; although both these and the Howara report that they have the same origin from Barbary. When, after Aly Beg, the Mamelouk power had increased in Egypt, the Hamams were attacked by them, and defeated in several bloody encounters, and the chief Hamam being wounded, fled to Esne, where he died. He was buried at Nagady opposite Kous. The treasure, in cash, which he had accumulated was in vain searched for; his people put to the torture, confessed that he had buried it in the mountains behind Haou; but nothing could be found, although to this day many a ruined peasant or pedlar, or necromancer wanders in that direction in the hopes of finding it. The power of the Hamams was thus destroyed, but that of the Howara remained, and the Mamelouk Begs, though often at war with them, could never break their strength. A part of them, the Oulad Yahya, for instance, were often entirely independent, and the village Shikhs themselves received the land tax from the peasants.i[207] When Mohammed Aly had succeeded in driving away the Mamelouks, he was several years before he could reduce the Howara. His governors in Upper Egypt, Abdim Beg, Saleh Aga, Hassan Pasha, sacked many of their villages, but it was his own son, Ibrahim Pasha, who firmly settled his authority by acts of great rigour and severity, having killed by the sword or the executioner at least 2000 Howara. He changed the Shikhs of villages, in the same manner as the Wahabi chief had changed the Shikhs of the Arabian tribes; he disunited the villages among themselves, and punished with celerity and without any mercy all those who opposed the smallest obstacles to his authority. The last village sacked by Ibrahim Pasha in Upper Egypt was Orment, the chief place of the Kaszas, who had withheld their tribute. In the autumn of 1813, he fell by night upon that village, killed about 30 of the principal people and plundered all. Since that time Upper Egypt is completely reduced to submission. The Howara have now been obliged to abandon their horses, none but the Shikhs of villages dare keep any, and their dreaded cavalry is thus completely reduced. The descendants of Hamam, the chief, still remain; I knew a nephew of his at Farshiout and another at Esne; the latter had several Christians belonging to his family as serfs.

(81.) This city of Belak no longer remains. In the direction in which it is placed are several islands, upon which, looking from the shore, I saw several ruined buildings. It might be supposed that Belak was upon the Island of Philæ, but in that case there is no place, one mile in advance of Philæ, where we can place El Kaszer; and the latter name seems strongly to indicate that magnificent and ancient buildings stood there. Luxor, or El Akszar at Thebes, derives its name from the same circumstance.

(82.) The Moggrebyn traveller, Batouta, crossed this desert repeatedly. The relation he gives of it, when he passed it the first time, in 725 A. H. is the following: “he embarked on the Nile at Cairo and ascended the river as far as Edfou. From thence he went to the village of Adjerna el Fil (اجرنا الفيل), and to the village El Atoany (عطواني).i[208] From the latter village he set out on his journey through the desert. He travelled with Arabs of the tribe of Dogheim (دغيم), for 15 days over barren mountains and plains. In one of their stations they alighted at Hemeytry (حميتري), where the tomb of the Saint Aby el Hassan el Shadely (ابي الحسن الشادلي) is shown.i[209] He then came to Aizab. The people of Aizab are Bedjas, of a black colour. They never let their daughters partake in the inheritance. Two-thirds of the revenue of Aizab belongs to the King of the Bedjas, called el Hadraby, and one-third goes to the Sultan of Egypt. The voyage to Djidda could not take place on account of disturbances that had broken out between the Bedjas and people of Bornou,i[210] and he was obliged to re-cross the desert to Egypt.” This is all that I find of this road, in an abridgement which I possess of the great work; and of which, as I believe it is not known in Europe, I shall give some farther notices here.

Ibn Batouta is perhaps the greatest land traveller who ever wrote his travels. When I first rapidly ran over his book, I took him for no better than Damberger the pseudo African traveller; but a more careful perusal has convinced me that he had really been in the places and seen what he describes. His name was Aby Abdallah Mohammed Ibn Abdallah el Lowaty el Tandjy, surnamed Ibn Batouta. He was born at Tangier in Barbary, from which place he derives the name of Tandjy. (ابن عبدالله محمد بن عبدالله اللواتي الطنجي المعروف با بن بطوطة). He published his travels after the year 755, A. H. They consist of a large quarto volume, which is so scarce in Egypt, that I never saw it; but I know that a copy exists at Cairo, though I was not able to discover who was the owner. A small abridgment in quarto is more common, and of that I have two copies.i[211] I shall give here a rapid sketch of his travels, which lasted for 30 years. Being a learned man he found every where a polite and generous reception from Moslim chiefs and kings, and he lived as a true derwish, sometimes in great affluence and sometimes in poverty.

He left Tandja in 725, A. H., and went by Algiers, Tunis, Tripoly, and from thence by sea, to Alexandria and Cairo. From thence he proceeded to Upper Egypt and Aizab, with the intention of going to Mekka, but as we have seen before, he was obliged to return to Cairo. Without stopping long at Cairo he set out for Syria. In 726 he visited Jerusalem, Akka, Tripoly, Homs, Aleppo, Antioch, the fortresses of the Ismaylis, Balbek, and Damascus. From thence he started with the pilgrim caravan to Mekka, where he performed his first pilgrimage. He returned with the Hadj to Medina, from whence he travelled across the Nedjed to Meshed Aly, and Bassora. After an excursion to Shiraz and Ispahan he came back to Koufa, and went by Kerbela to Bagdad. From hence he visited Tebryz, and by way of Mosul again returned to Bagdad, from whence he went with the Hadj caravan across the Arabian desert a second time to Mekka in 729, where he remained for one year. He then embarked at Djidda for Yemen, touched at Souakin, which was then under the command of the Sherif Zeyd Ibn Aby Nema, whose father was Sherif of Mekka. He touched at all the sea ports of Yemen, as far as Aden. From thence he visited Zeyla on the African coast, the capital, he says, of the Barbara, a Negroe nation, turned Moslim, of the sect of the Shafey, whose territory extends from Zeyla two months journey as far as Mokdosho.i[212] The greater part of the inhabitants of Zeyla are Rowafid (or sectaries of Aly). He then travelled 15 days by sea to Mokdosho; then to Mombaza, an island thus called; to Kilo, where he found the whole coast peopled with the Zendj nation, and every where Moslims mixed with pagans. From thence he crossed over to Thafar on the south coast of Yemen, 16 days journey by land from Hadramout, and one month to Aden, which was a harbour trading with India. Half a day’s journey from thence is the town of Ahkak, the ancient residence of the tribe Aad. From thence he coasted the shore to the chief city of Oman, called Nezoa. He then crossed over to the Persian coast, visited Hormuz, Khoristan, Lar, Djenhbal, Syraf (or Keys), Bahreyn, and El Hassa. From Hassa he went with the Hadj caravan in 733 to Mekka, performed his pilgrimage, and by way of Aidab and the desert again visited Egypt and Cairo. He then proceeded to Syria, and from thence into Anatolia, which country he visited in all directions. Taking his road by the Black Sea, he entered the north of Persia, Khowarezem, and Bokhara. He visited Samarkand, Termah, Balkh, Herat, El Djam, Tous, Sarkhas, and Nysabour. From Nysabour he crossed over the snowy mountains called Hindwaksh and Bisha-y, to Berden, to Ghazna, and Kaboul; then to the mountains of Shishghar, and across a desert of 15 days journey to the Pandjab, or five waters. He continued his road to Seboustan, and Lahoa on the river; went to Bekar, Audjed, and Mulsen; from thence 40 days journey to Dehly by the road of Abou Hour, Serseta, Hasky and Masoudabad. He arrived at Dehly in 740, and remained there a while. From thence he joined an embassy to China, but was afterwards separated from it. He travelled from Dehly to Byane, Koul (near the town of Djelaly) to Youhpour, Kanoudj, Meroua, Kalyour, Beroun, Kadjoura, Tahār (which is 24 days journey from Dehly) Dowletabad, Nezerabad, and Sagher; then on the river of Sagher, to Combabe, near the sea, and to Kawa. Here they embarked. Having passed at sea the island of Byram, the city of Kouka, the island of Sandabour, and the city of Hanoud, he arrived at Malebar. In that country he visited Mandjeroun, Heyly, Darkonna, and Calicut. From thence he visited the islands called Zobyt el Mahal (2000 small islands—no doubt the Maldives), where he met with curious adventures, and married in a Moslim family. The chiefs and kings of Malebar had been particularly generous towards him. He now set out for China. He landed at Sylan, where the Djebel Serendyb is, and where he visited Kankar, the residence of the king of Sylan, as well as the towns of Columbo and Batala. From hence he sailed for the country of Mabar, where he reached the king’s residence at Matrat. He now found himself obliged by wayward circumstances, to return to Kolam in Malebar, and to Calicut. He again started from thence by sea to Bendjala, where he alighted in the town of Sedka. Fakker eddyn was Sultan of Bendjala. He made from thence a long excursion to the mountains of Kamero, which join the mountains of Tibt. He reached the town of Habnak, situated on the river Azrak, which flows down from the mountains of Kamero towards Bendjala; passed the town of Seter kawan, from whence he travelled to the country of Ber hankar, on the sea shore, where he embarked for the Jawa (or Malay) country, on his way to China. He reached the island of Jawa, passed by the town of Meldjaza, the harbour of Kakouly, and from thence had a 34 days voyage to the sea of Kahel, where calms reign. He then touched at the town of Toualysy, and from thence sailed 27 days to the first town of China, called Kaoupoazyne. Wishing to see the interior of the country he travelled to the province of Kylan, upon a river. He visited the large town of Zeytoun, where the great river Ab-hya empties itself into the sea, and the cities of Kondjonfor and Khonsa, from whence he went back to Zeytoun. He found in almost every town of China, Moslims who received him with hospitality. From China he returned back to Java, Kolam, and Calicut; from thence to Yemen, to Maskat, Hormus, Khoristan, Shiraz, Ispahan, Bassora, and Bagdad, where he arrived in 748. He joined here a caravan going to Damascus, which passed by Anak and Tedmor, and from Damascus he returned to Cairo. In order to perform one more pilgrimage, he set out to Mekka by way of Upper Egypt and the desert to Aizab, and in 749 he was present at the Hadj of Arafat; he then visited Medina, and returned from thence by Cairo and Alexandria to Barbary, and his native town of Tandja. After a short excursion into Spain, where he visited Djebel Tarek (Gibraltar), Malaga, and Garnata, he recrossed the sea into the dominions of Morocco, and visited the capital, and Sedjelmessa. The vicinity of the Soudan kingdom now tempted this indefatigable traveller. In 753 he crossed the desert with the slave traders to Theghary, 25 days journey from Sedjelmessa, a village, the houses of which are built of salt stone, and are covered with camel skins; it is without any trees, in a sandy plain, and inhabited by slaves who dig up the salt in the neighbourhood, and sell it to the people of Soudan. From thence there was a waterless road of 10 days journey to a station where caravans alight and repose for 3 days, called Tashala. Farther on he crossed a sandy glittering plain, without water, or birds, or trees, but composed entirely of sand, which the wind moves, and where no footsteps remain. This desert is also 10 days across, after which he reached Abou Laten, the first place of Soudan. Here are a few date trees, and water melons; the people dress in clothes brought to them from Egypt; most of them are traders. Their women are beautiful, and are more honoured than the men, who are not jealous of them. They count the lineage from the uncle, and not from the father; the son of the sister inherits to the exclusion of the true son; a custom, says Batouta, which he saw no where else except among the pagan Hindoos of Malebar. These Negroes are Moslims. From Abou Laten he travelled to Maly. The road is full of large trees, a single one of which affords shade for a whole caravan. In the (hollow) trunk of one of these trees the traveller saw a weaver working at his loom. Among them are the trees Istaset, the interior of which is filled with water, and affords drink to the passengers. In other trees live bees, and they are full of honey. Gourds grow here to a very large size. They cut them in two, and thus make two large bowls out of one gourd. Almost all their vessels are of gourds. Ten days from Abou Laten, he passed the city of Zaghary (زغاري), an extensive place inhabited by Negroe traders, and some white people of the heretic creed of Byadha. Leaving this,i[213] he came to a very large river, which is the Nile. Here is the village of Kar Sendjou, from whence the Nile flows down to Kabera, and from thence to Zagha (زاغه), the inhabitants of which are Moslims of old, and strong in their faith. From Zagha the Nile flows down to Timbuctou, then to Kuku, to Mouly, the last place of the country of Maly, to Bowy, which is one of the largest cities of Soudan, and the Sultan one of the most powerful of that country; no white man enters it, for he would be killed before his arrival. From thence the Nile descends into the country of Nouba, where the people are Christians, and passes by Dóngola, the largest town of Nouba, the king of which is at present called Ibn Kenz eddyn, who turned Moslim in the time of El Melek el Naszer (of Egypt). From thence the Nile flows down to the cataract. From Karsendjou (or Karsendjer) the traveller proceeded to the river called Sansera(صنصره), about 10 miles from Maly, and then entered Maly, where he remained two months, and received presents from the Sultan, Mousy Soleyman, an avaricious but very just king. The women in this country never cover their nakedness until after marriage. In 754 he left Maly, and came to a branch or canal of the Nile, where he saw a great number of hippopotami, and from whence, after many days, he reached Timbuctou. Most of its inhabitants are traders; it is a town of the kingdom of Maly, and a black governor, named by the Sultan of Maly, resides there. He then proceeded to Kuku, a large city, one of the finest in Soudan. Here as well as in Maly they use shells as currency. From Kuku he reached the town of Berdamma, the inhabitants of which are the guardians of the caravans; their women are beautiful. Farther, he arrived at the town of Nekda, built of red stones. The water (with which it is supplied) runs over copper mines, and assumes a red colour, whence it is called Bahr-el-Ahmar. The people have no employment excepting trade and the copper mines on the outside of Nekda (or Tekda), where slaves work. The copper is melted into long pieces, which are carried to the pagan Negroes for sale, and to other places. The Sultan of Nekda was of the Berber nation. From hence the traveller returned in 754 to Barbary. He passed the district of Hekar of the Berbers, Sedjelmessa, and arrived at Faz, where his travels are concluded.