Arabic Tradition,
as given by Mr. Cope Whitehouse in his article entitled “The Expansion of Egypt” in the Contemporary Review, September 1887, translated from an Arabic manuscript which once belonged to Cardinal Mazarin:—
“Joseph, to whom may Allah show mercy and grant peace, when he was Prime Minister of Egypt and high in favour with Raiyan, his sovereign, after that he was more than a hundred years old, became an object of envy to the favourites of the king and the puissant seigneurs of the Court of Memphis, on account of the great power which he wielded and the affection entertained for him by his monarch. They accordingly thus addressed the king: ‘Great king, Joseph is now very old; his knowledge has diminished; his beauty has faded; his judgment is unsound; his sagacity has failed.’ The king said: ‘Set him a task which shall serve as a test.’ At that time el-Fayoum was called el-Hun, or the Marsh. It served as a waste basin for the waters of Upper Egypt, which flowed in and out unrestrained. The courtiers having taken counsel together what to propose to the king, gave this reply to Pharaoh: ‘Lay the royal commands upon Joseph that he shall divert the water of the Nile from el-Hun and drain it, so as to give you a new province and an additional source of revenue.’ The king assented, and summoning Joseph to his presence, said: ‘You know how dearly I love my daughter, and you see that the time has arrived in which I ought to carve out an estate for her out of the crown lands, and give her a separate establishment, of which she would be the mistress. I have, however, no territory available for this purpose except the submerged land of el-Hun. It is in many respects favourably situated. It is a convenient distance from my capital. It is surrounded by desert. My daughter will thus be independent and protected.’ ‘Quite true, great king,’ responded Joseph, ‘when would you wish it done? for accomplished it shall be by the aid of Allah, the all-powerful.’ ‘The sooner, the better,’ said the king. Then Allah inspired Joseph with a plan. He directed him to make three canals; one from Upper Egypt, a canal on the east, and a canal on the west. Joseph collected workmen and dug the canal of Menhi from Ashmunîn to el-Lahûn. Then he excavated the canal of el-Fayoum, and the eastern canal, with another canal near it called Ben-Hamed to the west. In this way the water was drained from el-Hun; then he set an army of labourers at work. They cut down the tamarisks and bushes which grew there and carried them away. At the season when the Nile begins to rise the marsh had been converted into good cultivable land. The Nile rose; the water entered the mouth of the Menhi canal and flowed down the Nile Valley to el-Lahûn; thence it turned towards el-Fayoum, and entered that canal in such volume that it filled it, and converted the land into a region irrigated by the Nile. King Raiyan thereupon came to see his new province with the courtiers who had advised him to set Joseph this task. When they saw the result they greatly marvelled at the skill and inventive genius of Joseph, and exclaimed: ‘We do not know which most to admire, the draining of the marsh and the destruction of the noxious plants, or the conversion of its surface into fertile and well-watered fields.’ Then the King said to Joseph, ‘How long did it take you to bring this district into the excellent state in which I find it?’ ‘Seventy days,’ responded Joseph. Then Pharaoh turned to his courtiers and said: ‘Apparently one could not have done it in a thousand days.’ Thus the name was changed from el-Hun, or the Marsh, to el-Fayoum, ‘the land of a thousand days.’”
This pun is not to be appreciated in the translation without a knowledge of Arabic. Elf is the Arabic for a thousand, and yôm for a day; elf-yôm being a thousand days. As the work took seventy days to complete, according to the tradition, it does not appear clear why it should have been called “the land of a thousand days” instead of “the land of seventy days.” But the tradition must not be criticised, as it will not stand it.
The name Fayûm is derived from an old Coptic word phiûm signifying a sea or lake; el is simply the definite article.
CHAPTER III.
THEORIES AS TO WHERE AND WHAT LAKE MŒRIS WAS.
Postulates.—There seems to be a general agreement that Lake Mœris was in the Fayûm, the evidence being conclusive. There is, further, no disposition shown to question the fact, that the Labyrinth and the pyramid alongside it, were on the borders of Lake Mœris, and that the present capital of the Fayûm, Medineh or Medinet-el-Fayûm, occupies part of the site of the ancient town of Crocodilopolis, or, as it was called afterwards, Arsinoë.
There seems also to be sufficient evidence for accepting the conclusion, that the site of the Labyrinth was at the foot of the Hawârah pyramid.