"The king also restored his attention to the treasures of the Sinaitic Peninsula, which had excited the concupiscence of the Egyptians since the days of King Senoferu[47] (B.C. 3700). Loaded with rich presents for the sanctuary of the goddess Hathor, the protectress of Mafka-land, chosen employés were despatched on a royal commission to the peninsula, for the purpose of supplying the Pharaoh's treasury with the highly prized blue-green copper-stones (Mafka, Turkisen?[48])."
These lines were published by Dr. Brugsch-Bey before he had heard of my discoveries of metals and of a modern turquoise-digging in the Land of Midian. He had decided that "'Atháka" lay to the east of Suez, chiefly from the insistence laid upon the shipping; sea-going craft would certainly not be required for a sail of three or four hours. Moreover, as I have elsewhere shown, Jebel 'Atakáh, the "Mountain of Deliverance," at the mouth of the Wady Musá, was referred to the Jews at some time after the Christian era, and probably during the fourth and fifth centuries, when pilgrimages to the apocryphal Mounts Sinai became the fashion.
During the summer of 1877, Dr. Brugsch-Bey was kind enough to copy and to translate the original document, upon which he founded his short account of the "'Atháka" copper-mines. I offer it to the reader in full.
The order of the alphabet is that adopted by Dr. Brugsch-Bey. It relies for the first letter upon the authority of Plutarch, who asserts that the Egyptian abecedarium numbered the square of five (twenty-five); and that it opened with ——, which also expresses the god Thoth;—this is the case with —— the leaf of some water-plant. The sequence of the letters has been suggested by a number of minor considerations: we begin with the vowels, and proceed to the labial, the liquids, and so forth.[49]
The sense of the highly interesting inscription, in its English order, would be:—
"I have sent my commissioners to the land 'Atháka; to the (those)[50] great mines of copper (or coppers)[51] which are in this place ('Atháka); and their (i.e. the commissioners') ships[52] were loaded, carrying them (the metals); while other (commissioners were sent and) marched on their asses. No! one never (ter-tot) had heard, since the (days of the olden) kings, that these (copper) mines had been found.[53] The loads (i.e. of the ships and the asses) carried copper; the loads were by myriads for their ships, which went thence (i.e. from the mines) to Egypt. (After) happily arriving, the loads were landed, according to royal order, under the Pavilion,[54] in form of copper- bricks;[55] they were numerous as frogs (in the marsh),[56] and in quality they were gold (Nub) of the third degree.[57] I made them admired (by) all the world as marvellous things."
The following lines upon the subject of Midian are from the notes (p. 143) of Jacob Golius in "Alferganum" (small 4to. Amsterdam, 1669), a valuable translation with geographical explanations. Ahmad ibn Mohammed ibn Kathír el-Fargháni derived his "lakab" or cognomen from the province of Farghán (Khokand), to the north-east of the Oxus; he wrote a work upon astronomy, and he flourished about A.H. 184 (= A.D. 800).
"Ibidem ( Madyan) Medjan sive Midjan, Antiqui nominis oppidum in Maris Rubri littore, sub 29 degrees grad. latitudine; ad ortum brumalem deflectens à montis Sinæ extremitate: ubi feré site Ptolemæi Modiana, haud dubié eadem cum Midjan. A Geographorum Orientalium quibusdam ad Ægyptum refertur; à plerisq; omnibus ad Higiazam: quod merito et recté factum. Nullus enim est, qui Arabibus non annumeret Madianitas; et Sinam, quæ Madjane borealior, montem Arabiæ facit D. Paulus Gal. iv. Midjan autem fuit Abrahami ex Kethura filius: unde tribus illa et ab hac urbs nomen habent. Quam quidem tribum coaluisse, sedibus ut puto et affinitate in unam cum Ismaëlitis, innuere videntur Geneseos verba. Nam conspirantibus in Josephi exitium fratribus dicuntur supervenisse Ismaëlitae; transivisse Midjanite; ipse v ditus ab Ismaëlitis. Ceterum urbem Midjan Arabes pro ea habent, quæ in Corano vocatur ( Madínat Kúsh): Xaib[58] enim illis idem est, qui Jethro dicitur Exod. iii. cujus filiam Sipporam Moses uxor duxit, cum ex Ægpto profugisset in terram Midjan; ubi Jethro princeps erat et Sacerdos. Autonomosia illa Arabibus familiaris. Ita Hanoch ( Aknúkh) appelatus, Abraham (El- Khalíl), Rex Saul ( Tálút), etc., licet eorundem propria etiam usurpentur nomina. Et in ipsis Sacris Libris non uno nomine hic Jethro designatur. Loci illius puteum[59] Scriptores memorant fano circum extructo Arabibus sacrum, persuasis Mosem ibi Sipporam et sorores à pastorum injuriis vindicasse; prout Exod., cap. ii., res describitur. Sed primis Muhammedici regni bellis universa fere, quae rune extabat, urbs vastata fuit."
El-Fargháni is followed by the Imám Abú 'Abbás Ahmed bin Yáhyá bin Jábir, surnamed and popularly known as El-Balázurí, who flourished between A.H. 232 and 247 (= A.D. 846 to 861), and wrote the Futú'h el-Buldán, or the "Conquests of Countries." His words are (pp. 13-14, M. J. de Goeje's edition; Lugduni Batavorum, 1866)—"It was related to me by Abú Abíd el-Kásim bin Sallám; who said he was told by Ishák bin Isa, from Malík ibn Anas and from Rabíat, who heard from a number of the learned, that the Apostle of Allah (upon whom be peace!) gave in feoff (Iktá'at) to Bilál bin el-Háris el-Muzni, mines (Ma'ádin, i.e. of gold) in the district of Furú' (variant, Kurú'). Moreover, it was related to me by Amrú el-Nákid, and by Ibn Saham el-Antáki (of Antioch), who both declared to have heard from El-Haytham bin Jamíl el-Antáki, through Hammád bin Salmah, that Abú Makín, through Abú Ikrimah Maulá Bilál bin el-Háris el-Muzni, had averred 'The Apostle of Allah (upon whom be peace!) enfeoffed the said Bilál with (a bit of) ground containing a mountain and a (gold) mine; that the sons of Bilál sold part of the grant to one 'Umar bin 'Abd el-'Azíz, when a (gold) mine or, according, to others, two (gold) mines were found in it; that they said to the buyer, Verily we sold to thee land for cultivation, and we did not sell thee (gold) mining-ground; that they brought the letter of the Apostle (upon whom be peace!) in a (bound) volume: that 'Umar kissed it and rubbed it upon his eyes, and said, Of a truth let me see what hath come out of it (the mine) and what I have laid out upon it.' Then he deducted from them the expenses of working and returned to them the surplus. . . . And I was told by Musa'b el-Zubayri, from Malik ibn Anas, that the Apostle of Allah (upon whom be peace!) gave in feoff to Bilál bin Háris mines in the district of Fara' (sic). There is no difference of opinion among our learned men on this subject, nor do I know any of our companions who contradicts (the statement) that the (gold) mine paid one-fourth per ten (= 2 1/2 per cent.) royalty (to the Bayt el-Mál, or Public Treasury). Musa'b further relates, from El-Zahri, that the (gold) mine defrayed the Zakát or poor-rate: he also said that the proportion was one-fifth (= 2 per cent.); like that which the people of El-Irák (Mesopotamia) take to this day from the (gold) mines of El-Fara' (sic), and of Nejrán, and of Zúl-Marwah, and of Wady El-Kura[60] and others. Moreover, the fifth is also mentioned by Safáin el-Thauri, and by Abú Hanífah and Abú Yúsuf, as well as by the people of El-'Irák."
Follows on my list the celebrated Murúj el-Dahab, or "Meads of Gold," by El-Mas'údi, who died in A.H. 346 (= A.D. 957), and whose book extends to A.H. 332 (= A.D. 943). Unable to find the translation of my friend Sprenger, I am compelled to quote from "Maçoudi. Les Prairies d'Or," texte et traduction par C. Barbier de Meynard et Pavet de Courteille. Société Asiatique, Paris, 1864, vol. iii. pp. 301-305.