Part 56

This treaty was for a long time observed; after which the Bedjas re-assumed their inroads into Upper Egypt, and clamorous representations were repeatedly made on that subject to the Emir of the true Believers, Djafar el Motewakel al’Allah; upon which the latter ordered Mohammed Ibn Abdallah el Komy to prepare to attack them. He begged to be permitted to take with him those only he liked, as he did not wish for great numbers, the passage through the country being difficult. He set out against them from Egypt, with a well furnished and well chosen force,[111] and the ships departed by sea.[112] The Bedjas collected in vast numbers, all mounted on camels, and the Moslims were frightened. But their commander drew off the attention of the Bedjas by a long letter which he wrote to them on a roll wrapped up in cloth.[113] They assembled to read it, and at that moment the Moslims attacked them, having small bells hung to the necks of their horses. The camels of the Bedjas could not withstand the noise of the bells, and fled. They were pursued by the Moslims, who killed many of them, and among their numbers, the chief. He was succeeded by the son of his brother, who sued for reconciliation, which was acceded to, on condition that he should pay his personal obeissance to the Emir of the true Believers. He repaired to Bagdad, and presented himself before Motewakel, at the place called Sermanraa, in the year of the Hedjra 241. Peace was then granted to him, on condition of the payment of his dues, and the Bakt;[114] and it was prescribed to him that the Bedja should not put any obstacles to the work of the Moslims at the mines. El Komy remained a long time at Assouan, and deposited in the treasury of that town all his arms and instruments of war, of which the governors of Assouan continued to take till none were left.

When the Moslims increased at the mines, and intermixed with the Bedjas, the mischievous doings of the latter diminished. The number of people who now went in search of gold-dust discovered it (in abundance), the news spread, and people of all countries repaired thither. There arrived Abou Abderrahman Ibn Abdallah Ibn Abd el Hamyd el Amry, after his campaign against the Noubas in the year 255. He had with him the Rabya, and Djeheyne, and others, by whom Bedja became more cultivated and populous, so that the caravans which brought the provisions from Assouan consisted of six thousand camels; and this was exclusive of what the ships carried by the sea of Kolzoum to Aidab. The Bedja liked the Rabyas, and intermarried with them. It is related that the priests of the Bedja, before some of that nation had become Moslims, had told them that their gods ordered them to obey the Rabya, and likewise Kanoun, which they did. When Amry was killed, and that the Rabya became masters of the island (of Bedja) and that the Bedja according to this injunction united with them; those Arabs who were inimical to them, left the country. The Rabya married the daughters of the chiefs of the Bedja, and the conduct of the latter towards the Moslims (of Egypt) became now less mischievous.

The interior Bedja live in the desert between the country of Aloa and the salt sea, and extend to the limits of the country of Habesh. Their people rear cattle and are pastors; their way of living, their ships, and army, are like those of the Hadharebe, but the latter are a more courageous and more religious people, while those of the interior all remain infidels. They adore the devil, and follow the example of their priests: every clan has its priest, who pitches a tent made of feathers, in the shape of a dome, wherein he practises his adorations; when they consult him about their affairs, he strips naked, and enters the tent stepping backwards; he afterwards issues with the appearance of a mad and delirious person, and exclaims, “the devil salutes you, and tells you to depart from this place, for that a hostile party (naming it) will fall upon you.” If you ask advice about an expedition which you may be about to undertake against any particular country, he often answers, “march on, and you will be victorious, and will take booty to such an amount, and the camels you will take at such a place must be my property, as well as the female slave you will find in such a tent, and the sheep, &c.” On the march, the priest loads his tent upon a camel destined for that sole purpose, and they believe that the camel rises up from the ground, and walks with great difficulty, and that it sweats profusely, although the tent is quite empty, and nothing is in it. Among the Hadharebe live some of those people who still retain this religion, and others who mix with it the Islam.

The Nubian historian (Selym) from whom I (Macrizi) have made these extracts, says, “I have read in the “Discourse of the Ahbas,” by the Emir of the true Believers, Aly Ibn Aly Taleb,[115] and found therein mention made of the Bedja and the Kedja, and that they are warlike nations who do not make much booty.” The Bedja are of that description, but I know not who the Kedja are.

Abou el Hassan el Massoudy relates as follows, (continues Macrizi:[116]) The Bedja took up their abode in the country between the sea of Kolzoum and the Egyptian Nile; they separated into branches, and chose a king. In this country are the mines of gold, that is the gold dust, and the emerald mines. Their hostile parties and partizans, mounted upon camels, penetrate as far as Nouba, which country they attack, and from thence they carry off prisoners. In former times the Nouba were stronger than the Bedja, until the Islam took firm footing among the latter. A number of Moslims came then to inhabit the gold mines, and the country of Ollaky and Aidab, and Arabs of the tribe of Rabya Ibn Nezar Ibn Mad Ibn Adnan settled in these parts. Their chiefs grew powerful and intermarried with the Bedja, whose strength increased by this connection, while they on their side supported the Rabya against the Arabs of the tribe of Kahtan and Modher, who had settled there, and other tribes who had settled in the vicinity of this territory. The possessor of the mines in our times (says Masoudy,) which is in the year 332 (A. H.) is Besheir Ibn Merwan Ibn Is-hak of the Rabya, who has under his command three thousand horsemen of the Arabs Rabya and other Arabs of Egypt and Yemen, and thirty thousand fighting men of the Bedja mounted upon camels of good race, armed with the Bedja bucklers, and these are the people called Hadharebe, who are the only Moslims among the Bedja, those of the interior being infidels and adoring an idol. By the valley of Bedja, which encloses the emerald mines, this country extends to the Ollaky, where are the gold mines. From the Ollaky to the Nile are fifteen days journey, and the nearest cultivated part of it is Assouan.[117]

The island of Souakin is less than one mile in length and in breadth. Its inhabitants are a tribe of Bedja called Khasa; they are Moslims, and have a king. Hamadany relates, that Kenan, the son of Ham, married Arteyt,[118] the daughter of Benawyl Ibn Ters Ibn Yafeth. She gave birth to Haka and El Asáwed, and the Nouba, and Koran,[119] and Zendj, and Zaghawa,[120] and all the tribes of the Negroes. It is also said that the Bedja descend from Ham, the son of Noah, or else from the son of Koush, the son of Kenan, the son of Ham. Others state, that they are a tribe of the Habesh. The Bedja live under tents of hair, their colour is darker than that of the Habesh;[121] they have the manners of Arabs. They have no towns, no villages, no fields. Their provisions are carried to them from Egypt, and Habesh, and Nouba. They were formerly idolatrous, and then took the Islam, under the governorship of Abdallah Ibn Sad Ibn Aly Sarh. They are hospitable and charitable people; they are divided into tribes and branches, every one of which has its chief. They are pastors, and live entirely on flesh and milk.

_Of the Tribute of the Nouba, called Bakt, by Ibn Selym el Assouany._

The captives received in tribute from the Nouba are called Bakt.—(Here follow some etymological remarks on the word Bakt).—It was levied at the Kaszer (Philæ) five miles from Assouan, situated between Belak and the Nouba territory. The income of the customs of the Kaszer belongs to Kous. This Bakt[122] was first instituted in the reign of Amr Ibn el Ras,[123] who after the conquest of Egypt sent Abdallah Ibn Sad Ibn Aly Sarh, in the year 20 or 21 (A. H.) with twenty thousand soldiers against the Nouba. He tarried there a long time, until Amr el Aas wrote to him to come back. After the death of Amr, the peace that had been concluded between the Nouba and Aly Sarh was broken, and they frequently renewed their invasions of Upper Egypt, when they ruined the country and committed many excesses. Aly Sarh now attacked them a second time, while he was governor of Egypt, in the time of the Khalifat of Othman, in the year 31 (A. H.) He besieged them very closely in the city of Dóngola, and with slinging machines,[124] unknown to the Nouba, launched stones into the town, which shattered their church. This appalled them, and their king, Koleydozo,[125] asked for a renewal of peace. He issued from the town, and met Aly Sarh with all the signs of weakness, misery, and humbleness. Aly Sarh gave him a polite and kind reception, and concluded the peace upon the condition of an annual tribute of three hundred and sixty head of slaves. Upon the king’s complaints of the want of provisions in his country, he promised him a present of grain. A document was written out on that occasion, of which the following is a copy.

After the invocation of God:—“This is a pledge of peace given by the Emir Abdallah Ibn Sad Ibn Aly Sarh, to the chief of Nouba, and all his people, valid for the great and the small among the Nouba, from the limits of Assouan to those of Aloa. Aly Sarh establishes safe conduct and peace between them, the neighbouring Moslims of Upper Egypt, and the other Moslims, and all their tributaries. You people of Nouba shall be in complete security, the security of God and his prophet Mohammed, that we shall not attack you, or wage war upon you, or make hostile incursions against you, as long as you fulfil the conditions existing between us; which are, that you shall enter our country merely to pass through it, without remaining therein, and that we likewise shall only pass through your country, without taking up our residence there. You shall protect those Moslims, or their allies, who arrive in your country and travel through it until they have left it. You shall send back to the country of the Islam the run-away slaves of the Moslims, who have come to you, and likewise the Moslim who is at war with the Moslims, and has demanded your protection. You shall expel him, and oblige him to return to the country of the Islam; you shall not embrace his party, and prevent his being seized; and you shall not put any obstacle to the business of a Moslim (in your country); on the contrary, you shall favour him with respect to it, until he quits the country.—You shall take care of the mosque which the Moslims have built on the side of your town, and not prevent any body from praying there; you shall keep it clean, and light it, and honour it. Every year you shall pay three hundred and sixty head of slaves to the chief of the Moslims, of the middle sort of slaves of your country; none with bodily defects; males and females, but no old men and women, and no children under age; these you shall deliver into the hands of the governor of Assouan. No Moslim shall be obliged to protect or defend you against enemies that may attack you from Aloa, as far as Assouan. If you harbour the slave of a Moslim, or kill a Moslim, or an ally, or attempt to ruin the mosque built by the Moslims on the side of your town, or withhold any part of the 360 head of slaves, then this peace and pledged security shall be void, and we shall return to be enemies, until God shall judge between us, and he is the best of all judges. Upon these conditions we pledge to you, and engage to you our promise and security, in the name of God and his Prophet; and you stand pledged to us by those you hold most holy in your faith, the Messiah and the Apostles, and all those you venerate in your religion, and who are witnesses between you and ourselves.”

Omar Ibn Sharhabyl wrote (this) in the month of Ramadhan, in the year 31 ———[126]

The Nouba had already paid this tribute to Amr Ibn el Aas, before the rupture of the peace, and had presented him moreover with a present of forty head of slaves; but this he refused to accept, and returned the present to the chief (collector) of the Bakt, called Samkous, who purchased for them wine and provisions to the same value, which he sent to them.[127] Aly Sarh fulfilled his promise to the Nouba, and sent them corn and barley, lentils, clothes, and horses. This remained afterwards a regular custom. The Nouba received the amount of it every year, when they paid their tribute, and the number of forty slaves who had been offered to Amr Ibn el Aas were now yearly taken by the governors of Egypt. Aly Kheleyfa Homeyd Ibn Hesham el Baheyry relates, that the stipulated conditions of peace with the Nouba consisted of three hundred and sixty head of slaves to the Shade of the Moslims,[128] (في المسلمين) and forty to the governor of Egypt, and that they should receive in return one thousand Erdeybs of wheat, and their delegates three hundred Erdeybs of it; the same quantity of barley was to be given, and further, one thousand Kanyr of wine to the king, and three hundred Kanyr of wine to the delegates, together with two mares of the best kind, fit for princes.[129] Farther, of the different stuffs of linen cloth one hundred pieces, and of the kind called Kobaty four pieces to the king and three to the envoys, of the kind called Baktery eight pieces, and of the Malam five pieces, and moreover a fine Djebbe[130] to the king. Of the shirts called Aly Baktar, ten pieces, and of the first quality of shirts likewise ten, every one of which is equal to three of the common sort.

The Nouba regularly paid their Bakt every year, and received in return the above menmentioned articles, until the times of the Emir of the true Believers, El Motassem b’illah Aly Is-hak, the son of Er-rasheid, when Zakarya Ibn Bahnas[131] was their king. At that period the Nouba having perhaps been tardy in paying the Bakt, and the Moslim governors of the frontier provinces having treated them harshly, and withheld from them the supply of provisions, Feyrakey the son of Zakarya refused his father to submit in obedience to foreigners, and reproached him with weakness in paying the tribute. His father then asked him what his advice was, and he replied, to revolt against the Moslims, and make war with them. Our forefathers, answered Zakarya, thought this a just measure; I am afraid that the worst of the business will devolve upon you. We shall prepare for this war against the Moslims, but I will send you to their king as an envoy: you will know the state of their affairs and your own. If you think that we are a match for them, we shall go to war, and trust to God; if not, you will ask the king for presents. Feyraky then set out for Bagdad; he passed through the towns, and the country appeared to him very fine. In coming down, he was joined by the king of the Bedja and his retinue. They met El Motasem, and they were astonished to see in the Irak, besides what they had already witnessed on the road; the quantity of soldiers, and the flourishing state of the country. El Motasem received Feyraky with politeness and kindness, and treated him with great generosity. He accepted his presents, and returned them two-fold, and told him to demand any favour he liked. Upon which he begged that the prisoners[132] might be set free, which was granted to him. Feyraky rose high in the opinion of Motasem; who made him a present of the house at which he had alighted in the Irak, and gave orders to purchase in every town on his way a house for the accommodations of the messengers he might send, and wherein no other travellers should be permitted to lodge. At Cairo two houses were purchased for him; one at Djyze and another at Beni Wayl,[133] and they received from the treasury of Cairo seven hundred Dinars, a mare, a saddle, a bridle, a gilt sword, a rich habit, a silk turban, a cloke, and a shirt of the finest sort, and pieces of stuff for his delegates, which were not accounted for in the returns of the tribute. They had further to receive two loads,[134] and from the collector of the Bakt a suit of clothes, and had, in their turn, to give to the latter, and to those who accompanied him, certain articles. Whatever might be given to them (beyond these fixed things) should be considered as presents, which they would return in the same manner. Upon enquiry El Motasem found that what was given to the Noubas by the Moslims exceeded the value of the Bakt; he therefore refused to give them any more wine, or to send them (the full amount of) the corn and the stuffs above mentioned; and he re-established the Bakt to be sent at intervals of every three years; and wrote to them a letter on that subject, which remained in their hands. The king of the Noubas demanded justice from some of the inhabitants of Assouan, who had purchased landed property from his slaves.[135] El Motasem ordered inquiry to be made into it at Assouan, where the tribunal of the judge was. But the slaves being questioned, said, “We are his subjects, not his slaves,” and thus his suit was rejected. He then demanded among other things, that the military post at the Kaszer, which was situated within his territory, should be removed to the frontier; but this request was not granted. These stipulations continued to subsist between the Noubas and Egypt, and the Bakt was paid, and the returns given as Motasem had regulated them, until the Fatimites arrived in Egypt.—Thus far goes the relation of the Nubian historian.

Abou Hassan el Masoudy[136] relates:—The Bakt is the annual tribute of slaves which has been imposed upon the Noubas, and is received from them and carried to Egypt. It consists in three hundred and sixty five head of slaves to the public treasury, according to the tenour of the articles of peace between the Noubas and the Moslims. Besides these, the governor of Egypt receives forty head; his representative, who resides at Assouan, and collects the Bakt, twenty head; the governor of Assouan, who, together with him, is present at the collecting of the Bakt, five head, and the twelve trusty witnesses of the people of Assouan, who are to accompany the governor on this business, twelve head; the whole, according to the stipulations of the Bakt, when the Moslims and Noubas first concluded their treaty.

El Beladiry, in his work entitled El Tetouhat,[137] says: “the amount of the renewed tribute of the Noubas is four hundred slaves, for which they take in return victuals, that is to say, grain. The Emir of the true Believers, El Mohdy Mohammed Ibn Aly Djafar el Mansour,[138] obliged them to pay three hundred and sixty head of slaves, and a Giraffa. The mischievous and troublesome behaviour of Daoud (David) the king of the Noubas, was principally manifested in the year of the Hejira 674. After he had committed great excesses at Aidab, he came with his army nearly as far as Assouan, and there burnt many water wheels. The governor of Kous marched against Daoud, but not meeting with him, laid hold of the Lord of the Mountain, and numbers of Noubas, whom he carried before the Sultan Daher Bybars el Bondokdary, at the Castle of Cairo, where their bodies were severed in two. Shekendy,[139] the son of the King of Nouba’s sister, then came to implore assistance against the injustice which he had experienced from his uncle Daoud. The Sultan ordered the Emir Shams-eddyn Ak Soukor el Farekany, the intendant of his household,[140] with the Emir Djandar Emir Oz-eddyn Aybek el Afram,[141] to march together with Shekendy against Daoud, with a large army composed of the provincial horsemen,[142] and of the Arabs of southern Egypt, and of lancers, bowmen, and fire-men.[143] They left Cairo on the first of the month of Sheban. Upon their arrival in Nouba the enemy met them, mounted upon camels, armed with lances, and covered with black Dekadek.[144] Both parties fought bravely, and the Noubas fled. El Afram now fell upon Kallat Addo,[145] where he killed and took prisoners many of them. El Farakany penetrated into the interior of Nouba by land and by the river, killing or enslaving every body. He took an innumerable quantity of cattle, and alighted at the island of Mykayl, at the top of the cataracts;[146] from whence he obliged the Nouba ships to retreat, while the Nouba themselves fled to the islands. He then wrote a promise of safe conduct to Kamr el Doula,[147] the lieutenant of Daoud, who swore allegiance to the Shekendy, and brought back all the people of Merys, and the fugitives; after which El Afram crossed over a shallow part of the river, to a tower built in the water, which he besieged until he took it. Two hundred men were killed there, and a brother of Daoud was taken prisoner; Daoud fled, and was closely pursued for three days by the soldiers, who killed and took prisoners a great number on the road, until the people submitted. The mother and sister of Daoud were taken, but he himself escaped. Shekendy was now confirmed in his stead, and agreed to pay an annual personal tribute of three elephants, three giraffas, five female Fahed, one hundred camels of good race, and four hundred chosen cows,[148] and that the soil of Nouba should thenceforward be divided into two parts;[149] one half for the Sultan, and the other to be appropriated to the fertilizing and guarding of the country; excepting the territory of the cataracts, which was to belong entirely to the Sultan, on account of its vicinity to Assouan: this alone was about one-fourth of Nouba.[150] Farther, that the dates and the cotton of this part, as well as the ancient customary duties, should be carried off, and that as long as they should remain Christians, they should pay the Djezye, or annual Om Dinar in cash, for every grown up person.[151] There was a form of oath written out concerning these articles, by which Shekendy bound himself, and there was another by which his subjects swore. The two commanders destroyed the churches of Nouba,[152] and carried away whatever they found in them. They seized about twenty of the chiefs of Nouba, and liberated the Moslims of Assouan and Aidab, who were captives in the hands of the Noubas. Shekendy was crowned, and seated on the throne of his kingdom, after he had taken his oath. He was obliged to send the property of Daoud, and that of all those who were killed or taken captives, whether money or cattle, to the Sultan, together with the usual Bakt. This consisted in an annual payment of a giraffa and of four hundred slaves, of whom three hundred and sixty were for the Khalif, and forty for his lieutenant at Cairo, with the condition that he should send them in return, upon the full receipt of the Bakt, one thousand Erdeybs of wheat to the king of Nouba, and three hundred to his delegates.[153]

_Description of the Town of Assouan._[154]