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Annon: Dhikr Kalam al-Nas fi Manba’ al-Nil wa Makhrajihi wa Ziyadatihi

(A treatise on the River Nile, its sources and its branches) (end 15th or 16th)

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Taken from: Sir Henry Stanley: In Darkest Africa Vol 2

                        The Yale University Library Gazette - Volume 72

Other name: Dhikr Kalām al-Năs fi Manba' al-Nil wa Makhrajihi wa Ziyadatihi

                     Landberg MSS 365

 

Author and date unknown but authors cited till 15^th century. But existing copies 17^th century.

 

Abu el Fadal, son of Kadama (1), says in his book, that all rivers in inhabited countries are 228 in number. Some flow like the Nile, from south to north, some flow from east to west, and some flow from north to south, and some flow in more than one of these directions, like the Euphrates and the Gihon (2). He further says, As for the Nile, it starts from the Mountains of Gumr (Kamar) beyond the equator, from a source from which flow ten rivers, every five of these flowing into a separate lake, then from each one of these two lakes two rivers flow out ; then all four of these rivers flow into one great lake in the first zone, and from this great lake flows out the Nile. The author of the book called: The Explorer's Desire, says that this lake is called the Lake of Likuri (41),  from the name of a tribe in the Soudan who live around the lake, and are very barbarous, and cannibals. From this lake flows out the river Garna, and the Abyssinian river. After leaving this lake, the Nile traverses the country of Likuri, then the country of Mennan — another Soudanese tribe — between Khartoum and Nubia. ……………….

The length of the Nile from its source is 3,748 parasangs (42). It is said that it flows through uninhabited country for four months, and through the Soudanese territory for two months, and through Moslem territory one month. No other river goes on increasing while the other rivers are at their lowest, except the Nile, for it rises in the dry season, when the sun is in the constellation Cancer, Leo and Ceres. It is said that this river has tributaries. Some say that its rise is caused by snows melted in summer, and according to the quantity of snowfall will be the greater or lesser rise. Others say that the rise is caused by the different direction of the winds; that is to say, that when the north wind blows strongly, it stirs up the Mediterranean, and pushes the waters thereof backwards so that it overflows the land ; and when the south wind blows the Mediterranean ceases to storm, and the waters that were dammed up flow away again.

Others say that the rise is caused by fountains upon its banks, that have been seen by travellers who have reached to the highest point.

Others say that the Nile flows from snowy mountains, and they are the mountains called Kaf (3). That it passes through the Green Sea (4), and over gold and silver and emerald and ruby mines, flowing on ad infinitum until it reaches the lake of the Zingh (Zanzibar), and they say were it not to enter into the salt sea and be mixed up with the waters thereof, it could not be drunk for great sweetness.

There is a difference of opinion as to the derivation of the word Gumr. Some say it ought to be pronounced Kamar, which means the moon, but the traveller, Ti Farshi (9), says that it was called by that name because the eye is dazzled by the great brightness. This mountain, the Gumr, extends eastward and westward into uninhabited territory on both sides. Indeed, this whole chain is uninhabited on the southern slope. This chain has peaks rising up into the air, and other peaks lower.

Some have said that certain people have reached these mountains, and ascended them and looked over to the other side, where they saw a sea with troubled waters, dark as night, this sea being traversed by a white stream, bright as day, which enters the mountains from the north, and passes by the grave of the Great Hermes (5), and Hermes (5) is the prophet Idrisi (Enoch).

It is said that Idrisi there built a dome. Some say that people have ascended the mountain, and one of them began to laugh and clap his hands, and threw himself down on the further side of the mountain. The others were afraid of being seized with the same fit, and so came back. It is said that those who saw it, saw bright snows like white silver glistening with light. Whoever looked at them became attracted, and stuck to them until they died, and this science is called Human Magnetism.(43)

It is said that a certain king sent an expedition to discover the Nile sources, and they reached copper mountains, and when the sun rose, the rays reflected were so strong that they were burnt. Others say that these people arrived at bright mountains like crystal, and when the rays of the sun were reflected they burnt them. Others say that Mount Gumr is a mountain on an island which is called by this same name. Opposite to it is the land of Serendib (44), four months' journey in length and twenty days' journey in breadth, and that from this mountain comes the bird called gimre.(45)

The author of the book called the Mirror of Ages (6), says, Hameed (7), son of Biktiari, has stated that the fountain which is the first of all the fountains is in Mount Gumr. From this fountain start ten rivers, one of which is the Nile. They say that the Nile traverses the first zone, then passes into the second zone, and that the length of it from the source to the Mediterranean is 3,000 parasangs (42). Some have thought that these fountains are the cause of the rise, whereas others say — and this is the most probable — that the cause is the abundance of rain and torrents in Abyssinia and Nubia, and that the delay in the rise reaching Egypt is on account of the great distance. All other rivers flow to the south, whereas it flows northward, and like it, Orontes (8) in North Syria near Hamath.(46)

Ti Farshi (9) says that some astronomers state that the Nile comes from beyond the equator 11.5°, and then flows on to Damietta (10) and Alexandria at 30° lat. N. They say from its source to its month are 142.3° nearly, hence the length would be 8614.3 miles with all its meanderings. It meanders eastward and westward greatly.

Achmed, son of Ti Farshi (9), in his book of the description of the Nile, says, historians relate that Adam bequeathed the Nile unto Seth his son (11), and it remained in the possession of these children of prophecy and of religion, and they came down to Egypt (or Cairo) and it was then called Lul, so they came and dwelt upon the mountains. After them came a son Kinaan, then his son Mahaleel, and then his son Yaoud, and then his son Hamu and his son Hermes (5) — that is Idrisi the prophet.(47)

Idrisi began to reduce the land to law and order. The Nile used to come flowing down upon them, and they would escape from it to the high mountains and to elevated land until the river fell, then they would plant whatever country was left bare. Idrisi gathered the people of Egypt and went with them to the first stream of the Nile, and there adjusted the levelling of the land and of the water by lowering the high land and raising the lowland and other things according to the science of astronomy and surveying. Idrisi was the first person who spoke and wrote books upon these sciences. He then went to the land of Abyssinia and Nubia, and gathered the people, and extended the distance of the flow of the Nile, or reduced it according to the swiftness or sluggishness of the stream. He even calculated the volume of the water and the rate of flow. He is the first man who regulated the flow of the Nile to Egypt.

It is said that in the days of Am Kaam (12), one of the Kings of Egypt, Idrisi was taken up to Heaven, and he prophesied the coming of the flood, so he remained the other side of the equator and there built a palace on the slopes of Mount Gumr. He built it of copper, and made eighty-five statues of copper (40), the waters of the Nile flowing out through the mouths of these statues (40) and then flowing into a great lake and thence to Egypt.

Idyar el Wadi (13) says, the length of the Nile is two months' journey in Moslem territory, and four months' journey in uninhabited country. That its source is from Mount Gumr beyond the equator, and that it flows to the light coming out of the river of darkness,, and flows by the base of Mount Gumr.

Mohammed, the Prophet of God, says : — The Nile comes out of the Garden of Paradise, and if you were to examine it when it comes out, you would find in it leaves of Paradise.

King Am Kaam (12), mentioned above, is Hermes (5) I. The devils carried him to this mountain, which is called Gumr, and there he saw how the Nile flows out of the Black Sea and enters into the mountain of Gumr. King Am Kaam (12) built on the slopes of the mountain a palace having eighty-five statues (40), to which he collected all the water that flows from this mountain, conducting it in vaulted conduits until the water reaches the statues and flows out of their mouths in measured quantities and calculated cubic contents. It thence flows in many rivers until it reaches the Great Central lake. Round this lake is the country of the Soudan and their great city Garma (14). In this great lake is a mountain which traverses it, going out of the lake and extending north-west. From this mountain the Nile flows on a month's journey and then it divides in the land of Nubia, one division going to the far west, and in this branch is the greater part of the country called the Soudan — whilst the other is the branch which flows down to the land of Egypt, and beyond Assouan (15) it divides into four branches and thus flows into the sea at Damietta (10) and Alexandria. It is said that three of these branches flow into the Mediterranean, whereas the fourth branch flows into the Salt Lake and thence to Alexandria.

It is said that the rivers Sihon (16), Gihon (2), the Nile and the Euphrates, all start from a green jasper dome from a mountain, and that this mountain is near the Dark Sea. That the waters are sweeter than honey, and more fragrant than musk, but that the waters are changed in the course of the flow.

Sheikh Izz Edin, son of Ibn Gamar (17), says in his book on medicine (and I have copied from the autograph manuscript), that the source of the Nile is from Mount Gumr beyond the equator by 11° and 20'. From this mountain start ten rivers from various sources, each five of which flow into a great round lake, which is distant from the extreme uninhabited country of the west by 57°, and from the equator 7° and 31' to the south, and these two lakes are equal, the diameter of each being 5°. Out of each one of these two lakes flow two rivers which empty into one great lake in the first zone. It is distant from the uninhabited country of the west by 53° and 30'. It is distant north of the equator 2°. Each one of these four rivers empties itself separately into this great lake, and from it comes out one single river, and this is the Nile. It passes through the country to Nubia, and joins another river, whose source is from another part near the equator, from a great round lake whose diameter is 3°, and which is distant from the confines of inhabited country on the west of 71°.

After it has passed the city of Cairo, it reaches a town called Shatanuf (18), where it divides into two rivers, both of which flow into the salt sea, one of these branches being called the Rosetta River, (19) and the other the Damietta river (10). This river reaches to Mansoura (20), and there branches off from it the river called Ashmun (21), which empties into a lake there, and the remainder flows into the salt sea near Damietta, and here I give a plan of Mount Gumr.

The historian El Gahez (22), in his description of countries, says that the source of the river of Sindh (23) and the river Nile is from one place, and that he came to this conclusion because the two rivers rise at the same time, and because the crocodile is found in them both, and that the kind of land-cultivation upon both is the same. The historian Mashi (24), in his History of Egypt, says that in the country of Tegala is a Soudanese tribe of the same name in whose land gold crops up, and that in their land the Nile splits and becomes two rivers, the one branch being the Nile of Egypt, and the other being green, which flows eastward and traverses the salt sea to the landing of Sindh (23), and this is the river called Meharaam (25).

The lake into which the water flows is called Biliha (26). Part of the Nile flows to the Soudan country, then passes to the east of Kussed (27), and then flows along one of the mountains of this country and comes out at the equator. Then it passes out from a lake there, and continues going westward to the country of Laknur, and thence northwards until it flows into the great ocean. Then it flows to the country of Abyssinia, and thence to the country of the Soudan, and then to the east of Dongola (28), until it comes upon the cataracts of Assouan (15), thence it flows into the Mediterranean. (29)

Makrisi says, there is no difference of opinion. The Nile comes from Mount Gumr. Makrisi also says that Merka-Eel (30), the son of Doohar-Eel, the son of Garabat, the son of Asfusan, the son of Adam, on coming to Egypt with a number of the tribe of Arabat (31), settled in Egypt and there built the city of Assus (32) and other cities, and they dug the Nile until they led the water down to them, because, before that time, it did not flow regularly, but used to spread out over the land unto the country of King Mekronse of Nuba. They regulated the course of the Nile and drew from it various streams to their different cities which they had built. They also led one stream to the city of Susan (33), then after the world came out of the flood, and when time rolled on until the days of Berdashir (34), the son of Bzar, the son of Ham, the son of Noah, the flow of the Nile was again regulated a second time, after it had been completely ruined by the flood. But the historian Ibn Wasifsha (35) says, when Berdashir (34) ruled— and he is the first who became a priest and who practiced magic and used to render himself invisible— he sent the Prince Hermes (5) to the great Lake, whence the waters of the Nile flow. It is also said that he regulated the stream, because formerly it used to overflow in some places and not in others.

As for the place where are the copper statues (40), it contains fifty-eight figures, and Hermes (5) collected to these figures the water that flows out of the Nile, conducting the water to them by vaulted conduits and aqueducts, so that the water would flow to the figures and then come out from Mount Gumr, and thence flow from under the wall, and then pass out through the mouths of these figures. He regulated and measured the quantity of water flowing out, so as to allow to flow out that amount which is required for the land of Egypt, viz., that it should rise only to eighteen cubits (36), each cubit having thirty-two digits. Were it not for this the Nile would swamp all the countries that it passes through.

El Welid (37), the son of Romah the Amalekite, was enabled to go to discover the sources of the Nile. He occupied three years in preparing for his expedition, and then started with a large army, destroying every tribe he came upon. He passed through the tribes of the Soudan, and through the gold country, and there he saw golden sticks sprouting out. He continued journeying until he reached the great Lake. unto which the Nile flows coming from the rivers which flow out from under Mount Gumr. He went on until he reached the Temple of the Sun, and passed it until he reached Mount Gumr or Kamar, which is a high mountain. He says that it is called Mount Gumr because the moon does not shine except upon it because it is outside of the Equator. He saw the Nile flowing out from under Mount Gumr and coming down from the rivers of Mount Kaf (3). After the river traverses the Equator it is joined by waters from a stream coming from the region of Tekraan (38) in India, and this fountain starts from under Mount Gumr and flows in that direction. It is said that the river Tekraan (Mekraan) is like the Nile. It rises and falls at the same time, and has in it crocodiles and fishes resembling those in the Nile.

Some people have said that when they were there they saw neither sun nor moon, but the only light was the light of the most merciful God like the light of the sun.

Other explorers have said that the four rivers, Gihon (2), Sihon (16), the Euphrates, and the Nile arise from one source— from a dome in the gold country, which is beyond the dark sea, and that that country is a part of the regions of Paradise, and that the dome is of jasper. They also say that Hyad (39), one of the children of Ees, prayed God to show him the extreme end of the Nile. God gave him power to do this, and he traversed the dark river, walking upon it with his feet over the water which did not stick to his feet, until he entered that dome. This legend I have taken from El Makrisi's book.

(1) Abu el Fadal, son of Kadama: see my webpage on Qadama (930).

(2) Gihon: the Geon: The author of Genesis describes Gihon as "encircling the entire land of Cush", a name associated with Ethiopia elsewhere in the Bible. This is the reason that Ethiopians have long identified the Gihon (Giyon) with the Abay River (Blue Nile), which encircles the former kingdom of Gojjam.

(3) Kaf: Mount Qaf: in Arabic tradition is a mysterious mountain renowned as the "farthest point of the earth" owing to its location at the far side of the ocean.

(4) Green Sea: the surrounding ocean.

(5) Great Hermes, and Hermes is the prophet Idrisi (Enoch). : The first Hermes, was a "civilizing hero", an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world. Hermes is here a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth in the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.

(6) author of the book called the Mirror of Ages: see my webpage; Ibn al Jawzi: Kitab Mir’at al-zaman (Book of Mirror of Time) (d1257).

(7) Hameed, son of Biktiari: Ahmed bin Bakhtiar: an important judge from Wasit in the 12th century AD. His statement is repeated by: Suyuti (1445-d1505); Ibn al Jawzi (1257); Ibn al Jawzi (1200); Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); Annon: Dhikr Kalam (15th).

(8) Orontes in North Syria near Hamath: The Orontes or Asi is a 571 kilometres long river that begins in Lebanon, flowing northwards through Syria before entering the Mediterranean Sea near Samandag in Turkey.

(9) Ti Farshi: Al-Tafashi: on another book of him see my webpage Ibn Yusuf Tifashi (d 1253).

(10) Damietta river: Dimyat; Dumyat; Damietta is a port city on the eastern branch of the Nile.

(11) Adam bequeathed the Nile unto Seth his son: Seth, in Judaism, Christianity, Mandaeism, Sethianism, and Islam, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible.

(12) Am Kaam, one of the Kings of Egypt : Anqam  the Priest: this legend in repeated by Wasif Shah (1209); Nuwayri : Nihayat al-Arab (1333) and Murtada Ibn al-Afif (d1237); Ibn al-Dawadari (1335) and Makrizi (1441) have Eiqam; Annon: Dhikr Kalam (15th) has Am Kaam. Anqam , son of Aram : Aram was a son of Shem son of Nun, and the father of Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash.

(13) Idyar el Wadi: this is the source-name used by Stanley in his ‘in Darkest Africa’. This description of the Nile is used by many authors but mostly they do not mention any source for this information.

(14) great city Garma: Garmi: al-Zayyat (1058) has Yarma, an important city in Ethiopia, also found in Maqrizi (1441); as Garma in Annon: Dhikr Kalam (15th).

(15) Assouan; (Aswan): southern border of Egypt.

(16) rivers Sihon, Gihon, the Nile and the Euphrates,: these four rivers are traditionally seen as the four rivers coming from paradise. But the names vary considerably. Other combinations are:

Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel, Phirat.

Tigris, Effraim, Euphrates Nile.

Seihan, Djeihan, Euphrates, Nile.

Sayahoun, Jayahoun, Alfarat, and the Nile.

(17) Sheikh Izz Edin, son of Ibn Gamar: Sheikh Izz al-Din bin Jamaeat : Izz Al Din ibn Jama'ah (694-767 H /1294-1365 AD) born in Damascus, he took over the judiciary in Egypt. Also mentioned by Dhahirah (1457); Suyuti (1505); Annon: Dhikr Kalam (15th).

(18) town called Shatanuf: town of Shatanof: in Ashmoun, Menofia Governorate, Egypt.

(19) Rosetta River: or Rashid is a port city of the Nile Delta, 65 km (40 mi) east of Alexandria.

(20) Mansoura; Mansura: Mansoura town lies on the east bank of the Damietta branch of the Nile.

(21) Ashmun: Amosus: several Pharaohs had the name Ahmose. Wasif Shah (1209) writes: “There was in old Misr, whose name was then Amsus ….” so it should have been an old name for Egypt. Murtada Ibn al-Afif (d1237) has Emsos; Nuwayri (1333): Amosus; al Maqrizi (1441): Amsus Amsous; Assus in Annon: Dhikr Kalam (15th); Suyuti (1505): Amsous.

(22) El Gahez: see my webpages on Al-Jahiz (776-869).

(23) Sindh: now in Pakistan.

(24) historian Mashi, in his History of Egypt,:  here in meant  al Makrisi (1441).

(25) Meharaam: the river of Makhran; Mekran: Makran or Mecran and Mokran, is the coastal region of Baluchistan (Pakistan).

(26) Lake Biliha: should be Batiha: swamp.

(27) passes to the east of Kussed: maybe land of the Kush: kingdom in Sudan on the Nile.

(28) Dongola: Old Dongola is a deserted town in what is now Northern State, Sudan.

(29) My correction to this paragraph is:

The lake into which the water flows is called Batiha. Part of the Nile flows to the Soudan country, then passes to the east of Kush, and then flows along one of the mountains of this country and comes out at the equator. Then it passes out from a lake there, and continues going westward to the country of Takrur, and thence northwards until it flows into the great ocean. (The other part) flows to the country of Abyssinia, and thence to the country of the Soudan, and then to the east of Dongola, until it comes upon the cataracts of Assouan, thence it flows into the Mediterranean.

(30) Merka-Eel, the son of Doohar-Eel, the son of Garabat, the son of Asfusan, the son of Adam: Suyuti (1505) has Merka-Eel = Markabil; Doohar-Eel = Douabil; Garabat  = Arbab.

(31) tribe of Arabat: Suyuti (1505) has Banu Arbab.

(32) built the city of Assus: see nr (21)

(33) city of Susan: Amsous?

(34) Berdashir; Al-Budashir: literally meaning form the Red House. Found in Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); Wasif Shah (1209) has Al-Budashir; Nuwayri (1333) has Al-Boudsir, Ibn Khaldun (1406) Al-Boudashir Ibn Qubt; al Maqrizi (1441) has Budchir; Annon: Dhikr Kalam (15^th) has Berdashir

Berdashir, the son of Bzar, the son of Ham, the son of Noah: Wasif Shah (1209) has Budashir, son of Qofṭarim, son of Miṣraim, son of Ham, son of Noah.

(35) Ibn Wasifsha: see my webpage Wasif Shah (1209).

(36) cubits: Distance from fingers to elbow (45cm).

(37) El Welid, the son of Romah the Amalekite: Al-Walid: Ar-Rayyan ibn al-Walid ibn Dauma was an Amalekite king of Misr during the time of Prophet Yusuf (=Joseph).

Walid is mentioned in the following books: Al-Mas'udi: (916) Kitab al-Ausat; Ibn Babawayh (991); Maslamah ibn Ahmad Majriti (1050); Katib Marrakesh (12th); Wasif Shah (1209); Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); Nuwayri (1333); Maqrizi (1441) (Oualid); Ibn Abd'essalem al-Menoufi (15th); Suyuti (1505).

(38) region of Tekraan in India: Makran coastal area in Pakistan.

(39) Hyad, one of the children of Ees: Suyuti (1505) has: Hayd from the lineage of Ishak.

(40) 85 tamatil: or tamafil: the 85 copper or bronze statues build at the source of the Nile by Hermes. They are mentioned by the following authors: Maslamah ibn Ahmad Majriti (1050); Wasif Shah (1209); Murtada Ibn al-Afif (1237); Picatrix: (1256); Nuwayri (1333); Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); al Maqrizi (1441); Ibn al Wardi (1456); Dhikr Kalam al-Nas fi Manba’ al-Nil (15th); Suyuti (d1505).

(41) lake Kura : is lake Chad, wrongly thought to be part of the Nile. The author who writes the most about it  is Ibn Said (1250).

(42) parasangs: 1 parasangs or farsakhs = 2.8 nautical miles/ about 5km.

(43) Pieces of the story of the stones Baht or Bahit brought by Alexander from the country of the Zanj and found in the mountains of the moon called the magnet of men or who make people laugh till they die and which story comes originally from Aristotle can be found in: al Maqrizi (1441); Suyuti (1445-d1505); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Al Umari (1349); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Al Zuhri (1137); Salamanca translator (1420), Annon: Dhikr Kalam (15^th).

(44) Serendib: in Sumatra

(45) As it is in Azia it is not the bird Rokh (of Madagascar) but the Griffin.

(46) Hama is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria.

(47) Idris: is an ancient prophet mentioned in the Quran, whom Muslims believe was the third prophet after Seth. He is the second prophet mentioned in the Quran. Islamic tradition has unanimously identified Idris with the biblical Enoch.