Saturday 28 January 2017

كتاب البلدان Kitab Al Bouldan


كتاب البلدان 
المؤلف: أحمد بن إسحاق (أبي يعقوب) بن جعفر بن وهب بن واضح اليعقوبي 
اصدار ١٨٩٠
حيث يذكر عن زيارته لارض البجة


بلاد البجة: ومن العلاقي الي ارض البجة، الذين يسمون أنفسهم الحداربة والكذبيين خمسة وعشرين مرحلة، ومدينة ملك البجة الحداربة، يقال لها هجر، يأتيها الناس من المسلمين للتجارة، والبجة ينزلون الخيام من جلود وينتفون لحاهم، وينزعون فك ثدي الغلمان لئلا يشبه ثديهم النساءـ وياكلون الذرة ، وماأشبهها ويركبون الأبل و يحاربون عليها ، كما يحارب علي الخيل، ويرمين بالحراب ولا يخطؤن ـ ومن العلاقي إلي ارض البجة الزين يقال لهم الزنافجة خمسة وعشرين مرحلة،والمدينة التي يسكنها ملك الزنافجة يقال لها نقلين، وليس لهم شريعة، انمايعبدون صنماً يسمونه حجاجوا


ص ١٢٥/١٢٤ 
اليعقوبي توفى ٢٨٤ هجرية
The description of the Beja land before 890 A.D. The history of the Beja is much, much older than the Axumite empire, it extends to more than 4000 BCE.

Kitab al-Buldan (Book of the Countries) - History, Geography of travels of the Arab historian (Ahmad ibn Abu Ya'qub ibn Ja'far ibn Wahb Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi (died 897/8 AD), contains a description of the India, Egypt and Maghreb and current parts of Sudan and Eritrea. In his book, he has written about the Beja.

This some of what he wrote on the Beja tribes:

The country of the Beja: From Alaalagi to the land of the Beja, who call themselves Alhaddarbah and Alkzbeyein is a distance of 25 leagues (means of measurement then). The city of the Beja Hidareb king is called ’Hager’. Muslims visit the city for trade. The Beja dwell in tents and use hides to lie on. They cut the breast of the boys so that their breasts do not look like those of women. The feed on sorghum and similar cereals, they ride camels and fight on camels and use them just others use horses, they use spears and they do not miss their targets. 
The city where the king of the Beja known as Zanafja, lives is called Neglen. They are not Muslims, they worship an idol called Hajajewa

The kingdom of the Beja (mamlakat al-buja); They dwell between the Nile and the sea and are divided into several kingdoms, each governed by its own king.

The first kingdom of the Beja (al-buja) begins from the Aswān frontier. This is the last district of the Moslem territory stretching east and west from south to the frontier of Barakāt. They are a kind of Ḥabash called Naqīs, and their capital is called Hajar. They are subdivided into tribes and clans (buṭūn), as is customary among the Arabs; some of their tribes and clans [p. 72] are al-hadarāt [sic! obviously for al-ḥadāriba], Suhāb, al-'Amā’ir, Kūbir (Kūtir?), Manāsa, Ras'a, Arbari'a and az-Zanāfij. Gold mines, precious stones and emeralds are found in their country. They are at peace with the Moslems and the Moslems work in the mines of their country.

The second kingdom of the Beja is that of Baqlīn, which has many towns and is very large. Their religion is similar to that of the Magians (al-majūs) and the Dualists (ath-thunawiyya); they call the Almighty God by the name "az-zabhīr"<ref>A tentative Arabic script from the Ethiopian word Egziā’behēr (God). From this passage, one might guess that they were Christian (Conti Rossini, Storia d’Etiopia, p. 274.).</ref> and the devil by the name "sahāy harāqa". They pull out the hair of their chin and remove their central incisors.

The third kingdom is that of the Bāzīn, who border on the kingdom of the 'Alwa Nubians and the Baqlīn Beja, with whom they are, however, at war. The crop on which they live is ... [lacuna] ... which, together with milk, forms their staple food.

The fourth kingdom is called Jārīn. They have a dreadful king, whose rule extends from Bādi’<ref>Arabic: Bādi or Bāsaʾ (Tigre and Tigray: Batsa: Bade) is the old name of Massawa Island.</ref> on the Red Sea coast, to the frontier of Barakāt in the territory of the Baqlīn, until a place called Hall ad-dujāj. They, too, remove their upper and lower incisors lest - they say they resemble the teeth of asses; they also pull out the hair of their chins.

The fifth kingdom is that called Qat'a [Ibn Hawqal: "Qas'a"], the last of the Beja kingdoms. It is very large, extending from Bādi’ to a place called Faykūn.

[p. 73] They are a warlike, powerful nation who possesses a fighting clan (dār muqātila) known by the name of dār as-sawā, where their bravest young men are specially trained for war and combat.

The sixth kingdom is the kingdom of the Najāshī, which is a vast powerful country. Its royal town is Ku'bar [Aksum]. The Arabs go thither to trade. They have big towns and their sea coast is called Dahlak. All the kings of the Habasha country are subject to the Great King (al-malik al-a'zam) and are careful to obey him and pay tribute. The Najāshī professes the Jacobite Christian religion (dīn an-nāsraniyya al-ya’qūbiyya).

The last [i.e. 7th] kingdom of the Ḥabasha is that of the Zanj, a people who dwell near the Sind, as well as on other related nations, different from those Zanj who dwell on the borders of the Sind and the Kurak. They are people (qawm) who, Respite of their multitude (hisāb) are, however, of the same mind (ijtimā' qulūb). (ibid. I, pp. 191-193).

 


Pages 124 - 125
http://islamstory.com/uploads/multimedia/books/Alboldan.pdf

Or can be downloaded at:

https://ia801409.us.archive.org/35/items/kitabalbuldan00yaquuoft/kitabalbuldan00yaquuoft.pdf

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