Caravan ('akabár; pl. 'akwabír), térrekeft Silver, ázeref. Figured cotton, talazíggi (formed from the Ostrich feathers, tesággadēn-n-énnehe. (rékeba); pl. ikéberān. Provisions, ázad. (Arab.) Luggage, ilala. Merchandise, áshed (?). Packet, ghadíle. Calico (shigge), masr. word shigge). Silk, el kharir. (Arab.) Atlas, birribírri. Red cloth, elbush. Cotton, takerókerit. Sword-cord (el hamíle), el mejdúl. (Arab.) Yard, agél (aghel? arm?). Fathom, tíhid. A measure of four fath THE STORY OF THE PRODIGAL SON IN TEMA'SHIGHT. Once was (Luke xv., 11.) Tánfost: Aliad enne mákhshat n éhěri. Inne aw entukke 11. Kalay illen awadem íyen ilarōris, ile essin ilíaden. 12. a man one having children, having two youths. n dersen y obannis: Ikfähi adegger-eni dare éhĕri wa n nek. of them to his father: Give me my portion (?) of the substance which (is) thine. arose yezon geresan eherinnis. 13. Har darretadi s eshilan madróïni, yenker weighed out between them his substance. Until afterwards in days a few, áliad ennin, yessinte eherinnis ikétenes isōkal yikka ákal íyen ogúgen; son younger gathered (?) his substance all of it, returned passed (to) land one distant; yeķīm dars; ekhshet eherinnis ger tídedēn. 14. Darret ákhashat-n-eherinnis, dwelt in it; wasted his substance among women. azuet tetük egel ghalle dar ákal ídagh: ebhās harret. a heavy thing bread (?) dearth in land that: failed? to him a thing. man one, hired 'enis, edānas After the wasting of his substance, hālis íyen, isúfure imannis ghōris dar ágherim ídagh: hak irděmás shekǎrásh himself to him in district that he took? sent? him (to) field imměnās enis. 16. Hun tulis oles war iksha, asal alan -nof him, he fed for him his camels. ehishkan wuidagh täten immēnās. But again? he ate not, save leaves of 17. Enta isíggère dar imannis, inne ye He contemplated in his soul, said to illē 'klan agōteni; erētusé daghsen ila wa his soul: As for me, my father (is) having servants many; each of them having what ikshe: hun nek amarádagh enákahē lās; behǎhe harret (or igafelli khōr ez kills me famine; fails (?) to me a thing. zémen). 18. Amarádagh, tátăragh denkar(agh) geligh gher obănin(i), ahas Instantly I will seek (that I) arise, toward my father, I may innēgh: Obani, nek egēgh irk harret gerit Mesínak gerit ke. to him say: My father, I have done evil thing between? our God, between thee. war issimmemáhalagh damusagh áliad innek. Amarádagh! ágǎhe ghas dar make me only in 13. Tideden, women, may seem to mean, "loves," as deden, verse 30. 14. Tegelet, is a loaf: qu. egel, bread? Ibha, deficit; elsewhere, fallit. 17. Amaradar, or amar adagh of vv. 18, 19, 21, seems to be=imir enni of Kab., "that time," or "this time." 19. Damusaghad-amus-agh. The root amus seems to represent ism (name), of Arabic, which is also used as substantive. he-may kiss? THE PRODIGAL SON IN TEMA'SHIGHT. 763 far; ikčlánnak. 20. Hun inker, óse as obānis. Obānis yenhet har agūde yugíg; thy servants. But he arose, came to(?) his father. His father saw him until very egas tehanīnet ghas; yúshel sirs ghas; yudar fel erinnis, *ahās made for him mercy only; hastened upon him only; fell upon his neck, that to him i-timullut. 21. Hun innas rōris: Obāni, hun nek egēgh irk-n-harret But said to him his child: My father, but I have done evil of thing gerit Mesínak ed ke dar tulís. Hun amarádagh nek war issimmáhǎlagh between our God and thee in repetition. I not am worthy damusagh áliad innak: aṭafahi, udef ijel ikělánnak. I be called son of thee: take me, (like one of?) thy servants. ikĕlannis: Ahauyet tekatkat tehōsken, selsem-as-tet; his servants: Ho! bring-ye a robe But now 22. Inne tis y Said his-sire to tauyem tāthod beautiful, ye have clad to him it; Ye have brought a ring búshĕgan te hōsken, tegem-as-tet degh asukkot enis; beautiful on feet of him. tejimas finger of him; ye-have-made-to-him shoes 23. Et wuayamas áhědel eddĕrín Ye have brought for him calf fat tághĕrésămás, tekénfămás adenekshit néllewat. 24. Măshăn róri (that) ye butcher for him, ye roast for him, (that) we eat it (and) be merry. yemmut, tulís ahōne: ábat, was dead, again (is) alive? he was lost, we have repeated a finding. imanassen. 25. Ewa amakár ennis ihe shekărash-n-issen ekánneten, their soul. fields of them to work them he made them! ísle amísli n tesínsan He who (was) the elder (son) of him har iggel éhennis, har enněhaz éhé n tis, until he went (to) his tent, until he approached tent of his-sire, he heard a hearing of cymbals? d araníb de tékhast. 26. Eghǎre íyen dar ikělan, isísten-t, innas: and timbrels? and dancing? He called one of the servants, asked-him said to him: ákěli : Amadarainek adosenit Wadagh mamūs ? 27. Innas This what-is-it? tik egherisas tik; Said to him the servant: Thy younger (brother) arrives (to) thy sire; áhědel iddĕrín, fel amōye n amōkes enis, upon cause (?) of meeting of him, 28. Iggish atkar [atkahh] amakár enis, yunge elder (brother) of him, he refused (?) Igmat obánnis éhennis, erărit. he should enter tent of his sire. Came-out his father (from) his tent, entreated (?) him. Enhe, legh aütian agóteni nek See, I am years many I 29. Isokalas méghĕred, inne ye obannis: He returned to him harangue, he said to his father: these! khadámaghak: kala war ikhshe agh ulhi n nek: hun kay kalá war tikfahi 'shel have served thee: once-not I have wasted heart of thee: but thou once not givest me day iyen taghat íyet, sagarrassagh, hanagh-teslawit, one she-goat one I caused to butcher, (that) thou to us cause to rejoice, tézar íkal, who wasted tegharassas calf substance of thee áhědel eddĕrín. fat. the afternoon he came, thou hast butchered for him Ke tekéme derí sedes-en(i) harkūk; eherí ni ikétěnes eherí-n-nek. Thou dwellest with me at side of me always; my substance all of it (is) thy substance. Măshan essímmeměhél ahas-nigge tarha-n-nis asemusínten fel tamusne Because it is worthy (that) to him we make joy of him because from? upon the-name innit enta amadaray - innek wa indúrren yamūt tūlís ídar; abat, of-this-that he thy-younger (brother) the little (one) was dead again lives; was lost, nenhet. we have found him. 20. Or, ahaz itimullut, he approached for the kiss. Timullut is a substantive elsewhere. APPENDIX XIV. EL BAKA'Y'S LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION. TRANSLATED BY DR. NICHOLSON. In a preface in rhymed prose, Ah ́med el Bakáy, having enumerated ten generations of his ancestors, addresses his letter to all into whose hands it should fall, of his brethren and friends among the Arabs, the Tawárek, the Fullán, and the Sudán, in the land of El Islám, and especially in the land of Ala Fódíye, the noblest of the sons of 'Abdallah and 'Othman the Imám, among whom the Imam 'Alí ben Mohammed Bello is distinguished; next, to those in the land of the faithful and humane, his brethren of the people of Bórnu, and especially their excellent Sheikh 'Omár; and, lastly, to all Moslims in the land. He then enters on his subject of recommending to them the Christian traveler in the following terms: "Our and your guest, 'Abd el Kerím Barth, the English Christian, has visited us from your part, and we honored him suitably, and were not wanting to him in any thing, and befriended him openly and privately, and defended him from nomadic wanderers and settlers, until we restored him to you in safety, just as he came from you in respect. Now there is no fault to find with our present reception of him, nor with your treatment of him in time past; for the guest of the munificent is munificently treated, and injury to the good is forbidden; and it is the nature of the good and pure to be helpful, just as malice is the disposition of the wicked; and kind acts and intentions are acceptable both to men and to God. But you require to be urgently admonished to treat our and your guest with honor, beneficence, and equity. And do not be deluded by those who say, 'Behold, he is a Christian! let no kindness be shown to him! let it be counted acceptable to God to hurt him!' For such sentiments are contrary to the Kurán and the Sunna, and are repudiated by men of intelligence. It is written, 'God does not forbid your showing kindness and equity to those who do not wage war with you on account of your religion, nor expel you from your abodes, for God loves the equitable.'* And God says (in reply to those who say we are not bound to deal equitably with the heathen'), Nay, with whoever is faithful to his pledges, and fears God, for God loves those that fear him.'t And we have heard from the saints about the dispositions of the prophets, and their inculcation of beneficence to all men. The Prophet used to say, "Whenever honorable persons come to you, receive them with honor;' and he used to show respect to all that came to him, whether they were Moslims, or Kitábis, or infidels. And he gave injunctions concerning those among them who were on terms of compact, and those who were on terms of tribute; so that he said, 'Whoever kills a companiong shall not smell the odor of Paradise; and its odor can be perceived at a distance of 500 years' journey.' And his forefather, Abraham, was kind to every body, so that God mentions him in his book with reference to his generous conduct to guests, and extols his mildness in his altercation with the angels sent on account of the unbelievers; for he says, 'He disputed with us about the people of Lot; lo! Abraham is humane.' And an embassy from the Christians of Najrán came to the prophet, and he received them with honor, and did them justice, as it was his disposition and his custom to do; then he made a treaty with them on terms of tribute, and did not molest them or their religion after he had invited them to accept El Islám, and they had received his missives; and he kept faith with them. This, too, was the way he treated the Jews of Medina, before he went to war with them. Thus God says, 'Thou wilt not cease to discover deceivers among them, with few exceptions; but forgive them, and pardon them, for God loves the beneficent.' And they used to salute him by saying, 'Assilám 'alaika !** with Kesra of the Sín; but he used to make no other answer but And on you!' At last 'Aisha observed it, and reproached them, and cursed them; but he reproved her. So she said, 'Did you not hear what they said?' Sur., 1x., 9. + Sur., iii., 69. ti. e. People of the Book, Jews or Christians. Sur., v., 16. ** The name of some bitter tree. This story is told in Mishkat el Masâbih, vol. ii., p. 394; but assâm (destruction) is the word there used. معاشر : Sur., xi., 77. EL BAKAY'S LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION. 765 And he replied, 'But did not you hear how I returned their salutation? Now what I wished them will be granted, but what they wished me will not be granted.' And it was only as respects the enemies of God-persons fighting against God and his prophet, and waging war with the adherents of El Islám for the sake of their religion-that the prophet forbids what he forbade as to this mode of treatment. The injunction with regard to such is what God says: 'O Prophet, persecute the unbelievers and hypocrites, and be severe with them!"* Thus every believer has a special statute. There came to me one day a man of the Fullán, of the Fullán of the West, who pretended to be learned, but who had no learning, who said to me, 'Does not God say, "You will not find any people who believe in God and the last day, loving those who resist God and his prophet," (and the rest of that verse), and yet you love this Christian unbeliever?' I replied, 'Do not you, too, obey this other word of God? "God does not forbid you to show kindness and equity to those who have not borne arms against you on account of religion, and have not expelled you from your dwellings, for God loves those that deal justly; God only forbids your being friends with those who bore arms against you for the sake of religion, and who expelled you from your abode, or who aided in expelling you."" Then he held his tongue. So I said to him, 'Speak! Do you think that one of these verses abrogates the other? If so, you lie, and are made a liar. Or do you think that one is contradictory to the other, and that the contradiction is in the mind of God? If so, you are a fool, and are made a fool of, and lead astray and are led astray. Or do you believe part of the book and disbelieve a part? If so, you are one of those of whom it is said, "Do ye believe one part of the book and disbelieve the other?"§ If so, you are an unbeliever crying out against unbelief.' Then he asked me to explain to him. So I said, 'Let it suffice you as to this mystery and difficulty, that your head is sprinkled with gray, but that you are ignorant of the book of your Lord which has been revealed to you, and about the Sunna of your Prophet; for the ordinance about the hostile unbeliever and the believer who is not hostile, is well known in the book and in the Sunna. As for the unbeliever who is not hostile, there is no prohibition to treat him kindly, whereas to deal justly with him is a positive duty. As for the hostile one, nothing is said about his being treated with kindness, therefore kindness to him is not expressly enjoined; but God has only prohibited friendship with him in preference to Moslims, or helping him against Moslims. But kindness and equity toward an unbeliever who is not hostile is manifestly lawful; whereas friendship with a hostile unbeliever is expressly unlawful, and kindness and equity toward him are among doubtful duties; and the unbelievers who are hostile, or hinderers, or contumacious belong to one class, and are subject to one ordinance, and with such, affection-whatever belongs to intimate friendship-is forbidden. This is the law with regard to unbelievers. As for Kitábis, they are under special laws, whether they be hostile, or under covenant of peace, or under tribute. We may marry the Kitábis of any description. Now, if any one asserts that it is not lawful to show kindness to a Kitábi, let him tell me what he would do with a Kitábi wife, seeing that God has commanded us to treat our wives with kindness and beneficence, and the Prophet has enjoined it. Therefore, if this were true with regard to the Kitábi wife of a Moslim, there would be absolutely no difference but that of sex between her and her father and brothers; so that whatever kindness and beneficence are due to his wife, the daughter of his connections by marriage, are undoubtedly due to those connections themselves. And the Emír of Másina the Fulláni spoke to me both ignorantly and inhumanely about this Englishman, and insisted on absurd and frivolous postulates. And he-nay, his doctors, without learning, piety, or religion-adduced as evidence certain verses from the book of God which were revealed about hypocrites, about 'Abdallah ben Obbai E'bn Salul¶ and his compeers, and they disgraced themselves by the display of their ignorance of the Kurán and Sunna. Nay, they could not adduce a single word out of the Sunna, nor a sentence from the Canon Law, ** which is their learning, notwithstanding their ignorance of it! Since they did not find either in the Sunna or Canon Law any thing that agrees with their aims, but only what is merely contrary to them, they had recourse to the Kurán, and they perverted it violently, iniquitously, ignorantly, carelessly, derisively, and sportively. But woe unto them for what their hands have written! and woe unto them for the reward they will reap! Among what I said to them was this: If what you aim at were a part of the Mohammedan religion, either theoretically or practically, I would have outrun you in receiving it, and Khalil ben 'Abdallah and 'Othman ben Mohammed Bello, the two descendants of Fódíye, would have outrun you; nay, the great Sultan, our lord 'Abd e' Rahmán, the son of your lord, Hisham, and the Khakán of the two lands and seas, the Sultan 'Abd el Mejíd, the son of the Sultan Mahmud, the son of the Sultan 'Abd el Hamid, would have anticipated you. As for your postulate,* that you have inherited the duty of doing battle with the infidels and of hating them from the time of our fathers and grandfathers, we are more nearly related to them than you, for you have no ancestry in it, since you have only adopted your present opinions about thirty years ago, and a man only inherits from his father and grandfather. Whose guest is this Christian? And again, in whose alliance and safe-conduct is this Christian? He is the guest and protégé of the Sultan of the Faithful, 'Abd el Mejíd, and of the Imam of the Moslims, our lord 'Abd e' Rahmán. Lo! he inherited the duty of warring with the infidels from his fathers and grandfathers; and he possesses his religion from the earliest of the fathers, from the time of the prophets. But as for the people of Núkkuma, they have neither religion, nor learning, nor understanding, nor humanity. What then gives them any superiority or pre-eminence over those eminent persons, seeing that they are the tail of mankind, living in the tail of the world, and that, up to this date, the invitation of the Sunna and of indispensable duties‡ has not reached them? But there is no need to dilate on what they say in their perversity, nor on what is said to them in disputation. The main thing is that you should know, O you body of believers, that God has sent us prophets with His book and His ordinances, and has elucidated them and made them plain, and that whoever wishes to add to them in what He has enjoined is accursed and cast out, and whoever diminishes aught therefrom is condemned and punished. Therefore treat the Moslim according to the treatment ordered for him in the book of God and in the Sunna of the Prophet, whether the Moslim be an upright or a careless one; treat the Kitábis as they are to be treated, whether they be hostile, or under compact, or under tribute; and treat the Infidel generally as he is to be treated, whether he be hostile or not hostile: 'For all are His servants; His will is irresistible by them; His ordinance sticks close to them; His knowledge comprehends them.'§ Whoever treats these different classes with any other treatment than what He has appointed errs in his judgment and is wicked. And this Christian is to-day the guest of the Moslims, under their protection, their covenant, and safe-conduct. No Moslim can lawfully hurt him. On the contrary, to injure him is a burning shame. Nay, he has the rights of a guest, for the guest of the munificent is munificently treated; and every believer is munificent, and every hypocrite is sordid. And does that munificence which is not imprinted in the disposition make a believer? The recompense of kindness is by kindness, in imitation of the character of the merciful Lord. God says, 'Is there any recompense of kindness except kindness?' And behold! this man's nation, the English, have done us services which are neither doubted or denied: which are their friendship to our brethren the Moslims, and their sincerity to them, and their cordiality with them, and their helpfulness to our two Sultans, 'Abd e' Rahman and 'Abd el Mejíd. This is publicly known and acknowledged about the English. It is, therefore, our right and duty to show gratitude for their kindness, and to strengthen whatever covenant and confidence there is between us and them. And I apply this to you, my brethren. Therefore whoever belongs to the jurisdiction of our Tawárek, the people of Karidénne, the kingdom of Alkúttabu ben Kawa ben Imma ben Ig e' Sheikh ben Karidénne, and then whoever is behind them of my companions and friends, Dinnik, the kingdom of my brother, and nephew, and pupil, Músa ben Bodhál ben Katim;¶ then those behind them of our partisans the people of Aïr the Kél-gerés and the Kél-owí; then our darlings, A ́la Fódiye, their learned men, the intelligent and humane, who have the ordinances and the right of decision, on them be my salutation and el Islám! the people of the Imám, * That is, main principle on which you base your wish to hurt a Christian; or it means pretense. That is, the Fúlbe of Másina. About Núkkuma, or Núkuma, see the note, ante, p. 708. U / الغرض This passage rhymes in the original, and seems to be quoted from some familiar source, but it is not in the Kurán, Sur., lv., 60. See about the Dinnik, p. 724. |
