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MANUSCRIPT A 8
Introduction
This nisba is a disreputable looking document nearly two feet
long, the lower half covered with signatures and seals: it is badly
written, in bad condition, and full of inaccuracies. Obviously several generations have dropped out between Serrar and the present. It
was lent me by 'Abd el Kadir 'Abdulla, the sanitary barber of el Kqm- lin and he stated that it was copied for him about 1900 by his relatives,
who hold an older copy, in Dongola, viz, at Um Durrag village, near
Korti.
He had no knowledge of the origin of the nisha, but believed his relatives to have inherited their copy, which, for all he knew, might be the original.
I Praise be to God who created man from a handful^ of earth and made him races and tribes that the noble and the baseborn might be known apart, and blessings and salutations be upon the noblest of
created beings — there is no disputing it — and upon his family and his companions, the good and glorious ones ; and the goodness of the AsHRAF be upon all other noble men, and may the strength of God make their lineage a cause for them to enter into Paradise, as was
said by Him who is glorious "Fear God by whom ye beseech one another and [honour] the womb that bore you."
II Now he upon whom be all honour said "Ye know from your pedigrees how ye are connected."
III And according to the agreement between those two quotations
it is the bounden duty of every person to know his pedigree and tribe lest perchance he trace his lineage to the Ashraf though he be not of them, and so fall into sin, or not know that he is a Sherif, though being one. For lack of carefulness in this occasions harm.
IV It is thy duty to fear God under all circumstances according
to the word of him who is glorious "The noblest of you in God's sight is the most pious of you."
V This is an honourable pedigree, ennobled by the aid of a host- of manuscripts, the pedigree of el Abbas, of whom it was said by
the Lord of the Apostles "Nobility pertains to me and to my uncle Hamza and to el Abbas."
1 reading aJLJL» for iilw . ^ reading Slj». for Cj-ltw .