iV.vii. OF THE SUDAN 5

forbids, one is often inclined to accept a similarity between two statements as corroborative evidence.

The nisba-v^riter relies as a rule upon the accuracy of the inherited or copied nisba, and it is only in deaUng with the more recent generations that tradition, other than that derived from the nisbas, plays any important part.

V From among the mass of useless and untrustworthy material con-

tained in the manuscripts it is not difficult to pick out certain definite and persistent traditions which are distinctly interesting. In addition

to them there are made in passing numerous remarks and asides from which one may make some not unimportant deductions. It cannot be too often insisted that the proper method is to regard the tribal nisbas rather as parables than as statements of fact. Considered in that light they have a very definite value.

By piecing together such scraps of historical information as are available from the native manuscripts into an abbreviated and co-

herent whole one discovers to what extent the result coincides with

or differs from or supplements the information similarly derivable from the works of non- Sudanese authors, whether they be mediaeval Arabs or modern European travellers ; and from certain of the manu-

scripts one learns something of the sociology of the people and of their customs and beliefs.

VI But one must make some attempt to reply to the inevitable

questions — "What is the general character of these native manu-

scripts ? " "Who wrote them ? " " What is their date ? " VII The word nisba, by which the majority is known, means literally a pedigree. Hence the true nisba is avowedly genealogical in purpose and items of narrative are only incidental to the main theme.

As a rule the author or copyist, after the usual confession of faith,

if he desires to do more than give a bald list of his ancestors, re-

capitulates his reasons for writing the nisba : it is an act of piety enjoined by the Prophet, and the author had found that there was some danger of links in the genealogical chain being lost or con-

fused^. Then follows a genealogical exposition, usually of the Gu- HAYNA or the 'Abbasid stock in the Sudan, or of both, including the author's or the copyist's own pedigree from father to son. In addition the nisba often contains towards the end a series of short stereo-

typed notes on the origin of the chief Arab tribes of the Sudan.

^ Much of what is said about this bears a very strong resemblance to the con-

tents of the first chapter of Ibn Khaldun's second book, i.e. Vol. ii in the Arabic edition. This second book, unlike the first and third, has not, I believe, been yet translated into either English or French.