136 THE NATIVE MANUSCRIPTS iv.aii.vii.

Tribes of "Ga'ali" origin have for centuries been predominant over long stretches of country bordering the Nile in the locality mentioned, and the Guhayna group of tribes appear to have been to some extent pushed inland, away from the river.

Various branches of Guhayna, too, no doubt acknowledged the over- lordship of the Ga'ali meks, when the latter, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were in power round Shendi and Metemma.

For "the oases" {el Wdhdt) see Mas'tidi, Chap, xxxiii. D 6, x in the corresponding passage omits mention of them.

"Eastwards" should rather be "south-eastwards." VIII Cp. BA, cxxxii; A 3, x, etc. XI From here onwards cp. BA, cxxxix et seq.

For Serrar's pedigree see para. Lxvi. XIV This story is the one generally accepted by the tribe, and it is

interesting because it is well authenticated {vide, e.g., el Mas'udi) that in the time of Kusai, the fifth ancestor of the Prophet, i.e. about 400-450 A.D., the tribe of Kuraysh were divided into ''el Batdh" {i.e. "lowlanders" or inhabitants of the valleys) and "el Zimdhir" {i.e. "highlanders"), and the two divisions were kept apart when Kusai settled the tribe at Mekka.

The "Lowlanders" comprised the Beni Abd Menaf, the Beni 'Abd el Dar, the Beni Abd el 'Uzza, and the descendants of Zuhra, Makhzum, Taym,

Guma'a, Sahm, and Adi — all closely related — and the Beni Hanbal ibn 'Amir. The passage in Mas'udi (Chap, xxxix) runs thus:

^o-*i u-tij-^ 0"« ^jgfc-ift?'^' 0^3 ^^^-OT* w— -iJ' ^ Vj*-*^ C,5^ ^>^ '^J5

oUoJl j^ ^ JjL5 ^ p^ia-JI cA;^ LiJ-Al-!* ^jJb\^\ jAofS 5^^:91 etc.

On this matter see also Yakut {Geogr. under "El Bitah"). Whether the Batahin are really connected in any way with these " Batah " can hardly be decided, but the traditional pedigree that unites the Ga'ali in group (including the Batahin) with Kuraysh {i.e. the Beni 'Abbas) and the co-

incidence of the name need not necessarily be dismissed as pure "fakes." It may be that the tribe assumed the name " Batahin " in order to support the nisbas and because they lived in a land of valleys (round Abu Delayk

and 'Alwan), but I think it improbable that there was not some other reason as well.

xvi-xvii Cp. BA, CLiv-CLvi and A 2, v.

A 2 omits mention of the Sand id ab and Mansurab, of the name of

Rubat's daughter, and of the name of HasabuUa's mother. It says of the last four men mentioned that their descendants are in the west, and omits

to say they were full brothers.

The names "el HasabuUawiyyun " and "el Gimi'ab" are written in the text just over the names of Hasabulla and Gami'a.

xviii-xix Cp. BA, CLViii, etc. and A 2, vii, etc. XX The words "And the rest of. . .el Zora" occur word for word in A 2.

By the " 'Abdrahmanab " are meant the Hammadtu family (see D3, 158).