[343]
MANUSCRIPT D 6
Introduction
This work was written in i860, almost certainly by a certain Ahmad
ibn el feki Ma'aruf. From internal evidence one would say that he was a Fadni.
He devotes much space to the Fadn^a, who are not a very im-
portant tribe, and is obviously anxious to glorify their origin and exploits.
It is also clear that the author wrote from the north-eastern Sudan.
His explanation of the word " Ga'ali" (para, xi) is the one that could only be current in the north, and he speaks (para, xii) of the Kawahla as a southern tribe. That he did not live on the river is suggested (a) by his vagueness as to Dongola and Berber (paras, lix and lx), and (b) by his interest in and knowledge of the tribes of nomads living between the Nile at Kabushia and the Abyssinian frontier. As regards the sources of the information given, it is obvious that they are much the same as those of A 11 and A 2, and that we have here
another of the " Samarkandi" group of nisbas; but though the open-
ing paragraphs are apparently copied almost word for word, the author soon breaks away and gives various details drawn, in all probability, from purely oral sources.
The actual manuscript translated, which consists of seven folios, is frayed and stained and may well be the original text of i860. It came into the possession of the Education Department of the Sudan Government in 1913 ,but in what manner or from what direction is not known. The Arabic is indifferent and the style loose and disconnected.
I In the name of God ....
II I have composed this essay to explain the origins of the Arabs each in their turn to whoso wishes to know them.
III I say, and God is my help, that I have heard from our lord Abu
Sulayman el 'Iraki and Abu Mahmud el Samarkandi that they heard our Sheikh Abu Sulayman el Bahrani say in some of his retreats
{i.e. schools, "khalwdt") "We have undertaken a mighty task. Verily pedigrees have fallen into confusion. What hero will take them in hand that the Sherif may be known from the pretended SherifV
Then he would correct himself and say "But to contradict one who calls himself a Sherif is a large and difficult matter and a pure heart