[4o6]

D 7 (NOTES)

I The first page of Mek 'Adlan's MS. is missing and the second page begins with " . . .' el Kassdbi.' Their religion. . . ." The first paragraph, as

far as that point, is translated from Muhammad 'Abd el Magid's MS., which is to all intents and purposes the replica of that of Mek 'Adlan.

The description of Soba bears a strong resemblance to that given in the tenth century by Ibn Selim and quoted in Vol. i, p. 171 above.

For the date of the foundation of Sennar see note to para. viii. Soba lies a few miles upstream of Khartoum on the Blue Nile and is

the ancient 'Aloa. It is described as follows by Abu Salih the Armenian, writing at the beginning of the thirteenth century a.d. "Town of 'Alwah. Here there are troops and a large kingdom with wide districts, in which there are 400 churches. The town lies to the east of the large island between the two rivers, the White Nile and the Green Nile. All its inhabitants are Jacobite Christians. Around it there are monasteries, some at a distance from the stream and some upon its banks. In the town there is a very large and spacious church, skilfully planned and constructed, and larger than all the other churches in the country; it is called the church of Man- bali. The crops of this country depend upon the rise of the Nile, and upon the rain. When they are about to sow their seed, they trace out furrows in the field and bring the seed and lay it at the side of the field, and beside

it they lay a supply of the drink called ' mizr,' and go away ; and afterwards they find that the seed has been sown in the ground and the mizr has been drunk. So again at the time of harvest they reap some of the corn, and leave beside the rest of it a supply of mizr ; and in the morning they find the harvest completed ; and they say that this is done by beings of a different

order from ours." (Trans. Butler and Evetts, pp. 262 et seq.)

The churches were under the jurisdiction of the see of S. Mark at Alexandria.

Ruins to be seen at Kutrang, Kasemba and other places (see Vol. i, p. 48) probably represent the remains of some of the 400 churches: they are in red brick and of a meagre description, almost level with the ground.

Alvarez, some four hundred years later, also records the existence of

ancient Christian churches hereabouts. Yakut, el Mas'udi and Eutychius all mention that the particular form of Christianity in vogue was the Jacobite or monophysite (see Abu Salih, p. 264, note).

The most flourishing period of the Christian kingdom of 'Aloa may have been between iioo and 1300. Budge (Vol. 11, pp. 303-306) gives a good rhum^ of the subject. A description of the ruins at Soba may be

found in Budge, Vol. i, 324, and a photograph of them in Peacock's Report, p. 6. A very full discussion of the whole question of Christianity in the