158 THE PROGRESS THROUGH EGYPT 11. 2. v.

Muhammad the prophet, whom God bless and save. We will not attack

you, nor wage war on you, nor make incursions against you, so long as ye

abide by the terms settled between us and you. When ye enter our country,

it shall be but as travellers, not as settlers, and when we enter your country

it shall be but as travellers not settlers. Ye shall protect those Muslims or

their allies who come into your land and travel there, until they quit it. Ye shall give us the slaves of Muslims who seek refuge among you, and send them back to the countr}^ of Islam ; and likewise the Muslim fugitive who is at war with the Muslims, him ye shall expel from your country to

the realm of Islam; ye shall not espouse his cause nor prevent his capture. Ye shall put no obstacle in the way of a Muslim, but render him aid till he quit your territory. Ye shall take care of the mosque which the Muslims have built in the outskirts of your city, and hinder none from praying there;

ye shall clean it, and light it, and honour it. Every year ye shall pay 360^^

head of slaves to the leader of the Muslims [i.e. the Khalifa], of the middle

class of slaves of your country, without bodily defects, males and females,

but no old men nor old women nor young children. Ye shall deliver them

to the Governor of Aswan. No Muslim shall be bound to repulse an enemy from you or to attack him, or hinder him, from 'Aiwa to Aswan. If ye harbour a Muslim slave, or kill a Muslim or an ally, or attempt to destroy

the mosque which the Muslims have built in the outskirt of your city, or

withhold any of the 360 head of slaves, then this promised peace and

security will be withdrawn from you, and we shall revert to hostihty, until God decide between us, and He is the best of umpires. For our perform-

ance of these conditions we pledge our word, in the name of God, and our compact and faith, and belief in the name of His apostle, Muhammad, God bless and save him. And for your performance of the same ye pledge

yourselves by all that ye hold most sacred in your religion, by the Messiah and by the apostles and by all whom ye revere in your creed and religion. And God is witness of these things between us and you. Written by 'Amr

ibn Shurahbil in Ramadan in the year 31." [May-June, 652 a.d.]

VI This treaty continued in force for over 600 years. The tribute was paid over yearly to the officer in charge of the frontier post of

el Kasr, five miles south of Aswan. At the same time a present of

forty slaves was handed over by the Nubians and a large gift of wheat,

barley, lentils, cloth and horses by the Arabs. The gift of one party was in theory no doubt the equivalent of that of the other, but unless

the only detailed list of amounts that survives is entirely inaccurate —which is of course possible—the Arabs would probably in practice

have had more difficulty in getting their tribute of 360 slaves had not

their gift to the Nubians exceeded in value that of the Nubians to them by something very like the amount of the tribute-.

^ Mas'udi (iii, 39), "365."

^ Cp. Butler, p. 432, and note in this connection the terms in which Makrfzi

alludes to the "bakt" apropos of its renewal in the year 1276 (see later). The origin

of the custom of exchange was as follows : When the Nubians paid their tribute