Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

CERTAIN MATTERS CONCERNING EGYPT.

59

In Egypt Moses divided the sea, and performed the ten miracles.
Joseph the Truthful ruled over Egypt.
In Egypt also is the palm-tree. Here is the Holy Valley2, and the
fissure of the Abzl KzIr a, to which the birds of that species go on pilgrimage every year. One bird is caught in this fissure, and remains
hanging there until the winds blow it to pieces. In this country also
is the Hi'it al-'Ajz 4, from Al-'Arish to Aswan; which is sometimes
called Hd it al-Hz'jzlz.
1This is a constant epithet of Joseph among the Mahometans, and originated
in the Koran, Sarah Ydsuf, ver. 51:
_ 0 - -9 o 9 - -- 0 _ o- -\ O. 9* - -
'The wife of Al-'Aziz said: Now the truth is made manifest. It was I who
tempted him to sin. Surely he is one of the truthful.'
Compare ver. 46:
'O Joseph the Truthful I teach us with regard to the seven fat kine,' &c.
2 I can only conjecture that this may mean the Wadl Natrfn or xVWdi Habib,
the ancient Nitrian valley, so famous in the annals of monasticism.
3 This legend of the Abakir birds is found in most of the Arab historians who
have written on Egypt; see Quatremere, Mleir. Hist. et Geogr. i. p. 32, where our
author is quoted among others. The fissure is said by our author (fol. 86 b) to
be on the Jabal al-Kahf. Other writers say the Jabal at-Tair, the well-known hill
which still bears the name, on the Nile, opposite Samallft and Taha. As-Suyuti,
who reckons the Jabal at-Tair as one of the twenty wonders of Egypt, on account
of these birds, describes them thus:
'They are piebald, with black necks, striped on the breast, with black tips
to their wings.' Husn al-Muhddarah, i. p. ri.
Al-Makrizi says that the prodigy had ceased in his time. Khztat, ii. p. o.r f.;
cf. i. p. r.
4 'Wall of the old woman,' also called Jzsr al-'Ajuz, 'dyke of the old
woman.' It still exists in portions near Jabal at-Tair, near KusTyah, and at
other places.
The 'old woman' is said by some writers to be Dalukah (see fol. 70 b), who
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