Following excerpt from Ibn Fadlan and The Land of Darkness.
Ibn Khurradadhbih on Sallam the Interpreter and Alexander’s
Wall 844
Ibn Khurradddhbih (c. 820- c. 911) served for many years as director of the barid, the Abbasid postal and intelligence service. He was a friend the caliph Mu‘tamid (reigned 870-892) and wrote on musical theory, literature and geography. His Kitab al-masalik wa’l-mamalik (Book of Roads and Kingdoms) is the earliest surviving work of descriptive geography in Arabic. Later geographers, including Istakhri, Ibn Hawqal and Muqaddasi, augmented and perfected this form by incorporating their own observations and those of knowledgeable travellers. We know from citations by later authors that we possess only an abridgement of his great work.
This is what Sallam the Interpreter told me:
The caliph Wathiq, having seen in a dream that the barrier raised by Dhu al-Qarnayn (Alexander the Great) between our lands and those of Gog Magog had been breached, sought
for a person capable of going to that place and discovering what state it was in. Ashnas 2 said to him:
‘No one is so suitable for the task as Sallam the Interpreter, who speaks thirty languages.’ Wathiq summoned me and said:
‘I want you to go to the barrier and examine it and tell me what you find.’
He gave me an escort of 50 strong young men, 5,000 dinars and 10,000 dirhams as the price of my blood. Each man received a personal allowance of 1,000 dirhams and a year’s provisions. On the orders of the caliph, felt jackets covered with leather were prepared for us, fur-lined boots and wooden stirrups. Two hundred mules carried the provisions and water necessary for the journey.
We set out from Samarra bearing a letter from Wathiq addressed to Ishaq ibn Isma‘Il, the governor of Armenia residing at Tiflis, asking him to help us on our journey. Ishaq gave us a
letter for the ‘Master of the Throne’. 3 The latter wrote concerning us to the king of the Alans,
and this king wrote to the Filan-shah, and he in turn to the tarkhan, 4 king of the Khazars. Having reached the tarkhan, we stopped for a day and a night and then we set out again, accompanied by five guides whom this king gave us.
After having travelled for twenty-six days, our company entered a land where the earth was black and gave off a rank smell. Luckily, we had taken the precaution of providing ourselves with vinegar to combat the bad air. After ten days’ march across this country, we
spent another twenty days passing through ruined towns. We were told that they were the remains of the towns previously invaded and devastated by the people of Gog and Magog.
At last, we reached a number of fortresses built close to the mountains, in one chain of which stands the Barrier. We found people who spoke Arabic and Persian. They are Muslims and know how to read the Qur’an, and they have schools and mosques. They asked us where we came from. On learning that we were the envoys of the Commander of the Faithful, they exclaimed in surprise:
‘The Commander of the Faithful!’
‘Yes,’ we replied.
‘Is he old or young?’
‘He is young.’
Their amazement increased and they added:
‘Where does he live?’
‘In Iraq, in a city named Samarra [Surra-man-ra’a].’
‘We have never heard of it,’ they answered.
The distance between these fortresses varies from one to two farsakhs.
Next we reached a city named Ikah (Hami), which is ten farsakhs in circumference and has gates of iron which are closed by lowering them. Within the confines of this city there are fields and windmills. It is in this city that Dhu al-Qarnayn camped with his army. It is three days’ march from there to the Barrier. Passing fortresses and small towns, on the third day one reaches the Barrier. The chain of mountains forms a circle. It is said that Gog and Magog are enclosed within. The people of Gog are taller than those of Magog; their heights vary
between a cubit and a cubit and a half. 5
Then, we reached a high mountain surrounded by fortifications. This is the Barrier of Gog Magog. There is a ravine 150 cubits wide through which these people used to sally forth to infest the earth, until it was sealed by Dhu al-Qarnayn. The Barrier was built in the following manner. First the earth was excavated to the depth of 30 cubits and foundations were laid, built of brass and iron, up to the level of the ground. Then, two enormous piers were raised, 25 cubits wide and 50 cubits high; at the base a projection jutted out 10 cubits beyond the gate, one on each slope of the mountain, to the right and the left of the ravine. The whole construction is made of iron bricks sheathed in brass, each of which is IV 2 cubits long and 4 fingers thick. An iron lintel 120 cubits long and 5 wide rests on the two great piers, and its ends extend 10 cubits beyond them. This lintel supports masonry built of iron bricks sheathed in brass that rises out of sight to the summit of the mountain. I estimate the height to be roughly 60 cubits. It is crowned with thirty-seven iron crenellations, each armed with two horns that curve inward towards each other. Each crenel is 5 cubits long and 5 wide. The portal itself has double doors of iron, 50 cubits wide and 50 high and 5 thick. The uprights of the doors swivel on an axis that is in proportion to the lintel. The whole structure is so solid that not a breath of wind is felt either through the door or from the mountainside, as if it had been made in one single piece. On the portal, 25 cubits from the ground, there is a bolt 7 cubits long and a fathom round, and 5 cubits above the bolt there is a keyhole, even longer
than the bolt itself, and the two wards are each 2 cubits long. Above the lock hangs a key IV 2 cubits long and 4 spans in circumference, with twelve iron teeth, each the thickness of a pestle. The chain holding it is 8 cubits long and 4 spans round, and the ring by which it is attached to the door is like the rings on a piece of siege machinery. The threshold of the door is 10 cubits wide and 100 cubits long, not including the part that runs under the pillars. The part that juts out is 5 cubits wide. All these measurements are given in the cubits known as ‘black cubits’.
Near the gate there are two forts, 200 cubits square. To the right and the left of their gates two trees have been planted and a stream of fresh water runs between the two forts. The instruments that were used in the building of the wall are preserved in one of the forts: enormous iron cauldrons, like those used for making soap, iron ladles and tripods, each of which can support four of these cauldrons. There are also the iron bricks left over from the construction of the wall, fused together by rust.
The responsibility for guarding this gate is hereditary, like the caliphate, and runs in the family of the commander of these fortresses. He rides out every Monday and Thursday in the early morning, followed by three men, each equipped with a hammer. One of them climbs a ladder, which is leaning against the door, and when he reaches the top step, he strikes the bolt with his hammer. Then, if one applies one’s ear to the door, one hears a muted sound like a nest of wasps. Then everything falls silent again. Towards midday, a second blow is given and the same sound heard, but a little louder. In the afternoon, they strike the bolt again, with the same result. The commander only retires at sunset. The point of these blows is to tell those on the other side of the door that the guards are at their posts and to let them know that Gog and Magog have made no attempt against the door.
Near this place there is a large fortified area, 10 farsakhs wide and deep, in other words an area measuring 100 farsakhs square.
Sallam said:
‘Having accompanied the commander on one of these sorties, I asked whether the gate had ever suffered any kind of damage. I was told that there was only one small crack no bigger than a thread.
“‘Have you no fears concerning the door?”
‘“None,” they said. It is 5 Alexandrian cubits thick, each of which equals IV 2 “black cubits”.
‘I took a knife from my boot and began to scratch the crack, from which I obtained half a dram of dust, which I tied in a handkerchief to show Wathiq.
‘On one of the panels of the door, there is an inscription in letters of iron, which gives the following words in the original language:
“‘When the promise of my Lord comes, He will make it powder, and the promise of my Lord is true.” 6
‘The general appearance of the building is strange, because the yellow layers of brass alternate with the black layers of iron, so that for the most part it is striped horizontally.
‘It is still possible to see on the mountain the mould made for casting the doors; the place where the furnaces stood for blending the brass; the place where the tin and the copper were
melted together; the cauldrons, apparently made of brass, each with three handles, together with their chains and hooks for the purpose of hauling the brass up to the top of the Barrier.
‘We asked the guardians of the gate whether they had ever seen anyone of the race of Gog and Magog. They told us that one day they had seen several of them on top of the mountain, but a violent wind had thrown them back to their side. Seen at a distance, their height did not appear to be more than a span and a half.
‘Seen from the outside, the mountain has no plateau or downward slope; it has absolutely no vegetation; there are no trees or plants to be seen; it stretches into the far distance, steep, smooth and white in colour.
‘On our departure, we were escorted by guides who led us in the direction of Khurasan. We crossed a country whose king is called al-Lub and then the kingdom of Tabanuyan, which pays taxes to the governor of Khurasan. We spent several days at the residence of this prince. Then we continued on our journey. It took eight months to travel from the Barrier to
Samarkand. On the way, we passed through Isblshab, Ushrusana, 7 Bukhara and Tirmidh, where we crossed the river of Balkh (Oxus). By the time we arrived at Nishapur, there were only fourteen of us left, having lost, either through death or sickness, twenty-two men on the way out and fourteen on the way back.
‘We had been obliged to abandon the sick in villages along our route and bury the dead in their clothes. As regards provisions for the return journey, the garrisons of the forts had supplied us with everything we needed. At Nishapur, we went to ‘Abd Allah ibn Tahir, who gave me 8,000 dirhams and distributed 500 to each of my companions. Furthermore, he allotted 5 dirhams a day to each horseman and 3 dirhams to each foot soldier, until we reached Rayy. We only had 23 mules left.
‘When we reached Samarra, I presented myself before Wathiq to tell him of our adventures and I showed him the iron dust that I had extracted from the door. The caliph gave thanks to Allah and large sums were distributed in alms. Each of my men received a reward of 1,000 dinars. Our journey to the Barrier had taken sixteen months and the return had taken twelve months and odd days.’
First Sallam the Interpreter gave me a short summary of his journey, then he dictated the account in the form that he had presented to Wathiq.
Ibn Khurradadhbih (1885), 162-70
[link] [comments]
from Islam https://ift.tt/2oODi44
Post A Comment:
0 comments so far,add yours