by Amitav Ghosh
93 Given what we know: See Kees Versteegh, Pidginization and Creolization: The Case of Arabic, p. 114 (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory: 33, Amsterdam, 1984); and Keith Whinnom, ‘Lingue France: Historical Problems’, p. 296 (in A.Valdman (ed.) Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1977).
94 The Arab geographer Mas’udi: S. Muhammad Husayn Nainar, The Knowledge of India Possessed by Arab Geographers down to the 14th. century AD with special reference to Southern India, p. 95 (Madras University Islamic Series, University of Madras, 1942).
95 Ben Yiju’s usage: See for example, Mas’udi, Murûj, Vol. I, p. 163, and Al-Idrisi, Kitâb, Vol. I, pp. 162–183. The names ‘în’ and ‘China’ may of course derive from Sanskrit and Prakrit words (see the article ‘The Name China’ by Berthold Laufer in T’oung Pao, II/13, pp. 719–26, 1912, and Paul Pelliot’s article ‘L’Origine du nom de
96 India, … as the Arab geographers well knew: G. Ferrand, Voyage du Marchand Arabe Sulayman, p. 48; and Mas’udi, Murûj, p. 162.
97 For several centuries … a king called the Ballahrâ: Several medieval Arab geographers and travel writers asserted that the ‘Ballahrâ’ was India’s ‘king of kings’, the pre-eminent ruler in the land. Thus, Ibn Khurda-dhbih, writing in the ninth century remarked ‘the greatest king of India is the Ballahrâ or king of kings,’ while one of his contemporaries noted: “The Ballahrâ is the most noble of the princes of India; the Indians recognise his superiority.’ (Gabriel Ferrand, Relations de Voyages et Textes Géographiques, Arabes, Persanes et Turks, Relatifs à l’Extrème-Orient du VIIIe au XVIIIe Siècles, Vol. I, pp. 22 & 42, Ernest Leroux, Paris, 1913). Mas’udi, writing in the tenth century, observed: ‘The most powerful of the kings of India is the Ballahra, the lord of the city of Mankir. Most Indian chiefs turn towards him when they say their prayers.’ (Murûj, Vol. I, p. 177). Al-Idrisi was to add his considerable authority to these statements a couple of centuries later (see Kitâb, p. 47, and G. Ferrand, Relations, p. 196). See also André Miquel, La Géographie humaine du Monde Musulman jusqu’au milieu du 11e siècle, Vol. II, p. 84 (Mouton, Paris, 1975).
98 An eminent scholar: S. M. H. Nainar, The Knowledge of India, pp. 138–140.
99 .… small kingdoms and principalities: As Ibn Battuta put it: ‘In (the Malabar) there are twelve infidel sultans, some of them strong with armies numbering fifty thousand men, and others weak with armies of three thousand. Yet there is no discord whatever between them, and the strong does not desire to seize the possessions of the weak.’ (Travels, p. 232).
100 The place … known as ‘Jurbattan’: S. M. H. Nainar, The Knowledge of India, p. 41.
101 After about two days … ‘Budfattan’: S. M. H. Nainar, The Knowledge of India, pp. 29–30. The town is also known as Valarapattanam.
102 For much of the distance: Ibn Battuta, Travels, p. 232.
103 ‘Dahfattan’ … lies: S. M. H. Nainar, The Knowledge of India, p. 32. The town is also known as Dharmapattanam.
104 A little further … Pantalayini Kollam: S. M. H. Nainar, The Knowledge of India, p. 35.
105 Cabrai delivered a letter: Cf. K. N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation, p. 68.
106 The Portuguese fleet sailed: Cf. R. S. Whiteway, The Rise of Portuguese Power in India 1497–1550, pp. 86–7.
107 A year … later … da Gama returned: Cf. George D. Winius, ‘From Discovery to Conquest’, p. 224, (in Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580, by Bailey W. Diffie and George D. Winius, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1977).
108 ‘The heathen [of Gujarat]’: Quoted by M. N. Pearson, in ‘Indian Seafarers in the Sixteenth Century’, p. 121.
109 ‘between resistance and submission’: M. N. Pearson, Merchants and Rulers, p. 69. See also C. R. Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415–1825, p. 46 (A. A. Knopf, New York, 1969).
110 As far as the Portuguese were concerned: In 1595 Philip II of Spain took matters a step farther and ‘decreed that no non-Christian resident in Western India could trade, either directly or through an intermediary, to places other than those on the Western India coast.’ (M. N. Pearson, Merchants and Rulers, p. 53).
111 In 1509AD: See M. N. Pearson, Merchants and Rulers, p. 31; George D. Winius, p. 240–1 (in Foundations of the Portuguese Empire) and S. A. I. Tirmizi, ‘Portuguese problems under the Muzaffarids’ (in Some Aspects of Medieval Gujarat, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1968).
Going Back
1 The news … from Ifriqiya: H. Wieruszowski, ‘The Norman Kingdom of Sicily and the Crusades’, p. 22.
2 ‘Shaikh Abû Isâq: T–S 18 J 4, fol. 18, recto, lines 33–5.
3 ‘Concerning the news’: T–S Misc. Box 25, fragm. 103, recto, lines 27–9.
4 ‘My master [Ben Yiju]’: T–S 13 J 7, fol. 27, recto, lines 15–18. Altogether, five of Ben Yiju’s letters, three from Khalaf ibn Ishaq and two from Yusuf ibn Abraham, refer to Mubashshir. These letters appear to have been written over a relatively short period of time. The last in the sequence is probably the letter of MS H.6 (from Khalaf ibn Ishaq) which has been dated by Strauss as having been written in 1148AD. Another letter from Khalaf, (T–S Misc. Box 24, fragm. 103) has been dated to 1147 by S. D. Goitein (cf. S. Shaked, Tentative Bibliography, pp. 147). Since Mubashshir’s stay in Egypt was probably not a very long one, it seems likely that the others were written in the couple of years immediately preceding 1147. The five letters are: T–S 12.235 (from Yusuf ibn Abraham); T–S 13 J 7, fol. 27 (from Yusuf ibn Abraham); T–S 18 J 4, fol. 18, (from Khalaf ibn Ishaq); T–S Misc. Box 25, fragm. 103, (from Khalaf ibn Ishaq); MS H.6, E. Strauss, ‘Documents’, (from Khalaf ibn Ishaq).
5 ‘As for the news’: T–S 13 J 7, fol. 27, recto, lines 18–19;
6 Disease and famine had followed: Cf. H. Wieruszowski, ‘The Norman Kingdom of Sicily and the Crusades’, p. 23.
7 In western Europe: Cf. Virginia G. Berry, ‘The Second Crusade’, p. 463–512, in K. M. Setton (Gen. ed.) A History of the Crusades, Vol. I, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1969.
8 ‘Behold the days of reckoning’: The Jews and the Crusaders (The Hebrew Chronicles of the First and Second Crusades), p. 123, (translated and edited by Shlomo Eidelberg, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1977).
9 They were relatively lucky: H, Z. Hirschberg, History of the Jews in North Africa, p. 128, and ‘The Almohade Persecutions and the India Trade’, in Yitzhak F. Baer Jubilee Volume (ed. S. W. Baeon et. al., History Society of Israel, Jerusalem, 1960).
10 The letter … by Abu Zikri’s son: H. Z. Hirschberg, The Almohade Persecutions and the India Trade’. This letter contains an extraordinary usage: the writer uses the Arabic word fata (victory, lit. ‘opening’), which has the sense of ‘liberated’, to describe the Almohad entry into Tlemcen—an event that he clearly regarded as a disaster. It is a striking instance of the ironies that Judæo-Arabic sometimes imposed on its users (line 41, p. 142).
11 Not long before: Cf. S. D. Goitein, Letters, pp. 62–65.
12 On that occasion, Ben Yiju: The nakhuda Mahruz frequently acted as a courier for Ben Yiju and his friends and is mentioned several times in their letters (Cf. T–S 8 J 7, fol. 23, recto, line 3; T–S N.S. J 10, verso, 1st. Account, line 9, 2nd. Account, line 1. See also S. D. Goitein, Letters, pp. 62–5. Goitein notes there that Mahruz’s sister was married to Judah b. Joseph ha-Kohen (Abu Zikri Sijilmasi).
13 ‘I asked [some people]’: Cf. E. Strauss, ‘Documents’, p. 149 (lines 10–14, MS H.6).
14 ‘Every year you speak’: Cf. E. Strauss, ‘Documents’ p. 149 (lines 23–4, MS H.6).
15 ‘I do not know’: The catalogue number of this document is T–S 10 J 10, fol. 15. This letter was first transcribed and published by J. Braslawsky in Zion, (7, pp. 135–139) in 1942. Goitein also published an English translation of it in 1973 (Letters, pp. 201–6). All except one of the following quotations from this document are taken from Goitein’s translation.
&
nbsp; 16 ‘[Therefore], I ask you’: I have made the word ‘brother’ plural here to preserve the implied sense of the passage.
17 ‘I heard of what happened’: I have translated this passage directly from Braslawsky’s transcription (Cf. Zion, 7, p. 138), (T–S 10 J 10, fol. 15, lines 41–44 [verso 5–8]).
18 ‘I wished to ask’: Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr., d. 66, fol. 139, recto, lines 6–12.
19 Such were the misfortunes: The chronology of this period of Ben Yiju’s life is not easy to establish. The document T–S 12.337 appears to have been written some three years or so after T–S 10 J 10, fol. 15, which Goitein has dated as being written on 11 September 1149 (Letters, p. 201). This plus the sequence of documents and events that follow upon it, suggest that T–S 12.337 was written in 1152–3 or thereabouts.
20 ‘I wrote a letter to you’: T–S 12.337, recto, lines 4–6.)
21 ‘I did all … in my power’: T–S 12.337, recto, lines 6–8.)
22 ‘As for Mubashir’: T–S 12.337, recto margin.
23 .… the joyful name Surûr: ‘Surur’ was of course, the diminutive for Faria (Perayâ), and both names derive from roots that have the connotation of ‘joyfulness’ (cf. Goitein, Letters, p. 327, fn.). Farhia was also Ben Yiju’s father’s name which was why both he and his brother Yusuf named their first-born sons Farhia (Surur). Ben Yiju was in fact sometimes addressed by the tekonym ‘Abû Surûr’ or ‘father of Surur’
24 ‘two children like sprigs’: T–S 12.337, recto, line 13.
25 ‘And the elder’: T–S 12.337, recto, lines 14–16.,
26 Dhû Jibîa: G. R. Smith, Ayyûbids and Early Rasûlids, p. 66.
27 ‘The news reached your … slave: T–S 10 J 13, fol. 6, lines 13–17. The second part of the quotation (lines 14–17) are in Hebrew, and were kindly translated for me by Dr Geoffrey Khan. See also S. Shaked’s Tentative Bibliography, p. 102.
28 Ben Yiju … a Hebrew poem: T–S 8 J 16, fol. 23. Cf. S. Shaked’s Tentative Bibliography, p. 86.
29 Such documentation as there is: Such was his position that one of his correspondents of that time used phrases such as ‘the gracious sage’, ‘the head of the community’ and other such honorifics to address him. Cf. T–S 10 J 13, fol. 6, lines 5 and 7 (I am grateful to Dr Geoffrey Khan for translating these honorifics for me). A document containing parts of three legal opinions written by Ben Yiju, suggest that he had some judicial functions within the community. They are written on the reverse side of a letter that Yusuf ibn Abraham had sent to him in Mangalore (T–S 10 J 9, fol. 24), but Goitein was of the opinion that the drafts were written after Ben Yiju’s departure from India, ‘probably in Yemen’ (S. Shaked, Tentative Bibliography, p. 100).
30 Yet there must … have been anxieties: The letter in question is Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr. d. 66 (Catalogue n. 2878), fol. 61. Lines 10–15 deal with the safety of the roads and were evidently written in answer to a query from Ben Yiju. The Yemen in this period was riven by struggles between the Mahdids and the Najâids (see G. R. Smith, Ayyûbids and Early Rasûlids, p. 58).
31 .… such marriages were commonplace: Khalaf’s relative Madmun for example, was married to the sister of Abu Zikri Sijilmasi, who was, of course, originally from the Maghreb (see S. D. Goitein, Letters, p. 62).
32 Instead, he began to dream: For a brief review of the literature on cousin marriage in the Middle East see J. M. B. Keyser’s article, ‘The Middle Eastern Case: Is There a Marriage Rule?’, (Ethnology, 13, pp. 293–309).
33 ‘Shaikh Khalaf [ibn Ishaq]’: T–S 12.337, recto, lines 20–25.
34 ‘and we will rejoice’: T–S 12.337, recto, line 19.
35 ‘Address your letters to me’: T–S 12.337, recto, lines 30–32.
36 ‘Suliman and Abraham’: T–S 12.337, recto, line 34 & margin.
37 But it had other compensations: At this time, and until well afterwards, the Jews of Sicily looked to North Africa in matters of liturgy and religion (see David S. H. Abulafia, ‘The End of Muslim Sicily’, in Muslims Under Latin Rule, ed. James M. Boswell, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1990).
38 The young Surur: My description of Surur’s voyage to Messina is based on S. D. Goitein’s translation of the letter he wrote home after reaching that city (Letters, pp. 327–330).
39 Sulîmân ibn arûn: Mentioned in Ben Yiju’s second letter to Yusuf (T–S 12.337, recto, lines 25–6)
40 In this instance, … in a letter: In his letter home Surur evidently spelt this name as ‘Ben Silûn’. Goitein points out in his translation of this letter, that the name is identical with ‘Ibn arûn’ and it seems almost certain the individual in question was the same person that Ben Yiju referred to in his letter to his brother Yusuf (T–S 12.337, lines 25–26.)
41 The letter … was a short one: The letter contains a reference to one ‘Abû’l Fakhr al-Amshâî’ who was a family friend, and Surur’s contact in Fustat.
42 But Surur had … another reason: T–S 8 J 36, fol. 3, recto, lines 4–6.
43 Their parents, already prostrate: Surur’s letter home has not survived, but the letter his brother Shamwal wrote back in reply has. Its catalogue number is Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr., b. 11 (Cat. no. 2874), fol. 15 (S. Shaked, Tentative Bibliography, p. 207).
44 ‘We were seized with grief: Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr., b. 11 (Cat. no. 2874), fol. 15, recto, lines 8–9. I would like to thank Dr Geofrrey Khan for translating the Hebrew phrase in this passage (in italics).
45 ‘well and in good cheer’: T–S 13 J 20, fol. 7, recto, lines 22–23.
46 Food was short: Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr., b. 11 (Cat. no. 2874), fol. 15, recto, lines 34–35 & 36–37.
47 ‘If you saw [our] father’: Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr., b. 11 (Cat. no. 2874), fol. 15, lines (recto) 45—(verso) 4 & (verso) 8–13.
48 ‘Come quickly home’: T–S 16.288, recto, lines 10–11.
49 The marriage did indeed take place: S. D. Goitein, Letters, pp. 202.
50 Both Surur and Moshe: Ibid., pp. 186 & 328.
51 I discovered that the name Abu-Hasira: The most important scholarly work on the cult of saints amongst North African Jews is that of the eminent Israeli folklorist, Issachar Ben-Ami. See, for example, his article ‘Folk Veneration of Saints among Moroccan Jews’, (in Studies in Judaism and Islam, ed. Shelomo Morag et al., Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1981). In the course of their fieldwork amongst Moroccan Jews Ben Ami and his associates compiled a list of 571 saints, twenty-one of whom were women. The French scholar, L. Voinot, estimated in 1948 that forty-five Jewish saints in Morocco were revered by Muslims and Jews alike while thirty-one were claimed by both Jews and Muslims as their own (quoted by Ben-Ami in ‘Folk Veneration of Saints’, p. 283).
52 ‘The tomb of Rabbi’: See Alex Weingrod’s article, ‘Saints and Shrines, politics and culture: a Morocco-Israel comparison’, pp. 228 (in Muslim Travellers, ed. Dale F. Eickelman and James Piscatori, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1990); Gudrun Krämer, The Jews in Modern Egypt, 1914–1952, pp. 114. University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1989; Issachar Ben-Ami, ‘Folk Veneration of Saints’, pp. 324–328; and Baba Sali, His Life, Piety, Teachings and Miracles (Rav Yisrael Abuchatzeirah), by Rav Eliyahu Alfasi & Rav Yechiel Torgeman, written and edited by C. T. Bari, trans. Leah Doniger (Judaica Press Inc., New York, 1986).
Epilogue
1 The document is one of Ben Yiju’s sets of accounts: Dropsie 472. The following are the other Geniza documents I have used in reconstructing Bomma and Ben Yiju’s lives. This list includes only those documents with which I have worked principally or in part from my own transcriptions, made directly from the manuscripts (in such instances where I have worked with published transcriptions or translations, the references are provided in the endnotes). I would like to thank the Syndics of the University Library, Cambridge, for giving me permission to use and quote from these documents. I would also like to thank the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the Annenberg Research Centre, Philadelphia, for allowing me to consult their Geniza
collections.
l. T–S 12.235
2. T–S 12.337
3. T–S 16.288
4. T–S 20.130
5. T–S 20.137
6. T–S N.S. J 1
7. T–S N.S. J 5
8. T–S N.S. J 10
9. T–S K 25.252
10. T–S MS Or. 1080 J 95
11. T–S MS Or. 1080 J 263
12. T–S MS Or. 1081 J 3
13. T–S Misc. Box. 25, fragm. 103
14. T–S 6 J 4, fol. 14
15. T–S 8 J 7, fol. 23
16. T–S 8 J 36, fol. 3
17. T–S 10 J 9, fol. 24
18. T–S 10 J 10, fol. 15
19. T–S 10 J 12, fol. 5
20. T–S 10 J 13, fol. 6
21. T–S 13 J 7, fol. 13
22. T–S 13 J 7, fol. 27
23. T–S 13 J 20, fol. 7
24. T–S 13 J 24, fol. 2
25. T–S 18 J 2, fol. 7
26. T–S 18 J 4, fol. 18
27. T–S 18 J 5, fol. 1
28. Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr., b. 11, fol. 15
29. Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr., d. 66, fol. 61
30. Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr., d. 66, fol. 139
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THE EMPEROR’S LAST STAND
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