[304] Slatin Pasha records a tradition current among the Danagla Arabs that this town was founded by their ancestor, Dangal, who called it after his own name. (This however is impossible, inasmuch as Dongola was in existence in ancient Egyptian times, and is mentioned on the monuments. See Vivien de Saint-Martin, vol. ii. p. 85.) According to their tradition, this Dangal, though a slave, rose to be ruler of Nubia, but paid tribute to Bahnesa, the Coptic bishop of the entire district lying between the present Sarras and Debba. (Fire and Sword in the Sudan, p. 13.) (London, 1896.) [305] Ibn Salīm al-Aswānī, quoted by Maqrīzī: Kitāb al-Khiṭaṭ, vol. i. p. 190. (Cairo, A.H. 1270.) [306] Budge, vol. ii. p. 199. Artin, p. 144. [307] Maqrīzī: Kitāb al-Khiṭaṭ, vol. i. p. 193. [308] Morié, vol. i. pp. 417–18. [309] Lord Stanley of Alderley in his translation of Alvarez’ Narrative from the original Portuguese, gives the answer of the king as follows: “He said to them that he had his Abima from the country of the Moors, that is to say from the Patriarch of Alexandria; ... how then could he give priests and friars since another gave them” (p. 352). (London, 1881.) [310] Viaggio nella Ethiopia al Prete Ianni fatto par Don Francesco Alvarez Portughese (1520–1527). (Ramusio, tom. i. pp. 200, 250.) [311] Wansleben, p. 30. For descriptions of the ruins that still remain, see Budge, vol. ii. p. 299 sqq., and G. S. Nileham, Churches in Lower Nubia. (Philadelphia, 1910.) [312] Burckhardt (1), p. 133. [313] Alvarez, p. 250. [314] Idrīsī, p. 32. [315] ʻArabfaqīh, p. 323. [316] Maqrīzī (2), tome ii. 2me partie, p. 183. [317] Basset, p. 240. [318] Id., p. 247. [319] Alvarez. (Ramusio, tom. i. pp. 218, 242, 249.) [320] ʻArabfaqīh, pp. 83, 191. [321] ʻArabfaqīh, p. 275–6. [322] Id. pp. 319, 324. [323] Id. pp. 28, 129, 275. [324] Plowden, p. 36. [325] ʻArabfaqīh, pp. 321, 335, 343. [326] Id. passim. [327] Id. pp. 175, 195, 248. [328] Id. p. 178. [329] ʻArabfaqīh, pp. 34–5, 120–1, 182–3, 244, 327. [330] ʻArabfaqīh, pp. 181–2, 186. [331] Iobi Ludolfi ad suam Historiam Æthiopicam Commentarius, p. 474. (Frankfurt a. M., 1691.) [332] Histoire de la Haute Ethiopie, par le R. P. Manoel d’Almeïda, p. 7. (Thevenot, vol. ii.) [333] Massaja, vol. ii. pp. 205–6. “Ognuno comprende che movente di queste conversioni essendo la sete di regnare, nel fatto non si riducevano che ad una formalità esterna, restando poi i nuovi convertiti veri mussulmani nei cuori e nei costumi. E perciò accadeva che, elevati alla dignità di Râs, si circondavano di mussulmani, dando ad essi la maggior parte degli impieghi e colmandoli di titoli, ricchezze e favori: e così l’Abissinia cristiana invasa e popolata da questa pessima razza, passò coll’andar del tempo sotto il giogo dell’islamismo.” (Id. p. 206.) [334] Rüppell, vol. i. pp. 328, 366. [335] Plowden, p. 15. [336] Tābōt, the ark of the covenant. [337] Littmann, pp. 69–70. [338] Plowden, pp. 8–9.