Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846Richardson, James
History
Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846
Richardson, James
Sahara -- Description and travel
The taleb was greatly delighted, and said, "Yes, so it was in all times
before the infidels introduced knives and forks and spoons to eat with."
I observed it was much more cleanly to eat with knives and forks than
with one's fingers, but it was useless. He only replied, "There's water
always to wash your hands." The sop mentioned in the passage cited might
consist of a piece of bread dipped into a dish of fat or broth. So all
Ghadames people eat, dipping pieces of bread, as they break them from a
loaf, into fat or broth, or other dishes of this sort. We shall find, for
what cause I cannot tell, the Touaricks using spoons, and spoons which
are made in Central Africa, and distributed throughout The Sahara amongst
the Touarghee tribes. This little circumstance would seem to be an
argument against the Oriental origin of the Touaricks, for, eternally
dipping and sopping, and sopping and dipping with the fingers, is
coextensive with the migrations of the Arabs and other tribes from the
East. Jews were the first to introduce knives and forks into Mogador,
because they have not the same religious scruples on this head as
Mohammedans. Barbary Jews do it in imitation of their European brethren.
I shall trouble the reader with another display of the sectarian zeal of
my taleb.
To make a proposition, or a double proposition, of a form of the orthodox
Christian faith, I had constructed the following, in imitation of the
double proposition of the Mahometans, (that is--
لا لله الّا الله ومحمّد رسول الله
"There is one God, and Mahomet is the prophet of God,")
لا لله الّا الله ويسوع ابن الله
"There is one God, and Jesus is the son of God."
The first proposition is seen to be the same; whilst the divine
nature of the Saviour, which is the distinguishing feature of the
Christian religion as looked upon by Mussulmans, is added in the words
ابن الله. The number of syllables is precisely the same, the
و being merely considered as the connecting link of the two
propositions. But the term عيسي would be much preferable to
يسوع, being the classic Arabic term. In teaching Christian
doctrine to Mussulmans, and, indeed, to all people, it is necessary
to adapt our style and language to their style and language and mode
of conception. The Catholics, however, carried the adaptation too
far when they turned the statues of Jupiter and the Emperors into
those of the Apostles and Saints. For the Jews, the proposition
could be made thus:--
لا لله الّا الله ويسوع هو المسيح
"There is one God, and Jesus is the Messiah;"
or as we find the proposition in the first verse of the first chapter of
St. Mark,
[لا لله الّا الله] ويسوع المسيح ابن الله
"There is one God, and Jesus, the Messiah, is the Son of God."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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