Twice Toldal-Istakhri, Kitab masalik al-mamalik (BGA I, Leiden, 2nd ed.): the coffin of Daniel at as-Sus, p. 92
- Language
- Arabic
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026
Abu Ishaq al-Farisi al-Istakhri, Kitab masalik al-mamalik (“Book of the Routes of the Realms”), a geography of the Islamic lands that Le Strange dates to A.H. 340 (951). The text is from M. J. de Goeje’s edition (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum, vol. I, Leiden, 2nd ed., 1927); the printed number is the edition’s. The Arabic is printed without vowels. Line 3 ends with the sentence on the Shadhurvan (the great weir) of Tustar, after which the section on as-Sus begins.
ولهم بالسوس بلغني والله أعلم أن تابوتا وجد في أيام أبي موسى الأشعري فذكروا أن فيه عظام دانيال النبي عم وكان أهل الكتاب يديرونه في مجامعهم ويتبركون به ويستسقون المطر به إذا أجدبوا فأخذه أبو موسى وعمد إلى نهر على باب السوس فشق منه خليجا وجعل فيه ثلاثة قبور مطوية بالآجر ودفن ذلك التابوت في أحد القبور ثم استوثق منها كلها وعماها ثم فتح الماء حتى غلب [word?] النهر الكبير على ظهر تلك القبور والنهر يجري عليها إلى يومنا هذا ومن نزل إلى قعر الماء وجد تلك القبور
Translation
At as-Sus they have, it has reached me, and God knows best, that a coffin was found in the days of Abu Musa al-Ash’ari. They said that in it were the bones of Daniel the prophet, peace be upon him, and that the People of the Book used to take it around in their gatherings, seek a blessing through it, and seek rain through it when drought struck. Abu Musa took it and went to a river at the gate of as-Sus, cut a channel from it, and made in the channel three graves lined with baked brick. He buried that coffin in one of the graves, then made all of them secure and hid them, then let the water in, until the great river [word?] covered the tops of those graves. The river runs over them to this day, and whoever goes down to the bottom of the water finds those graves.
Notes
- The reading of the word before “the great river” is uncertain (the scan prints something like “zabad”, foam); the sense, that the water rose over the graves, is clear from the next clause.
- Istakhri gives the story as hearsay (“it has reached me, and God knows best”) and says the People of the Book carried the coffin around; the Jewish Encyclopedia summary (IV, p. 430) says instead that Jews made a circuit around the tomb and drew water near it.
- Three graves, one holding the coffin, is a detail neither al-Baladhuri nor al-Tabari has in the passages we read. Ouseley’s 1800 translation (p. 76) has “three coverings or cases” for the coffin; we have not compared the Arabic behind it.