Twice ToldLoftus, Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana (London, 1857): Daniel's body in Ouseley's translation of Ibn A'tham, pp. 318 to 320
- Language
- English
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026
William Kennett Loftus’s account of his work at Susa (Shush) as a member of the Turco-Persian boundary commission and then the excavator of the mound. In chapter XXV he prints, from Sir William Ouseley’s English translation of a Persian version of Ibn A’tham al-Kufi’s Kitab al-futuh (“Book of Victories”), the story of how Abu Musa found and reburied Daniel’s body. Loftus’s footnote says the Persian version was made from the Arabic original; Ouseley’s translation appeared in William Walpole’s Travels in Various Countries of the East, vol. II (1820), p. 428, which we did not open. Loftus is a primary witness to what he and his contemporaries thought the story was; Ibn A’tham’s Arabic and the Persian version were not read.
Original
[p. 318, from the introduction to the quotation] After telling us that Abu Musa Alasha’ri invaded Persia under the Khalif Omar in the eighteenth year of the hejira (A.D. 640), pillaged the territory of Ahwaz, and proceeded to Sus, where he slew the governor, a Persian prince, named Shapur, the son of Azermahan, the historian continues:--
“Then he entered the castle and palace of that Prince, and seized all the treasures deposited there in different places, until he came to a certain chamber, of which the door was strongly fastened, a leaden seal being affixed to the lock. Abu Musa inquired from the people of Sus what precious article was guarded with such care in this chamber: they assured him that he would not regard it as a desirable object of plunder; but his curiosity was excited, and he caused the lock to be broken and the door opened. In the chamber he beheld a stone of considerable dimensions hollowed out into the form of a coffin; and in this the body of a dead man, wrapped in a shroud or winding-sheet of gold brocade. The head was uncovered. Abu Musa and his attendants were astonished; for, having measured the nose, they found that proportionately this dead personage must have far exceeded in stature the common race of men. The people now informed Abu Musa that this was the body of an eminent sage, who formerly resided in Irak (Chaldaea or Babylonia), and that whenever the want of rain occasioned a famine or scarcity, the inhabitants applied to this holy man, and through the efficacy of his prayers, obtained copious showers from heaven. It happened once that Sus likewise suffered from excessive drought; and the people in distress requested that their neighbours would allow this venerable personage to reside a few
[p. 319] days among them, expecting to derive the blessing of rain from his intercession with the Almighty; but the Irakians would not grant this favour. Fifty men were then deputed by the people of Sus, who again petitioned the ruler of Irak, saying, ‘Let the holy personage visit our country, and do thou detain the fifty men until his return!’ These terms were accepted, and the holy personage came to Sus, where, through the influence of his prayers, rain fell abundantly, and saved the land from famine; but the inhabitants would not permit him to return, and the fifty men were detained as hostages in Irak: at length he died. Such, said those who accompanied Abu Musa, is the history of this dead man. The Arabian general then inquired by what name so extraordinary a person had been known amongst them? They replied--‘The people of Irak called him Danyel Hakim, or Daniel the Sage.’
“After this, Abu Musa remained some time at Sus, and despatched to Omar, the Commander of the Faithful, an account of all his conquests in Khuzistan, and of the various treasures which had fallen into his possession; he related also the discovery of Daniel’s body. When Omar received this account, he demanded from his chief officers some information respecting Daniel, but all were silent except ‘Ali, on whom be the blessing of God! He declared that Daniel had been a prophet, though not of the highest order; that in ages long past he dwelt with Bakhtnasser (Nebuchadnezzar), and the kings who succeeded him; and ‘Ali related the whole history of Daniel, from the beginning to the end, with all the circumstances of his death. Omar then, by the advice of ‘Ali, caused a letter to be written, directing that Abu Musa should remove, with due respect and religious reverence, the body of Daniel to some place where the people of Sus could no longer enjoy the possession of it. Abu Musa,
[p. 320] immediately on receipt of this order, obliged the people of Sus to turn the stream, which supplied their city with water, from its natural course; then he brought forth the body of Daniel, and having wrapped another shroud over the gold brocade above described, he commanded that a grave should be made in the dry channel of the river, and therein he deposited the prophet’s venerable remains; the grave was then firmly secured, and covered with stones of considerable size; the river was restored to its former channel, and the waters of Sus now flow over the body of Daniel.”
Translation
Ouseley’s published English translation, as printed by Loftus; we read it only in Loftus. The quotation marks and the spelling are Loftus’s. Loftus’s own words before the quotation are the first paragraph of the passage above.
Notes
- This is the version in which a hollowed stone coffin, a gold brocade shroud and a giant’s nose appear. Neither al-Baladhuri nor al-Tabari has them in the passages we read.
- Loftus then (pp. 320 to 321) gives Benjamin of Tudela’s account in the English he took from the Bohn edition, and says Benjamin “refers the burial of Daniel’s body to Sanjar Shah-ben-Shah”. Benjamin says no such thing in Adler’s translation (the coffin is hung, not buried).
- The 640 and the eighteenth year of the hijra are Loftus’s gloss; the quotation itself is introduced by his own summary.