Twice Toldal-Muqaddasi, Ahsan al-taqasim (BGA III, Leiden, 2nd ed.): the grave of Daniel at Sus, p. 407, and the feud over his coffin, p. 417
- Language
- Arabic
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026
Shams al-Din al-Muqaddasi (al-Maqdisi), Ahsan al-taqasim fi ma’rifat al-aqalim (“The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions”), a geography finished in A.H. 375 (985) according to Le Strange. The text is from M. J. de Goeje’s edition (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum, vol. III, Leiden); the printed numbers are the edition’s. The Arabic is printed without vowels. The informants on p. 417 speak in the first person plural, as people of Sus.
[p. 407, line 15, in the paragraph on as-Sus] وقبر دانيال في نهر خلف المدينة وعلى حافة النهر قبال القبر مسجد حسن
[p. 408, line 1, continuing the same paragraph] والقبر لا يدرى إنما ينزل في الماء [word?]
[p. 408, critical footnote a, the variant of manuscript C] وقبر دانيال خلف المدينة من الوجه الآخر في وسط النهر وعلى حافة النهر حذاء القبر مسجد حسن
[p. 417, lines 2 to 10, in the paragraph on feuds in al-Ahwaz] ويقع عصبيات في الأهواز بين المروشيين [word?] وهم شيعة وبين الفضليين وهم سنة حروب وبين أهل البذان وبصنا وبين أهل تستر والعسكر وبين أهل تستر والسوس عصبيات من أجل تابوت دانيال عم وذلك أنهم ذكروا لما ظهر قبر دانيال عم جعل في تابوت فكان يحمل إلى المواضع يستسقى به قالوا فتباعد التابوت عنا ثم عاد إلى تستر فضبطوه فبعثنا إليهم عشرة من المشايخ رهائن إلى وقت رده فلما حصلوه شقوا له هذا النهر وبنوا هذا الأزج وخلوا عليه الماء وبقي أولئك الرهائن عندهم فمن ثم وقعت بيننا هذه العصبيات ومن أجل هذا ذهب قدر مشايخنا إلى اليوم
Translation
[p. 407] The grave of Daniel is in a river behind the town, and on the bank of the river opposite the grave there is a fine mosque.
[p. 408, line 1] And the grave: one does not know [it?]; one only goes down into the water [word?]. (Our reading of this line is uncertain.)
[p. 408, footnote, manuscript C] The grave of Daniel is behind the town, on the other side, in the middle of the river, and on the bank of the river, opposite the grave, there is a fine mosque.
[p. 417] Factional feuds break out in al-Ahwaz: between the [Murshis?], who are Shi’a, and the Fadlis, who are Sunni, with wars; between the people of al-Badhan and Basna; between the people of Tustar and al-‘Askar; and between the people of Tustar and of Sus, feuds over the coffin of Daniel, peace be upon him. They say that when the grave of Daniel was uncovered, he was put in a coffin and carried about to places, to ask for rain by it. They said: the coffin moved away from us, then went back to Tustar, and they seized it. So we sent ten of the elders to them as hostages until it should be returned. When they had it, they cut this river for it, built this vault and let the water run over it, and those hostages stayed with them. That is how these feuds arose between us, and for this reason the standing of our elders has been lost to this day.
Notes
- The first lines of the p. 417 paragraph name sects and districts that we could not all identify; “the Murshis” is a guess at a word the scan prints clearly but we could not match to a group. The part about Daniel does not depend on it.
- “They” who cut the river and built the vault are the people of Tustar in the most natural reading of the sentence; the Arabic does not name them again after “they seized it”. “This river” and “this vault” suggest the narrator points to something at Sus or Tustar. We read it that way but could not settle which town.
- Muqaddasi tells the feud in his own geography, so he is a tenth-century witness that Sus and Tustar both claimed the coffin; Le Strange (p. 240) and the Jewish Encyclopedia cite the same pages.