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The Caliph Mamoun and the Prophet Daniel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

F. W. Hasluck
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The circumstances attending the death of the Caliph Mamoun (A.D. 833) are thus related by Masoudi (+ c. 956), who wrote about a century after the event. On his return from a victorious raid against the Greeks the Caliph encamped in the beautiful valley of Bedidoun. Like all Orientals, he was susceptible to the charm of clear, running water, and at his orders a rustic pavilion was constructed over the spring called Kochaïrah, from which the river Bedidoun flowed. In this the Caliph sat. A silver coin was thrown into the spring, and so clear was the water that the legend of the coin beneath its surface could be read. Mamoun then noticed in the spring a fish ‘a cubit long and shining like an ingot of silver,’ which he desired should be caught for him. This was done, but the fish, when brought to the Caliph, escaped by a sudden movement into the spring, sprinkling the Caliph's breast, neck and shoulders with cold water as it did so. It was again caught, and the Caliph gave orders that it should be cooked. As he did so he was seized by a shivering fit, and when the fish was cooked he was in a high fever and unable to eat it. This was the beginning of the illness which caused his death. Before this took place he had the guides and prisoners called and asked them the significance of the name of the spring Kochaïrah. He was told that it meant ‘stretch out thy feet,’ which he took for an omen of his death. He then asked the Arab name of the country he was in: the reply was ‘Rakkah.’ As it had been foretold him that he should die at a place thus named, he knew that his hour was come. And he died then and was carried to Tarsus and buried on the left side of the mosque.

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Type
Research Article
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The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , 1922, pp. 99 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1922

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References

1 Podandus, the modern Bozanti, two days from Tarsus on the post-road to Eregli.

2 Les Prairies d'Or, ed. and tr. de Barbier, Barbier, vii. pp. 1–2 and 96–101.Google Scholar

3 If the pun seems far-fetched, what about (Preger, , Script. Orig. Constant. i. 72Google Scholar)? For punning on local names cf. Theoph. Cont. Const. Porph., V. xxv. p. 113 P, A.D. 838 (cf. Bury, , J.H.S. 1909, 125Google Scholar), where Omar inquires the local names from Greek captives and derives bad omens from the names. The idea is probably Greek, as in both cases the Moslem comes off badly and the puns are Greek.

4 An Armenian authority of 1108 (cited by Tomaschek, in Sitzb. Wien. Akad., Phil. Hist. Cl. cxxiv. 1891, viii. 66Google Scholar) speaks of a fortress Krakka near Kybistra or Herakleia Kybistra = Eregli).

5 The lesson seems never to be learnt.

6 For this world-wide practice see Frazer, note on Paus. i. 34 (4).Google Scholar For Asia Minor see Bunsen, V. de, Soul of a Turk, p. 173.Google ScholarNiebuhr, (Voyage en Arabie, ii. 281)Google Scholar records that the Yezidis are reported to throw gold and silver into a cistern at Sheikh Adi in honour of their saint, and he compares the Jebel Sindjar practice.

7 Hadja Khalfa, tr. Norberg, ii. 360.

8 Le Strange, , E. Caliphate, p. 133.Google Scholar

9 Ed. Allatius, Leo, Εύμμικτα, 137.Google Scholar

10 Voyage dans la Cilicie, p. 317. See my Graves of the Arabs in B.S.A. xix. p. 182.

11 The first modern writer to mention it seems to be an Italian merchant (c. 1507: see Italian Travels in Persia, ed. Hakluyt, Soc., p. 144Google Scholar). See also Barkley, , Asia Minor, p. 254Google Scholar; Buckingham, , Travels in Mesopotamia, i. 111Google Scholar; Warkworth, , Diary in Asiatic Turkey, p. 242Google Scholar; Pococke, , Descr. of the East, II. i. 160Google Scholar; Tavernier, , Voyages, p. 68Google Scholar; Olivier, , Voyage, iv. 218Google Scholar; Sachau, , Reise in Syrien, p. 197Google Scholar; S. Silvia, ed. Geyer, p. 62; Thévenot, , Voyages, iii. 141Google Scholar; Bunsen, de, Soul of a Turk, p. 218Google Scholar; Niebuhr, , Voyage en Arabie, ii. 330Google Scholar; Rubens-Duval, , Hist. d'Edesse, in Journ. Asiat. 1891–1892, p. 92.Google Scholar

12 Lortet, , La Syrie d'aujourd'hui, p. 58 f.Google Scholar; d'Arvieux, , Mémoires, ii. 390–1Google Scholar; Burckhardt, , Travele in Syria, p. 166Google Scholar; Kelly, , Syria and the Holy Land, p. 106Google Scholar; Renan, , Mission de Phénicie, p. 130Google Scholar; Soury, , Études sur la Grèce, p. 66.Google Scholar

13 Paris, 1682, p. 35. Cf. Jessup, , Women of the Arabs, pp. 296–7Google Scholar, who says one black fish at Tripoli is the Sheikh of the saints, whose souls are in the fish of the pool. Death is supposed to follow the eating of these fish, but the sceptical Jessup experimented without any untoward results. During the Crimean War many of the fish went oS under the sea to Sebastopol and fought the infidel Russians, some returning wounded.

14 For a fish river-god in Asia Minor see the dedication in J.H.S. xix. 76 (32).

15 Cosquin, , Contes de Lorraine, i. 60Google Scholar; Hartland, , Perseus, i. 24Google Scholar; Legrand, , Contes Grecs, p. 161Google Scholar, all give examples of magic fish. The first story in Burton's edition of the Arabian Nights mentions a bewitched fish.

16 Wilson in Murray, Asia Minor, p. 36Google Scholar; Hamilton, , Asia Minor, i. 403Google Scholar; Ross, H. J., Letters from the East, p. 243.Google Scholar The fish mentioned by Hamilton (op. cit. i. 98) at Mohimoul near Tauschanli may also have been sacred. For sacred fish near Afioun Kara Hissar see Calder, in J.R.S. ii. 246.Google Scholar

17 Carnoy, et Nicolaides, , Folklore de Constantinople, pp. 54 ff.Google Scholar (many versions). See my forthcoming Studies in Popular Religion.

18 Fishes are similarly kept in the ayasma of at Gemlek (Kios) in Bithynia, but this is probably due to the influence of Constantinople.

19 Le Strange, , Eastern Caliphate, p. 240Google Scholar; cf. Benjamin of Tudela, ed. Asher, i. 117 ff.; Carmoly, , Itinéraires de la Terre Sainte, p. 459Google Scholar (citing Jichus Ha-Abot (A.D. 1564), ed. Uri de Biel).

20 It is mentioned by Lucas and Barker (cited below), also by Langlois, , Cilicie, p. 329Google Scholar, and by Cuinet, , Turq. d'Asie, ii. 48.Google Scholar

21 Voyage dans la Grèce, i. 272 f. (Amsterdam, 1714). Hadji Khalfa is silent. The legend of Daniel in Cilicia at Shah Meran Kalesi is omitted in Bianchi's translation of Menassik-el-Hadj (in Recueil de Voyages, ii. 103).Google Scholar

22 Lares and Penates, p. 17, and note.

23 Theodosius, , De Situ Terrae Sanctae, ed. Tobler, , 359Google Scholar (ed. Geyer, p. 149).

24 For the tomb of Daniel, at Sus, see Jewish Encyclopaedia, iv. 430Google Scholar, s.v. Daniel, Tomb of; for details of its legendary history Asher's edition of Benjamin of Tudela, i. 117 ff., and for its present state Ouseley, , Travels, i. 420Google Scholar; Loftus, , Travels in Chaldaea, pp. 416 ff.Google Scholar; de Bode, , Travels in Lauristan, ii. 190Google Scholar; Rawlinson, in J.R.G.S. ix. (1839) 69, 83Google Scholar; Layard, in J.R.G.S. xvi. (1846) 61.Google Scholar Cf. also Carmoly, Itinéraires, pp. 489 ff.Google Scholar A plan is given by Loftus, in Trans. Roy. Soc. Lit. v. (1856) to face p. 422Google Scholar; a view is given by Flandin, and Coste, , Voyage en Perse, Pl. 100Google Scholar, and a sketch accompanied by a short account of the tomb may be found in the Field of July 13, 1918.

25 There is, of course, no proof of the ‘Mosque of Daniel’ occupying the site of the church of SS. Peter and Sophia; but the former is placed by Barker (loc. cit.), as the latter is by Willibrand (in Allatius, , Σύμμικτα, p. 137Google Scholar), in the centre of the town.