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Hafs al-Quti: Kitab Hurusiyus (Book of Orosius) (1000) Spain

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Hafs ibn Albar, commonly known as al-Quti or al-Qurtubi, was a Visigothic Christian count, theologian, translator and poet, often memorialised as: the Last of the Goths. He wrote in Arabic, which had then become the common language of Mozarabic Christians living in al-Andalus. Hafs has been thought to have translated Orosius' Seven Books of History Against the Pagans as the Kitab Hurushiyush, though this is doubted by some. In it he mentions the sources of the Nile.

 

Taken from: Orbis disciplinae Liber Amicorum Patrick Gautier Dalché.

Page numbers taken from: Kitab Hurusiyus edition Penelas (Madrid)

 

(Is an Arabic translation of Orosius)

p24

It is also said that (the Nile) has its origin at a source besides a mountain called A.d.l.n.t.h after that it disappears in the sand to resurface not much further to reach an immense lake, after which it continues to the ocean (muhit) through the deserts of Habash, then it turns left towards Egypt. What is thought about the immensity of this river is correct, if its course if as we have described, and if all the monsters are included. The al-Barbar call the river, close to the source Dara, while the other people of the area call it Tab.l, but in the land that is called Copto-Libye it reaches an immense lake and does not leave anymore, except that it changes in an underground river till it resurfaces in the river that comes from the East.

p39

The river Nile, which is also called Yaun (Geon); its source is unknown but its beginning in the land of the Habash is visible, it forms there an immense lake, of 100 miles long after that it escapes at the place called Q.t.r.q.t.q.s., there are 483 miles up to there.