استكمالا لحوار مع بشاشا الذي يروقني!!.

Quote: of the first steps which anyone desirous of studying the history of a people naturally takes is to consult such native records as may be extant and appraise their importance as evidence. Following this course in the case of the Sudan Arab one is surprised to find that a large proportion of the population is in possession of scraps of paper which they regard as having a historical value. The owner often cannot read, but he is prepared to produce for inspection a handful of disreputable papers, torn, frayed and filthy. Some turn out to be unintelligible contracts concerning the cultivation of a plot of land, some are extracts from a manual of prayer and ablution, some are promissory notes: others contain strings of names, pedigrees of the owners to Abbas the uncle of the Prophet or some other notable. If the native is asked the source of the genealogical fragment either he thinks that he found it among his father's papers or says that it is an extract which was taken for him from a larger work owned by some "feki." In the latter case one's hopes are perhaps raised by a graphic description of an enormous tome, centuries old, said to have been composed "by el Samarkandi perchance; but God knows!" And one proceeds in search of the "feki." Then comes disillusionment. Sometimes the manuscript has been lost or burnt, or it has been lent to a relative at the other end of the country, or eaten by white ants. Sometimes the "feki" admits possession and with great care produces a few pages of genealogies obviously written within the last few decades. In this case one is generally referred for the original manuscript to some other "feki" who either lives beyond one's reach or died some years ago. In time, however, one does hear of some accessible "feki" whose manuscript has been the fons et origo of many of the ragged shreds in circulation and from him one learns that he or his father copied this "nisba" fifteen or twenty years ago, from the copy that was in possession of some other learned "feki." Occasionally one finds a "nisba" that is known to have been in the hands of the owner's family for several generations. An original author's manuscript a century or more old I have never seen, though such may possibly exist.