Page 98 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

88 Arabian Studies IV
19. The text reads Rum yigitlcri, i.e. brave young men from the land of
Rflm.
20. The sikkes issued in Egypt in the time of Selim 1 bore on them only
Sultani, and were thus called Sultani. They were also called ashrefi
(schdrafin). Sec Islam Ansiklopcdisi, s.v. Sikkc by I. Artuk. Magalhacs
Godinho (L*Economic dc FEmpire Portugais, II, 291) notes that
throughout the sixteenth century Egyptian sultanis, Venetian ducats and
Portuguese cruzados were of nearly the same value. Ghawri coins are so
called after the Mamluk sultan of Egypt, al-Ghawri.
21. Tabt al-rib (Cf. The Portuguese off the south Arabian coast, 41) is a
technical nautical term meaning to sail with a wind never quite strong
enough, to sail close inshore.
22. Sanjak, i.e. the chief administrative unit of the Ottoman Empire,
subdivision of a beylerbeylik or an eyalet, i.e. a province.
23. See above, note 19.
24. This is ‘Abd al-Maiik b. 4Abd al-Wahhab, brother of the well-
known ‘Amir, the Tahirid monarch of the Yemen. Qutb al-Dln al-
Nahrawal! quotes verses that praise the justice of these two Tahirids.
25. The yadraml chronicler Shanbal under the annals for 917/1511-12
speaks of ‘Janasir and Dakar and other places of the lands of al-Mujahid’
as being afflicted by plague. This place is variously spelled Jannasiri/
Cenasen/Jina‘s£ni by modem writers and scholars; it is near Jigjiga,
approximately 15 miles to the west.
26. TabSrah seems to represent the well-known town of Atbara.