220 Extracts from an Arabic loorTc relating to Aden. [Dec. 



Aden whether it please God or no !" Then it came to pass that the aqueduct 

 became broken in various places and the spring of water was checked at its 

 source, and what had been built up fell down, and no part of it was com- 

 pleted, nor was any benefit derivable from it. The trench had been brought 

 to the foot of Jebel Hadid, when it was brought to nought * * 

 * # * * *. But when the morning of the morrow came to 

 the excavator the tunnel was finished, and the gate was opened, and the 

 work was accomplished as he desired. It is said he was engaged in the 

 excavation for a period of seventy years until it was completed. After a 

 long space of time Shedad bin Ad used to throw into that place those who 

 deserved imprisonment, and it remained a prison until the end of the 

 dynasty that was at that time over Egypt, and after the decline of that 

 dynasty the place becamed ruined. 



Cities used as Prisons. 



Siraf was the prison of Sultan Mahmoud bin Muhammad bin Sam, and 

 Aden was a prison of the Pharaohs, but it ceased to be a prison under the 

 Fatimites. The Indians say Aden was the prison of Das Sir, the name of 

 a Jinn with ten heads, one of which was that of the deer Dilaeser, and he 

 used to dwell on Jebel Mundhir, and to disport himself on the sands of 

 Hokat Bay. and after that Hokat was inhabited by Indians, and no one was 

 expelled therefrom except Suliman, son of Daud, on whom be peace, 

 when he arrived at the land of Yemen to visit Bilkis, and this was by 

 reason of the people before described being Efrits. Aden was so called, 

 because he who founded it called it after his son Aden. Some say, how- 

 ever, that it derived the name of Aden from the tribe of Ad. It is also 

 said that the first man who was imprisoned in it was named Aden, and it 

 was called after him. And Ibn Mojawir says it derived the name of Aden 

 from Ma'aden, because it was formerly an iron mine, and it was called by 

 the Persians Akhirsikin, and by the Indians Siran. The merchants call it 

 Takal Saida, and it is also known as " Pharaoh's prison," " the abode of 

 Jinns," and " the shore of the sea." By the Indians it is named Hatam, 

 and by gentle folks it is considered a filthy place, because whatever people 

 throw out there the wind drives back upon them ; and it is styled by some 

 the Custom House of Yemen. The house called by the common people 

 the House of Good Fortune is the house built by Seif-ul-Islam Taghtagin 

 opposite the Custom House, and they call the Long House the house built 

 by Ibn Halem facing the Custom House. The house named Mundhir is the 

 house built by Malik El Maiz Ismail bin Taghtagin upon Jebel Hokat, and 

 it is called by merchants Sira and Hira. Jebel Sira is a lofty rock in 

 the sea confronting Aden and Jebel Mundhir, of which it is said to be 

 a portion. Muhammad bin Abdulla El Keysani says in his commentary that 

 on the day of Judgment fire will be emitted from the Sira of Aden and 



