238 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



but that, if any of tliem prefer to stay, they shall be protected, and 

 have the same conditions as the people of Jerusalem : tc jXc <ui^j 

 * UjI Jjb^ Xs.' ; compare the words in the Treaty of Misr, JJUi <ldi 



The last clause relating to the garrisons, which comes like an 

 afterthought between the citation of the warranties and the names of 

 the witnesses, is not very intelligible. It is translated by Weil* in 

 the following sense : ' And [it is binding] upon the gaiTisons who 

 consent [to this Treaty] that they shall help [the Muslims] with so 

 many men [lit. heads] and so many horses that they [the Nub] be not 

 attacked nor hindered from trading coming and going.'f I do not see 

 what other meaning can be made out of \y^ • Even if we disregard 

 the vowel -point, and take the word as the 1st form imperfect of ^^ , 

 instead of the I Vth of ^^i Ijxot.' would mean 'scout' instead of 

 ' help,' and would come to much the same thing. \^'Jo again maybe 

 taken either as active or passive — to ' attack ' or ' be attacked.' The 

 clause may be understood to provide for a limited escort of friendly 

 Romans to protect the caravans trading between Egypt and Syria ; 

 but such a provision appears extremely improbable. The Arabs would 

 scarcely trust the Romans with sufficient forces to guard the caravan 

 routes, and would iindoubtedly prefer to guard (or plunder) the 

 commerce themselves. It is not clear from the text whether it was 

 the trade of the Romans or the trade of the Arabs that was to be 

 protected ; but if the former, the clause would seem to suggest that 

 the Romans were to be allowed a small force in self-defence ; and 

 this appears to be the more probable interpretation of the sentence. 



I have caUed this document the Treaty of Misr throughout, not 

 the Treaty of Egypt, because, although Misr means ' Egypt,' it also 

 means the middle capital of Egypt, successively known as Memphis, 



* Geschichte der Chalifen, i. 112. t De Sacy's rendering is given above, p. 231. 



