Note 360 — MASRUR AND ZAYN AL-MAWASIF.[307] (continued 2)

Our Aden which is thus noticed by Abulfeda (A.D. 1331): “Aden in the lowlands of Tehámah * * * also called Abyana from a man (who found it?), built upon the sea-shore, a station (for land travellers) and a sailing-place for merchant ships India-bound, is dry and sunparcht (Kashifah, squalid, scorbutic) and sweet water must be imported. * * * It lies 86 parasangs from San’á but Ibn Haukal following the travellers makes it three stages. The city, built on the skirt of a wall-like mountain, has a water-gate and a land-gate known as Bab al-Sákayn. But ’Adan Lá’ah (the modest, the timid, the less known as opposed to Abyan, the better known?) is a city in the mountains of Sabir, Al-Yaman, whence issued the supporters of the Fatimite Caliphs of Egypt.” ’Adan etymologically means in Arab. and Heb. pleasure (ἥδονη), Eden (the garden), the Heaven in which spirits will see Allah and our “Coal-hole of the East,” which we can hardly believe ever to have been an Eden. Mr. Badger who supplied me with this note described the two Adens in a paper in Ocean Highways, which he cannot now find. In the ’Ajáib al-Makhlúkát, Al-Kazwíni (ob. A.D. 1275) derives the name from Ibn Sinán bin Ibrahím; and is inclined there to place the Bír al-Mu’attal (abandoned well) and the Kasr al-Mashíd (lofty palace) of Koran xxii. 44; and he adds “Kasr al-Misyad” to those mentioned in the tale of Sayf al-Mulúk and Badí’a al-Jamál.