Note 102 — EL IDRISI COMPARED WITH EL BEKRI.

The Maghráwah مغراوة rose into importance about A.D. 945 (Marmol, I. fol. 127). Their name is written, by Leo Africanus, Magraoa; by Marmol, Magaraoa, or Magaraúa; by Moura (Historia dos Soberanos Mohametanos, &c. Lisbon, 1828) Magraua; and by Conde (Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabes, &c. Madrid, 1820) Magaraba and Magarava. Their original seat, according to Ibn Khaldún, was on the western side of the province of Afrikíah. They are evidently the Machurebii (Μαχυρήβιοι) of Ptolemy, who places them on the right bank of the Chinalaph or Shelíf, near Julia Cæsarea or Shershel, where Dr. Shaw (Travels, I. p. 56) still found an encampment of them; and also on the northern side of the Daradus, the modern Wádi Darʿah. El Idrísí, in giving their name to a country, only took the same liberty with it as with those of the Merásah, Seghmárah, &c. which he has converted into the names of towns. The appellation Maghráwat̤ es-Súdán, or of the Blacks, clearly intimates that there was another Maghráwah not on the borders of Negroland. To the scanty account of Maghráwat̤ es-Súdán given by El Idrísí, nothing has been added by later Arab writers save their mistakes.