The mystery of the Great pyramid : traditions concerning it and its connection with the Egyptian Book of the dead : with numerous illustrations

THEORIES AND TRADITIONS

(1638), gives the following from an Arabic book (author not stated—apparently anonymous), entitled Morat Alzeman, which he translated, and which is interesting to compare with the other Arab versions here given :—

“ They differ concerning him that built the pyramids ” (the first three Gizeh pyramids). “ Some say Joseph, some say Nimrod . . . and some that the Egyptians built them before the Flood, for they foresaw that it would be, and they carried thither their treasures, but it profited them nothing. In another place they,tell us from the Copts that these two greater pyramids, and the lesser, which is coloured, are sepulchres. In the East pyramid is King Surid, in the west pyramid his brother Hougib, and in the coloured pyramid the son of Hougib. The Sabzans relate that one of them is the sepulchre of Seth, and the second the sepulchre of Sab, the son of Hermes, from whom they are called Sabeans. They go in pilgrimage thither, and sacrifice at them a cock and a black calf, and offer up incense.” (See Note F on Sabaism.)

Greaves then refers to Abd-al-Hokim, quoted above, in connection with the foregoing, and says of him that, “ discoursing of this argument, (he) confesses that he could not find amongst the learned men of Egypt any certain relation concerning them (the pyramids). Wherefore, what is more reasonable, saith he, than that the pyramids were built before the Flood? For if they had been built after there would have been some memory of them amongst men... The greatest part of chronologers affirmed that he who built the pyramids was Surid ibn Salhouk, the king of Egypt, who was before the Flood 300 years. And this opinion he (al-Hokim) confirms out of the books of the Egyptians.” The Professor then concludes with al-Hokim’s version of the Coptic tradition—already quoted under Masoudi—concerning the supposed inscriptions upon the

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