From Assuan it is a distance of twelve days to Heluan where there are about 300 Jews.  Thence people travel in caravans a journey of fifty days through the great desert called Sahara, to the land of Zawilah, which is Havilah in the land of Gana[179].  In this desert there are mountains of sand, and when the wind rises, it covers the caravans with the sand, and many die from suffocation.  Those that escape bring back with them copper, wheat, fruit, all manner of lentils, and salt.  And from thence they bring gold, and all kinds of jewels.  This is in the land of Cush which is called Al-Habash on the western confines[180].  From Heluan it is thirteen days’ journey to Kutz which is K[=u]s, and this is the commencement of the land of Egypt.  At Kutz there are 300 Jews[181].  Thence it is 300 miles to Fayum, which is Pithom, where there are 200 Jews; and unto this very day one can see ruins of the buildings which our forefathers erected there[182].

Thence to Mizraim is a journey of four days.

[p.98]

This Mizraim is the great city situated on the banks of the Nile, which is Pison or Al-Nil[183].  The number of Jewish inhabitants is about 7,000.  Two large synagogues are there, one belonging to the men of the land of Israel and one belonging to the men of the land of Babylon.  The synagogue of the men of the land of Israel is called Kenisat-al-Schamiyyin, and the synagogue of the men of Babylon is called Kenisat-al-Irakiyyin.  Their usage with regard to the portions and sections of the Law is not alike; for the men of Babylon are accustomed to read a portion every week, as is done in Spain, and is our custom, and to finish the Law each year; whilst the men of Palestine do not do so, but divide each portion into three sections and finish the Law at the end of three years.  The two communities, however, have an established custom to unite and pray together on the day of the Rejoicing of the Law, and on the day of the Giving of the Law[184].  Among the Jews is Nethanel the Prince of Princes and the head of the Academy, who is the head of all the congregations in Egypt[185]; he appoints Rabbis and officials, and is attached to the court of the great King, who lives in his palace of Zoan el-Medina, which is the royal city for the Arabs.

[p.99]

Here resides the Emir al Muminin, a descendant of Abu Talib.  All his subjects are called “Alawiyyim[186],” because they rose up against the Emir al Muminin al Abbasi (the Abbaside Caliph) who resides at Bagdad.  And between the two parties there is a lasting feud, for the former have set up a rival throne in Zoan (Egypt).

Twice in the year the Egyptian monarch goes forth, once on the occasion of the great festival, and again when the river Nile rises.  Zoan is surrounded by a wall, but Mizraim has no wall, for the river encompasses it on one side.  It is a great city, and it has market-places as well as inns in great number.  The Jews that dwell there are very rich.  No rain falls, neither is ice or snow ever seen.  The climate is very hot.