Book of the Rolls

Book of the Rolls, Gibson1901, printed page 34

f-1175 f.118a f. 118b 34 KITAB AL-MAGALL. Syriac, and it is called Resany’, and Chaldaean ; it is the tongue and speech of Adam. Verily the Syriac language is the Queen of languages and the most comprehensive; from it all other tongues are derived; Adam isa Syriac name. Whoever asserts that it is Hebrew tells a falsehood. Speakers of Syriac will not stand on the left of the Lord but on His right, for the writing of Syriac runs from right to left, and of others the way of the Persian from left to right. In the days of Peleg the nations built the tower at Babel, upon which their tongues were diversified and confounded and divided; because of their con- fusion the town was called Babel. Peleg was very much grieved about this when he saw the scattering of the nations in the regions of the earth. He died, and his son Reu, and Serug and Nahor buried him in the town which he had built and had called by his name. The earth became two portions among two chiefs of tribes; they allowed to every tribe and tongue a kine. and a: Chiet, they appointed im. the’ race of Japhet thirty-seven kings, and in the race of Ham sixteen kings. The kingdom of the sons of Japhet was from the border ot the holy mountain and Mount Nod (8 99 ἢ), which is in the borders of the Fast, to the Tigris and the side of Algauf, and from Bactria to the island town (or Gades = Cadix). The kingdom of the sons of Shem was from the land of Persia, that is from the borders of the East to the Hardasalgs sea among the borders of the West. They had authority also in the centre of the earth. When Reu was thirty-two years old, Serug was born to him; the length of his life being 232 years. At the end of 163 years of the life of Reu, Nimrod the giant reigned over the whole earth. The beginning of his kingdom was from Babel. It was he who saw in the sky a piece of black cloth and a crown; he called Sasan the weaver to his presence, and commanded him to make him a crown like it; and he set jewels in it and wore it. He was the first king who wore a crown. For this reason people who knew nothing about it, said that a crown came down to him from heaven. The length of his reign was sixty-nine years. He died in the days of Reu, and the third thousand 1 Perhaps from Resen, Gen. x. 12.