Notes and Extracts From the Semitic manuscripts in the John Rylands Library: V. In the Samaritan Nablus Two Centuries Ago. By Edward Robertson, D.Litt., D. D. Reprint from the "Bulletin of the John Rylands Library," Vol. 22, No. I, April, 1938. (page 20-22a)
But the notices on the surplus leaves of the manuscript are generally more of personal and communal interest than literacy. There are notes on the weather when the inhabitants were kept indoors for days by heavy rain, and for sheer joy when it ceased they went round to each other's houses to congratulate each other. They tell of occasions when snow fell long and steadily and reached in depth to the stature of a man; when earth-quakes shook houses during the night and they all rushed out of doors to spend the remaining hours till daylight in the open. They tell of times when drought made things scarce and dear and locusts destroyed when little remained. It is recorded how on one occasion a Governor of Syria with a great army encamped at Nablus, and requisitioned all the lambs in the neighbourhood to feed his troops so that they were not able to offer their Passover sacrifice that year on Gerizim. The personal entries are numerous- family records of births, marriages and deaths in particular. Sometimes they are so numerous that we can read and follow the life-history of a writer. We will take the case of Salamah b. Ya'qub, a nephew of the Muslim (Mashlamah bin Murjan) of whom we have already spoken, and follow out the entries.

Salamah was born in december, 1716, and in the year 1738 he records in the Great Calendar that he studied it. In the same year he was married to Shelhah, a mature girl. There must have been a marriage before this of which we have no record for his first marriage would take place when he was about fourteen years old. In April of the year 1740 his wife died and in December of the same year he married again, his wife's name was Sadiqah. In February, 1746, his wife presented him with a daughter whom they named Sarah. When Sarah was but seven months old she died. Six months later, in March 1747, his wife Sadiqah also died. In February, 1748, eleven months later he married again, this time his wife's name was Salihah. Ten months later a daughter was born they called Ispahan, after the name of his mother. When Ispahan was three years old she died of small-pox, and the parents were consoled when, three months later (in May, 1752), another daughter arrived whom they also called Ispahan. Four months later she too, followed her sister to the grave. In September, 1752, he had married Safah, a cousin of his, so that he had, unless there is some slip in the dates of the entries, two wives living at this time. That was, of course, permitted by the Samaritans under certain circumstances. In June of 1753 a daughter was born to Safah whom they named Safah, and in December of the same year his other wife Salihah died.

There is now a gap in the entries, and the next we find tells us that in July, 1764, he married Hadiyah, so presumably Safah had died in the interval. And then in July of the following year (1765) there was great excitement and rejoicing, for a son was born. Attention was drawn in the entry to the fact that Salamah had now reached his fiftieth year and had not had a son born to him, all his previous children having been daughters. They called the boy's name Ibrahim. Knowing the anxiety of the Samaritans for male issue and that probably Salamah's bigamies were intended to secure that, we could all hope that it would be spared. But alas, there is a short supplementary note that the boy died when twenty-one days old. The note goes on to say that the very day a son was born to another member of the Danafite family and they called its name Ibrahim. This child also died when it was twenty-two days old. In May of the following year (1766) a daughter was born, whom they named Ispahan, and to whom they gave the pet name Mahbubah (darling). In May, 1768, he records the birth of another daughter, whom they named Bihan but she died after a month. Then in July, 1770, Salamah's dearest wish was again gratified. A son was born and this time they called the child Jacob. But alas, this child, too, died when only three months old. Then the last entry records the death of his wife Hadiyah in July, 1773, and mentions that she was the seventh wife to die, adding "May God cause us to be patient in our afflictions." Then, curiously enough, he quotes a well-known utterance based at least on the Quran although his spelling is defective: "There is no power nor might save with God the high and mighty." No entry gives the date of Salamah's death. It may have been on one of the surplus leaves of the codex which have been lost.

Has tragedy much more to offer? Surely Salamah's life was one long pilgrimage through a vale of tears. Yet it is not unique in these records. Other lives there were almost as heavily shadowed as Salamah's. But we must be content with the examples we have given. We have no time to go into all the entries.