Let’s carry on with Eutychius’ rewriting of the Old Testament. None of this is enormously interesting, but we, or rather I, have to trudge through it if we are to complete this translation of Eutychius. It seems that nobody will produce an English translation direct from the Arabic. So, as before, I am taking the Italian translation, running it through Google Translate, and making sense of what comes out. Interestingly it looks as if the Italian-to-English translation in Google has improved since I last used it in January.
15. In the days of Rāghū there reigned the Queen of Sheba, founder of the city of Saba, for many years (60). After her, women continued to reign in the city of Saba, until the time of King Solomon, son of David. In the days of Rāghū there was king Qārūn (61), who built the city of Uqīnīn. It is said that Qārūn melted gold, making bricks with which he built the city of Uqīnīn. Rāghū was sixty-six years old when Shālakh died, in the month of Adhār, or Baramhāt (62), after having lived four hundred sixty years. Rāghū lived in all three hundred and thirty-nine years (63). At one hundred and thirty years Shārū‘ had Nākhūr (64). Shārū‘ was sixty-eight years old when ‘Ābir died in the month of Kānūn ath-Thānī, or Tūbah (65), at the age of four hundred and sixty-four (66). Shāru` was seventy-seven years old when Fāliq died in the month of Aylūl, or Tūt, at the age of three hundred and thirty-nine (67). Shārū‘ lived in all three hundred and thirty years (68).
At seventy-nine Nākhūr had Tārih (69). In his day the giants multiplied, and there lived ‘Ād (70), son of Aram, son of Sām, son of Noah. Indeed in his time measures and weights were instituted, and also in his time the earth was shaken by a violent and fearful earthquake (71), which was the first in history. And since there were many worshipers of idols who sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, God sent a stormy wind that like a whirlwind broke all the idols and cut down their niches, reducing them to a heap of stones in the shape of hills still visible today (72). When Nākhūr was seventy-seven years old, Rāghū died in the month of Nīsān, or Barmūdah, at the age of three hundred and thirty-nine (73). In his time there appeared a Persian man named Zaradasht (74) who founded the Sabaian religion. And there was in Persia a king called Tahmūrat (75). Some believe that a Greek named al-Yūnān son of Iraqliyūs, based in Ilyas, was the founder of the Sabaian religion; others believe he was from the city of “az-Zaytūna”, built near Athens. The Greeks were the first to profess this doctrine and wrote many books on astrology and the motion of the universe. It is also said that the Sabaian religion was founded by one of those who had taken part in the construction of the tower of Bābil. Nākhūr lived in all two hundred and eight years (76).
At the age of seventy Tārih had Abraham. In his time the king of Bābil was Nimrūd (77), the giant. It is said that he was the first king to rule in Bābil. He saw in the sky, in a cloud, something like a crown, and immediately summoned a metal-worker who modelled a crown and he placed it on his head. For this reason, people said: “He was given a crown from heaven”. It is said that he was the first to worship fire because he saw, far to the east, a fire coming out of the earth. Nimrūd went there, worshipped it and placed a man there who remained at the service of the fire, throwing incense on it. From that time the magi began to worship fire and prostrate themselves before it. The man whom Nimrūd had placed at the service of the fire was called Andishān (78). Satan spoke to him from the belly of the fire telling him: “No one can serve the fire or learn my religion unless he has first slept with his mother, with his sister and with his daughter.” Andishān did as Satan had told him, and from that time the priests of the magi began to have relations with their mothers, their sisters and their daughters. This Andishān was the first to profess such a doctrine. Nimrūd founded Adarbīğān, Bābil, Nineveh, Rāsin and many [other] cities (79). Tarih lived in all two hundred and sixty-five years and died (80). From Fāliq to Abraham there had passed five hundred and forty-one years; from the flood to Abraham, a thousand and seventy-two years; from Adam to Abraham, three thousand three hundred and twenty-eight years.
az-Zaytūna may be Eleusis, in the sense that zeit means olive in Arabic and Eleusis has olive in its name. It is also pretty close to Athens. Iraqliyūs is likely Hercules