The Quran

137

Preface

وَأَورَثنَا القَومَ الَّذينَ كانوا يُستَضعَفونَ مَشارِقَ الأَرضِ وَمَغارِبَهَا الَّتي بارَكنا فيها ۖ وَتَمَّت كَلِمَتُ رَبِّكَ الحُسنىٰ عَلىٰ بَني إِسرائيلَ بِما صَبَروا ۖ وَدَمَّرنا ما كانَ يَصنَعُ فِرعَونُ وَقَومُهُ وَما كانوا يَعرِشونَ

Yusuf Ali

And We made a people, considered weak (and of no account), inheritors of lands in both east and west, - lands whereon We sent down Our blessings. The fair promise of thy Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel, because they had patience and constancy, and We levelled to the ground the great works and fine buildings which Pharaoh and his people erected (with such pride).¹

Israel, which was despised, became a great and glorious nation under Solomon. He had goodly territory, and was doubly-blest. His land and people were prosperous, and he was blessed with wisdom from God. His sway and his fame spread east and west. And thus God’s promise to Israel was fulfilled. Note that Syria and Palestine had once been under the sway of Egypt. At the same time the proud and rebellious Pharaoh and his people were brought low. The splendid monuments which they had erected with so much skill and pride were mingled with the dust Their great cities -Thebes (or No-Ammon), Memphis (or Noph, sacred to the Bull of Osiris), and the other splendid cities, became as if they had not existed, and archaeologists have had to dig up their ruins from the sands. The splendid monuments-temples, palaces, tombs, statues, columns, and stately structures of all kinds-were buried in the sands. Even monuments like the Great Sphinx, which seem to defy the ages, were partly buried in the sands, and owe their rescue to the comparatively recent researches of archaeologists. As late as 1743 Richard Pococke in his Travels in Egypt (p. 41), remarked: “Most of those pyramids are very much ruined.” (R).