Доклады Международного конгресса ИИСАА. Т. 1

I. African Studies / Африканистика 34 Proceedings of the International Congress on Historiography and Source Studies of Asia and Africa.Vol. I. 2020 The name ‘Abu Simbel’is nowwell established throughout the world and unlikely to be changed apart from minor variations in spelling. Official spelling of place names is the prerogative of the nation in which the place occurs. Familiar official spellings may become ‘correct’ even when they distort an original pronunciation from another language. The place ‘Abu Simbel’ is also known by the following variant names ‘Absím- bil’, ‘Absámbal’ and ‘Farréygn Uffi’. Absímbil was the version used by Sabbar and his neighbours in his home village of Ishkéed. In 2010 he sent me the following Nobiin Nubian examples without tone marking by email: ay absimbillatoonamell Note: the second (l) in Absimbil is grammatical. Meaning: I am from Abu Simbel. ay absimbilka nalis/ nass Note: the two verbs are an option, both have the same meaning. Meaning: I saw Abu Simbel. Sabbar used the conventional spelling ‘Abu Simbel’ alongside absimbil which represented his own pronunciation. However, Sabbar’s village was located to the south of the temples at a distance that would have taken two full days of walking plus a boat ride across the Nile. On the other hand, the Nubian scholar Hussain Mukhtar Kabbara originally lived on the east bank immediately opposite the temples on the western bank of the river. Now after the resettlement, he lives next to the temples themselves. His life-long proximity to the temples tends to make his evidence even more authoritative for historians. He pronounced the name as ‘Absámbal’. This particular pronunciation was also recorded in 1817 by John BowesWright who worked with Belzoni exploring the Great Temple. 1 Kabbara said that the name Absámbal suggested a high place rather than the temples themselves. The only local name that referred precisely to the temples was Farréygn Uffi, meaning ‘the hole or cave of Farréyg’ (name of the surrounding administrative area). Farréygn Uffi is a Nubian phrase consisting of the Nubian word Uffi meaning ‘hole’or ‘cave’, the Nubian genitival element n (= ‘of’) and ’Farréyg’, an administra- tive region. The same name is also used for another administrative area further south among the Nobíin Nubian-speaking inhabitants of the Third Cataract. Farréygn Uffi (‘the Hole of Farréyg’) seems to have been a pejorative name suggesting that people had no business to be there. This had the advantage of protecting the temples as well as discouraging any people who might be motivated by idle curiosity. 1 I am grateful to Kirsty Rowan for this reference, see Sabbar A. The Toponymy of an Endangered Nubian Language. P. 40.