The Desert Sojourn of the Hebrews and the Sinai-Horeb Tradition

Abstract

In his work on 'Monuments of the Lands and the History of Men' 1), written in the beginning of the 14th century, the Arab writer Al-Qazwini adduces an interesting confirmation of the tradition of the 'miraculous' feeding of the Hebrews in the desert by quails. Describing a district Jifar in the vicinity of Al-Arish 2), Al-Qazwini refers to seasonal flights of birds of the quail species which migrate from Europe. This confirms the statement of Numbers xi 31 (J) 3), which alone mentions the most important fact that the quails came from the sea. Al-Qazwini goes on to record that the natives of the district killed the birds wholesale and preserved them in salt. Though A]-Qazwini does not mention it, the salt would probably be procured from the natural salt-pans of Lake Bardawil, the Sirbonian Bog of the classical writers, which has been taken by some authorities as the scene of the crossing of the 'Sea of Reeds' 4). The phenomenon of the quails, of course, is quite familiar in modern times, when the natives of the coast south of Gaza set up nets for the unfortunate migrants, which fly very low. Often indeed, no nets are necessary since the birds, after their long flight, alight on the point of exhaustion and cannot immediately take wing again. Before the late war thou-