'l-Istitá'ah"=Pilgrimage when a man is able thereto (by easy
circumstances).
[FN#125] Arab. "Al-Kasab," which phrenologists would translate
"acquisitiveness," The author is here attempting to reconcile
man's moral responsibility, that is Freewill, with Fate by which
all human actions are directed and controlled. I cannot see that
he fails to "apprehend the knotty point of doctrine involved";
but I find his inability to make two contraries agree as
pronounced as that of all others, Moslems and Christians, that
preceded him in the same path.
[FN#126] The order should be, "men, angels and Jinn," for which
see vol. i. p. 10. But "angels" here takes precedence because
Iblis was one of them.
[FN#127] Arab. "Wartah"=precipice, quagmire, quicksand and hence
sundry secondary and metaphorical significations, under which, as
in the "Semitic" (Arabic) tongues generally, the prosaical and
material sense of the word is clearly evident. I noted this in
Pilgrimage iii. 66 and was soundly abused for so saying by a host
of Sciolists.
[FN#128] i.e. Allowing the Devil to go about the world and seduce
mankind until Doomsday when "auld Sootie's" occupation will be
gone. Surely "Providence" might have managed better.
[FN#129] i.e. to those who deserve His love.
[FN#130] Here "Istitá'ah" would mean capability of action, i.e.
freewill, which is a mere word like "free-trade."
[FN#131] Arab. "Bi al-taubah" which may also mean "for (on
account of his) penitence." The reader will note how the learned
Shimas "dodges" the real question. He is asked why the
"Omnipotent, Omniscient did not prevent (i.e. why He created)
sin?" He answers that He kindly permitted (i.e. created and
sanctioned) it that man might repent. Proh pudor! If any one
thus reasoned of mundane matters he would be looked upon as the
merest fool.
[FN#132] Arab. "Mahall al-Zauk," lit.=seat of taste.
[FN#133] Mr. Payne translates "it" i.e. the Truth; but the
formula following the word shows that Allah is meant.
[FN#134] Moslems, who do their best to countermine the ascetic
idea inherent in Christianity, are not ashamed of the sensual
appetite; but rather the reverse. I have heard in Persia of a
Religious, highly esteemed for learning and saintly life who,
when lodged by a disciple at Shiraz, came out of his sleeping
room and aroused his host with the words "Shahwat dáram!"
equivalent to our "I want a woman." He was at once married to one
of the slave-girls and able to gratify the demands of the flesh.
[FN#135] Koran iv. 81, "Whatever good betideth thee is from God,
and whatever betideth thee of evil is from thyself": rank
Manichæism is pronounced as any in Christendom.
[FN#136] Arab. "Zukhruf" which Mr. Payne picturesquely renders
"painted gawds."
[FN#137] It is the innate craving in the "Aryan" (Iranian, not
the Turanian) mind, this longing to know what follows Death, or
if nothing follow it, which accounts for the marvellous
diffusion of the so-called Spiritualism which is only
Swedenborgianism systematised and carried out into action, amongst
nervous and impressionable races like the Anglo-American. In
England it is the reverse; the obtuse sensitiveness of a people
bred on beef and beer has made the "Religion of the Nineteenth
Century" a manner of harmless magic, whose miracles are
table-turning and ghost seeing whilst the prodigious rascality of
its prophets (the so-called Mediums) has brought it into
universal disrepute. It has been said that Catholicism must be
true to co-exist with the priest and it is the same with
Spiritualism proper, by which I understand the belief in a life
beyond the grave, a mere continuation of this life; it flourishes
(despite the Medium) chiefly because it has laid before man the
only possible and intelligible idea of a future state.
[FN#138] See vol. vi. p. 7. The only lie which degrades a man in
his own estimation and in that of others, is that told for fear
of telling the truth. Au reste, human society and civilised
intercourse are built upon a system of conventional lying, and
many droll stories illustrate the consequences of disregarding
the dictum, la verité n'est pas toujours bonne à dire.
[FN#139] Arab. "Walí'ahd" which may mean heir-presumptive (whose
heirship is contingent) or heir-apparent.
[FN#140] Arab. "Yá abati"= O my papa (which here would sound
absurd).
[FN#141] All the texts give a decalogue; but Mr. Payne has
reduced it to a heptalogue.
[FN#142] The Arabs who had a variety of anæsthetics never seem to
have studied the subject of "euthanasia." They preferred seeing a
man expire in horrible agonies to relieving him by means of
soporifics and other drugs: so I have heard Christians exult in
saying that the sufferer "kept his senses to the last." Of course
superstition is at the bottom of this barbarity; the same which a
generation ago made the silly accoucheur refuse to give ether
because of the divine (?) saying "In sorrow shalt thou bring
forth children." (Gen iii. 16.) In the Bosnia-Herzegovina
campaign many of the Austrian officers carried with them doses of
poison to be used in case of being taken prisoners by the
ferocious savages against whom they were fighting. As many
anecdotes about "Easing off the poor dear" testify, the
Euthanasia-system is by no means unknown to the lower classes in
England. I shall have more to say on this subject.
[FN#143] See vol. iii. p. 253 for the consequences of royal
seclusion of which Europe in the present day can contribute
examples. The lesson which it teaches simply is that the world
can get on very well without royalties.
[FN#144] The grim Arab humour in the text is the sudden change
for the worse of the good young man. Easterns do not believe in
the Western saw, "Nemo repente fuit turpissimus." The spirited
conduct of the subjects finds many parallels in European history,
especially in Portugal: see my Life of Camoens p. 234.
[FN#145] Arab. "Muhárabah" lit.=doing battle; but is sometimes
used in the sense of gain-saying or disobeying.
[FN#146] Arab. "Duwámah" (from "duwám"=vertigo, giddiness) also
applied to a boy's whip-top.
[FN#147] Arab. "Khayr o (wa) Áfiyah," a popular phrase much used
in salutations, &c.
[FN#148] Another instance, and true to life, of the democracy of
despotism in which the express and combined will of the people is
the only absolute law. Hence Russian autocracy is forced into
repeated wars for the possession of Constantinople which, in the
present condition of the Empire, would be an unmitigated evil to
her and would be only too glad to see a Principality of Byzantium
placed under the united protection of the European Powers. I have
treated of this in my paper on the "Partition of Turkey," which
first appeared, headed the "Future of Turkey," in the Daily
Telegraph, of March 7, 1880, and subsequently by its own name in
the Manchester Examiner, January 3, 1881. The main reason why the
project is not carried out appears to be that the "politicals"
would thereby find their occupation gone and they naturally
object to losing so fine a field of action. So Turkey still plays
the rôle of the pretty young lady being courted by a rabble of
valets.
[FN#149] Good Moslems are bound to abate such scandals; and in a
case of the kind even neighbours are expected to complain before
the Chief of Police. This practice forms "Vigilance Committees"
all over the Mahommedan East: and we may take a leaf out of their
books if dynamite-outrages continue.
[FN#150] But a Hadis, attributed to Mohammed, says, "The Prince
of a people is their servant." See Matth. xx. 26-27.
[FN#151] Easterns are well aware of the value of this drug which
has become the base of so many of our modern medicines.
[FN#152] The strangest poison is mentioned by Sonnini who, as a
rule, is a trustworthy writer. Noticing the malignity of Egyptian
women he declares (p. 628, English trans.) that they prepare a
draught containing a quant. suff. of menstruous discharge at
certain phases of the moon, which produces symptoms of scurvy;
the gums decay, the teeth, beard and hair fall off, the body
dries, the limbs lose strength and death follows within a year.
He also asserts that no counterpoison is known and if this be
true he confers a boon upon the Locustæ and Brinvilliers of
modern Europe. In Morocco "Ta'am" is the vulgar name for a
mixture of dead men's bones, eyes, hair and similar ingredients
made by old wives and supposed to cause a wasting disease for
which the pharmacopœia has no cure. Dogs are killed by needles
cunningly inserted into meat-balls; and this process is known
throughout the Moslem world.
[FN#153] Which contained the Palace.
[FN#154] Arab. "Lá baas." See Night vol. iv. 164.
[FN#155] For Ta'lab (Sa'lab) see supra, p. 48. In Morocco it is
undoubtedly the red or common fox which, however, is not
gregarious as in the text.
[FN#156] See vol. iii. 146.
[FN#157] Arab. "Muunah" which in Morocco applies to the
provisions furnished gratis by the unfortunate village-people to
travellers who have a passport from the Sultan: its root is Maun
=supplying necessaries. "The name is supposed to have its origin
in that of Manna, the miraculous provision bestowed by the bounty
of Heaven on the Israelites while wandering in the deserts of
Arabia." Such is the marvellous information we find in p. 40,
"Morocco and the Moors" by John Drummond Hay (Murray, 1861).
[FN#158] i.e. He resolved to do them justice and win a reward
from Heaven.
[FN#159] Arab. ''Luss" = thief, robber, rogue, rascal, the
Persian "Luti" of popular usage. This is one of the many
''Simpleton stories" in which Eastern folk-lore abounds. I hear
that Mr. Clouston is preparing a collection, and look forward to
it with interest.
[FN#160] Arab. "Tibn" for which see vol. i 16.
[FN#161] A fanciful origin of "Díván" (here an audience-chamber)
which may mean demons (plural of Dív) is attributed to a King of
Persia. He gave a series of difficult documents and accounts to
his scribes and surprised at the quickness and cleverness with
which they were ordered exclaimed, "These men be Divs!" Hence a
host of secondary meanings as a book of Odes with distichs rhymed
in alphabetical order and so forth.
[FN#162] In both cases the word "Jabábirah" is used, the plur. of
Jabbár, the potent, especially applied to the Kings of the
Canaanites and giants like the mythical Og of Bashan. So the Heb.
Jabbúrah is a title of the Queens of Judah.
[FN#163] Arab. "Kitáb al-Kazá"= the Book of Judgments, such as
the Kazi would use when deciding cases in dispute, by legal
precedents and the Rasm or custom of the country.
[FN#164] i.e. sit before the King as referee, etc.
[FN#165] This massacre of refractory chiefs is one of the grand
moyens of Eastern state-craft, and it is almost always successful
because circumstances require it; popular opinion approves of it
and it is planned and carried out with discretion and secrecy.
The two familiar instances in our century are the massacre of the
Mamelukes by Mohammed Ali Pasha the Great and of the turbulent
chiefs of the Omani Arabs by our ancient ally Sayyid Sa'íd,
miscalled the "Imám of Maskat."
[FN#166] The metaphor (Sabaka) is from horse-racing, the Arabs
being, I have said, a horsey people.
[FN#167] Arab. "Kurdús" = A body of horse.
[FN#168] Arab. "Ibn 'Irs." See vol. iii. 147.
[FN#169] Arab. "Al Hind-al-Aksá." The Sanskrit Sindhu (lands on
the Indus River) became in Zend "Hendu" and hence in Arabic Sind
and Hind, which latter I wish we had preserved instead of the
classical "India" or the poetical "Ind."
[FN#170] i.e. by geomancy: see vol. iii. 269 for a note on
Al-Raml. The passage is not in the Mac. Edit.
[FN#171] This address gave the boy Wazirial rank. In many parts
of Europe, England included, if the Sovereign address a subject
with a title not belonging to him, it is a disputed point if the
latter can or cannot claim it.
[FN#172] Koran, chapter of Joseph xii. 28, spoken by Potiphar
after Joseph's innocence had been proved by a witness in
Potiphar's house or according to the Talmud (Sepher Hádjascher)
by an infant in the cradle. The texts should have printed this as
a quotation (with vowel points).
[FN#173] Arab. "Al-'Azíz," alluding to Joseph the Patriarch
entitled in Egypt "Azíz al-Misr"= Magnifico of Misraim (Koran
xii. 54). It is generally believed that Ismail Pasha, whose
unwise deposition has caused the English Government such a host
of troubles and load of obloquy, aspired to be named "'Azíz" by
the Porte; but was compelled to be satisfied with Khadív (vulg.
written Khedive, and pronounced even "Kédivé"), a Persian title,
which simply means prince or Rajah, as Khadív-i-Hind.
[FN#174] i.e. The Throne room.
[FN#175] For the "Dawát" or wooden inkcase containing reeds see
vol. v. 239 and viii. 178. I may remark that its origin is the
Egyptian "Pes," of which there is a specimen in the British
Museum inscribed, "Amásis the good god and Lord of the two
Lands."
[FN#176] i.e. I am governed by the fear of Allah in my dealings
to thee and thy subjects.
[FN#177] Arabic has no single word for million although the
Maroccans have adopted "Milyún" from the Spaniards (see p. 100 of
the Rudimentos del Árabe vulgar que se habla en el imperio de
Marruccos por El P. Fr. Josè de Lerchundi, Madrid 1872): This
lack of the higher numerals, the reverse of the Hindu languages,
makes Arabic "arithmology" very primitive and almost as cumbrous
as the Chinese.
[FN#178] i.e. I am thy slave to slay or to pardon.
[FN#179] Arab. "Matta'aka 'llah"=Allah permit thee to enjoy,
from the root mata', whence cometh the Maroccan Matá'i=my, mine,
which answers to Bitá'i in Egypt.
[FN#180] Arab. "Khitáb" = the exordium of a letter preceding its
business-matter and in which the writer displays all his art. It
ends with "Ammá ba'd," lit.=but after, equivalent to our "To
proceed." This "Khitáb" is mostly skipped over by modern
statesmen who will say, "Now after the nonsense let us come to
the sense"; but their secretaries carefully weigh every word of
it, and strongly resent all shortcomings.
[FN#181] Strongly suggesting that the King had forgotten how to
read and write. So not a few of the Amirs of Sind were
analphabetic and seemed rather proud of it: "a Baloch cannot
write, but he always carries a signet-ring." I heard of an old
English lady of the past generation in Northern Africa who openly
declared "A Warrington shall never learn to read or write."
[FN#182] Arab. "Ámin," of which the Heb. form is Amen from the
root Amn=stability, constancy. In both tongues it is a particle
of affirmation or consent=it is true! So be it! The Hebrew has
also "Amanah"=verily, truly.
[FN#183] To us this seems a case of "hard lines" for the unhappy
women; but Easterns then believed and still believe in the
divinity which doth hedge in a King, in his reigning by the
"grace of God," and in his being the Viceregent of Allah upon
earth; briefly in the old faith of loyalty which great and
successful republics are fast making obsolete in the West and
nowhere faster than in England.
[FN#184] Abú Sír is a manifest corruption of the old Egyptian
Pousiri, the Busiris of our classics, and it gives a name to
sundry villages in modern Egypt where it is usually pronounced
"Búsír". Abú Kír lit. = the Father of Pitch, is also corrupted
to Abou Kir (Bay); and the townlet now marks the site of jolly
old Canopus, the Chosen Land of Egyptian debauchery.
[FN#185] It is interesting to note the superior gusto with which
the Eastern, as well as the Western tale-teller describes his
scoundrels and villains whilst his good men and women are mostly
colourless and unpicturesque. So Satan is the true hero of
Paradise-Lost and by his side God and man are very ordinary; and
Mephistopheles is much better society than Faust and Margaret.
[FN#186] Arab. "Dukhán," lit. = smoke, here tobacco for the
Chibouk, "Timbák" or "Tumbák" being the stronger (Persian and
other) variety which must be washed before smoking in the Shíshah
or water-pipe. Tobacco is mentioned here only and is evidently
inserted by some scribe: the "weed" was not introduced into the
East before the end of the sixteenth century (about a hundred
years after coffee), when it radically changed the manners of
society.
[FN#187] Which meant that the serjeant, after the manner of such
officials, would make him pay dearly before giving up the key.
Hence a very severe punishment in the East is to "call in a
policeman" who carefully fleeces all those who do not bribe him
to leave them in freedom.
[FN#188] Arab. "Má Dáhiyatak?" lit. "What is thy misfortune?"
The phrase is slighting if not insulting.
[FN#189] Amongst Moslems the plea of robbing to keep life and
body together would be accepted by a good man like Abu Sir, who
still consorted with a self-confessed thief.
[FN#190] To make their agreement religiously binding. See vol.
iv. 36.
[FN#191] Arab. "Ghaliyún"; many of our names for craft seem
connected with Arabic: I have already noted "Carrack" = harrák:
to which add Uskuf in Marocco pronounced 'Skuff = skiff; Katírah
= a cutter; Bárijah = a barge; etc. etc.
[FN#192] The patient is usually lathered in a big basin of tinned
brass, "Mambrino's helmet" with a break in the rim to fit the
throat; but the poorer classes carry only a small cup with water
instead of soap and water ignoring the Italian proverb, "Barba
ben saponata mezza fatta" = well lathered is half shaved. A
napkin fringed at either end is usually thrown over the Figaro's
shoulder and used to wipe the razor.
[FN#193] Arab. "Nusf." See vol. ii. 37.
[FN#194] Arab. "Batárikh" the roe (sperm or spawn) of the salted
Fasíkh (fish) and the Búrí (mugil cephalus) a salt-water fish
caught in the Nile and considered fair eating. Some write
Butárghá from the old Egyptian town Burát, now a ruin between
Tinnis and Damietta (Sonnini).
[FN#195] Arab. "Kaptán," see vol. iv. 85.
[FN#196] Arab. "Anyáb," plur. of Náb applied to the grinder
teeth but mostly to the canines or eye teeth, tusks of animals,
etc. (See vol. vii. p. 339) opp. to Saniyah, one of the four
central incisors, a camel in the sixth year and horse, cow, sheep
and goat in fourth year.
[FN#197] The coffee (see also vol. viii. 274) like the tobacco is
probably due to the scribe; but the tale appears to be
comparatively modern. In The Nights men eat, drink and wash
their hands but do not smoke and sip coffee like the moderns.
See my Terminal Essay §2.
[FN#198] Arab. "Mi'lakah" (Bresl. Edit. x, 456). The fork is
modern even in the East and the Moors borrow their term for it
from fourchette. But the spoon, which may have begun with a
cockle-shell, dates from the remotest antiquity.
[FN#199] Arab. "Sufrah" properly the cloth or leather upon which
food is placed. See vol. i. 178.
[FN#200] i.e. gaining much one day and little another.
[FN#201] Lit. "Rest thyself" i.e. by changing posture.
[FN#202] Arab. "Unnábi" = between dark yellow and red.
[FN#203] Arab. "Nílah" lit. = indigo, but here applied to all
the materials for dyeing. The word is Sanskrit, and the growth
probably came from India, although during the Crusaders'
occupation of Jerusalem it was cultivated in the valley of the
lower Jordan. I need hardly say that it has nothing to do with
the word "Nile" whose origin is still sub judice. And yet I
lately met a sciolist who pompously announced to me this
philological absurdity as a discovery of his own.
[FN#204] Still a popular form of "bilking" in the Wakálahs or
Caravanserais of Cairo: but as a rule the Bawwáb (porter or
doorkeeper) keeps a sharp eye on those he suspects. The evil is
increased when women are admitted into these places; so
periodical orders for their exclusion are given to the police.
[FN#205] Natives of Egypt always hold this diaphoresis a sign
that the disease has abated and they regard it rightly in the
case of bilious remittents to which they are subject, especially
after the hardships and sufferings of a sea-voyage with its
alternations of fasting and over-eating.
[FN#206] Not simply, "such and such events happened to him"
(Lane); but, "a curious chance befel him."
[FN#207] Arab. "Harámi," lit. = one who lives on unlawful gains;
popularly a thief.
[FN#208] i.e. he turned on the water, hot and cold.
[FN#209] Men are often seen doing this in the Hammam. The idea
is that the skin when free from sebaceous exudation sounds louder
under the clapping. Easterns judge much by the state of the
perspiration, especially in horse-training, which consists of
hand-gallops for many successive miles. The sweat must not taste
over salt and when held between thumb and forefinger and the two
are drawn apart must not adhere in filaments.
[FN#210] Lit. "Aloes for making Nadd;" see vol. i. 310.
"Eagle-wood" (the Malay Aigla and Agallochum the Sansk. Agura)
gave rise to many corruptions as lignum aloes, the Portuguese Páo
d' Aguila etc. "Calamba" or "Calambak" was the finest kind. See
Colonel Yule in the "Voyage of Linschoten" (vol. i. 120 and 150).
Edited for the Hakluyt Soc. (1885) by my learned and most amiable
friend, the late Arthur Cooke Burnell.
[FN#211] The Hammam is one of those unpleasant things which are
left "Alà júdi-k" = to thy generosity; and the higher the
bather's rank the more he or she is expected to pay. See
Pilgrimage i. 103. In 1853 I paid at Cairo 3 piastres and twenty
paras, something more than sixpence, but now five shillings would
be asked.
[FN#212] This is something like the mythical duchess in England
who could not believe that the poor were starving when
sponge-cakes were so cheap.
[FN#213] This magnificent "Bakhshish" must bring water into the
mouths of all the bath-men in the coffee-house assembly.
[FN#214] i.e. the treasurer did not, as is the custom of such
gentry, demand and receive a large "Bakhshish" on the occasion.
[FN#215] A fair specimen of clever Fellah chaff.
[FN#216] In the first room of the Hammam, called the Maslakh or
stripping-place, the keeper sits by a large chest in which he
deposits the purses and valuables of his customers and also makes
it the caisse for the pay. Something of the kind is now done in
the absurdly called "Turkish Baths" of London.
[FN#217] This is the rule in Egypt and Syria and a clout hung
over the door shows that women are bathing. I have heard, but
only heard, that in times and places when eunuchs went in with
the women youths managed by long practice to retract the
testicles so as to pass for castratos. It is hard to say what
perseverance may not effect in this line; witness Orsini and his
abnormal development of hearing, by exercising muscles which are
usually left idle.
[FN#218] This reference to Allah shows that Abu Sir did not
believe his dyer-friend.
[FN#219] Arab. "Dawá" (lit. remedy, medicine) the vulgar term:
see vol. iv. 256: also called Rasmah, Núrah and many other names.
[FN#220] Arab. "Má Kahara-ní" = or none hath overcome me.
[FN#221] Bresl. Edit. "The King of Isbániya." For the "Ishbán"
(Spaniards) an ancient people descended from Japhet son of Noah
and who now are no more, see Al-Mas'udi (Fr. Transl. I. 361). The
"Herodotus of the Arabs" recognises only the "Jalálikah" or
Gallicians, thus bearing witness to the antiquity and importance
of the Gallego race.
[FN#222] Arab. "Sha'r," properly, hair of body, pile, especially
the pecten. See Burckhardt (Prov. No. 202), "grieving for lack of
a cow she made a whip of her bush," said of those who console
themselves by building Castles in Spain. The "parts below the
waist" is the decent Turkish term for the privities.
[FN#223] The drowning is a martyr's death, the burning is a
foretaste of Hell-fire.
[FN#224] Meaning that if the trick had been discovered the
Captain would have taken the barber's place. We have seen (vol.
i. 63) the Prime Minister superintending the royal kitchen and
here the Admiral fishes for the King's table. It is even more
naïve than the Court of Alcinöus.
[FN#225] Bresl. Edit. xi. 32: i.e. save me from disgrace.
[FN#226] Arab. "Khinsir" or "Khinsar," the little finger or the
middle finger. In Arabic each has its own name or names which is
also that of the corresponding toe, e.g. Ibhám (thumb); Sabbábah,
Musabbah or Da'áah (fore-finger); Wastá (medius); Binsir
(annularis ring-finger) and Khinsar (minimus). There are also
names for the several spaces between the fingers. See the English
Arabic Dictionary (London, Kegan Paul and Co., 1881) by the Revd.
Dr. Badger, a work of immense labour and research but which I
fear has been to the learned author a labour of love not of
profit.
[FN#227] Meaning of course that the King signed towards the sack
in which he supposed the victim to be, but the ring fell off
before it could take effect. The Eastern story-teller often
balances his multiplicity of words and needless details by a
conciseness and an elliptical style which make his meaning a
matter of divination.
[FN#228] See vol. v. 111.
[FN#229] This couplet was quoted to me by my friend the Rev. Dr.
Badger when he heard that I was translating "The Nights":
needless to say that it is utterly inappropriate.
[FN#230] For a similar figure see vol i. 25.
[FN#231] Arab. "Hanzal": see vol. v. 19.
[FN#232] The tale begins upon the model of "Júdar and his
Brethren," vi. 213. Its hero's full name is Abdu'lláhi=Slave of
Allah, which vulgar Egyptians pronounce Abdallah and purer
speakers, Badawin and others, Abdullah: either form is therefore
admissible. It is more common among Moslems but not unknown to
Christians especially Syrians who borrow it from the Syriac
Alloh. Mohammed is said to have said, "The names most approved
by Allah are Abdu'llah, Abd al-Rahmán (Slave of the
Compassionate) and such like" (Pilgrimage i. 20).
[FN#233] Arab. "Sírah" here probably used of the Nile-sprat
(Clupea Sprattus Linn.) or Sardine of which Forsk says, "Sardinn
in Al-Yaman is applied to a Red Sea fish of the same name."
Hasselquist the Swede notes that Egyptians stuff the Sardine with
marjoram and eat it fried even when half putrid.
[FN#234] i.e. by declaring in the Koran (lxvii. 14; lxxiv. 39;
lxxviii. 69; lxxxviii. 17), that each creature hath its appointed
term and lot; especially "Thinketh man that he shall be left
uncared for?" (xl. 36).
[FN#235] Arab. "Nusf," see vol. ii. 37.
[FN#236] Arab. "Allah Karim" (which Turks pronounce Kyerím) a
consecrated formula used especially when a man would show himself
resigned to "small mercies." The fisherman's wife was evidently
pious as she was poor; and the description of the pauper
household is simple and effective.
[FN#237] This is repeated in the Mac. Edit. pp. 496-97; an
instance amongst many of most careless editing.
[FN#238] Arab. "Alà mahlak" (vulg.), a popular phrase, often
corresponding with our "Take it coolly."
[FN#239] For "He did not keep him waiting, as he did the rest of
the folk." Lane prefers "nor neglected him as men generally
would have done." But we are told supra that the baker "paid no
heed to the folk by reason of the dense crowd."
[FN#240] Arab. "Ruh!" the most abrupt form, whose sound is
coarse and offensive as the Turkish yell, "Gyel!"=come here.
[FN#241] Bresl. Edit. xi. 50-51.
[FN#242] Arab. "Ádami"=an Adamite, one descended from the
mythical and typical Adam for whom see Philo Judæus. We are told
in one place a few lines further on that the merman is of
humankind; and in another that he is a kind of fish (Night
dccccxlv). This belief in mermen, possible originating with the
caricatures of the human face in the intelligent seal and stupid
manatee, is universal. Al-Kazwini declares that a waterman with
a tail was dried and exhibited, and that in Syria one of them was
married to a woman and had by her a son "who understood the
languages of both his parents." The fable was refined to perfect
beauty by the Greeks: the mer-folk of the Arabs, Hindus and
Northerners (Scandinavians, etc) are mere grotesques with green
hair, etc. Art in its highest expression never left the shores
of the Mediterranean, and there is no sign that it ever will.
[FN#243] Here Lane translates "Wajh" lit. "the desire of seeing
the face of God," and explains in a note that a "Muslim holds
this to be the greatest happiness that can be enjoyed in
Paradise." But I have noted that the tenet of seeing the
countenance of the Creator, except by the eyes of spirit, is a
much disputed point amongst Moslems.
[FN#244] Artful enough is this contrast between the squalid
condition of the starving fisherman and the gorgeous belongings
of the Merman.
[FN#245] Lit. "Verily he laughed at me so that I set him free."
This is a fair specimen of obscure conciseness.
[FN#246] Arab. "Mishannah," which Lane and Payne translate
basket: I have always heard it used of an old gunny-bag or bag of
plaited palm-leaves.
[FN#247] Arab. "Kaff Shurayk" applied to a single bun. The
Shurayk is a bunn, an oblong cake about the size of a man's hand
(hence the term "Kaff"=palm) with two long cuts and sundry
oblique crosscuts, made of leavened dough, glazed with egg and
Samn (clarified butter) and flavoured with spices (cinnamon,
curcuma, artemisia and prunes mahalab) and with aromatic seeds,
(Rihat al-'ajin) of which Lane (iii. 641) specifies aniseed,
nigella, absinthium, (Artemisia arborescens) and Káfúrah (A.
camphorata Monspeliensis) etc. The Shurayk is given to the poor
when visiting the tombs and on certain fêtes.
[FN#248] "Mother of Prosperities."
[FN#249] Tribes of pre-historic Arabs who were sent to Hell for
bad behaviour to Prophets Sálih and Húd. See vol. iii. 294.
[FN#250] "Too much for him to come by lawfully."
[FN#251] To protect it. The Arab. is "Jáh"=high station,
dignity.
[FN#252] The European reader, especially feminine, will think
this a hard fate for the pious first wife but the idea would not
occur to the Moslem mind. After bearing ten children a woman
becomes "Umm al-banáti w'al-banín"=a mother of daughters and
sons, and should hold herself unfit for love-disport. The seven
ages of womankind are thus described by the Arabs and I translate
the lines after a well-known (Irish) model:--
From ten years to twenty--
Of beauty there's plenty.
From twenty to thirty--
Fat, fair and alert t'ye.
From thirty to forty--
Lads and lasses she bore t'ye.
From forty to fifty--
An old'un and shifty.
From fifty to sixty--
A sorrow that sticks t'ye.
From sixty to seventy--
A curse of God sent t'ye.
For these and other sentiments upon the subject of women and
marriage see Pilgrimage ii. 285-87.
[FN#253] Abdullah, as has been said, means "servant or rather
slave of Allah."
[FN#254] Again the "Come to my arms, my slight acquaintance," of
the Anti-Jacobin.
[FN#255] Arab. "Nukl," e.g. the quatre mendiants as opposed to
"Fákihah"=fresh fruit. The Persians, a people who delight in
gross practical jokes, get the confectioner to coat with sugar
the droppings of sheep and goats and hand them to the bulk of the
party. This pleasant confection is called "Nukl-i-peshkil"--
dung-dragées.
[FN#256] The older name of Madínat al-Nabi, the city of the
Prophet; vulg. called Al-Medinah per excellentiam. See vol. iv.
114. In the Mac. and Bul. texts we have "Tayyibah"=the goodly,
one of the many titles of that Holy City: see Pilgrimage ii. 119.
[FN#257] Not "visiting the tomb of," etc. but visiting the
Prophet himself, who is said to have declared that "Ziyárah"
(visitation) of his tomb was in religion the equivalent of a
personal call upon himself.
[FN#258] Arab. "Nafakah"; for its conditions see Pigrimage iii.
224. I have again and again insisted upon the Anglo-Indian
Government enforcing the regulations of the Faith upon pauper
Hindi pilgrims who go to the Moslem Holy Land as beggars and die
of hunger in the streets. To an "Empire of Opinion" this is an
unmitigated evil (Pilgrimage iii. 256); and now, after some
thirty-four years, there are signs that the suggestions of common
sense are to be adopted. England has heard of the extraordinary
recklessness and inconsequence of the British-Indian "fellow-
subject."
[FN#259] The Ka'abah of Meccah.
[FN#260] When Moslems apply "Nabí!" to Mohammed it is in the
peculiar sense of "prophet" ({prophétes})=one who speaks before the
people, not one who predicts, as such foresight was adjured by
the Apostle. Dr. A. Neubauer (The Athenæum No. 3031) finds the
root of "Nabí!" in the Assyrian Nabu and Heb. Noob (occurring in
Exod. vii. 1. "Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet." i.e.
orator, speaker before the people), and holds it to be a
Canaanite term which supplanted "Roeh" (the Seer) e.g. 1 Samuel
ix. 9. The learned Hebraist traces the cult of Nebo, a secondary
deity in Assyria to Palestine and Phœnicia, Palmyra, Edessa (in
the Nebok of Abgar) and Hierapolis in Syria or Mabug (Nabog?).
[FN#261] I cannot find "Dandán" even in Lib. Quintus de
Aquaticis Animalibus of the learned Sam. Bochart's "Hierozoïcon"
(London, 1663) and must conjecture that as "Dandán" in Persian
means a tooth (vol. ii. 83) the writer applied it to a sun-fish
or some such well-fanged monster of the deep.
[FN#262] A favourite proverb with the Fellah, when he alludes to
the Pasha and to himself.
[FN#263] An euphemistic answer, unberufen as the Germans say.
[FN#264] It is a temptation to derive this word from bÂœuf à
l'eau, but I fear that the theory will not hold water. The
"buffaloes" of Alexandria laughted it to scorn.
[FN#265] Here the writer's zoological knowledge is at fault.
Animals, which never or very rarely see man, have no fear of him
whatever. This is well-known to those who visit the Gull-fairs
at Ascension Island, Santos and many other isolated rocks; the
hen birds will peck at the intruder's ankles but they do not rise
from off their eggs. For details concerning the "Gull-fair" of
the Summer Islands consult p. 4 "The History of the Bermudas,"
edited by Sir J. H. Lefroy for the Hakluyt Society, 1882. I have
seen birds on Fernando Po peak quietly await a second shot; and
herds of antelopes, the most timed of animals, in the plains of
Somali-land only stared but were not startled by the report of
the gun. But Arabs are not the only moralists who write
zoological nonsense: witness the notable verse,
"Birds in their little nests agree,"
when the feathered tribes are the most pugnacious of breathing
beings.
[FN#266] Lane finds these details "silly and tiresome or
otherwise objectionable," and omits them.
[FN#267] Meaning, "Thou hast as yet seen little or nothing." In
most Eastern tongues a question often expresses an emphatic
assertion. See vol. i. 37.
[FN#268] Easterns wear as a rule little clothing but it suffices
for the essential purposes of decency and travellers will live
amongst them for years without once seeing an accidental
"exposure of the person." In some cases, as with the Nubian
thong-apron, this demand of modesty requires not a little
practice of the muscles; and we all know the difference in a
Scotch kilt worn by a Highlander and a cockney sportsman.
[FN#269] Arab. "Shíraj"=oil extracted from rape seed but
especially from sesame. The Persians pronounce it "Síraj"
(apparently unaware that it is their own word "Shírah"=juice in
Arabic garb) and have coined a participle "Musayrij" e.g., Bú-i-
musayrij, taint of sesame-oil applied especially to the Jews who
very wisely prefer, in Persia and elsewhere, oil which is
wholesome to butter which is not. The Moslems, however, declare
that its immoderate use in cooking taints the exudations of the
skin.
[FN#270] Arab. "Nakkárún" probably congeners of the redoubtable
"Dandán."
[FN#271] Bresl. Edit. xi. 78. The Mac. says "They are all fish"
(Kullu-hum) and the Bul. "Their food (aklu-hum) is fish."
[FN#272] Arab. "Az'ar," usually=having thin hair. The general
term for tailless is "abtar." See Koran cviii. 3, when it means
childless.
[FN#273] A common formula of politeness.
[FN#274] Bresl. Edit. xi. 82; meaning, "You will probably keep
it for yourself." Abdullah of the Sea is perfectly logical; but
grief is not. We weep over the deaths of friends mostly for our
own sake: theoretically we should rejoice that they are at rest;
but practically we are afflicted by the thought that we shall
never again see their pleasant faces.
[FN#275] i.e. about rejoicing over the newborns and mourning
over the dead.
[FN#276] i.e. Ishak of Mosul, for whom see vol. iv. 119. The
Bresl. Edit. has Fazíl for Fazl.
[FN#277] Abu Dalaf al-Ijili, a well-known soldier equally famed
for liberality and culture.
[FN#278] Arab. "Takhmísh," alluding to the familiar practice of
tearing face and hair in grief for a loss, a death, etc.
[FN#279] i.e. When he is in the very prime of life and able to
administer fiers coups de canif.
"For ladies e'en of most uneasy virtue
Prefer a spouse whose age is short of thirty."
Don Juan 1. 62.
[FN#280] Arab. "Lázuward": see vol. iii. 33.
[FN#281] Arab. "Sidillah." The Bresl. Edit. (v. 99), has, "a
couch of ivory and ebony, whereon was that which befitted it of
mattresses and cushions * * * * and on it five damsels."
[FN#282] i.e. As she untunes the lute by "pinching" the strings
over-excitedly with her right, her other hand retunes it by
turning the pegs.
[FN#283] i.e. The slim cupbearer (Zephyr) and fair-faced girl
(Moon) handed round the bubbling bowl (star).
[FN#284] Arab. "Al-Sath" whence the Span. Azotea. The lines that
follow are from the Bresl. Edit. v. 110.
[FN#285] This "'Ar'ar" is probably the Callitris quadrivalvis
whose resin ("Sandarac") is imported as varnish from African
Mogador to England. Also called the Thuja, it is of cypress
shape, slow growing and finely veined in the lower part of the
base. Most travellers are agreed that it is the Citrus-tree of
Roman Mauritania, concerning which Pliny (xiii. 29) gives curious
details, a single table costing from a million sesterces (£900)
to 1,400,000. For other details see p. 95, "Morocco and the
Moors," by my late friend Dr. Leared (London: Sampson Low, 1876).
[FN#286] i.e. Kings might sigh for her in vain.
[FN#287] These lines are in vol. viii. 279. I quote Mr. Payne.
[FN#288] A most unsavoury comparison to a Persian who always
connects camphor with the idea of a corpse.
[FN#289] Arab. "Ilà má sháa' lláh" i.e. as long as you like.
[FN#290] i.e. of gramarye.
[FN#291] Arab. "Ta'wíz"=the Arab Tilasm, our Talisman, a charm,
an amulet; and in India mostly a magic square. The subject is
complicated and occupies in Herklots some sixty pages, 222-284.
[FN#292] The Bul. and Mac. Edits. give the Princess's malady, in
error, as Dáa al-Sudá' (megrims), instead of Dáa al-Sar'
(epilepsy) as in the Bresl. Edit. The latter would mean that she
is possessed by a demon, again the old Scriptural fancy (see vol.
v. 28). The subject is highly fitted for romance but not for a
"serious" book which ought to know better.
[FN#293] Arab. "Al-'Áriz"=the demon who possessed her.
[FN#294] i.e. He hath renounced his infamous traffic.
[FN#295] Alluding to the favourite Eastern saying, "The poor man
hath no life."
[FN#296] In this and the following lines some change is necessary
for the Bresl. and Mac. texts are very defective. The Arabic word
here translated "recess" is "Aywán," prop. a hall, an open
saloon.
[FN#297] i.e. by selling it for thirty thousand gold pieces, when
he might have got a million for it.
[FN#298] The tale is not in the Bresl. Edit.
[FN#299] Al-Khasíb (= the fruitful) was the son of 'Abd al-Hamíd
and intendant of the tribute of Egypt under Harun al-Rashid, but
neither Lord nor Sultan. Lane (iii. 669) quotes three couplets in
his honour by Abu Nowás from p. 119 of "Elmacini (Al-Makín)
Historia Saracenica."
If our camel visit not the land of Al-Khasib, what man after
Al-Khasib shall they visit?
For generosity is not his neighbour; nor hath it sojourned near
him; but generosity goeth wherever he goeth:
He is a man who purchaseth praise with his wealth, and who
knoweth that the periods of Fortune revolve.
[FN#300] The old story "Alà júdi-k"= upon thy generosity, which
means at least ten times the price.
[FN#301]i.e. The distance is enormous.
[FN#302] A gazelle; but here the slave-girl's name.
[FN#303] See vol. ii. 104. Herklots (Pl. vii. fig. 2) illustrates
the cloth used in playing the Indian game, Pachísí. The "board"
is rather European than Oriental, but it has of late years spread
far and wide, especially the backgammon board.
[FN#304] i.e. "Father of the Lion."
[FN#305] Or as we should say, "Thy blood will be on thine own
head."
[FN#306] Called after the famous town in Persian Mesopotamia
which however is spelt with the lesser aspirate. See p. 144. The
Geographical works of Sádik-i-Ispaháni, London; Oriental Transl.
Fund, 1882. Hamdan (with the greater aspirate) and Hamdun mean
only the member masculine, which may be a delicate piece of chaff
for the gallery
[FN#307] Arab. "Hulwán al-miftáh," for which see vol. vii. 212.
Mr. Payne compares it with the French denier à Dieu, given to the
concierge on like occasions.
[FN#308] Arab. 'Udm, a relish, the Scotch "kitchen," Lat.
Opsonium, Ital. Companatico and our "by-meat." See vol. iv. 128.
[FN#309] Arab. "Kabasa" = he shampoo'd. See vol. ii. {23}.
[FN#310] Arab. "Nukl." See supra p. 177.
[FN#311] Arab. "Jannat al-Khuld" and "Firdaus," two of the
Heavens repeatedly noticed.
[FN#312] The naïveté is purely Horatian, that is South European
versus North European.
[FN#313] i.e. "Have some regard for thy life."
[FN#314] Arab. "Awák" plur. of Úkiyyah a word known throughout
the Moslem East. As an ounce it weighs differently in every
country and in Barbary (Mauritania) which we call Morocco, it is
a nominal coin containing twelve Flús (fulús) now about = a
penny. It is a direct descendant from the "Uk" or "Wuk" (ounce)
of the hieroglyphs (See Sharpe's Egypt or any other Manual) and
first appeared in Europe as the Greek {unkía}.
[FN#315] Arab. "Kárah" usually a large bag.
[FN#316] Arab. "Lúlúah," which may mean the Union-pearl; but here
used in the sense of "wild cow," the bubalus antelope, alluding to
the farouche nature of Miss Jamilah. We are also told infrà that
the park was full of "Wuhúsh" = wild cattle.
[FN#317] Arab. "Sákiyah," the venerable old Persian wheel, for
whose music see Pilgrimage ii. 198. But "Sakiyah" is also applied,
as here, to the water-channel which turns the wheel.
[FN#318] Arab. "Kawádís," plur. of "Kádús," the pots round the
rim of the Persian wheel: usually they are of coarse pottery.
[FN#319] In the text "Sákiyah" a manifest error for "Kubbah."
[FN#320] Easterns greatly respect a belle fourchette, especially
when the eater is a lover.
[FN#321] Arab. "'Aríshah," a word of many meanings, tent, nest,
vine-trellis, etc.
[FN#322] To spit or blow the nose in good society is "vulgar."
Sneezing (Al-'Atsah) is a complicated affair. For Talmudic
traditions of death by sneezing see Lane (M. E. chapt. viii).
Amongst Hindus sneezing and yawning are caused by evil spirits
whom they drive away by snapping thumb and forefinger as loudly
as possible. The pagan Arabs held sneezing a bad omen, which
often stopped their journeys. Moslems believe that when Allah
placed the Soul (life ?) in Adam, the dry clay became flesh and
bone and the First Man, waking to life, sneezed and ejaculated
"Alhamdolillah;" whereto Gabriel replied, "Allah have mercy upon
thee, O Adam!" Mohammed, who liked sneezing because accompanied
by lightness of body and openness of pores, said of it, "If a man
sneeze or eructate and say 'Alhamdolillah' he averts seventy
diseases of which the least is leprosy" (Juzám); also, "If one of
you sneeze, let him exclaim, 'Alhamdolillah,' and let those
around salute him in return with, 'Allah have mercy upon thee!'
and lastly let him say, 'Allah direct you and strengthen your
condition."' Moderns prefer, "Allah avert what may joy thy foe!" = (our God bless you!) to which the answer is "Alhamdolillah!"
Mohammed disliked yawning (Suabá or Thuabá), because not
beneficial as a sneeze and said, "If one of you gape and cover not
his mouth, a devil leaps into it. " This is still a popular
superstition from Baghdad to Morocco.
[FN#323] A duenna, nursery governess, etc. See vol. i. 231.
[FN#324] For this belief see the tale called "The Night of
Power," vol. vi. 180.
[FN#325] The Anglo-lndian "Kincob" (Kimkh'áb); brocade, silk
flowered with gold or silver.
[FN#326] Lane finds a needless difficulty in this sentence, which
is far-fetched only because Kuus (cups) requires Ruus (head-tops)
by way of jingle. It means only "'Twas merry in hall when beards
wag all."
[FN#327] The Mac. Edit. gives two couplets which have already
occurred from the Bull Edit i. 540.
[FN#328] The lines are half of four couplets in vol. iv. 192; so
I quote Lane.
[FN#329].i.e. none hath pleased me. I have quoted the popular
saying, "The son of the quarter filleth not the eye." i.e. women
prefer stranger faces.
[FN#330] Here after the favourite Oriental fashion, she tells the
truth but so enigmatically that it is more deceptive than an
untruth; a good Eastern quibble infinitely more dangerous than an
honest downright lie. The consciousness that the falsehood is
part fact applies a salve to conscience and supplies a force
lacking in the mere fib. When an Egyptian lies to you look
straight in his eyes and he will most often betray himself either
by boggling or by a look of injured innocence.
[FN#331] Another true lie.
[FN#332] Arab. `'Yastaghíbúní," lit. = they deem my absence too
long.
[FN#333] An euphemistic form of questioning after absence: "Is
all right with thee?"
[FN#334] Arab. "Kallim al-Sultan!" the formula of summoning which
has often occurred in The Nights.
[FN#335] Lane translates "Almost died," Payne "Well-nigh died;"
but the text says "died." I would suggest to translators
"Be bould, be bould and every where be bould!"
[FN#336] He is the usual poltroon contrasted with the manly and
masterful girl, a conjunction of the lioness and the lamb
sometimes seen in real life.
[FN#337] That he might see Jamilah as Ibrahim had promised.
[FN#338] A popular saying, i.e., les absents ont toujours tort.
[FN#339] Who had a prior right to marry her, but not against her
consent after she was of age.
[FN#340] Arab "Sirwál." In Al-Hariri it is a singular form (see
No. ii. of the twelve riddles in Ass. xxiv.), but Mohammed said
to his followers "Tuakhkhizú" (adopt ye) "Saráwílát." The latter
is regularly declinable but the broken form Saráwíl is
imperfectly declinable on account of its "heaviness," as are all
plurals whose third letter is an Alif followed by i or í in the
next syllable.
[FN#341] Arab. "Matarik" from mitrak or mitrakah a small wooden
shield coated with hide. This even in the present day is the
policeman's equipment in the outer parts of the East.
[FN#342] Arab. "Sabíyah" for which I prefer Mr. Payne's "young
lady" to Lane's "damsel"; the latter should be confined to Járiyah
as both bear the double sense of girl and slave (or servant)
girl. "Bint" again is daughter, maid or simply girl.
[FN#343] The sense of them is found in vol. ii. 41.
[FN#344] Here the text is defective, but I hardly like to supply
the omission. Mr. Payne introduces from below, "for that his
charms were wasted and his favour changed by reason of the much
terror and affliction he had suffered." The next lines also are
very abrupt and unconnected.
[FN#345] Arab. "Yá Mauláya!" the term is still used throughout
Moslem lands; but in Barbary where it is pronounced "Mooláee"
Europeans have converted it to "Muley" as if it had some
connection with the mule. Even in Robinson Crusoe we find "muly"
or "Moly Ismael" (chapt. ii.); and we hear the high-sounding name
Maulá-i-Idrís, the patron saint of the Sunset Land, debased to
"Muley Drís."
[FN#346] Lane omits this tale because "it is very similar, but
inferior in interest, to the Story told by the Sultan's Steward."
See vol. i. 278.
[FN#347] Sixteenth Abbaside A.H. 279–289 (=A.D. 891–902). "He was
comely, intrepid, of grave exterior, majestic in presence, of
considerable intellectual power and the fiercest of the Caliphs
of the House of Abbas. He once had the courage to attack a lion"
(Al-Siyuti). I may add that he was a good soldier and an
excellent administrator, who was called Saffáh the Second because
he refounded the House of Abbas. He was exceedingly fanatic and
died of sensuality, having first kicked his doctor to death, and
he spent his last moments in versifying.
[FN#348] Hamdún bin Ismá'íl, called the Kátib or Scribe, was the
first of his family who followed the profession of a Nadím or
Cup-companion. His son Ahmad (who is in the text) was an oral
transmitter of poetry and history. Al-Siyúti (p. 390) and De
Slane I. Khall (ii. 304) notice him.
[FN#349] Probably the Caliph had attendants, but the text
afterwards speaks of them as two. Mac. Edit. iv. p. 558, line 2;
and a few lines below, "the Caliph and the man with him."
[FN#350] Arab. "Naysábúr," the famous town in Khorasan where
Omar-i-Khayyám (whom our people will call Omar Khayyám) was
buried and where his tomb is still a place of pious visitation. A
sketch of it has lately appeared in the illustrated papers. For
an affecting tale concerning the astronomer-poet's tomb, borrowed
from the Nigáristán see the Preface by the late Mr. Fitzgerald
whose admirable excerpts from the Rubaiyat (101 out of 820
quatrains) have made the poem popular among all the
English-speaking races.
[FN#351] Arab. "A-Sharíf anta?" (with the Hamzah-sign of
interrogation)=Art thou a Sharíf (or descendant of the Apostle)?
[FN#352] Tenth Abbaside (A.H. 234–247=848–861), grandson of
Al-Rashid and born of a slave-concubine. He was famous for his
hatred of the Alides (he destroyed the tomb of Al-Husayn) and
claimed the pardon of Allah for having revised orthodox
traditionary doctrines. He compelled the Christians to wear
collars of wood or leather and was assassinated by five Turks.
[FN#353] His father was Al-Mu'tasim bi 'llah (A.H.
218–227=833–842) the son of Al-Rashid by Máridah a
slave-concubine of foreign origin. He was brave and of high
spirit, but destitute of education; and his personal strength was
such that he could break a man's elbow between his fingers. He
imitated the apparatus of Persian kings; and he was called the
"Octonary" because he was the 8th Abbaside; the 8th in descent
from Abbas; the 8th son of Al-Rashid; he began his reign in A.H.
218; lived 48 years; was born under Scorpio (8th Zodiacal sign);
was victorious in 8 expeditions; slew 8 important foes and left 8
male and 8 female children. For his introducing Turks see vol.
iii, 81.
[FN#354] i.e. as if it were given away in charity.
[FN#355] Arab. "Shukkah," a word much used in the Zanzibar trade
where it means a piece of long-cloth one fathom long. See my
"Lake Regions of Central Africa," vol. i. 147, etc.
[FN#356] He is afterwards called in two places "Khádim"=eunuch.
[FN#357] A courteous way of saying, "Never mind my name: I wish
to keep it hidden." The formula is still popular.
[FN#358] Arab. "Bakhkharaní" i.e. fumigated me with burning
aloes-wood, Calumba or similar material.
[FN#359] In sign of honour. The threshold is important amongst
Moslems: in one of the Mameluke Soldans' sepulchres near Cairo I
found a granite slab bearing the "cartouche" (shield) of Khufu
(Cheops) with the four hieroglyphs hardly effaced.
[FN#360] i.e. One of the concubines by whose door he had passed.
[FN#361] Epistasis without the prostasis, "An she ordered thee so
to do:" the situation justifies the rhetorical figure.
[FN#362] Arab. "Sardáb" see vol. i, 340.
[FN#363] Thirteenth Abbaside A.H. 252–255 (=866–869). His mother
was a Greek slave called Kabíhah (Al-Mas'udi and Al-Siyuti); for
which "Banjah" is probably a clerical error. He was exceedingly
beautiful and was the first to ride out with ornaments of gold.
But he was impotent in the hands of the Turks who caused the mob
to depose him and kill him—his death being related in various
ways.
[FN#364] i.e. The reward from Allah for thy good deed.
[FN#365] Arab. "Nusk" abstinence from women, a part of the
Zahid's asceticism.
[FN#366] Arab. "Munázirah" the verbal noun of which, "Munázarah,"
may also mean "dispute." The student will distinguish between
"Munazarah" and Munafarah=a contention for precedence in presence
of an umpire.
[FN#367] The Mac. Edit. gives by mistake "Abú Dáúd": the Bul.
correctly "Abú Duwád," He was Kázi al-Kuzát (High Chancellor)
under Al-Mu'tasim, Al-Wasik bi'llah (Vathek) and Al-Mutawakkil.
[FN#368] Arab. "Zaffú"=they led the bride to the bridegroom's
house; but here used in the sense of displaying her as both were
in the palace.
[FN#369] i.e. renounce the craft which though not sinful (harám)
is makrúh or religiously unpraiseworthy; Mohammed having objected
to music and indeed to the arts in general.
[FN#370] Arab. "Lá tankati'í;" do not be too often absent from
us. I have noticed the whimsical resemblance of "Kat'" and our
"cut"; and here the metaphorical sense is almost identical.
[FN#371] See Ibn Khallikan ii. 455.
[FN#372] The Turkish body-guard. See vol. iii. 81.
[FN#373] Twelfth Abbaside (A.H. 248-252=862-866) the son of a
slave-concubine Mukhárik. He was virtuous and accomplished,
comely, fair-skinned, pock-marked and famed for defective
pronunciation; and he first set the fashion of shortening men's
capes and widening the sleeves. After may troubles with the
Turks, who were now the Prætorian guard of Baghdad, he was
murdered at the instigation of Al-Mu' tazz, who succeeded him, by
his Chamberlain Sa'id bin Salíh.
[FN#374] Arab. "Usúl," his forbears, his ancestors.
[FN#375] Lane rejects this tale because it is "extremely
objectionable; far more so than the title might lead me to
expect." But he quotes the following marginal note by his Shaykh:
--"Many persons (women) reckon marrying a second time amongst the
most disgraceful of actions. This opinion is commonest in the
country-towns and villages; and my mother's relations are thus
distinguished; so that a woman of them, when her husband dieth or
divorceth her while she is young, passeth in widowhood her life,
however long it may be, and disdaineth to marry a second time." I
fear that this state of things belongs to the good old days now
utterly gone by; and the loose rule of the stranger, especially
the English, in Egypt will renew the scenes which characterised
Sind when Sir Charles Napier hanged every husband who cut down an
adulterous wife. I have elsewhere noticed the ignorant idea that
Moslems deny to women souls and seats in Paradise, whilst
Mohammed canonised two women in his own family. The theory arose
with the "Fathers" of the Christian Church who simply exaggerated
the misogyny of St. Paul. St. Ambrose commenting on Corinthians
i. ii., boldly says:--"Feminas ad imaginem Dei factas non esse."
St. Thomas Aquinas and his school adopted the Aristotelian view,
"Mulier est erratum naturæ, et mas occasionatus, et per accidens
generatur; atque ideo est monstrum." For other instances see
Bayle s. v. Gediacus (Revd. Simon of Brandebourg) who in 1695
published a "Defensio Sexus muliebris," a refutation of an
anti-Socinian satire or squib, "Disputatio perjucunda, Mulieres
homines non esse," Parisiis, 1693. But when Islam arose in the
seventh century, the Christian learned cleverly affixed the
stigma of their own misogyny upon the Moslems ad captandas
fœminas and in Southern Europe the calumny still bears fruit.
Mohammed (Koran, chapt. xxiv.) commands for the first time, in
the sixth year of his mission, the veiling and, by inference, the
seclusion of women, which was apparently unknown to the Badawin
and, if practised in the cities was probably of the laxest. Nor
can one but confess that such modified separation of the sexes,
which it would be impossible to introduce into European manners,
has great and notable advantages. It promotes the freest
intercourse between man and man, and thus civilises what we call
the "lower orders": in no Moslem land, from Morocco to China, do
we find the brutals without manners or morals which are bred by
European and especially by English civilisation. For the same
reason it enables women to enjoy fullest intimacy and friendship
with one another, and we know that the best of both sexes are
those who prefer the society of their own as opposed to "quite
the lady's man" and "quite the gentleman's woman." It also adds
an important item to social decorum by abolishing e.g. such
indecencies as the "ball-room flirtation"--a word which must be
borrowed from us, not translated by foreigners. And especially it
gives to religious meetings, a tone which the presence of women
modifies and not for the better. Perhaps, the best form is that
semi-seclusion of the sex, which prevailed in the heroic ages of
Greece, Rome, and India (before the Moslem invasion), and which
is perpetuated in Christian Armenia and in modern Hellas. It is a
something between the conventual strictness of Al-Islam and the
liberty, or rather licence, of the "Anglo-Saxon" and the
"Anglo-American." And when England shall have cast off that
peculiar insularity which makes her differ from all civilised
peoples, she will probably abolish three gross abuses,
time-honoured scandals, which bear very heavily on women and
children. The first is the Briton's right to will property away
from his wife and offspring. The second is the action for "breach
of promise," salving the broken heart with pounds, shillings, and
pence: it should be treated simply as an exaggerated breach of
contract. The third is the procedure popularly called "Crim.
Con.," and this is the most scandalous of all: the offence is
against the rights of property, like robbery or burglary, and it
ought to be treated criminally with fine, imprisonment and in
cases with corporal punishment after the sensible procedure of
Moslem law.
[FN#376] "Moon of the age," a name which has before occurred.
[FN#377] The Malocchio or gettatura, so often noticed.
[FN#378] The crescent of the month Zu 'l-Ka'dah when the
Ramazan-fast is broken. This allusion is common. Comp. vol. i.
84.
[FN#379] This line contains one of the Yes, Yes and No, No
trifles alluded to in vol. ii, 60. Captain Lockett (M. A. 103)
renders it "I saw a fawn upon a hillock whose beauty eclipsed the
full moon. I said, What is thy name? she answered Deer. What my
Dear said I, but she replied, no, no!" To preserve the sound I
have sacrificed sense: Lulu is a pearl, Li? li? (= for me, for
me?) and La! La! = no! no! See vol. i, 217. I should have
explained a line which has puzzled some readers,
"A sun (face) on wand (neck) in knoll of sand (hips) she
showed" etc,
[FN#380] Arab. "Al-huwayna," a rare term.
[FN#381] Bright in the eyes of the famishing who is allowed to
break his fast.
[FN#382] Mr. Payne reads "Maghrabi" = a Mauritanian, Maroccan,
the Moors (not the Moorish Jews or Arabs) being a race of
Sodomites from highest to lowest. But the Mac. and Bul. Edit.
have "Ajami."
[FN#383] For "Ishk uzri" = platonic love see vol. i. 232; ii.
104.
[FN#384] Zaynab (Zenobia) and Zayd are generic names for women
and men.
[FN#385] i.e. He wrote "Kasidahs" (= odes, elegies) after the
fashion of the "Suspended Poems" which mostly open with the lover
gazing upon the traces of the camp where his beloved had dwelt.
The exaggerated conventionalism of such exordium shows that these
early poems had been preceded by a host of earlier pieces which
had been adopted as canons of poetry.
[FN#386] The verses are very mal-à-propos, like many occurring in
The Nights, for the maligned Shaykh is proof against all the
seductions of the pretty boy and falls in love with a woman after
the fashion of Don Quixote. Mr. Payne complains of the obscurity
of the original owing to abuse of the figure enallage; but I find
them explicit enough, referring to some debauched elder after the
type of Abu Nowás.
[FN#387] Arab. "'Irk" = a root which must here mean a sprig, a
twig. The basil grows to a comparatively large size in the East.
[FN#388] Arab. "Lait "= one connected with the tribe of Lot, see
vol. v. 161.
[FN#389] For the play upon "Saki" (oblique case of sak, leg-calf)
and Saki a cupbearer see vol. ii. 327.
[FN#390] "On a certain day the leg shall be bared and men shall
be called upon to bow in adoration, but they shall not be able"
(Koran, lxviii. 42). "Baring the leg" implies a grievous
calamity, probably borrowed from the notion of tucking up the
skirts and stripping for flight. On the dangerous San Francisco
River one of the rapids is called "Tira-calcoens" = take off your
trousers (Highlands of the Brazil, ii. 35). But here the allusion
is simply ludicrous and to a Moslem blasphemous.
[FN#391] Arab. "Istahi," a word of every day use in reproof. So
the Hindost. "Kuchh sharm nahin?" hast thou no shame? Shame is a
passion with Orientals and very little known to the West.
[FN#392] i.e. Angels and men saying, "The Peace (of God) be on us
and on all righteous servants of Allah!" This ends every prayer.
[FN#393] Arab. "Al-Niyah," the ceremonial purpose or intent to
pray, without which prayer is null and void. See vol. v. 163. The
words would be "I purpose to pray a two-bow prayer in this hour
of deadly danger to my soul." Concerning such prayer see vol. i.
142.
[FN#394] Arab. "Sákin" = quiescent, Let a sleeping hound lie.
[FN#395] Arab. "Ásár" lit. traces i.e. the works, the mighty
signs and marvels.
[FN#396] The mention of coffee now frequently occurs in this tale
and in that which follows: the familiar use of it showing a
comparatively late date, and not suggesting the copyist's hand.
[FN#397] Arab. "Al-Kahwah," the place being called from its
produce. See Pilgrimage i. 317-18.
[FN#398] Arab. "Al-Ghurbah Kurbah:" the translation in the text
is taken from my late friend Edward Eastwick, translator of the
Gulistan and author of a host of works which show him to have
been a ripe Oriental scholar.
[FN#399] The fiction may have been suggested by the fact that in
all Moslem cities from India to Barbary the inner and outer gates
are carefully shut during the noontide devotions, not "because
Friday is the day on which creation was finished and Mohammed
entered Al-Medinah;" but because there is a popular idea that in
times now approaching the Christians will rise up against the
Moslems during prayers and will repeat the "Sicilian Vespers."
[FN#400] i.e. the syndic of the Guild of Jewellers.
[FN#401] This is an Arab Lady Godiva of the wrong sort.
[FN#402] This is explained in my Pilgrimage i. 99 et seq.
[FN#403] About three pennyweights. It varies, however, everywhere
and in Morocco the "Mezkal" as they call it is an imaginary
value, no such coin existing.
[FN#404] i.e. over and above the value of the gold, etc.
[FN#405] This was the custom of contemporary Europe and more than
one master cutler has put to death an apprentice playing Peeping
Tom to detect the secret of sword-making.
[FN#406] Among Moslems husbands are divided into three species;
(1) of "Bahr" who is married for love; (2) of "Dahr," for defence
against the world, and (3) of "Mahr" for marriage-settlements
(money). Master Obayd was an unhappy compound of the two latter;
but he did not cease to be a man of honour.
[FN#407]The Mac. Edit. here is a mass of blunders and misprints.
[FN#408] The Mac. Edit. everywhere calls her "Sabiyah" = the
young lady and does not mention her name Halimah = the Mild, the
Gentle till the cmlxxivth Night. I follow Mr. Payne's example by
introducing it earlier into the story, as it avoids vagueness and
repetition of the indefinite.
[FN#409] Arab "Adím al-Zauk,"=without savour. applied to an
insipid mannerless man as "bárid" (cold) is to a fool. "Ahl Zauk"
is a man of pleasure, a voluptuary, a hedonist.
[FN#410] Arab. "Finján" the egg-shell cups from which the
Easterns still drink coffee.
[FN#411] Arab. "Awáshik" a rare word, which Dozy translates
"osselet" (or osselle) and Mr. Payne, "hucklebones," concerning
which he has obliged me with this note. Chambaud renders osselet
by "petit os avec lequel les enfants jouent." Hucklebone is the
hip-bone but in the plural it applies to our cockals or cockles:
Latham gives "hucklebone," (or cockal), one of the small vertebræ
of the coccygis, and Littleton translates "Talus," a hucklebone,
a bone to play with like a dye, a play called cockal. (So also in
Rider.) Hucklebones and knucklebones are syn.: but the latter is
modern and liable to give a false idea, besides being
tautological. It has nothing to do with the knuckles and derives
from the German "Knöchel" (dialectically Knöchelein) a bonelet.
[FN#412] For ablution after sleep and before prayer. The address
of the slave-girl is perfectly natural: in a Moslem house we
should hear it this day, nor does it show the least sign of
"frowardness. "
[FN#413] The perfect stupidity of the old wittol is told with
the driest Arab humour.
[FN#414] This is a rechauffé of the Language of Signs in "Azíz
and Azízah" vol. ii. 302.
[FN#415] In the Mac. Edit. "Yá Fulánah"=O certain person.
[FN#416] Arab. "Laylat al-Kábilah," lit.=the coming night, our
to-night; for which see vol. iii. {249}.
[FN#417] Arab. "Ya Ahmak!" which in Marocco means a madman, a
maniac, a Santon.
[FN#418] The whole passage has a grammatical double entendre
whose application is palpable. Harf al-Jarr=a particle governing
the noun in the genitive or a mode of thrusting and tumbling.
[FN#419] Arab. "Al-Silah" =conjunctive (sentence), also coition;
Al-Mausúl= the conjoined, a grammatical term for relative pronoun
or particle.
[FN#420] Arab. "Tanwín al-Izáfah ma'zúl" = the nunnation in
construction cast out. "Tanwín" (nunnation) is pronouncing the
vowels of the case-endings of a noun with n -un for u
(nominative) -in for i (genitive) and -an for a (accusative). This
nunnation expresses indefiniteness, e.g. "Malikun"=a king, any
king. When the noun is made definite by the Ma'rifah or article
(al), the Tanwin must be dropped, e.g. Al-Maliku = the King; Al-
Malikun being a grammatical absurdity. In construction or regimen
(izáfah) the nunnation must also disappear, as Maliku 'l-Hindi =
the King of Hind (a King of Hind would be Malikun min Mulúki
'l-Hindi = a King from amongst the Kings of Hind). Thus whilst
the wife and the lover were conjoined as much as might be, the
hocussed and sleeping husband was dismissed (ma'zúl=degraded)
like a nunnation dropped in construction. I may add that the
terminal syllables are invariably dropped in popular parlance and
none but Mr. G. Palgrave (who afterwards ignored his own
assertion) ever found an Arab tribe actually using them in
conversation although they are always pronounced when reading the
Koran and poetry.
[FN#421] This was a saying of Mohammed about overfrequency of
visits, "Zur ghibban, tazid hubban"=call rarely that friendship
last fairly. So the verse of Al-Mutanabbi,
"How oft familiarity breeds dislike."
Preston quotes Jesus ben Sirach, {mè émpipte hína mè epoorthês, kaì mè makràn aphístoo hína mè epilesthês}. Also Al-Hariri (Ass.
xv. of "The Legal"; De Sacy p. 478 1. 2.) "Visit not your friend
more than one day in a month, nor stop longer than that with
him!" Also Ass. xvi. 487, 8. "Multiply not visits to thy friend."
"None so disliked as one visiting too often." (Preston p. 352).
In the Cent nouvelles (52) Nouvelles (No. lii.) the dying father
says to his son:--"Jamais ne vous hantez tant en l'ostel de votre
voisin que l'on vous y serve de pain bis." In these matters
Moslems follow the preaching and practice of the Apostle, who was
about as hearty and genial as the "Great Washington." But the
Arab had a fund of dry humour which the Anglo-American lacked
altogether.
[FN#422] Arab. "'Amal"--action, operation. In Hindostani it is
used (often with an Alif for an Ayn) as intoxication e.g. Amal
pání strong waters and applied to Sharáb (wine), Bozah (Beer),
Tádí (toddy or the fermented juice of the Tád, Borassus
flabelliformis), Naryáli (juice of the cocoa-nut tree) Saynddi
(of the wild date, Elate Sylvestris), Afyún (opium and its
preparations as post=poppy seeds) and various forms of Cannabis
Sativa, as Ganja, Charas, Madad, Sabzi etc. for which see
Herklots' Glossary.
[FN#423] Arab "Sardáb," mostly an underground room (vol. i. 340)
but here a tunnel.
[FN#424] Arab. "Al-Láwandiyah": this and the frequent mention of
coffee and presently of a watch (sá'ah) show that the tale in its
present state, cannot be older than the end of the sixteenth
century.
[FN#425] Arab. "Su'bán," vol. i. 172.
[FN#426] The lines have occurred in vol. i. 238, where I have
noted the punning "Sabr"= patience or aloes. I quote Torrens: the
Templar, however, utterly abolishes the pun in the last couplet:-
-
"The case is not at my command, but in fair Patience hand
I'm set by Him who order'th all and doth such case command."
"Amr" here=case (circumstance) or command (order) with a
suspicion of reference to Murr=myrrh, bitterness. The reader will
note the resignation to Fate's decrees which here and in host of
places elevates the tone of the book.
[FN#427] i.e. as one loathes that which is prohibited, and with
a loathing which makes it unlawful for me to cohabit with thee.
[FN#428] This is quite natural to the sensitive Eastern.
[FN#429] Hence, according to Moslem and Eastern theory generally
her lewd and treasonable conduct. But in Egypt not a few freeborn
women and those too of the noblest, would beat her hollow at her
own little game. See for instance the booklet attributed to Jalál
al-Siyútí and entitled Kitáb al-Ízáh (Book of Explanation) fí
'Ilm al-Nikáh (in the Science of Carnal Copulation). There is a
copy of it in the British Museum; and a friend kindly supplied me
with a lithograph from Cairo; warning me that there are doubts
about the authorship.
[FN#430] These lines have occurred in vol. iii. 214: I quote Mr.
Payne.
[FN#431] This ejaculation, as the waw shows, is parenthetic;
spoken either by Halimah, by Shahrazad or by the writer.
[FN#432] Arab. "Kasr" here meaning an upper room.
[FN#433] To avoid saying, I pardon thee.
[FN#434] A proverbial saying which here means I could only dream
of such good luck.
[FN#435] A good old custom amongst Moslems who have had business
transactions with each other: such acquittance of all possible
claims will be quoted on "Judgment-Day," when debts will be
severely enquired into.
[FN#436] Arab. "Kutr (tract or quarter) Misr," vulgarly
pronounced "Masr." I may remind the reader that the Assyrians
called the Nile-valley "Musur" whence probably the Heb. Misraim a
dual form denoting Upper and Lower Egypt which are still
distinguished by the Arabs into Sa'id and Misr. The hieroglyphic
term is Ta-mera=Land of the Flood; and the Greek Aigyptos is
probably derived from Kahi-Ptah (region of the great God Ptah) or
Ma Ka Ptah (House of the soul of Ptah). The word "Copt" or
"Kopt," in Egyptian "Kubti" and pronounced "Gubti," contains the
same consonants
[FN#437] Now an unimportant frontier fort and village dividing
Syria-Palestine from Egypt and famed for the French battle with
the Mamelukes (Feb. 19, 1799) and the convention for evacuating
Egypt. In the old times it was an important site built upon the
"River of Egypt" now a dried up Wady; and it was the chief port
of the then populous Najab or South Country. According to
Abulfeda it derived its name (the "boothy," the nest) from a hut
built there by the brothers of Joseph when stopped at the
frontier by the guards of Pharaoh. But this is usual Jewish
infection of history.
[FN#438] Arab. "Báb." which may also="Chapter" or category. See
vol. i., 136 and elsewhere (index). In Egypt "Báb" sometimes
means a sepulchral cave hewn in a rock (plur. Bíbán) from the
Coptic "Bíb."
[FN#439] i.e. "The Holy," a town some three marches (60 miles)
N. East of Cairo; thus showing the honour done to our unheroic
hero. There is also a Sálihiyah quarter or suburb of Damascus
famous for its cemetery of holy men, but the facetious Cits
change the name to Zálliniyah=causing to stray; in allusion to
its Kurdish population. Baron von Hammer reads "le faubourg
Adelieh" built by Al-Malik Al-Adil and founded a chronological
argument on a clerical error.
[FN#440] Kamar al-Zaman; the normal pun on the name; a practice
as popular in the East as in the West, and worthy only of a
pickpocket in either place.
[FN#441] Arab. "Azrár" plur. of "Zirr" and lit. = "buttons,"
i.e. of his robe collar from which his white neck and face appear
shining as the sun.
[FN#442] Arab. "Dáirah": the usual inclosure of Kanáts or
tent-flaps pitched for privacy during the halt.
[FN#443] i.e. it was so richly ornamented that it resembled an
enchanted hoard whose spells, hiding it from sight, had been
broken by some happy treasure seeker.
[FN#444] The merchant who is a "stern parent" and exceedingly
ticklish on the Pundonor saw at first sight her servile origin
which had escaped the mother. Usually it is the other way.
[FN#445] Not the head of the Church, or Chief Pontiff, but the
Chief of the Olema and Fukahá (Fákihs or D.D.'s.) men learned in
the Law (divinity). The order is peculiarly Moslem, in fact the
succedaneum for the Christian "hierarchy," an institution never
contemplated by the Founder of Christianity. This title shows the
modern date of the tale.
[FN#446] Arab. "Maulid," prop. applied to the Birth-feast of
Mohammed which begins on the 3rd day of Rabí al-Awwal (third
Moslem month) and lasts a week or ten days (according to local
custom), usually ending on the 12th and celebrated with salutes
of cannon, circumcision feasts, marriage banquets, Zikr-litanies,
perlections of the Koran and all manner of solemn festivities
including the "powder-play" (Láb al-Bárút) in the wilder corners
of Al-Islam. It is also applied to the birth-festivals of great
Santons (as Ahmad al-Badawi) for which see Lane M. E. chapt.
xxiv. In the text it is used like the Span. "Funcion" or the Hind
"Tamáshá," any great occasion of merry-making.
[FN#447] Arab. "Sanájik" Plur. of Sanjak (Turk.) = a banner,
also applied to the bearer (ensign or cornet) and to a military
rank mostly corresponding with Bey or Colonel.
[FN#448] I have followed Mr. Payne's ordering of the text which,
both in the Mac. and Bull. Edits., is wholly inconsequent and has
not the excuse of rhyme.
[FN#449] Arab. "Jilbáb," a long coarse veil or gown which in
Barbary becomes a "Jallábiyah," a striped and hooded cloak of
woollen stuff.
[FN#450] i.e. a broken down pilgrim left to die on the road.
[FN#451] These lines have occurred in vol. i. 272. I quote Mr.
Payne.
[FN#452] Note the difference between "Zirt," the loud crepitus
and "Faswah" the susurrus which Captain Grose in his quaint
"Lexicum Balatronicum," calls a "fice" or a "foyse" (from the
Arabic Fas, faswah ?).
[FN#453] These lines have occurred in Night dcxix, vol. vi. 246;
where the pun on Khaliyah is explained. I quote Lane.
[FN#454] The usual pretext of "God bizness," as the Comoro men
call it. For the title of the Ka'abah see my Pilgrimage vol. iii.
149.
[FN#455] This was in order to travel as a respectable man; he
could also send the girl as a spy into the different Harims to
learn news of the lady who had eloped.
[FN#456] A polite form of alluding to their cursing him.
[FN#457] i.e. on account of the King taking offence at his
unceremonious departure.
[FN#458] i.e. It will be the worse for him.
[FN#459] I would here remind the reader that "'Arabiyyun" pl.
'Urb is a man of pure Arab race, whether of the Ahl al-Madar
(=people of mortar, i.e. citizens) or Ahl al-Wabar (=tents of
goat or camel's hair); whereas "A'rábiyyun" pl. A'ráb is one who
dwells in the Desert whether Arab or not. Hence the verse:--
"They name us Al-A'ráb but Al-'Urb is our name."
[FN#460] I would remind the reader that the Dinár is the golden
denarius (or solidus) of Eastern Rome while the Dirham is the
silver denarius, whence denier, danaro, dínheiro, etc., etc. The
oldest dinars date from A.H. 91-92 (=714-15) and we find the
following description of one struck in A.H. 96 by Al-Walid the
VI. Ommiade:--
Obverse:
Area. "There is no iláh but Allah: He is one: He hath no
partner."
Circle. "Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah who hath sent
him with the true Guidance and Religion that he
manifest it above all other Creeds."
Reverse:
Area. "Allah is one: Allah is Eternal: He begetteth not,
nor is He begot."
Circle. "Bismillah: This Dinar was struck anno 96."
See "'Ilâm-en-Nas" (warnings for Folk) a pleasant little volume
by Mr. Godfrey Clarke (London, King and Co., 1873), mostly
consisting of the minor tales from The Nights, especially this
group between Nights ccxlvii. and cdlxi.; but rendered valuable
by the annotations of my old friend, the late Frederick Ayrton.
[FN#461] The reader will note the persistency with which the
duty of universal benevolence is preached.
[FN#462] Arab. from Pers. "Shah-bandar": see vol. iv. 29.
[FN#463] i.e. of thy coming, a popular compliment.
[FN#464] This is the doctrine of the universal East; and it is
true concerning wives and widows, not girls when innocent or
rather ignorant. According to Western ideas Kamar al-Zaman was a
young scoundrel of the darkest dye whose only excuses were his
age, his inexperience and his passions.
[FN#465] Arab. "Dayyús" prop. = a man who pimps for his own wife
and in this sense constantly occurring in conversation.
[FN#466] This is taking the law into one's own hands with a
witness; yet amongst races who preserve the Pundonor in full and
pristine force, e.g. the Afghans and the Persian Iliyat, the
killing so far from being considered murder or even justifiable
homicide would be highly commended by public opinion.
[FN#467] Arab. "Nákisátu'aklin wa dín": the words are attributed
to the Prophet whom we find saying, "Verily in your wives and
children ye have an enemy, wherefore beware of them" (Koran lxiv.
14): compare 1 Cor. vii. 28, 32. But Maître Jehan de Meung went
farther,
"Toutes êtez, serez ou fûtes
De faict ou de volonté, putes."
[FN#468] Arab. "Habíbí wa tabíbí," the common jingle.
[FN#469] Iblis and his connection with Diabolos has been noticed
in vol. i. 13. The word is foreign as well as a P.N. and
therefore is imperfectly declined, although some authorities
deduce it from "ablasa"=he despaired (of Allah's mercy). Others
call him Al-Háris (the Lion) hence Eve's first-born was named in
his honour Abd al-Haris. His angelic name was Azázíl before he
sinned by refusing to prostrate himself to Adam, as Allah had
commanded the heavenly host for a trial of faith, not to worship
the first man, but to make him a Keblah or direction of prayer
addressed to the Almighty. Hence he was ejected from Heaven and
became the arch-enemy of mankind (Koran xviii. 48). He was an
angel but related to the Jinn: Al-Bayzáwi, however (on Koran ii.
82), opines that angelic by nature he became a Jinn by act. Ibn
Abbas held that he belonged to an order of angels who are called
Jinn and begot issue as do the nasnás, the Ghúl and the Kutrub
which, however are male and female, like the pre-Adamite manwoman
of Genesis, the "bi-une" of our modern days. For this subject see
Terminal Essay.
[FN#470] As usual in the East and in the West the husband was
the last to hear of his wife's ill conduct. But even Othello did
not kill Emilia.
[FN#471] i.e. Star of the Morning: the first word occurs in Bar
Cokba Barchocheba=Son of the Star, i.e., which was to come out of
Jacob (Numbers xxiv. 17). The root, which does not occur in Heb.,
is Kaukab to shine. This Rabbi Akilah was also called Bar Cozla=
Son of the Lie.
[FN#472] Here some excision has been judged advisable as the
names of the bridegrooms and the brides recur with damnable
iteration.
[FN#473] See the note by Lane's Shaykh at the beginning of the
tale. The contrast between the vicious wife of servile origin and
the virtuous wife of noble birth is fondly dwelt upon but not
exaggerated.
[FN#474] i.e. those of his water skins for the journey, which as
usual required patching and supplying with fresh handles after
long lying dry.
[FN#475] A popular saying also applied to men. It is usually
accompanied with showing the open hand and a reference to the
size of the fingers. I find this story most interesting from an
anthropological point of view; suggesting how differently various
races regard the subject of adultery. In Northern Europe the
burden is thrown most unjustly upon the man, the woman who tempts
him being a secondary consideration; and in England he is
absurdly termed "a seducer." In former times he was "paraded" or
"called out," now he is called up for damages, a truly ignoble
and shopkeeper-like mode of treating a high offence against
private property and public morality. In Anglo-America, where
English feeling is exaggerated, the lover is revolver'd and the
woman is left unpunished. On the other hand, amongst Eastern and
especially Moslem peoples, the woman is cut down and scant
reckoning is taken from the man. This more sensible procedure has
struck firm root amongst the nations of Southern Europe where the
husband kills the lover only when he still loves his wife and
lover like is furious at her affection being alienated.
Practically throughout the civilised world there are only two
ways of treating women, Moslems keep them close, defend them from
all kinds of temptations and if they go wrong kill them.
Christians place them upon a pedestal, the observed of all
observers, expose them to every danger and if they fall, accuse
and abuse them instead of themselves. And England is so grandly
logical that her law, under certain circumstances, holds that
Mrs. A. has committed adultery with Mr. B. but Mr. B. has not
committed adultery with Mrs. A. Can any absurdity be more absurd?
Only "summum jus, summa injuria." See my Terminal Essay. I shall
have more to say upon this curious subject, the treatment of
women who can be thoroughly guarded only by two things, firstly
their hearts and secondly by the "Spanish Padlock."
[FN#476] Lane owns that this is "one of the most entertaining tales
in the work," but he omits it "because its chief and best portion
is essentially the same as the story of the First of the Three
Ladies of Baghdad." The truth is he was straitened for space by
his publisher and thus compelled to cut out some of the best
stories in The Nights.
[FN#477] i.e. Ibrahim of Mosul, the musician poet often mentioned
in The Nights. I must again warn the reader that the name is
pronounced Is-hák (like Isaac with a central aspirate) not Ishák.
This is not unnecessary when we hear Tait-shill for Tait's hill
and "Frederick-shall" for {Friedrichs-hall.}
[FN#478] i.e. He was a proficient, an adept.
[FN#479] Arab. from Pers. Dúláb=a waterwheel, a buttery, a
cupboard.
[FN#480] Arab. "Futúr," the chhotí házirí of Anglo-India or
breakfast proper, eaten by Moslems immediately after the dawn-
prayer except in Ramázán. Amongst sensible people it is a
substantial meal of bread and boiled beans, eggs, cheese, curded
milk and the pastry called fatírah, followed by coffee and a
pipe. See Lane M. E. chapt. v. and my Pilgrimage ii. 48.
[FN#481] This "off-with-his-head" style must not be understood
literally. As I have noted, it is intended by the writer to show
the Kingship and the majesty of the "Vicar of Allah."
[FN#482] Lit. "the calamity of man (insán) is from the tongue"
(lisán).
[FN#483] For Khatt Sharíf, lit.=a noble letter, see vol. ii. 39.
[FN#484] Arab. "Allah yastura-k"=protect thee by hiding what had
better be hidden.
[FN#485] Arab. "Janázír"=chains, an Arabised plural of the Pers.
Zanjír with the metathesis or transposition of letters peculiar
to the vulgar; "Janázír" for "Zanájír."
[FN#486] Arab. "Safínah"=(Noah's) Ark, a myth derived from the
Baris of Egypt with subsequent embellishments from the Babylonian
deluge-legends: the latter may have been survivals of the days
when the waters of the Persian Gulf extended to the mountains of
Eastern Syria. Hence I would explain the existence of extinct
volcanoes within sight of Damascus (see Unexplored Syria i. p.
159) visited, I believe, for the first time by my late friend
Charles F. Tyrwhitt-Drake and myself in May, 1871.
[FN#487] Mansur and Násir are passive and active participles from
the same root, Nasr=victory; the former means triumphant and the
latter triumphing.
[FN#488] The normal term of Moslem mourning, which Mohammed
greatly reduced disliking the abuse of it by the Jews who even in
the present day are the strictest in its observance.
[FN#489] An euphuistic and euphemistic style of saying, "No, we
don't know."
[FN#490] Arab. "Rahan," an article placed with him in pawn.
[FN#491] A Moslem is bound, not only by honour but by religion,
to discharge the debts of his dead father and mother and so save
them from punishment on Judgment-day. Mohammed who enjoined mercy
to debtors while in the flesh (chapt. ii. 280, etc.) said "Allah
covereth all faults except debt; that is to say, there will be
punishment therefor." Also "A martyr shall be pardoned every
fault but debt." On one occasion he refused to pray for a Moslem
who died insolvent. Such harshness is a curious contrast with the
leniency which advised the creditor to remit debts by way of
alms. And practically this mild view of indebtedness renders it
highly unadvisable to oblige a Moslem friend with a loan.
[FN#492] i.e. he did not press them for payment; and, it must be
remembered, he received no interest upon his monies, this being
forbidden in the Koran.
[FN#493] Al-Mas'údi (chap. xvii.) alludes to furs of Sable
(Samúr), hermelline (Al-Farwah) and Bortás (Turkish) furs of
black and red foxes. For Samúr see vol. iv. 57. Sinjáb is Persian
for the skin of the grey squirrel (Mus lemmus, the lemming), the
meniver, erroneously miniver, (menu vair) as opposed to the
ermine = (Mus Armenius, or mustela erminia.) I never visit England
without being surprised at the vile furs worn by the rich, and
the folly of the poor in not adopting the sheepskin with the wool
inside and the leather well tanned which keeps the peasant warm
and comfortable between Croatia and Afghanistan.
[FN#494] Arab. "Tájir Alfí" which may mean a thousand dinars
(£500) or a thousand purses (=£5,000). "Alfí" is not an uncommon
P.N., meaning that the bearer (Pasha or pauper) had been bought
for a thousand left indefinite.
[FN#495] Tigris-Euphrates.
[FN#496] Possibly the quarter of Baghdad so called and mentioned
in The Nights more than once.
[FN#497] For this fiery sea see Sind Revisited i. 19.
[FN#498] Arab. "Al-Ghayb" which may also mean "in the future"
(unknown to man).
[FN#499] Arab. "Jabal"; here a mountainous island: see vol. i.
140.
[FN#500] i.e. ye shall be spared this day's miseries. See my
Pilgrimage vol. i. 314, and the delight with which we glided into
Marsá Damghah.
[FN#501] Arab. "Súwán"="Syenite" (-granite) also used for flint
and other hard stones. See vol. i. 238.
[FN#502] Koran xxiv. Male children are to the Arab as much prized
an object of possession as riches, since without them wealth is
of no value to him. Mohammed, therefore, couples wealth with
children as the two things wherewith one wards off the ills of
this world, though they are powerless against those of the world
to come.
[FN#503] An exclamation derived from the Surat Nasr (cx. 1) one
of the most affecting in the Koran. It gave Mohammed warning of
his death and caused Al-Abbás to shed tears; the Prophet sings a
song of victory in the ixth year of the Hijrah (he died on the
xth) and implores the pardon of his Lord.
[FN#504] Arab. "Dáirah," a basin surrounded by hills. The words
which follow may mean, "An hour's journey or more in breadth."
[FN#505] These petrified folk have occurred in the "Eldest Lady's
Tale" (vol. i. 165), where they are of "black stone."
[FN#506] Arab. "Táj Kisrawi," such as was worn by the Chosroes
Kings. See vol. i. 75.
[FN#507] The familiar and far-famed Napoleonic pose, with the
arms crossed over the breast, is throughout the East the attitude
assumed by slave and servant in presence of his master. Those who
send statues to Anglo-India should remember this.
[FN#508] Arab. "Tá álík"=hanging lamps, often in lantern shape
with coloured glass and profuse ornamentation; the Maroccan are
now familiar to England.
[FN#509] Arab. "Kidrah," lit.=a pot, kettle; it can hardly mean
"an interval."
[FN#510] The wicket or small doorway, especially by the side of a
gate or portal, is called "the eye of the needle" and explains
Matt. xix. 24, and Koran vii. 38. In the Rabbinic form of the
proverb the camel becomes an elephant. Some have preferred to
change the Koranic Jamal (camel) for Habl (cable) and much
ingenuity has been wasted by Christian commentators on Mark x.
25, and Luke xviii. 25.
[FN#511] i.e. A "Kanz" (enchanted treasury) usually hidden
underground but opened by a counter-spell and transferred to
earth's face. The reader will note the gorgeousness of the
picture.
[FN#512] Oriental writers, Indian and Persian, as well as Arab,
lay great stress upon the extreme delicacy of the skin of the
fair ones celebrated in their works, constantly attributing to
their heroines bodies so sensitive as to brook with difficulty
the contact of the finest shift. Several instances of this will
be found in the present collection and we may fairly assume that
the skin of an Eastern beauty, under the influence of constant
seclusion and the unremitting use of cosmetics and the bath,
would in time attain a pitch of delicacy and sensitiveness such
as would in some measure justify the seemingly extravagant
statements of their poetical admirers, of which the following
anecdote (quoted by Ibn Khellikan from the historian Et Teberi)
is a fair specimen. Ardeshir ibn Babek (Artaxerxes I.), the first
Sassanian King of Persia (A.D. 226-242), having long
unsuccessfully besieged El Hedr, a strong city of Mesopotamia
belonging to the petty King Es Satiroun, at last obtained
possession of it by the treachery of the owner's daughter Nezireh
and married the latter, this having been the price stipulated by
her for the betrayal to him of the place. "It happened afterwards
that, one night, as she was unable to sleep and turned from side
to side in the bed, Ardeshir asked her what prevented her from
sleeping. She replied, 'I never yet slept on a rougher bed than
this; I feel something irk me.' He ordered the bed to be changed,
but she was still unable to sleep. Next morning, she complained
of her side, and on examination, a myrtle-leaf was found adhering
to a fold of the skin, from which it had drawn blood. Astonished
at this circumstance, Ardeshir asked her if it was this that had
kept her awake and she replied in the affirmative. 'How then,'
asked he, 'did your father bring you up?' She answered, 'He
spread me a bed of satin and clad me in silk and fed me with
marrow and cream and the honey of virgin bees and gave me pure
wine to drink.' Quoth Ardeshir, 'The same return which you made
your father for his kindness would be made much more readily to
me'; and bade bind her by the hair to the tail of a horse, which
galloped off with her and killed her." It will be remembered that
the true princess, in the well-known German popular tale, is
discovered by a similar incident to that of the myrtle-leaf. I
quote this excellent note from Mr. Payne (ix. 148), only
regretting that annotation did not enter into his plan of
producing The Nights. Amongst Hindu story-tellers a phenomenal
softness of the skin is a lieu commun: see Vikram and the Vampire
(p.285, "Of the marvellous delicacy of their Queens"); and the
Tale of the Sybarite might be referred to in the lines given
above.
[FN#513]
"(55) Indeed joyous on that day are the people of Paradise in
their employ;
(56) In shades, on bridal couches reclining they and their
wives:
(57) Fruits have they therein and whatso they desire.
(58) 'Peace!' shall be a word from a compassionating Lord."
Koran xxxvi. 55-58, the famous Chapt. "Yá Sín;" which most
educated Moslems learn by heart. See vol. iii. 19. In addition to
the proofs there offered that the Moslem Paradise is not wholly
sensual I may quote, "No soul wotteth what coolth of the eyes is
reserved (for the good) in recompense of their works" (Koran lxx.
17). The Paradise of eating, drinking, and copulating which Mr.
Palgrave (Arabia, i. 368) calls "an everlasting brothel between
forty celestial concubines" was preached solely to the baser sort
of humanity which can understand and appreciate only the
pleasures of the flesh. To talk of spiritual joys before the
Badawin would have been a non-sens, even as it would be to the
roughs of our great cities.
[FN#514] Arab. "Lajlaj" lit.=rolling anything round the mouth
when eating; hence speaking inarticulately, being tongue-tied,
stuttering, etc.
[FN#515] The classical "Phylarchs," who had charge of the
Badawin.
[FN#516] "The Jabábirah" (giant-rulers of Syria) and the
"Akásirah" (Chosroës-Kings of Persia).
[FN#517] This shows (and we are presently told) that the intruder
was Al-Khizr, the "Green Prophet," for whom see vol. iv. 175.
[FN#518] i.e. of salvation supposed to radiate from all Prophets,
esp. from Mohammed.
[FN#519] This formula which has occurred from the beginning
(vol.i.1) is essentially Koranic: See Chapt. li. 18-19 and
passim.
[FN#520] This trick of the priest hidden within the image may
date from the days of the vocal Memnon, and was a favourite in
India, especially at the shrine of Somnauth (Soma-náth), the
Moon-god, Atergatis Aphrodite, etc.
[FN#521] Arab. "Almás"=Gr. Adamas. In opposition to the learned
ex-Professor Maskelyne I hold that the cutting of the diamond is
of very ancient date. Mr. W. M. Flinders Patrie (The Pyramids and
Temples of Gizah, London: Field and Tuer, 1884) whose studies
have thoroughly demolished the freaks and unfacts, the fads and
fancies of the "Pyramidists," and who may be said to have raised
measurement to the rank of a fine art, believes that the Euritic
statues of old Egypt such as that of Khufu (Cheops) in the Bulak
Museum were drilled by means of diamonds. Athenæus tells us (lib.
v.) that the Indians brought pearls and diamonds to the
procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus; and this suggests cutting, as
nothing can be less ornamental than the uncut stone.
[FN#522] i.e. as if they were holding a "Durbar"; the King's idol
in the Sadr or place of honour and the others ranged about it in
their several ranks.
[FN#523] These words are probably borrowed from the taunts of
Elijah to the priests of Baal (1 Kings xviii. 27). Both Jews and
Moslems wilfully ignored the proper use of the image or idol
which was to serve as a Keblah or direction of prayer and an
object upon which to concentrate thought and looked only to the
abuse of the ignobile vulgus who believe in its intrinsic powers.
Christendom has perpetuated the dispute: Romanism affects statues
and pictures: Greek orthodoxy pictures and not statues and the
so-called Protestantism ousts both.
[FN#524] Arab. "Sa'ádah"=worldly prosperity and future happiness.
[FN#525] Arab. "Al-Ahd wa al-Mísák" the troth pledged between the
Muríd or apprentice-Darwaysh and the Shaykh or Master-Darwaysh
binding the former to implicit obedience etc.
[FN#526] Arab. "Taakhír" lit. postponement and meaning acting
with deliberation as opposed to "Ajal" (haste), precipitate
action condemned in the Koran lxv. 38.
[FN#527] i.e. I have been lucky enough to get this and we will
share it amongst us.
[FN#528] i.e. of saving me from being ravished.
[FN#529] Sa'ídah=the auspicious (fem.): Mubárakah,=the blessed;
both names showing that the bearers were Moslemahs.
[FN#530] i.e. the base-born from whom base deeds may be expected.
[FN#531] Arab. "Badlat Kunúzíyah"=such a dress as would be found
in enchanted hoards (Kunúz): e.g. Prince Esterhazy's diamond
jacket.
[FN#532] The lieu d'aisance in Eastern crafts is usually a wooden
cage or framework fastened outside the gunwale, very cleanly but
in foul weather very uncomfortable and even dangerous.
[FN#533] Arab. "Ghull," a collar of iron or other metal,
sometimes made to resemble the Chinese Kza or Cangue, a kind of
ambulant pillory, serving like the old stocks which still show in
England the veteris vestigia ruris. See Davis, "The Chinese," i.
241. According to Al-Siyúti (p. 362) the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil
ordered the Christians to wear these Ghulls round the neck,
yellow head-gear and girdles, to use wooden stirrups and to place
figures of devils before their houses. The writer of The Nights
presently changes Ghull to "chains" and "fetters of iron."
[FN#534] Arab. "Yá fulán," O certain person! See vol. iii. 191.
[FN#535] Father of Harun al-Rashid A.H. 158-169 (=775-785) third
Abbaside who both in the Mac. and the Bul. Edits. is called "the
fifth of the sons of Al-Abbas." He was a good poet and a man of
letters, also a fierce persecutor of the "Zindiks" (Al-Siyuti
278), a term especially applied to those who read the Zend books
and adhered to Zoroastrianism, although afterwards applied to any
heretic or atheist. He made many changes at Meccah and was the
first who had a train of camels laden with snow for his
refreshment along a measured road of 700 miles (Gibbon, chapt.
lii.). He died of an accident when hunting: others say he was
poisoned after leaving his throne to his sons Musa al-Hadi and
Harun al-Rashid. The name means "Heaven-directed" and must not be
confounded with the title of the twelfth Shi'ah Imám Mohammed Abu
al-Kásim born at Sarramanrai A.H. 255 whom Sale (sect. iv.) calls
"Mahdi or Director" and whose expected return has caused and will
cause so much trouble in Al-Islam.
[FN#536] This speciosum miraculum must not be held a proof that
the tale was written many years after the days of Al-Rashid.
Miracles grow apace in the East and a few years suffice to mature
them. The invasion of Abraha the Abyssinia{n} took place during the
year of Mohammed's birth; and yet in an early chapter of the
Koran (No. cv.) written perhaps forty-five years afterwards, the
small-pox is turned into a puerile and extravagant miracle. I
myself became the subject of a miracle in Sind which is duly
chronicled in the family-annals of a certain Pir or religious
teacher. See History of Sindh (p. 230) and Sind Revisited (i.
156).
[FN#537] In the texts, "Sixth."
[FN#538] Arab. "Najis"=ceremonially impure especially the dog's
mouth like the cow's mouth amongst the Hindus; and requiring
after contact the Wuzu-ablution before the Moslem can pray.
[FN#539] Arab. "Akl al-hashamah" (hashamah=retinue;
hishmah=reverence, bashfulness) which may also mean "decorously
and respectfully," according to the vowel-points.
[FN#540] i.e. as the Vice-regent of Allah and Vicar of the
Prophet.
[FN#541] For the superiority of mankind to the Jinn see vol.
viii. 5;44.
[FN#542] According to Al-Siyuti, Harun al-Rashid prayed every day
a hundred bows.
[FN#543] As the sad end of his betrothed was still to be
accounted for.
[FN#544] For the martyrdom of the drowned see vol. i, 171, to
quote no other places.
[FN#545] i.e. if he have the power to revenge himself. The
sentiment is Christian rather than Moslem.
[FN#546] i.e. the power acquired (as we afterwards learn) by the
regular praying of the dawn-prayer. It is not often that The
Nights condescend to point a moral or inculcate a lesson as here;
and we are truly thankful for the immunity.
[FN#547] Arab. "Musáfahah" which, I have said, serves for our
shaking hands: and extends over wide regions. They apply the
palms of the right hands flat to each other without squeezing the
fingers and then raise the latter to the forehead. Pilgrimage ii.
332, has also been quoted.
[FN#548] Equivalent to our saying about an ill wind, etc.
[FN#549] A proof of his extreme simplicity and bonhomie.
[FN#550] Arab. "Dárfíl"=the Gr. {delphís} later {delphín}, suggesting
that the writer had read of Arion in Herodotus i. 23.
[FN#551] 'Aúj; I can only suggest, with due diffidence, that this
is intended for Kúch the well-known Baloch city in Persian
Carmania (Kirmán) and meant by Richardson's "Koch ü buloch." But
as the writer borrows so much from Al-Mas'udi it may possibly be
Aúk in Sístán where stood the heretical city "Shádrak," chapt.
cxxii.
[FN#552] i.e. The excellent (or surpassing) Religious. Shaykhah,
the fem. of Shaykh, is a she-chief, even the head of the dancing-
girls will be entitled "Shaykhah."
[FN#553] The curtain would screen her from the sight of men-
invalids and probably hung across the single room of the
"Záwiyah" or hermit's cell. The curtain is noticed in the tales
of two other reverend women; vols. {v.} 155 and v. 257.
[FN#554] Abdullah met his wife on Thursday, the night of which
would amongst Moslems be Friday night.
[FN#555] i.e. with Sa'idah.