She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the King
entered, Judar rose not to him, nor did him honour nor even said “Be
seated!”; but left him standing,[305] so that fear entered into him and
he could neither sit nor go away and said to himself, “If he feared me,
he would not leave me thus unheeded; peradventure he will do me a
mischief, because of that which I did with his brothers.” Then said
Judar, “O King of the age, it beseemeth not the like of thee to wrong
the folk and take away their good.” Replied the King, “O my lord, deign
excuse me, for greed impelled me to this and fate was thereby fulfilled;
and, were there no offending, there would be no forgiving.” And he went
on to excuse himself for the past and pray to him for pardon and
indulgence till he recited amongst other things this poetry:—
O thou of generous seed and true nobility, ✿ Reproach me not for that
which came from me to thee:
We pardon thee if thou have wrought us any wrong ✿ And if I wrought the
wrong I pray thee pardon me!
And he ceased not to humble himself before him, till he said, “Allah
pardon thee!” and bade him be seated. So he sat down and Judar invested
him with garments of pardon and immunity and ordered his brothers spread
the table. When they had eaten, he clad the whole of the King’s company
in robes of honour and gave them largesse; after which he bade the King
depart. So he went forth and thereafter came every day to visit Judar
and held not his Divan save in his house: wherefore friendship and
familiarity waxed great between them, and they abode thus awhile, till
one day the King, being alone with his Minister, said to him, “O Wazir,
I fear lest Judar slay me and take the kingdom away from me.” Replied
the Wazir, “O King of the age, as for his taking the kingdom from thee,
have no fear of that, for Judar’s present estate is greater than that of
the King, and to take the kingdom would be a lowering of his dignity;
but, if thou fear that he kill thee, thou hast a daughter: give her to
him to wife and thou and he will be of one condition.” Quoth the King,
“O Wazir, be thou intermediary between us and him”; and quoth the
Minister, “Do thou invite him to an entertainment and pass the night
with him in one of thy saloons. Then bid thy daughter don her richest
dress and ornaments and pass by the door of the saloon. When he seeth
her, he will assuredly fall in love with her, and when we know this, I
will turn to him and tell him that she is thy daughter and engage him in
converse and lead him on, so that thou shalt seem to know nothing of the
matter, till he ask her of thee to wife. When thou has married him to
the Princess, thou and he will be as one thing and thou wilt be safe
from him; and if he die, thou wilt inherit all he hath, both great and
small.” Replied the King, “Thou sayst sooth, O my Wazir,” and made a
banquet and invited thereto Judar who came to the Sultan’s palace and
they sat in the saloon in great good cheer till the end of the day. Now
the King had commanded his wife to array the maiden in her richest
raiment and ornaments and carry her by the door of the saloon. She did
as he told her, and when Judar saw the Princess, who had not her match
for beauty and grace, he looked fixedly at her and said, “Ah!”; and his
limbs were loosened; for love and longing and passion and pine were sore
upon him; desire and transport gat hold upon him and he turned pale.
Quoth the Wazir, “May no harm befal thee, O my lord! Why do I see thee
change colour and in suffering?” Asked Judar, “O Wazir, whose daughter
is this damsel? Verily she hath enthralled me and ravished my reason.”
Replied the Wazir, “She is the daughter of thy friend the King; and if
she please thee, I will speak to him that he marry thee to her.” Quoth
Judar, “Do so, O Wazir, and as I live, I will bestow on thee what thou
wilt and will give the King whatsoever he shall ask to her dowry; and we
will become friends and kinsfolk.” Quoth the Minister, “It shall go hard
but thy desire be accomplished.” Then he turned to the King and said in
his ear, “O King of the age, thy friend Judar seeketh alliance with thee
and will have me ask of thee for him the hand of thy daughter, the
Princess Asiyah; so disappoint me not, but accept my intercession, and
what dowry soever thou askest he will give thee.” Said the King, “The
dowry I have already received, and as for the girl, she is his handmaid;
I give her to him to wife and he will do me honour by accepting
her.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Wazir
whispered the King, “Judar seeketh alliance with thee by taking thy
daughter to wife,” the other replied, “The dowry I have already
received, and the girl is his handmaid; he will do me honour by
accepting her.” So they spent the rest of that night together and on the
morrow the King held a court, to which he summoned great and small,
together with the Shaykh al-Islam.[306] Then Judar demanded the Princess
in marriage and the King said, “The dowry I have received.” Thereupon
they drew up the marriage-contract and Judar sent for the saddle-bags
containing the jewels and gave them to the King as settlement upon his
daughter. The drums beat and the pipes sounded and they held high
festival, whilst Judar went in unto the girl. Thenceforward he and the
King were as one flesh and they abode thus for many days, till Shams
al-Daulah died; whereupon the troops proclaimed Judar Sultan, and he
refused; but they importuned him, till he consented and they made him
King in his father-in-law’s stead. Then he bade build a cathedral-mosque
over the late King’s tomb in the Bundukániyah[307] quarter and endowed
it. Now the quarter of Judar’s house was called Yamániyah; but, when he
became Sultan he built therein a congregational mosque and other
buildings, wherefore the quarter was named after him and was called the
Judariyah[308] quarter. Moreover, he made his brother Sálim his Wazir of
the right and his brother Salím his Wazir of the left hand; and thus
they abode a year and no more; for, at the end of that time, Sálim said
to Salím, “O my brother, how long is this state to last? Shall we pass
our whole lives in slavery to our brother Judar? We shall never enjoy
luck or lordship whilst he lives,” adding, “so how shall we do to kill
him and take the ring and the saddle-bags?” Replied Salím, “Thou art
craftier than I; do thou device, whereby we may kill him.” “If I effect
this,” asked Sálim, “wilt thou agree that I be Sultan and keep the ring
and that thou be my right-hand Wazir and have the saddle-bags?” Salím
answered, “I consent to this;” and they agreed to slay Judar their
brother for love of the world and of dominion. So they laid a snare for
Judar and said to him, “O our brother, verily we have a mind to glory in
thee and would fain have thee enter our houses and eat of our
entertainment and solace our hearts.” Replied Judar, “So be it, in whose
house shall the banquet be?” “In mine,” said Sálim “and after thou hast
eaten of my victual, thou shalt be the guest of my brother.” Said Judar,
“‘Tis well,” and went with him to his house, where he set before him
poisoned food, of which when he had eaten, his flesh rotted from his
bones and he died.[309] Then Sálim came up to him and would have drawn
the ring from his finger, but it resisted him; so he cut off the finger
with a knife. Then he rubbed the ring and the Marid presented himself,
saying, “Adsum! Ask what thou wilt.” Quoth Sálim, “Take my brother Salím
and put him to death and carry forth the two bodies, the poisoned and
the slaughtered, and cast them down before the troops.” So the Mahrid
took Salím and slew him; then, carrying the two corpses forth, he cast
them down before the chief officers of the army, who were sitting at
table in the parlour of the house. When they saw Judar and Salím slain,
they raised their hands from the food and fear gat hold of them and they
said to the Marid, “Who hath dealt thus with the Sultan and the Wazir?”
Replied the Jinni, “Their brother Sálim.” And behold, Sálim came up to
them and said, “O soldiers, eat and make merry, for Judar is dead and I
have taken to me the seal-ring, whereof the Marid before you is the
servant; and I bade him slay my brother Salím lest he dispute the
kingdom with me, for he was a traitor and I feared lest he should betray
me. So now I am become Sultan over you; will ye accept of me? If not, I
will rub the ring and bid the Marid slay you all, great and small.”——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-fourth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Sálim
said to the officers, “Will ye accept me as your Sultan, otherwise I
will rub the ring and the Marid shall slay you all, great and small?”;
they replied, “We accept thee to King and Sultan.” Then he bade bury his
brothers and summoned the Divan; and some of the folk followed the
funeral, whilst others forewent him in state procession to the
audience-hall of the palace, where he sat down on the throne and they
did homage to him as King; after which he said, “It is my will to marry
my brother Judar’s wife.” Quoth they, “Wait till the days of widowhood
are accomplished.”[310] Quoth he, “I know not days of widowhood nor
aught else. As my head liveth, I needs must go in unto her this very
night.” So they drew up the marriage-contract and sent to tell the
Princess Asiyah, who replied, “Bid him enter.” Accordingly, he went in
to her and she received him with a show of joy and welcome; but by and
by she gave him poison in water and made an end of him. Then she took
the ring and broke it, that none might possess it thenceforward, and
tore up the saddle-bags; after which she sent to the Shaykh al-Islam and
other great Officers of state, telling them what had passed and saying
to them, “Choose you out a King to rule over you.” And this is all that
hath come down to us of the Story of Judar and his Brethren.[311] But I
have also heard, O King, a tale called the
-----
Footnote 257:
The name is old and classical Arabic: in Antar the young Amazon Jaydá
was called Judar in public (Story of Jaydá and Khálid). It is also, as
will be seen, the name of a quarter in Cairo, and men are often called
after such places, _e.g._ Al-Jubní from the Súk al-Jubn in Damascus.
The story is exceedingly Egyptian and the style abounds in Cairene
vulgarisms; especially in the Bresl. Edit. ix. 311.
Footnote 258:
Had the merchant left his property to be divided after his death and
not made a will, the widow would have had only one-eighth instead of a
fourth.
Footnote 259:
Lit. “from tyrant to tyrant,” _i.e._ from official to official,
Al-Zalamah, the “tyranny” of popular parlance.
Footnote 260:
The coin is omitted in the text but it is evidently the “Nusf” or
half-dirham. Lane (iii. 235), noting that the dinar is worth 170
“nusfs” in this tale, thinks that it was written (or copied?) after
the Osmanh Conquest of Egypt. Unfortunately he cannot tell the precise
period when the value of the small change fell so low.
Footnote 261:
Arab. “Yaum mubárak!” still a popular exclamation.
Footnote 262:
_i.e._ of the door of daily bread.
Footnote 263:
Arab. “Sírah,” a small fish differently described (De Sacy, “Relation
de l’Egypte par Abd-allatif,” pp. 278–288: Lane, Nights iii. 234). It
is not found in Sonnini’s list.
Footnote 264:
A tank or lakelet in the southern parts of Cairo, long ago filled up;
Von Hammer believes it inherited the name of the old Charon’s Lake of
Memphis, over which corpses were ferried.
Footnote 265:
Thus making the agreement a kind of religious covenant; as Catholics
would recite a Pater or an Ave Maria.
Footnote 266:
Arab. “Yá miskín” = O poor devil; mesquin, meschino, words evidently
derived from the East.
Footnote 267:
Plur. of Maghribí, a Western man, a Moor. I have already derived the
word through the Lat. “Maurus” from Maghribiyún. Europeans being
unable to pronounce the Ghayn (or gh like the modern Cairenes) would
turn it into “Ma’ariyún.” They are mostly of the Maliki school (for
which see Sale) and are famous as magicians and treasure-finders.
Amongst the suite of the late Amir Abd al-Kadir, who lived many years
and died in Damascus, I found several men profoundly versed in Eastern
spiritualism and occultism.
Footnote 268:
The names are respectively, Slave of the Salvation; of the One (God);
of the Eternal; of the Compassionate; and of the Loving.
Footnote 269:
_i.e._ “the most profound”; the root is that of “Bátiní,” a gnostic, a
reprobate.
Footnote 270:
_i.e._ the Tall One.
Footnote 271:
The loud-pealing or (ear-) breaking Thunder.
Footnote 272:
Arab. “Fás and Miknás” which the writer evidently regards as one city.
“Fás” means a hatchet, from the tradition of one having been found,
says Ibn Sa’id, when digging the base under the founder Idrís bin
Idrís (A.D. 808). His sword was placed on the pinnacle of the minaret
built by the Imám Abu Ahmad bin Abi Bakr enclosed in a golden étui
studded with pearls and precious stones. From the local pronunciation
“Fes” is derived the red cap of the nearer Moslem East (see Ibn
Batutah p. 230).
Footnote 273:
Arab. “Al-Khurj,” whence the Span. Las Alforjas.
Footnote 274:
Arab. “Kabáb,” mutton or lamb cut into small squares and grilled upon
skewers: it is the roast meat of the nearer East where, as in the
West, men have not learned to cook meat so as to preserve all its
flavour. This is found in the “Asa’o” of the Argentine Gaucho who
broils the flesh while still quivering and before the fibre has time
to set. Hence it is perfectly tender, if the animal be young, and it
has a “meaty” taste half lost by keeping.
Footnote 275:
Equivalent to our puritanical “Mercy.”
Footnote 276:
Arab. “Bukjah,” from the Persian Bukcheh: a favourite way of keeping
fine clothes in the East is to lay them folded in a piece of rough
long-cloth with pepper and spices to drive away moths.
Footnote 277:
This is always specified, for respectable men go out of town on
horse-back, never on “foot-back,” as our friends the Boers say. I have
seen a Syrian put to sore shame when compelled by politeness to walk
with me, and every acquaintance he met addressed him, “Anta
Zalamah!”—What! afoot!
Footnote 278:
This tale, including the Enchanted Sword which slays whole armies, was
adopted in Europe as we see in Straparola (iv. 3), and the “Water of
Life” which the Grimms found in Hesse, etc., “Gammer Grethel’s German
Popular Stories,” Edgar Taylor, Bells, 1878; and now published in
fuller form as “Grimm’s Household Tales,” by Mrs. Hunt, with
Introduction by A. Lang, 2 vols. 8vo, 1884. It is curious that so
biting and carping a critic, who will condescend to notice a misprint
in another’s book, should lay himself open to general animadversion by
such a rambling farrago of half-digested knowledge as that which
composes Mr. Andrew Lang’s Introduction.
Footnote 279:
These retorts of Judar are exactly what a sharp Egyptian Fellah would
say on such occasions.
Footnote 280:
Arab. “Salámát,” plur. of Salam, a favourite Egyptian welcome.
Footnote 281:
This sentence expresses a Moslem idea which greatly puzzles strangers.
Arabic has no equivalent of our “Thank you” (Kassara ‘llah Khayr-ak
being a mere blessing—Allah increase thy weal!), nor can Al-Islam
express gratitude save by a periphrase. The Moslem acknowledges a
favour by blessing the donor and by wishing him increase of
prosperity. “May thy shadow never be less!” means, Mayest thou always
extend to me thy shelter and protection. I have noticed this before
but it merits repetition. Strangers, and especially Englishmen, are
very positive and very much mistaken upon a point, which all who have
to do with Egyptians and Arabs ought thoroughly to understand. Old
dwellers in the East know that the theory of ingratitude in no way
interferes with the sense of gratitude innate in man (and beast) and
that the “lively sense of favours to come,” is as quick in Orient-land
as in Europe.
Footnote 282:
Outside this noble gate, the Bab al-Nasr, there is a great cemetery
wherein, by the by, lies Burckhardt, my predecessor as a Hájj to
Meccah and Al-Medinah. Hence many beggars are always found squatting
in its neighbourhood.
Footnote 283:
Friends sometimes walk alongside the rider holding the stirrup in sign
of affection and respect, especially to the returning pilgrim.
Footnote 284:
Equivalent to our Alas! It is woman’s word never used by men; and
foreigners must be most careful of this distinction under pain of
incurring something worse than ridicule. I remember an officer in the
Bombay Army who, having learned Hindostani from women, always spoke of
himself in the feminine and hugely scandalised the Sepoys.
Footnote 285:
_i.e._ a neighbour. The “quarters” of a town in the East are often on
the worst of terms. See Pilgrimage.
Footnote 286:
In the patriarchal stage of society the mother waits upon her adult
sons. Even in Dalmatia I found, in many old-fashioned houses, the
ladies of the family waiting upon the guests. Very pleasant, but
somewhat startling at first.
Footnote 287:
Here the apodosis would be “We can all sup together.”
Footnote 288:
Arab. “Záwiyah” (= oratory), which is to a Masjid what a chapel is to
a church.
Footnote 289:
Arab. “Kasr,” prop. a palace: so the Tuscan peasant speaks of his
“palazzo.”
Footnote 290:
This sale of a free-born Moslem was mere felony. But many centuries
later Englishmen used to be sold and sent to the plantations in
America.
Footnote 291:
Arab. “Kawwás,” lit. an archer, suggesting _les archers de la Sainte
Hermandade_. In former days it denoted a sergeant, an apparitor, an
officer who executed magisterial orders. In modern Egypt he became a
policeman (Pilgrimage i. 29). As “Cavass” he appears in gorgeous
uniform and sword, an orderly attached to public offices and
Consulates.
Footnote 292:
A purely imaginary King.
Footnote 293:
The Bresl. Edit. (ix. 370) here and elsewhere uses the word “Nútiyá” =
Nautá, for the common Bahríyah or Malláh.
Footnote 294:
Arab. “Tawáf,” the name given to the sets (Ashwát) of seven circuits
with the left shoulder presented to the Holy House; that is walking
“widdershins” or “against the sun” (“with the sun” being like the
movement of a watch). For the requisites of this rite see Pilgrimage
iii. 234.
Footnote 295:
Arab. “Akh”; brother has a wide signification amongst Moslems and may
be used to and of any of the Saving Faith.
Footnote 296:
Said by the master when dismissing a servant and meaning, “I have not
failed in my duty to thee!” The answer is, “Allah acquit thee
thereof!”
Footnote 297:
A Moslem prison is like those of Europe a century ago; to think of it
gives goose-flesh. Easterns laugh at our idea of penitentiary and the
Arabs of Bombay call it “Al-Bistán” (the Garden) because the court
contains a few trees and shrubs. And with them a garden always
suggests an idea of Paradise. There are indeed only two efficacious
forms of punishment all the world over, corporal for the poor and
fines for the rich, the latter being the severer form.
Footnote 298:
_i.e._ he shall answer for this.
Footnote 299:
A pun upon “Khalíyah” (bee-hive) and “Khaliyah” (empty). Khalíyah is
properly a hive of bees with a honey-comb in the hollow of a
tree-trunk, opposed to Kawwárah, hive made of clay or earth
(Al-Hariri; Ass. of Tiflis). There are many other terms, for Arabs are
curious about honey. Pilgrimage iii. 110.
Footnote 300:
Lane (iii. 237) supposes by this title that the author referred his
tale to the days of the Caliphate. “Commander of the Faithful” was, I
have said, the style adopted by Omar in order to avoid the clumsiness
of “Caliph” (successor) of the Caliph (Abu Bakr) of the Apostle of
Allah.
Footnote 301:
Eastern thieves count four modes of housebreaking; (1) picking out
burnt bricks; (2) cutting through unbaked bricks; (3) wetting a mud
wall and (4) boring through a wooden wall (Vikram and the Vampire p.
172).
Footnote 302:
Arab. “Zabbat,” lit. a lizard (fem.) also a wooden lock, the only one
used throughout Egypt. An illustration of its curious mechanism is
given in Lane (M. E. Introduction).
Footnote 303:
Arab. “Dabbús.” The Eastern mace is well known to English collectors;
it is always of metal, and mostly of steel, with a short handle like
our facetiously called “life-preserver.” The head is in various forms,
the simplest a ball, smooth and round, or broken into sundry high and
angular ridges like a melon, and in select weapons shaped like the
head of some animal, bull, etc. See Night dcxlvi.
Footnote 304:
The red habit is a sign of wrath and vengeance and the Persian Kings
like Fath Ali Shah, used to wear it when about to order some horrid
punishment, such as the “Shakk”; in this a man was hung up by his
heels and cut in two from the fork downwards to the neck, when a turn
of the chopper left that untouched. White robes denoted peace and
mercy as well as joy. The “white” hand and “black” hand have been
explained. A “white death” is quiet and natural, with forgiveness of
sins. A “black death” is violent and dreadful, as by strangulation: a
“green death” is robing in rags and patches like a dervish; and a “red
death” is by war or bloodshed (A. P. ii. 670). Among the mystics it is
the resistance of man to his passions.
Footnote 305:
This in the East is the way “_pour se faire valoir_”; whilst Europeans
would hold it a mere “bit of impudence,” aping dignity.
Footnote 306:
The Chief Mufti or Doctor of the Law, an appointment first made by the
Osmanli Mohammed II., when he captured Constantinople in A.D. 1453.
Before that time the functions were discharged by the Kázi al-Kuzát
(Kazi-in-Chief), the Chancellor.
Footnote 307:
So called because here lived the makers of crossbows (Arab. Bunduk now
meaning a fire-piece, musket, etc.) It is the modern district about
the well-known Khan al-Hamzawi.
Footnote 308:
Pronounced “Goodareeyyah,” and so called after one of the troops of
the Fatimite Caliphs. The name “Yamániyah” is probably due to the
story-teller’s inventiveness.
Footnote 309:
I have noted that as a rule in The Nights poetical justice is
administered with much rigour and exactitude. Here, however, the
tale-teller allows the good brother to be slain by the two wicked
brothers as he permitted the adulterous queens to escape the sword of
Kamar al-Zaman. Dr. Steingass brings to my notice that I have failed
to do justice to the story of Sharrkán (vol. ii., p. 172), where I
note that the interest is injured by the gratuitous incest. But this
has a deeper meaning and a grander artistic effect. Sharrkán begins
with most unbrotherly feelings towards his father’s children by a
second wife. But Allah’s decree forces him to love his half-sister
despite himself, and awe and repentance convert the savage, who joys
at the news of his brother’s reported death, to a loyal and devoted
subject of the same brother. But Judar with all his goodness proved
himself an arrant softy and was no match for two atrocious villains.
And there may be overmuch of forgiveness as of every other good thing.
Footnote 310:
In such case the “‘iddah” would be four months and ten days.
Footnote 311:
Not quite true. Weil’s German version, from a MS. in the Ducal Library
of Gotha, gives the “Story of Judar of Cairo and Mahmud of Tunis” in a
very different form. It has been pleasantly “translated (from the
German) and edited” by Mr. W. F. Kirby, of the British Museum, under
the title of “The New Arabian Nights” (London: W. Swan Sonnenschein &
Co.), and the author kindly sent me a copy. “New Arabian Nights” seems
now to have become a fashionable title applied without any
signification: such at least is the pleasant collection of Nineteenth
Century Novelettes, published under that designation by Mr. Robert
Louis Stevenson, Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly, 1884.
HISTORY OF GHARIB AND HIS BROTHER AJIB.[312]