the presence of Ajib, said to him, “I come to place myself under thy
protection!” Quoth Ajib, “Tell me who hath wronged thee, that I may
protect thee against him, though it were Sabur, King of the Persians and
Turcomans and Daylamites.” Quoth Mardas, “O King of the Age, he who hath
wronged me is none other than a youth whom I reared in my bosom. I found
him in his mother’s lap in a certain valley and took her to wife. She
brought me a son, whom I named Sahim al-Layl, and her own son, Gharib
hight, grew up on my knees and became a blasting thunderbolt and a
lasting calamity,[360] for he smote Al-Hamal,[361] Prince of the Banu
Nabhan, and slew footmen and threw horsemen. Now I have a daughter, who
befitteth thee alone, and he sought her of me; so I required of him the
head of the Ghul of the Mountain, wherefore he went to him and, after
engaging him in singular combat, made the master his man and took the
Castle of Sasa bin Shays bin Shaddad bin Ad, wherein are the treasures
of the ancients and the hoards of the moderns. Moreover, I hear that,
become a Moslem, he goeth about, summoning the folk to his faith. He is
now gone to bear the Princess of Persia, whom he delivered from the
Ghul, back to her father, King Sabur, and will not return but with the
treasures of the Persians.” When Ajib heard the story of Mardas he
changed colour to yellow and was in ill case and made sure of his own
destruction; then he said, “O Mardas, is the youth’s mother with thee or
with him?”; and Mardas replied, “She is with me in my tents.” Quoth
Ajib, “What is her name?”; quoth Mardas, “Her name is Nusrah.” “‘Tis
very she,” rejoined Ajib and sent for her to the presence. Now when she
came before him, he looked on her and knew her and asked her, “O
accursed, where are the two slaves I sent with thee?”; and she answered,
“They slew each other on my account;” whereupon Ajib bared his blade and
smote her and cut her in twain. Then they dragged her away and cast her
out; but trouble and suspicion entered Ajib’s heart and he cried, “O
Mardas, give me thy daughter to wife.” He rejoined, “She is one of thine
handmaids: I give her to thee to wife, and I am thy slave.” Said Ajib,
“I desire to look upon this son of an adulteress, Gharib, that I may
destroy him and cause him taste all manner of torments.” Then he bade
give Mardas, to his daughter’s dowry, thirty thousand dinars and an
hundred pieces of silk brocaded and fringed with gold and an hundred
pieces of silk-bordered stuffs and kerchiefs and golden collars. So he
went forth with this mighty fine dowry and set himself to equip Mahdiyah
in all diligence. Such was their case; but as regards Gharib, he fared
on till he came to Al-Jazírah, which is the first town of Al-Irak[362]
and is a walled and fortified city and he hard by it called a halt. When
the townsfolk saw his army encamped before it, they bolted the gates and
manned the walls, then went to the King of the city, who was called
Al-Dámigh, the Brainer, for that he used to brain the champions in the
open field of fight, and told him what was come upon them. So he looked
forth from the battlements of the palace and seeing a conquering host,
all of them Persians; encamped before the city, said to the citizens, “O
folk, what do yonder Ajams want?”; and they replied, “We know not.” Now
Al-Damigh had among his officers a man called Saba’ al-Kifár, the
Desert-lion, keen of wit and penetrating as he were a flame of fire; so
he called him and said to him, “Go to this stranger host and find out
who they be and what they want and return quickly.” Accordingly, he sped
like the wind to the Persian tents, where a company of Arabs rose up and
met him saying, “Who art thou and what dost thou require?” He replied,
“I am a messenger and an envoy from the lord of the city to your chief.”
So they took him and carried him through the lines of tents, pavilions
and standards, till they came to Gharib’s Shahmiyánah and told him of
the mission. He bade them bring him in and they did so, whereupon he
kissed ground before Gharib and wished him honour and length of days.
Quoth Gharib, “What is thine errand?” and quoth Saba’ al-Kifar, “I am an
envoy from the lord of the city of Al-Jazirah, Al-Damigh, brother of
King Kundamir, lord of the city of Cufa and the land of Irak.” When
Gharib heard his father’s name, the tears railed from his eyes in rills
and he looked at the messenger and said, “What is thy name?”; and he
replied, “My name is Saba’ al-Kifar.” Said Gharib, “Return to thy lord
and tell him that the commander of this host is called Gharib, son of
Kundamir, King of Cufa, whom his son Ajib slew, and he is come to take
blood-revenge for his sire on Ajib the perfidious hound.” So Saba’
al-Kifar returned to the city and in great joy kissed the ground, when
Al-Damigh said, “What is going on there, O Saba’ al-Kifar?” He replied,
“O my master, the leader of yon host is thy nephew, thy brother’s son,”
and told him all. The King deemed himself in a dream and asked the
messenger, “O Saba’ al-Kifar, is this thou tellest me true?” and the
Desert-lion answered, “As thy head liveth, it is sooth!” Then Al-Damigh
bade his chief officers take horse forthright and all rode out to the
camp, whence Gharib came forth and met him and they embraced and saluted
each other; after which Gharib carried him to his tents and they sat
down on beds of estate. Al-Damigh rejoiced in Gharib, his brother’s son,
and presently turning to him, said, “I also have yearned to take
blood-revenge for thy father, but could not avail against the dog thy
brother; for that his troops are many and my troops are few.” Replied
Gharib, “O uncle, here am I come to avenge my sire and blot out our
shame and rid the realm of Ajib.” Said Al-Damigh, “O son of my brother,
thou hast two blood-wreaks to take, that of thy father and that of thy
mother.” Asked Gharib, “And what aileth my mother?” and Al-Damigh
answered, “Thy brother Ajib hath slain her.”——And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Six Hundred and Thirty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Gharib heard
these words of his uncle Al-Damigh, “Verily thy brother Ajib hath slain
her!”, he asked what was the cause thereof and was told of all that had
happened, especially how Mardas had married his daughter to Ajib who was
about to go into her. Thereupon Gharib’s reason fled from his head and
he swooned away and was nigh upon death. No sooner did he come to
himself than he cried out to the troops, saying, “To horse!” But
Al-Damigh said to him, “O son of my brother, wait till I make ready mine
affairs and mount among my men and fare with thee at thy stirrup.”
Replied Gharib, “I have no patience to wait; do thou equip thy troops
and join me at Cufa.” Thereupon Gharib mounted with his troops and rode,
till he came to the town of Babel,[363] whose folk took fright at him.
Now there was in this town a King called Jamak, under whose hand were
twenty thousand horsemen, and there gathered themselves together to him
from the villages other fifty thousand horse, who pitched their tents
facing the city. Then Gharib wrote a letter and sent it to King Jamak by
a messenger, who came up to the city-gate and cried out, saying, “I am
an envoy;” whereupon the Warder of the Gate went in and told Jamak, who
said, “Bring him to me.” So he led in the messenger, who kissing the
ground before the King, gave him the letter, and Jamak opened it and
read its contents as follows: “Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Three
Worlds, Lord of all things, who giveth to all creatures their daily
bread and who over all things is Omnipotent! These from Gharib, son of
King Kundamir, lord of Irak and Cufa, to Jamak. Immediately this letter
reacheth thee, let not thy reply be other than to break thine idols and
confess the unity of the All-knowing King, Creator of light and
darkness, Creator of all things, the All-powerful; and except thou do as
I bid thee, I will make this day the blackest of thy days. Peace be on
those who follow in the way of Salvation, fearing the issues of
fornication, and obey the hest of the Most High King, Lord of this world
and the next, Him who saith to a thing:—Be; and it becometh!” Now when
Jamak read this letter, his eyes paled and his colour failed and he
cried out to the messenger, “Go to thy lord and say to him:—To-morrow,
at daybreak there shall be fight and conflict and it shall appear who is
the conquering hero.” So he returned and told Gharib, who bade his men
make ready for battle, whilst Jamak commanded his tents to be pitched in
face of Gharib’s camp; and his troops poured forth like the surging sea
and passed the night with intention of slaughter. As soon as dawned the
day, the two hosts mounted and drew up in battle-array and beat their
drums amain and drave their steeds of swiftest strain; and they filled
the whole earthly plain; and the champions to come out were fain. Now
the first who sallied forth a-championing to the field was the Ghul of
the Mountain, bearing on shoulder a terrible tree, and he cried out
between the two hosts, saying, “I am Sa’adan the Ghul! Who is for
fighting, who is for jousting? Let no sluggard come forth to me nor
weakling.” And he called out to his sons, saying, “Woe to you! Bring me
fuel and fire, for I am an-hungered.” So they cried upon their slaves
who brought firewood and kindled a fire in the heart of the plain. Then
there came out to him a man of the Kafirs, an Amalekite of the
unbelieving Amalekites, bearing on his shoulder a mace like the mast of
a ship, and drove at Sa’adan the Ghul, saying, “Woe to thee, O Sa’adan!”
When the giant heard this, he waxed furious beyond measure and raising
his tree-club, aimed at the Infidel a blow, that hummed through the air.
The Amalekite met the stroke with his mace, but the tree beat down his
guard and descending with its own weight, together with the weight of
the mace upon his head, beat in his brain-pan, and he fell like a
long-stemmed palm-tree. Thereupon Sa’adan cried to his slaves, saying,
“Take this fatted calf and roast him quickly.” So they hastened to skin
the Infidel and roasted him and brought him to the Ghul, who ate his
flesh and crunched his bones.[364] Now when the Kafirs saw how Sa’adan
did with their fellow, their hair and pile stood on end; their skins
quaked, their colour changed, their hearts died within them and they
said to one another, “Whoso goeth out against this Ghul, he eateth him
and cracketh his bones and causeth him to lack the zephyr-wind of the
world.” Wherefore they held their hands, quailing for fear of the Ghul
and his sons and turned to fly, making for the town; but Gharib cried
out to his troops, saying, “Up and after the runaways!” So the Persians
and the Arabs drave after the King of Babel and his host and caused
sword to smite them, till they slew of them twenty thousand or more.
Then the fugitives crowded together in the city-gate and they killed of
them much people; and they could not avail to shut the gate. So the
Arabs and the Persians entered with them, fighting, and Sa’adan,
snatching a mace from one of the slain, wielded it in the enemy’s face
and gained the city race-course. Thence he fought his way through the
foe and broke into the King’s palace, where he met with Jamak and so
smote him with the mace, that he toppled senseless to the ground. Then
he fell upon those who were in the palace and pounded them into pieces,
till all that were left cried out, “Quarter! Quarter!” and Sa’adan said
to them, “Pinion your King.”——And Shahrazad saw the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.
[Illustration]
-----
Footnote 312:
Von Hammer holds this story to be a satire on Arab superstition and
the compulsory propagation, the _compelle intrare_, of Al-Islam. Lane
(iii. 235) omits it altogether for reasons of his own. I differ with
great diffidence from the learned Baron whose Oriental reading was
extensive; but the tale does not seem to justify his explanations. It
appears to me simply one of the wilder romances, full of purposeful
anachronisms (_e.g._ dated between Abraham and Moses, yet quoting the
Koran) and written by someone familiar with the history of Oman. The
style too is peculiar, in many places so abrupt that much manipulation
is required to make it presentable: it suits, however, the rollicking,
violent, brigand-like life which it depicts. There is only one
incident about the end which justifies Von Hammer’s suspicion.
Footnote 313:
The Persian hero of romance who converses with the Simurgh or Griffin.
Footnote 314:
The word is as much used in Egypt as _wunderbar_ in Germany. As an
exclamation it is equivalent to “mighty fine!”
Footnote 315:
In modern days used in a bad sense, as a freethinker, etc. So Dalilah
the Wily is noted to be a philosopheress.
Footnote 316:
The game is much mixed up after Arab fashion. The “Tufat” is the
Siyáhgosh = Black-ears, of India (_Felis caracal_), the Persian lynx,
which gives very good sport with Dachshunds. Lynxes still abound in
the thickets near Cairo.
Footnote 317:
The “Sons of Kahtán,” especially the Ya’arubah tribe, made much
history in Oman. Ya’arub (the eponymus) is written Ya’arab and
Ya’arib; but Ya’arub (from Ya’arubu, Aorist of ‘Aruba) is best,
because according to all authorities he was the first to cultivate
primitive Arabian speech and Arabic poetry. (Caussin de Perceval’s
Hist. des Arabes i. 50, etc.)
Footnote 318:
He who shooteth an arrow by night. See the death of Antar shot down in
the dark by the archer Jazár, son of Jábir, who had been blinded by a
red-hot sabre passed before his eyes. I may note that it is a mere
fiction of Al-Asma’i, as the real ‘Antar (or ‘Antarah) lived to a good
old age, and probably died the “straw-death.”
Footnote 319:
See vol. ii., p. 77, for a reminiscence of masterful King Kulayb and
his Himà or domain. Here the phrase would mean, “None could approach
them when they were wroth; none were safe from their rage.”
Footnote 320:
The sons of Nabhán (whom Mr. Badger calls Nebhán) supplied the old
Maliks or Kings of Oman (History of the Imams and Sayyids of Oman,
etc., London, Hakluyt Soc. 1871).
Footnote 321:
This is a sore insult in Arabia, where they have not dreamt of a
“Jawáb-club,” like that of Calcutta in the old days, to which only men
who had been half a dozen times “jawab’d” (= refused in Anglo-Indian
jargon) could belong. “I am not a stallion to be struck on the nose,”
say the Arabs.
Footnote 322:
Again “inverted speech”: it is as if we said, “Now, you’re a damned
fine fellow, so,” etc. “Allah curse thee! Thou hast guarded thy women
alive and dead;” said the man of Sulaym in admiration after thrusting
his spear into the eye of dead Rabí’ah.
Footnote 323:
The Badawi use javelins or throw-spears of many kinds, especially the
prettily worked Mizrák (Pilgrimage i. 349); spears for footmen
(Shalfah, a bamboo or palm-stick with a head about a hand broad), and
the knightly lance, a male bamboo some 12 feet long with iron heel and
a long tapering point often of open work or damascened steel, under
which are tufts of black ostrich feathers, one or two. I never saw a
crescent-shaped head as the text suggests. It is a “Pundonor” not to
sell these weapons: you say, “Give me that article and I will satisfy
thee!” After which the Sons of the Sand will haggle over each copper
as if you were cheapening a sheep (Ibid. iii. 73).
Footnote 324:
The shame was that Gharib had seen the girl and had fallen in love
with her beauty; instead of applying for her hand in recognised form.
These punctilios of the Desert are peculiarly nice and tetchy; nor do
strangers readily realise them.
Footnote 325:
The Arabs derive these Noachidæ from Imlik, great-grandson of Shem,
who after the confusion of tongues settled at Sana’a, then moved North
to Meccah and built the fifth Ka’abah. The dynastic name was Arkam, M.
C. de Perceval’s “Arcam,” which he would identify with Rekem (Numbers
xxxi. 8). The last Arkam fell before an army sent by Moses to purge
the Holy Land (Al-Hijaz) of idolatry. Commentators on the Koran
(chapt. vii.) call the Pharaoh of Moses Al-Walíd and derive him from
the Amalekites: we have lately ascertained that this Mene-Ptah was of
the Shepherd-Kings and thus, according to the older Moslems, the
Hyksos were of the seed of Imlik. (Pilgrimage ii. 116; and iii. 190.)
In Syria they fought with Joshua son of Nun. The tribe or rather
nationality was famous and powerful: we know little about it and I may
safely predict that when the Amalekite country shall have been well
explored, it will produce monuments second in importance only to the
Hittites. “A nomadic tribe which occupied the Peninsula of Sinai”
(Smith’s Dict. of the Bible) is peculiarly superficial, even for that
most superficial of books.
Footnote 326:
The Amalekites were giants and lived 500 years (Pilgrimage, _loc.
cit._).
Footnote 327:
His men being ninety against five hundred.
Footnote 328:
Arab. “Kaum” (pron. Gúm) here = a razzia, afterwards = a tribe.
Relations between Badawi tribes are of three kinds; (1) Asháb, allies
offensive and defensive, friends who intermarry; (2) Kímán (plur. of
Kaum) when the blood-feud exists, and (3) Akhwán = brothers. The last
is a complicated affair; “Akháwat” or brotherhood, denotes the tie
between patron and client (a noble and an ignoble tribe) or between
the stranger and the tribe which claims an immemorial and unalienable
right to its own lands. Hence a small fee (Al-Rifkah) must be paid and
the traveller and his beast become “dakhíl,” or entitled to
brother-help. The guardian is known in the West as Rafík; Rabí’a in
Eastern Arabia; Ghafír in “Sinai;” amongst the Somal, Abbán and the
Gallas Mogásá. Further details are given in Pilgrimage iii. 85–87.
Footnote 329:
Arab. “Mál,” here = Badawi money, flocks and herds, our “fee” from
feoh, vieh, cattle; as pecunia from pecus, etc., etc.
Footnote 330:
The litholatry of the old Arabs is undisputed: Manát the goddess-idol
was a large rude stone and when the Meccans sent out colonies these
carried with them stones of the Holy Land to be set up and worshipped
like the Ka’abah. I have suggested (Pilgrimage iii. 159) that the
famous Black Stone of Meccah, which appears to me a large aerolite, is
a remnant of this worship and that the tomb of Eve near Jeddah was the
old “Sakhrah tawílah” or Long Stone (ibid. iii. 388). Jeddah is now
translated the grandmother, alluding to Eve, a myth of late growth: it
is properly Juddah = a plain lacking water.
Footnote 331:
The First Adites, I have said, did not all perish: a few believers
retired with the prophet Hud (Heber?) to Hazramaut. The Second Adites,
who had Márib of the Dam for capital and Lukman for king, were
dispersed by the Flood of Al-Yaman. Their dynasty lasted a thousand
years, the exodus taking place according to De Sacy in A.D. 150–170 or
shortly after A.D. 100 (C. de Perceval), and was overthrown by Ya’arub
bin Kahtán, the first Arabist; see Night dcxxv.
Footnote 332:
This title has been noticed: it suggests the “Saint Abraham” of our
mediæval travellers. Every great prophet has his agnomen: Adam the
Pure (or Elect) of Allah; Noah the Nájiy (or saved) of Allah; Moses
(Kalím) the Speaker with Allah; Jesus the Rúh (Spirit, breath) or
Kalám (the word) of Allah. For Mohammed’s see Al-Busiri’s Mantle-poem
vv. 31–58.
Footnote 333:
Koran (chapt. iii. 17) “Verily the true religion in the sight of Allah
is Islam” _i.e._ resigning or devoting myself to the Lord, with a
suspicion of “Salvation” conveyed by the root Salima, he was safe.
Footnote 334:
Arab. “Sá’ikah,” which is supposed to be a stone. The allusion is to
Antar’s sword, “Dhámi,” made of a stone, black, brilliant and hard as
a rock (an aerolite), which had struck a camel on the right side and
had come out by the left. The blacksmith made it into a blade three
feet long by two spans broad, a kind of falchion or chopper, cased it
with gold and called it Dhámi (the “Trenchant”) from its sharpness.
But he said to the owner:—
The sword is trenchant, O son of the Ghalib clan,
Trenchant in sooth, but where is the sworder-man?
Whereupon the owner struck off the maker’s head, a most satisfactory
answer to all but one.
Footnote 335:
Arab. “Kutá’ah”: lit. a bit cut off, fragment, nail-paring, and here
_un diminutif_. I have described this scene in Pilgrimage iii. 68.
Latro often says, “Thy gear is wanted by the daughter of my paternal
uncle” (wife), and thus parades his politeness by asking in a lady’s
name.
Footnote 336:
As will appear the two brothers were joined by a party of horsemen.
Footnote 337:
“Four” says the Mac. Edit. forgetting Falhun with characteristic
inconsequence.
Footnote 338:
Muhammad (the deserving great praise) is the name used by men; Ahmad
(more laudable) by angels, and Mahmúd (praised) by devils. For a
similar play upon the name, “Allah, Allah, Muhammad ast” (God is God
the praiseworthy), see Dabistan ii. 416.
Footnote 339:
The Mac. Edit. here gives “Sás,” but elsewhere “Sásá,” which is the
correct form.
Footnote 340:
Sapor the Second (A.D. 310–330) was compelled to attack the powerful
Arab hordes of Oman, most of whom, like the Tayy, Aus and Khazraj, the
Banu Nabhán and the Hináwi left Al-Yaman A.D. 100–170, and settled in
the north and north-east of Al-Najd. This great exodus and dispersion
of the tribes was caused, as has been said, by the bursting of the Dam
of Márib originally built by Abd al-Shams Sabá, father of Himyar.
These Yamanian races were plunged into poverty and roamed northwards,
planting themselves amongst the Arabs of Ma’add son of Adnán. Hence
the kingdom of Ghassan in Syria whose phylarchs under the Romans
(_i.e._ Greek Emperors of Constantinople) controlled Palestine Tertia,
the Arabs of Syria and Palestine; and the kingdom of Hírah, whose
Lakhmite Princes, dependent upon Persia, managed the Arabs of the
Euphrates, Oman and Al-Bahrayn. The Ma’addites still continued to
occupy the central plateau of Arabia, a feature analogous with India
“above the Ghauts.”
Footnote 341:
I have described (Pilgrimage i. 370) the grisly spot which a Badawi
will dignify by the name of Wady al-Ward = Vale of Roses.
Footnote 342:
Koran xiii. 3, “Of every fruit two different kinds,” _i.e._ large and
small, black and white, sweet and sour.
Footnote 343:
A graft upon an almond-tree, which makes its kernel sweet and gives it
an especial delicacy of flavour. See Russell’s (excellent) Natural
History of Aleppo, p. 21.
Footnote 344:
So called from the flavour of the kernel: it is well-known at Damascus
where a favourite fruit is the dried apricot with an almond by way of
kernel. There are many preparations of apricots, especially the
“Mare’s skin” (Jild al-faras or Kamar al-din) a paste folded into
sheets and exactly resembling the article from which it takes a name.
When wanted it is dissolved in water and eaten as a relish with bread
or biscuit (Pilgrimage i. 289).
Footnote 345:
“Anta Kamá takúl” = the vulgarest Cairene.
Footnote 346:
This may be Ctesiphon, the ancient capital of the Chosroës, on the
Tigris below Baghdad; and spoken of elsewhere in The Nights;
especially as, in Night dclxvii., it is called Isbanir Al-Madáin;
Madáin Kisrá (the cities of Chosroes) being the Arabic name of the old
dual city.
Footnote 347:
Koran vi. 103. The translation is Sale’s which I have generally
preferred, despite many imperfections: Lane renders this sentence,
“The eyes see not Him, but He seeth the eyes;” and Mr. Rodwell, “No
vision taketh in Him (?), but He taketh in all vision;” and (better)
“No eyesight reacheth to Him.”
Footnote 348:
Sale (sect. 1.) tells us all that was then known of these three which
with Yá’úk and Nasr and the three “daughters of God,” Goddesses or
Energies (the Hindu Saktis) Allát, Al-Uzzá and Manát mentioned in the
Koran were the chiefs of the pre-Islamitic Pantheon. I cannot but
suspect that all will be connected with old Babylonian worship.
Al-Baydáwi (on Kor. lxxi. 22) says of Wadd, Suwá’a, Yaghus, Ya’úk and
Nasr that they were names of pious men between Adam and Noah,
afterwards deified: Yaghús was the giant idol of the Mazhaj tribe at
Akamah of Al-Yaman and afterwards at Najrán Al-Uzzá was widely
worshipped: her idol (of the tree Semurat) belonging to Ghatafán was
destroyed after the Prophet’s order by Khálid bin Walíd. Allát or
Al-Lát is written by Pocock (spec. 110) “Ilahat” _i.e._ deities in
general. But Herodotus evidently refers to one god when he makes the
Arabs worship Dionysus as Ὀροτὰλ and Urania as Ἀλιλάτ and the
“tashdid” in Allát would, to a Greek ear, introduce another syllable
(Alilat). This was the goddess of the Kuraysh and Thakíf whose temple
at Táif was circuited like the Ka’abah before Mohammed destroyed it.
Footnote 349:
Shays (Shayth) is Ab Seth (Father Seth) of the Hebrews, a
name containing the initial and terminal letters of the
Egypto-Phœnico-Hebrew Alphabet and the “Abjad” of the Arabs. Those
curious about its connection with the name of Allah (El), the Zodiacal
signs and with the constellations, visions but not wholly
uninteresting, will consult “Unexplored Syria” (vol. i. 33).
Footnote 350:
The exclamation of an honest Fellah.
Footnote 351:
This is Antar with the Chosroë who “kissed the Absian hero between the
eyes and bade him adieu, giving him as a last token a rich robe.” The
coarser hand of the story-teller exaggerates everything till he makes
it ridiculous.
Footnote 352:
The context suggests that this is a royal form of “throwing the
handkerchief;” but it does not occur elsewhere. In fact, the European
idea seems to have arisen from the oriental practice of sending
presents in napkins or kerchiefs.
Footnote 353:
_i.e._ if the disappointed suitor attack me.
Footnote 354:
_i.e._ if ever I be tempted to deny it.
Footnote 355:
Arab. “Musáfahah,” the Arab fashion of shaking hands. The right palms
are applied flat to each other; then the fingers are squeezed and the
hand is raised to the forehead (Pilgrimage ii. 332).
Footnote 356:
A city and province of Khuzistán, the old Susiana. Dasht may be either
the town in Khorasan or the “forests” (dasht) belonging to Ahwáz
(Ahuaz in D’Herbelot).
Footnote 357:
This is the contest between “Antar and the Satrap Khosrewan at the
Court of Monzar,” but without its tragical finish.
Footnote 358:
Elliptical “he rode out in great state, that is to say if greatness
can truly be attributed to man,” for, etc.
Footnote 359:
According to D’Herbelot (_s.v._ Rostac) it is a name given to the
villages of Khorasan as “Souad” (Sawád) to those of Irak and Makhlaf
to those of Al-Yaman: there is, however, a well-known Al-Rustak (which
like Al-Bahrayn always takes the article) in the Province of Oman West
of Maskat; and as it rhymes with “Irak” it does well enough. Mr.
Badger calls this ancient capital of the Ya’arubah Imáms “er-Rasták”
(Imams of Oman).
Footnote 360:
_i.e._ a furious knight.
Footnote 361:
In the Mac. Edit. “Hassán,” which may rhyme with Nabhán, but it is a
mere blunder.
Footnote 362:
In Classical Arabic Irak (like Yaman, Bahrayn and Rusták) always takes
the article.
Footnote 363:
The story-teller goes back from Kufah founded in Omar’s day to the
times of Abraham.
Footnote 364:
This manœuvre has often been practised; especially by the first
Crusaders under Bohemond (Gibbon) and in late years by the Arab
slavers in Eastern Intertropical Africa. After their skirmishes with
the natives they quartered and “brittled” the dead like game, roasted
and boiled the choice pieces and pretended to eat the flesh. The
enemy, who was not afraid of death, was struck with terror by the idea
of being devoured; and this seems instinctive to the undeveloped mind.
END OF VOLUME VI.
[Illustration: والسلام]
INDEX.
A’amash (Al-) = one with watering eyes, 96
Abd al-Ahad = slave of the One (God), 221
Abd al-Rahím = slave of the Compassionate, 211
Abd al-Salám (Pr. N.) = slave of salvation, 211
Abd al-Samad = slave of the Eternal, 221
Abd al-Samad al-Samúdi (for Samanhúdi?), 87
Abraham the friend = mediæval “St. Abraham”, 270
Abtan (Al-) = the most profound (_see_ Bátiní), 221
Abu Karn = Father of the Horn (unicorn?), 21
Abu Hosayn = Father of the Fortlet (fox), 211
Abyssinians (hardly to be called blackamoors), 63
Acquit me of responsibility (formula of dismissing a servant), 243
Adam’s Peak (Ar. Jabal al-Ramun), 65
Adites (first and second), 269
Adnán (land of) = Arabia, 94
Ahwáz (city and province of Khuzistan), 287
Ahl al-Bait = the person of the house (euphemistically for wife), 199
Ajíb (Pr. N.) = wonderful, 257
Akh = brother (wide signification of the word), 243
Albatross (supposed never to touch land), 33
Alcinous (of the Arabian Odyssy), 65
Allah (be praised whatso be our case), 3
—— (“the Manifest Truth”), 93
—— is omniscient, (formula used when telling an improbable tale), 210
—— (the Opener), 216
—— (it is He who gives by our means), 233
—— (sight comprehendeth Him not), 283
Almenichiaka, 124
Almond-Apricot, 277
Amalekites, 264; 265
Amid (Amidah), town in Mesopotamia, 106
Anbar (Ambar) = ambergris, 60
Andalusian = Spanish (_i.e._ of Vandal-land), 101
Angels (ride piebalds), 146
Antar and the Chosroë, 285
—— (contest with Khosrewan), 289
Apodosis omitted, 203; 239
Apes (isle of), 23
—— (and their lustful propensities), 54
—— (gathering fruits), 56
Arab (style compared with Persian), 125
Arar = Juniper, 95
Aristomenes and his fox, 45
Arúbah (Al-) = Friday, 190
Armenians (porters of Constantinople), 1
Asaf bin Barkhiya (Solomon’s Wazir), 99
Asháb al-Ráy (epithet of the Hanaff school), 146
Asoka’s wife and Kunála, 127
Ashjár = door-posts or wooden bolts, 191
Aurat = shame, nakedness (woman, wife), 30
—— (of man and woman), 118
Ayát al-Naját = Verses of Safety, 108
Báb al-Nasr = Gate of Victory (at Cairo), 234
Bundukániyah (quarter of Cairo), 254
Banú Abbás (their colours black), 86