which makes very poor sense. [The whole passage runs: “Házá allazí
kasam alláh bi-hi fa-lau kána rajul jayyid ghayr luss kunná nu’tíhu
li-ahad,” which I would translate: This is he concerning whom Allah
decreed (that he should be my portion, swearing;) “and if he were a
good man and no thief, we would have bestowed him on _someone_.” In
“kasama” the three ideas of decreeing, giving as a share, and binding
one’s self by oath are blended together. If it should appear out of
place to introduce Divinity itself as speaking in this context, we
must not forget that the person spoken of is no less illustrious
individual than Harun al-Rashíd, and that a decidedly satirical and
humorous vein runs through the whole tale. Moreover, I doubt that
“li-ahad” could be used as equivalent for “li-ghayrí,” “to some other
than myself,” while it frequently occurs in the emphatic sense of “one
who is somebody, a person of consequence.” The damsel and her mother,
on the other hand allude repeatedly to the state of utter
helplessness, in which they find themselves in default of their
natural protector, and which has reduced them from an exalted station
to the condition of nobodies. I speak, of course, here as elsewhere,
“under correction.”—ST.]
Footnote 163:
In text “Hmsh.” The Dicts. give Himmas and Himmis, forms never heard,
and Forsk. (Flora Ægypt.-Arab. p. lxxi.) “Homos,” also unknown. The
vulg. pron. is “Hummus” or as Lane (M. E. chapt. v.) has it “Hommus”
(chick-peas). The word applies to the pea, while “Malán” is the plant
in pod. It is the _cicer arietinum_ concerning which a classical tale
is told. “Cicero (pron. Kikero) was a poor scholar in the University
of Athens, wherewith his enemies in Rome used to reproach him, and as
he passed through the streets would call out ‘O Cicer, Cicer, O,’ a
word still used in Cambridge, and answers to a Servitor in Oxford.”
Quaint this approximation between “Cicer” the vetch and “Sizar” which
comes from “size” = rations, the Oxford “battel.”
Footnote 164:
Arab. “Yulakkimu,” from “Lukmah” = a mouthful; see vols. i. 266; vii.
367.
Footnote 165:
Arab. “Jarazat Kuzbán” (plur. of “Kazíb,” see vol. ii. 66) = long and
slender sticks.
Footnote 166:
_i.e._ a witch; see vol. viii. 131.
Footnote 167:
So in the phrase “Otbah hath the colic,” first said concerning Otbah
b. Rabí’a by Abú Jahl when the former advised not marching upon Badr
to attack Mohammed. Tabari, vol. ii. 491.
Footnote 168:
Compare the French “Brr!”
Footnote 169:
_i.e._ to whom thou owest a debt of apology or excuse, “Gharím” =
debtor or creditor.
Footnote 170:
Arab. “Juráb al-’uddah,” _i.e._ the manacles, fetters, etc.
Footnote 171:
The following three sentences are taken from the margin of (MS.) p.
257, and evidently belong to this place.
Footnote 172:
In text “Bghb” evidently for “Baght” or preferably “Baghtatan.”
Footnote 173:
This is a twice-told tale whose telling I have lightened a little
without omitting any important detail. Gauttier reduces the ending of
the history to less than five pages.
Footnote 174:
The normal idiom for “I accept.”
Footnote 175:
In text “Khila’t dakk al-Matrakah,” which I have rendered literally:
it seems to signify an especial kind of brocade.
Footnote 176:
The Court of Baghdad was, like the Urdú (Horde or Court) of the “Grand
Mogul,” organised after the ordinance of an army in the field, with
its centre, the Sovran, and two wings right and left, each with its
own Wazir for Commander, and its vanguard and rearguard.
Footnote 177:
Being the only son he had a voice in the disposal of his sister. The
mother was the Kabírah = head of the household, in Marocco Al-Sídah =
Madame mère; but she could not interfere single-handed in affairs
concerning the family. See Pilgrimage, vol. iii. 198. Throughout
Al-Islam in default of a father the eldest brother gives away the
sisters, and if there be no brother this is done by the nearest male
relation on the “sword” side. The mother has no authority in such
matters nor indeed has anyone on the “spindle” side.
Footnote 178:
Alluding to the Wali and his men.
Footnote 179:
Arab. “Kunyah” (the pop. mispronunciation of “Kinyah”) is not used
here with strict correctness. It is a forename or bye-name generally
taken from the favourite son, Abú (father of) being prefixed. When
names are written in full it begins the string, _e.g._, Abu Mohammed
(forename), Kásim (true name), ibn Ali (father’s name), ibn Mohammed
(grandfather’s), ibn Osman (great-grandfather), Al-Hariri (=the
Silkman from the craft of the family), Al-Basri (of Bassorah). There
is also the “Lakab” (_sobriquet_), _e.g._ Al-Bundukání or Badí’u
’l-Zamán (Rarity of the Age), which may be placed either before or
after the “Kunyah” when the latter is used alone. Chenery (Al-Hariri,
p. 315) confines the “Kunyah” to forenames beginning with Abú; but it
also applies to those formed with Umm (mother), Ibn (son), Bint
(daughter), Akh (brother) and Ukht (sister). See vol iv. 287. It is
considered friendly and graceful to address a Moslem by this
bye-name.—Gaudent prænomine molles Auriculæ.
Footnote 180:
In text “Yá Kawákí,” which M. Houdas translates “_O piailleur_,”
remarking that here it would be = _poule mouillée_.
Footnote 181:
“’Alakah khárijah” = an extraordinary drubbing.
Footnote 182:
In text “Ij’alní fí kll,” the latter word being probably, as M. Houdas
suggests, a clerical error for “Kal-a” or “Kiláa” = safety,
protection.
Footnote 183:
I am surprised that so learned and practical an Arabist as the Baron
de Slane in his Fr. translation of Ibn Khaldún should render _le
surnom d’Er-Rechid_ (_le prudent_), for “The Rightly Directed,” the
Orthodox (vol. ii. 237), when (ibid. p. 259) he properly translates
“Al-Khulafá al-rashidín” by _Les Califes qui marchent dans la voie
droite_.
Footnote 184:
MSS. pp. 476–504. This tale is laid down on the same lines as “Abú
al-Husn and his Slave-girl Tawaddud,” vol. vi. 189. It is carefully
avoided by Scott, C. de Perceval, Gauttier, etc.
Footnote 185:
Lit. an interpreter woman; the word is the fem. of Tarjumán, a
dragoman whom Mr. Curtis calls a Drag o’ men; see vol. i. 100. It has
changed wonderfully on its way from its “Semitic” home to Europe which
has naturalised it as Drogman, Truchman and Dolmetsch.
Footnote 186:
For this word of many senses, see vols. i. 231; ix. 221. M. Caussin de
Perceval (viii. 16) quoting d’Herbelot (_s.v._), notes that the
Abbasides thus entitled the chief guardian of the Harem.
Footnote 187:
See vols. iv. 100; viii. 268. In his Introduction (p. 22) to the
Assemblies of Al-Hariri Chenery says, “This prosperity had now passed
away, for God had brought the people of Rûm (so the Arabs call the
Byzantines, whom Abú Zayd here confounds with the Franks) on the
land,” etc. The confusion is not Abu Zayd’s: “Rúmí” in Marocco and
other archaic parts of the Moslem world is still synonymous with our
“European.”
Footnote 188:
This obedience to children is common in Eastern folk-lore: see Suppl.
vol. i. 212, in which the royal father orders his son to sell him. The
underlying idea is that the parents find their offspring too clever
for them; not, as in the “New World,” that Youth is entitled to take
precedence and command of Age.
Footnote 189:
In text “Fa min tumma” for “thumma”—then, _alors_.
Footnote 190:
Such as the headstall and hobbles, the cords and chains for binding
captives, and the mace and sword hanging to the saddle-bow.
Footnote 191:
_i.e._ not a well-known or distinguished horseman, but a chance rider.
Footnote 192:
These “letters of Mutalammis,” as Arabs term our Litteræ
Bellerophonteæ, or “Uriah’s letters,” are a _lieu commun_ in the East
and the Prince was in luck when he opened and read the epistle here
given by mistake to the wrong man. Mutalammis, a poet of The
Ignorance, had this _sobriquet_ (the “frequent asker,” or, as we
should say, the Solicitor-General), his name being Jarír bin ’Abd
al-Masíh. He was uncle to Tarafah of the Mu’allakah or prize-poem, a
type of the witty dissolute bard of the jovial period before Al-Islam
arose to cloud and dull man’s life. One day as he was playing with
other children Mutalammis was reciting a panegyric upon his favourite
camel, which ran:—
I mount a he-camel, dark-red and firm-fleshed; or a she-camel of
Himyar, fleet of foot and driving the pebbles with her crushing
hooves.
“See the he-camel turned to a she,” cried the boy, and the phrase
became proverbial to express inelegant transition (Arab. Prov. ii.
246). The uncle bade his nephew put out his tongue and seeing it
dark-coloured said, “That black tongue will be thy ruin!” Tarafah, who
was presently entitled Ibn al-’Ishrín (the son of twenty years), grew
up a model reprobate who cared nothing save for three things, “to
drink the dark-red wine foaming as the water mixeth with it, to urge
into the fight a broad-backed steed, and to while away the dull day
with a young beauty.” His apology for wilful waste is highly poetic:—
I see that the grave of the careful, the hoarder, differeth not from
the grave of the debauched, the spendthrift:
A hillock of earth covers this and that, with a few flat stones laid
together thereon.
See the whole piece in Chenery’s Al-Hariri (p. 360), from which this
note is borrowed. At last uncle and nephew fled from ruin to the Court
of ’Amrú bin Munzír III., King of Hira, who in the tale of
Al-Mutalammis and his wife Umaymah (The Nights, vol. v. 74) is called
Al-Nu’umán bin Munzir but is better known as ’Amrú bin Hind (his
mother). The King who was a ferocious personage nicknamed Al-Muharrik
or the Burner because he had thrown into the fire ninety-nine men and
one woman of the Tamím tribe in accordance with a vow of vengeance he
had taken to slaughter a full century, made the two strangers
boon-companions to his boorish brother Kábús. Tarafah, offended
because kept at the tent-door whilst the master drank wine within,
bitterly lampooned him together with ’Abd Amrú a friend of the King;
and when this was reported his death was determined upon. Amrú, the
King, seeing the anxiety of the two poets to quit his Court, offered
them letters of introduction to Abú Kárib, Governor of Al-Hajar
(Bahrayn) under the Persian King and they were accepted. The uncle
caused his letter to be read by a youth, and finding that it was an
order for his execution destroyed it and fled to Syria; but the nephew
was buried alive. Amrú, the King, was afterwards slain by the
poet-warrior, Amrú bin Kulthum, also of the “Mu’allakát,” for an
insult offered to his mother by Hind: hence the proverb, “Quicker to
slay than ’Amrú bin Kulsum” (A.P. ii. 233).
Footnote 193:
See vols. i. 192; iii. 14; these correspond with the “Stathmoi,”
Stationes, Mansiones or Castra of Herodotus, Terps. cap. 53, and
Xenophon An. i. 2, 10.
Footnote 194:
In text “Ittikà” viiith of ✓ wakà: the form “Takwà” is generally used
= fearing God, whereby one guards oneself from sin in this life and
from retribution in the world to come.
Footnote 195:
This series of puzzling questions and clever replies is still as
favourite a mental exercise in the East as it was in middle-aged
Europe. The riddle or conundrum began, as far as we know, with the
Sphinx, through whose mouth the Greeks spoke: nothing less likely than
that the grave and mysterious Scribes of Egypt should ascribe aught so
puerile to the awful emblem of royal majesty—Abu Haul, the Father of
Affright. Josephus relates how Solomon propounded enigmas to Hiram of
Tyre which none but Abdimus, son of the captive Abdæmon, could answer.
The Tale of Tawaddud offers fair specimens of such exercises, which
were not disdained by the most learned of Arabian writers. See
Al-Hariri’s Ass. xxiv. which proposes twelve enigmas involving
abstruse and technical points of Arabic, such as: (¿) “What be the
word, which as ye will is a particle beloved, or the name of that
which compriseth the slender-waisted milch camel?” Na’am = “Yes” or
“cattle,” the latter word containing the Harf, or slender camel.
Chenery, p. 246.
Footnote 196:
For the sundry meanings and significance of “Salám,” here = Heaven’s
blessing, see vols. ii. 24, vi. 232.
Footnote 197:
This is the nursery version of the Exodus, old as Josephus and St.
Jerome, and completely changed by the light of modern learning. The
Children of Israel quitted their homes about Memphis (as if a large
horde of half-nomadic shepherds would be suffered in the richest and
most crowded home of Egypt). They marched by the Wady Músà that
debouches upon the Gulf of Suez a short way below the port now
temporarily ruined by its own folly and the ill-will of M. de Lesseps;
and they made the “Sea of Sedge” (Suez Gulf) through the valley
bounded by what is still called Jabal ’Atákah, the Mountain of
Deliverance, and its parallel range, Abu Durayj (of small steps). Here
the waters were opened and the host passed over to the “Wells of
Moses,” erstwhile a popular picnic place on the Arabian side; but
according to one local legend (for which see my Pilgrimage, i. 294–97)
they crossed the sea north of Túr, the spot being still called “Birkat
Far’aun” = Pharaoh’s Pool. Such also is the modern legend amongst the
Arabs, who learned their lesson from the Christians (not from the
Jews) in the days when the Copts and the Greeks (ivth century)
invented “Mount Sinai.” And the reader will do well to remember that
the native annalists of Ancient Egypt, which conscientiously relate
all her defeats and subjugations by the Ethiopians, Persians, etc.,
utterly ignore the very name of Hebrew, Sons of Israel, etc.
I cannot conceal my astonishment at finding a specialist journal like
the “Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund” (Oct.,
1887), admitting such a paper as that entitled “The Exode,” by R. F.
Hutchinson, M.D. For this writer the labours of the last half-century
are non-existing. Job is still the “oldest book” in the world. The
Rev. Charles Forster’s absurdity, “Israel in the wilderness” gives
valuable assistance. Goshen is Mr. Chester’s Tell Fakús (not, however,
far wrong in this) instead of the long depression by the Copts still
called “Gesem” or “Gesemeh,” the frontierland through which the middle
course of the Suez Canal runs. “Succoth,” tabernacles, is confounded
with the Arab. “Sakf” = a roof. Letopolis, the “key of the Exode,” and
identified with the site where Babylon (Old Cairo) was afterwards
built, is placed on the right instead of the left bank of the Nile.
“Bahr Kulzum” is the “Sea of the Swallowing-up,” in lieu of The
Closing. El-Tíh, “the wandering,” is identified with Wady Musa to the
west of the Suez Gulf. And so forth. What could the able Editor have
been doing?
Students of this still disputed question will consult “The Shrine of
Saft el-Henneh and the Land of Goschen,” by Edouard Naville, fifth
Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. Published by order of the
Committee. London, Trübner, 1837.
Footnote 198:
Eastern fable runs wild upon this subject, and indeed a large volume
could be written upon the birth, life and death of Moses’ and Aaron’s
rods. There is a host of legends concerning the place where the former
was cut and whence it descended to the Prophet whose shepherd’s staff
was the glorification of his pastoral life (the rod being its symbol)
and of his future career as a ruler (and flogger) of men. In Exodus
(viii. 3–10), when a miracle was required of the brothers, Aaron’s rod
became a “serpent” (A.V.) or, as some prefer, a “crocodile,” an animal
worshipped by certain of the Egyptians; and when the King’s magicians
followed suit it swallowed up all others. Its next exploit was to turn
the Nile and other waters of Egypt into blood (Exod. vii. 17). The
third wonder was worked by Moses’ staff, the dividing of the Red Sea
(read the Sea of Sedge or papyrus, which could never have grown in the
brine of the Suez Gulf) according to the command, “Lift thou up thy
rod and stretch out thine hand over the sea,” etc. (Exod. xiv. 15).
The fourth adventure was when the rod, wherewith Moses smote the
river, struck two blows on the rock in Horeb and caused water to come
out of it (Numb. xxi. 8). Lastly the rod (this time again Aaron’s)
“budded and brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms and yielded
almonds” (Numb. xvii. 7); thus becoming a testimony against the
rebels: hence it was set in the Holiest of the Tabernacles (Heb. ix.
14) as a lasting memorial. I have described (Pilgrim. i. 301) the mark
of Moses’ rod at the little Hammam behind the old Phœnician colony of
Tur, in the miscalled “Sinaitic” Peninsula: it is large enough to act
mainmast for a ship. The end of the rod or rods is unknown: it died
when its work was done, and like many other things, holy and unholy,
which would be priceless, _e.g._, the true Cross or Pilate’s sword, it
remains only as a memory around which a host of grotesque
superstitions have grouped themselves.
Footnote 199:
In this word “Hayy” the Arab. and Heb. have the advantage of our
English: it means either serpent or living, alive.
Footnote 200:
It is nowhere said in Hebrew Holy Writ that “Pharaoh,” whoever he may
have been, was drowned in the “Red Sea.”
Footnote 201:
Arab. “Kaml.” The Koranic legend of the Ant has, I repeat, been
charmingly commented upon by Edwin Arnold in “Solomon and the Ant” (p.
i., Pearls of the Faith). It seems to be a Talmudic exaggeration of
the implied praise in Prov. vi. 6 and xxx. 25, “The ants are a people
not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer”—which, by the
by, proves that the Wise King could be caught tripping in his natural
history, and that they did _not_ know everything down Judee.
Footnote 202:
Isá, according to the Moslems, was so far like Adam (Koran iii. 52)
that he was not begotten in the normal way: in fact his was a
miraculous conception. See vol. v. 238.
Footnote 203:
For Elias, Elijah, or Khizr, a marvellous legendary figure, see vols.
iv. 175; v. 384. The worship of Helios (Apollo) is not extinct in mod.
Greece where it survives under the name of Elias. So Dionysus has
become St. Dionysius; Bacchus the Drunken, St. George; and Artemis St.
Artemides the healer of childhood.
Footnote 204:
Gesenius interprets it “Soldier of God”; the bye-name given to Jacob
presently became the national name of the Twelve Tribes collectively;
then it narrowed to the tribe of Judah; afterwards it became = laymen
as opposed to Levites, etc., and in these days it is a polite synonym
for Jew. When you want anything from any of the (self-) Chosen People
you speak of him as an Israelite; when he wants anything of you, you
call him a Jew, or a damned Jew, as the case may be.
Footnote 205:
I am not aware that there is any general history of the bell,
beginning with the rattle, the gong and other primitive forms of the
article; but the subject seems worthy of a monograph. In Hebrew Writ
the bell first appears in Exod. xxviii. 33 as a fringe to the Ephod of
the High Priest that its tinkling might save him from intruding
unwarned into the bodily presence of the tribal God, Jehovah.
Footnote 206:
Gennesaret (Chinnereth, Cinneroth), where, according to some Moslems,
_the_ Solomon was buried.
Footnote 207:
I cannot explain this legend.
Footnote 208:
So the old English rhyme, produced for quite another purpose by Sir
John Bull in “Wat Tyler’s Rebellion” (Hume, Hist. of Eng., vol. i.
chapt. 17):—
“When Adam dolve and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?”
A variant occurs in a MS. of the xvth century, Brit. Museum:—
“Now bethink the gentleman,
How Adam dalf and Eve span.”
And the German form is:—
“So Adam reutte (reute) and Eva span
Wer was da ein Eddelman (Edelman)?”
Footnote 209:
Plur. of “’Usfúr” = a bird, a sparrow. The etymology is
characteristically Oriental and Mediæval, reminding us of Dan
Chaucer’s meaning of Cecilia “Heaven’s lily” (Súsan) or “Way for the
blind” (Cæcus) or “Thoughts of Holiness” and _lia_ = lasting industry;
or, “Heaven and Leos” (people), so that she might be named the
people’s heaven (The Second Nonne’s Tale).
Footnote 210:
_i.e._ “Fír is rebellious.”
Footnote 211:
Both of which, I may note, are not things but states, modes or
conditions of things. See vol. ix. 78.
Footnote 212:
“Salát” = the formal ceremonious prayer. I have noticed (vol. iv. 60)
the sundry technical meanings of the term Salát, from Allah = Mercy;
from Angel-kind = intercession and pardon, and from mankind = a
blessing.
Footnote 213:
Possibly “A prayer of Moses, the man of God,” the title of the highly
apocryphal Psalm xc.
Footnote 214:
Arab. “Libás” = clothes in general.
Footnote 215:
In text ظفر Zafar = victory. It may also be “Zifr” = alluding to the
horny matter which, according to Moslem tradition, covered the bodies
of “our first parents” and of which after the “original sin” nothing
remained but the nails of their fingers and toes. It was only when
this disappeared that they became conscious of their nudity. So says
M. Houdas; but I prefer to consider the word as a clerical error for
ضفر Zafar = plaited hair.
Footnote 216:
According to Al-Mas’udi (i. 86, quoting Koran xxi. 52), Abraham had
already received of Allah spiritual direction or divine grace (“Rushdu
’llah” or “Al-Hudà”) which made him sinless. In this opinion of the
Imamship, says my friend Prof. A. Sprenger, the historian is more
fatalistic than most Sunnís.
Footnote 217:
Modern Moslems are all agreed in making Ishmael and not Isaac the hero
of this history: see my Pilgrimage (vol. iii. 306). But it was not
always so. Al-Mas’udi (vol. ii. 146) quotes the lines of a Persian
poet in A. H. 290 (=A. D. 902) which expressly say “Is’háku
kána’l-Zabíh” = Isaac was the victim, and the historian refers to this
in sundry places. Yet the general idea is that Ishmael succeeded his
father (as eldest son) and was succeeded by Isaac; and hence the
bitter family feud between the Eastern Jews and the Arab Gentiles.
Footnote 218:
In text “Tajní” = lit. thou pluckest (the fruit of good deeds). M.
Houdas translates _Tu recueilles, mot à mot tu cueilles_.
Footnote 219:
See note at the end of this tale.
Footnote 220:
Amongst the Jews the Temple of Jerusalem was a facsimile of the
original built by Jehovah in the lowest heaven or that of the Moon.
For the same idea (doubtless a derivation from the Talmud) amongst the
Moslems concerning the heavenly Ka’abah called Bayt al-Ma’múr (the
Populated House) see my Pilgrimage iii. 186, _et seq._
Footnote 221:
_i.e._ there is an end of the matter.
Footnote 222:
In text “Massa-hu ’l Fakr” = poverty touched him.
Footnote 223:
He had sold his father for a horse, etc., and his mother for a fine
dress.
Footnote 224:
This enigma is in the style of Samson’s (Judges xiv. 12) of which we
complain that the unfortunate Philistines did not possess the sole
clue which could lead to the solution; and here anyone with a modicum
of common sense would have answered, “Thou art the man!” The riddles
with which the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon must have been simply
hard questions somewhat like those in the text; and the relator wisely
refuses to record them.
Footnote 225:
We should say “To eclipse the sun.”
Footnote 226:
A very intelligible offer.
Footnote 227:
Arab. “Bi Asri-hi,” lit. “rope and all;” metaphorically used =
altogether, entirely: the idea is borrowed from the giving or selling
of a beast with its thong, halter, chain, etc.
Footnote 228:
In the text “Káhin,” a Cohen, a Jewish Priest, a soothsayer: see
Al-Kahánah, vol. i. 28. In Heb. Kahana = he ministered (priests’
offices or other business) and Cohen = a priest either of the true God
or of false gods.
Footnote 229:
This ending with its _resumé_ of contents is somewhat _hors ligne_,
yet despite its vain repetition I think it advisable to translate it.
Footnote 230:
“And she called his name Moses, and she said because from the water I
drew him” (Exod. ii. 10). So in Copt. ⲙⲱⲟⲩⲥⲉ = water son, ⲙⲉⲥ =
waters, ⲙⲟⲩϭⲓ = taken from or ⲙⲟⲩⲁϩⲓ = delivered from.
Footnote 231: