had told the professor concerning the difference of opinion among the
learned touching the ‘Basmalah,’ he said, “Thou hast replied aright: now
tell me why is not the formula written at the head of the chapter of
Immunity[367]?”; and she answered, “When this chapter was revealed from
on high for the dissolution of the alliance between the Prophet and the
idolaters, He (whom Allah bless and preserve!) sent Ali[368] ibn Abí
Tálib (whose face Allah honour!) therewith, and he read the chapter to
them, but did not read the Basmalah.”[369] (¿) “What of the excellence
of the formula and its blessing?”—It is told of the Prophet that he
said, “Never is the Basmalah pronounced over aught, but there is a
blessing in it;” and it is reported, on authority of Him (whom Allah
bless and preserve!) that the Lord of Glory swore by His glory that
never should the Basmalah be pronounced over a sick person, but he
should be healed of his sickness. Moreover, it is said that, when Allah
created the empyrean, it was agitated with an exceeding agitation; but
He wrote on it, ‘Bismillah’ and its agitation subsided. When the formula
first descended from heaven to the Prophet, he said, “I am safe from
three things, earthquake and metamorphosis and drowning;” and indeed its
boons are great and its blessings too many to enumerate. It is told of
Allah’s Apostle that he said, “There will be brought on the Judgment-day
a man with whom He shall reckon and finding no good deed to his account,
shall order him to the Fire; but the man will cry:—O my God, Thou hast
not dealt justly by me! Then shall Allah (to whom be honour and glory!)
say, How so? and the man shall answer, O Lord, for that Thou callest
Thyself the Compassionating, the Compassionate, yet wilt Thou punish me
with the Fire! And Allah (magnified be His Majesty!) shall reply, I did
indeed name myself the Compassionating, the Compassionate. Carry My
servant to Paradise, of My mercy, for I am the most Merciful of the
mercifuls!” (¿) “What was the origin of the use of the Basmalah?”—When
Allah sent down from Heaven the Koran, they wrote, “In Thy name, O my
God!”; when Allah revealed the words, “Say: Call upon Allah, or call
upon the Compassionating, what days ye pray, for hath He the most
excellent names,”[370] they wrote, “In the name of Allah, the
Compassionating, the Compassionate;” and, when He revealed the words,
“Your God is one God, there is no God but He, the Compassionating, the
Compassionate,”[371] they wrote, “In the name of Allah, the
Compassionating, the Compassionate!” Now when the Koranist heard her
reply, he hung down his head and said to himself, “This be a marvel of
marvels! How hath this slave-girl expounded the origin of the Basmalah?
But, by Allah, needs must I go about with her and haply defeat her.” So
he asked, “Did Allah reveal the Koran all at once or at times manifold?”
She answered, “Gabriel the Faithful (on whom be peace!) descended with
it from the Lord of the Worlds upon His Prophet Mohammed, Prince of the
Apostles and Seal of the Prophets, by detached versets; bidding and
forbidding, covenanting and comminating, and containing advices and
instances in the course of twenty years as occasion called for it.” (¿)
“Which chapter was first revealed?”—According to Ibn Abbas, that
entituled Congealed Blood:[372] and, according to Jábir bin
Abdillah,[373] that called ‘The Covered’ which preceded all others.[374]
(¿) “Which verset was the last revealed?”—That of Usury,[375] and it is
also said, the verse, “When there cometh Allah’s succour and
victory.”[376]——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to
say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Forty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the damsel
told the Koranist which was the last verse he said, “Thou hast replied
aright; now tell me the names of the Companions who collected the Koran,
in the lifetime of the Apostle of Allah.” And she answered, “They were
four, Ubay ibn Ka’ab, Zayd ibn Sábit, Abú Obaydah ‘Aamir bin Jarráh, and
Othmán bin Affán,[377] (Allah accept of them one and all!)” (¿) “Who are
the readers, from whom the accepted reading of the Koran is taken?”—They
number four, Abdallah bin Mas’úd, Ubay bin Ka’ab, Ma’az bin Jabal and
Sálim bin Abdillah. (¿) “What sayest thou of the words of the Most High,
‘That which is sacrificed to stones’”?[378]—The stones are idols, which
are set up and worshipped, instead of Allah the Most High, and from this
we seek refuge with Allah. (¿) “What sayest thou of the words of the
Most High, Thou knowest what is in my soul, and I know not what is in
Thy soul”?[379]—They mean, “Thou knowest the truth of me and what is in
me, and I know not what is in Thee; and the proof of this are His
words,[380] ‘Thou art He who wottest the hidden things’”; and it is
said, also, “Thou knowest my essence, but I know not Thine essence.” (¿)
“What sayst thou of the words of the Most High, ‘O true believers,
forbid not yourselves the good things which Allah hath allowed
you?’”[381]—My Shaykh (on whom Allah have mercy!) told me that the
Companion Al-Zahhák related:—There was a people of the True-believers
who said, “We will dock our members masculine and don sackcloth;”
whereupon this verse was revealed. But Al-Kutádah declareth that it was
revealed on account of sundry Companions of the Apostle of Allah,
namely, Ali ibn Abí Tálib and Othmán bin Musa’ab and others, who said,
“We will geld ourselves and don hair cloth and make us monks.” (¿) “What
sayest thou of the words of the Most Highest, ‘And Allah took Abraham
for His friend’”?[382]—The friend of Allah is the needy, the poor, and
(according to another saying) he is the lover, he who is detached from
the world in the love of Allah Almighty and in whose attachment there is
no falling away. Now when the Koranist[383] saw her pass on in speech
with the passage of the clouds and that she stayed not in reply, he rose
to his feet and said, “I take Allah to witness, O Commander of the
Faithful, that this damsel is more learned than I in Koranic exegesis
and what pertaineth thereto.” Then said she, “I will ask thee one
question, which if thou answer it is well; but if thou answer not, I
will strip off thy clothes.” Quoth the Commander of the Faithful, “Ask
on,” and she enquired, “Which verset of the Koran hath in it
three-and-twenty Káfs, which sixteen Míms, which an hundred and forty
‘Ayns[384] and which section[385] lacketh the formula, ‘To Whom belong
glory and glorification and majesty[386]?’” The Koranist could not
reply, and she said to him, “Put off thy clothes.” So he doffed them,
and she continued, “O Commander of the Faithful, the verset of the
sixteen Mims is in the chapter Húd and is the saying of the Most High,
‘It was said, O Noah, go down in peace from us, and blessing upon
thee!’;[387] that of the three-and-twenty Kafs is the verse called of
the Faith, in the chapter of The Cow; that of the hundred and forty Ayns
is in the chapter of Al-A’aráf,[388] where the Lord saith, ‘And Moses
chose seventy men of his tribe to attend our appointed time;[389] to
each man a pair of eyes.’[390] And the lesson, which lacketh the
formula, ‘To Whom be glory and glorification,’ is that which comprises
the chapters, The Hour draweth nigh and the Moon shall be cloven in
twain[391]; The Compassionate and The Event.”[392] Thereupon the
professor departed in confusion.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Forty-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the damsel
defeated the Koranist and took off his clothes and sent him away
confused, then came forward the skilled physician and said to her, “We
are free of theology and come now to physiology. Tell me, therefore, how
is man made; how many veins, bones and vertebræ are there in his body;
which is the first and chief vein and why Adam was named Adam?” She
replied, “Adam was called Adam, because of his _udmah_, that is, the
wheaten colour of his complexion and also (it is said) because he was
created of the _adim_ of the earth, that is to say, of the surface-soil.
His breast was made of the earth of the Ka’abah, his head of earth from
the East and his legs of earth from the West. There were created for him
seven doors in his head, viz., the eyes, the ears, the nostrils and the
mouth, and two passages, before and behind. The eyes were made the seat
of the sight-sense, the ears the seat of the hearing-sense, the nostrils
the seat of the smell-sense, the mouth the seat of the taste-sense and
the tongue to utter what is in the heart of man.[393] Now Adam was made
of a compound of the four elements, which be water, earth, fire and air.
The yellow bile is the humour of fire, being hot-dry; the black bile
that of earth, being cold-dry; the phlegm that of water, being
cold-moist, and the blood that of air, being hot-moist.[394] There were
made in man three hundred and sixty veins, two hundred and forty-nine
bones, and three souls[395] or spirits, the animal, the rational and the
natural, to each of which is allotted its proper function. Moreover,
Allah made him a heart and spleen and lungs and six intestines and a
liver and two kidneys and buttocks and brain and bones and skin and five
senses; hearing, seeing, smell, taste, touch. The heart He set on the
left side of the breast and made the stomach the guide and governor
thereof. He appointed the lungs for a fan to the heart and stablished
the liver on the right side, opposite thereto. Moreover, He made,
besides this, the diaphragm and the viscera and set up the bones of the
breast and latticed them with the ribs.” (¿) “How many ventricles are
there in a man’s head?”—Three, which contain five faculties, styled the
intrinsic senses, to wit, common sense, imagination, the thinking
faculty, perception and memory. (¿) “Describe to me the configuration of
the bones.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Fiftieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the physicist
said to her, “Describe to me the configuration of the bones,” she
replied, “Man’s frame consists of two hundred and forty bones, which are
divided into three parts, the head, the trunk and the extremities. The
head is divided into calvarium and face. The skull is constructed of
eight bones, and to it are attached the four osselets of the ear. The
face is furnished with an upper jaw of eleven bones and a lower jaw of
one; and to these are added the teeth two-and-thirty in number, and the
os hyoides.[396] The trunk is divided into spinal column, breast and
basin. The spinal column is made up of four-and-twenty bones, called
Fikár or vertebræ; the breast, of the breast-bone and the ribs, which
are four-and-twenty in number, twelve on each side; and the basin of the
hips, the sacrum[397] and the os coccygis. The extremities are divided
into upper and lower, arms and legs. The arms are again divided firstly
into shoulder, comprising shoulder blades and collar bone; secondly into
the upper arm which is one bone; thirdly into fore-arm, composed of two
bones, the radius and the ulna, and fourthly into the hand, consisting
of the wrist, the metacarpus of five and the fingers, which number five,
of three bones each, called the phalanges, except the thumb, which hath
but two. The lower extremities are divided, firstly into thigh, which is
one bone secondly into leg, composed of three bones, the tibia, the
fibula and the patella, and thirdly into the foot, divided, like the
hand, into tarsus, metatarsus and toes; and is composed of seven bones,
ranged in two rows, two in one and five in the other; and the metatarsus
is composed of five bones and the toes number five, each of three
phalanges except the big toe which hath only two.” (¿) “Which is the
root of the veins?”—The aorta, from which they ramify, and they are
many, none knoweth the tale of them save He who created them; but I
repeat, it is said that they number three hundred and sixty.[398]
Moreover, Allah hath appointed the tongue as interpreter for the
thought, the eyes to serve as lanterns, the nostrils to smell with, and
the hands for prehensors. The liver is the seat of pity, the spleen of
laughter[399] and the kidneys of craft; the lungs are ventilators, the
stomach the store-house and the heart the prop and pillar of the body.
When the heart is sound, the whole body is sound, and when the heart is
corrupt, the whole body is corrupt. (¿) “What are the outward signs and
symptoms evidencing disease in the members of the body, both external
and internal?”—A physician, who is a man of understanding, looketh into
the state of the body and is guided by the feel of the hands,[400]
according as they are firm or flabby, hot or cool, moist or dry.
Internal disorders are also indicated by external symptoms, such as
yellowness of the white of the eyes, which denoteth jaundice, and
bending of the back, which denoteth disease of the lungs.——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Fifty-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the damsel
had described to the doctor the outer signs and symptoms quoth he, “Thou
hast replied aright! now what are the internal symptoms of disease?”—The
science of the diagnosis of disease by internal symptoms is founded upon
six canons, (1) the patient’s actions; (2) what is evacuated from his
body; (3) the nature of the pain and (4) the site thereof; (5) swelling
and (6) the effluvia given off his person. (¿) “How cometh hurt to the
head?”—By the ingestion of food upon food, before the first be digested,
and by fullness upon fullness; this it is that wasteth peoples. He who
would live long, let him be early with the morning-meal and not late
with the evening-meal; let him be sparing of commerce with women and
chary of such depletory measures as cupping and blood-letting; and let
him make of his belly three parts, one for food, one for drink and the
third for air; for that a man’s intestines are eighteen spans in length
and it befitteth that he appoint six for meat, six for drink, and six
for breath. If he walk, let him go gently; it will be wholesomer for him
and better for his body and more in accordance with the saying of the
Almighty, “Walk not proudly on the earth.”[401] (¿) “What are the
symptoms of yellow bile and what is to be feared therefrom?”—The
symptoms are sallow complexion and bitter taste in the mouth with
dryness; failure of the appetite, venereal and other, and rapid pulse;
and the patient hath to fear high fever and delirium and eruptions and
jaundice and tumour and ulcers of the bowels and excessive thirst. (¿)
“What are the symptoms of black bile and what hath the patient to fear
from it, an it get the mastery of the body?”—The symptoms are false
appetite and great mental disquiet and cark and care; and it behoveth
that it be evacuated, else it will generate melancholia[402] and leprosy
and cancer and disease of the spleen and ulceration of the bowels. (¿)
“Into how many branches is the art of medicine divided?”—Into two: the
art of diagnosing diseases and that of restoring the diseased body to
health. (¿) “When is the drinking of medicine more efficacious than
other-when?”—When the sap runs in the wood and the grape thickens in the
cluster and the two auspicious planets, Jupiter and Venus, are in the
ascendant; then setteth in the proper season for drinking of drugs and
doing away of disease. (¿) “What time is it, when, if a man drink water
from a new vessel, the drink is sweeter and lighter or more digestible
to him than at another time, and there ascendeth to him a pleasant
fragrance and a penetrating?”——When he waiteth awhile after eating, as
quoth the poet:—
Drink not upon thy food in haste but wait awhile; ✿ Else thou with
halter shalt thy frame to sickness lead:
And patient bear a little thirst from food, then drink; ✿ And thus, O
brother, haply thou shalt win thy need.[403]
(¿) “What food is it that giveth not rise to ailments?”—That which is
not eaten but after hunger, and when it is eaten, the ribs are not
filled with it, even as saith Jálínús or Galen the physician, “Whoso
will take in food, let him go slowly and he shall not go wrongly.” And
to conclude with His saying (on whom be blessing and peace!), “The
stomach is the house of disease, and diet is the head of healing; for
the origin of all sickness is indigestion, that is to say, corruption of
the meat”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Fifty-second Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
damsel said to the doctor, “The stomach is the house of disease and diet
is the head of healing; for the origin of all sickness is indigestion,
that is to say, corruption of the meat in the stomach;” he rejoined,
“Thou hast replied aright! what sayest thou of the Hammam?”—Let not the
full man enter it. Quoth the Prophet, “The bath is the blessing of the
house, for that it cleanseth the body and calleth to mind the Fire.” (¿)
“What Hammams are best for bathing in?”—Those whose waters are sweet and
whose space is ample and which are kept well aired; their atmosphere
representing the four seasons—autumn and summer and winter and spring.
(¿) “What kind of food is the most profitable?”—That which women make
and which hath not cost overmuch trouble and which is readily digested.
The most excellent of food is brewis[404] or bread sopped in broth;
according to the saying of the Prophet, “Brewis excelleth other food,
even as Ayishah excelleth other women.” (¿) “What kind of kitchen, or
seasoning, is most profitable?”—“Flesh meat” (quoth the Prophet) “is the
most excellent of kitchen; for that it is the delight of this world and
the next world.” (¿) “What kind of meat is the most profitable?”—Mutton;
but jerked meat is to be avoided, for there is no profit in it. (¿)
“What of fruits?”—Eat them in their prime and quit them when their
season is past. (¿) “What sayest thou of drinking water?”—Drink it not
in large quantities nor swallow it by gulps, or it will give thee
head-ache and cause divers kinds of harm; neither drink it immediately
after leaving the Hammam nor after carnal copulation or eating (except
it be after the lapse of fifteen minutes for a young man and forty for
an old man), nor after waking from sleep. (¿) “What of drinking
fermented liquors?”—Doth not the prohibition suffice thee in the Book of
Almighty Allah, where He saith, “Verily, wine and lots and images, and
the divining arrows are an abomination, of Satan’s work; therefore avoid
them, that ye may prosper”?[405] And again, “They will ask thee
concerning wine and lots: Answer, ‘In both there is great sin and also
some things of use unto men: but their sinfulness is greater than their
use.’”[406] Hence quoth the poet:—
O bibber of liquor, art not ashamed ✿ To drink what Allah forbade thee
drain?
Put it far from thee and approach it not; ✿ It holds what Allah forbade
as bane.
And quoth another to the same purport:—
I drank the sin till my reason fled: ✿ I’ll drink that reason to loss
misled!
As for the advantages that be therein, it disperseth stone and gravel
from the kidneys and strengtheneth the viscera and banisheth care, and
moveth to generosity and preserveth health and digestion; it conserveth
the body, expelleth disease from the joints, purifieth the frame of
corrupt humours, engendereth cheerfulness, gladdeneth the heart of man
and keepeth up the natural heat: it contracteth the bladder, enforceth
the liver and removeth obstructions, reddeneth the cheeks, cleareth away
maggots from the brain and deferreth grey hairs. In short, had not Allah
(to whom be honour and glory!) forbidden it,[407] there were not on the
face of the earth aught fit to stand in its stead. As for gambling by
lots, it is a game of hazard such as dicing not of skill. (¿) “What wine
is best?”—That which is pressed from white grapes and kept eighty days
or more after fermentation: it resembleth not water and indeed there is
nothing on the surface of the earth like unto it. (¿) “What sayest thou
of cupping?”—It is for him who is over full of blood and who hath no
defect therein; and whoso would be cupped, let it be during the wane of
the moon, on a day without cloud, wind or rain and on the seventeenth of
the month. If it fall on a Tuesday, it will be the more efficacious, and
nothing is more salutary for the brain and eyes and for clearing the
intellect than cupping.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Fifty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the damsel
enumerated the benefits of cupping, quoth the doctor, “What is the best
time for cupping?”—One should be cupped ‘on the spittle,’ that is, in
the morning before eating, for this fortifieth the wit and the memory.
It is reported of the Prophet that, when anyone complained to him of a
pain in the head or legs, he would bid him be cupped and after cupping
not eat salt food fasting, for it engendereth scurvy; neither eat sour
things as curded milk[408] immediately after cupping. (¿) “When is
cupping to be avoided?”—On Sabbaths or Saturdays and Wednesdays, and let
him who is cupped on these days blame none but himself. Moreover, one
should not be cupped in very hot weather nor in very cold weather; and
the best season for cupping is springtide. Quoth the doctor, “Now tell
me of carnal copulation.” Hereupon Tawaddud hung her head, for shame and
confusion before the Caliph’s majesty; then said, “By Allah, O Commander
of the Faithful, it is not that I am at fault, but that I am ashamed;
though, indeed, the answer is on the edge of my tongue.” Said the
Caliph; “Speak, O damsel,” whereupon said she, “Copulation hath in it
many and exceeding virtues and praiseworthy qualities, amongst which
are, that it lighteneth a body full of black bile and calmeth the heat
of love and induceth affection and dilateth the heart and dispelleth the
sadness of solitude; and the excess of it is more harmful in summer and
autumn than in spring and winter.” (¿) “What are its good effects?”—It
banisheth trouble and disquiet, calmeth love and wrath and is good for
ulcers, especially in a cold and dry humour; on the other hand excess of
it weakeneth the sight and engendereth pains in the legs and head and
back: and beware, beware of carnal connection with old women, for they
are deadly. Quoth the Imam Ali[409] (whose face Allah honour!), “Four
things kill and ruin the body: entering the Hammam on a full stomach;
eating salt food; copulation on a plethora of blood and lying with an
ailing woman; for she will weaken thy strength and infect thy frame with
sickness; and an old woman is deadly poison.” And quoth one of them,
“Beware of taking an old woman to wife, though she be richer in hoards
than Kárún.”[410] (¿) “What is the best copulation?”—If the woman be
tender of years, comely of shape, fair of face, swelling of breast and
of noble race, she will add to thee strength and health of body; and let
her be even as saith a certain poet describing her:—
Seeing thy looks wots she what thou desir’st, ✿ By inspiration; wants
nor word nor sign;
And, when thou dost behold her rarest grace, ✿ The charms of every
garden canst decline.
(¿) “At what time is copulation good?”—If by night, after food digested
and if by day, after the morning meal. (¿) “What are the most excellent
fruits?”—Pomegranate and citron. (¿) “Which is the most excellent of
vegetables?”—Endive.[411] (¿) “Which of sweet-scented flowers?”—Rose and
Violet. (¿) “How is the seed of man secreted?”—There is in man a vein
which feedeth all the other veins. Now water is collected from the three
hundred and sixty veins and, in the form of red blood, entereth the left
testicle, where it is decocted, by the heat of temperament inherent in
the son of Adam, into a thick, white liquid, whose odour is as that of
the palm-spathe. (¿) “What flying thing is it that emitteth seed and
menstruateth?”—The flitter-mouse,[412] that is the bat. (¿) “What is
that which, when confined and shut out from the air liveth, and when let
out to smell the air dieth?”—The fish. (¿) “What serpent layeth
eggs?”—The Su’ban or dragon.[413] With this the physician waxed weary
with much questioning, and held his peace, when Tawaddud said to the
Caliph, “O Commander of the Faithful, he hath questioned me till he is
tired out and now I will ask him one question, which if he answer not, I
will take his clothes as lawful prize.”——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Fifty-fourth Night,