thing from general dirtiness.
Footnote 343:
A thick beard is one which does not show the skin; otherwise the
wearer is a “Kausaj;” in Pers. “Kúseh.” See vol. iii., 246.
Footnote 344:
Arab. “Al-Khutnah.” Nowhere commanded in the Koran and being only a
practice of the Prophet, the rite is not indispensable for converts,
especially the aged and the sick. Our ideas upon the subject are very
hazy for modern “niceness” allows a “Feast of the Circumcision,” but
no discussion thereon. Moses (alias Osarsiph) borrowed the rite from
the Egyptian hierophants who were all thus “purified”; the object
being to counteract the over-sensibility of the “sixth sense” and to
harden the _glans_ against abrasions and infection by exposure to air
and friction against the dress. Almost all African tribes practise it
but the modes vary and some are exceedingly curious: I shall notice a
peculiarly barbarous fashion called Al-Salkh (the flaying) still
practised in the Arabian province Al-Asír (Pilgrimage iii. 80). There
is a difference too between the Hebrew and the Moslem rite. The Jewish
operator, after snipping off the foreskin, rips up the prepuce with
his sharp thumb-nails so that the external cutis does not retract far
from the internal; and the wound, when healed, shows a narrow ring of
cicatrice. This ripping is not done by Moslems. They use a stick as a
probe passed round between glans and prepuce to ascertain the extent
of the frenum and that there is no abnormal adhesion. The foreskin is
then drawn forward and fixed by the forceps, a fork of two bamboo
splints, five or six inches long by a quarter thick, or in some cases
an iron like our compasses. This is tied tightly over the foreskin so
as to exclude about an inch and a half of the prepuce above and three
quarters below. A single stroke of the razor drawn directly downwards
removes the skin. The slight bleeding is stopped by burnt rags or
ashes and healed with cerates, pledgets and fumigations. Thus Moslem
circumcision does not prevent the skin retracting.
Footnote 345:
Of these 6336 versets only some 200 treat on law, civil and
ceremonial, fiscal and political, devotional and ceremonial, canonical
and ecclesiastical.
Footnote 346:
The learned young woman omitted Ukhnúkh = Enoch, because not in Koran;
and if she denoted him by “Idrís,” the latter is much out of place.
Footnote 347:
Some say grandson of Shem (Koran vii. 71).
Footnote 348:
Koran vii. 63, etc.
Footnote 349:
Father-in-law of Moses (Koran vii. 83).
Footnote 350:
Who is the last and greatest of the twenty-five.
Footnote 351:
See Night ccccxxxviii.
Footnote 352:
Koran ii., whose 256th Ayah is the far-famed and sublime Throne-verse
which begins “Allah! there is no god but He, the Living, the Eternal
One, whom nor slumber nor sleep seizeth on!” The trivial name is taken
from the last line, “His _throne_ over-stretcheth Heaven and Earth and
to Him their preservation is no burden for He is the most Highest, the
Supreme.” The lines are often repeated in prayers and engraved on
agates, etc., as portable talismans.
Footnote 353:
Koran ii. 159.
Footnote 354:
Koran xvi. 92. The verset ends with, “He warneth you, so haply ye may
be mindful.”
Footnote 355:
Koran lxx. 38.
Footnote 356:
Koran xxxix. 54.
Footnote 357:
The Sunnis hold that the “Anbiyá” (= prophets, or rather announcers of
Allah’s judgments) were not sinless. But this dogma is branded as most
irreverent and sinful by the Shi’ahs or Persian “followers of Ali,”
who make capital out of this blasphemy and declare that if any prophet
sinned he sinned only against himself.
Footnote 358:
Koran xii. 18.
Footnote 359:
Koran ii. 107.
Footnote 360:
Koran li. 57. He (Allah) does not use the plurale majestatis.
Footnote 361:
Koran ii. 28.
Footnote 362:
Koran xvi. 100. Satan is stoned in the Miná or Muná basin (Night
ccccxlii.) because he tempted Abraham to disobey the command of Allah
by refusing to sacrifice Ishmael (Pilgrimage iii. 248).
Footnote 363:
It may also mean “have recourse to God.”
Footnote 364:
Abdallah ibn Abbas, before noticed, first cousin of Mohammed and the
most learned of the Companions. See D’Herbelot.
Footnote 365:
Koran xcvi., “Blood-clots,” 1 and 2. “Read” may mean “peruse the
revelation” (it was the first Koranic chapter communicated to
Mohammed), or “recite, preach.”
Footnote 366:
Koran, xxvii. 30. Mr. Rodwell (p. 1) holds to the old idea that the
“Basmalah” is of Jewish origin, taught to the Kuraysh by Omayyah, of
Taif, the poet and Haníf (convert).
Footnote 367:
Koran ix.: this was the last chapter revealed and the only one
revealed entire except verse 110.
Footnote 368:
Ali was despatched from Al-Medinah to Meccah by the Prophet on his own
slit-eared camel to promulgate this chapter; and meeting the assembly
at Al-‘Akabah he also acquainted them with four things; (1) No Infidel
may approach the Meccah temple; (2) naked men must no longer circuit
the Ka’abah; (3) only Moslems enter Paradise, and (4) public faith
must be kept.
Footnote 369:
Dictionaries give the word “Basmalah” (= saying Bismillah); but the
common pronunciation is “Bismalah.”
Footnote 370:
Koran xvii. 110, a passage revealed because the Infidels, hearing
Mohammed calling upon The Compassionate, imagined that Al-Rahmán was
other deity but Allah. The “names” have two grand divisions, Asmá
Jalálí, the fiery or terrible attributes, and the Asmá Jamálí (airy,
watery, earthy or) amiable. Together they form the Asmá al-Husna or
glorious attributes, and do not include the Ism al-A’azam, the
ineffable name which is known only to a few.
Footnote 371:
Koran ii. 158.
Footnote 372:
Koran xcvi. before noticed.
Footnote 373:
A man of Al-Medinah, one of the first of Mohammed’s disciples.
Footnote 374:
Koran lxxiv. 1, etc., supposed to have been addressed by Gabriel to
Mohammed when in the cave of Hira or Jabal Núr. He returned to his
wife Khadijah in sore terror at the vision of one sitting on a throne
between heaven and earth, and bade her cover him up. Whereupon the
Archangel descended with this text, supposed to be the first revealed.
Mr. Rodwell (p. 3) renders it, “O thou enwrapped _in thy mantle_!” and
makes it No. ii. after a Fatrah or silent interval of six months to
three years.
Footnote 375:
There are several versets on this subject (chapts. ii. and xxx).
Footnote 376:
Koran cx. 1.
Footnote 377:
The third Caliph; the “Writer of the Koran.”
Footnote 378:
Koran, v. 4. Sale translates “idols.” Mr. Rodwell, “On the blocks (or
shafts) of stone,” rude altars set by the pagan Arabs before their
dwellings.
Footnote 379:
Koran, v. 116. The words are put into the mouth of Jesus.
Footnote 380:
The end of the same verse.
Footnote 381:
Koran, v. 89. Supposed to have been revealed when certain Moslems
purposed to practise Christian asceticism, fasting, watching,
abstaining from women and sleeping on hard beds. I have said Mohammed
would have “no monkery in Al-Islam,” but human nature willed
otherwise. Mr. Rodwell prefers “Interdict the healthful viands.”
Footnote 382:
Koran, iv. 124.
Footnote 383:
Arab. “Mukri.” “Kári” is one who reads the Koran to pupils; the Mukri
corrects them. “With the passage of the clouds” = without a moment’s
hesitation.
Footnote 384:
The twenty-first, twenty-fourth and eighteenth Arabic letters.
Footnote 385:
Arab. “Hizb.” The Koran is divided into sixty portions, answering to
“Lessons” for convenience of public worship.
Footnote 386:
Arab. “Jalálah,” = saying Jalla Jalálu-hu = magnified be His Majesty!,
or glorified be His Glory.
Footnote 387:
Koran, xi. 50.
Footnote 388:
The partition-wall between Heaven and Hell which others call Al-‘Urf
(in the sing. from the verb meaning he separated or parted). The Jeus
borrowed from the Guebres the idea of a partition between Heaven and
Hell and made it so thin that the blessed and damned can speak
together. There is much dispute about the population of Al-A’aráf, the
general idea being that they are men who do not deserve reward in
Heaven or punishment in Hell. But it is not a “Purgatory” or place of
expiating sins.
Footnote 389:
Koran, vii. 154.
Footnote 390:
A play on the word ayn, which means “eye” or the eighteenth letter
which in olden times had the form of a circle.
Footnote 391:
From misreading these words comes the absurd popular belief of the
moon passing up and down Mohammed’s sleeves. George B. Airy (The
Athenæum, Nov. 29, 1884) justly objects to Sale’s translation “The
hour of _judgment_ approacheth” and translates “The moon hath been
dichotomised” a well-known astronomical term when the light portion of
the moon is defined in a strait line: in other words when it is really
a half-moon at the first and third quarters of each lunation. Others
understand, The moon shall be split on the Last Day, the preterite for
the future in prophetic style. “Koran Moslems” of course understand it
literally.
Footnote 392:
Chapters liv., lv. and lvi.
Footnote 393:
We should say, _not_ to utter, etc.
Footnote 394:
These well-known “humours of Hippocrates,” which reappear in the form
of temperaments of European phrenology, are still the base of Eastern
therapeutics.
Footnote 395:
The doctrine of the three souls will be intelligible to Spiritualists.
Footnote 396:
Arab. “Al-lámi” = the l-shaped, curved, forked.
Footnote 397:
Arab. “Usus,” our os sacrum because, being incorruptible, the body
will be built up thereon for Resurrection-time. Hence Hudibras sings
(iii. 2).
The learned Rabbis of the Jews
Write there’s a bone which they call _leuz_,
I’ the rump of man, etc.
It is the Heb. “Uz,” whence older scholars derived _os_. Sale (sect.
iv.) called it “El Ajb, os coccygis or rump-bone.”
Footnote 398:
Arab physiologists had difficulties in procuring “subjects”; and
usually practised dissection on the simiads. Their illustrated books
are droll; the figures have been copied and recopied till they have
lost all resemblance to the originals.
Footnote 399:
The liver and spleen are held to be congealed blood. Hence the
couplet:—
We are allowed two carrions (_i.e._ with throats uncut) and two
bloods,
The fish and the locust, the liver and the spleen.
(Pilgrimage iii. 92.)
Footnote 400:
This is perfectly true and yet little known to the general.
Footnote 401:
Koran xvii. 39.
Footnote 402:
Arab. “Al-malikhulíya,” proving that the Greeks then pronounced the
penultimate vowel according to the acute accent—ía; not as we slur it
over. In old Hebrew we have the transliteration of four Greek words;
in the languages of Hindostan many scores including names of places;
and in Latin and Arabic as many hundreds. By a scholar-like comparison
of these remains we should find little difficulty in establishing the
true Greek pronunciation since the days of Alexander the Great; and we
shall prove that it was pronounced according to accent and
emphatically _not_ quantity. In the next century I presume English
boys will be taught to pronounce Greek as the Greeks do.
Footnote 403:
Educated Arabs can quote many a verse bearing upon domestic medicine
and reminding us of the lines bequeathed to Europe by the School of
Salerno. Such _e.g._ are:—
After the noon-meal, sleep, although for moments twain;
After the night-meal, walk, though but two steps be ta’en;
And after swiving stale, though but two drops thou drain.
Footnote 404:
Arab. Sarídah (Tharídah), also called “ghaut” = crumbled bread and
hashed meat in broth; or bread, milk and meat. The Sarídah of Ghassán,
cooked with eggs and marrow, was held a dainty dish: hence the
Prophet’s dictum.
Footnote 405:
Koran v. 92. “Lots” = games of chance and “images” = statues.
Footnote 406:
Koran ii. 216. The word “Maysar” which I have rendered “gambling” or
“gaming” (for such is the modern application of the word), originally
meant what St. Jerome calls Βελομαντία and explains thereby the verse
(Ezek. xxi. 22), “The King held in his hand the lot of Jerusalem”
_i.e._ the arrow whereon the city-name was written. The Arabs use it
for casting lots with ten azlam or headless arrows (for dice) three
being blanks and the rest notched from one to seven. They were thrown
by a “Zárib” or punter and the stake was generally a camel. Amongst so
excitable a people as the Arabs, this game caused quarrels and
bloodshed, hence its prohibition: and the theologians, who everywhere
and at all times delight in burdening human nature, have extended the
command, which is rather admonitory than prohibitive, to all games of
chance. Tarafah is supposed to allude to this practice in his
Mu’allakah.
Footnote 407:
Liberal Moslems observe that the Koranic prohibition is not absolute,
with threat of Hell for infraction. Yet Mohammed doubtless forbade all
inebriatives and the occasion of his so doing is well known
(Pilgrimage ii. 322).
Footnote 408:
I have noticed this soured milk in Pilgrimage i. 362.
Footnote 409:
He does not say the “Caliph” or successor of his uncle Mohammed.
Footnote 410:
The Jewish Korah (Numbers xvi.) fabled by the Koran (xxviii. 76),
following a Talmudic tradition, to have been a man of immense wealth.
The notion that lying with an old woman, after the menses have ceased,
is unwholesome, dates from great antiquity; and the benefits of the
reverse process were well known to _good_ King David. The faces of
children who sleep with their grandparents (a bad practice now waxing
obsolete in England), of a young wife married to an old man and of a
young man married to an old woman, show a peculiar wizened appearance,
a look of age overlaying youth which cannot be mistaken.
Footnote 411:
Arab. “Hindibá” (= endubium): the modern term is Shakuríyah =
chicorée. I believe it to be very hurtful to the eyes.
Footnote 412:
Arab. “Khuffásh” and “Watwát”: in Egypt a woman is called “Watwátíyah”
when the hair of her privities has been removed by applying bats’
blood. I have often heard of this; but cannot understand how such an
application can act depilatory.
Footnote 413:
Dictionaries render the word by “dragon, cockatrice.” The Badawin
apply it to a variety of serpents mostly large and all considered
venomous.
Footnote 414:
Arab. “Zarr wa ‘urwah,” lit. = handle. The button-hole, I have said,
is a modern invention; Urwah is also applied to the loop-shaped handle
of the water-skin, for attachment of the Allákah or suspensory thong.
Footnote 415:
Koran lxx. 40; see also the chapter following, v. 16.
Footnote 416:
Koran x. 5; the “her” refers to the sun.
Footnote 417:
Koran xxxvi. 40.
Footnote 418:
Koran xxii. 60.
Footnote 419:
Arab. “Manázil:” these are the Hindu Nakshatra; extensively used in
meteorology even by Europeans unconsciously: thus they will speak of
the Elephantina-storm without knowing anything of the lunar mansion so
called. The names in the text are successively Sharatán = two horns of
the Ram; (2) the Ram’s belly; (3) the Pleiades; (4) Aldebaran; (5)
three stars in Orion’s head; (6) ditto in Orion’s shoulder; (7) two
stars above the Twins; (8) Lion’s nose and first summer station; (9)
Lion’s eye; (10) Lion’s forehead; (11) Lion’s mane; (12) Lion’s heart;
(13) the Dog, two stars in Virgo; (14) Spica Virginis; (15) φ, ι and κ
in foot of Virgo; (16) horns of Scorpio; (17) the Crown; (18) heart of
Scorpio; (19) tail of Scorpio; (20) stars in Pegasus; (21) where no
constellation appears; (22) the Slaughterer’s luck; (23) Glutton’s
luck; (24) Luck of Lucks, stars in Aquarius; (25) Luck of Tents, stars
in Aquarius; (26) the fore-lip or spout of Urn; (27) hind lip of Urn;
and (28) in navel of Fish’s belly (Batn al-Hút); of these 28 to each
of the four seasons 7 are allotted.
Footnote 420:
The Hebrew absey, still used by Moslems in chronograms. For mnemonic
purposes the 28 letters are distributed into eight words of which the
first and second are Abjad and Hawwaz. The last six letters in two
words (Thakhiz and Zuzigh) are Arabian, unknown to the Jews and not
found in Syriac.
Footnote 421:
Arab. “Zindík;” properly, one who believes in two gods (the old
Persian dualism); in books an atheist, _i.e._ one who does not believe
in a god or gods; and, popularly, a free-thinker who denies the
existence of a Supreme Being, rejects revelation for the laws of
Nature imprinted on the heart of man and for humanity in its widest
sense. Hence he is accused of permitting incestuous marriages and
other abominations. We should now call him (for want of something
better) an Agnostic.
Footnote 422:
Koran xxxi. 34. The words may still be applied to meteorologists
especially of the scientific school. Even the experienced (as the
followers of the late Mathieu de la Drôme) reckon far more failures
than successes. The Koranic passage enumerates five things known only
to Allah; Judgment-day; rain; sex of child in womb; what shall happen
to-morrow and where a man shall die.
Footnote 423:
The fifth and seventh months (January and March) of the Coptic year
which, being solar, is still used by Arab and Egyptian meteorologists.
Much information thereon will be found in the “Egyptian Calendar” by
Mr. Mitchell, Alexandria 1876. It bears the appropriate motto “Anni
certus modus apud solos semper Ægyptios fuit.” (Macrobius). See also
Lane M.E., chapt. ix.
Footnote 424:
Vulg. Kiyák; the fourth month, beginning 9th–10th December. The first
month is Tút, commencing 10th–11th September.
Footnote 425:
The 8th and 12th months partly corresponding with April and August:
Hátúr is the 3rd (November) and Amshír the 6th (February).
Footnote 426:
Moslems have been compelled to adopt infidel names for the months
because Mohammed’s Koranic rejection of Nasy or intercalation makes
their lunar months describe the whole circle of the seasons in a cycle
of about thirty-three and a half years. Yet they have retained the
terms which contain the original motive of the denomination. The first
month is Muharram, the “Holy,” because war was forbidden; it was also
known as Safar No. 1. The second Safar = “Emptiness,” because during
the heats citizens left the towns and retired to Táif and other cool
sites. Rabí’a (first and second) alluded to the spring-pasturages;
Jumádá (first and second) to the “hardening” of the dry ground and,
according to some, to the solidification, freezing, of the water in
the highlands. Rajab (No. 7) = “worshipping,” especially by sacrifice,
is also known as Al-Asamm the deaf; because being sacred, the rattle
of arms was unheard. Sha’abán = “collecting,” dispersing, ruining,
because the tribal wars recommenced: Ramazan (intensely hot) has been
explained and Shawwál (No. 10.) derives from Shaul (elevating) when
the he-camels raise their tails in rut. Zú’l-Ka’adah, the sedentary,
is the rest time of the year, when fighting is forbidden and
Zu’l-Hijjah explains itself as the pilgrimage-month.
Footnote 427:
The lowest of the seven.
Footnote 428:
Koran xxxvii. 5.
Footnote 429:
Arab. “Faylasúf,” an evident corruption from the Greek. Amongst the
vulgar it denotes a sceptic, an atheist; much the same a “Frammásún”
or Freemason. The curious reader will consult the Dabistan, vol. iii.
chapt. xi. p. 138 _et seq._ “On the Religion of the Wise”
(philosophi), and, Beaconsfield’s theft from Shaftesbury.
Footnote 430:
Koran xxxvi. 37–38.
Footnote 431:
Koran xxii. 7. The Hour _i.e._ of Judgment.
Footnote 432:
Koran xx. 58. The Midrasch Tanchumah on Exod. vii. gives a similar
dialogue between Pharaoh and Moses (Rodwell, _in loco_).
Footnote 433:
Arab. “Sham’ún” or “Shim’ún,” usually applied to Simon Peter (as in
Acts xv. 14). But the text alludes to Saint Simeon (Luke ii. 25–35).
See Gospel of Infancy (ii. 8) and especially the Gospel of Nicodemus
(xii. 3) which makes him a High-priest.
Footnote 434:
Sálih the Patriarch’s she-camel, miraculously produced from the rock
in order to convert the Thamúd-tribe (Koran vii).
Footnote 435:
When Abu Bakr was hiding with Mohammed in a cave on the Hill Al-Saur
(Thaur or Thúr, Pilgrimage ii. 131) South of Meccah, which must not be
confounded with the cave on Jabal Hirá now called Jabal Núr on the way
to Arafat (Pilgrimage iii. 246), the fugitives were protected by a
bird which built her nest at the entrance (according to another legend
it was curtained by a spider’s web), whilst another bird (the crow of
whom I shall presently speak) tried to betray them. The first bird is
popularly supposed to have been a pigeon, and is referred to by
Hudibras:—
Th’ apostles of this fierce religion
Like Mahomet, were ass and widgeon.
The ass I presume alludes to the marvellous beast Al-Burák which the
Greeks called Βράχθαν from Βραχ (Euthymius in Pocock, Spec. A.H. p.
144) and which Indian Moslems picture with human face, ass’s ears,
equine body and peacock’s wings and tail. The “widgeon” I presume to
be a mistake or a misprint for pigeon.
Footnote 436:
The Arabs are not satisfied with the comparative moderation of the
Hebrew miracle, and have added all manner of absurdities (Pilgrimage
ii. 288).
Footnote 437:
Koran lxxxi. 18. Sale translates “by the morning when it appeareth;”
and the word (tanaffus) will bear this meaning. Mr. Rodwell prefers,
“By the dawn when it clears away the darkness by its breath.”
Footnote 438:
As a rule Moslems are absurdly ignorant of arithmetic and
apparently cannot master it. Hence in Egypt they used Copts for
calculating-machines and further East Hindús. The mildest
numerical puzzle, like the above, is sure of success.
Footnote 439:
The paradisal tree which supplied every want. Mohammed borrowed it
from the Christians (Rev. xxi. 10–21 and xxii. 1–2) who placed in
their paradise the Tree of Life which bears twelve sorts of fruits and
leaves of healing virtue. (See also the 3rd book of Hermas, his
Similitudes.) The Hebrews borrowed it from the Persians. Amongst the
Hindus it appears as “Kalpavriksha;” amongst the Scandinavians as
Yggdrasil. The curious reader will consult Mr. James Fergusson’s
learned work, “Tree and Serpent Worship,” etc. London, 1873.
Footnote 440:
Aaron’s Rod becomes amongst Moslems (Koran vii. 110) Moses’ Staff; the
size being that of a top-mast (Pilgrimage i. 300, 301). In Koran xx.
18, 19, we find a notice of its uses; and during the Middle Ages it
reappeared in the Staff of Wamba the Goth (A.D. 672–680): the witch’s
broomstick was its latest development.
Footnote 441:
Christ, say the Eutychians, had only one nature the divine; so he was
crucified in effigy.
Footnote 442:
Jesus is compared with Adam in the Koran (chapt. iii.): his titles are
Kalámu ‘llah (word of God) because engendered without a father, and
Rúhu ‘llah (breath of God) because conceived by Gabriel in the shape
of a beautiful youth breathing into the Virgin’s vulva. Hence Moslems
believe in a “miraculous conception” and consequently determine that
one so conceived was, like Elias and Khizr, not subject to death; they
also hold him born free from “original sin” (a most sinful
superstition), a veil being placed before the Virgin and Child against
the Evil One who could not touch them. He spoke when a babe in cradle;
he performed miracles of physic; he was taken up to Heaven; he will
appear as the forerunner of Mohammed on the White Tower of Damascus,
and finally he will be buried at Al-Medinah. The Jews on the other
hand speak of him as “that man:” they hold that he was begotten by
Joseph during the menstrual period and therefore a born magician.
Moreover he learned the Sham ha-maphrash or Nomen tetragrammaton,
wrote it on parchment and placed it in an incision in his thigh, which
closed up on the Name being mentioned (Buxtorf, Lex Talmud 25–41).
Other details are given in the Toldoth Jesu (Historia Joshuæ
Nazareni). This note should be read by the eminent English littérateur
who discovered a fact, well known to Locke and Carlyle, that
“Mohammedans are Christians.” So they are and something more.
Footnote 443:
In the Kalamdán, or pen-case, is a little inkstand of metal occupying
the top of the long, narrow box.
Footnote 444:
A fair specimen of the riddle known as the “surprise.”
Footnote 445:
Koran xli. 10.
Footnote 446:
Koran xxxvi. 82.
Footnote 447: