(O Mohammed) We (Allah) had not created the spheres," which may have
been suggested by "Before Abraham was, I am" (John viii. 58); and by
Gate xci. of Zoroastrianism "O Zardusht for thy sake I have created the
world" (Dabistan i. 344). The sentiment is by no means "Shi'ah," as my
learned friend Prof. Aloys Springer supposes. In his Mohammed (p. 220)
we find an extract from a sectarian poet, "For thee we dispread the
earth; for thee we caused the waters to flow; for thee we vaulted the
heavens." As Baron Alfred von Kremer, another learned and experienced
Orientalist, reminds me, the "Shi'ahs" have always shown a decided
tendency to this kind of apotheosis and have deified or quasi-deified
Ali and the Imams. But the formula is first found in the highly
orthodox Burdah poem of Al-Busiri:—
"But for him (Lau lα-hu) the world had never come out of nothingness."
Hence it has been widely diffused. See Les Aventures de Kamrup (pp.
146-7) and Les uvres de Wali (pp. 51-52), by M. Garcin de Tassy and the
Dabistan (vol. i. pp. 2-3).
[FN#517] Arab. "Sνmiyα" from the Pers., a word apparently built on the
model of "Kαmiyα" = alchemy, and applied, I have said, to fascination,
minor miracles and white magic generally like the Hindu "Indrajal." The
common term for Alchemy is Ilm al-Kαf (the K-science) because it is not
safe to speak of it openly as Alchemy.
[FN#518] Mare Tenebrarum = Sea of Darknesses; usually applied to the
"mournful and misty Atlantic."
[FN#519] Some Moslems hold that Solomon and David were buried in
Jerusalem, others on the shore of Lake Tiberias. Mohammed, according to
the history of Al-Tabari (p. 56 vol. i. Duleux's "Chronique de Tabari")
declares that the Jinni bore Solomon's corpse to a palace hewn in the
rock upon an island surrounded by a branch of the "Great Sea" and set
him on a throne, with his ring still on his finger, under a guard of
twelve Jinns. "None hath looked upon the tomb save only two, Affan who
took Bulukiya as his companion: with extreme pains they arrived at the
spot, and Affan was about to carry off the ring when a thunderbolt
consumed him. So Bulukiya returned."
[FN#520] Koran xxxviii. 34, or, "art the liberal giver."
[FN#521] i.e. of the last trumpet blown by the Archangel Israfil: an
idea borrowed from the Christians. Hence the title of certain
churches—ad Tubam.
[FN#522] This may mean that the fruits were fresh and dried like dates
or tamarinds (a notable wonder), or soft and hard of skin like grapes
and pomegranates.
[FN#523] Arab. "Ai-lksνr" meaning lit. an essence; also the
philosopher's stone.
[FN#524] Name of the Jinni whom Solomon imprisoned in Lake
Tiberias (See vol. i., 41).
[FN#525] Vulgarly pronounced "Jahannum." The second hell is usually
assigned to Christians. As there are seven Heavens (the planetary
orbits) so, to satisfy Moslem love of symmetry, there must be as many
earths and hells under the earth. The Egyptians invented these grim
abodes, and the marvellous Persian fancy worked them into poem.
[FN#526] Arab. "Yαjϊj and Majuj," first named in Gen. x. 2, which gives
the ethnology of Asia Minor, circ. B.C. 800. "Gomer" is the Gimri or
Cymmerians; "Magog" the original Magi, a division of the Medes, "Javan"
the Ionian Greeks, "Meshesh" the Moschi; and "Tires" the Turusha, or
primitive Cymmerians. In subsequent times, "Magog" was applied to the
Scythians, and modern Moslems determine from the Koran (chaps. xviii.
and xxi.) that Yajuj and Majuj are the Russians, whom they call Moska
or Moskoff from the Moskwa River,
[FN#527] I attempt to preserve the original pun; "Mukarrabin" (those
near Allah) being the Cherubim, and the Creator causing Iblis to draw
near Him (karraba).
[FN#528] A vulgar version of the Koran (chaps. vii.), which seems to
have borrowed from the Gospel of Barnabas. Hence Adam becomes a manner
of God-man.
[FN#529] These wild fables are caricatures of Rabbinical legends which
began with "Lilith," the Spirit-wife of Adam: Nature and her
counterpart, Physis and Antiphysis, supply a solid basis for folk-lore.
Amongst the Hindus we have Brahma (the Creator) and Viswakarmα, the
anti-Creator: the former makes a horse and a bull and the latter
caricatures them with an ass and a buffalo, and so forth.
[FN#530] This is the "Lauh al-Mahfϊz," the Preserved Tablet, upon which
are written all Allah's decrees and the actions of mankind good (white)
and evil (black). This is the "perspicuous Book" of the Koran, chaps.
vi. 59. The idea again is Guebre.
[FN#531] i.e. the night before Friday which in Moslem parlance would be
Friday night.
[FN#532] Again Persian "Gαw-i-Zamνn" = the Bull of the Earth.
"The cosmogony of the world," etc., as we read in the Vicar of
Wakefield.
[FN#533] The Calc. Edit. ii. 614. here reads by a clerical error
"bull."
[FN#534] i.e. Lakes and rivers.
[FN#535] Here some abridgement is necessary, for we have another
recital of what has been told more than once.
[FN#536] This name, "King of Life," is Persian: "Tegh" or "Tigh" means
a scimitar and "Bahrwαn," is, I conceive, a mistake for "Bihrϊn," the
Persian name of Alexander the Great.
[FN#537] Arab. "Mulαkαt" or meeting the guest which, I have said, is an
essential part of Eastern ceremony, the distance from the divan, room,
house or town being proportioned to his rank or consideration.
[FN#538] Arab. "Sifr": whistling is held by the Badawi to be the speech
of devils; and the excellent explorer Burckhardt got a bad name by the
ugly habit.
[FN#539] The Arabs call "Shikk" (split man) and the Persians
"Nνmchahrah" (half-face) a kind of demon like a man divided
longitudinally: this gruesome creature runs with amazing speed and is
very cruel and dangerous. For the celebrated soothsayers "Shikk" and
"Sαtih" see Chenery's Al-Hariri, p. 371.
[FN#540] Arab. "Takht" (Persian) = a throne or a capital.
[FN#541] Arab. "Wady al-Naml"; a reminiscence of the Koranic Wady
(chaps. xxvii.), which some place in Syria and others in Tαif.
[FN#542] This is the old, old fable of the River Sabbation which
Pliny ((xxx). 18) reports as "drying up every Sabbath-day"
(Saturday): and which Josephus reports as breaking the Sabbath by
flowing only on the Day of Rest.
[FN#543] They were keeping the Sabbath. When lodging with my Israelite
friends at Tiberias and Safet, I made a point of never speaking to them
(after the morning salutation) till the Saturday was over.
[FN#544] Arab. "La'al" and "Yαkϊt," the latter also applied to the
garnet and to a variety of inferior stones. The ruby is supposed by
Moslems to be a common mineral thoroughly "cooked" by the sun, and
produced only on the summits of mountains inaccessible even to
Alpinists. The idea may have originated from exaggerated legends of the
Badakhshαn country (supposed to be the home of the ruby) and its
terrors of break-neck foot-paths, jagged peaks and horrid ravines:
hence our "balas-ruby" through the Spanish corruption "Balaxe."
Epiphanius, archbishop of Salamis in Cyprus, who died A.D. 403, gives,
m a little treatise (De duodecim gemmis rationalis summi sacerdotis
Hebrζorum Liber, opera Fogginii, Romae, 1743, p. 30), a precisely
similar description of the mode of finding jacinths in Scythia. "In a
wilderness in the interior of Great Scythia," he writes, "there is a
valley begirt with stony mountains as with walls. It is inaccessible to
man, and so excessively deep that the bottom of the valley is invisible
from the top of the surrounding mountains. So great is the darkness
that it has the effect of a kind of chaos. To this place certain
criminals are condemned, whose task it is to throw down into the valley
slaughtered lambs, from which the skin has been first taken off. The
little stones adhere to these pieces of flesh. Thereupon the eagles,
which live on the summits of the mountains, fly down following the
scent of the flesh, and carry away the lambs with the stones adhering
to them. They, then, who are condemned to this place watch until the
eagles have finished their meal, and run and take away the stones."
Epiphanius, who wrote this, is spoken of in terms of great respect by
many ecclesiastical writers, and St. Jerome styles the treatise here
quoted, "Egregium volumen, quod si legere volueris, plenissimam
scientiam consequeris ," and, indeed, it is by no means improbable that
it was from the account of Epiphanius that this story was first
translated into Arabic. A similar account is given by Marco Polo and by
Nicolς de Conti, as of a usage which they had heard was practiced in
India, and the position ascribed to the mountain by Conti, namely,
fifteen days' journey north of Vijanagar, renders it highly probable
that Golconda was alluded to. He calls the mountain Albenigaras, and
says that it was infested with serpents. Marco Polo also speaks of
these serpents, and while his account agrees with that of Sindbad,
inasmuch as the serpents, which are the prey of Sindbad's Rukh, are
devoured by the Venetian's eagles, that of Conti makes the vultures and
eagles fly away with the meat to places where they may be safe from the
serpents. (Introd. p. xiii., India in the Fifteenth Century, etc., R.
H. Major, London, Hakluyt Soc. MDCCCLVII.)
[FN#545] Elder Victory: "Nasr" is a favourite name with Moslems.
[FN#546] These are the "Swan-maidens" of whom Europe in late years has
heard more than enough. It appears to me that we go much too far for an
explanation of the legend; a high-bred girl is so like a swan in many
points that the idea readily suggests itself. And it is also aided by
the old Egyptian (and Platonic) belief in pre-existence and by the
Rabbinic and Buddhistic doctrine of ante-natal sin, to say nothing of
metempsychosis. (Joseph Ant. xvii.. 153.)
[FN#547] The lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne for variety.
[FN#548] Arab. "Al-Khayαl": it is a synonym of "al-Tayf' and the
nearest approach to our "ghost," as has been explained. In poetry it is
the figure of the beloved seen when dreaming.
[FN#549] He does not kiss her mouth because he intends to marry her.
[FN#550] It should be "manifest" excellence. (Koran xxvii. 16.)
[FN#551] The phrase is Koranic used to describe Paradise, and Damascus
is a familiar specimen of a city under which a river, the Baradah,
passes, distributed into a multitude of canals.
[FN#552] It may be noted that rose-water is sprinkled on the faces of
the "nobility and gentry, " common water being good enough for the
commonalty. I have had to drink tea made in compliment with rose-water
and did not enjoy it.
[FN#553] The "Valley Flowery:" Zahrαn is the name of a place near
Al-Medinah.
[FN#554] The Proud or Petulant.
[FN#555] i.e. Lion, Son of ( ?).
[FN#556] i.e. Many were slain.
[FN#557] I venture to draw attention to this battle-picture which is at
once simple and highly effective.
[FN#558] Anglicθ a quibble, evidently evasive.
[FN#559] In text "Anα A'amil," etc., a true Egypto-Syrian vulgarism.
[FN#560] i.e. magical formulζ. The context is purposely left vague.
[FN#561] The repetition is a condescension, a token of kindness.
[FN#562] This is the common cubic of 18 inches: the modern vary from 22
to 26.
[FN#563] I have noticed the two-humped Bactrian camel which the Syrians
and Egyptians compare with an elephant. See p. 221 (the neo-Syrian)
Book of Kalilah and Dimnah.
[FN#564] The Noachian dispensation revived the Islam or true religion
first revealed to Adam and was itself revived and reformed by Moses.
[FN#565] Probably a corruption of the Turkish "Kara Tαsh" = black
stone, in Arab. "Hαjar Jahannam" (hell-stone), lava, basalt.
[FN#566] A variant of lines in Night xx., vol. i., 211.
[FN#567] i.e. Daughter of Pride: the proud.
[FN#568] In the Calc. Edit. by misprint "Maktab." Jabal Mukattam is the
old sea-cliff where the Mediterranean once beat and upon whose
North-Western slopes Cairo is built.
[FN#569] Arab. "Kutb"; lie. an axle, a pole; next a prince; a high
order or doyen in Sainthood especially amongst the Sufi-gnostics.
[FN#570] Lit. "The Green" (Prophet), a mysterious personage confounded
with Elijah, St. George and others. He was a Moslem, i.e. a ewe
believer in the Islam of his day and Wazir to Kaykobad, founder of the
Kayanian dynasty, sixth century B.C. We have before seen him as a
contemporary of Moses. My learned friend Ch. Clermone-Ganneau traces
him back, with a multitude of his similars (Proteus, Perseus, etc.), to
the son of Osiris (p. 45, Horus et Saint Georges).
[FN#571] Arab. "Waled," more ceremonious than "ibn." It is, by the by,
the origin of our "valet" in its sense of boy or servant who is
popularly addressed Yα waled. Hence I have seen in a French book of
travels "un petit Iavelet."
[FN#572] Arab. "Azal" = Eternity (without beginning); "Abad" =
Infinity (eternity without end).
[FN#573] The Moslem ritual for slaughtering (by cutting the throat) is
not so strict as that of the Jews; but it requires some practice; and
any failure in the conditions renders the meat impure, mere carrion
(fatνs).
[FN#574] The Wazir repeats all the words spoken by the Queen—but "in
iteration there is no recreation."
[FN#575] A phrase always in the Moslem's mouth: the slang meaning of
"we put our trust in Allah" is "let's cut our stick."
[FN#576] Koran liii. 14. This "Sidrat al-Muntahα" (Zizyphus lotus)
stands m the seventh heaven on the right hand of Allah's throne: and
even the angels may not pass beyond it.
[FN#577] Arab. "Habash" the word means more than "Abyssinia" as it
includes the Dankali Country and the sea-board, a fact unknown to the
late Lord Stratford de Redcliffe when he disputed with the Porte. I
ventured to set him right and suffered accordingly.
[FN#578] Here ends vol. ii. of the Mac. Edit.