Footnote 382:
Mr. Payne reads “Maghrabi” = a Mauritanian, Marocean, the Moors (not
the Moorish Jews or Arabs) being a race of Sodomites from highest to
lowest. But the Mac. and Bul. Edit. have “Ajami.”
Footnote 383:
For “Ishk uzri” = platonic love see vol. i. 232; ii. 104.
Footnote 384:
Zaynab (Zenobia) and Zayd are generic names for women and men.
Footnote 385:
_i.e._ He wrote “Kasídahs (= odes, elegies) after the fashion of the
“Suspended Poems” which mostly open with the lover gazing upon the
traces of the camp where his beloved had dwelt. The exaggerated
conventionalism of such exordium shows that these early poems had been
preceded by a host of earlier pieces which had been adopted as canons
of poetry.
Footnote 386:
The verses are very mal-à-propos, like many occurring in The Nights,
for the maligned Shaykh is proof against all the seductions of the
pretty boy and falls in love with a woman after the fashion of Don
Quixote. Mr. Payne complains of the obscurity of the original owing to
abuse of the figure enallage; but I find them explicit enough,
referring to some debauched elder after the type of Abu Nowás.
Footnote 387:
Arab. “’Irk” = a root which must here mean a sprig, a twig. The basil
grows to a comparatively large size in the East.
Footnote 388:
Arab. “Láit” = one connected with the tribe of Lot, see vol. v. 161.
Footnote 389:
For the play upon “Sáki” (oblique case of sák, leg-calf) and Sáki a
cupbearer see vol. ii. 327.
Footnote 390:
“On a certain day the leg shall be bared and men shall be called upon
to bow in adoration, but they shall not be able” (Koran, lxviii. 42).
“Baring the leg” implies a grievous calamity, probably borrowed from
the notion of tucking up the skirts and stripping for flight. On the
dangerous San Francisco River one of the rapids is called
“Tira-calcoens” = take off your trousers (Highlands of the Brazil, ii.
35). But here the allusion is simply ludicrous and to a Moslem
blasphemous.
Footnote 391:
Arab. “Istahi,” a word of every day use in reproof. So the Hindost.
“Kuchh sharm nahín?” hast thou no shame? Shame is a passion with
Orientals and very little known to the West.
Footnote 392:
_i.e._ Angels and men saying, “The Peace (of God) be on us and on all
righteous servants of Allah!” This ends every prayer.
Footnote 393:
Arab. “Al-Níyah,” the ceremonial purpose or intent to pray, without
which prayer is null and void. See vol. v. 163. The words would be “I
purpose to pray a two-bow prayer in this hour of deadly danger to my
soul.” Concerning such prayer see vol. i. 142.
Footnote 394:
Arab. “Sákin” = quiescent, Let a sleeping hound lie.
Footnote 395:
Arab. “Ásár” lit. traces _i.e._ the works, the mighty signs and
marvels.
Footnote 396:
The mention of coffee now frequently occurs in this tale and in that
which follows; the familiar use of it showing a comparatively late
date, and not suggesting the copyist’s hand.
Footnote 397:
Arab. “Al-Kahwah,” the place being called from its produce. See
Pilgrimage i. 317–18.
Footnote 398:
Arab. “Al-Ghurbah Kurbah:” the translation in the text is taken from
my late friend Edward Eastwick, translator of the Gulistan and author
of a host of works which show him to have been a ripe Oriental
scholar.
Footnote 399:
The fiction may have been suggested by the fact that in all Moslem
cities from India to Barbary the inner and outer gates are carefully
shut during the noontide devotions, _not_ “because Friday is the day
on which creation was finished and Mohammed entered Al-Medinah;” but
because there is a popular idea that in times now approaching the
Christians will rise up against the Moslems during prayers and will
repeat the “Sicilian Vespers.”
Footnote 400:
_i.e._ the syndic of the Guild of Jewellers.
Footnote 401:
This is an Arab Lady Godiva of the wrong sort.
Footnote 402:
This is explained in my Pilgrimage i. 99 et seq.
Footnote 403:
About three pennyweights. It varies, however, everywhere and in
Morocco the “Mezkal” as they call it is an imaginary value, no such
coin existing.
Footnote 404:
_i.e._ over and above the value of the gold, etc.
Footnote 405:
This was the custom of contemporary Europe and more than one master
cutler has put to death an apprentice playing Peeping Tom to detect
the secret of sword-making.
Footnote 406:
Among Moslems husbands are divided into three species; (1) of “Bahr”
who is married for love; (2) of “Dahr,” for defence against the world,
and (3) of “Mahr” for marriage-settlements (money). Master Obayd was
an unhappy compound of the two latter; but he did not cease to be a
man of honour.
Footnote 407:
The Mac. Edit. here is a mass of blunders and misprints.
Footnote 408:
The Mac. Edit. everywhere calls her “Sabiyah” = the young lady and
does not mention her name Halímah = the Mild, the Gentle till the
cmlxxivth Night. I follow Mr. Payne’s example by introducing it
earlier into the story, as it avoids vagueness and repetition of the
indefinite.
Footnote 409:
Arab. “Adím al-Zauk,” = without savour, applied to an insipid
mannerless man as “bárid” (cold) is to a fool. “Ahl Zauk” is a man of
pleasure, a voluptuary, a hedonist.
Footnote 410:
Arab. “Finján” the egg-shell cups from which the Easterns still drink
coffee.
Footnote 411:
Arab. “Awáshik” a rare word, which Dozy translates “osselet” (or
osselle) and Mr. Payne, “hucklebones,” concerning which he has obliged
me with this note. Chambaud renders osselet by “petit os avec lequel
les enfants jouent.” Hucklebone is the hip-bone but in the plural it
applies to our cockals or cockles: Latham gives “hucklebone,” (or
cockal), one of the small vertebræ of the coccygis, and Littleton
translates “Talus,” a hucklebone, a bone to play with like a dye, a
play called cockal. (So also in Rider). Hucklebones and knucklebones
are syn.: but the latter is modern and liable to give a false idea,
besides being tautological. It has nothing to do with the knuckles and
derives from the German “Knöchel” (dialectically Knöchelein) a
bonelet.
Footnote 412:
For ablution after sleep and before prayer. The address of the
slave-girl is perfectly natural; in a Moslem house we should hear it
this day nor does it show the least sign of “frowardness.”
Footnote 413:
The perfect stupidity of the old wittol is told with the driest Arab
humour.
Footnote 414:
This is a rechauffé of the Language of Signs in “Azíz and Azízah” vol.
ii. 302.
Footnote 415:
In the Mac. Edit. “Yá Fulánah” = O certain person.
Footnote 416:
Arab. “Laylat al-Kábilah,” lit. = the coming night, our to-night; for
which see vol. iii. 349.
Footnote 417:
Arab. “Ya Ahmak!” which in Marocco means a madman, a maniac, a Santon.
Footnote 418:
The whole passage has a grammatical double entendre whose application
is palpable. Harf al-Jarr = a particle governing the noun in the
genitive or a mode of thrusting and tumbling.
Footnote 419:
Arab. Al-Silah = conjunctive (sentence), also coition; Al-Mausúl = the
conjoined, a grammatical term for relative pronoun or particle.
Footnote 420:
Arab. “Tanwín al-Izáfah ma’zúl” = the nunnation in construction cast
out. “Tanwín” (nunnation) is pronouncing the vowels of the
case-endings of a noun with n—un for u (nominative)—in for i
(genitive) and—an for a (accusative). This nunnation expresses
indefiniteness, _e.g._ “Malikun” = a king, any king. When the noun is
made definite by the Ma’rifah or article (al), the Tanwín must be
dropped, _e.g._ Al-Maliku = the King; Al-Malikun being a grammatical
absurdity. In construction or regimen (izáfah) the nunnation must also
disappear, as Maliku ’l-Hindi = the King of Hind (a King of Hind would
be Malikun min Mulúki ’l-Hindi = a King from amongst the Kings of
Hind). Thus whilst the wife and the lover were conjoined as much as
might be, the hocussed and sleeping husband was dismissed (ma’zúl =
degraded) like a nunnation dropped in construction. I may add that the
terminal syllables are invariably dropped in popular parlance and none
but Mr. G. Palgrave (who afterwards ignored his own assertion) ever
found an Arab tribe actually using them in conversation although they
are always pronounced when reading the Koran and poetry.
Footnote 421:
This was a saying of Mohammed about over-frequency of visits, “Zur
ghibban, tazid hubban” = call rarely that friendship last fairly. So
the verse of Al-Mutanabbi,
“How oft familiarity breeds dislike.”
Preston quotes Jesus ben Sirach, μὴ ἔμπιπτε ἵνα μὴ ἐπωσθῇς, καὶ μὴ
μακρὰν ἀφίστω ἵνα μὴ ἐπιλησθῇς. Also Al-Hariri (Ass. xv. of “The
Legal”; De Sacy p. 478 l. 2.) “Visit not your friend more than one day
in a month, nor stop longer than that with him!” Also Ass. xvi. 487,
8. “Multiply not visits to thy friend.” None so disliked as one
visiting too often (Preston p. 352). In the Cent nouvelles (52)
Nouvelles (No. lii.) the dying father says to his son:—Jamais ne vous
hantez tant en l’ostel de votre voisin que l’on vous y serve de pain
bis. In these matters Moslems follow the preaching and practice of the
Apostle, who was about as hearty and genial as the “Great Washington.”
But the Arab had a fund of dry humour which the Anglo-American lacked
altogether.
Footnote 422:
Arab. “’Amal” = action, operation. In Hindostani it is used (often
with an Alif for an Ayn) as intoxication _e.g._ Amal pání strong
waters and applied to Sharáb (wine), Bozah (Beer), Tádí (toddy or the
fermented juice of the Tád, _Borassus flabelliformis_), Naryáli (juice
of the cocoa-nut tree), Saynddi (of the wild date, _Elate
Sylvestris_), Afyún (opium and its preparations as post = poppy seeds)
and various forms of _Cannabis Sativa_, as Ganja, Charas, Madad, Sabzi
etc. for which see Herklots’ Glossary.
Footnote 423:
Arab. “Sardáb,” mostly an underground room (vol. i. 340) but here a
tunnel.
Footnote 424:
Arab. “Al-Láwandiyah”; this and the frequent mention of coffee and
presently of a watch (sá’ah) show that the tale in its present state,
cannot be older than the end of the sixteenth century.
Footnote 425:
Arab. “Su’bán,” vol. i. 172.
Footnote 426:
The lines have occurred in vol. i. 238; where I have noted the punning
“Sabr” = patience or aloes. I quote Torrens: the Templar, however,
utterly abolishes the pun in the last couplet:—
The case is not at my command; but in fair Patience hand ✿ I’m set by
Him who order’th all and doth such case command.
“Amr” here = case (circumstance) or command (order) with a suspicion
of reference to Murr = myrrh, bitterness. The reader will note the
resignation to Fate’s decrees which here and in host of places
elevates the tone of the book.
Footnote 427:
_i.e._ as one loathes that which is prohibited, and with a loathing
which makes it unlawful for me to cohabit with thee.
Footnote 428:
This is quite natural to the sensitive Eastern.
Footnote 429:
Hence, according to Moslem and Eastern theory generally her lewd and
treasonable conduct. But in Egypt not a few freeborn women and those
too of the noblest, would beat her hollow at her own little game. See
for instance the booklet attributed to Jalál al-Siyútí and entitled
Kitáb al-Ízáh (Book of Explanation) fí ’Ilm al-Nikáh (in the Science
of Carnal Copulation). There is a copy of it in the British Museum;
and a friend kindly supplied me with a lithograph from Cairo; warning
me that there are doubts about the authorship.
Footnote 430:
These lines have occurred in vol. iii. 214: I quote Mr. Payne.
Footnote 431:
This ejaculation, as the waw shows, is parenthetic; spoken either by
Halimah, by Shahrazad or by the writer.
Footnote 432:
Arab. “Kasr” here meaning an upper room.
Footnote 433:
To avoid saying, I pardon thee.
Footnote 434:
A proverbial saying which here means I could only dream of such good
luck.
Footnote 435:
A good old custom amongst Moslems who have had business transactions
with each other: such acquittance of all possible claims will be
quoted on “Judgment-Day,” when debts will be severely enquired into.
Footnote 436:
Arab. “Kutr (tract or quarter) Misr,” vulgarly pronounced “Masr.” I
may remind the reader that the Assyrians called the Nile-valley
“Musur” whence probably the Heb. Misraim a dual form denoting Upper
and Lower Egypt which are still distinguished by the Arabs into Sa’id
and Misr. The hieroglyphic term is Ta-mera = Land of the Flood; and
the Greek Aigyptos is probably derived from Kahi-Ptah (region of the
great God Ptah) or Ma Ka Ptah (House of the soul of Ptah). The word
“Copt” or “Kopt,” in Egyptian “Kubti” and pronounced “Gubti,” contains
the same consonants.
Footnote 437:
Now an unimportant frontier fort and village dividing Syria-Palestine
from Egypt and famed for the French battle with the Mamelukes (Feb.
19, 1799) and the convention for evacuating Egypt. In the old times it
was an important site built upon the “River of Egypt” now a dried up
Wady; and it was the chief port of the then populous Najab or South
Country. According to Abulfeda it derived its name (the “boothy,” the
nest) from a hut built there by the brothers of Joseph when stopped at
the frontier by the guards of Pharaoh. But this is usual Jewish
infection of history.
Footnote 438:
Arab. “Báb” which may also = “Chapter” or category. See vol. i., 136
and elsewhere (index). In Egypt “Báb” sometimes means a sepulchral
cave hewn in a rock (plur. Bíbán) from the Coptic “Bíb.”
Footnote 439:
_i.e._ “The Holy,” a town some three marches (60 miles) N. East of
Cairo; thus showing the honour done to our unheroic hero. There is
also a Sálihiyah quarter or suburb of Damascus famous for its cemetery
of holy men; but the facetious Cits change the name to Zálliniyah =
causing to stray; in allusion to its Kurdish population. Baron von
Hammer reads “le faubourg Adelieh” built by Al-Malik Al-Adil and
founded a chronological argument on a clerical error.
Footnote 440:
Kamar al-Zaman; the normal pun on the name; a practice as popular in
the East as in the West, and worthy only of a pickpocket in either
place.
Footnote 441:
Arab. “Azrár” plur. of “Zirr” and lit. = “buttons,” _i.e._ of his robe
collar from which his white neck and face appear shining as the sun.
Footnote 442:
Arab. “Dáirah” = the usual inclosure of Kanáts or tent-flaps pitched
for privacy during the halt.
Footnote 443:
_i.e._ it was so richly ornamented that it resembled an enchanted
hoard whose spells, hiding it from sight, had been broken by some
happy treasure seeker.
Footnote 444:
The merchant who is a “stern parent” and exceedingly ticklish on the
Pundonor saw at first sight her servile origin which had escaped the
mother. Usually it is the other way.
Footnote 445:
Not the head of the Church, or Chief Pontiff, but the Chief of the
Olema and Fukahá (Fákihs or D.D.’s.) men learned in the Law
(divinity). The order is peculiarly Moslem, in fact the succedaneum
for the Christian “hierarchy,” an institution never contemplated by
the Founder of Christianity. This title shows the modern date of the
tale.
Footnote 446:
Arab. “Maulid,” prop. applied to the Birth-feast of Mohammed which
begins on the 3rd day of Rabí al-Awwal (third Moslem month) and lasts
a week or ten days (according to local custom), usually ending on the
12th and celebrated with salutes of cannon, circumcision-feasts,
marriage banquets, Zikr-litanies, perlections of the Koran and all
manner of solemn festivities including the “powder-play” (Láb
al-Bárút) in the wilder corners of Al-Islam. It is also applied to the
birth-festivals of great Santons (as Ahmad al-Badawi) for which see
Lane M. E. chapt. xxiv. In the text it is used like the Span.
“Funcion” or the Hind. “Tamáshá,” any great occasion of merrymaking.
Footnote 447:
Arab. “Sanájik” plur. of Sanjak (Turk.) = a banner, also applied to
the bearer (ensign or cornet) and to a military rank mostly
corresponding with Bey or Colonel.
Footnote 448:
I have followed Mr Payne’s ordering of the text which, both in the
Mac. and Bul. Edits., is wholly inconsequent and has not the excuse of
rhyme.
Footnote 449:
Arab. “Jilbáb,” a long coarse veil or gown which in Barbary becomes a
“Jallábiyah,” a striped and hooded cloak of woollen stuff.
Footnote 450:
_i.e._ a broken down pilgrim left to die on the road.
Footnote 451:
These lines have occurred in vol. i. 272. I quote Mr. Payne.
Footnote 452:
Note the difference between “Zirt,” the loud crepitus and “Faswah” the
susurrus which Captain Grose in his quaint “Lexicum Balatronicum,”
calls a “fice” or a “foyse” (from the Arabic Fas, faswah?)
Footnote 453:
These lines have occurred in Night dcxix, vol. vi. 246: where the pun
on Khaliyah is explained. I quote Lane.
Footnote 454:
The usual pretext of “God bizness,” as the Comoro men call it. For the
title of the Ka’abah see my Pilgrimage vol. iii. 149.
Footnote 455:
This was in order to travel as a respectable man; he could also send
the girl as a spy into the different Harims to learn news of the lady
who had eloped.
Footnote 456:
A polite form of alluding to their cursing him.
Footnote 457:
_i.e._ on account of the King taking offence at his unceremonious
departure.
Footnote 458:
_i.e._ It will be the worse for him.
Footnote 459:
I would here remind the reader that “’Arabiyyun” pl. ’Urb is a man of
pure Arab race, whether of the Ahl al-Madar (= people of mortar,
_i.e._ citizens) or Ahl al-Wabar (= tents of goat or camel’s hair);
whereas “A’rábiyyun” pl. A’ráb is one who dwells in the Desert whether
Arab or not. Hence the verse:—
They name us Al-A’ráb but Al-’Urb is our name.
Footnote 460:
I would remind the reader that the Dinár is the golden denarius (or
solidus) of Eastern Rome while the Dirham is the silver denarius,
whence denier, danaro, dínheiro, etc., etc. The oldest dinars date
from A. H. 91–92 (= 714–15) and we find the following description of
one struck in A. H. 96 by Al-Walid the VI. Ommiade:—
Obverse.│Area. “There is no iláh but Allah: He is one: He hath no
│ partner.”
│Circle. “Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah who hath sent him
│ with the true Guidance and Religion that he
│ manifest it above all other Creeds.”
Reverse.│Area. “Allah is one: Allah is Eternal: He begetteth not, nor is
│ He begot.”
│Circle. “Bismillah: This Dinar was struck anno 96.”
See “’Ilâm-en-Nas” (warnings for Folk) a pleasant little volume by Mr.
Godfrey Clarke (London, King and Co., 1873), mostly consisting of the
minor tales from The Nights, especially this group between Nights
ccxlvii. and cdlxi.; but rendered valuable by the annotations of my
old friend, the late Frederick Ayrton.
Footnote 461:
The reader will note the persistency with which the duty of universal
benevolence is preached.
Footnote 462:
Arab. from Pers. “Shah-bandar”: see vol. iv. 29.
Footnote 463:
_i.e._ of thy coming, a popular compliment.
Footnote 464:
This is the doctrine of the universal East; and it is true concerning
wives and widows, not girls when innocent or rather ignorant.
According to Western ideas Kamar al-Zaman was a young scoundrel of the
darkest dye whose only excuse were his age, his inexperience and his
passions.
Footnote 465:
Arab. “Dayyús” prop. = a man who pimps for his own wife and in this
sense constantly occurring in conversation.
Footnote 466:
This is taking the law into one’s own hands with a witness; yet
amongst races who preserve the Pundonor in full and pristine force,
_e.g._ the Afghans and the Persian Iliyát, the killing so far from
being considered murder or even justifiable homicide would be highly
commended by public opinion.
Footnote 467:
Arab. “Nákisátu ’aklin wa dín”; the words are attributed to the
Prophet whom we find saying, “Verily in your wives and children ye
have an enemy, wherefore beware of them” (Koran lxiv. 14); compare 1
Cor. vii. 28, 32. But Maître Jehan de Meung went farther,
Toutes êtez, serez ou fûtes,
De faict ou de volonté, putes.
Footnote 468:
Arab. Habíbí wa tabíbí, the common jingle.
Footnote 469:
Iblis and his connection with Diabolos has been noticed in vol. i. 13.
The word is foreign as well as a P.N. and therefore is imperfectly
declined, although some authorities deduce it from “ablasa” = he
despaired (of Allah’s mercy). Others call him Al-Háris (the Lion)
hence Eve’s first-born was named in his honour Abd al-Haris. His
angelic name was Azázíl before he sinned by refusing to prostrate
himself to Adam, as Allah had commanded the heavenly host for a trial
of faith, not to worship the first man, but to make him a Keblah or
direction of prayer addressed to the Almighty. Hence he was ejected
from Heaven and became the arch-enemy of mankind (Koran xviii. 48). He
was an angel but related to the Jinn: Al-Bayzáwi, however (on Koran
ii. 82), opines that angelic by nature he became a Jinn by act. Ibn
Abbas held that he belonged to an order of angels who are called Jinn
and begot issue as do the nasnás, the Ghúl and the Kutrub which,
however, are male and female, like the pre-Adamite man-woman of
Genesis, the “bi-une” of our modern days. For this subject see
Terminal Essay.
Footnote 470:
As usual in the East and in the West the husband was the last to hear
of his wife’s ill conduct. But even Othello did not kill Emilia.
Footnote 471:
_i.e._ Star of the Morning: the first word occurs in Bar Cokba
Barchocheba = Son of the Star, _i.e._, which was to come out of Jacob
(Numbers xxiv, 17). The root, which does not occur in Heb., is Kaukab
to shine. This Rabbi Akilah was also called Bar Cozla = Son of the
Lie.
Footnote 472:
Here some excision has been judged advisable as the names of the
bridegrooms and the brides recur with damnable iteration.
Footnote 473:
See the note by Lane’s Shaykh at the beginning of the tale. The
contrast between the vicious wife of servile origin and the virtuous
wife of noble birth is fondly dwelt upon but not exaggerated.
Footnote 474:
_i.e._ those of his water skins for the journey, which as usual
required patching and supplying with fresh handles after long lying
dry.
Footnote 475:
A popular saying also applied to men. It is usually accompanied with
showing the open hand and a reference to the size of the fingers. I
find this story most interesting from an anthropological point of
view; suggesting how differently various races regard the subject of
adultery. In Northern Europe the burden is thrown most unjustly upon
the man, the woman who tempts him being a secondary consideration; and
in England he is absurdly termed “a seducer.” In former times he was
“paraded” or “called out,” now he is called up for damages, a truly
ignoble and shopkeeper-like mode of treating a high offence against
private property and public morality. In Anglo-America, where English
feeling is exaggerated, the lover is revolver’d and the woman is left
unpunished. On the other hand, amongst Eastern and especially Moslem
peoples, the woman is cut down and scant reckoning is taken from the
man. This more sensible procedure has struck firm root amongst the
nations of Southern Europe where the husband kills the lover only when
he still loves his wife and lover-like is furious at her affection
being alienated.
Practically throughout the civilised world there are only two ways of
treating women. Moslems keep them close, defend them from all kinds of
temptations and if they go wrong kill them. Christians place them upon
a pedestal, the observed of all observers, expose them to every danger
and if they fall, accuse and abuse them instead of themselves. And
England is so grandly logical that her law, under certain
circumstances, holds that Mrs. A. has committed adultery with Mr. B.
but Mr. B. has not committed adultery with Mrs. A. Can any absurdity
be more absurd? Only “summum jus, summa injuria.” See my Terminal
Essay. I shall have more to say upon this curious subject, the
treatment of women who can be thoroughly guarded only by two things,
firstly their hearts and secondly by the “Spanish Padlock.”
ABDULLAH BIN FAZIL AND HIS BROTHERS[476]