Arabian Nights, Volume 7
Footnotes
[FN#1] Mayyafarikin, whose adjective for shortness is “Fárikí”: the
place is often mentioned in The Nights as the then capital of Diyár
Bakr, thirty parasangs from Násibín, the classical Nisibis, between
the upper Euphrates and Tigris.
[FN#2] This proportion is singular to moderns but characterised Arab
and more especially Turcoman armies.
[FN#3] Such is the bathos caused by the Saja’-assonance: in the music
of the Arabic it contrasts strangely with the baldness of translation.
The same is the case with the Koran beautiful in the original and
miserably dull in European languages, it is like the glorious style of
the “Anglican Version” by the side of its bastard brothers in
Hindostani or Marathi; one of these marvels of stupidity translating
the “Lamb of God” by “God’s little goat.”
[FN#4] This incident is taken from the Life of Mohammed who, in the
“Year of Missions” (A. H. 7) sent letters to foreign potentates bidding
them embrace Al-Islam, and, his seal being in three lines,
Mohammed|Apostle|of Allah, Khusrau Parwíz (=the Charming) was offended
because his name was placed below Mohammed’s. So he tore the letter in
pieces adding, says Firdausi, these words:—
Hath the Arab’s daring performed such feat,
Fed on camel’s milk and the lizard’s meat,
That he cast on Kayánian crown his eye?
Fie, O whirling world! on thy faith and fie!
Hearing of this insult Mohammed exclaimed, “Allah shall tear his
kingdom!” a prophecy which was of course fulfilled, or we should not
have heard of it. These lines are horribly mutilated in the Dabistan
(iii. 99).
[FN#5] This “Taklíd” must not be translated “girt on the sword.” The
Arab carries his weapon by a baldrick or bandoleer passed over his
right shoulder. In modern days the “Majdal” over the left shoulder
supports on the right hip a line of Tatárif or brass cylinders for
cartridges: the other cross-belt (Al-Masdar) bears on the left side
the Kharízah or bullet-pouch of hide; and the Hizám or waist-belt
holds the dagger and extra cartridges. (Pilgrimage iii. 90.)
[FN#6] Arab. “Bab,” which may mean door or gate. The plural form
(Abwáb) occurs in the next line, meaning that he displayed all manner
of martial prowess.
[FN#7] Arab. “Farrásh” (also used in Persian), a man of general utility
who pitches tents, sweeps the floors, administers floggings, etc. etc.
(Pilgrimage iii. 90.)
[FN#8] _i.e._ the slogan-cry of “Allaho Akbar,” which M. C.
Barbier de Meynard compares with the Christian “Te Deum.”
[FN#9] The Anglo-Indian term for the Moslem rite of killing animals for
food. (Pilgrimage i. 377.)
[FN#10] Arab. “tawílan jiddan” a hideous Cairenism in these days; but
formerly used by Al-Mas’údí and other good writers.
[FN#11] Arab. “‘Ajwah,” enucleated dates pressed together into a solid
mass so as to be sliced with a knife like cold pudding. The allusion is
to the dough-idols of the Hanífah tribe, whose eating their gods made
the saturnine Caliph Omar laugh.
[FN#12] Mr. Payne writes “Julned.” In a fancy name we must not look for
grammar, but a quiescent lám (_l_) followed by nún (_n_) is unknown to
Arabic while we find sundry cases of “lan” (fath’d lám and nún), and
Jalandah means noxious or injurious. In Oman also there was a dynasty
called Julándah for which see Mr. Badger (xiii. and _passim_).
[FN#13] Doubtless for Jawan-mard—un giovane, a brave See vol. iv., p.
208.
[FN#14] Mr. Payne transposes the distichs, making the last first. I
have followed the Arabic order finding it in the Mac. and Bul. Edits.
(ii. 129).
[FN#15] Al-Irak like Al-Yaman may lose the article in verse.
[FN#16] Arab. “Ka’ka’at”: hence Jabal Ka’ka’án, the higher levels in
Meccah, of old inhabited by the Jurhamites and so called from their
clashing and jangling arms; whilst the Amalekites dwelt in the lower
grounds called Jiyád from their generous steeds. (Pilgrimage iii. 191.)
[FN#17] Al-Shara’, a mountain in Arabia.
[FN#18] See vol. vi., 249. “This (mace) is a dangerous weapon when
struck on the shoulders or unguarded arm: I am convinced that a blow
with it on a head armoured with a salade (cassis cælata, a light iron
helmet) would stun a man” (says La Brocquière).
[FN#19] Oman, which the natives pronounce “Amán,” is the region best
known by its capital Maskat. These are the Omana Moscha and Omanum
Emporium of Ptolemy and the Periplus. Ibn Batutah writes Ammán, but the
best dictionaries give “Oman.” (N.B.—Mr. Badger, p. 1, wrongly derives
Sachalitis from “Sawáhíly”: it is evidently “Sáhili.”) The people bear
by no means the best character: Ibn Batutah (fourteenth century) says,
“their wives are most base; yet, without denying this, their husbands
express nothing like jealousy on the subject.” (Lee, p. 62.)
[FN#20] The name I have said of a quasi-historical personage, son of
Joktan, the first Arabist and the founder of the Tobbá (“successor”)
dynasty in Al-Yaman; while Jurham, his brother, established that of
Al-Hijaz. The name is probably chosen because well-known.
[FN#21] Arab. “Hákim”: lit. one who orders; often confounded by the
unscientific with Hakím, doctor, a philosopher. The latter re-appears
in the Heb. Khákhám applied in modern days to the Jewish scribe who
takes the place of the Rabbi.
[FN#22] As has been seen, acids have ever been and are still
administered as counter-inebriants, while hot spices and sweets greatly
increase the effect of Bhang, opium, henbane, datura &c. The Persians
have a most unpleasant form of treating men when dead-drunk with wine
or spirits. They hang them up by the heels, as we used to do with the
drowned, and stuff their mouths with human ordure which is sure to
produce emesis.
[FN#23] Compare the description of the elephant-faced Vetála
(Kathá S.S. Fasc. xi. p. 388).
[FN#24] The lover’s name Sá’ik= the Striker (with lightning);
Najmah, the beloved= the star.
[FN#25] I have modified the last three lines of the Mac. Edit. which
contain a repetition evidently introduced by the carelessness of the
copyist.
[FN#26] The Hindu Charvakas explain the Triad, Bramha, Vishnu and
Shiva, by the sexual organs and upon Vishnu’s having four arms they
gloss, “At the time of sexual intercourse, each man and woman has as
many.” (Dabistan ii. 202.) This is the Eastern view of Rabelais’ “beast
with two backs.”
[FN#27] Arab. “Rabbat-i,” my she Lord, fire (nár) being feminine.
[FN#28] The prose-rhyme is answerable for this galimatias.
[FN#29] A common phrase equivalent to our “started from his head.”
[FN#30] Arab. “Máridúna”=rebels (against Allah and his orders).
[FN#31] Arab. Yáfis or Yáfat. He had eleven sons and was entitled Abú
al-Turk because this one engendered the Turcomans as others did the
Chinese, Scythians, Slaves (Saklab), Gog, Magog, and the Muscovites or
Russians. According to the Moslems there was a rapid falling off in
size amongst this family. Noah’s grave at Karak (the Ruin) a suburb of
Zahlah, in La Brocquière’s “Valley of Noah, where the Ark was built,”
is 104 ft. 10 in. Iong by 8 ft. 8 in. broad. (N.B.—It is a bit of the
old aqueduct which Mr. Porter, the learned author of the “Giant Cities
of Bashan,” quotes as a “traditional memorial of primeval
giants”—talibus carduis pascuntur asini!). Nabi Ham measures only 9 ft.
6 in. between headstone and tombstone, being in fact about as long as
his father was broad.
[FN#32] See Night dcliv., vol. vii, p. 43, _infra._
[FN#33] According to Turcoman legends (evidently post-Mohammedan) Noah
gave his son, Japhet a stone inscribed with the Greatest Name, and it
had the virtue of bringing on or driving off rain. The Moghuls long
preserved the tradition and hence probably the sword.
[FN#34] This expresses Moslem sentiment; the convert to Al-Islam being
theoretically respected and practically despised. The Turks call him a
“Burmá”=twister, a turncoat, and no one either trusts him or believes
in his sincerity.
[FN#35] The name of the city first appears here: it is found also in
the Bul. Edit., vol. ii. p. 132.
[FN#36] Arab. “‘Amala hílah,” a Syro-Egyptian vulgarism.
[FN#37] _i.e._ his cousin, but he will not use the word.
[FN#38] Arab. “La’ab,” meaning very serious use of the sword: we still
preserve the old “sword-play.”
[FN#39] Arab. “Ikhsa,” from a root meaning to drive away a dog.
[FN#40] Arab. “Hazza-hu,” the quivering motion given to the “Harbak” (a
light throw-spear or javelin) before it leaves the hand.
[FN#41] Here the translator must either order the sequence of the
sentences or follow the rhyme.
[FN#42] Possibly taken from the Lions’ Court in the
Alhambra=(Dár) Al-hamrá, the Red House.
[FN#43] Arab. “Sházarwán” from Pers. Shadurwán, a palace, cornice, etc.
That of the Meccan Ka’abah is a projection of about a foot broad in
pent-house shape sloping downwards and two feet above the granite
pavement: its only use appears in the large brass rings welded into it
to hold down the covering. There are two breaks in it, one under the
doorway and the other opposite Ishmael’s tomb; and pilgrims are
directed during circuit to keep the whole body outside it.
[FN#44] The “Musáfahah” before noticed, vol. vi., p. 287.
[FN#45] _i.e._ He was confounded at its beauty.
[FN#46] Arab. “‘Ajíb,” punning upon the name.
[FN#47] Arab. “Zarráf” (whence our word) from “Zarf”=walking hastily:
the old “cameleopard” which originated the nursery idea of its origin.
It is one of the most timid of the antelope tribe and unfit for riding.
[FN#48] Arab. “Takht,” a useful word, meaning even a saddle.
The usual term is “Haudaj”=the Anglo-Indian “howdah.”
[FN#49] “Thunder-King,” Arab. and Persian.
[FN#50] _i.e._ “He who violently assaults his peers” (the best men of the
age). Batshat al-Kubrá=the Great Disaster, is applied to the unhappy
“Battle of Bedr” (Badr) on Ramazan 17, A.H. 2 (=Jan. 13, 624) when
Mohammed was so nearly defeated that the Angels were obliged to assist
him (Koran, chapts. iii. 11; i. 42; viii. 9). Mohammed is soundly rated
by Christian writers for beheading two prisoners Utbah ibn Rabí’a who
had once spat on his face and Nazir ibn Háris who recited Persian
romances and preferred them to the “foolish fables of the Koran.” What
would our forefathers have done to a man who spat in the face of John
Knox and openly preferred a French play to Pentateuch?
[FN#51] Arab. “Jilbáb” either habergeon (mail-coat) or the buff-jacket
worn under it.
[FN#52] A favourite way, rough and ready, of carrying light weapons,
often alluded to in The Nights. So Khusrawán in Antar carried “under
his thighs four small darts, each like a blazing flame.”
[FN#53] Mr. Payne very reasonably supplants here and below Fakhr Taj
(who in Night dcxxxiv. is left in her father’s palace and who is
reported to be dead in Night dclxvii.) by Star o’ Morn. But the former
is also given in the Bul. Edit. (ii. 148), so the story-teller must
have forgotten all about her. I leave it as a model specimen of Eastern
incuriousness.
[FN#54] There is some chivalry in his unwillingness to use the magical
blade. As a rule the Knights of Romance utterly ignore fair play and
take every dirty advantage in the magic line that comes to hand.
[FN#55] Arab. “Hammál al-Hatabi”=one who carries to market the
fuel-sticks which he picks up in the waste. In the Koran (chapt. cxi.)
it is applied to Umm Jamíl, wife of Mohammed’s hostile cousin, Abd
al-Uzza, there termed Abú Lahab (Father of smokeless Flame) with the
implied meaning that she will bear fuel to feed Hell-fire.
[FN#56] Arab. “Akyál,” lit. whose word (Kaul) is obeyed, a title of the
Himyarite Kings, of whom Al-Bergendi relates that one of them left an
inscription at Samarcand, which many centuries ago no man could read.
This evidently alludes to the dynasty which preceded the “Tobba” and to
No. xxiv. Shamar Yar’ash (Shamar the Palsied). Some make him son of
Malik surnamed Náshir al-Ni’am (Scatterer of Blessings) others of
Afríkús (No. xviii.), who, according to Al-Jannabi, Ahmad bin Yusuf
and Ibn Ibdun (Pocock, Spec. Hist. Arab.) founded the Berber (Barbar)
race, the remnants of the Causanites expelled by the “robber, Joshua
son of Nún,” and became the eponymus of “Africa.” This word which,
under the Romans, denoted a small province on the Northern Sea-board,
is, I would suggest, A’far-Káhi (Afar-land), the Afar being now the
Dankali race, the country of Osiris whom my learned friend, the late
Mariette Pasha, derived from the Egyptian “Punt” identified by him with
the Somali country. This would make “Africa,” as it ought to be, an
Egyptian (Coptic) term.
[FN#57] Herodotus (i. 80) notes this concerning the camel. Elephants
are not allowed to walk the streets in Anglo-Indian cities, where they
have caused many accidents.
[FN#58] Arab. Wahk or Wahak, suggesting the Roman retiarius. But the
lasso pure and simple, the favourite weapon of shepherd and herdsmen
was well-known to the old Egyptians and in ancient India. It forms one
of the T-letters in the hieroglyphs.
[FN#59] Compare with this and other Arab battle-pieces the Pandit’s
description in the Kathá Sarit Sagara, _e.g._ “Then a confused battle
arose with dint of arrow, javelin, lance, mace and axe, costing the
lives of countless soldiers (N.B.— Millions are nothing to him);
rivers of blood flowed with the bodies of elephants and horses for
alligators, with the pearls from the heads of elephants for sands and
with the heads of heroes for stones. That feast of battle delighted the
flesh-loving demons who, drunk with blood instead of wine, were dancing
with the palpitating trunks,” etc. etc. Fasc. xii. 526.
[FN#60] The giraffe is here mal-placé: it is, I repeat, one of the most
timid of the antelope tribe. Nothing can be more graceful than this
huge game as it stands under a tree extending its long and slender neck
to the foliage above it; but when in flight all the limbs seem loose
and the head is carried almost on a level with the back.
[FN#61] The fire-arms may have been inserted by the copier; the
cross-bow (Arcubalista) is of unknown antiquity. I have remarked in my
book of the Sword (p. 19) that the bow is the first crucial evidence of
the distinction between the human weapon and the bestial arm, and like
the hymen or membrane of virginity proves a difference of degree if not
of kind between man and the so-called lower animals. I note from Yule’s
Marco Polo (ii., 143) “that the cross-bow was re-introduced into
European warfare during the twelfth century”; but the arbalesta was
well known to the bon roi Charlemagne (Regnier Sat. X).
[FN#62] In Al-Islam this was unjustifiable homicide, excused only
because the Kafir had tried to slay his own son. He should have been
summoned to become a tributary and then, on express refusal, he might
legally have been put to death.
[FN#63] _i.e._ “Rose King,” like the Sikh name “Gulab Singh”=Rosewater
Lion, sounding in translation almost too absurd to be true.
[FN#64] “Repentance acquits the penitent” is a favourite and noble
saying popular in Al-Islam. It is first found in Seneca; and is
probably as old as the dawn of literature.
[FN#65] Here an ejaculation of impatience.
[FN#66] _i.e._ “King Intelligence”: it has a ludicrous sound suggesting
only “Dandanha-i-Khirad”=wisdom-teeth. The Mac. Edit. persistently
keeps “Ward Shah,” copyist error.
[FN#67] _i.e._ Fakhr Taj, who had been promised him in marriage.
See Night dcxxxiii. supra, vol. vi.
[FN#68] The name does not appear till further on, after vague Eastern
fashion which, here and elsewhere I have not had the heart to adopt.
The same may be found in Ariosto, _passim_.
[FN#69] A town in Persian Irak, unhappily far from the “Salt sea.”
[FN#70] “Earthquake son of Ennosigaius” (the Earthquake-maker).
[FN#71] Arab. “Ruba’al-Kharáb” or Ruba’al-Khálí (empty quarter), the
great central wilderness of Arabia covering some 50,000 square miles
and still left white on our maps. (Pilgrimage, i 14.)
[FN#72] Pers. “Life King”, women also assume the title of
Shah.
[FN#73] Arab. “Mujauhar”: the watery or wavy mark upon Eastern blades
is called the “jauhar,” lit.=jewel. The peculiarity is also called
water and grain, which gives rise to a host of _double-entendres_, puns,
paronomasias and conceits more or less frigid.
[FN#74] Etymologically meaning tyrants or giants; and applied to great
heathen conquerors like Nimrod and the mighty rulers of Syria, the
Anakim, Giants and other peoples of Hebrew fable. The Akásirah are the
Chosroës before noticed.
[FN#75] Arab. “Asker jarrár” lit. “drawing”: so in Egyptian slang “Nás
jarrár”=folk who wish to draw your money out of your pocket, greedy
cheats.
[FN#76] In Turkestan: the name means “Two lights.”
[FN#77] In Armenia, mentioned by Sadik Isfaháni (Transl. p. 62).
[FN#78] This is the only ludicrous incident in the tale which justifies
Von Hammer’s suspicion. Compare it with the combat between Rustam and
his son Sohráb.
[FN#79] I cannot understand why Trébutien, iii., 457, writes
this word Afba. He remarks that it is the “Oina and Riya” of
Jámí, elegantly translated by M. de Chezy in the Journal
Asiatique, vol. 1, 144.
[FN#80] I have described this part of the Medinah Mosque in Pilgrimage
ii., 62–69. The name derives from a saying of Mohammed (of which there
are many variants), “Between my tomb and my pulpit is a garden of the
Gardens of Paradise” (Burckhardt, Arabia, p. 337). The whole Southern
portico (not only a part) now enjoys that honoured name and the tawdry
decorations are intended to suggest a parterre.
[FN#81] Mohammed’s companions (Asháb), numbering some five hundred,
were divided into two orders, the Muhájirin (fugitives) or Meccans who
accompanied the Apostle to Al-Medinah (Pilgrimage ii. 138) and the
Ansár (Auxiliaries) or Medinites who invited him to their city and lent
him zealous aid (Ibid. ii. 130). The terms constantly occur in Arab
history.
[FN#82] The “Mosque of the Troops,” also called Al-Fath (victory), the
largest of the “Four Mosques:” it is still a place of pious visitation
where prayer is granted. Koran, chap. xxxiii., and Pilgrimage ii. 325.
[FN#83] Arab. “Al-Wars,” with two meanings. The Alfáz Adwiyah gives
it=Kurkum, curcuma, turmeric, safran d’Inde; but popular usage assigns
it to Usfur, Kurtum or safflower (_carthamus tinctorius_). I saw the
shrub growing all about Harar which exports it, and it is plentiful in
Al-Yaman (Niebuhr, p. 133), where women affect it to stain the skin a
light yellow and remove freckles: it is also an internal remedy in
leprosy. But the main use is that of a dye, and the Tob stained with
Wars is almost universal in some parts of Arabia. Sonnini (p. 510)
describes it at length and says that Europeans in Egypt call it
“Parrot-seeds” because the bird loves it, and the Levant trader
“Saffrenum.”
[FN#84] Two men of the great ‘Anazah race went forth to gather Karaz,
the fruit of the Sant (Mimosa Nilotica) both used for tanning, and
never returned. Hence the proverb which is obsolete in conversation.
See Burckhardt, Prov. 659: where it takes the place of “ad Graecas
Kalendas.”
[FN#85] Name of a desert (Mafázah) and a settlement on the
Euphrates’ bank between Basrah and the site of old Kufah near
Kerbela; the well-known visitation place in Babylonian Irak.
[FN#86] Of the Banu Sulaym tribe; the adjective is Sulami not
Sulaymi.
[FN#87] Arab. “Amám-ak”=before thee (in space); from the same root as
Imam=antistes, leader of prayer; and conducing to perpetual puns, _e.g._
“You are Imám-i (my leader) and therefore should be Amám-i” (in advance
of me).
[FN#88] He was angry, as presently appears, because he had heard of
certain love passages between the two and this in Arabia is a dishonour
to the family.
[FN#89] Euphemy for “my daughter.”
[FN#90] The Badawin call a sound dollar “Kirsh hajar” or “Riyal hajar”
(a stone dollar; but the word is spelt with the greater h).
[FN#91] Arab. Burdah and Habárah. The former often translated mantle is
a thick woollen stuff, brown or gray, woven oblong and used like a
plaid by day and by night. Mohammed’s Burdah woven in his Harem and
given to the poet, Ka’ab, was 7½ ft. long by 4½: it is still in
the upper Serraglio of Stambul. In early days the stuff was mostly
striped; now it is either plain or with lines so narrow that it looks
like one colour. The Habarah is a Burd made in Al-Yaman and not to be
confounded with the Egyptian mantilla of like name (Lane, M. E. chapt.
iii.).
[FN#92] Every Eastern city has its special title. Al-Medinah is
entitled “Al-Munawwarah” (the Illumined) from the blinding light which
surrounds the Prophet’s tomb and which does not show to eyes profane
(Pilgrimage ii. 3). I presume that the idea arose from the huge lamps
of “The Garden.” I have noted that Mohammed’s coffin suspended by
magnets is an idea unknown to Moslems, but we find the fancy in
Al-Harawi related of St. Peter, “Simon Cephas (the rock) is in the City
of Great Rome, in its largest church within a silver ark hanging by
chains from the ceiling.” (Lee, Ibn Batutah, p. 161).
[FN#93] Here the fillets are hung instead of the normal rag-strips to
denote an honoured tomb. Lane (iii. 242) and many others are puzzled
about the use of these articles. In many cases they are suspended to
trees in order to transfer sickness from the body to the tree and
whoever shall touch it. The Sawáhílí people term such articles a Keti
(seat or vehicle) for the mysterious haunter of the tree who prefers
occupying it to the patient’s person. Briefly the custom still popular
throughout Arabia, is African and Fetish.
[FN#94] Al-Mas’údí (chap. xcv.), mentions a Hind bint Asmá and tells a
facetious story of her and the “enemy of Allah,” the poet Jarir.
[FN#95] Here the old Shiah hatred of the energetic conqueror of Oman
crops out again. Hind’s song is that of Maysum concerning her husband
Mu’áwiyah which Mrs. Godfrey Clark (‘Ilâm-en-Nâs, p. 108) thus
translates:—
A hut that the winds make tremble
Is dearer to me than a noble palace;
And a dish of crumbs on the floor of my home
Is dearer to me than a varied feast;
And the soughing of the breeze through every crevice
Is dearer to me than the beating of drums.