It is told that there was once, in the city of Baghdad, a comely
and well-bred youth, fair of face, tall of stature and slender of
shape. His name was Alaeddin and he was of the chiefs of the sons
of the merchants and had a shop wherein he sold and bought One
day, as he sat in his shop, there passed by him a girl of the
women of pleasure,[FN#253] who raised her eyes and casting a
glance at the young merchant, saw written in a flowing hand on
the forepart[FN#254] of the door of his shop, these words,
"VERILY, THERE IS NO CRAFT BUT MEN'S CRAFT, FORASMUCH AS IT OVERCOMETH
WOMEN'S CRAFT." When she beheld this, she was wroth and took
counsel with herself, saying, "As my head liveth, I will
assuredly show him a trick of the tricks of women and prove the
untruth of[FN#255] this his inscription!"
So, on the morrow, she made her ready and donning the costliest
of apparel, adorned herself with the most magnificent of
ornaments and the highest of price and stained her hands with
henna. Then she let down her tresses upon her shoulders and went
forth, walking along with coquettish swimming gait and amorous
grace, followed by her slave-girls, till she came to the young
merchant's shop and sitting down thereat, under colour of seeking
stuffs, saluted him and demanded of him somewhat of merchandise.
So he brought out to her various kinds of stuffs and she took
them and turned them over, talking with him the while. Then said
she to him, "Look at the goodliness of my shape and my symmetry.
Seest thou in me any default?" And he answered, "No, O my lady."
"Is it lawful," continued she, "in any one that he should slander
me and say that I am humpbacked?"
Then she discovered to him a part of her bosom, and when he saw
her breasts, his reason took flight from his head and he said to
her, "Cover it up, so may God have thee in His safeguard!" Quoth
she, "Is it fair of any one to missay of my charms?" And he
answered, "How shall any missay of thy charms, and thou the sun
of loveliness?" Then said she, "Hath any the right to say of me
that I am lophanded? "And tucking up her sleeves, showed him
forearms, as they were crystal; after which she unveiled to him a
face, as it were a full moon breaking forth on its fourteenth
night, and said to him, "Is it lawful for any to missay of me
[and avouch] that my face is pitted with smallpox or that I am
one-eyed or crop-eared?" And he answered her, saying, "O my lady,
what is it moveth thee to discover unto me that lovely face and
those fair members, [of wont so jealously] veiled and guarded?
Tell me the truth of the matter, may I be thy ransom!" And he
recited the following verses:
A white one, from her sheath of tresses now laid bare And now
again concealed in black, luxuriant hair;[FN#256]
As if the maid the day resplendent and her locks The night that
o'er it spreads its shrouding darkness were.
"Know, O my lord," answered she, "that I am a maiden oppressed of
my father, for that he misspeaketh of me and saith to me, 'Thou
art foul of favour and it befitteth not that thou wear rich
clothes; for thou and the slave-girls, ye are equal in rank,
there is no distinguishing thee from them.' Now he is a rich man,
having wealth galore, [and saith not on this wise but] because he
is a niggard and grudgeth the spending of a farthing; [wherefore
he is loath to marry me,] lest he be put to somewhat of charge in
my marriage, albeit God the Most High hath been bountiful to him
and he is a man puissant in his time and lacking nothing of the
goods of the world." "Who is thy father," asked the young
merchant, "and what is his condition?" And she replied, "He is
the Chief Cadi of the Supreme Court, under whose hand are all the
Cadis who administer justice in this city."
The merchant believed her and she took leave of him and went
away, leaving in his heart a thousand regrets, for that the love
of her had gotten possession of him and he knew not how he should
win to her; wherefore he abode enamoured, love-distraught,
unknowing if he were alive or dead. As soon as she was gone, he
shut his shop and going up to the Court, went in to the Chief
Cadi and saluted him. The magistrate returned his salutation and
entreated him with honour and seated him by his side. Then said
Alaeddin to him, "I come to thee, a suitor, seeking thine
alliance and desiring the hand of thy noble daughter." "O my lord
merchant," answered the Cadi, "indeed my daughter beseemeth not
the like of thee, neither sorteth she with the goodliness of thy
youth and the pleasantness of thy composition and the sweetness
of thy discourse;" but Alaeddin rejoined, saying, "This talk
behoveth thee not, neither is it seemly in thee; if I be content
with her, how should this irk thee?" So they came to an accord
and concluded the treaty of marriage at a dower precedent of five
purses[FN#257] paid down then and there and a dower contingent of
fifteen purses,[FN#258] so it might be uneath unto him to put her
away, forasmuch as her father had given him fair warning, but he
would not be warned.
Then they drew up the contract of marriage and the merchant said,
"I desire to go in to her this night." So they carried her to him
in procession that very night, and he prayed the prayer of
eventide and entered the privy chamber prepared for him; but,
when he lifted the veil from the face of the bride and looked, he
saw a foul face and a blameworthy aspect; yea, he beheld somewhat
the like whereof may God not show thee! loathly, dispensing from
description, inasmuch as there were reckoned in her all legal
defects.[FN#259] So he repented, whenas repentance availed him
not, and knew that the girl had cheated him. However, he lay with
the bride, against his will, and abode that night sore troubled
in mind, as he were in the prison of Ed Dilem.[FN#260] Hardly had
the day dawned when he arose from her and betaking himself to one
of the baths, dozed there awhile, after which he made the
ablution of defilement[FN#261] and washed his clothes. Then he
went out to the coffee-house and drank a cup of coffee; after
which he returned to his shop and opening the door, sat down,
with discomfiture and chagrin written on his face.
Presently, his friends and acquaintances among the merchants and
people of the market began to come up to him, by ones and twos,
to give him joy, and said to him, laughing, "God's blessing on
thee! Where an the sweetmeats? Where is the coffee?[FN#262] It
would seem thou hast forgotten us; surely, the charms of the
bride have disordered thy reason and taken thy wit, God help
thee! Well, well; we give thee joy, we give thee joy." And they
made mock of him, whilst he gave them no answer and was like to
tear his clothes and weep for vexation. Then they went away from
him, and when it was the hour of noon, up came his mistress,
trailing her skirts and swaying in her gait, as she were a
cassia-branch in a garden. She was yet more richly dressed and
adorned and more bewitching[FN#263] in her symmetry and grace
than on the previous day, so that she made the passers stop and
stand in ranks to look on her.
When she came to Alaeddin's shop, she sat down thereat and said
to him, "May the day be blessed to thee, O my lord Alaeddin! God
prosper thee and be good to thee and accomplish thy gladness and
make it a wedding of weal and content!" He knitted his brows and
frowned in answer to her; then said he to her, "Tell me, how have
I failed of thy due, or what have I done to injure thee, that
thou shouldst play me this trick?" Quoth she, "Thou hast no wise
offended against me; but this inscription that is written on the
door of thy shop irketh me and vexeth my heart. If thou wilt
change it and write up the contrary thereof, I will deliver thee
from thy predicament." And he answered, "This that thou seekest
is easy. On my head and eyes be it." So saying, he brought out a
ducat[FN#264] and calling one of his mamelukes, said to him, "Get
thee to such an one the scribe and bid him write us an
inscription, adorned with gold and ultramarine, in these words,
to wit, 'THERE IS NO CRAFT BUT WOMEN'S CRAFT, FOR THAT INDEED THEIR CRAFT IS
A MIGHTY CRAFT AND OVERCOMETH AND HUMBLETH THE FABLES[FN#265] OF MEN.'" And
she said to the servant, "Go forthright."
So he repaired to the scribe, who wrote him the scroll, and he
brought it to his master, who set it on the door and said to the
damsel, "Art thou satisfied?" "Yes," answered she. "Arise
forthright and get thee to the place before the citadel, where do
thou foregather with all the mountebanks and ape-dancers and
bear-leaders and drummers and pipers and bid them come to thee
to-morrow early, with their drums and pipes, what time thou
drinkest coffee with thy father-in-law the Cadi, and congratulate
thee and wish thee joy, saying, 'A blessed day, O son of our
uncle! Indeed, thou art the vein[FN#266] of our eye! We rejoice
for thee, and if thou be ashamed of us, verily, we pride
ourselves upon thee; so, though thou banish us from thee, know
that we will not forsake thee, albeit thou forsakest us.' And do
thou fall to strewing dinars and dirhems amongst them; whereupon
the Cadi will question thee, and do thou answer him, saying, 'My
father was an ape-dancer and this is our original condition; but
out Lord opened on us [the gate of fortune] and we have gotten us
a name among the merchants and with their provost.'
Then will he say to thee, 'Then thou art an ape-leader of the
tribe of the mountebanks?' And do thou reply, 'I may in nowise
deny my origin, for the sake of thy daughter and in her honour.'
The Cadi will say, 'It may not be that thou shalt be given the
daughter of a sheikh who sitteth upon the carpet of the Law and
whose descent is traceable by genealogy to the loins of the
Apostle of God,[FN#267] nor is it seemly that his daughter be in
the power of a man who is an ape-dancer, a minstrel.' And do thou
rejoin, 'Nay, O Effendi, she is my lawful wife and every hair of
her is worth a thousand lives, and I will not let her go, though
I be given the kingship of the world.' Then be thou persuaded to
speak the word of divorce and so shall the marriage be dissolved
and ye be delivered from each other."
Quoth Alaeddin, "Thou counsellest well," and locking up his shop,
betook himself to the place before the citadel, where he
foregathered with the drummers and pipers and instructed them how
they should do, [even as his mistress had counselled him,]
promising them a handsome reward. So they answered him with
"Hearkening and obedience" and on the morrow, after the
morning-prayer, he betook himself to the presence of the Cadi,
who received him with obsequious courtesy and seated him beside
himself. Then he turned to him and fell to conversing with him
and questioning him of matters of selling and buying and of the
price current of the various commodities that were exported to
Baghdad from all parts, whilst Alaeddin replied to him of all
whereof he asked him.
As they were thus engaged, behold, up came the dancers and
mountebanks, with their pipes and drums, whilst one of their
number forewent them, with a great banner in his hand, and played
all manner antics with his voice and limbs. When they came to the
Courthouse, the Cadi exclaimed, "I seek refuge with God from
yonder Satans!" And the merchant laughed, but said nothing. Then
they entered and saluting his highness the Cadi, kissed
Alaeddin's hands and said, "God's blessing on thee, O son of our
uncle! Indeed, thou solacest our eyes in that which thou dost,
and we beseech God to cause the glory of our lord the Cadi to
endure, who hath honoured us by admitting thee to his alliance
and allotted us a part in his high rank and dignity." When the
Cadi heard this talk, it bewildered his wit and he was confounded
and his face flushed with anger and he said to his son-in-law,
"What words are these?" Quoth the merchant, "Knowest thou not, O
my lord, that I am of this tribe? Indeed this man is the son of
my mother's brother and that other the son of my father's
brother, and I am only reckoned of the merchants [by courtesy]!"
When the Cadi heard this, his colour changed and he was troubled
and waxed exceeding wroth and was rike to burst for excess of
rage. Then said he to the merchant, "God forbid that this should
be! How shall it be permitted that the daughter of the Cadi of
the Muslims abide with a man of the dancers and vile of origin?
By Allah, except thou divorce her forthright, I will bid beat
thee and cast thee into prison till thou die! Had I foreknown
that thou wast of them, I had not suffered thee to approach me,
but had spat in thy face, for that thou art filthier[FN#268] than
a dog or a hog." Then he gave him a push and casting him down
from his stead, commanded him to divorce; but he said, "Be
clement to me, O Effendi, for that God is clement, and hasten
not. I will not divorce my wife, though thou give me the kingdom
of Irak."
The Cadi was perplexed and knew that constraint was not permitted
of the law;[FN#269] so he spoke the young merchant fair and said
to him, "Protect me,[FN#270] so may God protect thee. If thou
divorce her not, this disgrace will cleave to me till the end of
time." Then his rage got the better of him and he said to him,
"An thou divorce her not with a good grace, I will bid strike off
thy head forthright and slay myself; rather flame[FN#271] than
shame." The merchant bethought himself awhile, then divorced her
with a manifest divorcement[FN#272] and on this wise he delivered
himself from that vexation. Then he returned to his shop and
sought in marriage of her father her who had played him the trick
aforesaid and who was the daughter of the chief of the guild of
the blacksmiths. So he took her to wife and they abode with each
other and lived the most solaceful of lives, in all prosperity
and contentment and joyance, till the day of death; and God
[alone] is All-Knowing.
End of vol. II.
Tales from the Arabic, Volume 2
Endnotes
[FN#1] A town of Khoiassan.
[FN#2] i.e., he dared not attempt to force her?
[FN#3] i.e. her "yes" meant "yes" and her "no" "no."
[FN#4] Lit. ignorance.
[FN#5] Lit. spoke against her due.
[FN#6] i.e. a domed monument.
[FN#7] Lit "ignorance," often used in the sense of
"forwardness."
[FN#8] i.e. my present plight.
[FN#9] i.e. ten thousand dinars.
[FN#10] A similar story to this, though differing considerably in
detail, will be found in my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One
Night," Vol. V. p. 9, The Jewish Cadi and his pions wife.
[FN#11] Or divineress (kahinek).
[FN#12] i.e. whoredom.
[FN#13] Or "scar" (ather).
[FN#14] ie. hearken to.
[FN#15] i.e. Persia.
[FN#16] i.e. the case with which he earned his living.
[FN#17] i.e. the ten thousand dirhems of the bond.
[FN#18] i.e. exhorted her to patience.
[FN#19] Or performing surgical operations (ilaj).
[FN#20] i.e. the open space before his house.
[FN#21] Or "drew near unto."
[FN#22] i.e. a descendant of Mohammed.
[FN#23] Or the art of judging from external appearances
(firaseh).
[FN#24] Sic in the text; but the passage is apparently corrupt.
It is not plain why a rosy complexion, blue eyes and tallness
should be peculiar to women in love. Arab women being commonly
short, swarthy and black eyed, the attributes mentioned appear
rather to denote the foreign origin of the woman; and it is
probable, therefore, that this passage has by a copyist's error,
been mixed up with that which related to the signs by which the
mock physician recognized her strangehood, the clause specifying
the symptoms of her love lorn condition having been crowded out
in the process, an accident of no infrequent occurrence in the
transcription of Oriental works.
[FN#25] Yellow was the colour prescribed for the wearing of Jews
by the Muslim lawm in accordance with the decree issued by Khalif
Omar ben el Khettab after the taking of Jerusalem in A.D. 636.
[FN#26] i.e. Sunday.
[FN#27] Herais, a species of "risotto," made of pounded wheat or
rice and meat in shreds.
[FN#28] Lit. "That have passed the night," i.e. are stale and
therefore indigestable.
[FN#29] i.e. Saturday.
[FN#30] i.e. native of Merv.
[FN#31] Or "ruined," lit. "destroyed."
[FN#32] i.e. native of Rei, a city of Khorassia.
[FN#33] The text has khenadic, ditches or valleys; but this is,
in all probability, a clerical or typographical error for
fenadic, inns or caravanserais.
[FN#34] It is a paramount duty of the Muslim to provide his dead
brother in the faith with decent interment; it is, therefore, a
common practice for the family of a poor Arab to solicit
contributions toward the expenses of his burial, nor is the
well-to-do true believer safe from imposition of the kind
described in the text.
[FN#35] i.e. the recompense in the world to come promised to the
performer of a charitable action.
[FN#36] i.e. camphor and lote-tree leaves dried and powdered
(sometimes mixed with rose-water) which are strewn over the dead
body, before it is wrapped in the shroud. In the case of a man of
wealth, more costly perfumes (such as musk, aloes and ambergris)
are used.
[FN#37] All the ablutions prescribed by the Mohammedan ritual are
avoided by the occurrence, during the process, of any cause of
ceremonial impurity (such as the mentioned in the text) and must
be recommenced.
[FN#38] Having handled a corpse, he had become in a state of
legal impurity and it beloved him therefore to make the
prescribed ablution.
[FN#39] Which he had taken off for the purpose of making
abulution. This was reversing the ordinary course of affairs, the
dead man's clothes being the washer's prequisite.
[FN#40] i.e. till it was diminished by evaporation to two-thirds
of its original volume.
[FN#41] The Mohammedan grave is a cell, hollowed out in the sides
of a trench and so constructed as to keep out the earth, that the
deceased may be able to sit up and answer the examining angels
when they visit him in the tomb. There was, therefore, nothing
improbable in Er Razi's boast that he could abide two days in the
tomb.
[FN#42] Nawous, a sort of overground well or turricle of masonry,
surmounted by an iron grating, on which the Gueber's body is
placed for devoration by the birds.
[FN#43] Munkir [Munker] and Nakir [Nekir] are the two angels that
preside at 'the examination of the tomb.' They visit a man in his
grave directly after he has been buried and examine him
concerning his faith; if he acknowledge that there is but one God
and that Mohammed is His prophet [apostle], they suffer him to
rest in peace; otherwise they beat him with [red-hot] iron maces,
till he roars so loud[ly] that he is heard by all from east to
west, except by man and Ginns [Jinn]."--Palmer's Koran,
Introduction.
[FN#44] Lit. the oven (tennour); but this is obviously a mistake
for "tombs" (cubour).
[FN#45] i.e. as a propitiatory offering on behalf of.
[FN#46] i.e. though he remain at thy charge or (as we should say)
on thy hands.
[FN#47] About twenty-five shillings.
[FN#48] About £137 10s.
[FN#49] Meaning the sharper.
[FN#50] i.e. he asketh nought but that which is reasonable.
[FN#51] The strict Muslim is averse from taking an oath, even in
support at the truth, and will sometimes submit to a heavy loss
rather than do so. For an instance of this, see my "Book of the
Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol. V. p. 44, The King of the
Island.
[FN#52] To wit, the merchant and his officious friend.
[FN#53] There appears to be some mistake here, but I have no
means of rectifying it. The passage is probably hopelessly
corrupt and a portion of the conclusion of the story seems to
have dropped out.
[FN#54] i.e. well-guarded, confined in the harem.
[FN#55] i.e. an old woman to crafty that she was a calamity to
those against whom she plotted.
[FN#56] i.e. the amount of the contingent dowry and of the
allowance which he was bound to make her for her support during
the four months and some days which must elapse before she could
lawfully marry again.
[FN#57] i.e. thou wilt have satisfied us all.
[FN#58] With the smoke of burning aloes-wood or other perfume, a
common practice among the Arabs. The aloes-wood is placed upon
burning charcoal in a censer perforated with holes, which is
swung towards the person to be fumigated, whose clothes and hair
are thus impregnated with the grateful fragrance of the burning
wood. An accident such as that mentioned in the text might easily
happen during the process of fumigation.
[FN#59] i.e. by God. The old woman is keeping up her assumption
of the character of a devotee by canting about Divine direction.
[FN#60] This is the same story as "The House with the Belvedere."
See my "Book of the Thousand Nights and one Night," Vol. V. p.
323.
[FN#61] See note, Vol. I. p. 212. Also my "Book of the Thousand
Nights and One Night," Vol. V. p. 263, The King and his Vizier's
wife.
[FN#62] Or experienced.
[FN#63] i.e. the inhabitants of the island and the sailors?
[FN#64] i.e. postponed the fulfilment of his promise.
[FN#65] Sic; but apparently a state-prison or place of
confinement for notable offenders is meant.
[FN#66] Or "getting hold of."
[FN#67] Lit. "betrothed."
[FN#68] Or "in."
[FN#69] i.e. if his appearance be such as to belie the
possibility of his being a thief.
[FN#70] i.e. people of power and worship.
[FN#71] i.e. of wine.
[FN#72] i.e. all his former afflictions or (perhaps) all His
commandments.
[FN#73] i.e. a more venial sin.
[FN#74] i.e. I have a proposal to make thee.
[FN#75] i.e. he was brought up in my house.
[FN#76] i.e. prayed for him by name, as the reigning sovereign,
in the Khutbeh, a sort of homily made up of acts of prayer and
praise and of exhortations to the congregation, which forms part
of the Friday prayers. The mention of a newly-appointed
sovereign's name in the Khutbeh is equivalent with the Muslims to
a solemn proclamation of his accession.
[FN#77] i.e. deprive him of his rank.
[FN#78] Or perverted belief, i.e. an infidel.
[FN#79] i.e. not God.
[FN#80] Or corrupt belief, i.e. that the destinies of mankind
were governed by the planets and not by God alone.
[FN#81] i.e. "him who is to me even as mine own soul," to wit,
the king.
[FN#82] The whole of this story (which is apparently intended as
an example of the flowery style (el bediya) of Arab prose) is
terribly corrupt and obscure, and in the absence of a parallel
version, with which to collate it, it is impossible to be sure
that the exact sense has been rendered.
[FN#83] Breslau Text, vol xi. pp. 321-99, Nights dccccxxx-xl.
[FN#84] i.e. the first or Beherite dynasty of the Mameluke
Sultans, the founder of which was originally a Turkish (i.e.
Turcoman) slave.
[FN#85] Fourth Sultan of the above dynasty.
[FN#86] i.e. Palestine (Es Sahil) so styled by the Arabs.
[FN#87] Lit. his nightly entertainers, i.e. those whose place it
was to entertain him by night with the relation of stories and
anecdotes and the recitation of verses, etc.
[FN#88] i.e. the perfect of police.
[FN#89] About fifty shillings.
[FN#90] i.e. those of the visible and invisible worlds.
[FN#91] i.e. of the Sultan's officers of the household. The
Sultan's palace and the lodgings of his chief officers were
situate, according to Eastern custom, in the citadel or central
fortress of the city.
[FN#92] Lit. [self-]possession (temkin).
[FN#93] God forbid!
[FN#94] Or strong place.
[FN#95] i.e. lest ill-hap betide her and you be held responsible
for her.
[FN#96] Which was in his custody in his ex-officio capacity of
guardian, orphans in Muslim countries being, by operation of law,
wards of the Cadi of their district.
[FN#97] Altogether six thousand dinars or about £3000.
[FN#98] i.e. except thou give me immediate satisfaction, I will
complain of thee to the Sultan.
[FN#99] i.e. forgetting all that is enjoined upon the
true-believer by the Institutes of the Prophet (Sunneh) and the
Canons (Fers) of the Divine Law, as deduced from the Koran.
[FN#100] Lit. red i.e. violent or bloody) death.
[FN#101] Lit. the conquered one.
[FN#102] i.e. my view of the matter differs from that of the
Cadi, but I cannot expect a hearing against a personage of his
rank.
[FN#103] And therefore freshly shed.
[FN#104] For redness.
[FN#105] Or parties.
[FN#106] Lit. quench that fire from him.
[FN#107] Of Cairo or (quære) the two Egyptian provinces known as
Es Sherkiyeh (The Eastward) and El Gherbiyeh (The Westward).
[FN#108] i.e, he was a man of ready wit and presence of mind.
[FN#109] Or (in modern slang) "There are good pickings to be had
out of this job."
[FN#110] Lit "the douceur of the key," i.e. the gratuity which it
is customary to give to the porter or portress on hiring a house
or lodging. Cf. the French denier à Dieu, Old English "God's
penny."
[FN#111] i.e. made the complete ablution prescribed by the Muslim
law after copulation.
[FN#112] i.e. the round opening made in the ceiling for
ventilation.
[FN#113] i.e. he who sits on the bench outside the police-office,
to attend to emergencies.
[FN#114] Lit. witnesses, i.e. those who are qualified by their
general respectability and the blamelessness of their lives, to
give evidence in the Mohamedan courts of law.
[FN#115] Sic.
[FN#116] About 50 pounds.
[FN#117] Or guardian.
[FN#118] Syn. book (kitab).
[FN#119] Or made it a legal deed.
[FN#120] Lit. assessors.
[FN#121] This sentence is almost unintelligible, owing to the
corruptness and obscurity of the text; but the sense appears to
be as above.
[FN#122] Apparently supposing the draper to have lost it and
purposing to require a heavy indemnity for its loss.
[FN#123] Apparently, a cant phrase for "thieve."
[FN#124] or disapprove of.
[FN#125] This passage is unintelligible; the text is here again,
to all appearance, corrupt.
[FN#126] i.e. women's tricks?
[FN#127] Muslim formula of invitation.
[FN#128] i.e. the singers?
[FN#129] i.e. easily.
[FN#130] Or made a show of renouncing.
[FN#131] i.e. strong men (or athletes) armed.
[FN#132] Fityan, Arab cant name for thieves.
[FN#133] Apparently in a pavillion in some garden or orchard, the
usual pleasure of the Arabs.
[FN#134] i.e. engaged her to attend an entertainment and paid her
her hire in advance.
[FN#135] Lit. a [she-]partner, i.e. one who should relieve her,
when she was weary of singing, and accompany her voice on the
lute.
[FN#136] i.e. they grew ever more heated with drink.
[FN#137] Helfeh or helfaa (vulg. Alfa), a kind of coarse, rushy
grass (Pos. multiflora), used in the East as fuel.
[FN#138] Lit. "we repented to God, etc, of singing." The practice
of music, vocal and instrumental, is deprecated by the strict
Muslim, in accordance with a tradition by which the Prophet is
said to have expressed his disapproval of these arts.
[FN#139] i.e. required to find the thief or make good the loss.
[FN#140] i.e. the parties aggrieved.
[FN#141] Or irrigation-work, usually a bucket-wheel, worked by
oxen.
[FN#142] Or "came true."
[FN#143] i.e. crucify.
[FN#144] i.e. a native of the Hauran, a district East of
Damascus.
[FN#145] i.e. the mysterious speaker.
[FN#146] i.e. in the punishment that overtook me.
[FN#147] The well-known Arab formula of refusal to a beggar,
equivalent to the Spanish "Perdoneme por amor de Dios, hermano!"
[FN#148] i.e. what I could afford.
[FN#149] i.e. that of the officers of police.
[FN#150] A common Oriental game, something like a rude out-door
form of back-gammon, in which the players who throw certain
numbers are dubbed Sultan and Vizier.
[FN#151] Lit. milk (leben), possibly a copyist's error for jubn
(cheese).
[FN#152] i.e. his forbearance in relinquishing his blood-revenge
for his brother.
[FN#153] In the text, by an evident error, Shehriyar is here made
to ask Shehrzad for another story and she to tell it him.
[FN#154] Nesiheh.
[FN#155] i.e. the mysterious speaker?
[FN#156] Apparently some famous saint. The El Hajjaj whose name
is familiar to readers of the Thomsand and One Night (see supra,
Vol. I. p. 53, note 2) was anything but a saint, if we may
believe the popular report of him.
[FN#157] Breslan Text, vol. xi. pp. 400-473 and vol. xii. pp.
4-50, Nights dccccvli-dcccclvii.
[FN#158] The usual meaning of the Arab word anber (pronounced
amber) a ambergris, i.e. the morbid secretion of the sperm-whale;
but the context appears to point to amber, i.e. the fossil resin
used for necklaces, etc.; unless, indeed, the allusion of the
second hemistich is to ambergris, as worn, for the sake of the
perfume, in amulets or pomanders (Fr. pomme d'ambre) slung about
the neck.
[FN#159] i.e. galena or sulphuret of lead, of which, reduced to
powder, alone or in combination with other ingredients, the
well-known cosmetic or eye-powder called kohl consists.
[FN#160] See supra, Vol. 1. p. 50, note 2.
[FN#161] Or "accomplishments" (adab).
[FN#162] Title of the Khalif.
[FN#163] i.e. Isaac of Mosul, the greatest of Arab musicians.
[FN#164] Elder brother of Jaafer; see my "Book of the Thousand
Nights and One Night," Vol. IX. p. 342 et seq.
[FN#165] Yonnus ibn Hebib, a renowned grammarian and philologer
of the day, who taught at Bassora and whose company was much
sought after by distinguished men of letters and others. He was a
friend of Isaac of Mosul.
[FN#166] Apparently a suburb of Baghdad.
[FN#167] i.e. the principal street of Et Taf.
[FN#168] Or "elegant."
[FN#169] See supra, Vol. I. p. 236, note 1.
[FN#170] ?
[FN#171] A passage has apparently dropped out here. The Khalif
seems to have gone away without buying, leaving Ishac behind,
whereupon the latter was accosted by another slave-girl, who came
out of a cell in the corridor.
[FN#172] Or "have withheld myself."
[FN#173] For not selling me?
[FN#174] i.e. Tuhfeh the fool. Hemca is the feminine form of
ahmec, fool. If by a change in the (unwritten) vowels, we read
Humeca, which is the plural form of ahmec, the title will
signify, "Gift (Tuhfeh) of fools" and would thus represent a
jesting alteration of the girl's real name (Tuhfet el Culoub,
Gift of hearts), in allusion to her (from the slave-merchant's
point of view) foolish and vexatious behaviour in refusing to be
sold to the first comer, as set out below.
[FN#175] Or "folly" (hemakeh).
[FN#176] i.e. not every one is lucky enough to be in Ishac's
house.
[FN#177] Apparently some part of Baghdad adjoining the Tigris.
Khanekah means "a convent of dervishes."
[FN#178] Lit. stronger (acwa).
[FN#179] The gist of this curious comparison is not very
apparent. Perhaps "blander" is meant.
[FN#180] About 10s.
[FN#181] About a penny; i.e. I have found all my skill in the
craft but a trifle in comparison with thine.
[FN#182] i.e. thou art what he wants.
[FN#183] i.e. the dews of her mouth, commonly compared by
Oriental writers to wine and honey.
[FN#184] i.e. he died.
[FN#185] i.e. if my hand were out for want of practice.
[FN#186] i.e. a gift or rarity.
[FN#187] Or "rarity" (tuhfeh)
[FN#188] i.e. thou didst her not justice.
[FN#189] i.e. that set apart for the chief of the concubines.
[FN#190] i.e. from the opening made in the ceiling for
ventilation. Or the saloon in which she sat may have been open to
the sky, as is not uncommon in the East.
[FN#191] Zubeideh was the daughter of Jaafer, son of El Mensour,
second Khalif of the house of Abbas, and was therefore Er
Reshid's first cousin. It does not appear why she is called
daughter (bint) of El Casim.
[FN#192] Lit. "of those noble steps."
[FN#193] So styled by the Muslums, because Abraham is fabled by
them to have driven him away with stones, when he strove to
prevent him from sacrificing Ishmael, whom they substitute for
Isaac as the intended victim.
[FN#194] i.e. Gift of Breasts. The word "breasts" here is, of
course, used (metonymically) for "hearts."
[FN#195] i.e. "He (lit. father) of the hosts of tribes."
[FN#196] See post, passim.
[FN#197] Lit. witnesses (shawahid).
[FN#198] Lit. seas (behar).
[FN#199] Afterwards called Zelzeleh; see post, p. 245 et seq.
[FN#200] i.e. I cannot look long on them.
[FN#201] i.e. change the sir to one less poignant? Or (perhaps)
"lower thy voice."
[FN#202] i.e. from time immemorial, before the creation of the
world. The most minute details of every man's life in the world
are believed by the Mohammedans to have been fore-ordained by God
from all eternity. This belief is summed up in the Koranic
saying, "Verily, the commandment of God is a prevenient decree."
[FN#203] No mention is afterward made of any wedding, and the
word is, therefore, probably used here in its implied sense of
"festival," "merry-making." I am not, however acquainted with any
instance of this use of the word urs.
[FN#204] Or "peewit."
[FN#205] i.e. those that led the water to the roots of the trees,
after the manner of Eastern gardeners.
[FN#206] One of the seven "Gardens" or stages for the Mohammedan
heaven.
[FN#207] "God is Most Great!" So called because its
pronunciation, after that of the niyeh or intent (i.e. "I purpose
to pray such and such prayers"), prohibits the speaking of any
words previous to prayer.
[FN#208] i.e. those of the five daily prayers (due at daybreak,
noon, mid-afternoon, sundown, and nightfall respectively) which
she had been prevented from praying on the previous evening,
through having passed it in carousing with the Jinn. It is
incumbent on the strict Muslim to make up his arrears of prayer
in this manner.
[FN#209] Lit. skill in physiognomy (firaseh).
[FN#210] i.e. the owner of this palace.
[FN#211] The Mohammedan rite of ablution, previous to prayer, is
a very elaborate and complicated process, somewhat "scamped" by
the ordinary "true-believer." See my "Book of the Thousand Nights
and One Night," Vol. IV. pp. 332-4.
[FN#212] i.e. the prayers of nightfall, in addition to those of
daybreak.
[FN#213] i.e. those of noon, mid-afternoon and sundown.
[FN#214] Containing the dessert.
[FN#215] i.e. Mohammed, who was passionately fond of flowers and
especially of the rose, which is fabled to have blossomed from
his sweat.
[FN#216] The Arab name (julnar) of the promegranate is made up of
the Persian word for rose (gul) and the Arabic fire (nar).
[FN#217] i.e. Chapters cxiii. and cxiv. of the Koran,
respectively known as the Chapter of the [Lord of the] Daybreak
and the Chapter of [The Lord of] Men. These chapters, which it is
the habit of the Muslim to recite as a talisman or preventive
against evil, are the last and shortest in the book and run as
follows. Chapter cxiii.--"In the name of the Compassionate, the
Merciful! Say [quoth Gabriel] 'I take refuge with the Lord of the
Daybreak from the evil of that which He hath created and from the
evil of the beginning of the night, whenas it invadeth [the
world], and from the mischief of the women who blow on knots
(i.e. witches) and from the mischief of the envier, whenas he
envieth.'" Chapter cxiv.--"In the name of God the Compassionate,
the Merciful! Say [quoth Gabriel] 'I take refuge with the Lord of
Men, the King of Men, the God of Men, from the mischief of the
stealthy Tempter (i.e. the devil) who whispereth (i.e.
insinuateth evil) into the breasts (hearts) of mankind, from Jinn
and men!'" These two chapters are often written on parchment etc.
and worn as an amulet about the person--hence their name.
[FN#218] Hieratic title of the Khalif, as foreman (imam) of the
people at prayer.
[FN#219] i.e. the Jinn that dwell therein. Each house, according
to Muslim belief, has its haunter or domestic spirit.
[FN#220] i.e. yearning.
[FN#221] i.e. her return.
[FN#222] See ante, p. 229, note 2.
[FN#223] "As for him who is of those brought near unto God, [for
him shall be] easance and sweet basil (syn. victual, rihan), and
a garden of pleasance."--Koran lvi. 87-8. It will be observed
that this verse is somewhat garbled in the quotation.
[FN#224] Meaning apparently, "None of the Jinn may tread these
carpets, etc., that thou treadest."
[FN#225] i.e. to hold festival.
[FN#226] This passage may also be rendered, "And in this I do
thee a great favour [and honour thee] over all the Jinn."
[FN#227] Lit. "How loathly is that which yonder genie Meimoun
eateth!" But this is evidently a mistake. See ante, p. 226.
[FN#228] Lit. "I have not an eye that availeth to look upon him."
[FN#229] i.e. "May I not lack of thy visits!"
[FN#230] i.e. "As much again as all thou hast given."
[FN#231] The attainment by a boy of the proper age for
circumcision, or (so to speak) his religious majority, in a
subject for great rejoicing with the Mohammedans, and the
occasion is celebrated by the giving of as splendid an
entertainment as the means of his family will afford, during
which he is displayed to view upon a throne or raised seat,
arrayed in the richest and ornaments that can be found, hired or
borrowed for the purpose.
[FN#232] Tuhfeh.
[FN#233] Lit. "be equitable therewith unto;" but the meaning
appears to be as above.
[FN#234] Lit. "places" (mawazi). Quaere "shifts" or "positions."
[FN#235] See my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol.
VI. p. 226, Isaac of Mosul and his Mistress and the Devil.
[FN#236] i.e. method of playing the lute.
[FN#237] i.e. not indigenous?
[FN#238] Apparently the residence of King Es Shisban.
[FN#239] i.e. all the Jinn's professions of affection to me and
promises of protection, etc.
[FN#240] i.e. one so crafty that he was a calamity to his
enemies, a common Arab phrase used in a complimentary sense.
[FN#241] i.e. the Flying Lion.
[FN#242] i.e. How canst thou feel assured of safety, after that
which thou hast done?
[FN#243] Or "life" (ruh).
[FN#244] Quaere the mountain Cat.
[FN#245] i.e. why tarriest thou to make an end of her?
[FN#246] i.e. arm.
[FN#247] i.e. for length.
[FN#248] A fabulous mountain-range, believed by the Arabs to
encompass the world and by which they are supposed to mean the
Caucasus.
[FN#249] The Anca, phoenix or griffin, is a fabulous bird that
figures largely in Persian romance. It is fabled to have dwelt in
the Mountain Caf and to have once carried off a king's daughter
on her wedding-day. It is to this legend that the story-teller
appears to refer in the text; but I am not aware that the
princess in question is represented to have been the daughter of
Behram Gour, the well-known King of Persia, who reigned in the
first half of the fifth century and was a contemporary of the
Emperors Theodosius the Younger and Honorius.
[FN#250] One of the names of God.
[FN#251] i.e. thy return.
[FN#252] Gift of the Breast (heart).
[FN#253] Binat el hawa, lit. daughters of love. This is the
ordinary meaning of the phrase; but the girl in question appears
to have been of good repute and the expression, as applied to
her, is probably, therefore, only intended to signify a
sprightly, frolicsome damsel.
[FN#254] Lit. the forehead, quare the lintel.
[FN#255] Or "put to nought"
[FN#256] Comparing her body, now hidden in her flowing stresses
and now showing through them, to a sword, as it flashes in and
out of its sheath.
[FN#257] About £25.
[FN#258] About £75.
[FN#259] i.e. all defects for which a man is by law entitled to
return a slave-girl to her seller.
[FN#260] Ed Dilem is the ancient Media. The allusion to its
prison or prisons I do not understand.
[FN#261] i.e. the complete ablution prescribed by the Mohammedan
law after sexual intercourse.
[FN#262] It is customary for a newly-married man to entertain his
male acquaintances with a collation on the morning after the
wedding.
[FN#263] Lit. more striking and cutting.
[FN#264] Sherifi, a small gold coin, worth about 6s. 8d.
[FN#265] Or "false pretences."
[FN#266] Or, as we should say, "the apple."
[FN#267] Apparently the Cadi was our claimed to be a seyyid i.e.
descendant of Mohammed, through his daughter Fatmeh.
[FN#268] Lit. more ill-omened.
[FN#269] i.e. that the law would not allow him to compel the
young merchant to divorce his wife.
[FN#270] i.e. veil in honour.
[FN#271] Lit the fire, i.e. hell.
[FN#272] i.e. by an irrevocable divorcement (telacan bainan), to
wit, such a divorcement as estops the husband from taking back
his divorced wife, except with her consent and after the
execution of a fresh contract of marriage.
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