One thousand and one nig.., p.766
One Thousand and One Nights, page 766
125 “Sultan” is here an anachronism: I have noted that the title was first assumed independently by Mohammed of Ghazni after it had been conferred by the Caliph upon his father the Amir Al- Umarα (Mayor of the Palace), Sabuktagin A.D. 974.
126 The “Sakkα” or water-carrier race is peculiar in Egypt and famed for trickery and intrigue. Opportunity here as elsewhere makes the thief.
127 A famous saying of Mohammed is recorded when an indiscretion of his young wife Ayishah was reported to him, “There be no adultress without an adulterer (of a husband).” Fatimah the Apostle’s daughter is supposed to have remained a virgin after bearing many children: this coarse symbolism of purity was known to the classics (Pausanias), who made Juno recover her virginity by bathing in a certain river every year. In the last phrase, “Al-Salaf” (ancestry) refers to Mohammed and his family.
128 Khusrau Parwiz, grandson of Anushirwan, the Guebre King who tore his kingdom by tearing Mohammed’s letter married the beautiful Maria or Irene (in Persian “Shνrνn = the sweet) daughter of the Greek Emperor Maurice: their loves were sung by a host of poets; and likewise the passion of the sculptor Farhαd for the same Shirin. Mr. Lyall writes “Parwκz” and holds “Parwνz” a modern form.
129 he could afford it according to historians. His throne was supported by 40,000 silver pillars; and 1,000 globes, hung in the dome, formed an orrery, showing the motion of the heavenly bodies; 30,000 pieces of embroidered tapestry overhung the walls below were vaults full of silver, gold and gems.
130 Arab. “Khunsα,” meaning also a catamite as I have explained. Lane (ii. 586) has it; “This fish is of a mixed kind.” (!).
131 So the model lovers became the ordinary married couple.
132 Arab. “Jamm.” Heb. “Yamm.” Al-Harνri (Ass. Of Sinjar and Sαwah) uses the rare form Yam for sea or ocean.
133 Al-Hadi, immediate predecessor of Harun al-Rashid, called “Al-Atbik”: his upper lip was contracted and his father placed a slave over him when in childhood, with orders to say, “Musa! atbik!” (draw thy lips together) when he opened his mouth.
134 Immediate successor of Harun al-Rashid. Al-Amin is an imposing physical figure, fair, tall, handsome and of immense strength; according to Al-Mas’ϊdi, he killed a lion with his own hands; but his mind and judgement were weak. He was fond of fishing; and his reply to the courtier bringing important news, “Confound thee! leave me! for Kausar (an eunuch whom he loved) hath caught two fish and I none,” reminds one of royal frivolity in France.
135 Afterwards governor in Khorasan under Al-Maamun.
136 Intendant of the palace under Harun al-Rashid.
137 Moslem women have this advantage over their Western sisterhood: they can always leave the house of father or husband and, without asking permission, pay a week or ten days’ visit to their friends. But they are not expected to meet their lovers.
138 The tale of “Susannah and the Elders” in Moslem form.
Dαniyαl is the Arab Daniel, supposed to have been buried at
Alexandria. (Pilgrimage, i. 16.)
139 According to Moslem law, laid down by Mohammed on a delicate occasion and evidently for a purpose, four credible witnesses are required to prove fornication, adultery, sodomy and so forth; and they must swear that actually saw rem in re, the “Kohl-needle in the Kohl-ιtui,” as the Arabs have it. This practically prevents conviction and the sabre cuts the Gordian knot.
140 Who, in such case, would represent our equerry.
141 The Badawi not only always tells the truth, a perfect contrast with the townsfolk; he is blunt in speech addressing his Sultan “O Sa’νd!” and he has a hard rough humour which we may fairly describe as “wut.” When you chaff him look out for falls.
142 The answer is as old as the hills, teste the tale of what happened when Amasis (who on horseback) raised his leg, “broke wind and bad the messenger carry it back to Apries.” Herod. Ii. 162. But for the full significance of the Badawi’s most insulting reply see the Tale of Abu Hasan in Night ccccxi.
143 Arab. “Yα sαki” al-Dakan” meaning long bearded (foolish) as well as frosty bearded.
144 P. N. of the tribe, often mentioned in The Nights.
145 Adnan, which whom Arab genealogy begins, is generally supposed to be the eighth (Al-Tabari says the fortieth) descendant from Ishmael and nine generations are placed between him and Fahr (Fihr) Kuraysh. The Prophet cut all disputes short by saying, “Beyond Adnan none save Allah wotteth and the genealogists lie.” (Pilgrimage ii. 344) M.C. de Perceval dates Adnan about B.C. 130.
146 Koran xxxiii., 38.
147 Arab. “Arab al-Arabα,” as before noticed (vol. i. 12) the pure and genuine blood as opposed to the “Musta’aribah,” the “Muta’arribah,” the “Mosarabians” and other Araboids; the first springing from Khatan (Yaktan?) and the others from Adnan. And note that “Arabi” = a man of pure Arab race, either of the Desert or of the city, while A’arαbi applies only to the Desert man, the Badawi.
148 Koran xxxviii. 2, speaking of the Unbelievers (i.e. non-Moslems) who are full of pride and contention.
149 One of the Ashαb, or Companions of the Apostle, that is them who knew him personally. (Pilgrimage ii. 80, etc.) The Ashαb al-Suffah (Companions of the bench or sofa) were certain houseless Believers lodged by the Prophet. (Pilgrimage ii. 143).
150 Hence Omar is entitled “Al-Adil = the Just.” Readers will remember that by Moslem law and usage murder and homicide are offences to be punished by the family, not by society or its delegates. This system reappears in civilisation under the denomination of “Lynch Law,” a process infinitely distasteful to lawyers (whom it abolishes) and most valuable when administered with due discretion.
151 Lane translates (ii. 592) “from a desire of seeing the face of God;” but the general belief of Al-Islam is that the essence of Allah’s corporeal form is different from man’s. The orthodox expect to “see their Lord on Doom-day as they see the full moon” (a tradition). But the Mu’atazilites deny with the existence of matter the corporiety of Alah and hold that he will be seen only with the spiritual eyes, i.e. of reason.
152 See Gesta Romanorum, Tale cviii., “of Constancy in adhering to Promises,” founded on Damon and Pythias or, perhaps, upon the Arabic.
153 Arab. “Al-Ahrαm,” a word of unknown provenance. It has been suggested that the singular form (Haram), preceded by the Coptic article “pi” (= the) suggested to the Greeks “Pyramis.” But this word is still sub judice and every Egyptologist seems to propose his own derivation. Brugsch (Egypt i. 72) makes it Greek, the Egyptian being “Abumir,” while “pir- am-us” = the edge of the pyramid, the corners running from base to apex. The Egyptologist proves also what the Ancients either ignored or forgot to mention, that each pyramid had its own name.
154 Arab. “Ahkαm,” in this matter supporting the
“Pyramidologists.”
155 All imaginative.
156 It has always been my opinion founded upon considerations too long to detail, that the larger Pyramids contain many unopened chambers. Dr. Grant Bey of Cairo proposed boring through the blocks as Artesian wells are driven. I cannot divine why Lane (ii, 592) chose to omit this tale, which is founded on historic facts and interests us by suggesting a comparison between Mediζval Moslem superstitions and those of our xixth Century, which to our descendants will appear as wild, if not as picturesque, as those of The Nights. The “inspired British inch” and the building by Melchisedek (the Shaykh of some petty Syrian village) will compare not unaptly with the enchanted swords, flexible glass and guardian spirits. But the Pyramidennarren is a race which will not speedily die out: it is based on Nature, the Pyramids themselves.
157 Arab. “Rizm”; hence, through the Italian Risma our ream (= 20 quires of paper, etc.), which our dictionaries derive from (!). See “frail” in Night dcccxxxviii.
158 Arab. “Tarνkah” = the path trodden by ascetics and mystics in order to attain true knowledge (Ma’rifat in Pers. Dαnish). These are extensive subjects: for the present I must refer readers to the Dabistan, iii. 35 and iii. 29, 36-7.
159 Alluding to the Fishαr or “Squeeze of the tomb.” This is the Jewish Hibbut hakkeber which all must endure, save those who lived in the Holy Land or died on the Sabbath-eve (Friday night). Then comes the questioning by the Angels Munkar and Nakir (vulgarly called Nαkir and Nakνr) for which see Lane (M.E. chapt. xviii.). In Egypt a “Mulakkin” (intelligencer) is hired to prompt and instruct the dead. Moslems are beginning to question these facts of their faith: a Persian acquaintance of mine filled his dead father’s mouth with flour and finding it in loco on opening the grave, publicly derided the belief. But the Mullahs had him on the hip, after the fashion of reverends, declaring that the answers were made through the whole body, not only by the mouth. At last the Voltairean had to quit Shiraz.
160 Arab. “Walν” = a saint, Santon (Ital. Form) also a slave. See in Richardson (Dissert. iii.), an illustration of the difference between Wali and Wαli as exemplified by the Caliph al- Kαdir and Mahmϊd of Ghazni.
161 Arab. “Tνn” = the tenacious clay puddled with chaff which serves as mortar for walls built of Adobe or sun dried brick. I made a mistake in my Pilgrimage (i.10) translating Ras al-Tνn the old Pharos of Alexandria, by “Headland of Figs.” It is Headland of Clay, so called from the argile there found and which supported an old pottery.
162 The danik (Pers. Dang) is the sixth of a dirham. Mr. S. L. Poole (The Acad. April 26, ‘79) prefers his uncle’s translation “a sixth” (what of?) to Mr. Payne’s “farthing.” The latter at any rate is intelligible.
163 The devotee was “Sαim al-dahr” i.e. he never ate nor drank from daylight to dark throughout the year.
164 The ablution of a common man differs from that of an
educated Moslem as much as the eating of a clown and a gentleman.
Moreover there are important technical differences between the
Wuzu of the Sunni and the Shi’ah.
165 i.e., by honouring his father.
166 This young saint was as selfish and unnatural a sinner as Saint Alexius of the Gesta Romanorum (Tale xv.), to whom my friend, the late Thomas Wright, administered just and due punishment.
167 The verses are affecting enough, though by no means high poetry.
168 The good young man cut his father for two reasons: secular power (an abomination to good Moslems) and defective title to the Caliphate. The latter is a trouble to Turkey in the present day and with time will prove worse.
169 Umm Amrν (written Amrϊ and pronounced Amr’) a matronymic, “mother of Amru.” This story and its terminal verse is a regular Joe Miller.
170 Abuse and derision of schoolmaster are staple subjects in the East as in the West, (Quem Dii oderunt pζdagogum fecerunt). Anglo-Indians will remember:
“Miyαn-ji ti-ti!
Bachche-kν gαnd men anguli kν thi!”
(“Schoolmaster hum!
Who fumbled and fingered the little boy’s bum?”)
171 Arab. “Mujawirin” = the lower servants, sweepers, etc. See Pilgrimage ii. 161, where it is also applied to certain “settlers” at Al-Medinah. Burckhardt (No. 480) notices another meaning “foreigners who attend mosque-lectures” and quotes the saying, “A. pilgrimaged:” quoth B. “yes! and for his villanies resideth (Mujαwir) at Meccah.”
172 The custom (growing obsolete in Egypt) is preserved in Afghanistan where the learned wear turbans equal to the canoe- hats of the Spanish cardinals.
173 Arab. “Makmarah,” a metal cover for the usual brasier or pan of charcoal which acts as a fire-place. Lane (ii. 600) does not translate the word and seems to think it means a belt or girdle, thus blunting the point of the dominie’s excuse.
174 This story, a very old Joe Miller, was told to Lane as something new and he introduced it into his Modern Egyptians, end of chapt. ii.
175 This tale is a mere abbreviation of “The King and his
Wazir’s Wife,” in the Book of Sindibad or the Malice of Women,
Night dcxxviii., {which see for annotations}.
176 The older “Roe” which may be written “Rukh” or “Rukhkh.” Colonel Yule, the learned translator of Marco Polo, has shown that “Roc’s” feathers were not uncommon curiosities in mediζval ages; and holds that they were mostly fronds of the palm Raphia vinifera, which has the largest leaf in the vegetable kingdom and which the Moslems of Zanzibar call “Satan’s date-tree.” I need hardly quote “Frate Cipolla and the Angel Gabriel’s Feather.” (Decameron vi. 10.)
177 The tale is told in a bald, disjointed style and will be repeated in Sindbad the Seaman where I shall again notice the “Roc.” See Night dxxxvii., etc.
178 Hνrah in Mesopotamia was a Christian city and
principality subject to the Persian Monarchs; and a rival to the
Roman kingdom of Ghassαn. It has a long history, for which see
D’Herbelot.
179 A pre-Islamite poet.
180 Arab. “Bikα’a,” alluding to the pilgrimages made to monasteries and here equivalent to, “Address ye to the road,” etc.
181 Whose by name was Abu Ali, a poet under the Abbasides (eighth and ninth centuries).
182 A well-known quarter of Baghdad, often mentioned in The
Nights.
183 Another well-known poet of the time.
184 Arab. “Sardαb”: noticed before.
185 A gigantic idol in the Ka’abah, destroyed by Mohammed: it gave name to a tribe.
186 Arab. “Ya Kawwαd:” hence the Port. and Span.
Alcoviteiro.
187 Arab “Tufayli,” a term before noticed; the class was as well-known in Baghdad and Cairo as in ancient Rome.
188 Arab. “Jauzar”=a bubalus (Antilope defessa), also called “Aye” from the large black eyes. This bovine antelope is again termed Bakar al-Wahsh (wild cattle) or “Bos Sylvestris” (incerti generic, Forsk.). But Janzar also signifies hart, so I render it by “Ariel” (the well-known antelope).
189 Arab. “Tarαib” plur. of tarνbah. The allusion is to the heart, and “the little him’s a her.”
190 A well-known poet of the ninth century (A.D.).
191 These easy deaths for love are a lieu common: See sundry of them in the Decameron (iv. 7, etc.); and, in the Heptameron (Nouv. Ixx.), the widow who lay down and died of love and sorrow that her passion had become known. For the fainting of lovers see Nouvelle xix.
192 This is a favourite Badawi dish, but too expensive unless some accident happen to the animal. Old camel is much like bull-beef, but the young meat is excellent, although not relished by Europeans because, like strange fish, it has no recognised flavour. I have noticed it in my “First Footsteps” (, etc.). There is an old idea in Europe that the maniacal vengeance of the Arab is increased by eating this flesh, the beast is certainly vindictive enough; but a furious and frantic vengefulness characterises the North American Indian who never saw a camel. Mercy and pardon belong to the elect, not to the miserables who make up “ humanity.”
193 i.e. of the Province Hazramaut, the Biblical Hazarmaveth (Gen. x. 26). The people are the Swill of Arabia and noted for thrift and hard bargains; hence the saying, If you meet a serpent and a Hazrami, slay the Hazrami. To prove how ubiquitous they are it is related that a man, flying from their society, reached the uttermost parts of China where he thought himself safe. But, as he was about to pass the night in some ruin, he heard a voice bard by him exclaim, “O Imαd al-Din!” (the name of the patron-saint of Hazramaut). Thereupon he arose and fled and he is, they say, flying still.
194 Arab. “Fαl” alluding to the Sortes Coranicζ and other silly practices known to the English servant-girs when curious about her future and her futur.
195 i.e., in Arab-land (where they eat dates) and Ajam, or lands non-Arab (where bread is the staff of life); that is, all the world over.
196 This story is curious and ethnologically valuable. The Badawi who eructates as a civility, has a mortal hatred to a crepitus ventris; and were a by-stander to laugh at its accidental occurrence, he would at once be cut down as a “pundonor.” The same is the custom amongst the Highlanders of Afghanistan, and its artificial nature suggests direct derivation, for the two regions are separated by a host of tribes, Persians and Baloch, Sindis and Panjαbis who utterly ignore the point of honour and behave like Europeans. The raids of the pre-Islamitic Arabs over the lands lying to the north-east of them are almost forgotten; still there are traces, and this may be one of them.
197 Arab. “Al-Αr.” The Badawi saying is “Al-nαr wa lα l- αr” (Hell-)fire, but not shame. The sentiment is noble. Hasan the Prophet’s grandson, a poor creature demoralised by over- marrying, chose the converse, “Shame is better than Hell-fire.” An old Arabic poem has,
“The Fire and not shame be the Lord of thee
And e’en to The Fire from shame go flee.”
Al-Hariri (Ass. of the Badawin) also has,
“For rather would I die my death than shame, —
On bier be borne than bear a caitiff’s name.”
198 A grammarian and rhetorician of ninth century.
199 Once existing in Syrian Hamαh (the Biblical Hamath); and so called because here died the Emperor Heraclius called by the Arabs “Hirakl.”
200 Till lately it was the custom to confine madmen in Syrian monasteries, hoping a cure from the patron Saint, and a terrible time they had of it. Every guide book relates the healing process as formerly pursued at the Maronite Convent Koshaya not far from Bayrut. The idiot or maniac was thrust headlong by the monks into a dismal cavern with a heavy chain round his neck, and was tied up within a span of the wall to await the arrival of Saint Anthony who especially affects this holy place. In very few weeks the patient was effectually cured or killed by cold, solitude and starvation.
201 The Moslem Eve, much nearer the Hebrew “Hawah” = the “manifester,” because (Gen. iii. 20) she was (to be) the mother of all that live (“Kull hayy”).
202 The mad lover says “they” for “she,” which would be too familiar in speaking to strangers.
