One thousand and one nig.., p.770
One Thousand and One Nights, page 770
454 The stricter kind of Eastern Jew prefers to die on the floor, not in bed, as was the case with the late Mr. Emmanuel Deutsch, who in his well-known article on the Talmud had the courage to speak of “Our Saviour.” But as a rule the Israelite, though he mostly appears as a Deist, a Unitarian, has a fund of fanatical feelings which crop up in old age and near death. The “converts” in Syria and elsewhere, whose Judaism is intensified by “conversion,” when offers are made to them by the missionaries repair to the Khαkhαm (scribe) and, after abundant wrangling determine upon a modus vivendi. They are to pay a proportion of their wages, to keep careful watch in the cause of Israel and to die orthodox. In Istria there is a legend of a Jew Prior in a convent who was not discovered till he announced himself most unpleasantly on his death-bed. For a contrary reason to Jewish humility, the Roman Emperors preferred to die standing.
455 He wished to die in a state of ceremonial purity; as has before been mentioned.
456 Arab. “Badal”: in Sind (not to speak of other places) it was customary to hire a pauper “badal” to be hanged in stead of a rich man. Sir Charles Napier signed many a death-warrant before he ever heard of the practice.
457 Arab. “La’an” = curse. The word is in every mouth though strongly forbidden by religion. Even of the enemies of Al-Islam the learned say, “Ila’an Yezνd wa lα tazνd” = curse Yezid but do not exceed (i.e. refrain from cursing the others). This, however, is in the Shafi’ν school and the Hanafνs do not allow it (Pilgrimage i. 198). Hence the Moslem when scrupulous uses na’al (shoe) for la’an (curse) as Ina’al abϊk (for Ila’an abu’-k) or, drat (instead of damn) your father. Men must hold Supreme Intelligence to be of feeble kind if put off by such miserable pretences.
458 Koran vi. 44, speaking of the Infidels. It is a most unamiable chapter, with such assertions as “Allah leadeth into error whom He pleaseth,” etc.
459 Alluding to the “formication” which accompanies a stroke of paralysis.
460 Pronounce Zool Karnayn.
461 i.e. the Koranic and our mediζval Alexander, Lord of the two Horns (East and West) much “Matagrobolized” and very different from him of Macedon. The title is variously explained, from two protuberances on his head or helm, from two long locks and, possibly, from the ram-horns of Jupiter Ammon. The anecdote in the text seems suggested by the famous interview (probably a canard) with Diogenes: see in the Gesta, Tale cxlvi., “The answer of Diomedes the Pirate to Alexander.” Iskandar was originally called Marzbαn (Lord of the Marches), son of Marzabah; and, though descended from Yunαn, son of Japhet, the eponymus of the Greeks, was born obscure, the son of an old woman. According to the Persians he was the son of the Elder Dαrαb (Darius Codomannus of the Kayanian or Second dynasty), by a daughter of Philip of Macedon; and was brought up by his grandfather. When Abraham and Isaac had rebuilt the Ka’abah they foregathered with him and Allah sent him forth against the four quarters of the earth to convert men to the faith of the Friend or to cut their throats; thus he became one of the four world-conquerors with Nimrod, Solomon, Bukht al-Nasr (Nabochodonosor); and he lived down two generations of men. His Wazir was Aristϊ (the Greek Aristotle) and he carried a couple of flags, white and black, which made day and night for him and facilitated his conquests. At the end of Persia, where he was invited by the people, on account of the cruelty of his half brother Darab II., he came upon two huge mountains on the same line, behind which dwelt a host of abominable pygmies, two spans high, with curious eyes, ears which served as mattresses and coverlets, huge fanged mouths, lions’ claws and hairy hind quarters. They ate men, destroyed everything, copulated in public and had swarms of children. These were Yαjϊj and Mαjϊj (Gog and Magog) descendants of Japhet. Sikandar built against them the famous wall with stones cemented and riveted by iron and copper. The “Great Wall” of China, the famous bulwark against the Tartars, dates from B.C. 320 (Alexander of Macedon died B.C. 324); and as the Arabs knew Canton well before Mohammed’s day, they may have built their romance upon it. The Guebres consigned Sikandar to hell for burning the Nusks or sections of the Zendavesta.
462 These terrific preachments to Eastern despots (who utterly ignore them) are a staple produce of Oriental tale-literature and form the chiaro-oscuro, as it were, of a picture whose lights are brilliant touches of profanity and indelicate humour. It certainly has the charm of contrast. Much of the above is taken from the Sikandar-nameh (Alexander Book) of the great Persian poet, Nizαmi, who flourished A.H. 515-597, between the days of Firdausi (ob. A.D.1021) and Sa’adi (ob. A.D. 1291). In that romance Sikandar builds, “where the sun goes down,” a castle of glittering stone which kills men by causing excessive laughter and surrounds it with yellow earth like gold. Hence the City of Brass. He also converts, instead of being converted by, the savages of the text. He finds a stone of special excellence which he calls Almαs (diamond); and he obtains it from the Valley of Serpents by throwing down flesh to the eagles. Lastly he is accompanied by “Bilνnas” or “Bilνnus,” who is apparently Apollonius of Tyana.
463 I have explained the beautiful name in Night cclxxxix:
He is stil famous for having introduced into Persia the fables of
Pilpay (Bidyapati, the lord of lore) and a game which the genius
of Persia developed into chess.
464 Here we find an eternal truth, of which Malthusians ever want reminding; that the power of a nation simply consists in its numbers of fighting men and in their brute bodily force. The conquering race is that which raises most foot-pounds: hence the North conquers the South in the Northern hemisphere and visa versa.
465 Arab. “Wayha,” not so strong as “Woe to,” etc. Al-Hariri often uses it as a formula of affectionate remonstrance.
466 As a rule (much disputed) the Sayyid is a descendant from Mohammed through his grandchild Hasan, and is a man of the pen; whereas the Sharif derives from Husayn and is a man of the sword. The Najνb al-taraf is the son of a common Moslemah by a Sayyid, as opposed to the “Najib al-tarafayn,” when both parents are of Apostolic blood. The distinction is not noticed in Lane’s “Modern Egyptians”. The Sharif is a fanatic and often dangerous, as I have instanced in Pilgrimage iii. 132.
467 A theologian of Bassorah (eighth century): surnamed Abϊ Yahyα. The prayer for mercy denotes that he was dead when the tale was written.
468 A theologian of Bassorah (eighth century).
469 Arab. “Musallα”; lit. a place of prayer; an oratory, a chapel, opp. to “Jαmi’” = a (cathedral) mosque.
470 According to all races familiar with the negro, a calf like a shut fist planted close under the ham is, like the “cucumber shin” and “lark heel”, a good sign in a slave. Shapely calves and well-made legs denote the idle and the ne’er-do-well. I have often found this true although the rule is utterly empirical. Possibly it was suggested by the contrast of the nervous and lymphatic temperaments.
471 These devotees address Allah as a lover would his beloved. The curious reader will consult for instances the Dabistan on Tasawwuf (ii. 221; i.,iii. end, and passim).
472 Arab. “Ma’rifat,” Pers. Dαnish; the knowledge of the Truth. The seven steps are (1) Sharν’at, external law like night; (2) Tarνkat, religious rule like the stars; (3) Hakνkat, reality, truth like the moon; (4) Ma’arifat like the sun; (5) Kurbat, proximity to Allah; (6) Wasνlat, union with Allah, and (7) Suknat, dwelling in Allah. (Dabistan iii.29.)
473 Name of a fountain of Paradise: See Night xlix., vol. ii., p.100.
474 Arab. “Atbαk”; these trays are made of rushes, and the fans of palm-leaves or tail-feathers.
475 Except on the two great Festivals when fasting is forbidden. The only religion which has shown common sense in this matter is that of the Guebres or Parsis: they consider fasting neither meritorious nor lawful; and they honour Hormuzd by good living “because it keeps the soul stronger.” Yet even they have their food superstitions, e.g. in Gate No. xxiv.: “Beware of sin specially on the day thou eatest flesh, for flesh is the diet of Ahriman.” And in India the Guebres have copied the Hindus in not slaughtering horned cattle for the table.
476 Arab. “Jallαbiyah,” a large-sleeved robe of coarse stuff worn by the poor.
477 His fear was that his body might be mutilated by the fall.
478 The phrase means “offering up many and many a prayer.”
479 A saying of Mohammed is recorded “Al-fakru fakhrν” (poverty is my pride!), intelligible in a man who never wanted for anything. Here he is diametrically opposed to Ali who honestly abused poverty; and the Prophet seems to have borrowed from Christendom, whose “Lazarus and Dives” shows a man sent to Hell because he enjoyed a very modified Heaven in this life and which suggested that one of the man’s greatest miseries is an ecclesiastical virtue— “Holy Poverty” — represented in the Church as a bride young and lovely. If a “rich man can hardly enter the kingdom” what must it be with a poor man whose conditions are far more unfavourable? Going to the other extreme we may say that Poverty is the root of all evil and the more so as it curtails man’s power of benefiting others. Practically I observe that those who preach and praise it the most, practise it the least willingly: the ecclesiastic has always some special reasons, a church or a school is wanted; but not the less he wishes for more money. In Syria this Holy Poverty leads to strange abuses. At Bayrut I recognised in most impudent beggers well-to-do peasants from the Kasrawαn district, and presently found out that whilst their fields were under snow they came down to the coast, enjoyed a genial climate and lived on alms. When I asked them if they were not ashamed to beg, they asked me if I was ashamed of following in the footsteps of the Saviour and Apostles. How much wiser was Zoroaster who found in the Supreme Paradise (Minuwαn-minu) “many persons, rich in gold and silver who had worshipped the Lord and had been grateful to Him.” (Dabistan i. 265.)
480 Koran vii. 52.
481 Arab. “Al-bayt” = the house. The Arabs had probably learned this pleasant mode of confinement from the Chinese whose Kea or Cangue is well known. The Arabian form of it is “Ghull,” or portable pillory, which reprobates will wear on Judgment Day.
482 This commonest conjuring trick in the West becomes a miracle in the credulous East.
483 Arab. “Kαnϊn”; the usual term is Mankal (pron. Mangal) a pan of copper or brass. Some of these “chafing-dishes” stand four feet high and are works of art. Lane (M.E. chapt. iv) gives an illustration of the simpler kind, together with the “Azikν,” a smaller pan for heating coffee. See Night dxxxviii.
484 See vol. iii., p.239. The system is that of the Roman As and Unciae. Here it would be the twenty-fourth part of a dinar or miskal; something under 5d. I have already noted that all Moslem rulers are religiously bound to some handicraft, if it be only making toothpicks. Mohammed abolished kingship proper as well as priestcraft.
485 Al-Islam, where salvation is found under the shade of the swords.
486 Moslems like the Classics (Aristotle and others) hold the clitoris (Zambϊr) to be the sedes et scaturigo veneris which, says Sonnini, is mere profanity. In the babe it protrudes beyond the labiζ and snipping off the head forms female circumcision. This rite is supposed by Moslems to have been invented by Sarah who so mutilated Hagar for jealousy and was afterwards ordered by Allah to have herself circumcised at the same time as Abraham. It is now (or should be) universal in Al-Islam and no Arab would marry a girl “unpurified” by it. Son of an “uncircumcised” mother (Ibn al-bazrα) is a sore insult. As regards the popular idea that Jewish women were circumcised till the days of Rabbi Gershom (A.D.1000) who denounced it as a scandal to the Gentiles, the learned Prof. H. Graetz informs me, with some indignation, that the rite was never practised and that the great Rabbi contended only against polygamy. Female circumcision, however, is I believe the rule amongst some outlying tribes of Jews. The rite is the proper complement of male circumcision, evening the sensitiveness of the genitories by reducing it equally in both sexes: an uncircumcised woman has the venereal orgasm much sooner and oftener than a circumcised man, and frequent coitus would injure her health; hence I believe, despite the learned historian, that it is practised by some Eastern Jews. “Excision” is universal amongst the negroids of the Upper Nile (Werne), the Somαl and other adjacent tribes. The operator, an old woman, takes up the instrument, a knife or razor-blade fixed into a wooden handle, and with three sweeps cuts off the labia and the head of the clitoris. The parts are then sewn up with a packneedle and a thread of sheepskin; and in Dar-For a tin tube is inserted for the passage of urine. Before marriage the bridegroom trains himself for a month on beef, honey and milk; and, if he can open his bride with the natural weapon, he is a sworder to whom no woman in the tribe can deny herself. If he fails, he tries penetration with his fingers and by way of last resort whips out his whittle and cuts the parts open. The sufferings of the first few nights must be severe. The few Somαli prostitutes who practised at Aden always had the labiζ and clitoris excised and the skin showing the scars of coarse sewing. The moral effect of female circumcision is peculiar. While it diminishes the heat of passion it increases licentiousness, and breeds a debauchery of mind far worse than bodily unchastity, because accompanied by a peculiar cold cruelty and a taste for artificial stimulants to “luxury.” It is the sexlessness of a spayed canine imitated by the suggestive brain of humanity.
487 Koran vi. So called because certain superstitions about
Cattle are therein mentioned.
488 Koran iv. So called because it treats of marriages, divorces, etc.
489 Sνdi (contracted from Sayyidν = my lord) is a title still applied to holy men in Marocco and the Maghrib; on the East African coast it is assumed by negro and negroid Moslems, e.g. Sidi Mubαrak Bombay; and “Seedy boy” is the Anglo-Indian term for a Zanzibar-man. “Khawwαs” is one who weaves palm-leaves (Khos) into baskets, mats, etc.: here, however, it may be an inherited name.
490 i.e. in spirit; the “strangers yet” of poor dear Richard
Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton.
491 Al-Hakk = the Truth, one of the ninety-nine names of
Allah.
492 The Moslem is still unwilling to address Salαm (Peace be with you) to the Christian, as it is obligatory (Farz) to a Moslem (Koran, chapt. iv. and lxviii.). He usually evades the difficulty by saluting the nearest Moslem or by a change of words Allah Yahdν-k (Allah direct thee to the right way) or “Peace be upon us and the righteous worshipers of Allah” (not you) or Al-Samm (for Salam) alayka = poison to thee. The idea is old: Alexander of Alexandria in his circular letter describes the Arian heretics as “men whom it is not lawful to salute or to bid God-speed.”
493 Koran xxxvi. 82. I have before noted that this famous phrase was borrowed from the Hebrews, who borrowed it from the Egyptians.
494 The story of Moses and Khizr has been noticed before. See Koran chapt. xviii. 64 et seq. It is also related, says Lane (ii. 642), by Al-Kazwνni in the Ajαib al-Makhlϊkαt. This must be “The Angel and the Hermit” in the Gesta Romanorum, Tale lxxx. which possibly gave rise to Parnell’s Hermit; and Tale cxxvii. “Of Justice and Equity.” The Editor says it “contains a beautiful lesson:” I can find only excellent excuses for “doing evil that good may come of it.”
495 Koran chapt. v.108.
496 The doggrel is phenomenal.
497 He went in wonder and softened heart to see the miracle of saintly affection.
498 In Sufistical parlance, the creature is the lover and the Creator the Beloved: worldly existence is Disunion, parting, severance; and the life to come is Reunion. The basis of the idea is the human soul being a divinζ particula aurζ, a disjoined molecule from the Great Spirit, imprisoned in a jail of flesh; and it is so far valuable that it has produced a grand and pathetic poetry; but Common Sense asks, Where is the proof? And Reason wants to know, What does it all mean?
499 Koran xiii. 41.
500 Robinson Crusoe, with a touch of Arab prayerfulness.
Also the story of the Knight Placidus in the Gesta (cx.),
Boccaccio, etc.
501 Arabs note two kinds of leprosy, “Bahak” or “Baras” the common or white, and “Juzam” the black leprosy; the leprosy of the joints, mal rouge. Both are attributed to undue diet as eating fish and drinking milk; and both are treated with tonics, especially arsenic. Leprosy is regarded by Moslems as a Scriptural malady on account of its prevalence amongst the Israelites who, as Manetho tells us, were expelled from Egypt because they infected and polluted the population. In mediζval Christendom an idea prevailed that the Saviour was a leper; hence the term “morbus sacer”; the honours paid to the sufferers by certain Saints and the Papal address (Clement III. A.D.1189) dilectis filiis leprosis. (Farrar’s Life of Christ, i.149.) For the “disgusting and impetuous lust” caused by leprosy, see Sonnini (p.560) who visited the lepers at Canea in Candia. He is one of many who describes this symptom; but in the Brazil, where the foul malady still prevails, I never heard of it.
