One Thousand and One Nights, page 678
49 “O Camphor,” an antiphrase before noticed. The vulgar also say “Yá Taljí”=O snowy (our snowball), the polite “Ya Abú Sumrah !” =O father of brownness.
50 i.e. which fit into sockets in the threshold and lintel and act as hinges. These hinges have caused many disputes about how they were fixed, for instance in caverns without moveable lintel or threshold. But one may observe that the upper projections are longer than the lower and that the door never fits close above, so by lifting it up the inferior pins are taken out of the holes. It is the oldest form and the only form known to the Ancients. In Egyptian the hinge is called Akab=the heel, hence the proverb Wakaf’ al-báb alá ‘akabin; the door standeth on its heel; i.e. every thing in proper place.
51 Hence the addresses to the Deity: Yá Sátir and Yá Sattár- -Thou who veilest the sins of Thy Servants! said e.g., when a woman is falling from her donkey, etc.
52 A necessary precaution, for the headsman who would certainly lose his own head by overhaste.
53 The passage has also been rendered, “and rejoiced him by what he said” (Lane i, 600).
54 Arab. “Hurr”=noble, independent (opp. to ‘Abd=a servile) often used to express animć nobilitas as in Acts xvii. 11; where the Berans were “more noble” than the Thessalonians. The Princess means that the Prince would not lie with her before marriage.
55 The Persian word is now naturalized as Anglo-Egypeian.
56 Arab. “khassat hu” = removed his testicles, gelded him.
57 Here ends the compound tale of Taj al-Muluk cum Aziz plus
Azizah, and we return to the history of King Omar’s sons.
58 “Zibl” popularly pronounced Zabal, means “dung.” Khan is “Chief,” as has been noticed; “Zabbál,” which Torrens renders literally “dung-drawer,” is one who feeds the Hammam with bois- de-vache, etc.
59 i.e one who fights the Jihád or “Holy War”: it is equivalent to our “good knight.”
60 Arab. “Malik.” Azud al Daulah, a Sultan or regent under the Abbaside Caliph Al-Tá’i li ‘llah (regn. A.H. 363-381) was the first to take the title of “Malik.” The latter in poetry is still written Malík.
61 A townlet on the Euphrates, in the “awwal Shám,” or frontier of Syria.
62 i.e., the son would look to that.
63 A characteristic touch of Arab pathos, tender and true.
64 Arab. “Mawarid” from “ward” = resorting to pool or water- pit (like those of “Gakdúl”) for drinking, as opposed to “Sadr”=returning after having drunk at it. Hence the “Sádir” (part. act.) takes precedence of the “Wárid” in Al-Hariri (Ass. of the Badawi).
65 One of the fountains of Paradise (Koran, chaps. Ixxvi.): the word lit. means “water flowing pleasantly down the throat.” The same chapter mentions “Zanjabíl,” or the Ginger-fount, which to the Infidel mind unpleasantly suggests “ginger pop.”
66 Arab. “Takhíl” = adorning with Kohl.
67 The allusions are far-fetched and obscure as in Scandinavian poetry. Mr. Payne (ii. 314) translates “Naml” by “net.” I understand the ant (swarm) creeping up the cheeks, a common simile for a young beard. The lovers are in the Lazá (hell) of jealousy etc., yet feel in the Na’ím (heaven) of love and robe in green, the hue of hope, each expecting to be the favoured one.
68 Arab. “Ukhuwán,” the classical term. There are two chamomiles, the white (Bábúnaj) and the yellow (Kaysún), these however are Syrian names and plants are differently called in almost every Province of Arabia
69 In nomadic life the parting of lovers happens so frequently that it become. a stock topic in poetry and often, as here, the lover complains of parting when he is not parted. But the gravamen lies in the word “Wasl” which may mean union, meeting, reunion Or coition. As Ka’ab ibn Zuhayr began his famous poem with “Su’ád hath departed,” 900 imitators (says Al-Siyuti) adopted the Násib or address to the beloved and Su’ad came to signify a cruel, capricious mistress.
70 As might be expected from a nation of camel-breeders actual cautery which can cause only counter-irritation, is a favourite nostrum; and the Hadis or prophetic saying is “Akhir al-dawá (or al-tibb) al-Kayy” = cautery is the end of medicine- cure; and “Fire and sickness cannot cohabit.” Most of the Badawi bear upon their bodies grisly marks Of this heroic treatment, whose abuse not unfrequently brings on gangrene. The Hadis (Burckhardt, Proverbs, No. 30) also means “if nothing else avail, take violent measures.
71 The Spaniards have the same expression: “Man is fire and woman is tinder.”
72 Arab. “Báshik” from Persian “Báshah” (accipiter Nisus) a fierce little species of sparrow-hawk which I have described in “Falconry in the Valley of the Indus” (, etc.).
73 Lit. “Coals (fit) for frying pan.”
74 Arab. “Libdah,” the sign of a pauper or religious mendicant. He is addressed “Yá Abu libdah!” (O father of a felt calotte!)
75 In times of mourning Moslem women do not use perfumes or dyes, like the Henna here alluded to in the pink legs and feet of the dove.
76 Koran, chaps. ii. 23. The idea is repeated in some forty
Koranic passages.
77 A woman’s name, often occurring. The “daughters of Sa’ada” are zebras, so called because “they resemble women in beauty and graceful agility.”
78 Arab. “Tiryák” from Gr. a drug against venomous bites. It was compounded mainly of treacle, and that of Baghdad and Irák was long held sovereign. The European equivalent, “Venice treacle,” (Theriaca Andromachi) is an electuary containing many elements. Badawin eat for counter- poison three heads of garlic in clarified butter for forty days. (Pilgrimage iii 77 )
79 Could Cervantes have read this? In Algiers he might easily have heard it recited by the tale-tellers. Kanmakan is the typical Arab Knight, gentle and valiant as Don Quixote Sabbáh is the Grazioso, a “Beduin” Sancho Panza. In the “Romance of Antar” we have a similar contrast with Ocab who says: “Indeed I am no fighter: the sword in my hand-palm chases only pelicans ;” and, “whenever you kill a satrap, I’ll plunder him.”
80 i.e. The Comely, son of the Spearman, son of the Lion, or
Hero.
81 Arab. “Ushári.” Old Purchas (vi., i. 9) says there are three kinds of camels (1 ) Huguin (=Hejin) of tall stature and able to carry 1,000 lbs. (2) Bechete (=Bukhti) the two-humped Bactrian before mentioned and, (3) the Raguahill (Rahíl) small dromedaries unfit for burden but able to cover a hundred miles in a day. The “King of Timbukhtu” (not “Bukhtu’s well” pop. Timbuctoo) had camels which reach Segelmesse (Sijalmas) or Darha, nine hundred miles in eight days at most. Lyon makes the Maherry (also called El-Heirie=Mahri) trot nine miles an hour for a long time. Other travellers in North Africa report the Sabayee (Saba’i=seven days weeder) as able to get over six hundred and thirty miles (or thirty-five caravan stages=each eighteen miles) in five to seven days. One of the dromedaries in the “hamlah” or caravan of Mr. Ensor (Journey through Nubia and Darfoor — a charming book) travelled one thousand one hundred and ten miles in twenty- seven days. He notes that his beasts were better with water every five to seven days, but in the cold season could do without drink for sixteen. I found in Al-Hijaz at the end of August that the camels suffered much after ninety hours without drink (Pilgrimage iii. 14). But these were “Júdi” fine-haired animals as opposed to “Khawár” (the Khowás of Chesney, ), coarse-haired, heavy, slow brutes which will not stand great heat.
82 i.e. Fortune so willed it (euphemistically).
83 The “minaret” being feminine is usually compared with a fair young girl. The oldest minaret proper is supposed to have been built in Damascus by the Ommiade Caliph (No. X.) Al-Walid A.H. 86-96 (=705-715). According to Ainsworth (ii. 113) the second was at Kuch Hisar in Chaldea.
84 None of the pure Badawi can swim for the best of reasons, want of waters.
85 The baser sort of Badawi is never to be trusted: he is a traitor born, and looks upon fair play as folly or cowardice. Neither oath nor kindness can bind him: he unites the cruelty of the cat with the wildness of the wolf. How many Englishmen have lost their lives by not knowing these elementary truths! The race has not changed from the days of Mandeville (A.D. 1322) whose “Arabians, who are called Bedouins and Ascopards (?), are right felonious and foul, and of a cursed nature.” In his day they “carried but one shield and one spear, without other arm :” now, unhappily for travellers, they have matchlocks and most tribes can manufacture a something called by courtesy gunpowder.
86 Thus by Arab custom they become friends.
87 Our classical term for a noble Arab horse.
88 In Arab. “Khayl” is=horse; Husan, a stallion; Hudúd, a brood stallion; Faras, a mare (but sometimes used as a horse and meaning “that tears over the ground”), Jiyád a steed (noble); Kadísh, a nag (ignoble); Mohr a colt and Mohrah, a filly. There are dozens of other names but these suffice for conversation
89 Al-Katúl, the slayer; Al-Majnún, the mad; both high compliments in the style inverted.
90 This was a highly honourable exploit, which would bring the doer fame as well as gain.
91 This is a true and life-like description of horse- stealing in the Desert: Antar and Burckhardt will confirm every word. A noble Arab stallion is supposed to fight for his rider and to wake him at night if he see any sign of danger. The owner generally sleeps under the belly of the beast which keeps eyes and ears alert till dawn.
92 Arab. “Yaum al tanádi,” i.e. Resurrection-day.
93 Arab. “Bilád al-Súdan”=the Land of the Blacks, negro- land, whence the slaves came, a word now fatally familiar to English ears. There are, however, two regions of the same name, the Eastern upon the Upper Nile and the Western which contains the Niger Valley, and each considers itself the Sudan. And the reader must not confound the Berber of the Upper Nile, the Berderino who acts servant in Lower Egypt, with the Berber of Barbary: the former speaks an African language; the latter a “Semitic” (Arabic) tongue.
94 “Him” for “her.”
95 Arab. “Sáibah,” a she-camel freed from labour under certain conditions amongst the pagan Arabs; for which see Sale (Prel. Disc. sect. v.).
96 Arab. “Marba’.” In early spring the Badawi tribes leave the Rasm or wintering-place (the Turco-Persian “Kishlák”) in the desert, where winter-rains supply them, and make for the Yaylák, or summer-quarters, where they find grass and water. Thus the great Ruwala tribe appears regularly every year on the eastern slopes of the Anti-Libanus (Unexplored Syria, i. 117), and hence the frequent “partings.”
97 This “renowning it” and boasting of one’s tribe (and oneself) before battle is as natural as the war-cry: both are intended to frighten the foe and have often succeeded. Every classical reader knows that the former practice dates from the earliest ages. It is still customary in Arabia during the furious tribal fights, the duello on a magnificent scale which often ends in half the combatants on either side being placed hors-de- combat. A fair specimen of “renowning it” is Amrú’s Suspended Poem with its extravagant panegyric of the Taghlab tribe (, “Arabian Poetry for English Readers,” etc., by W. A. Clouston, Glasgow: privately printed MDCCCLXXXI.; and transcribed from Sir William Jones’s translation).
98 The “Turk” appeared soon amongst the Abbaside Caliphs. Mohammed was made to prophecy of them under the title Banú Kantúrah, the latter being a slave-girl of Abraham. The Imam Al- Shafi’i (A.H. 195=A.D. 810) is said to have foretold their rule in Egypt where an Ottoman defended him against a donkey-boy. (For details see Pilgrimage i. 216 ) The Caliph Al-Mu’atasim bi’llah (A.D. 833-842) had more than 10,000 Turkish slaves and was the first to entrust them with high office; so his Arab subjects wrote of him: —
A wretched Turk is thy heart’s desire;
And to them thou showest thee dam and sire.
His successor Al-Wásik (Vathek, of the terrible eyes) was the first to appoint a Turk his Sultan or regent. After his reign they became praetorians and led to the downfall of the Abbasides.
99 The Persian saying is “First at the feast and last at the fray.”
100 i.e. a tempter, a seducer.
101 Arab. “Wayl-ak” here probably used in the sense of
“Wayh-ak” an expression of affectionate concern.
102 Firdausi, the Homer of Persia, affects the same magnificent exaggeration. The trampling of men and horses raises such a dust that it takes one layer (of the seven) from earth and adds it to the (seven of the) Heavens. The “blaze” on the stallion’s forehead (Arab. “Ghurrah”) is the white gleam of the morning.
103 A noted sign of excitement in the Arab blood horse, when the tail looks like a panache covering the hind-quarter.
104 i.e. Prince Kanmakan.
105 The “quality of mercy” belongs to the noble Arab, whereas the ignoble and the Bada win are rancorous and revengeful as camels.
106 Arab. “Khanjar,” the poison was let into the grooves and hollows of the poniard.
107 The Pers. “Bang”, Indian “Bhang”, Maroccan “Fasúkh” and S. African “Dakhá.” (Pilgrimage i. 64.) I heard of a “Hashish- orgie” in London which ended in half the experimentalists being on their sofas for a week. The drug is useful for stokers, having the curious property of making men insensible to heat. Easterns also use it for “Imsák” prolonging coition of which I speak presently.
108 Arab. “Hashsháshín;” whence De Sacy derived “Assassin.” A notable effect of the Hashish preparation is wildly to excite the imagination, a kind of delirium imaginans sive phantasticum .
109 Meaning “Well done!” Mashallah (Má sháa ‘llah) is an exclamation of many uses, especially affected when praising man or beast for fear lest flattering words induce the evil eye.
110 Arab. “Kabkáb” vulg. “Kubkáb.” They are between three and ten inches high, and those using them for the first time in the slippery Hammam must be careful.
111 Arab. “Majlis”=sitting. The postures of coition, ethnologically curious and interesting, are subjects so extensive that they require a volume rather than a note. Full information can be found in the Ananga-ranga, or Stage of the Bodiless One, a treatise in Sanskrit verse vulgarly known as Koka Pandit from the supposed author, a Wazir of the great Rajah Bhoj, or according to others, of the Maharajah of Kanoj. Under the title Lizzat al-Nisá (The Pleasures — or enjoying — of Women) it has been translated into all the languages of the Moslem East, from Hindustani to Arabic. It divides postures into five great divisions: (1) the woman lying supine, of which there are eleven subdivisions; (2) lying on her side, right or left, with three varieties; (3) sitting, which has ten, (4) standing, with three subdivisions, and (5) lying prone, with two. This total of twenty- nine, with three forms of “Purusháyit,” when the man lies supine (see the Abbot in Boccaccio i. 4), becomes thirty-two, approaching the French quarante façons. The Upavishta, majlis, or sitting postures, when one or both “sit at squat” somewhat like birds, appear utterly impossible to Europeans who lack the pliability of the Eastern’s limbs. Their object in congress is to avoid tension of the muscles which would shorten the period of enjoyment. In the text the woman lies supine and the man sits at squat between her legs: it is a favourite from Marocco to China. A literal translation of the Ananga range appeared in 1873 under the name of Káma-Shástra; or the Hindoo Art of Love (Ars Amoris Indica); but of this only six copies were printed. It was re-issued (printed but not published) in 1885. The curious in such matters will consult the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (London, privately printed, 1879) by Pisanus Fraxi (H. S. Ashbee).
112 i.e. Le Roi Crotte.
113 This seems to be a punning allusion to Baghdad, which in
Persian would mean the Garden (bágh) of Justice (dád). See
“Biographical Notices of Persian Poets” by Sir Gore Ouseley,
London, Oriental Translation Fund, 1846
114 The Kardoukhoi (Carduchi) of Xenophon; also called (Strabo xv.) “Kárdakís, from a Persian word signifying manliness,” which would be “Kardak”=a doer (of derring do). They also named the Montes Gordći the original Ararat of Xisisthrus- Noah’s Ark. The Kurds are of Persian race, speaking an old and barbarous Iranian tongue and often of the Shi’ah sect. They are born bandits, highwaymen, cattle-lifters; yet they have spread extensively over Syria and Egypt and have produced some glorious men, witness Sultan Saláh al-Din (Saladin) the Great. They claim affinity with the English in the East, because both races always inhabit the highest grounds they can find.
115 These irregular bands who belong to no tribe are the most dangerous bandits in Arabia, especially upon the northern frontier. Burckhardt, who suffered from them, gives a long account of their treachery and utter absence of that Arab “pundonor” which is supposed to characterise Arab thieves.
116 An euphemistic form to avoid mentioning the incestuous marriage.
117 The Arab form of our “Kinchin lay.”
118 These are the signs of a Shaykh’s tent.
119 These questions, indiscreet in Europe, are the rule throughout Arabia, as they were in the United States of the last generation.
120 Arab. “Khizáb” a paste of quicklime and lamp-black kneaded with linseed oil which turns the Henna to a dark olive. It is hideously ugly to unaccustomed eyes and held to be remarkably beautiful in Egypt.
121 i.e. the God of the Empyrean.
122 A blow worthy of the Sa’alabah tribe to which he belonged.
123 i.e. “benefits”; also the name of Mohammed’s Mu’ezzin, or crier to prayer, who is buried outside the Jábiah gate of Damascus. Hence amongst Moslems, Abyssinians were preferred as mosque-criers in the early ages of Al-Islam. Egypt chose blind men because they were abundant and cheap; moreover they cannot take note of what is doing on the adjoining roof terraces where women and children love to pass the cool hours that begin and end the day. Stories are told of men who counterfeited blindness for years in order to keep the employment. In Moslem cities the stranger required to be careful how he appeared at a window or on the gallery of a minaret: the people hate to be overlooked and the whizzing of a bullet was the warning to be off. (Pilgrimage iii. 185.)
