One Thousand and One Nights, page 717
67 This use of a Turkish title “Efendi” being=our esquire, and inferior to a Bey, is a rank anachronism, probably of the copyist.
68 Arab. “Samn”=Hind. “Ghi” butter melted, skimmed and allowed to cool.
69 Arab. “Ya Wadъd,” a title of the Almighty: the Mac.
Edit. has “O David!”
70 Arab. “Muwashshahah;” a complicated stanza of which specimens have occurred. Mr. Payne calls it a “ballad,” which would be a “Kunyat al-Zidd.”
71 Arab. “Bahбim” (plur. of Bahнmah=Heb. Behemoth), applied in Egypt especially to cattle. A friend of the “Oppenheim” house, a name the Arabs cannot pronounce was known throughout Cairo as “Jack al-bahбim” (of the cows).
72 Lit. “The father of side-locks,” a nickname of one of the Tobba Kings. This “Hasan of: the ringlets” who wore two long pig-tails hanging to his shoulders was the Rochester or Piron of his age: his name is still famous for brilliant wit, extempore verse and the wildest debauchery. D’Herbelot’s sketch of his life is very meagre. His poetry has survived to the present day and (unhappily) we shall] hear more of “Abu Nowбs.” On the subject of these patronymics Lane (Mod. Egypt, chaps. iv.) has a strange remark that “Abu Dбъd i’ not the Father of Dбъd or Abu Ali the Father of Ali, but whose Father is (or was) Dбъd or Ali.” Here, however, he simply confounds Abu = father of (followed by a genitive), with Abu-h (for Abu-hu) = he, whose father.
73 Arab. “Samъr,” applied in slang language to cats and dogs, hence the witty Egyptians converted Admiral-Seymour (Lord Alcester) into “Samъr.”
74 The home-student of Arabic may take this letter as a model even in the present day; somewhat stiff and old-fashioned, but gentlemanly and courteous.
75 Arab. “Salнm” (not Sй-lim) meaning the “Safe and sound.”
76 Arab. “Halбwah”=sweetmeat, meaning an entertainment such as men give to their friends after sickness or a journey. it is technically called as above, “The Sweetmeat of Safety.”
77 Arab. “Salбt” which from Allah means mercy, from the
Angels intercession and pardon; and from mankind blessing.
Concerning the specific effects of blessing the Prophet, see
Pilgrimage (ii. 70). The formula is often slurred over when a man
is in a hurry to speak: an interrupting friend will say “ Bless the
Prophet!” and he does so by ejaculating “Sa’am.”
78 Persian, meaning originally a command: it is now applied to a Wazirial-order as opposed to the “ Irбdah,” the Sultan’s order.
79 Arab. “ Mashб’ilн” lit. the cresses-bearer who has before appeared as hangman.
80 Another polite formula for announcing a death.
81 As he died heirless the property lapsed to the Treasury.
82This shaking the kerchief is a signal to disperse and the action suggests its meaning. Thus it is used in an opposite sense to “throwing the kerchief,” a pseudo-Oriental practice whose significance is generally understood in Europe.
83 The body-guard being of two divisions.
84 Arab. “Hadbб,” lit. “hump-backed;” alluding to the Badawi bier; a pole to which the corpse is slung (Lane). It seems to denote the protuberance of the corpse when placed upon the bier which before was flat. The quotation is from Ka’ab’s Mantle-Poem (Burdah v . 37), “Every son of a female, long though his safety may be, is a day borne upon a ridged implement,” says Mr. Redhouse, explaining the latter as a “bier with a ridged lid.” Here we differ: the Janбzah with a lid is not a Badawi article: the wildlings use the simplest stretcher; and I would translate the lines,
“The son of woman, whatso his career
One day is borne upon the gibbous bier.”
85 This is a high honour to any courtier.
86 “Khatun” in Turk. means any lady: mistress, etc., and follows the name, e.g. Fбtimah Khatun. Habzalam Bazazah is supposed to be a fanciful compound, uncouth as the named; the first word consisting of “Habb” seed, grain; and “Zalam” of Zulm=seed of tyranny. Can it be a travesty of “Absalom” (Ab Salбm, father of peace)? Lane (ii. 284) and Payne (iii. 286) prefer Habazlam and Hebezlem.
87 Or night. A metaphor for rushing into peril.
88 Plur. of kumkum, cucurbite, gourd-shaped vessel, jar.
89 A popular exaggeration for a very expert thief.
90 Arab. “Buka’at Ad-bum”: lit. the “low place of blood” (where it stagnates): so Al-Bukб’ah = Cњlesyria.
91 That common and very unpleasant phrase, full of egotism and self-esteem, “I told you so,” is even more common in the naпve East than in the West. In this case the son’s answer is far superior to the mother’s question.
92 In order to keep his oath to the letter.
93 “Tabannuj; “ literally “hemping” (drugging with hemp or henbane) is the equivalent in Arab medicine of our “anжsthetics.” These have been used in surgery throughout the East for centuries before ether and chloroform became the fashion in the civilised West.
94 Arab. “Durkб’ah,” the lower part of the floor, opposed to the “liwбn” or daпs. Liwбn =Al-Aywбn (Arab. and Pers.) the hall (including the daпs and the sunken parts)
95 i.e. he would toast it as he would a mistress.
96 This till very late years was the custom in Persia, and Fath Ali Shah never appeared in scarlet without ordering some horrible cruelties. In Dar-For wearing a red cashmere turban was a sign of wrath and sending a blood red dress to a subject meant that he would be slain.
97 That is, this robbery was committed in the palace by some one belonging to it. References to vinegar are frequent; that of Egypt being famous in those days. “Optimum et laudatissimum acetum a Romanis habebatur Жgyptum” (Facciolati); and possibly it was sweetened: the Gesta (Tale xvii.) mentions “must and vinegar.” In Arab Proverbs, One mind by vinegar and another by wine”=each mind goes its own way, (Arab. Prov. . 628); or, “with good and bad,” vinegar being spoilt wine.
98 We have not heard the last of this old “dowsing rod”: the latest form of rhabdomancy is an electrical-rod invented in the United States.
99 This is the procиs verbal always drawn up on such occasions.
100 The sight of running water makes a Persian long for strong drink as the sight of a fine view makes the Turk feel hungry.
101 Arab. “Min wahid aduww “ a peculiarly Egyptian or rather
Cairene phrase.
102 Al-Danaf=the Distressing Sickness: the title would be Ahmad the Calamity. Al-Zaybak (the Quicksilver)=Mercury Ali Hasan “Shuuman”=a pestilent fellow. We shall meet all these worthies again and again: see the Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo, Night dccviii., a sequel to The Rogueries of Dalilah, Night dcxcviii.
103 For the “Sacrifice-place of Ishmael” (not Isaac) see my Pilgrimage (iii. 306). According to all Arab ideas Ishmael, being the eldest son, was the chief of the family after his father. I have noted that this is the old old quarrel between the Arabs and their cousins the Hebrews.
104 This black-mail was still paid to the Badawin of Ramlah
(Alexandria) till the bombardment in 1881.
105 The famous Issus of Cilicia, now a port-village on the
Gulf of Scanderoon.
106 Arab. “ Wada’б” = the concha veneris, then used as small change.
107 Arab. “Sakati”=a dealer in “castaway” articles, such es old metal,damaged goods, the pluck and feet of animals, etc.
108 The popular tale of Burckhardt’s death in Cairo was that the names of the three first Caliphs were found written upon his slipper-soles and that he was put to death by decree of the Olema. It is the merest nonsense, as the great traveller died of dysentery in the house of my old friend John Thurburn and was buried outside the Bab al-Nasr of Cairo where his tomb was restored by the late Rogers Bey (Pilgrimage i. 123).
109 Prob. a mis-spelling for Arslбn, in Turk. a lion, and in slang a piastre.
110 Arab. “Maka’ad;” lit. = sitting-room.
111 Arab. “Khammбrah”; still the popular term throughout Egypt for a European Hotel. It is not always intended to be insulting but it is, meaning the place where Franks meet to drink forbidden drinks.
112 A reminiscence of Mohammed who cleansed the Ka’abah of its 360 idols (of which 73 names are given by Freytag, Einleitung, etc. p, 342-57) by touching them with his staff, whereupon all fell to the ground; and the Prophet cried (Koran xvii. 84), “Truth is come, and falsehood is vanished: verily, falsehood is a thing that vanisheth” (magna est veritas, etc.). Amongst the “idols” are said to have been a statue of Abraham and the horns of the ram sacrificed in lieu of Ishmael, which (if true) would prove conclusively that the Abrahamic legend at Meccah is of ancient date and not a fiction of Al-Islam. Hence, possibly, the respect of the Judaising Tobbas of Hiwyarland for the Ka’abah. (Pilgrimage, iii. 295.)
113 This was evidently written by a Sunni as the Shн’ahs claim to be the only true Moslems. Lane tells an opposite story (ii. 329). It suggests the common question in the South of Europe, “Are you a Christian or a Protestant?”
114 Arab. “Ana fн jнrat-ak!” a phrase to be remembered as useful in time of danger.
115 i.e. No Jinni, or Slave of the Jewel, was there to answer.
116 Arab. “Kunsъl” (pron. “Gunsul”) which here means a well-to-do Frank, and shows the modern date of the tale as it stands.
117 From the Ital. “Capitano.” The mention of cannon and other terms in this tale shows that either it was written during the last century or it has been mishandled by copyists.
118 Arab. “Minнnah”; a biscuit of flour and clarified butter.
119 Arab. “Waybah”; the sixth part of the Ardabb=6 to 7
English gallons.
120 He speaks in half-jest а la fellah; and reminds us of
“Hangman, drive on the cart!”
121 Yochanan (whom Jehovah has blessed) Jewish for John, is probably a copy of the Chaldean Euahanes, the Oannes of Berosus=Ea Khan, Hea the fish. The Greeks made it Joannes; the Arabs “Yohannб” (contracted to “Hannб,” Christian) and “Yбbyб” (Moslem). Prester (Priest) John is probably Ung Khan, the historian prince conquered and slain by Janghiz Khan in A.D. 1202. The modern history of “John” is very extensive: there may be a full hundred varieties and derivation’ of the name. “Husn Maryam” the beauty (spiritual. etc.) of the B.V.
122 Primarily being middle-aged; then aid, a patron, servant, etc. Also a tribe of the Jinn usually made synonymous with “Mбrid,” evil controuls, hostile to men: modern spiritualists would regard them as polluted souls not yet purged of their malignity. The text insinuates that they were at home amongst Christians and in Genoa.
123 Arab. “Sar’a” = epilepsy, falling sickness, of old always confounded with “possession” (by evil spirits) or “obsession.”
124 Again the true old charge of falsifying the so-called “Sacred books.” Here the Koran is called “Furkбn.” Sale (sect. iii.) would assimilate this to the Hebr. “Perek” or “Pirka,” denoting a section or portion of Scripture; but Moslems understand it to be the “Book which distinguisheth (faraka, divided) the true from the false.” Thus Caliph Omar was entitled “Fбrъk” = the Distinguisher (between right and wrong). Lastly, “Furkбn,” meanings as in Syr. and Ethiop. deliverance, revelation, is applied alike to the Pentateuch and Koran.
125 Euphemistic for “thou shalt die.”
126 Lit. “From (jugular) vein to vein” (Arab. “Warнd”). Our old friend Lucretius again: “Tantane relligio,” etc.
127 As opposed to the “but” or outer room.
128 Arab. “Darb al-Asfar” in the old Jamalнyah or Northern part of Cairo.
129 A noble tribe of Badawin that migrated from Al-Yaman and settled in Al-Najd Their Chief, who died a few years before Mohammed’s birth, was Al-Hatim (the “black crow”), a model of Arab manliness and munificence; and although born in the Ignorance he will enter Heaven with the Moslems. Hatim was buried on the hill called Owбrid: I have already noted this favourite practice of the wilder Arabs and the affecting idea that the Dead may still look upon his kith and kin. There is not an Arab book nor, indeed, a book upon Arabia which does not contain the name of Hatim: he is mentioned as unpleasantly often as Aristides.
130 Lord of “Cattle-feet,” this King’s name is unknown; but the Kбmъs mentions two Kings called Zu ‘l Kalб’a, the Greater and the Less. Lane’s Shaykh (ii. 333) opined that the man who demanded Hatim’s hospitality was one Abu’l-Khaybari.
131 The camel’s throat, I repeat, is not cut as in the case of other animals, the muscles being too strong: it is slaughtered by the “nahr,” i.e. thrusting a knife into the hollow at the commissure of the chest. (Pilgrimage iii. 303.)
132 Adi became a Moslem and was one of the companions of the
Prophet.
133 A rival-in generosity to Hatim: a Persian poet praising his patron’s generosity says that it buried that of Hatim and dimmed that of Ma’an (D’Herbelot). He was a high official-under the last Ommiade, Marwбn al-Himбr (the “Ass,” or the “Century,” the duration of Ommiade rule) who was routed and slain in A.H. 132=750. Ma’an continued to serve under the Abbasides and was a favourite with Al-Mansъr. “More generous or bountiful than Ka’ab” is another saying (A. P., i. 325); Ka’ab ibn Mбmah was a man who, somewhat like Sir Philip Sidney at Zutphen, gave his own portion of drink while he was dying of thirst to a man who looked wistfully at him, whence the saying “Give drink to thy brother the Nбmiri” (A. P., i. 608). Ka’ab could not mount, so they put garments over him to scare away the wild beasts and left him in the desert to die. “Scatterer of blessings” (Nбshir al-Ni’am) was a title of King Malik of Al-Yaman, son of Sharhabнl, eminent for his liberality. He set up the statue in the Western Desert, inscribed “Nothing behind me,” as a warner to others.
134 Lane (ii. 352) here introduces, between Nights cclxxi. and ccxc., a tale entitled in the Bresl. Edit. (iv. 134) “The Sleeper and the Waker,” i.e. the sleeper awakened; and he calls it: The Story of Abu-l-Hasan the Wag. It is interesting and founded upon historical-fact; but it can hardly be introduced here without breaking the sequence of The Nights. I regret this the more as Mr. Alexander J. Cotheal-of New York has most obligingly sent me an addition to the Breslau text (iv. 137) from his MS. But I hope eventually to make use of it.
135 The first girl calls gold “Titer” (pure, unalloyed metal); the second “Asjad” (gold generally) and the third “Ibrнz” (virgin ore, the Greek {Greek letters}. This is a law of Arab rhetoric never to repeat the word except for a purpose and, as the language can produce 1,200,000 (to 100,000 in English) the copiousness is somewhat painful to readers.
136 Arab. “Shakes” before noticed.
137 Arab. “Kussб’б”=the curling cucumber: the vegetable is of the cheapest and the poorer classes eat it as “kitchen” with bread.
138 Arab. “Haram-hu,” a double entendre. Here the Barlawi means his Harem the inviolate part of the house; but afterwards he makes it mean the presence of His Honour.
139 Toledo? this tale was probably known to Washington Irving. The “Land of Roum “ here means simply Frank-land as we are afterwards told that its name was Andalusia the old Vandal-land, a term still applied by Arabs to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula.
140 Arab. “Amбim” (plur. of Imбmah) the common word for turband which I prefer to write in the old unclipt fashion. We got it through the Port. Turbante and the old French Tolliban from the (now obsolete) Persian term Dolband=a turband or a sash.
141 Sixth Ommiade Caliph, A.D. 705-716, from “Tбrik” we have
“Gibraltar”=Jabal-al-Tбrik.
142 Arab. “Yunбn” = Ionia, applied to ancient Greece as
“Roum” is to the Grжco-Roman Empire.
143 Arab. “Bahramбni ;” prob. alluding to the well-known
legend of the capture of Somanath (Somnauth) from the Hindus by
Mahmud of Ghazni. In the Ajб’ib al-Hind (before quoted) the
Brahmins are called Abrahamah.
144 i.e. “Peace be with thee!”
145 i.e. in the palace when the hunt was over. The bluntness and plain-speaking of the Badawi, which caused the revelation of the Koranic chapter “Inner Apartments” (No. xlix.) have always been favourite themes with Arab tale-tellers as a contrast with citizen suavity and servility. Moreover the Badawi, besides saying what he thinks, always tells the truth (unless corrupted by commerce with foreigners); and this is a startling contrast with the townsfolk. To ride out of Damascus and have a chat with the Ruwalб is much like being suddenly transferred from amongst the trickiest of Mediterranean people to the bluff society of the Scandinavian North. And the reason why the Turk will never govern the Arab in peace is that the former is always trying to finesse and to succeed by falsehood, when the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is wanted.
146 Koran. xvi. 112.
147 A common and expressive way of rewarding the tongue which “spoke poetry.” The Jewels are often pearls.
148 Ibrahim Abu Ishбk bin al-Mahdi, a pretender to the Caliphate of well known wit and a famed musician surnamed from his corpulence “Al-Tannнn”=the Dragon or, according to others (Lane ii. 336), “Al-Tin”= the fig. His adventurous history will be found in Ibn Khallikan D’Herbelot and Al-Siyuti.
149 The Ragha of the Zendavesta, and Rages of the Apocrypha (Tobit, Judith, etc.), the old capital-of Media Proper, and seat of government of Daylam, now a ruin some miles south of Teheran which was built out of its remains. Rayy was founded by Hoshang the primeval-king who first sawed wood, made doors and dug metal. It is called Rayy al-Mahdiyyah because Al-Mahdi held his court there. Harun al-Rashid was also born in it (A.H. 145). It is mentioned by a host of authors and names one of the Makamat of Al-Hariri.
150 Human blood being especially impure.
151 Jones, Brown and Robinson.
152 Arab. “Kumm ,” the Moslem sleeve is mostly (like his trousers) of ample dimensions and easily converted into a kind of carpet-bag by depositing small articles in the middle and gathering up the edge in the hand. In this way carried the weight would be less irksome than hanging to the waist. The English of Queen Anne’s day had regular sleeve-pockets for memoranda, etc., hence the saying, to have in one’s sleeve.
