The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume IV Part 29

[FN#382] There is a pun in the last line, "Khalun (a mole) khallauni" (rid me), etc.

[FN#383] Of old Fustat, afterwards part of Southern Cairo, a proverbially miserable quarter hence the saying, "They quoted Misr to Kahirah (Cairo), whereon Bab al-Luk rose with its gra.s.s," in derision of n.o.bodies who push themselves forward. Burckhardt, Prov.

276.

[FN#384] Its fruits are the heads of devils; a true Dantesque fancy. Koran, chaps. xvii. 62, "the tree cursed in the Koran" and in chaps. x.x.xvii., 60, "is this better entertainment, or the tree of Al-Zakk.u.m?" Commentators say that it is a thorn bearing a bitter almond which grows in the Tehamah and was therefore promoted to h.e.l.l.

[FN#385] Arab. "Lasm" (lathm) as opposed to Bausah or boseh (a buss) and Kublah (a kiss,

[FN#386] Arab. "Jufun" (plur. of Jafn) which may mean eyebrows or eyelashes and only the context can determine which.

[FN#387] Very characteristic of Egyptian manners is the man who loves six girls equally well, who lends them, as it were, to the Caliph; and who takes back the goods as if in no wise damaged by the loan.

[FN#388] The moon is masculine possibly by connection with the a.s.syrian Lune-G.o.d "Sin"; but I can find no cause for the Sun (Shams) being feminine.

[FN#389] Arab. "Al-Amin," a t.i.tle of the Prophet. It is usually held that this proud name "The honest man," was applied by his fellow-citizens to Mohammed in early life; and that in his twenty-fifth year, when the Eighth Ka'abah was being built, it induced the tribes to make him their umpire concerning the distinction of placing in position the "Black Stone" which Gabriel had brought from Heaven to be set up as the starting-post for the seven circuitings. He distributed the honour amongst the clans and thus gave universal satisfaction. His Christian biographers mostly omit to record an anecdote which speaks so highly in Mohammed's favour. (Pilgrimage iii. 192.)

[FN#390] The idea is that Abu Nowas was a thought-reader such being the prerogative of inspired poets in the East. His drunkenness and debauchery only added to his power. I have already noticed that "Allah strike thee dead" (Katala-k Allah) is like our phrase "Confound the fellow, how clever he is."

[FN#391] Again said facetiously, "Devil take you!"

[FN#392] In all hot-damp countries it is necessary to clothe dogs, morning and evening especially: otherwise they soon die of rheumatism and loin disease.

[FN#393] =Beatrice. A fragment of these lines is in Night cccxv.

See also Night dcclx.x.xi.

[FN#394] The Moslems borrowed the horrible idea of a "jealous G.o.d"

from their kinsmen, the Jews. Every race creates its own Deity after the fas.h.i.+on of itself: Jehovah is distinctly a Hebrew, the Christian Theos is originally a Judaeo-Greek and Allah a half-Badawi Arab. In this tale Allah, despotic and unjust, brings a generous and n.o.ble-minded man to beggary, simply because he fed his dogs off gold plate. Wisdom and morality have their infancy and youth: the great value of such tales as these is to show and enable us to measure man's development.

[FN#395] In Trebutien (Lane ii. 501) the merchant says to ex-Dives, "Thou art wrong in charging Destiny with injustice. If thou art ignorant of the cause of thy ruin I will acquaint thee with it. Thou feddest the dogs in dishes of gold and leftest the poor to die of hunger." A superst.i.tion, but intelligible.

[FN#396] Arab. "Sarraf" = a money changer.

[FN#397] Arab. "Birkah," a common feature in the landscapes of Lower Egypt: it is either a natural-pool left by the overflow of the Nile; or, as in the text, a built-up tank, like the "Talab" for which India is famous. Sundry of these Birkahs are or were in Cairo itself; and some are mentioned in The Nights.

[FN#398] This sneer at the "military" and the "police" might come from an English convict's lips.

[FN#399] Lit. "The conquering King;" a dynastic t.i.tle a.s.sumed by Salah al-Din (Saladin) and sundry of the Ayyubi (Eyoubite) sovereigns of Egypt, whom I would call the "Soldans."

[FN#400] "Kahirah" (i.e. City of Mars the Planet) is our Cairo: Bulak is the port suburb on the Nile, till 1858 wholly disjoined from the City; and Fostat is the outlier popularly called Old Cairo. The latter term is generally translated "town of leathern tents;" but in Arabic "fustat" is an abode of Sha'ar=hair, such as horse-hair, in fact any hair but "Wabar"=soft hair, as the camel's.

See Lane, Lex.

[FN#401] Arab. "Adl"=just: a legal-witness to whose character there is no tangible objection a prime consideration in Moslem law.

Here "Adl" is evidently used ironically for a hypocritical-rascal

[FN#402] Lane (ii. 503) considers three thousand dinars (the figure in the Bres. Edit.) "a more probable sum." Possibly: but, I repeat, exaggeration is one of the many characteristics of The Nights.

[FN#403] Calc. Edit. "Kazir:" the word is generally written "Kazdir," Sansk. Kastira, born probably from the Greek .

[FN#404] This would have pa.s.sed for a peccadillo in the "good old days." As late as 1840 the Arnaut soldiers used to "pot" any peasant who dared to ride (instead of walking) past their barracks.

Life is cheap in hot countries.

[FN#405] Koran, xii. 46 -- a pa.s.sage expounding the doctrine of free will: "He who doth right doth it to the advantage of his own soul; and he who doth evil, doth it against the same; for thy Lord," etc.

[FN#406] Arab. "Suffah"; whence our Sofa. In Egypt it is a raised shelf generally of stone, about four feet high and headed with one or more arches. It is an elaborate variety of the simple "Tak" or niche, a mere hollow in the thickness of the wall. Both are used for such articles as basin. ewer and soap; coffee cups, water bottles etc.

[FN#407] In Upper Egypt (Apollinopolis Parva) p.r.o.nounced "Goos,"

the Coptic Kos-Birbir, once an emporium of the Arabian trade.

[FN#408] This would appeal strongly to a pious Moslem.

[FN#409] i.e. "the father of a certain person"; here the merchant whose name may have been Abu'l Hasan, etc. The useful word (thingumbob, what d'ye call him, donchah, etc.) has been bodily transferred into Spanish and Portuguese Fulano. It is of old genealogy, found in the Heb. Fuluni which applies to a person only in Ruth iv. I, but is constantly so employed by Rabbinic writers.

The Greek use {Greek letters}.

[FN#410] Lit. "by his (i.e. her) hand," etc. Hence Lane (ii. 507) makes nonsense of the line.

[FN#411] Arab. "Badrah," as has been said, is properly a weight of 10,000 dirhams or drachmas; but popularly used for largesse thrown to the people at festivals.

[FN#412] Arab. "Allaho A'alam"; (G.o.d knows!) here the popular phrase for our, "I know not;" when it would be rude to say bluntly "M'adri"= "don't know."

[FN#413] There is a picturesque Moslem idea that good deeds become incarnate and a.s.sume human shapes to cheer the doer in his grave, to greet him when he enters Paradise and so forth. It was borrowed from the highly imaginative faith of the Guebre, the Zoroastrian.

On Chinavad or Chanyud-pul (Sirat), the Judgement bridge, 37 rods (rasan) long, straight and 37 fathoms broad for the good, and crooked and narrow as sword-edge for the bad, a nymph-like form will appear to the virtuous and say, "I am the personification of thy good deeds!" In h.e.l.l there will issue from a fetid gale a gloomy figure with head like a minaret, red eyeb.a.l.l.s, hooked nose, teeth like pillars, spear-like fangs, snaky locks etc. and when asked who he is he will reply, "I am the personification of thine evil acts!" (Dabistan i. 285.) The Hindus also personify everything.

[FN#414] Arab. "Banu Israil;" applied to the Jews when theirs was the True Faith i.e. before the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, whose mission completed that of Moses and made it obsolete (Matruk) even as the mission of Jesus was completed and abrogated by that of Mohammed. The term "Yahud"=Jew is applied scornfully to the Chosen People after they rejected the Messiah, but as I have said "Israelite" is used on certain occasions, Jew on others.

[FN#415] Arab. "Kasa'ah," a wooden bowl, a porringer; also applied to a saucer.

[FN#416] Arab. "Rasul"=one sent, an angel, an "apostle;" not to be translated, as by the vulgar, "prophet." Moreover Rasul is higher than Nabi (prophet), such as Abraham, Isaac, etc., depositaries of Al-Islam, but with a succession restricted to their own families.

Nabi-mursil (Prophet-apostle) is the highest of all, one sent with a book: of these are now only four, Moses, David, Jesus and Mohammed, the writings of the rest having perished. In Al-Islam also angels rank below men, being only intermediaries (= , nuncii, messengers) between the Creator and the Created. This knowledge once did me a good turn at Harar, not a safe place in those days. (First Footsteps in East Africa, p. 349.)

[FN#417] A doctor of law in the reign of Al-Maamun.

[FN#418] Here the exclamation is= D.V.; and it may be a.s.sumed generally to have that sense.

[FN#419] Arab. "Taylasan," a turban worn hood-fas.h.i.+on by the "Khatib" or preacher. I have sketched it in my Pilgrimage and described it (iii. 315). Some Orientalists derive Taylasan from Atlas=satin, which is peculiarly inappropriate. The word is apparently barbarous and possibly Persian like Kalansuwah, the Dervish cap. "Thou son of a Taylasan"=a barbarian. (De Sacy, Chrest. Arab. ii. 269.)

[FN#420] Arab. " Kinyah" vulg. "Kunyat" = patronymic or matronymic; a name beginning with "Abu" (father) or with "Umm"

(mother). There are so few proper names in Al-Islam that such surnames, which, as will be seen, are of infinite variety, become necessary to distinguish individuals. Of these sobriquets I shall give specimens further on.

[FN#421] "Whoso seeth me in his sleep, seeth me truly; for Satan cannot a.s.sume my semblance," said (or is said to have said) Mohammed. Hence the vision is true although it comes in early night and not before dawn. See Lane M. E., chaps. ix.

[FN#422] Arab. "Al-Maukab ;" the day when the pilgrims march out of the city; it is a holiday for all, high and low.

[FN#423] "The Gate of Salutation ;" at the South-Western corner of the Mosque where Mohammed is buried. (Pilgrimage ii. 60 and plan.) Here "Visitation" (Ziyarah) begins.

[FN#424] The tale is told by Al-Ishaki in the reign of Al-Maamun.

[FN#425] The speaker in dreams is the Heb. "Waggid," which the learned and angry Graetz (Geschichte, etc. vol. ix.) absurdly translates "Traum souffleur."

[FN#426] Tenth Abbaside. A.D. 849-861