The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume VII Part 17

Fie, O whirling world! on thy faith and fie!

Hearing of this insult Mohammed exclaimed, "Allah shall tear his kingdom!" a prophecy which was of course fulfilled, or we should not have heard of it. These lines are horribly mutilated in the Dabistan (iii. 99).

[FN#5] This "Taklid" must not be translated "girt on the sword." The Arab carries his weapon by a baldrick or bandoleer pa.s.sed over his right shoulder. In modern days the " Majdal"

over the left shoulder supports on the right hip a line of Tatarif or bra.s.s cylinders for cartridges: the other cross- belt (Al-Masdar) bears on the left side the Kharizah or bullet-pouch of hide; and the Hizam or waist-belt holds the dagger and extra cartridges. (Pilgrimage iii. 90.)

[FN#6] Arab. "Bab," which may mean door or gate. The plural form (Abwab) occurs in the next line, meaning that he displayed all manner of martial prowess.

[FN#7] Arab. "Farrash" (also used in Persian), a man of general utility who pitches tents, speeps the floors.

administers floggings, etc. etc. (Pilgrimage iii. 90.)

[FN#8] i.e. the slogan-cry of "Allaho Akbar," which M. C.

Barbier de Meynard compares with the Christian "Te Deum."

[FN#9] The Anglo-Indian term for the Moslem rite of killing animals for food. (Pilgrimage i. 377.)

[FN#10] Arab. "tawilan jiddan" a hideous Cairenism in these days; but formerly used by Al-Mas'udi and other good writers.

[FN#11] Arab. " 'Ajwah," enucleated dates pressed together into a solid ma.s.s so as to be sliced with a knife like cold pudding. The allusion is to the dough-idols of the Hanifah tribe, whose eating their G.o.ds made the saturnine Caliph Omar laugh.

[FN#12] Mr. Payne writes "Julned." In a fancy name we must not look for grammar, but a quiescent lam (l) followed by nun (n) is unknown to Arabic while we find sundry cases of "lan"

(fath'd lam and nun), and Jalandah means noxious or injurious.

In Oman also there was a dynasty called Julandah. for which see Mr. Badger (xiii. and pa.s.sim).

[FN#13] Doubtless for Jawan-mard--un giovane, a brave See vol.

iv., p. 208.

[FN#14] Mr. Payne transposes the distichs, making the last first. I have followed the Arabic order finding it in the Mac.

and Bul. Edits. (ii. 129).

[FN#15] Al-Irak like Al-Yaman may lose the article in verse.

[FN#16] Arab. "Ka'ka'at": hence Jabal Ka'ka'an, the higher levels in Meccah, of old inhabited by the Jurhamites and so called from their clas.h.i.+ng and jangling arms; whilst the Amalekites dwelt in the lower grounds called Jiyad from their generous steeds. (Pilgrimage iii. 191.)

[FN#17] Al-Shara', a mountain in Arabia.

[FN#18] See vol. vi., 249. "This (mace) is a dangerous weapon when struck on the shoulders or unguarded arm: I am convinced that a blow with it on a head armoured with a salade (ca.s.sis caelata, a light iron helmet) would stun a man" (says La Brocquiere).

[FN#19] Oman, which the natives p.r.o.nounce "Aman," is the region best known by its capital Maskat. These are the Omana Moscha and Omanum Emporium of Ptolemy and the Periplus. Ibn Batutah writes Amman, but the best dictionaries give "Oman."

(N.B.--Mr. Badger, p. 1, wrongly derives Sachalitis from "Sawahily": it is evidently "Sahili.") The people bear by no means the best character: Ibn Batutah (fourteenth century) says, "their wives are most base; yet, without denying this, their husbands express nothing like jealousy on the subject."

(Lee, p. 62.)

[FN#20] The name I have said of a quasi-historical personage, son of Joktan, the first Arabist and the founder of the Tobba ("successor") dynasty in Al-Yaman; while Jurham, his brother, established that of Al-Hijaz. The name is probably chosen because well-known.

[FN#21] Arab. "Hakim": lit. one who orders; often confounded by the unscientific with Hakim, doctor, a philosopher. The latter re-appears in the Heb. Khakham applied in modern days to the Jewish scribe who takes the place of the Rabbi.

[FN#22] As has been seen, acids have ever been and are still administered as counter-inebriants, while hot spices and sweets greatly increase the effect of Bhang, opium, henbane, datura &c. The Persians have a most unpleasant form of treating men when dead-drunk with wine or spirits. They hang them up by the heels, as we used to do with the drowned, and stuff their mouths with human ordure which is sure to produce emesis.

[FN#23] Compare the description of the elephant-faced Vetala (Katha S.S. Fasc. xi. p. 388).

[FN#24] The lover's name Sa'ik= the Striker (with lightning); Najmah, the beloved= the star.

[FN#25] I have modified the last three lines of the Mac. Edit.

which contain a repet.i.tion evidently introduced by the carelessness of the copyist.

[FN#26] The Hindu Charvakas explain the Triad, Bramha, Vishnu and s.h.i.+va, by the s.e.xual organs and upon Vishnu's having four arms they gloss, "At the time of s.e.xual intercourse, each man and woman has as many." (Dabistan ii. 202.) This is the Eastern view of Rabelais' "beast with two backs."

[FN#27] Arab. "Rabbat-i," my she Lord, fire (nar) being feminine.

[FN#28] The prose-rhyme is answerable for this galimatias.

[FN#29] A common phrase equivalent to our "started from his head."

[FN#30] Arab. "Mariduna"=rebels (against Allah and his orders).

[FN#31] Arab. Yafis or Yafat. He had eleven sons and was ent.i.tled Abu al-Turk because this one engendered the Turcomans as others did the Chinese, Scythians, Slaves (Saklab), Gog, Magog, and the Muscovites or Russians. According to the Moslems there was a rapid falling off in size amongst this family. Noah's grave at Karak (the Ruin) a suburb of Zahlah, in La Brocquiere's "Valley of Noah, where the Ark was built,"

is 104 ft. 10 in. Iong by 8 ft. 8 in. broad. (N.B.--It is a bit of the old aqueduct which Mr. Porter, the learned author of the "Giant Cities of Bashan," quotes as a "traditional memorial of primeval giants"--talibus carduis pasc.u.n.tur asini!). Nabi Ham measures only 9 ft. 6 in. between headstone and tombstone, being in fact about as long as his father was broad.

[FN#32] See Night dcliv., vol. vii, p. 43, infra.

[FN#33] According to Turcoman legends (evidently pose- Mohammedan) Noah gave his son, j.a.phet a stone inscribed with the Greatest Name, and it had the virtue of bringing on or driving off rain. The Moghuls long preserved the tradition and hence probably the sword.

[FN#34] This expresses Moslem sentiment; the convert to Al- Islam being theoretically respected and practically despised.

The Turks call him a "Burma"=twister, a turncoat, and no one either trusts him or believes in his sincerity.

[FN#35] The name of the city first appears here: it is found also in the Bul. Edit., vol. ii. p. 132.

[FN#36] Arab. " 'Amala hilah," a Syro-Egyptian vulgarism.

[FN#37] i.e. his cousin, but he will not use the word.

[FN#38] Arab. "La'ab," meaning very serious use of the sword: we still preserve the old "sword-play."

[FN#39] Arab. " Ikhsa," from a root meaning to drive away a dog.

[FN#40] Arab. "Hazza-hu," the quivering motion given to the "Harbak" (a light throw-spear or javelin) before it leaves the hand.

[FN#41] Here the translator must either order the sequence of the sentences or follow the rhyme.

[FN#42] Possibly taken from the Lions' Court in the Alhambra=(Dar) Al-hamra, the Red House.

[FN#43] Arab. "Shazarwan" from Pers. Shadurwan, a palace, cornice, etc. That of the Meccan Ka'abah is a projection of about a foot broad in pent-house shape sloping downwards and two feet above the granite pavement: its only use appears in the large bra.s.s rings welded into it to hold down the covering. There are two breaks in it, one under the doorway and the other opposite Ishmael's tomb; and pilgrims are directed during circuit to keep the whole body outside it.

[FN#44] The "Musafahah" before noticed, vol. vi., p. 287.

[FN#45] i.e. He was confounded at its beauty.

[FN#46] Arab. "'Ajib," punning upon the name.