The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume IX Part 21

[FN#323] A duenna, nursery governess, etc. See vol. i. 231.

[FN#324] For this belief see the tale called "The Night of Power," vol. vi. 180.

[FN#325] The Anglo-lndian "Kincob" (Kimkh'ab); brocade, silk flowered with gold or silver.

[FN#326] Lane finds a needless difficulty in this sentence, which is far-fetched only because Kuus (cups) requires Ruus (head-tops) byway of jingle. It means only "'Twas merry in hall when beards wag all."

[FN#327] The Mac. Edit. gives two couplets which have already occurred from the Bull Edit i. 540.

[FN#328] The lines are half of four couplets in vol. iv. 192; so I quote Lane.

[FN#329].i.e. none hath pleased me. I have quoted the popular saying, "The son of the quarter filleth not the eye." i.e. women prefer stranger faces.

[FN#330] Here after the favourite Oriental fas.h.i.+on, she tells the truth but so enigmatically that it is more deceptive than an untruth; a good Eastern quibble infinitely more dangerous than an honest downright lie. The consciousness that the falsehood is part fact applies a salve to conscience and supplies a force lacking in the mere fib. When an Egyptian lies to you look straight in his eyes and he will most often betray himself either by boggling or by a look of injured innocence.

[FN#331] Another true lie.

[FN#332] Arab. ''Yastaghibuni," lit. = they deem my absence too long.

[FN#333] An euphemistic form of questioning after absence: "Is all right with thee?"

[FN#334] Arab. "Kallim al-Sultan!" the formula of summoning which has often occurred in The Nights.

[FN#335] Lane translates "Almost died," Payne "Well-nigh died;"

but the text says "died." I would suggest to translators

"Be bould, be bould and every where be bould!"

[FN#336] He is the usual poltroon contrasted with the manly and masterful girl, a conjunction of the lioness and the lamb sometimes seen in real life.

[FN#337] That he might see Jamilah as Ibrahim had promised.

[FN#338] A popular saying, i.e., les absents ont tonjours tort.

[FN#339] Who had a prior right to marry her, but not against her consent after she was of age.

[FN#340] Arab "Sirwal." In Al-Hariri it is a singular form (see No. ii. of the twelve riddles in a.s.s. xxiv.), but Mohammed said to his followers "Tuakhkhizu" (adopt ye) "Sarawilat." The latter is regularly declinable but the broken form Sarawil is imperfectly declinable on account of its "heaviness," as are all plurals whose third letter is an Alif followed by i or i in the next syllable.

[FN#341] Arab. "Matarik" from mitrak or mitrakah a small wooden s.h.i.+eld coated with hide This even in the present day is the policeman's equipment in the outer parts of the East.

[FN#342] Arab. "Sabiyah" for which I prefer Mr. Payne's "young lady" to Lane's "damsel" the latter should be confined to Jariyah as both bear the double sense of girl and slave (or servant) girl. "Bins" again is daughter, maid or simply girl.

[FN#343] The sense of them is found in vol. ii. 41.

[FN#344] Here the text is defective, but I hardly like to supply the omission. Mr. Payne introduces from below, "for that his charms were wasted and his favour changed by reason of the much terror and affliction he had suffered." The next lines also are very abrupt and unconnected.

[FN#345] Arab. "Ya Maulaya!" the term is still used throughout Moslem lands; but in Barbary where it is p.r.o.nounced "Moolaee"

Europeans have converted it to "Muley" as if it had some connection with the mule. Even in Robinson Crusoe we find "muly"

or "Moly Ismael" (chaps. ii.); and we hear the high-sounding name Maula-i-Idris, the patron saint of the Sunset Land, debased to "Muley Dris."

[FN#346] Lane omits this tale because "it is very similar, but inferior in interest, to the Story told by the Sultan's Steward."

See vol. i. 278.

[FN#347] Sixteenth Abbaside A.H. 279?289 (=A.D. 891?902). "He was comely, intrepid, of grave exterior, majestic in presence, of considerable intellectual power and the fiercest of the Caliphs of the House of Abbas. He once had the courage to attack a lion"

(Al-Siyuti). I may add that he was a good soldier and an excellent administrator, who was called Saffah the Second because he refounded the House of Abbas. He was exceedingly fanatic and died of sensuality, having first kicked his doctor to death, and he spent his last moments in versifying.

[FN#348] Hamdun bin Isma'il, called the Katib or Scribe, was the first of his family who followed the profession of a Nadim or Cup-companion. His son Ahmad (who is in the text) was an oral transmitter of poetry and history. Al-Siyuti (p. 390) and De Slane I. Khall (ii. 304) notice him.

[FN#349] Probably the Caliph had attendants, but the text afterwards speaks of them as two. Mac. Edit. iv. p. 558, line 2; and a few lines below, "the Caliph and the man with him."

[FN#350] Arab. "Naysabur," the famous town in Khorasan where Omar-i-Khayyam (whom our people will call Omar Khayyam) was buried and where his tomb is still a place of pious visitation. A sketch of it has lately appeared in the ill.u.s.trated papers. For an affecting tale concerning the astronomer-poet's tomb, borrowed from the Nigaristan see the Preface by the late Mr. Fitzgerald whose admirable excerpts from the Rubaiyat (101 out of 820 quatrains) have made the poem popular among all the English-speaking races.

[FN#351] Arab. "A-Sharif anta?" (with the Hamzah-sign of interrogation)=Art thou a Sharif (or descendant of the Apostle)?

[FN#352] Tenth Abbaside (A.H. 234?247=848?861), grandson of Al-Ras.h.i.+d and born of a slave-concubine. He was famous for his hatred of the Alides (he destroyed the tomb of Al-Husayn) and claimed the pardon of Allah for having revised orthodox traditionary doctrines. He compelled the Christians to wear collars of wood or leather and was a.s.sa.s.sinated by five Turks.

[FN#353] His father was Al-Mu'tasim bi 'llah (A.H.

218?227=833?842) the son of Al-Ras.h.i.+d by Maridah a slave-concubine of foreign origin. He was brave and of high spirit, but dest.i.tute of education; and his personal strength was such that he could break a man's elbow between his fingers. He imitated the apparatus of Persian kings; and he was called the "Octonary" because he was the 8th Abbaside; the 8th in descent from Abbas; the 8th son of Al-Ras.h.i.+d; he began his reign in A.H.

218; lived 48 years; was born under Scorpio (8th Zodiacal sign); was victorious in 8 expeditions; slew 8 important foes and left 8 male and 8 female children. For his introducing Turks see vol.

iii, 81.

[FN#354] i.e. as if it were given away in charity.

[FN#355] Arab. "Shukkah," a word much used in the Zanzibar trade where it means a piece of long-cloth one fathom long. See my "Lake Regions of Central Africa," vol. i. 147, etc.

[FN#356] He is afterwards called in two places "Khadim"=eunuch.

[FN#357] A courteous way of saying, "Never mind my name: I wish to keep it hidden." The formula is still popular.

[FN#358] Arab. "Bakhkharani" i.e. fumigated me with burning aloes-wood, Calumba or similar material.

[FN#359] In sign of honour. The threshold is important amongst Moslems: in one of the Mameluke Soldans' sepulchres near Cairo I found a granite slab bearing the "cartouche" (s.h.i.+eld) of Khufu (Cheops) with the four hieroglyphs hardly effaced.

[FN#360] i.e. One of the concubines by whose door he had pa.s.sed.

[FN#361] Epistasis without the prostasis, "An she ordered thee so to do:" the situation justifies the rhetorical figure.

[FN#362] Arab. "Sardab" see vol. i, 340.

[FN#363] Thirteenth Abbaside A.H. 252?255 (=866?869). His mother was a Greek slave called Kabihah (Al-Mas'udi and Al-Siyuti); for which "Banjah" is probably a clerical error. He was exceedingly beautiful and was the first to ride out with ornaments of gold.

But he was impotent in the hands of the Turks who caused the mob to depose him and kill him?his death being related in various ways.

[FN#364] i.e. The reward from Allah for thy good deed.

[FN#365] Arab. "Nusk" abstinence from women, a part of the Zahid's asceticism.

[FN#366] Arab. "Mun.a.z.irah" the verbal noun of which, "Munazarah,"

may also mean "dispute." The student will distinguish between "Munazarah" and Munafarah=a contention for precedence in presence of an umpire.