The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XI Part 19

[FN#271] Third Abbaside, A.D. 775-785, vol. vii. 136; ix. 334.

[FN#272] This reminds us of the Bir Al-Khatim (Well of the Signet) at Al-Medinah; in which Caliph Osman during his sixth year dropped from his finger the silver ring belonging to the founder of Al-Islam, engraved in three lines with "Mohammed / Apostle (of) / Allah /." It had served to sign the letters sent to neighboring kings and had descended to the first three successors (Pilgrimage ii. 219). Mohammed owned three seal- rings, the golden one he destroyed himself; and the third, which was of carnelian, was buried with other objects by his heirs.

The late Subhi Pasha used to declare that the latter had been brought to him with early Moslem coins by an Arab, and when he died he left it to the Sultan.

[FN#273] Mr. Payne quotes Al-Tabari's version of this anecdote.

"El-Mehdi had presented his son Haroun with a ruby ring, worth a hundred thousand dinars, and the latter being one day with his brother (the then reigning Khalif), El Hadi saw the ring on his finger and desired it. So, when Haroun went out from him, he sent after him, to seek the ring of him. The Khalif's messenger overtook Er Res.h.i.+d on the bridge over the Tigris and acquainted him with his errand; whereupon the prince, enraged at the demand, pulled off the ring and threw it into the river. When El Hadi died and Er Ras.h.i.+d succeeded to the throne, he went with his suite to the bridge in question and bade his Vizier Yehya ben Khalid send for divers and cause them to make search for the ring. It had then been five months in the water and no one believed it would be found. However, the divers plunged into the river and found the ring in the very place where he had thrown it in, whereat Haroun rejoiced with an exceeding joy, regarding it as a presage of fair fortune."

[FN#274] Not historically correct. Al-Ras.h.i.+d made Yahya, father of Ja'afar, his Wazir; and the minister's two sons, Fazl and Ja'afar, acted as his lieutenants for seventeen years from A.D.

786 till the destruction of the Barmecides in A.D. 803. The tale-teller quotes Ja'afar because he was the most famous of the house.

[FN#275] Perhaps after marrying Ja'afar to his sister. But the endearing name was usually addressed to Ja'afar's elder brother Fazl, who was the Caliph's foster-brother.

[FN#276] Read seventeen: all these minor inaccuracies tend to invalidate the main statement.

[FN#277] Arab. "Yar'ad" which may mean "thundereth." The dark saying apparently means, Do good whilst thou art in power and thereby strengthen thyself.

[FN#278] The lady seems to have made the first advances and Bin Abu Hajilah quotes a sixaine in which she amorously addresses her spouse. See D'Herbelot, s.v. Abba.s.sa.

[FN#279] The tale-teller pa.s.ses with a very light hand over the horrors of a ma.s.sacre which terrified and scandalised the then civilised world, and which still haunt Moslem history. The Caliph, like the eking, can do no wrong; and, as Viceregent of Allah upon Earth, what would be deadly crime and mortal sin in others becomes in his case an ordinance from above. These actions are superhuman events and fatal which man must not judge nor feel any sentiment concerning them save one of mysterious respect. For the slaughter of the Barmecides, see my Terminal Essay, vol. x.

[FN#280] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 260-1, Night dlxviii.

[FN#281] Ibn al-Sammak (Son of the fisherman or fishmonger), whose name was Abu al-Abbas Mohammed bin Sabih, surnamed Al- Mazkur (Ibn al-Athir says Al-Muzakkar), was a native of Kufah (where he died in A.H. 183 = 799-80), a preacher and professional tale-teller famed as a stylist and a man of piety. Al-Siyuti (p.

292) relates of him that when honoured by the Caliph with courteous reception he said to him, "Thy humility in thy greatness is n.o.bler than thy greatness." He is known to have been the only theologician who, ex cathedra, promised Al-Ras.h.i.+d a place in Paradise.

[FN#282] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 261-2, Night dlxviii.

[FN#283] Seventh Abbaside, A.H. 198-227 = 813-842. See vol. iv.

109. He was a favourite with his father, who personally taught him tradition; but he offended the Faithful by a.s.serting the creation of the Koran, by his leaning to s.h.i.+'ah doctrine, and by changing the black garments of the Banu Abbas into green. He died of a chill at Budandun, a day's march from Tarsus, where he was buried: for this Podendon = = stretch out thy feet, see Al-Siyuti, pp. 326-27.

[FN#284] Sixth Abbaside, A.D. 809-13. See vol. v. 93: 152. He was of pure Abbaside blood on the father's side and his mother Zubaydah's. But he was unhappy in his Wazir Al-Fazl bin Rabi, the intriguer against the Barmecides, who estranged him from his brothers Al-Kasim and Al-Maamun. At last he was slain by a party of Persians, "who struck him with their swords and cut him through the nape of his neck and went with his head to Tahir bin al-Husayn, general to Al-Maamun, who set it upon a garden-wall and made proclamation, This is the head of the deposed Mohammed (Al-Amin)." Al-Siyuti, pp. 306-311. It was remarked by Moslem annalists that every sixth Abbaside met with a violent death: the first was this Mohammed al-Amin surnamed Al-Makhlu' = The Deposed; the second sixth was Al-Musta'in; and the last was Al- Muktadi bi'llah.

[FN#285] Lit. "Order and acceptance." See the Tale of the Sandal-wood Merchant and the Sharpers: vol. vi. 202.

[FN#286] This is not noticed by Al-Siyuta (p. 318) who says that his mother was a slave-concubine named Marajil who died in giving him birth. The tale in the text appears to be a bit of Court scandal, probably suggested by the darkness of the Caliph's complexion.

[FN#287] Bresl. Edit., vol. viii. pp. 226-9, Nights dclx-i.

[FN#288] King of the Arab kingdom of Hirah, for whom see vol. v.

74. This ancient villain rarely appears in such favourable form when tales are told of him.

[FN#289] The tribe of the chieftain and poet, Hatim Tai, for whom see vol. iv. 94.

[FN#290] i.e. I will make a covenant with him before the Lord.

Here the word "Allah" is introduced among the Arabs of The Ignorance.

[FN#291] i.e. the man of the Tribe of Tay.

[FN#292] A similar story of generous dealing is told of the Caliph Omar in The Nights. See vol. v. 99 et seq.

[FN#293] Bresl. Edit., vol. viii. pp. 273-8, Nights dclxxv-vi.

In Syria and Egypt Firuz (the Persian "Piroz") = victorious, triumphant, is usually p.r.o.nounced Fayrus. The tale is a rechauffe of the King and the Wazir's Wife in The Nights. See vol. vi. 129.

[FN#294] i.e. I seek refuge with Allah = G.o.d forfend.

[FN#295] Bresl. Edit., vol. xi. pp. 84?318, Nights dccclxxv?dccccx.x.x. Here again the names are Persian, showing the provenance of the tale; Shah Bakht is=King Luck and Rahwan is a corruption of Rahban=one who keeps the (right) way; or it may be Ruhban=the Pious. Mr. W. A. Clouston draws my attention to the fact that this tale is of the Sindibad (Seven Wise Masters) cycle and that he finds remotely allied to it a Siamese collection, ent.i.tled Nonthuk Pakaranam in which Princess Kankras, to save the life of her father, relates eighty or ninety tales to the king of Pataliput (Palibothra). He purposes to discuss this and similar subjects in extenso in his coming volumes, "Popular Tales and Fictions: their Migrations and Transformations," to which I look forward with pleasant antic.i.p.ations.

[FN#296] So far this work resembles the Bakhtiyar-nameh, in which the ten Wazirs are eager for the death of the hero who relates tales and instances to the king, warning him against the evils of precipitation.

[FN#297] One pilgrimage (Hajjat al-Islam) is commanded to all Moslems. For its conditions see The Nights, vol. v. 202, et seq.

[FN#298] Arab. "Hajj al-Sharif." For the expenses of the process see my Pilgrimage iii. 12. As in all "Holy Places," from Rome to Benares, the sinner in search of salvation is hopelessly taken in and fleeced by the "sons of the sacred cities."

[FN#299] Here a stranger invites a guest who at once accepts the invitation; such is the freedom between Moslems at Meccah and Al-Medinah, especially during pilgrimagetime.

[FN#300] i.e. the master could no longer use her carnally.

[FN#301] i.e. wantoned it away.

[FN#302] Here "Al-Hajj"=the company of pilgrims, a common use of the term.

[FN#303] The text says, "He went on with the caravan to the Pilgrimage," probably a clerical error. "Hajj" is never applied to the Visitation (Ziyarah) at Al-Medinah.

[FN#304] Arab. "Jawar," that is, he became a mujawir, one who lives in or near a collegiate mosque. The Egyptian proverb says, "He pilgrimaged: quoth one, Yes, and for his villainy lives (yujawir) at Meccah," meaning that he found no other place bad enough for him.

[FN#305] I have often heard of this mysterious art in the East, also of similarly making rubies and branch-coral of the largest size, but, despite all my endeavours, I never was allowed to witness the operation. It was the same with alchemy, which, however, I found very useful to the "smasher." See my History of Sindh, chapt. vii.

[FN#306] Elsewhere in The Nights specified as white woolen robes.

[FN#307] Whilst she was praying the girl could not address her; but the use of the rosary is a kind of "parergon."

[FN#308] Arab. "Ya Hajjah" (in Egypt p.r.o.nounced "Haggeh"), a polite address to an elderly woman, who is thus supposed to have "finished her faith."

[FN#309] Arab. "Kanisah" (from Kans=sweeping) a pagan temple, a Jewish synagogue, and especially a Christian church.

[FN#310] i.e. standeth in prayer or supplication.

[FN#311] i.e. fell into hysterics, a very common complaint amongst the highly nervous and excitable races of the East.

[FN#312] Arab. "Kahramanah," a word which has often occurred in divers senses, nurse, duenna, chamberwoman, stewardess, armed woman defending the Harem, etc.

[FN#313] Which is supposed to contain the Harem.

[FN#314] Especially mentioned because the guide very often follows his charges, especially when he intends to play them an ugly trick. I had an unpleasant adventure of the kind in Somaliland; but having the fear of the "Aborigines Protection Society" before my eyes, refrained from doing more than hinting at it.

[FN#315] i.e. otherwise than according to ordinance of Allah.

[FN#316] A well-known city of lrak 'Ajami (or Persian).