The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XVI Part 26

It is a marvel that these cadences have never been reproduced before. They have been faintly attempted by Eastwick, in his "Gulistan," whilst Mr. Payne simply pa.s.sed them over, rejected them as of no account. They fall in with Captain Burton's plan of omitting nothing; of giving the Nights intact in the precise form in which they are enjoyed by the Oriental. Beside the verses so characteristic of exaggerated Arabic sentiment, and the rhymed cadences, let like precious stones into the gold of the prose, the proverbs embodying the proverbial wit and wisdom are all rhymed as in the original Arabic. What Arabists think of this translation we may learn from a professed Arabist writing to this effect:--"I am free to confess, after many years study of Arabic, a comparison of your translation with the text has taught me more than many months of dry study," whilst Englishmen who for years have lived in the East are making the discovery that, after all, they have known little or nothing, and their education is only beginning with this version of the Arabian Nights. It is only knowledge that knows how to observe; and it is satisfactory to observe that Captain Burton's amazing insight into Eastern peculiarities has been put to its best use in giving a true idea of the People of the Sun and a veritable version of their Book of Books. The labour expended on this edition has been enormous. The work could only have been completed by the most excessive and pertinatious application. All the same we are told it has been "a labour of love," a task that has brought its own exceeding great reward.

Arabian Nights, Volume 16 Footnotes

[FN#1] Tome xii. is dated 1789, the other three, 1788, to include them in the "Cabinet."

[FN#2] The t.i.tles of all the vols. are dated alike, 1793, the actual date of printing.

[FN#3] This name is not in the Arabic text, and I have vainly puzzled my brains about its derivation or meaning.

[FN#4] This P.N. is, I presume, a corruption of "Shawalan"=one falling short. The wife "Oitba" is evidently "Otba" or "Utba."

[FN#5] See my Supplemental volume i. pp. 37-116, "The Ten Wazirs; or, the History of King Azadbakht and his Son."

[FN#6] MS. pp. 140-182. Gauttier, vol. ii., pp. 313-353, Histoire du sage Heycar translated by M. Agoub: Weber, "History of Sinkarib and his two Viziers" (vol. ii. 53): the "Vizier" is therein called Hicar.

[FN#7] This form of the P.N. is preferred by Prof. R. h.o.e.rning in his "Prisma des Sanherib," etc. Leipsic, 1878. The etymology is "Sin akhi-irib"=Sini (Lunus, or the Moon-G.o.d) increaseth brethren. The canon of Ptolemy fixes his accession at B.C. 702, the first year of Elibus or Belibus. For his victories over Babylonia, Palestine, Judea, and Egypt see any "Dictionary of the Bible," and Byron for the marvellous and puerile legend--

The a.s.syrian came down as a wolf on the fold,

which made him lose in one night 185,000 men, smitten by the "Angel of the Lord" (2 Kings xix. 35). Seated upon his throne before Lachish he is represented by a bas-relief as a truly n.o.ble and kingly figure.

[FN#8] I presume that the author hereby means a "fool," Pers.

nadan. But in a.s.syrian story Nadan was=Nathan, King of the people of Pukudu, the Pekod of Jeremiah (i. 21) and other prophets.

[FN#9] In text always "Atur," the scriptural "a.s.shur"=a.s.syria, biblically derived from a.s.shur, son of Shem (Gen. x. 22), who was wors.h.i.+pped as the proto-deity. The capital was Niniveh. Weber has "Nineveh and Thor," showing the spelling of his MS.

According to the Arabs, "Ashur" had four sons; Iran (father of the Furs=Persians, the Kurd, or Ghozzi, the Daylams, and the Khazar), Nabit, Jarmuk, and Basil. Ibn Khaldun (iii. 413), in his "Universal History," opposes this opinion of Ibn Sa'id.

[FN#10] i.e. "Fish-town" or "town of Nin" =Ninus, the founder. In mod. days "Naynawah" was the name of a port on the east bank of the Tigris; and moderns have unearthed the old city at Koyunjik, Nabi Yunas, and the Tall (mound of) Nimrud.

[FN#11] The surroundings suggest Jehovah, the tribal deity of the Jews. The old version says, "Hicar was a native of the country of Haram (Harran), and had brought from thence the knowledge of the true G.o.d; impelled, however, by an irresistible decree," etc.

[FN#12] i.e. a woollen cloth dyed red. Hence Pyrard (i. 244) has "red scarlet," and (vol. ii.) "violet scarlet"; Froissart (xvth centy.) has "white scarlet," and Marot (xvith) has "green scarlet." The word seems to be French of xiith century, but is uncertain: Littre proposes Galaticus, but admits the want of an intermediate form. Piers Plowman and Chaucer use "cillatun, which suggests Pers. "Sakalat, or "Saklatun", whence Mr. Skeat would derive "scarlet." This note is from the voyage of F. Pyrard, etc.

London. Hakluyts, M.dccc.lx.x.xvii.; and the editor quotes Colonel Yule's M. Polo (ii. chapt. 58) and his "Discursive Glossary s. v.

Suclat."

[FN#13] i.e."Al-Kirm," Arab. and Pers. =a worm, as in Kirman (see Supplem. vol. i. 40); the coccus ilicis, vulg. called cochineal.

[FN#14] Arab. "Arz", from the Heb. Arz or Razah (raz=to vibrate), the root {Greek} (cedrus conifera), the a.s.syrian "Erimu of Lebanon," of which mention is so often made. The old controversy as to whether "Razah"=cedar or fir, might easily have been settled if the disputants had known that the modern Syrians still preserve the word for the clump called "The Cedars" on the seaward slope of the Liba.n.u.s.

[FN#15] We should say "reading and writing," but the greater difficulty of deciphering the skeleton eastern characters places reading in the more honourable place. They say of a very learned man, "He readeth it off (readily) as one drinketh water."

[FN#16] Arab. "Al-Sahib al-jayyid." ["Jayyid" is, by the measure "Fay'il," derived from the root, "Jaud," to excel, like "Kayyis,"

from "Kaus" (see Suppl. vol. iv., p.277), "Mayyit" from "Maut,"

"Sayyid" from "Saud." The form was originally "Jaywid;" then the Waw became a.s.similated to the preceding Ja, on account of the following Kasrah, and this a.s.similation or "Idgham" is indicated by Tashdid. As from "Kayyis" the diminutive "Kuwayyis" is formed, so "Jayyid" forms the Tasghir, "Juwayyid," which, amongst the Druzes, has the specific meaning of "deeply versed in religious matters."--ST.]

[FN#17] "Kul," vulg. for "Kul"; a form constant in this MS.

[FN#18] Gauttier "Sarkhadom," the great usurper Sargon, a contemporary of Merodach Baladan of Babylon and of Sabaco 1st of Ethiopia, B.C. 721-702: one of the greatest a.s.syrian Kings, whose place has been determined to be between Shalmaneser and his son, the celebrated Sennacherib, who succeeded him. The name also resembles the biblical Ezarhaddon (Asarida.n.u.s), who, however, was the son of Sennacherib, and occupied the throne of Babylon in B.C. 680.

[FN#19] Gauttier, pp. 317-319, has greatly amplified and modified these words of wisdom.

[FN#20] In text "Ya Bunayya" =lit. "O my little son," a term of special fondness.

[FN#21] Arab. "Jamrah," a word of doubtful origin, but applied to a tribe strong enough to be self-dependent. The "Jamarat of the Arabs" were three, Banu Numayr, Banu Haris (who afterwards confederated with Mas.h.i.+j) and Banu Dabbah (who joined the Rikab), and at last Nomayr remained alone. Hence they said of it:

"Nomayr the jamrah (also "a live coal") of Arabs are; * And ne'er cease they to burn in fiery war."

See Chenery's Al-Hariri, pp. 343-428.

[FN#22] In the Arab. "Ta'arkalak," which M. Houdas renders "qu'elle ne te retienne dans ses filets."

[FN#23] A lieu commun in the East. It is the Heb. "Shaked" and the fruit is the "Loz" (Arab. Lauz)=Amygdalus communis, which the Jews looked upon as the harbinger of spring and which, at certain feasts, they still carry to the synagogue, as representing the palm branches of the Temple.

[FN#24] The mulberry-tree in Italy will bear leaves till the end of October and the foliage is bright as any spring verdure.

[FN#25] Gauttier omits this: pas poli, I suppose.

[FN#26] The barbarous sentiment is Biblical-inspired, "He that spareth his rod hateth his son" (Prov. xiii. 24), and "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying" (Prov. xix. 18). Compare the Arab equivalent, "The green stick is of the trees of Paradise" (Pilgrimage i. 151). But the neater form of the saw was left to uninspired writers; witness "Spare the rod and spoil the child," which appears in Ray's proverbs, and is immortalised by Hudibras:--

Love is a boy by poets styled, Then spare the rod and spoil the child. (ii. 1, 843.)

It is to the eternal credit of John Locke, the philosopher, that in an age of general brutality he had the moral courage to declare, "Beating is the worst and therefore the last means to be used in the correction of children."

[FN#27] Arab. "Dahn" (oil, ointment) which may also mean "soft sawder."

[FN#28] Aucun roi ne peut gouverner sans armee et on ne peut avoir une armee sans argent. For a treatise on this subject see the "Chronique de Tabari," ii. 340.

[FN#29] M. Agoub, in Gauttier (vi. 321) remarks of these prosings, "Ces maximes qui ne seraient pas indignes, pour la plupart, des beaux temps de la philosophie grecque, appartiennent toutes au texte arabe; je n'ai fait que les disposer dans un ordre plus methodique. J'ai du aussi supprimer quelques unes, soit parce qu'elles n'offraient que des preceptes d'une morale ba.n.a.le, soit que traduites en frangais, elles eussent pu paraitre bizarres a des lecteurs europeens. Ce que je dis ici, s'applique egalement a celles qui terminent le conte et qui pourraient fournir le sujet de plusieurs fables." One would say that the translator is the author's natural enemy.

[FN#30] Arab. "Ammal," now vulgarly written with initial Hamzah, a favourite expression in Egypt and meaning "Verily," "I believe you, my boy," and so forth. But "'Ammal" with the Ayn may also mean "he intended," or "he was about to."

[FN#31] In Gauttier the name is Ebnazadan, but the Arab. text has "Naudan," which I take to be the Persian "New of knowledge" as opp. to Nadan, the "unknowing."

[FN#32] In Chavis (Weber ii. 58) and Gauttier (p. 323) Akis, roi de Perse. The second name may be "Shah of the Ebna" or Persian incolae of Al-Yaman; aristocratie Persane naturalisee Arabe (Al-Mas'udi, iv. 188, etc.).

[FN#33] i.e. the Lowland of the Eglantine or Narcissus; Nisrin is also in dictionaries an island where amber abounds. There is a shade of difference between Buk'ah and Bak'ah. The former which is the corrector form=a patch of ground, a plain (hence the Buka'a= Coelesyria), while Bak'ah=a hollow where water collects.

In Chavis we find "the plain of Harrim" and in Gauttier la plaine de Baschrin; and the appointment was "for the first of the month Niram" (Naysan).

[FN#34] "Pharaoh," which Hebrew Holy Writ left so vague and unsatisfactory, has become with the Arabs "Fir'aun", the dynastic name of Egyptian kings, as Kisra (Chosroes) of the Persians, Tobba of the Himyarites, Kaysar (Caesar) of the Romans, Jalut (Goliath) of the Phoenicians, f.a.ghfur of the Chinese, Khakan of the Tartars, Adfonsh (Alfonso) of the Spanish, and Aguetid of the Berbers. Ibn Khaldun iv. 572.

[FN#35] "Mizr" in a.s.syrian="Musur," in Heb. "Misraim" (the dual Misrs, whose duality permeated all their polity), and in Arab.

"Misr," the O. Egypt. "Ha kahi Ptah" (the Land of the great G.o.d, Ptah), and the Coptic "Ta-mera"=the Land of the Nile flood, ignoring, I may add, all tradition of a Noachian or general deluge.