The Thousand and One Nights Volume IV Part 36

[FN#52] His wife Zubeideh.

[FN#53] i.e. his beautiful slave-girls.

[FN#54] i.e. his beautiful slave-girls.

[FN#55] t.i.tle of Saladin (Selaheddin) and several other Eyoubite Sultans of Egypt and Syria. It is equivalent to our "Defender of the Faith."

[FN#56] Koran xli. 46.

[FN#57] A town of Upper Egypt.

[FN#58] Meaning the merchant, whose name, Abou Jaafer or the like, he had learnt from the tailor.

[FN#59] Muslim Jews.

[FN#60] A well-known jurist at Baghdad in the reign of the Khalif Mamoun.

[FN#61] Medina.

[FN#62] One of the gates of the great mosque there, wherein is the tomb of the Prophet.

[FN#63] Tenth Khalif of the Abbaside dynasty, A.D. 849-861.

[FN#64] Muwelledat, women born in Muslim countries of slave-parents; syn. mulatto-women.

[FN#65] Lieutenant of the Prefect of Baghdad.

[FN#66] Muwelledat, women born in Muslim countries of slave-parents; syn. mulatto-women.

[FN#67] El Hakim bi Amrillah, sixth Fatimite Khalif of Egypt (A.D. 995-1021), cruel and fantastic tyrant, who claimed to be an incarnation of the Deity. He was the founder of the religion of the Druses, who look to him to reappear and be their Messiah

[FN#68] b.a.s.t.a.r.d or Spanish pellitory.

[FN#69] Or dyed.

[FN#70] Or interlocking.

[FN#71] Or torn.

[FN#72] Sufreh, a round piece of leather used (mostly by travellers) as a table-cloth and having a running string inserted round its edge, by means of which it can be converted into a bag or budget for holding provisions, as in this instance.

[FN#73] Lower India.

[FN#74] i.e. as master of the house in which I have sought shelter.

[FN#75] Uns el Wujoud.

[FN#76] A pun upon his name, Uns wa joud, pleasance and bounty.

[FN#77] See supra, p. 95, note 3. {Vol. 4, FN#38}

[FN#78] The fourteenth letter of the Arabic alphabet, in its medial form (

[FN#79] See Note, Vol. III. p. 274. {Vol. 3, FN#102}

[FN#80] i.e. in dreams..

[FN#81] One of the months in which war was forbidden to the pagan Arabs and a sort of Treve de Dieu prevailed.

[FN#82] The Arabic word fakir means literally, "a poor man;"

but it would appear, from what follows, that Uns el Wujoud had disguised himself as a religious mendicant and was taken for such by the people of the castle.

[FN#83] i.e. one absorbed in the contemplation of supra- terrestrial things.

[FN#84] Uns el Wujoud.

[FN#85] To salute them and wish them joy, according to Oriental custom.

[FN#86] Mosul is called the land of purity, in a religious sense, it having never been polluted with idolatrous wors.h.i.+p.

[FN#87] The people of Aleppo seem to have been noted for debauchery.

[FN#88] i.e. Do not express admiration openly, lest it attract the evil eye, but vent your wonder by saying, "G.o.d bless and preserve the Prophet!" according to general Muslim wont.

[FN#89] A gorge near Mecca, the scene of one of Mohammed's battles.

[FN#90] i.e. as made out of a crooked rib, according to the tradition.

[FN#91] i.e. the land of the virgin.

[FN#92] The word Jamian means "two congregational mosques,"

which would only be found in a large town like Baghdad. It is possible, therefore, that the expression, "land of Jamian,"

may mean Baghdad or some other great city, noted for its debauched manners.

[FN#93] Oriental subst.i.tute for slate.

[FN#94] A pre-Mohammedan poet.

[FN#95] King of Hireh in Chaldaea, a fantastic and bloodthirsty tyrant, whom he had lampooned.

[FN#96] Aboulabbas er Recas.h.i.+, a well-known poet of the time.

[FN#97] Koran xxvi. 224, 5, 6.

[FN#98] Half-brother of Abdallah ben ez Zubeir, the celebrated pretender to the Khalifate, see Vol. III. p. 194, note 3. {Vol.

3, FN#62}

[FN#99] Grand-daughter of the Khalif Aboubekr and the most beautiful woman of her day.