Arabian Society In The Middle Ages Part 5

The mode of divination called ?arb el-Mendel is by some supposed to be effected by the aid of evil Jinn; but the more enlightened of the Muslims regard it as a branch of natural magic.[87]

There are certain modes of divination which cannot properly be cla.s.sed under the head of spiritual magic, but require a place between the account of this science and that of natural magic. The most important of these branches of Kihaneh is Astrology, which is called 'Ilm en-Nujoom.

This is studied by many Muslims in the present day; and its professors are often employed by the Arabs to determine a fortunate period for laying the foundation of a building, commencing a journey, etc.; but more frequently by the Persians and Turks. The Prophet p.r.o.nounced astrology to be a branch of magic.[88] Another branch of Kihaneh is Geomancy, called ?arb er-Raml;[89] a mode of divination from certain marks made on sand (whence its appellation), or on paper; and said to be chiefly founded on astrology. The science called ez-Zijr, or el-'Eyafeh, is a third branch of Kihaneh; being divination or auguration chiefly from the motions and positions or postures of birds or of gazelles and other beasts of the chase. Thus what was termed a Sani?, that is, such an animal standing or pa.s.sing with its right side towards the spectator, was esteemed among the Arabs as of good omen; and a Bari?, or an animal of this kind with its left side towards the spectator, was held as inauspicious.[90] El-?iyafeh, under which term are included Chiromancy and its kindred sciences, is a fourth branch of Kihaneh.

Et-Tefaul, or the taking an omen, particularly a good one, from a name or words accidentally heard or seen or chosen from a book, belongs to the same science.

The taking a fal, or omen, from the ?ur-an is generally held to be lawful. Various trifling events are considered as ominous. For instance, a Sul?an quitting his palace with his troops, a standard happened to strike a "thureiya" (a cl.u.s.ter of lamps, so called from resembling the Pleiades), and broke them: he drew from this an evil omen, and would have relinquished the expedition; but one of his chief officers said to him, "O our Lord, thy standards have reached the Pleiades;"--and, being relieved by this remark, he proceeded, and returned victorious.[91] The interpretation of dreams, termed Ta?beer el-Menamat, must also be cla.s.sed among the branches of this science. According to the Prophet, it is the only branch of divination worthy of dependance. "Good dreams,"

said he, "are one of the parts of prophecy," and "nothing else of prophecy remains." "Good dreams are from G.o.d; and false dreams from the Devil." "When any one of you has a bad dream, spit three times over your left shoulder, and seek protection with G.o.d from the Devil thrice; and turn from the side on which the dream was, to the other."[92] This rule is observed by many Muslims. Dreams are generally so fully relied upon by them as to be sometimes the means of deciding contested points in history and science. The sight, in a dream, of anything green or white, or of water, is considered auspicious; anything black or red, or fire, inauspicious.

This firm belief in dreams will be well ill.u.s.trated by the following anecdote, which was related to me in Cairo, shortly after the terrible plague of the year 1835, by the sheykh Mo?ammad E?-?an?awee, who had taken the trouble of investigating the fact, and had ascertained its truth.

A tradesman, living in the quarter of El-?anafee, in Cairo, dreamed during that plague that eleven persons were carried out from his house to be buried, victims of this disease. He awoke in a state of the greatest distress and alarm, reflecting that eleven was the total number of the inhabitants of his house, including himself, and that it would be vain in him to attempt, by adding one or more members to his household, to elude the decree of G.o.d and give himself a chance of escape: so calling together his neighbours, he informed them of his dream, and was counselled to submit with resignation to a fate so plainly foreshown, and to be thankful to G.o.d for the timely notice with which he had been mercifully favoured. On the following day, one of his children died; a day or two after, a wife; and the pestilence continued its ravages among his family until he remained in his house alone. It was impossible for him now to entertain the slightest doubt of the entire accomplishment of the warning: immediately, therefore, after the last death that had taken place among his household, he repaired to a friend at a neighbouring shop, and calling to him several other persons from the adjoining and opposite shops, he reminded them of his dream, acquainted them with its almost complete fulfilment, and expressed his conviction that he, the eleventh, should very soon die. "Perhaps," said he, "I shall die this next night: I beg of you, therefore, for the sake of G.o.d, to come to my house early to-morrow morning, and the next morning and the next if necessary, to see if I be dead, and, when dead, that I am properly buried; for I have no one with me to wash and shroud me. Fail not to do me this service, which will procure you a recompense in heaven. I have bought my grave-linen: you will find it in a corner of the room in which I sleep. If you find the door of the house latched, and I do not answer to your knocking, break it open."

Soon after sunset he laid himself in his lonely bed, though without any expectation of closing his eyes in sleep; for his mind was absorbed in reflections upon the awful entry into another world, and a review of his past life. As the shades of night gathered around him he could almost fancy that he beheld, in one faint object or another in his gloomy chamber, the dreadful person of the Angel of Death: and at length he actually perceived a figure gliding in at the door, and approaching his bed. Starting up in horror, he exclaimed, "Who art thou?"--and a stern and solemn voice answered, "Be silent! I am 'Azraeel, the Angel of Death!"--"Alas!" cried the terrified man; "I testify that there is no deity but G.o.d, and I testify that Mo?ammad is G.o.d's Apostle! There is no strength nor power but in G.o.d, the High, the Great! To G.o.d we belong, and to Him we must return!"--He then covered himself over with his quilt, as if for protection, and lay with throbbing heart, expecting every moment to have his soul torn from him by the inexorable messenger.

But moments pa.s.sed away, and minutes, and hours, yet without his experiencing any hope of escape; for he imagined that the Angel was waiting for him to resign himself, or had left him for a while, and was occupied in receiving first the souls of the many hundred human beings who had attained their predestined term in that same night and in the same city, and the souls of the thousands who were doomed to employ him elsewhere.

Daybreak arrived before his sufferings terminated; and his neighbours, coming according to their promise, entered his chamber, and found him still in bed; but observing that he was covered up and motionless as a corpse, they doubted whether he were still alive, and called to him. He answered, with a faint voice, "I am not yet dead; but the Angel of Death came to me in the dusk of the evening, and I expect him every moment to make his return, to take my soul: therefore trouble me not; but see me washed and buried."--"But why," said his friends, "was the street-door left unlatched?"--"I latched it," he answered, "but the Angel of Death may have opened it."--"And who," they asked, "is the man in the court?"

He answered, "I know of no man in the court: perhaps the Angel who is waiting for my soul has made himself visible to you, and been mistaken in the twilight for a man."--"He is a thief," they said, "who has gathered together everything in the house that he could carry away, and has been struck by the plague while doing so, and now lies dead in the court, at the foot of the stairs, grasping in his hand a silver candlestick."--The master of the house, after hearing this, paused for a moment, and then, throwing off his quilt, exclaimed, "Praise be to G.o.d, the Lord of all creatures! That is the eleventh, and I am safe! No doubt it was that rascal who came to me and said that he was the Angel of Death. Praise be to G.o.d! Praise be to G.o.d!"

This man survived the plague, and took pleasure in relating the above story. The thief had overheard his conversation with his neighbours, and, coming to his house in the dusk, had put his shoulder to the wooden lock, and so raised the door and displaced the latch within. There is nothing wonderful in the dream, nor in its accomplishment; the plague of 1835 entirely desolated many houses, and was mostly fatal to the young; and all the inhabitants of the house in question were young excepting the master.

The distinction of fortunate and unfortunate days should also here be mentioned. Thursday and Friday, especially the latter, are considered fortunate; Monday and Wednesday, doubtful; Sunday, Tuesday, and Sat.u.r.day, especially the last, unfortunate. It is said that there are seven evil days in every [lunar] month: namely, the third, on which ?abeel (Cain) killed Habeel (Abel); the fifth, on which G.o.d cast down Adam from paradise, and afflicted the people of Yoonus (Jonas), and on which Yoosuf (Joseph) was cast into the well; the thirteenth, on which G.o.d took away the wealth of Eiyoob (Job), and afflicted him, and took away the kingdom from Suleyman (Solomon), and on which the Jews killed the prophets; the sixteenth, on which G.o.d exterminated and buried the people of Loo? (Lot), and transformed three hundred Christians into swine and Jews into apes, and on which the Jews sawed asunder Zekeriya (Zachariah); the twenty-first, on which Pharaoh was born, and on which he was drowned, and on which his nation was afflicted with the plagues; the twenty-fourth, on which Numrood (Nimrod) killed seventy women, and cast El-Khaleel (Abraham) into the fire, and on which was slaughtered the camel of ?ali?; and the twenty-fifth, on which the suffocating wind was sent upon the people of Hood.[93]

II. Natural magic, which is called es-Seemiya, is regarded by most persons of the more enlightened cla.s.ses of Muslims as altogether a deceptive art, no more worthy of respect than legerdemain; but it seems to be nearly allied to enchantment, for it is said to effect, in appearance, the most wonderful transformations, and to cause the most extraordinary visions; affecting the senses and imagination in a manner similar to opium. This and other drugs are supposed by some persons to be the chief means by which such illusions are caused; and perfumes, which are generally burnt in these performances, may operate in a similar manner. As such things are employed in performances of the kind called ?arb el-Mendel, before mentioned, these feats are regarded by many as effected by natural magic, notwithstanding what has been said above respecting the services of evil Jinn being procured by means of perfumes. Alchymy (El-Keemiya) is a branch of natural magic. It is studied by many Muslims of the present day, and by some of considerable talents and attainments.

The most celebrated of the magicians who have gained notoriety in Egypt during the course of the last hundred years was the sheykh A?mad ?adoomeh, who flourished somewhat more than sixty years ago.[94]

Several persons of Cairo, men of intelligence and of good education, have related to me various most marvellous stories of his performances, on the authority of eye-witnesses whom they considered veracious; but a more credible account of this magician I have found in the work of the excellent historian of Modern Egypt. This author mentions the sheykh ?adoomeh as an aged man of venerable appearance who derived his origin from the town of s.e.m.e.nnood in the Delta, and who acquired a very great and extensive celebrity for his attainments in spiritual and natural magic, and for holding converse, face to face, with Jinn, and causing them to appear to other persons, even to the blind, as men acquainted with him informed the historian. His contemporaries, says this writer, entertained various opinions respecting him; but, among them, a famous grammarian and general scholar, the sheykh ?asan El-Kafrawee, regarded him as a first-rate saint, who performed evident miracles; this learned man p.r.o.nouncing as such the effects of "his legerdemain and natural magic." His fame he describes as having increased until he was induced to try an unlucky experiment.

A Memlook chief, Yoosuf Bey, saw some magic characters written on the body of one of his female slaves, and, exasperated by jealousy, commanded her with a threat of instant death to tell him who had done this. She confessed that a woman had taken her to the sheykh ?adoomeh, and that he had written this charm to attract to her the Bey's love. Upon hearing this, he instantly sent some attendants to seize the magician, put him to death, and throw him into the Nile; which was done.[95] But the manner in which the seizure was made, as related to me by one of my friends, deserves to be mentioned. Several persons, one after another, endeavoured to lay hold upon him; but every arm that was stretched forth for this purpose was instantly paralyzed, through a spell muttered by the magician; until a man behind him thrust a gag into his mouth, and so stopped his enchantments.

Of the stories related to me of ?adoomeh's miracles, the following will serve as a specimen:--In order to give one of his friends a treat, he took him to the distance of about half an hour's walk into the desert on the north of Cairo; here they both sat down, upon the pebbly and sandy plain, and, the magician having uttered a spell, they suddenly found themselves in the midst of a garden, like one of the gardens of paradise, abounding with flowers and fruit-trees of every kind, springing up from a soil clothed with verdure brilliant as the emerald and irrigated by numerous streamlets of the clearest water. A repast of the most delicious viands and fruits and wines was spread before them by invisible hands; and they both ate to satiety, taking copious draughts of the various wines. At length, the magician's guest sank into a deep sleep; and when he awoke, he found himself again in the pebbly and sandy plain, with ?adoomeh still by his side.

The reader will probably attribute this vision to a dose of opium or some similar drug; and such I suppose to have been the means employed; for I cannot doubt the integrity of the narrator, though he would not admit such an explanation,--regarding the whole as an affair of magic effected by the operation of the Jinn.

FOOTNOTES:

[80] ?ur. xxvii. 40; and Commentary of the Jelaleyn.

[81] ?ur. ii. 96.

[82] El-?azweenee, account of the well of Babil, in his 'Ajab el-Makhloo?at.

[83] See Mishkat el-Ma?abee?, ii. 374.

[84] "Talisman," is a corruption of the Arabic word "?alsam." I write this latter word in accordance with the manner in which it is generally p.r.o.nounced by the Arabs, and the manner in which my sheykh has written it; by some it is written "?ilsem," and "?ilism." It is a term applied to mystical characters; and also to seals, images, etc., upon which such characters are engraved or inscribed. These characters are astrological, or of some other magical kind. The purposes for which ?alsams are contrived are various; one has the property of preserving from enchantment, or from a particular accident, or a variety of evils; another protects a treasure with which it is deposited; a third, by being rubbed, procures the presence and services of a Jinnee.

[85] See Mishkat el-Ma?abee?, ii. 384 ff.; and above, 33 and 38.

[86] Account of the early Arabs, in the Mir-at ez-Zeman.

[87] Some curious performances of this kind, by means of a fluid mirror of ink, have been described in my "Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians," ch. xii., and in No. 117 of the _Quarterly Review_.

[88] Mishkat el-Ma?abee?, ii. 385.

[89] Or ?arb er-Ramal, also called 'Ilm er-Raml. There are several treatises on Geomancy by Eastern writers: but I have not met with any of these; nor have I seen a geomantic tablet. I have only seen the mode of performing geomantic experiments upon paper. The invention of the science is ascribed by some to Idrees (Enoch), by some to Daniel, by some to Ham the son of Noah, and by others to Hermes Trismegistus.

[90] Mir-at ez-Zeman, 1. 1.

[91] El-Is?a?ee, in his account of the reign of El-Mo?ta?im, the son of Haroon.

[92] Mishkat el-Ma?abee?, ii. 388.

[93] El-Is?a?ee, close of his account of the reign of El-Emeen.

[94] I write in 1837.

[95] El-Jabartee's History, account of the death of Yoosuf Bey in the year of the Flight 1191; and account of the death of the Sheykh ?asan El-Kafrawee in the year 1202.

CHAPTER V.

COSMOGRAPHY.

When we call to mind how far the Arabs surpa.s.sed their great master, Aristotle, in natural and experimental philosophy, and remember that their brilliant discoveries const.i.tuted an important link between those of the ill.u.s.trious Greek and of our scarcely less ill.u.s.trious countryman, Roger Bacon, their popular system of cosmography becomes an interesting subject for our consideration.

According to the common opinion of the Arabs (an opinion sanctioned by the ?ur-an, and by a.s.sertions of their Prophet, which almost all Muslims take in their literal sense), there are Seven Heavens, one above another, and Seven Earths, one beneath another; the earth which we inhabit being the highest of the latter, and next below the lowest heaven.[96] The upper surface of each heaven and of each earth are believed to be nearly plane, and are generally supposed to be circular; and are said to be five hundred years' journey in width. This is also said to be the measure of the depth or thickness of each heaven and each earth, and of the distance between each heaven or earth and that next above or below it. Thus is explained a pa.s.sage of the ?ur-an in which it is said that G.o.d hath created seven heavens and as many earths, or stories of the earth, in accordance with traditions from the Prophet.[97]

Traditions differ respecting the fabric of the seven heavens. In the most credible account, according to a celebrated historian, the first is described as formed of emerald; the second, of white silver; the third, of large white pearls; the fourth, of ruby; the fifth, of red gold; the sixth, of yellow jacinth; and the seventh, of shining light.[98]

Some a.s.sert Paradise to be in the seventh heaven; and, indeed, I have found this to be the general opinion of my Muslim friends: but the author above quoted proceeds to describe, next above the seventh heaven, seven seas of light; then, an undefined number of veils, or separations, of different substances, seven of each kind; and then, Paradise, which consists of seven stages, one above another; the first (Dar el-Jelal, or the Mansion of Glory), of white pearls; the second (Dar es-Selam, or the Mansion of Peace), of ruby; the third (Jennet el-Ma-wa, or the Garden of Rest), of green chrysolite; the fourth (Jennet el-Khuld, or the Garden of Eternity), of green[99] coral; the fifth (Jennet en-Na'eem, or the Garden of Delight), of white silver; the sixth (Jennet el-Firdos, or the Garden of Paradise), of red gold; and the seventh (Jennet 'Adn, or the Garden of Perpetual Abode, or of Eden), of large pearls; this last overlooking all the former, and canopied by the Throne of the Compa.s.sionate ('Arsh Er-Ra?man). These several regions of Paradise are described in some traditions as forming so many degrees, or stages, ascended by steps.

Though the opinion before mentioned respecting the form of the earth which we inhabit is that generally maintained by the Arabs, there have been, and still are, many philosophical men among this people who have argued that it is a globe, because, as El-?azweenee says, an eclipse of the moon has been observed to happen at different hours of the night in eastern and western countries. Thus we find Ptolemy's measurement of the earth quoted and explained by Ibn-El-Wardee:--The circ.u.mference of the earth is 24,000 miles, or 8,000 leagues, the league being three miles; the mile, 3,000 royal cubits; the cubit, three spans; the span, twelve digits; the digit, five barley-corns placed side by side; and the width of the barley-corn, six mule's-hairs. El-Ma?reezee [ 1442]

also, among the more intelligent Arabs, describes[100] the globular form of the earth, and its arctic and antarctic regions, with their day of six months, and night of six months, and their frozen waters, etc.

For ourselves, however, it is necessary that we retain in our minds the opinions first stated, with regard to the form and dimensions of our earth; agreeing with those Muslims who allow not philosophy to trench upon revelation or sacred traditions. It is written, say they, that G.o.d hath "spread out the earth,"[101] "as a bed,"[102] and "as a carpet;"[103] and what is round or globular cannot be said to be spread out, nor compared to a bed, or a carpet. It is therefore decided to be an almost plane expanse. The continents and islands of the earth are believed by the Arabs (as they were by the Greeks in the age of Homer and Hesiod) to be surrounded by "the Circ.u.mambient Ocean," el-Ba?r el-Mo?ee?; and this ocean is described as bounded by a chain of mountains called ?af, which encircle the whole as a ring, and confine and strengthen the entire fabric. With respect to the extent of the earth, our faith must at least admit the a.s.sertion of the Prophet, that its width (as well as its depth or thickness) is equal to five hundred years' journey, allotting the s.p.a.ce of two hundred to the sea, two hundred to uninhabited desert, eighty to the country of Yajooj and Majooj (Gog and Magog), and the rest to the remaining creatures:[104]

nay, vast as these limits are, we must rather extend than contract them, unless we suppose some of the heroes of the "Thousand and One Nights" to travel by circuitous routes. Another tradition will suit us better, wherein it is said, that the inhabited portion of the earth is, with respect to the rest, as a tent in the midst of a desert.[105]

But even according to the former a.s.sertion it will be remarked that the countries now commonly known to the Arabs (from the western extremity of Africa to the eastern limits of India, and from the southern confines of Abyssinia to those of Russia), occupy a comparatively insignificant portion of this expanse. They are situated in the middle; Mekkeh, according to some,--or Jerusalem, according to others,--being exactly in the centre. Adjacent to the tract occupied by these countries are other lands and seas, partially known to the Arabs. On the north-west, with respect to the central point, lies the country of the Christians or Franks, comprising the princ.i.p.al European nations; on the north, the country of Yajooj and Majooj, before mentioned, occupying, in the maps of the Arabs, large tracts of Asia and Europe; on the north-east, central Asia; on the east, E?-?een (China); on the south-east, the sea or seas of El-Hind (India), and Ez-Zinj (Southern Ethiopia), the waves of which (or of the former of which) mingle with those of the sea of E?-?een, beyond; on the south, the country of the Zinj; on the south-west, the country of the Soodan, or Blacks; on the west is a portion of the Circ.u.mambient Ocean, which surrounds all the countries and seas already mentioned, as well as immense unknown regions adjoining the former, and innumerable islands interspersed in the latter.

These _terrae incognitae_ are the scenes of some of the greatest wonders described in the "Thousand and One Nights;" and are mostly peopled with Jinn (Genii). On the Mo?ee?, or Circ.u.mambient Ocean, is the 'Arsh Iblees, or Throne of Iblees: in a map accompanying my copy of the work of Ibn-El-Wardee, a large yellow tract is marked with this name, adjoining Southern Africa. The western portion of the Mo?ee? is often called "the Sea of Darkness" (Ba?r e?-?ulumat, or, Ba?r e?-?ulmeh). Under this name (and the synonymous appellation of el-Ba?r el-Muzlim) the Atlantic Ocean is described by the author just mentioned; though, in the introduction to his work, he says that the Sea of Darkness surrounds the Mo?ee?. The former may be considered either as the western or the more remote portion of the latter.

In the dark regions (E?-?ulumat, from which, perhaps, the above-mentioned portion of the Mo?ee? takes its name),[106] in the south-west quarter of the earth, according to the same author, is the Fountain of Life, of which El-Khi?r[107] drank, and by virtue of which he still lives and will live till the day of judgment. This mysterious person, whom the vulgar and some others regard as a prophet and identify with Ilyas (Elias, Elijah), and whom some confound with St.

George, was, according to the more approved opinion of the learned, a just man or saint, the Wezeer and counsellor of the first Dhu-l-?arneyn, who was a universal conqueror, but an equally doubtful personage, contemporary with the patriarch Ibraheem (Abraham).

El-Khi?r is said to appear frequently to Muslims in perplexity, and to be generally clad in green garments; whence, according to some, his name (which signifies "green"). The Prophet Ilyas is also related to have drunk of the Fountain of Life. During the day-time, it is said, El-Khi?r wanders upon the seas, and directs voyagers who go astray; while Ilyas perambulates the mountains or deserts, and directs persons who chance to be led astray by the Ghools: but at night they meet together, and guard the rampart of Yajooj and Majooj,[108] to prevent these people from making irruptions upon their neighbours. Both, however, are generally believed by the modern Muslims to a.s.sist pious persons in distress in various circ.u.mstances, whether travelling by land or by water.

The Mountains of ?af, which bound the Circ.u.mambient Ocean and form a circular barrier round the whole of our earth, are described by interpreters of the ?ur-an as composed of green chrysolite, like the green tint of the sky.[109] It is the colour of these mountains, said the Prophet, that imparts a greenish hue to the sky. It is said, in a tradition, that beyond these mountains are other countries; one of gold, seventy of silver, and seven of musk, all inhabited by angels, and each country ten thousand years' journey in length, and the same in breadth.[110] Some say that beyond it are creatures unknown to any but G.o.d:[111] but the general opinion is, that the mountains of ?af terminate our earth, and that no one knows what is beyond them. They are the chief abode of the Jinn, or Genii.