The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XI Part 14

[FN#61] "Kalb" here is not heart, but stomach. The big toes of the Moslem corpse are still tied in most countries, and in some a sword is placed upon the body; but I am not aware that a knife and sale (both believed to repel evil spirits) are so used in Cairo.

[FN#62] The Moslem, who may not wear unmixed silk during his lifetime, may be shrouded in it. I have noted that the "Shukkah," or piece, averages six feet in length.

[FN#63] A vulgar e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n; the "hour" referring either to birth or to his being made one of the Caliph's equerries.

[FN#64] Here the story-teller omits to say that Masrur bore witness to the Caliph's statement.

[FN#65] Arab. "Wa kuntu raihah ursil warak," the regular Fellah language.

[FN#66] Arab. "'Irk al-Hashimi." See vol. ii. 19. Lane remarks, "Whether it was so in Hashim himself (or only in his descendants), I do not find; but it is mentioned amongst the characteristics of his great-grandson, the Prophet."

[FN#67] Arab. "Bostan al-Nuzhah," whose name made the stake appropriate. See vol. ii. 81.

[FN#68] Arab. "Tamasil" = generally carved images, which, amongst Moslem, always suggest idols and idolatry.

[FN#69] The "Shubbak" here would be the "Mashrabiyah," or latticed balcony, projecting from the saloon-wall, and containing room for three or more sitters. It is Lane's "Mesrebeeyeh,"

sketched in M.E. (Introduction) and now has become familiar to Englishmen.

[FN#70] This is to show the cleverness of Abu al-Hasan, who had calculated upon the difference between Al-Rashid and Zubaydah.

Such marvels of perspicacity are frequent enough in the folk-lore of the Arabs.

[FN#71] An artful touch, showing how a tale grows by repet.i.tion.

In Abu al-Hasan's case (infra) the eyes are swollen by the swathes.

[FN#72] A Hadis attributed to the Prophet, and very useful to Moslem husbands when wives differ overmuch with them in opinion.

[FN#73] Arab. "Masarat fi-ha," which Lane renders, "And she threw money to her."

[FN#74] A saying common throughout the world, especially when the afflicted widow intends to marry again at the first opportunity.

[FN#75] Arab. "Ya Khalati" = O my mother's sister; addressed by a woman to an elderly dame.

[FN#76] i.e., That I may put her to shame.

[FN#77] Arab. "Zalabiyah."

[FN#78] Arab. "?Ala al-Kaylah," which Mr. Payne renders by "Siesta-carpet." Land reads "Kiblah" ("in the direction of the Kiblah") and notes that some Moslems turn the corpse's head towards Meccah and others the right side, including the face. So the old version reads "feet towards Mecca." But the preposition "Ala" requires the former sig.

[FN#79] Many places in this text are so faulty that translation is mere guess-work; e.g. "Basharah" can hardly be applied to ill- news.

[FN#80] i.e. of grief for his loss.

[FN#81] Arab. "Tobani" which Lane renders "two clods." I have noted that the Tob (Span. Adobe = Al-Tob) is a sunbaked brick.

Beating the bosom with such material is still common amongst Moslem mourners of the lower cla.s.s, and the hardness of the blow gives the measure of the grief.

[FN#82] i.e. of grief for her loss.

[FN#83] Arab. "Ihtirak" often used in the metaphorical sense of consuming, torturing.

[FN#84] Arab. "Halawat," lit.=a sweetmeat, a gratuity, a thank- offering.

[FN#85] Bresl. Edit., vol. vi. Pp. 182-188, Nights ccccx.x.xii.- ccccx.x.xiv.

[FN#86] "The good Caliph" and the fifth of the Orthodox, the other four being Abu Bakr, Omar, Osman and Ali; and omitting the eight intervening, Hasan the grandson of the Prophet included.

He was the 13th Caliph and 8th Ommiade A.H. 99-101 (=717-720) and after a reign of three years he was poisoned by his kinsmen of the Banu Umayyah who hated him for his piety, asceticism, and severity in making them disgorge their ill-gotten gains. Moslem historians are unanimous in his praise. Europeans find him an anach.o.r.ete couronne, a froide et respectable figure, who lacked the diplomacy of Mu'awiyah and the energy of Al-Hajjaj. His princ.i.p.al imitator was Al-Muhtadi bi'llah, who longed for a return to the rare old days of Al-Islam.

[FN#87] Omar 'Adi bin Artah; governor of Kufah and Basrah under "the good Caliph."

[FN#88] Jarir al-Khatafah, one of the most famous of the "Islami" poets, i.e. those who wrote in the first century (A.H.) before the corruption of language began. (See Terminal Essay, p.

230). Ibn Khallikan notices him at full length i. 294.

[FN#89] Arab. "Bakiyah," which may also mean eternal as opposed to "Faniyah" = temporal. Omar's answer shows all the narrow- minded fanaticism which distinguished the early Moslems: they were puritanical as any Praise-G.o.d-Barebones, and they hated "boetry and bainting" as hotly as any Hanoverian.

[FN#90] The Sat.u.r.day Review (Jan. 2, '86), which has honoured me by the normal reviling in the shape of a critique upon my two first vols., complains of the "Curious word Abhak" as "a perfectly arbitrary and unusual group of Latin letters." May I ask Aristarchus how he would render "Sal'am" (vol ii. 24), which apparently he would confine to "Arabic MSS."(!). Or would he prefer A(llah) b(less) h(im) a(nd) k(eep) "W.G.B." (whom G.o.d bless) as proposed by the editor of Ockley? But where would be the poor old "Saturnine" if obliged to do better than the authors it abuses?

[FN#91] He might have said "by more than one, including the great Labid."

[FN#92] Fi-hi either "in him" (Mohammed) or "in it" (his action).

[FN#93] Chief of the Banu Sulaym. According to Tabari, Abbas bin Mirdas (a well-known poet), being dissatisfied with the booty allotted to him by the Prophet, refused it and lampooned Mohammed, who said to Ali, "Cut off this tongue which attacketh me," i.e. "Silence him by giving what will satisfy him."

Thereupon Ali doubled the Satirist's share.

[FN#94] Arab. "Ya Bilal": Bilal ibn Rabah was the Prophet's freedman and crier: see vol. iii. 106. But bilal also signifies "moisture" or "beneficence," "benefits": it may be intended for a double entendre but I prefer the metonymy.

[FN#95] The verses of this Kasidah are too full of meaning to be easily translated: it is fine old poetry.

[FN#96] i.e. of the Koraysh tribe. For his disorderly life see Ibn Khallikan ii. 372: he died, however, a holy death, battling against the Infidels in A.H. 93 (= 711-12), some five years before Omar's reign.

[FN#97] Arab. "Bayn farsi-k wa 'l-dami" = lit. between faeces and menses, i.e., the foulest part of his mistress's person. It is not often that The Nights are "nasty"; but here is a case.

See vol. v. 162.

[FN#98] "Jamil the Poet," and lover of Buthaynah: see vol. ii.

102, Ibn Khallikan (i.331), and Al-Mas'udi vi. 381, who quotes him copiously. He died A.H. 82 (= 701), or sixteen years before Omar's reign.

[FN#99] Arab. "Safih" = the slab over the grave.

[FN#100] A contemporary and friend of Jamil and the famous lover of Azzah. See vol. ii. 102, and Al-Mas'udi, vi. 426. The word "Kuthayyir" means "the dwarf." Term. Essay, 231.

[FN#101] i.e. in the att.i.tude of prayer.

[FN#102] In Bresl. Edit. "Al-Akhwa.s.s," clerical error, noticed in Ibn Khallikan i. 526. His satires banished him to Dahlak Island in the Red Sea, and he died A.H. 179 (= 795-96).

[FN#103] Another famous poet Abu Firas Hammam or Humaym (dimin.

Form), as debauched as Jarir, who died forty days before him in A.H. 110 (= 728-29), as Basrah. Cf. Term. Essay, 231.

[FN#104] A famous Christian poet. See C. de Perceval, Journ.

Asiat. April, 1834, Ibn Khallikan iii. 136, and Term. Essay, 231.