The Thousand and One Nights Volume I Part 21

A reputed saint of this description, in Cairo, in whom persons of some education put great faith, affected to have a particular regard for me.

He several times accosted me in an abrupt manner, acquainted me with the state of my family in England, and uttered incoherent predictions respecting me, all of which communications, excepting one which he qualified with an "in shaa-llah" (or "if it be the will of G.o.d"), I must confess, proved to be true; but I must also state that he was acquainted with two of my friends who might have materially a.s.sisted him to frame these predictions, though they protested to me that they had not done so. The following extract from a journal which I kept in Cairo during my second visit to Egypt, will convey some idea of this person, who will serve as a picture of many of his fraternity.--To-day (Nov. 6th, 1834), as I was sitting in the shop of the Basha's booksellers, a reputed saint, whom I have often seen here, came and seated himself by me, and began, in a series of abrupt sentences, to relate to me various matters respecting me, past, present, and to come. He is called the sheykh 'Alee El-Leysee. He is a poor man, supported by alms; tall and thin and very dark, about thirty years of age, and wears nothing at present but a blue shirt and a girdle, and a padded red cap. "O Efendee," he said, "thou hast been very anxious for some days. There is a grain of anxiety remaining in thee yet. Do not fear. There is a letter coming to thee by sea, that will bring thee good news." He then proceeded to tell me of the state of my family, and that all were well excepting one, whom he particularized by description, and who he stated to be then suffering from an intermittent fever. [This proved to be exactly true.] "This affliction," he continued, "may be removed by prayer; and the excellences of the next night, the night of [_i. e._ preceding] the first Friday of the month of Regeb, of Regeb, the holy Regeb, are very great. I wanted to ask thee for something to-day; but I feared: I feared greatly. Thou must be invested with the wilayeh [_i. e._ be made a welee]: the welees love thee; and the Prophet loves thee. Thou must go to the sheykh Mu??afa El-Munadee, and the sheykh El-Bahaee.[266] Thou must be a welee." He then took my right hand, in the manner commonly practised in the ceremony which admits a person a darweesh, and repeated the Fate?ah (commonly p.r.o.nounced Fat'?ah);[267] after which he added, "I have admitted thee my darweesh." Having next told me of several circ.u.mstances relating to my family--matters of an unusual nature--with singular minuteness and truth, he added, "To-night, if it be the will of G.o.d, thou shalt see the Prophet in thy sleep, and El-Khi?r and the seyyid El-Bedawee. This is Regeb, and I wanted to ask of thee--but I feared--I wanted to ask of thee four piastres, to buy meat and bread and oil and radishes. Regeb! Regeb! I have great offices to do for thee to-night."--Less than a shilling for all he promised was little enough: I gave it him for the trouble he had taken; and he uttered many abrupt prayers for me.--In the following night, however, I saw in my sleep neither Mo?ammad nor El-Khi?r nor the seyyid El-Bedawee, unless, like Nebuchadnezzar, I was unable, on awaking, to remember my dreams.

Some reputed saints of the more respectable cla.s.s, to avoid public notice, wear the general dress and manners of their fellow-countrymen, and betray no love of ostentation in their acts of piety and self-denial; or live as hermits in desert places, depending solely upon Providence for their support, and are objects of pious and charitable visits from the inhabitants of near and distant places, and from casual travellers. Others distinguish themselves by the habit of a darweesh, or by other peculiarities, such as a long and loose coat (called dil?) composed of patches of cloth of various colours, long strings of beads hung upon the neck, a ragged turban, and a staff with shreds of cloth of different colours attached to the top; or obtain a reputation for miraculous powers by eating gla.s.s, fire, serpents, &c. Some of those who are insane, and of those who feign to be so, go about, even in crowded cities, in a state of perfect nudity, and are allowed to commit, with impunity, acts of brutal sensuality which the law, when appealed to, should punish with death. Such practices are forbidden by the religion and law even in the cases of saints; but common and deeply-rooted superst.i.tion prevents their punishment. During the occupation of Egypt by the French, the Commander-in-chief, Menou, applied to the Sheykhs (or 'Ulama) of the city for their opinion "respecting those persons who were accustomed to go about in the streets in a state of nudity, crying out and screaming, and arrogating to themselves the dignity of wilayeh, relied upon as saints by the generality of the people, neither performing the prayers of the Muslims nor fasting," asking whether such conduct was permitted by the religion, or contrary to the law. He was answered, "Conduct of this description is forbidden, and repugnant to our religion and law and to our traditions." The French General thanked them for this answer, and gave orders to prevent such practices in future, and to seize every one seen thus offending; if insane, to confine him in the Maristan (or hospital and lunatic asylum); and if not insane, to compel him either to relinquish his disgusting habits, or to leave the city.[268]--Of reputed saints of this kind, thus writes an enlightened poet, El-Bedree El-?ejazee:--

"Would that I had not lived to see every fool esteemed among men as a ?u?b!

Their learned men take him as a patron; nay, even as Lord, in place of the Possessor of Heaven's throne.

Forgetting G.o.d, they say, 'Such a one from all mankind can remove affliction.'

When he dies, they make for him a place of visitation, and strangers and Arabs hurry thither in crowds: Some of them kiss his tomb, and some kiss the threshold of the door, and the very dust.

Thus do the idolaters act towards their images, hoping so to obtain their favour."

These lines are quoted by El-Jabartee, in his account of a very celebrated modern saint, the seyyid 'Alee El-Bekree (events of Rabee?

eth-Thanee, 1214). A brief history of this person will not be here misplaced, as it will present a good ill.u.s.tration of the general character and actions of those insane individuals who are commonly regarded as saints.

The seyyid 'Alee El-Bekree was a mejzoob (or insane person) who was considered an eminent welee, and much trusted in: for several years he used to walk naked about the streets of Cairo, with a shaven face, bearing a long nebboot (or staff), and uttering confused language, which the people attentively listened to, and interpreted according to their desires and the exigencies of their states. He was a tall, spare man, and sometimes wore a shirt and a cotton skull-cap; but he was generally barefooted and naked. The respect with which he was treated induced a woman, who was called the sheykhah Ammooneh, to imitate his example further than decency allowed: she followed him whithersoever he went, covered at first with her izar (or large cotton veil thrown over the head and body), and muttering, like him, confused language. Entering private houses with him, she used to ascend to the ?areems, and gained the faith of the women, who presented her with money and clothes, and spread abroad that the sheykh ('Alee) had looked upon her, and affected her with religious frenzy, so that she had become a weleeyeh, or female saint. Afterwards, becoming more insane and intoxicated, she uncovered her face, and put on the clothing of a man; and thus attired she still accompanied the sheykh, and the two wandered about, followed by numbers of children and common vagabonds; some of whom also stripped off their clothes in imitation of the sheykh, and followed, dancing; their mad actions being attributed (like those of the woman) to religious frenzy, induced by his look or touch, which converted them into saints. The vulgar and young, who daily followed them, consequently increased in numbers; and some of them, in pa.s.sing through the market-streets, s.n.a.t.c.hed away goods from the shops, thus exciting great commotion wherever they went. When the sheykh sat down in any place, the crowd stopped, and the people pressed to see him and his mad companions. On these occasions the woman used to mount upon the ma??abah of a shop, or ascend a hillock, and utter disgusting language, sometimes in Arabic, and sometimes in Turkish, while many persons among her audience would kiss her hands to derive a blessing. After having persevered for some time in this course, none preventing them, the party entered one day the lane leading from the princ.i.p.al street of the city to the house of the ?a?ee, and were seized by a Turkish officer there residing, named Ja?far Kashif, who, having brought them into his house, gave the sheykh some food, and drove out the spectators, retaining the woman and the mejzoobs, whom he placed in confinement: he then liberated the sheykh 'Alee, brought out the woman and the mejzoobs and beat them, sent the woman to the Maristan, and there confined her, and set at large the rest, after they had prayed for mercy, and clothed themselves, and recovered from their intoxication. The woman remained a while confined in the Maristan, and, when liberated, lived alone as a sheykhah, believed in by men and women, and honoured as a saint with visits and festivals.

The seyyid 'Alee, after he had thus been deprived of his companions and imitators, was constrained to lead a different kind of life. He had a cunning brother, who, to turn the folly of this saint to a good account, and fill his own purse (seeing how great faith the people placed in him, as the Egyptians are p.r.o.ne to do in such a case), confined him in his house, and clothed him, a.s.serting that he had his permission to do so, and that he had been invested with the dignity of ?u?b. Thus he contrived to attract crowds of persons, men and women, to visit him. He forbade him to shave his beard, which consequently grew to its full size; and his body became fat and stout from abundance of food and rest; for, while he went about naked, he was, as before mentioned, of a lean figure. During that period he used generally to pa.s.s the night wandering, without food, through the streets, in winter and summer.

Having now servants to wait upon him, whether sleeping or waking, he pa.s.sed his time in idleness, uttering confused and incoherent words, and sometimes laughing and sometimes scolding; and in the course of his idle loquacity he could not but let fall some words applicable to the affairs of some of his listening visiters, who attributed such expressions to his supernatural knowledge of the thoughts of their hearts, and interpreted them as warnings or prophecies. Men and women, and particularly the wives of the grandees, flocked to him with presents and votive offerings, which enriched the coffers of his brother; and the honours which he received ceased not with his death. His funeral was attended by mult.i.tudes from every quarter. His brother buried him in the mosque of Esh-Sharabee, in the quarter of the Ezbekeeyeh, made for him a ma??oorah (or railed enclosure) and an oblong monument over the grave, and frequently repaired thither with readers of the ?ur-an, munshids[269] to sing odes in his honour, flag-bearers, and other persons, who wailed and screamed, rubbed their faces against the bars of the window before his grave, and caught the air of the place in their hands to thrust it into their bosoms and pockets. Men and women came crowding together to visit his tomb, bringing votive offerings and wax candles, and eatables of various kinds to distribute for his sake to the poor.[270]--The oblong monument over his grave, resembling a large chest, was covered, when I was in Cairo, with a black stuff ornamented by a line of words from the ?ur-an, in white characters, surrounding it.

A servant who accompanied me during my rides and walks used often to stop as we pa.s.sed this tomb, and touch the wooden bars of the window above mentioned with his right hand, which he then kissed to obtain a blessing.

In most cases greater honour is paid to a reputed saint after his death than he receives in his life. A small, square, whitewashed building, crowned with a dome, is generally erected as his tomb, surrounding an oblong monument of stone, brick, or wood, which is immediately over the sepulchral vault. At least one such building forms a conspicuous object close by, or within, almost every Arab village; for the different villages, and different quarters of every town and city, have their respective patron saints, whose tombs are frequently visited, and are the scenes of periodical festivals, generally celebrated once in every year. The tombs of many very eminent saints are mosques; and some of these are large and handsome edifices, the monument being under a large and lofty dome, and surrounded by an enclosure of wooden railings, or of elegantly-worked bronze. In these buildings also, and in some others, the monument is covered with silk or cotton stuff ornamented with words from the ?ur-an, which form a band around it. Many buildings of the more simple kind erected in honour of saints, and some of the larger description, are mere cenotaphs, or cover only some relic of the person to whom they are dedicated. The tombs and cenotaphs or shrines of saints are visited by numerous persons, and on frequent occasions; most commonly on a particular day of the week. The object of the visiter, in general, is to perform some meritorious act, such as taking bread, or other food, or money, for the poor, or distributing water to the thirsty, on account of the saint, to increase his rewards in heaven, and at the same time to draw down a blessing on himself; or to perform a sacrifice of a sheep, goat, calf, or other animal, which he has vowed to offer, if blessed with some specific object of desire, or to obtain general blessings; or to implore the saint's intercession in some case of need. The flesh of the devoted animal is given to the poor. The visiters also often take with them palm-branches, or sprigs of myrtle, or roses or other flowers, to lay upon the monument, as they do when they visit the tombs of their relations. The visiter walks round the monument, or its enclosure, from left to right, or with his left side towards it (as the pilgrims do round the Ka?beh), sometimes pausing to touch its four angles or corners with his right hand, which he then kisses; and recites the opening chapter of the ?ur-an (the Fat'?ah) standing before one or each of its four sides. Some visiters repeat also the chapter of Ya-Seen (the 36th), or employ a person to recite this, or even the whole of the ?ur-an, for hire.

The reciter afterwards declares that he transfers the merit of this work to the soul of the deceased saint. Any private pet.i.tion the visiter offers up on his own account, imploring a favourable answer for the sake of the saint, or through his intercession; holding his hands before his face like an open book, and then drawing them down his face. Many a visiter, on entering the tomb, kisses the threshold, or touches it with his right hand, which he then kisses; and, on pa.s.sing by it, persons often touch the window, and kiss the hand thus honoured.

The great periodical or annual festivals are observed with additional ceremonies, and by crowds of visiters. These are called Moolids (more properly Molids); and are held on the anniversary of the birth of the saint, or in commemoration of that event. Persons are then hired to recite the ?ur-an in and near the tomb, during the day; and others, chiefly darweeshes, employ themselves during the night in performing zikrs, which consist in repeating the name of G.o.d, or the profession of his unity, &c., in chorus, accompanying the words by certain motions of the head, hands, or whole body; munshids, at intervals, singing religious odes or love songs during these performances, to the accompaniment of a nay, which is a kind of flute, or the arghool, which is a double reed-pipe. These moolids are scenes of rejoicing and of traffic, which men and boys and girls attend, to eat sweatmeats, and drink coffee and sherbets, or to amuse themselves with swinging, or turning on a whirligig, or witnessing the feats of conjurers, or the performances of dancers; and to which tradesmen repair to sell or barter their goods. The visiters to the great moolids of the seyyid A?mad El-Bedawee, at ?an?a, in the Delta of Egypt, which are great fairs as well as religious festivals, are almost as numerous as the pilgrims at Mekkeh. During a moolid, the inhabitants of the houses in the neighbourhood of the tomb hang lamps before their houses, and spend a great part of the night listening to the story-tellers at the coffee-shops, or attending the zikrs.

These latter performances, though so common among the Arabs, are inconsistent with the spirit of the Mohammadan religion, and especially with respect to music, which was not employed in religious ceremonies until after the second century of the Flight. The Imam Aboo-Bekr E?-?oosee, being asked whether it were lawful or not to be present with people who a.s.sembled in a certain place, and read a portion of the ?ur-an; and, after a munshid had recited some poetry, would dance, and become excited, and play upon tambourines and pipes,--answered, that such practices were vain, ignorant, and erroneous; not ordained by the ?ur-an or the Traditions of the Prophet, but invented by those Israelites who worshipped the Golden Calf; that the Prophet and his companions used to sit so quietly that a bird might alight upon the head of any one of them and not be disturbed; that it was inc.u.mbent on the Sultan and his vicegerents to prevent such persons from entering the mosques and other places for these purposes; and that no one who believed in G.o.d and the Last Day should be present with them, or a.s.sist them in their vain performances: such, he a.s.serted, was the opinion of the Imams of the Muslims.[271] Some eminent doctors, however, have contended for the lawfulness of these practices.[272]

Of the various orders of darweeshes, to which so many of the reputed saints belong, it is unnecessary here to say more than that they differ chiefly in unimportant regulations and rites, such as particular forms of prayer, and modes of zikr; that some distinguish themselves by peculiar dresses; and that a few pursue a wandering life, and subsist on alms.

NOTE 64. The reason of this strange proceeding is not stated in the Cairo edition, but it is in the two other editions which I have before me.

NOTE 65. Arab etiquette requires that a person should sit upon his knees and feet in the presence of one of much higher rank, or of one to whom he would pay especial honour. He should also, in these cases, cover his hands with his sleeves.

NOTE 66. Kunafeh is a kind of pastry resembling vermicelli, made of wheat-flour. It is moistened with clarified b.u.t.ter--then baked, and sweetened with honey or sugar.

NOTE 67. Chess is played somewhat differently in different parts of the East. The pieces are generally of very simple forms, as the Muslim is forbidden by his religion to make an image of anything that has life.

NOTE 68. In my original, and in the Breslau edition, the ape is said to have been the son of the King of the Ebony Islands; but this is a mistake; for the latter, as before stated, was the father of the lady who was carried off by Jarjarees.

NOTE 69. The term "leewan" has been explained in No. 12 of the notes to this chapter.

NOTE 70. This was, and I believe still is, a common battle-cry of the Arabs, and more commonly used on the occasion of a victory.

NOTE 71. "Dar es-Selam," "the Abode of Peace," or "of Safety," is a name often given to Baghdad, as it is also to one of the seven stories or stages of Paradise.

NOTE 72.--_The Mountain of Loadstone._ Several Arab writers describe this mountain of loadstone. El ?azweenee, in his account of minerals, says that the mine of loadstone is on the sh.o.r.e of the Indian Ocean, and that if the ships which navigate this sea approach the said mine, and contain anything of iron, it flies from them like a bird, and adheres to the mountain; for which reason, it is the general custom to make use of no iron in the construction of the vessels employed in this navigation.[273] I think that I have met with a similar story in some Latin author.

NOTE 73. For an explanation of this term, see what I have said on the subject of prayer in the first of the notes to the Introduction.

NOTE 74. "Kha?eeb" signifies "endowed with plenty."

NOTE 75. The remainder of the story of the Third Royal Mendicant is almost wholly omitted in the Cairo edition. I translate it chiefly from the Calcutta edition of the first two hundred nights.

NOTE 76.--_On Dreams._ That Dreams are regarded by the Muslims as being often true warnings or indications of future events I have mentioned in a former note. This belief, sanctioned by the Prophet, 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, dreamt, during the plague above mentioned, 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 foreshewn, 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, and to see if I be dead, and, when dead, that I be 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 every moment 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.

NOTE 77. "'Ajeeb" signifies "a wonder," or "anything strange or admirable."

NOTE 78. Blue is the colour of mourning, as before mentioned, in No. 52 of the notes to the second chapter.

NOTE 79. Smearing the face and slapping the cheeks are common practices of Arab women, especially of the lower orders, on following to the grave the corpse of a near relation or a husband.

NOTE 80.--_On the_ Rukh'. This fabulous bird is described by many Arab writers, some of whom a.s.sert that it can carry a rhinoceros, while others ascribe to it powers still more extraordinary. I shall have occasion to speak of it again in my notes to this work.

NOTE 81. This is explained by No. 30 of the notes to the Introduction.

NOTE 82. I here return to the Cairo edition.

NOTE 83. Some of the incidents described in this story, as the shipwrecks caused by the image, and the opening of the forbidden closet, &c., appear to be taken from the romance of Seyf Zu-l-Yezen, of which I possess a copy, purchased during my second visit to Egypt. This romance, which has become extremely scarce, is filled with stories of genii and enchantments of the most extravagant kind. Some of the public story-tellers in Cairo used, a few years since, to amuse their audiences by recitations from it. I was not able to discover the period at which it was composed; but it is said to have been written long before the Tales of a Thousand and One Nights. I saw once a portion of a copy of which it appeared, from the hand-writing and the paper, to be three or four centuries old.

NOTE 84. So in the Calcutta edition of the first two hundred nights, and in the edition of Breslau.

NOTE 85. Those decrees which are written with "the Pen" on the "Preserved Tablet" are believed to be unchangeable. "The Pen" is also the t.i.tle of one of the chapters of the ?ur-an, the 68th.

NOTE 86. In all the copies of the original which I have by me, El-Ba?rah is said to have been the place to which the lady designed to voyage; but this is inconsistent with the sequel of the story.

NOTE 87. In the old version, two strange errors occur in the pa.s.sage corresponding with this: two words in the original, "nar" and "doon,"

having been mistaken for a proper name; and the word "jebbar," which, applied to G.o.d, signifies "almighty," or rather the "Compeller of his creatures to do whatsoever He willeth," being taken in the sense of "giant," which it bears in many other cases.

NOTE 88.--_On Martyrs._ The Mohammadan law distinguishes several different descriptions of martyrs. This honourable t.i.tle is given to the soldier who dies in fighting for the faith, or on his way to do so, or who dies almost immediately after his having been wounded when so engaged; to a person who innocently meets with his death from the hand of another; to a victim of the plague, who does not flee from the disease, or of dysentery; to a person who is drowned; and to one who is killed by the falling of a wall or any building. It is said that the souls of martyrs, after quitting their bodies, reside, until the day of resurrection, in the crops of green birds, which eat of the fruits, and drink of the waters, of Paradise. Such we are to consider as the first and lowest state of felicity to which the young prince in this tale was introduced as the reward of his virtue.

NOTE 89. The share inherited, according to the law, by the wife, or by the wives conjointly when there are more than one, is one-eighth of what remains of the property of the deceased after the discharge of his debts and legacies, if he have left issue; and one-fourth, if he have left no issue.

NOTE 90. The Arabs, fond of hyperbole, often thus describe a lofty building.

NOTE 91.--_On the Magnificence of Arab Palaces, &c._ After remarking upon the preceding sentence as presenting an instance of Oriental hyperbole, it may be necessary to inform the reader that he needs not regard this in the same light. The magnificence of the palaces of Baghdad in the times of the Khaleefehs almost exceeds belief.

In the beginning of the year of the Flight 305 (June, A.D. 917), two amba.s.sadors from the Greek Emperor (Constantine IX., Porphyrogenitus) arrived in Baghdad on a mission to the Khaleefeh El-Mu?tedir, bringing an abundance of costly presents; and the scenes which they witnessed are thus described; apparently, however, not without some exaggeration. They were first received by the Wezeer, who, at the audience which he granted to them in his garden-palace, displayed on this occasion a degree of magnificence that had never before been manifested by any of his rank; pages, memlooks, and soldiers, crowded the avenues and courts of his mansion, the apartments of which were hung with tapestry of the value of thirty thousand deenars; and the Wezeer himself was surrounded by generals and other officers on his right and left and behind his seat, when the two amba.s.sadors approached him, dazzled by the splendour that surrounded them, to beg for an interview with the Khaleefeh.

El-Mu?tedir, having appointed a day on which he would receive them, ordered that the courts and pa.s.sages and avenues of his palace should be filled with armed men, and that all the apartments should be furnished with the utmost magnificence. A hundred and sixty thousand armed soldiers were arranged in ranks in the approach to the palace; next to these were the pages of the closets, and chief eunuchs, clad in silk and with belts set with jewels, in number seven thousand; four thousand white, and three thousand black: there were also seven hundred chamberlains; and beautifully ornamented boats of various kinds were seen floating upon the Tigris, hard by. The two amba.s.sadors pa.s.sed first by the palace of the chief chamberlain, and, astonished at the splendid ornaments and pages and arms which they there beheld, imagined that this was the palace of the Khaleefeh; but what they had seen here was eclipsed by what they beheld in the latter, where they were amazed by the sight of thirty-eight thousand pieces of tapestry of gold-embroidered silk brocade, and twenty-two thousand magnificent carpets. Here also were two menageries of beasts by nature wild, but tamed by art, and eating from the hands of men: among them were a hundred lions; each lion with its keeper. They then entered the Palace of the Tree, enclosing a pond from which rose the Tree: this had eighteen branches, with leaves of various colours (being artificial), and with birds of gold and silver (or gilt and silvered) of every variety of kind and size, perched upon its branches, so constructed that each of them sang. Thence they pa.s.sed into the garden, in which were furniture and utensils not to be enumerated: in the pa.s.sages leading to it were suspended ten thousand gilt coats of mail. Being at length conducted before El-Mu?tedir, they found him seated on a couch of ebony inlaid with gold and silver, to the right of which were hung nine necklaces of jewels, and the like to the left, the jewels of which outshone the light of day. The two amba.s.sadors paused at the distance of about a hundred cubits from the Khaleefeh, with the interpreter. Having left the presence, they were conducted through the palace, and were shewn splendidly-caparisoned elephants, a giraffe, lynxes, and other beasts. They were then clad with robes of honour, and to each of them was brought fifty thousand dirhems, together with dresses and other presents. It is added, that the amba.s.sadors approached the palace through a street called "the Street of the Menarehs," in which were a thousand menarehs, or menarets. It was at the hour of noon; and as they pa.s.sed, the mueddins from all these menarehs chanted the call to prayer at the same time, so that the earth almost quaked at the sound, and the amba.s.sadors were struck with fear.[274]

The Orientals well understand how to give the most striking effect to the jewels which they display on their dress, &c., on occasions of state. Sir John Malcolm, describing his reception by the late King of Persia, says, "His dress baffled all description. The ground of his robes was white; but he was so covered with jewels of an extraordinary size, and their splendour, from his being seated where the rays of the sun played upon them, was so dazzling, that it was impossible to distinguish the minute parts which combined to give such amazing brilliancy to his whole figure."[275]