A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 (of 17)

I swear by Allah that trees creep onward, or that Himyar beareth somewhat which he draweth along!

She then saw a man mending his sandal. But Jadis disbelieved; Cassandra was slain and, when her eyes were cut out, the vessels were found full of Ithmid. Hence Al-Mutanabbi sang:

"Sharper-sighted than Zarká of Jau" (Yamámah).

See C. de Perceval i. 101; Arab. Prov. i. 192; and Chenery (p. 381. The Assemblies of Al-Hariri; London, Williams and Norgate, 1867). I have made many enquiries into the true nature of Ithmid and failed to learn anything: on the Upper Nile the word is=Kohl.

197

The general colour of chessmen in the east, where the game is played on a cloth more often than a board.

198

Arab. "Al-fil," the elephant=the French fol or fou and our bishop. I have derived "elephant" from Píl (old Persian, Sansk. Pilu) and Arab. Fil, with the article Al-Fil, whence the Greek ἐλέφας the suffix – as being devoted to barbarous words as Obod-as (Al-Ubayd), Aretas (Al-Háris), etc. Mr. Isaac Taylor (The Alphabet i. 169), preserves the old absurdity of "eleph-ant or ox-like (!) beast of Africa." Prof. Sayce finds the word al-ab (two distinct characters) in line 3, above the figure of an (Indian) elephant, on the black obelisk of Nimrod Mound, and suggests an Assyrian derivation.

199

Arab. "Shaukat" which may also mean the "pride" or "mainstay" (of the army).

200

Lit. "smote him on the tendons of his neck." This is the famous shoulder-cut (Tawashshuh) which, with the leg-cut (Kalam), formed, and still forms, the staple of Eastern attack with the sword.

201

Arab. "Dirás." Easterns do not thresh with flails. The material is strewed over a round and smoothed floor of dried mud in the open air and threshed by different contrivances. In Egypt the favourite is a chair-like machine called "Norag," running on iron plates and drawn by bulls or cows over the corn. Generally, however, Moslems prefer the old classical Τρίβολον, the Tribulum of Virgil and Varro, a slipper-shaped sled of wood garnished on the sole with large-headed iron nails, or sharp fragments of flint or basalt. Thus is made the "Tibn" or straw, the universal hay of the East, which our machines cannot imitate.

202

These numbers appear to be grossly exaggerated, but they were possible in the days of sword and armour: at the battle of Saffayn the Caliph Ali is said to have cut down five hundred and twenty-three men in a single night.

203

Arab. "Biká'a": hence the "Buka'ah" or Cœlesyria.

204

Richardson in his excellent dictionary (note 103) which modern priggism finds "unscientific," wonderfully derives this word from Arab. "Khattáf," a snatcher (i. e. of women), a ravisher. It is an evident corruption of "captivus" through Italian and French.

205

These periodical and fair-like visitations to convents are still customary; especially amongst the Christians of Damascus.

206

Camphor being then unknown.

207

The "wrecker" is known all over the world; and not only barbarians hold that ships driven ashore become the property of the shore.

208

Arab. "Jokh": it is not a dictionary word, but the only term in popular use for European broadcloth.

209

The second person plural is used because the writer would involve the subjects of his correspondent in the matter.

210

This part of the phrase, which may seem unnecessary to the European, is perfectly intelligible to all Orientalists. You may read many an Eastern letter and not understand it. Compare Boccaccio iv. 1.

211

i. e., he was greatly agitated.

212

In text "Li-ajal al-Taudí'a," for the purpose of farewelling, a low Egyptianism; emphatically a "Kalám wáti." (Pilgrimage iii. 330.)

213

In the Mac. Edit. Sharrkan speaks, a clerical error.

214

The Farsakh (Germ. Stunde) a measure of time rather than distance, is an hour's travel or its equivalent, a league, a meile=three English stat. miles. The word is still used in Persia its true home, but not elsewhere. It is very old, having been determined as a lineal measure of distance by Herodotus (ii. 5 and 6; v. 53), who computes it at 30 furlongs (=furrow-lengths, 8 to the stat. mile). Strabo (xi.) makes it range from 40 to 60 stades (each=606 feet 9 inches); and even now it varies between 1500 to 6,000 yards. Captain Francklin (Tour to Persia) estimates it=about four miles. (Pilgrimage ii. 113.)

215

Arab. "Ashhab." Names of colours are few amongst semi-civilised peoples, but in Arabia there is a distinct word for every shade of horseflesh.

216

She had already said to him "Thou art beaten in everything!"

217

Showing that she was still a Christian.

218

This is not Badawi sentiment: the honoratioren amongst wild people would scorn such foul play; but amongst the settled Arabs honour between men and women is unknown; and such "hocussing" would be held quite fair.

219

The table of wine, in our day, is mostly a japanned tray with glasses and bottles, saucers of pickles and fruits and, perhaps, a bunch of flowers and aromatic herbs. During the Caliphate the "wine-service" was on a larger scale.

220

Here the "Bhang" (almost a generic term applied to hellebore, etc.) may be hyoscyamus or henbane. Yet there are varieties of Cannabis, such as the Dakha of South Africa, capable of most violent effect. I found the use of the drug well known to the negroes of the Southern United States and of the Brazil, although few of their owners had ever heard of it.

221

Amongst Moslems this is a reference to Adam who first "sinned against himself," and who therefore is called "Safíyu'llah," the Pure of Allah (Pilgrimage iii. 333).

222

Meaning, an angry, violent man.

223

Arab. "Inshád," which may mean reciting the verse of another or improvising one's own. In Modern Egypt "Munshid" is the singer or reciter of poetry at Zikrs (Lane M. E. chapt. xxiv.). Here the verses are quite bad enough to be improvised by the hapless Princess.

224

The negro skin assumes this dust-colour in cold, fear, concupiscence and other mental emotions.

225

He compares her glance with the blade of a Yamani sword, a lieu commun of Eastern poetry. The weapons are famous in The Nights; but the best sword-cutlery came from Persia as the porcelain from China to Sana'á. Here, however, is especial allusion as to the sword "Samsam" or "Samsamah." It belonged to the Himyarite Tobba, Amru bin Ma'ad Kurb, and came into the hands of Harun al-Rashid. When the Emperor of the Greeks sent a present of superior sword-blades to him by way of a brave, the Caliph, in the presence of the Envoys, took "Samsam" in hand and cut the others in twain as if they were cabbages without the least prejudice to the edge of "Samsam."

226

This touch of pathos is truly Arab. So in the "Romance of Dalhamah" (Lane, M. E. xxiii.) the infant Gundubah sucks the breast of its dead mother and the King exclaims, "If she had committed this crime she would not be affording the child her milk after she was dead."

227

Arab. Sadda'l-Aktár, a term picturesque enough to be preserved in English. "Sadd," I have said, is a wall or dyke, the term applied to the great dam of water-plants which obstructs the navigation of the Upper Nile, the lilies and other growths floating with the current from the (Victoria) Nyanza Lake. I may note that we need no longer derive from India the lotus-lily so extensively used by the Ancient Egyptians and so neglected by the moderns that it has well nigh disappeared. All the Central African basins abound in the Nymphæa and thence it found its way down the Nile-Valley.

228

Arab. "Al-Marhúmah": equivalent to our "late lamented."

229

Vulgarly pronounced "Mahmal," and by Egyptians and Turks "Mehmel." Lane (M. E. xxiv.) has figured this queenly litter and I have sketched and described it in my Pilgrimage (iii. 12).

230

For such fits of religious enthusiasm see my Pilgrimage (iii. 254).

231

"Irák" (Mesopotamia) means "a level country beside the banks of a river."

232

"Al-Kuds," or "Bayt al-Mukaddas," is still the popular name of Jerusalem, from the Heb. Yerushalaim ha-Kadushah (legend on shekel of Simon Maccabeus).

233

"Follow the religion of Abraham" says the Koran (chapt. iii. 89). Abraham, titled "Khalílu'llah," ranks next in dignity to Mohammed, preceding Isa; I need hardly say that his tomb is not in Jerusalem nor is the tomb itself at Hebron ever visited. Here Moslems (soi disant) are allowed by the jealousies of Europe to close and conceal a place which belongs to the world, especially to Jews and Christians. The tombs, if they exist, lie in a vault or cave under the Mosque.

234

Abá, or Abá'ah, vulg. Abáyah, is a cloak of hair, goat's or camel's; too well known to require description.

235

Arab. "Al-Wakkád;" the man who lights and keeps up the bath-fires.

236

Arab. "Má al-Khaláf"(or "Khiláf") a sickly perfume but much prized, made from the flowers of the Salix Ægyptiaca.

237

Used by way of soap; like glasswort and other plants.

238

i. e., "Thou art only just recovered."

239

To "Nakh" is to gurgle "Ikh! Ikh!" till the camel kneels. Hence the space called "Barr al-Manákhah" in Al-Medinah (Pilgrimage i. 222, ii. 91). There is a regular camel-vocabulary amongst the Arabs, made up like our "Gee" (go ye!), etc. of significant words worn down.

240

Arab. "Laza," the Second Hell provided for Jews.

241

The word has been explained (vol. i. 112). It is trivial, not occurring in the Koran which uses "Arabs of the Desert;" "Arabs who dwell in tents," etc. (chapt. ix. and xxxiii.). "A'arábi" is the classical word and the origin of "Arab" is disputed. According to Pocock (Notæ Spec. Hist. Arab.): "Diverse are the opinions concerning the denomination of the Arabs; but the most certain of all is that which draws it from Arabah, which is part of the region of Tehamah, (belonging to Al-Medinah, Pilgrimage ii. 118), which their father Ismail afterwards inhabited." Tehamah (tierra caliente) is the maritime region of Al-Hijaz, the Moslem's Holy Land; and its "Arabah," a very small tract which named a very large tract, must not be confounded, as some have done, with the Wady Arabah, the ancient outlet of the Dead Sea. The derivation of "Arab" from "Ya'arab" a fancied son of Joktan is mythological. In Heb. Arabia may be called "Eretz Ereb" (or "Arab")=land of the West; but in Arabic "Gharb" (not Ereb) is the Occident and the Arab dates long before the Hebrew.

242

"When thine enemy extends his hand to thee, cut it off if thou can, or kiss it," wisely said Caliph al-Mansúr.

243

The Tartur was a peculiar turban worn by the Northern Arabs and shown in old prints. In modern Egypt the term is applied to the tall sugar-loaf caps of felt affected mostly by regular Dervishes. Burckhardt (Proverbs 194 and 398) makes it the high cap of felt or fur proper to the irregular cavalry called Dely or Delaty. In Dar For (Darfour) "Tartur" is a conical cap adorned with beads and cowries worn by the Manghwah or buffoon who corresponds with the Egyptian "Khalbús" or "Maskharah" and the Turkish "Sutari." For an illustration see Plate iv. fig. 10 of Voyage au Darfour par Mohammed El-Tounsy (The Tunisian), Paris, Duprat, 1845.

244

The term is picturesque and true; we say "gnaw" which is not so good.

245

Here, meaning an Elder, a Chief, etc.; the word has been almost naturalised in English. I have noted that Abraham was the first "Shaykh."

246

This mention of weighing suggests the dust of Dean Swift and the money of the Gold Coast. It was done, I have said, because the gold coin, besides being "sweated" was soft and was soon worn down.

247

Fem. of Nájí (a deliverer, a saviour)=Salvadora.

248

This, I have noted, is according to Koranic command (chapt. iv. 88). "When you are saluted with a salutation, salute the person with a better salutation." The longer answer to "Peace be with (or upon) thee!" is still universally the custom. The "Salám" is so differently pronounced by every Eastern nation that the observant traveller will easily make of it a Shibboleth.

249

The Badawi, who was fool as well as rogue, begins to fear that he has kidnapped a girl of family.

250

These examinations being very indecent are usually done in strictest privacy. The great point is to make sure of virginity.

251

This is according to strict Moslem law: the purchaser may not look at the girl's nakedness till she is his, and he ought to manage matters through an old woman.

252

Lit. wrath; affliction which chokes; in Hindustani it means simply anger.

253

i. e., Heaven forbid I be touched by a strange man.

254

Used for fuel and other purposes, such as making "Joss stick."

255

Arab. "Yaftah' Allah" the offer being insufficient. The rascal is greedy as a Badawi and moreover he is a liar, which the Badawi is not.

256

The third of the four great Moslem schools of Theology, taking its name from the Imam al-Sháfi'í (Mohammed ibn Idris) who died in Egypt A.H. 204, and lies buried near Cairo (Sale's Prel. Disc. sect. viii.).

257

The Moslem form of Cabbala, or transcendental philosophy of the Hebrews.

258

Arab. "Bakh" the word used by the Apostle to Ali his son-in-law. It is the Latin "Euge."

259

Readers, who read for amusement, will do well to "skip" the fadaises of this highly educated young woman.

260

There are three Persian Kings of this name (Artaxerxes) which means "Flour and milk," or "high lion." The text alludes to Ardeshir Babegan, so called because he married the daughter of Babak the shepherd, founder of the Sassanides in A.D. 202. See D'Herbelot, and the Dabistan.

261

Alluding to the proverb, "Folk follow their King's faith," "Cujus regio ejus religio," etc.

262

Second Abbaside, A.H. 136-158 (=754-775).

263

The celebrated companion of Mohammed who succeeded Abu Bakr in the Caliphate (A. H. 13-23=634-644). The Sunnis know him as Al-Adil, the Just; and the Shiahs detest him for his usurpation, his austerity and harshness. It is said that he laughed once, and wept once. The laugh was caused by recollecting how he ate his dough-gods (the idols of the Hanifah tribe) in The Ignorance. The tears were drawn by remembering how he buried alive his baby daughter who, while the grave was being dug, patted away the dust from his hair and beard. Omar was doubtless a great man, but he is one of the most ungenial figures in Moslem history which does not abound in genialities. To me he suggests a Puritan, a Covenanter of the sourest and narrowest type; and I cannot wonder that the Persians abhor him, and abuse him on all occasions.

264

The austere Caliph Omar whose scourge was more feared than the sword was the author of the celebrated saying "Consult them (feminines) and do clear contrary-wise." The dictum is illustrated by a dozen Joe Millers known throughout the East.

265

Our "honour amongst thieves."

266

The sixth successor of Mohammed and founder of the Banu Umayyah or Ommiades, called the "sons of the little mother" from their eponymus (A.H. 41-60=661-680). For his Badawi wife Maysun, and her abuse of her husband, see Pilgrimage iii. 262.

267

Shaykh of the noble tribe, or rather nation, Banu Tamím and a notable of the day, surnamed, no one knows why, "Sire of the Sea."

268

This is essential for cleanliness in hot lands: however much the bath may be used, the body-pile and lower hair, if submitted to a microscope, will show more or less sordes adherent. The axilla-hair is plucked because if shaved the growing pile causes itching and the depilatories are held deleterious. At first vellication is painful but the skin becomes used to it. The pecten is shaved either without or after using depilatories, of which more presently. The body-pile is removed by "Takhfíf"; the Libán Shámi (Syrian incense), a fir-gum imported from Scio, is melted and allowed to cool in the form of a pledget. This is passed over the face and all the down adhering to it is pulled up by the roots (Burckhardt No. 420). Not a few Anglo-Indians have adopted these precautions.

269

This Caliph was a tall, fair, handsome man of awe-inspiring aspect. Omar used to look at him and say, "This is the Cæsar of the Arabs," while his wife called him a "fatted ass."

270

The saying is attributed to Abraham when "exercised" by the unkindly temper of Sarah; "woman is made hard and crooked like a rib;" and the modern addition is, "whoso would straighten her, breaketh her."

271

i. e., "When ready and in erection."

272

"And do first (before going in to your wives) some act which may be profitable unto your souls" – or, for your soul's good. (Koran, chapt. ii. 223.). Hence Ahnaf makes this prayer.

273

It was popularly said that "Truth-speaking left Omar without a friend." Entitled "The Just" he was murdered by Abu Lúlúah, alias Fírúz, a (Magian?) slave of Al-Maghírah for denying him justice.

274

Governor of Bassorah under the first four Caliphs. See D'Herbelot s. v. "Aschári."

275

Ziyad bin Abi Sufyan, illegitimate brother of the Caliph Mu'awiyah afterwards governor of Bassorah, Cufa and Al-Hijaz.

276

The seditions in Kufah were mainly caused by the wilful nepotism of Caliph Othman bin Asákir which at last brought about his death. His main quality seems to have been personal beauty: "never was seen man or woman of fairer face than he and he was the most comely of men: " he was especially famed for beautiful teeth which in old age he bound about with gold wire. He is described as of middling stature, large-limbed, broad shouldered, fleshy of thigh and long in the fore-arm which was hairy. His face inclined to yellow and was pock-marked; his beard was full and his curly hair, which he dyed yellow, fell below his ears. He is called "writer of the Koran" from his edition of the MS., and "Lord of the two Lights" because he married two of the Prophet's daughters, Rukayyah and Umm Kulthum; and, according to the Shi'ahs who call him Othman-i-Lang or "limping Othman," he vilely maltreated them. They justify his death as the act of an Ijmá' al-Muslimin, the general consensus of Moslems which ratifies "Lynch law." Altogether Othman is a mean figure in history.

277

"Nár" (fire) is a word to be used delicately from its connection with Gehenna. You say, e. g. "bring me a light, a coal (bassah)" etc.; but if you say "bring me fire!" the enemy will probably remark "He wanteth fire even before his time!" The slang expression would be "bring the sweet: " (Pilgrimage i. 121.)

278

Omar is described as a man of fair complexion, and very ruddy, but he waxed tawny with age, when he also became bald and grey. He had little hair on the cheeks but a long mustachio with reddish ends. In stature he overtopped the people and was stout as he was tall. A popular saying of Mohammed's is, "All (very) long men are fools save Omar, and all (very) short men are knaves save Ali." The Persians, who abhor Omar, compare every lengthy, ungainly, longsome thing with him; they will say, "This road never ends, like the entrails of Omar." We know little about Ali's appearance except that he was very short and stout, broad and full-bellied with a tawny complexion and exceedingly hairy, his long beard, white as cotton filling all the space between his shoulders. He was a "pocket-Hercules," and incredible tales, like that about the gates of Khaybar, are told of his strength. Lastly, he was the only Caliph who bequeathed anything to literature: his "Cantiloquium" is famous and he has left more than one mystical and prophetic work. See Ockley for his "Sentences" and D'Herbelot s. v. "Ali" and "Gebr." Ali is a noble figure in Moslem history.

279

The emancipation from the consequences of his sins; or it may mean a holy death.

280

Battle fought near Al-Medinah A.D. 625. The word is derived from "Ahad" (one). I have described the site in my Pilgrimage, vol. ii. 227.

281

"Haphsa" in older writers; Omar's daughter and one of Mohammed's wives, famous for her connection with the manuscripts of the Koran. From her were (or claimed to be) descended the Hafsites who reigned in Tunis and extended their power far and wide over the Maghrib (Mauritania), till dispossessed by the Turks.

282

i. e. humbly without the usual strut or swim: it corresponds with the biblical walking or going softly (1 Kings xxi. 27; Isaiah xxxviii. 15, etc.).

283

A theologian of the seventh and eighth centuries.

284

i. e. to prepare himself by good works, especially alms-giving, for the next world.

285

A theologian of the eighth century.

286

Abd al-Aziz was eighth Ommiade (regn. A.H. 99=717) and the fifth of the orthodox, famed for a piety little known to his house. His most celebrated saying was, "Be constant in meditation on death: if thou be in straitened case 'twill enlarge it, and if in affluence 'twill straiten it upon thee." He died, poisoned, it is said, in A.H. 101.

287

Abu Bakr originally called Abd al-Ka'ahah (slave of the Ka'abah) took the name of Abdullah and was surnamed Abu Bakr (father of the virgin) when Mohammed, who before had married only widows, took to wife his daughter, the famous or infamous Ayishah. "Bikr" is the usual form, but "Bakr," primarily meaning a young camel, is metaphorically applied to human youth (Lane's Lex. s. v.). The first Caliph was a cloth-merchant, like many of the Meccan chiefs. He is described as very fair with bulging brow, deep-set eyes and thin-cheeked, of slender build and lean-loined, stooping and with the backs of his hands fleshless. He used tinctures of Henna and Katam for his beard. The Persians who hate him, call him "Pir-i-Kaftár," the old she-hyæna, and believe that he wanders about the deserts of Arabia in perpetual rut which the males must satisfy.

288

The second, fifth, sixth and seventh Ommiades.

289

The mother of Omar bin Abd al-Aziz was a granddaughter of Omar bin Al-Khattab.

290

Brother of this Omar's successor, Yezid II.

291

So the Turkish proverb "The fish begins to stink at the head."

292

Calling to the slaves.

293

When the "Day of Arafat" (9th of Zú'l-Hijjah) falls upon a Friday. For this Hajj al-Akbar see my Pilgrimage iii. 226. It is often confounded by writers (even by the learned M. Caussin de Perceval) with the common Pilgrimage as opposed to the Umrah, or "Lesser Pilgrimage" (ibid. iii. 342, etc.). The latter means etymologically cohabiting with a woman in her father's house as opposed to 'Ars or leading her to the husband's home: it is applied to visiting Meccah and going through all the pilgrim-rites but not at the Pilgrimage-season. Hence its title "Hajj al-Asghar" the "Lesser Hajj." But "Umrah" is also applied to a certain ceremony between the hills Safá (a large hard rock) and Marwah (stone full of flints), which accompanies the Hajj and which I have described (ibid. iii. 344). At Meccah I also heard of two places called Al-Umrah, the Greater in the Wady Fátimah and the Lesser half way nearer the city (ibid. iii. 344).