Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand and One Nights, Sir Richard Francis Burton [best short books to read .TXT] 📗

private closet,” and Payne by a “privy place,” suggesting that the Caliph slept in a num�ro cent. So, when starting for the “Trakki Campaign,” Sir Charles Napier (of Sind), in his zeal for lightening officers’ baggage, inadvertently chose a water-closet tent for his head-quarters—magno cum risu not of the staff, who had a strange fear of him, but of the multitude who had not.

 

[FN#25] Arab. “Dar al-Salam,” one of the seven “Gardens” into which the Mohammedan Paradise is divided. Man’s fabled happiness began in a Garden (Eden) and the suggestion came naturally that it would continue there. For the seven Heavens, see vol. viii., 111.

 

[FN#26] Branch of Pearl, see vol. ii. 57.

 

[FN#27] Arab. “Kahbah,” the lowest word (vol. i. 70), effectively used in contrast with the speaker’s surroundings.

 

[FN#28] Arab. “Y� kab�r�,” = mon brave, my good man.

 

[FN#29] This exaggeration has now become familiar to English poets.

 

[FN#30] Like an Eastern he goes to the water-closet the first thing in the morning, or rather dawn, and then washes ceremonially before saying the first prayer. In Europe he would probably wait until after breakfast. See vol. iii. 242.

 

[FN#31] I have explained why an Eastern does not wash in the basin as Europeans do in vol. i. p. 241.

 

[FN#32] i.e., He was confused that he forgot. All Moslems know how to pray, whether they pray or not.

 

[FN#33] The dawn-prayer consists of only four inclinations (raka’at); two “Farz” (divinely appointed), and two Sunnah (the custom of the Apostle). For the Raka’�h see Lane, M.E. chapt.

iii.; it cannot be explained without illustrations.

 

[FN#34] After both sets of prayers, Farz and Sunnah, the Moslem looks over his right shoulder and says, “The Peace (of Allah) be upon you and the ruth of Allah,” and repeats the words over the left shoulder. The salutation is addressed to the Guardian Angels or to the bystanders (Moslems), who, however, do not return it.

 

[FN#35] i.e., Ibrahim of Mosul the musician. See vol. iv. 108.

 

[FN#36] Arab. “L�y�th” plur. of “layth,” a lion: here warriors are meant.

 

[FN#37] The Abbasides traced their descent from Al-Abbas, Mohammed’s uncle, and justly held themselves as belonging to the family of the Prophet. See vol. ii. 61.

 

[FN#38] Arab. “N�mshah” = “half-sword.” See vol. ii. p. 193.

 

[FN#39] i.e., May thy dwelling-place never fall into ruin. The prayer has, strange to say, been granted. “The present city on the eastern bank of the Tigris was built by Haroun al-Rashid, and his house still stands there and is an object of reverent curiosity.” So says my friend Mr. Grattan Geary (vol. i. p. 212, “Through Asiatic Turkey,” London: Low, 1878). He also gives a sketch of Zubaydah’s tomb on the western bank of the Tigris near the suburb which represents old Baghdad; it is a pineapple dome springing from an octagon, both of brick once revetted with white stucco.

 

[FN#40] In the Bresl. Edit. four hundred. I prefer the exaggerated total.

 

[FN#41] i.e., the raised recess at the upper end of an Oriental saloon, and the place of honour, which Lane calls by its Egyptian name “L�w�n.” See his vol. i. 312 and his M.E. chapt. i.: also my vol. iv. p. 71.

 

[FN#42] “Bit o’Musk.”

 

[FN#43] “A gin,” a snare.

 

[FN#44] “A gift,” a present. It is instructive to compare Abu al-Hasan with Sancho Panza, sprightly Arab wit with grave Spanish humour.

 

[FN#45] i.e., he fell down senseless. The old version has “his head knocked against his knees.”

 

[FN#46] Arab. “Waddi” vulg. Egyptian and Syrian for the classical “Add�” (ii. of Ad� = preparing to do). No wonder that Lane complains (iii. 376) of the vulgar style, abounding in errors.”

 

[FN#47] O Apple, O Repose o’ Hearts, O Musk, O Choice Gift.

 

[FN#48] Arab. “Doghr�,” a pure Turkish word, in Egypt meaning “truly, with truth,” straightforwardly; in Syria = straight (going), directly.

 

[FN#49] Arab. “M�rist�n,” see vol. i. 288.

 

[FN#50] The scene is a rechauff� of Badr al-Din Hasan and his wife, i. 247.

 

[FN#51] Arab. “Janz�r,” another atrocious vulgarism for “Zanj�r,” which however, has occurred before.

 

[FN#52] Arab. “Arafshah.”

 

[FN#53] In the “Mishk�t al-Mas�bih” (ii. 341), quoted by Lane, occurs the Hadis, “Shut your doors anights and when so doing repeat the Basmalah; for the Devil may not open a door shut in Allah’s name.” A pious Moslem in Egypt always ejaculates, “In the name of Allah, the Compassionating,” etc., when he locks a door, covers up bread, doffs his clothes, etc., to keep off devils and d�mons.

 

[FN#54] An Arab idiom meaning, “I have not found thy good fortune (Ka’b = heel, glory, prosperity) do me any good.”

 

[FN#55] Arab. “Y� Nakbah” = a calamity to those who have to do with thee!

 

[FN#56] Koran cxii., the “Chapter of Unity.” See vol. iii. 307

 

[FN#57] See vol. iii. 222.

 

[FN#58] Here the author indubitably speaks for himself, forgetting that he ended Night cclxxxi. (Bresl. Iv. 168), and began that following with Shahrazad’s usual formula.

 

[FN#59] i.e., “Delight of the vitals” (or heart).

 

[FN#60] The trick is a rechauff� of the trick played on Al-Rashid and Zubaydah.

 

[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 ejaculation; 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 Masr�r bore witness to the Caliph’s statement.

 

[FN#65] Arab. “Wa kuntu r�ihah ursil war�k,” the regular Fellah language.

 

[FN#66] Arab. “‘Irk al-H�shim�.” 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. “Bost�n al-Nuzhah,” whose name made the stake appropriate. See vol. ii. 81.

 

[FN#68] Arab. “Tam�s�l” = generally carved images, which, amongst Moslem, always suggest idols and idolatry.

 

[FN#69] The “Shubb�k” 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 repetition.

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 f�-h�,” 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. “Y� Kh�lati” = 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. “Zal�biyah.”

 

[FN#78] Arab. “�Al� 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 “Al�” requires the former sig.

 

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

 

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

 

[FN#81] Arab. “Tob�ni” 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 class, and the hardness of the blow gives the measure of the grief.

 

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

 

[FN#83] Arab. “Ihtir�k” often used in the metaphorical sense of consuming, torturing.

 

[FN#84] Arab. “Hal�wat,” lit.=a sweetmeat, a gratuity, a thank-offering.

 

[FN#85] Bresl. Edit., vol. vi. Pp. 182-188, Nights ccccxxxii.-

ccccxxxiv.

 

[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 anachor�te couronn�, � froide et respectable figure, who lacked the diplomacy of Mu’awiyah and the energy of Al-Hajj�j. His principal imitator was Al-Muhtadi bi’ll�h, who longed for a return to the rare old days of AlIslam.

 

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

 

[FN#88] Jar�r al-Khatafah, one of the most famous of the “Isl�m�” 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. “B�kiyah,” which may also mean eternal as opposed to “F�niyah” = temporal. Omar’s answer shows all the narrow-minded fanaticism which distinguished the early Moslems: they were puritanical as any Praise-God-Barebones, and they hated “boetry and bainting” as hotly as any Hanoverian.

 

[FN#90] The Saturday 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 God 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 Lab�d.”

 

[FN#92] F�-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. “Y� Bil�l”: 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-dam�” = lit. between f�ces and menses, i.e., the foulest part of his mistress’s person. It is not often that The Nights are “nasty”;