The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 4, Sir Richard Francis Burton [best motivational books to read TXT] 📗

Syriac ”Bakhkh -un-Bakhkh-un-”=well done! It is the Pers �fer�n and means “all praise be to him.”

 

[FN#179] Arab. “A Tufayli?” So the Arab. Prov. (ii. 838) “More intrusive than Tufayl” (prob. the P.N. of a notorious sponger). The Badawin call “W�rish” a man who sits down to meat unbidden and to drink W�ghil; but townsfolk apply the latter to the “W�rish.”

 

[FN#180] Arab. “Art�l”=rotoli, pounds; and “A pint is a pound

All the world round;”

 

except in highly civilised lands where the pint has a curious power of shrinking.

 

[FN#181] One of Al-Maamun’s Wazirs. The Caliph married his daughter whose true name was B�r�n; but this tale of girl’s freak and courtship was invented (?) by Ishak. For the splendour of the wedding and the munificence of the Minister see Lane, ii. 350-352.

 

[FN#182] I have described this scene, the wretch clinging to the curtain and sighing and crying as if his heart would break (Pilgrimage iii. 216 and 220). The same is done at the place Al-Multazam‘“the attached to;” (ibid. 156) and various spots called Al-Mustaj�b, “where prayer is granted” (ibid. 162). At Jerusalem the Wailing place of the Jews” shows queer scenes; the worshippers embrace the wall with a peculiar wriggle crying out in Hebrew, “O

build Thy House, soon, without delay,” etc.

 

[FN#183] i.e. The wife. The scene in the text was common at Cairo twenty years ago; and no one complained of the stick. See Pilgrimage i., 120.

 

[FN#184] Arab. “Udm, Udum” (plur. of Id�m) = “relish,” olives, cheese, pickled cucumbers, etc.

 

[FN#185] I have noticed how the left hand is used in the East. In the second couplet we have “Istinj�”=washing the fundament after stool. The lines are highly appropriate for a nightman. Easterns have many foul but most emphatic expressions like those in the text I have heard a mother say to her brat, “I would eat thy merde!”

(i.e. how I love thee!).

 

[FN#186] Arab. “Harr�k,” whence probably our “Carack” and “Carrack” (large ship), in dictionaries derived from Carrus Marinus.

 

[FN#187] Arab. “Gh�shiyah”=lit. an �tui, a cover; and often a saddle-cover carried by the groom.

 

[FN#188] Arab. “Shar�b al-tuff�h” = melapio or cider.

 

[FN#189] Arab. “Mudawwarah,” which generally means a small round cushion, of the Marocco-work well known in England. But one does not strike a cushion for a signal, so we must revert to the original-sense of the word “something round,” as a circular plate of wood or metal, a gong, a “bell” like that of the Eastern Christians.

 

[FN#190] Arab. “T�f�n” (from the root tauf, going round) a storm, a circular gale, a cyclone the term universally applied in Al-lslam to the “Deluge,” the “Flood” of Noah. The word is purely Arabic; with a quaint likeness to the Gr. {Greek letters}, in Pliny typhon, whirlwind, a giant (Typh�us) whence “Typhon” applied to the great Egyptian god “Set.” The Arab word extended to China and was given to the hurricanes which the people call “Tee foong,” great winds, a second whimsical-resemblance. But Sir John Davis (ii. 383) is hardly correct when he says, “the name typhoon, in itself a corruption of the Chinese term, bears a singular (though we must suppose an accidental) resemblance to the Greek {Greek letters}. “

 

[FN#191] Plurale majestatis acting superlative; not as Lane supposes (ii. 224) “a number of full moons, not only one.” Eastern tongues abound in instances beginning with Genesis (i. 1), “Gods (he) created the heaven,” etc. It is still preserved in Badawi language and a wildling greatly to the astonishment of the citizens will address his friend “Y� Rij�l”= O men!

 

[FN#192] Arab. “H�sid” = an envier: in the fourth couplet “Az�l”

(Azz�l, etc.) = a chider, blamer; elsewhere “Laww�m” = accuser, censor, slanderer; “W�sh�,”=whisperer, informer; “Rakib”=spying, envious rival; “Gh�bit”=one emulous without envy; and “Sh�mit”= a “blue” (fierce) enemy who rejoices over another’s calamities.

Arabic literature abounds in allusions to this unpleasant category of “damned ill-natured friends;” and Spanish and Portuguese letters, including Brazilian, have thoroughly caught the trick. In the Eastern mind the “blamer” would be aided by the “evil eye.”

 

[FN#193] Another plural for a singular, “O my beloved!”

 

[FN#194] Arab. “Khayr”=good news, a euphemistic reply even if the tidings be of the worst.

 

[FN#195] Abb�s (from ‘Abs, being austere; and meaning the “grim faced”) son of Abd al-Muttalib; uncle to Mohammed and eponym of the Abbaside Khalifahs. A.D. 749=1258.

 

[FN#196] Kat�l = the Irish “kilt.”

 

[FN#197] This hat been explained as a wazirial title of the time.

 

[FN#198] The phrase is intelligible in all tongues: in Arabic it is opposed to “dark as night,” “black as mud” and a host of unsavoury antitheses.

 

[FN#199] Arab. “Aww�dah,” the popular word; not Ud�yyah as in Night cclvi. “Ud” liter.= rood and “Al-Ud”=the wood is, I have noted, the origin of our ‘lute.” The Span. ‘laud” is larger and deeper than the guitar, and its seven strings are played upon with a plectrum of buffalo-horn.

 

[FN#200] Arab. “Tabban lahu!”=loss (or ruin) to him. So “bu’dan lahu”=away with him, abeat in malam rem; and “Suhkan lahu”=Allah and mercy be far from him, no hope for him I [FN#201] Arab. “�yah”=Koranic verses, sign, miracle.

 

[FN#202] The mole on cheek calls to prayers for his preservation; and it is black as Bilal the Abyssinian. Fajran may here mean either “A.-morning” or “departing from grace.”

 

[FN#203] i.e. the young beard (myrtle) can never hope to excel tile beauties of his cheeks (roses).

 

[FN#204] i.e. Hell and Heaven.

 

[FN#205] The first couplet is not in the Mac. Edit. (ii. 171) which gives only a single couplet but it is found in the Bres.

Edit. which entitles this tale “Story of the lying (or false k�zib) Khal�fah.” Lane (ii. 392) of course does not translate it.

 

[FN#206] In the East cloth of frieze that mates with cloth of gold must expect this treatment. Fath Ali Shah’s daughters always made their husbands enter the nuptial-bed by the foot end.

 

[FN#207] This is always done and for two reasons; the first humanity, that the blow may fall unawares; and, secondly, to prevent the sufferer wincing, which would throw out the headsman.

 

[FN#208] Arab. “Ma’�ni-h�,” lit. her meanings, i.e. her inner woman opposed to the formal-seen by every one.

 

[FN#209] Described in my Pilgrimage (iii. 168, 174 and 175): it is the stone upon which the Patriarch stood when he built the Ka’abah and is said to show the impress of the feet but unfortunately I could not afford five dollars entrance-fee. Caliph Omar placed the station where it now is; before his time it adjoined the Ka’abah.

The meaning of the text is, Be thy court a place of pious visitation, etc. At the “Station of Abraham” prayer is especially blessed and expects to be granted. “This is the place where Abraham stood; and whoever entereth therein shall be safe” (Koran ii. 119).

For the other fifteen places where petitions are favourably heard by Heaven see ibid. iii. 211-12.

 

[FN#210] As in the West, so in the East, women answer an unpleasant question by a counter question.

 

[FN#211] This “Cry of Haro” often occurs throughout The Nights. In real-life it is sure to colece a crowd. especially if an Infidel (non Moslem) be its cause.

 

[FN#212] In the East a cunning fellow always makes himself the claimant or complainant.

 

[FN#213] On the Euphrates some 40 miles west of Baghdad The word is written “Anb�r” and pronounced “Amb�r” as usual with the “n”

before “b”; the case of the Greek double Gamma.

 

[FN#214] Syene on the Nile.

 

[FN#215] The tale is in the richest Rabelaisian humour; and the requisitions of the “Saj’a” (rhymed prose) in places explain the grotesque combinations. It is difficult to divine why Lane omits it: probably he held a hearty laugh not respectable.

 

[FN#216] A lawyer of the eighth century, one of the chief pupils of the Imam Abu Hanifah, and Kazi of Baghdad under the third, fourth and fifth Abbasides. The tale is told in the quasi-historical-Persian work “Nig�rist�n” (The Picture gallery), and is repeated by Richardson, Diss. 7, xiii. None seem to have remarked that the distinguished legist, Abu Yusuf, was on this occasion a law-breaker; the Kazi’s duty being to carry out the code not to break it by the tricks of a cunning attorney. In Harun’s day, however, some regard was paid to justice, not under his successors, one of whom, Al-Muktadir bi ‘ll�h (A.H. 295=907), made the damsel Yamika President of the Diw�n al-Maz�lim (Court of the Wronged), a tribunal which took cognizance of tyranny and oppression in high places.

 

[FN#217] Here the writer evidently forgets that Shahrazad is telling the story to the king, as Boccaccio (ii. 7) forgets that Pamfilo is speaking. Such inconsequences are common in Eastern story-books and a goody-goody sentiment is always heartily received as in an English theatre.

 

[FN#218] In the Mac. Edit. (ii. 182) “Al-Kushayri.” Al-Kasri was Governor of the two Iraks (I.e. Bassorah and Cufa) in the reign of Al-Hisham, tenth Ommiade (A.D. 723-741) [FN#219] Arab. “Thakalata k Ummak!” This is not so much a curse as a playful phrase, like “Confound the fellow.” So “K�tala k Allah”

(Allah slay thee) and “L� ab� lak” (thou hast no father or mother).

These words are even complimentary on occasions, as a good shot or a fine recitation, meaning that the praised far excels the rest of his tribe.

 

[FN#220] Koran, iii. 178.

 

[FN#221] Arab. “Al-Nis�b”=the minimum sum (about half-a crown) for which mutilation of the hand is prescribed by religious law. The punishment was truly barbarous, it chastised a rogue by means which prevented hard honest labour for the rest of his life.

 

[FN#222] To show her grief.

 

[FN#223] Ab� Sa’�d Abd al-Malik bin Kurayb, surnamed Al-Asma’i from his grandfather, flor. A.H. 122-306 (=739-830) and wrote amongst a host of compositions the well-known Romance of Antar. See in D’Herbelot the right royal-directions given to him by Harun al-Rashid.

 

[FN#224] There are many accounts of his death, but it is generally held that he was first beheaded. The story in the text is also variously told and the Persian “Nig�rist�n” adds some unpleasant comments upon the House of Abbas. The Persians, for reasons which will be explained in the terminal-Essay, show the greatest sympathy with the Barmecides; and abominate the Abbasides even more than the latter detested the Ommiades.

 

[FN#225] Not written, as the European reader would suppose.

 

[FN#226] Arab. “F�l al-h�rr” = beans like horsebeans soaked and boiled as opposed to the “F�l Mudammas” (esp. of Egypt)=unshelled beans steamed and boiled all night and eaten with linseed oil as “kitchen” or relish. Lane (M.E., chaps. v.) calls them after the debased Cairene pronunciation, Mudemmes. A legend says that, before the days of Pharaoh (always he of Moses), the Egyptians lived on pistachios which made them a witty, lively race. But the tyrant remarking that the domestic ass, which eats beans, is degenerate from the wild ass, uprooted the pistachio-trees and compelled the lieges to feed on beans which made them a heavy, gross, cowardly people fit only for burdens. Badawis deride “beaneaters” although they do not loathe the pulse like onions. The principal-result of a bean diet is an extraordinary development of flatulence both in stomach and intestines: hence possibly, Pythagoras who had studied ceremonial-purity in Egypt, forbade the use, unless he referred to venery or political-business. I was once sitting in the Greek quarter of Cairo dressed as a Moslem when arose a prodigious hubbub of lads and boys, surrounding, a couple of Fellahs. These men had been working in the fields about a mile east of Cairo and, when returning home, one had said to the other, “If thou