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The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9

R >> Richard F. Burton >> The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9




[FN#370] Arab. "L  tankati'¡;" do not be too often absent from
us. I have noticed the whimsical resemblance of "Kat'" and our
"cut"; and here the metaphorical sense is almost identical.

[FN#371] See Ibn Khallikan ii. 455.

[FN#372] The Turkish body-guard. See vol. iii. 81.

[FN#373] Twelfth Abbaside (A.H. 248-252=862-866) the son of a
slave-concubine Mukharik. He was virtuous and accomplished,
comely, fair-skinned, pock-marked and famed for defective
pronunciation; and he first set the fashion of shortening men's
capes and widening the sleeves. After may troubles with the
Turks, who were now the Praetorian guard of Baghdad, he was
murdered at the instigation of Al-Mu' tazz, who succeeded him, by
his Chamberlain Sa'id bin Salih.

[FN#374] Arab. "Usul," his forbears, his ancestors.

[FN#375] Lane rejects this tale because it is "extremely
objectionable; far more so than the title might lead me to
expect." But he quotes the following marginal note by his Shaykh:
--"Many persons (women) reckon marrying a second time amongst the
most disgraceful of actions. This opinion is commonest in the
country-towns and villages; and my mother's relations are thus
distinguished; so that a woman of them, when her husband dieth or
divorceth her while she is young, passeth in widowhood her life,
however long it may be, and disdaineth to marry a second time." I
fear that this state of things belongs to the good old days now
utterly gone by; and the loose rule of the stranger, especially
the English, in Egypt will renew the scenes which characterised
Sind when Sir Charles Napier hanged every husband who cut down an
adulterous wife. I have elsewhere noticed the ignorant idea that
Moslems deny to women souls and seats in Paradise, whilst
Mohammed canonised two women in his own family. The theory arose
with the "Fathers" of the Christian Church who simply exaggerated
the misogyny of St. Paul. St. Ambrose commenting on Corinthians
i. ii., boldly says:--"Feminas ad imaginem Dei factas non esse."
St. Thomas Aquinas and his school adopted the Aristotelian view,
"Mulier est erratum naturae, et mas occasionatus, et per accidens
generatur; atque ideo est monstrum." For other instances see
Bayle s. v. Gediacus (Revd. Simon of Brandebourg) who in 1695
published a "Defensio Sexus muliebris," a refutation of an
anti-Socinian satire or squib, "Disputatio perjucunda, Mulieres
homines non esse," Parisiis, 1693. But when Islam arose in the
seventh century, the Christian learned cleverly affixed the
stigma of their own misogyny upon the Moslems ad captandas
foeminas and in Southern Europe the calumny still bears fruit.
Mohammed (Koran, chapt. xxiv.) commands for the first time, in
the sixth year of his mission, the veiling and, by inference, the
seclusion of women, which was apparently unknown to the Badawin
and, if practised in the cities was probably of the laxest. Nor
can one but confess that such modified separation of the sexes,
which it would be impossible to introduce into European manners,
has great and notable advantages. It promotes the freest
intercourse between man and man, and thus civilises what we call
the "lower orders": in no Moslem land, from Morocco to China, do
we find the brutals without manners or morals which are bred by
European and especially by English civilisation. For the same
reason it enables women to enjoy fullest intimacy and friendship
with one another, and we know that the best of both sexes are
those who prefer the society of their own as opposed to "quite
the lady's man" and "quite the gentleman's woman." It also adds
an important item to social decorum by abolishing e.g. such
indecencies as the "ball-room flirtation"--a word which must be
borrowed from us, not translated by foreigners. And especially it
gives to religious meetings, a tone which the presence of women
modifies and not for the better. Perhaps, the best form is that
semiseclusion of the sex, which prevailed in the heroic ages of
Greece, Rome, and India (before the Moslem invasion), and which
is perpetuated in Christian Armenia and in modern Hellas. It is a
something between the conventual strictness of Al-Islam and the
liberty, or rather licence, of the "Anglo-Saxon" and the
"Anglo-American." And when England shall have cast off that
peculiar insularity which makes her differ from all civilised
peoples, she will probably abolish three gross abuses,
time-honoured scandals, which bear very heavily on women and
children. The first is the Briton's right to will property away
from his wife and offspring. The second is the action for "breach
of promise," salving the broken heart with pounds, shillings, and
pence: it should be treated simply as an exaggerated breach of
contract. The third is the procedure popularly called "Crim.
Con.," and this is the most scandalous of all: the offence is
against the rights of property, like robbery or burglary, and it
ought to be treated criminally with fine, imprisonment and in
cases with corporal punishment after the sensible procedure of
Moslem law.

[FN#376] "Moon of the age," a name which has before occurred.

[FN#377] The Malocchio or gettatura, so often noticed.

[FN#378] The crescent of the month Zu 'l-Ka'dah when the
Ramazan-fast is broken. This allusion is common. Comp. vol. i.
84.

[FN#379] This line contains one of the Yes, Yes and No, No
trifles alluded to in vol. ii, 60. Captain Lockett (M. A. 103)
renders it "I saw a fawn upon a hillock whose beauty eclipsed the
full moon. I said, What is thy name? she answered Deer. What my
Dear said I, but she replied, no, no!" To preserve the sound I
have sacrificed sense: Lulu is a pearl, Li? li? (= for me, for
me?) and La! La! = no! no! See vol. i, 217. I should have
explained a line which has puzzled some readers,

"A sun (face) on wand (neck) in knoll of sand (hips) she
showed" etc,

[FN#380] Arab. "Al-huwayna," a rare term.

[FN#381] Bright in the eyes of the famishing who is allowed to
break his fast.

[FN#382] Mr. Payne reads "Maghrabi" = a Mauritanian, Maroccan,
the Moors (not the Moorish Jews or Arabs) being a race of
Sodomites from highest to lowest. But the Mac. and Bul. Edit.
have "Ajami."

[FN#383] For "Ishk uzri" = platonic love see vol. i. 232; ii.
104.

[FN#384] Zaynab (Zenobia) and Zayd are generic names for women
and men.

[FN#385] i.e. He wrote "Kasidahs" (= odes, elegies) after the
fashion of the "Suspended Poems" which mostly open with the lover
gazing upon the traces of the camp where his beloved had dwelt.
The exaggerated conventionalism of such exordium shows that these
early poems had been preceded by a host of earlier pieces which
had been adopted as canons of poetry.

[FN#386] The verses are very mal-a-propos, like many occurring in
The Nights, for the maligned Shaykh is proof against all the
seductions of the pretty boy and falls in love with a woman after
the fashion of Don Quixote. Mr. Payne complains of the obscurity
of the original owing to abuse of the figure enallage; but I find
them explicit enough, referring to some debauched elder after the
type of Abu Nowas.

[FN#387] Arab. "'Irk" = a root which must here mean a sprig, a
twig. The basil grows to a comparatively large size in the East.

[FN#388] Arab. "Lait "= one connected with the tribe of Lot, see
vol. v. 161.

[FN#389] For the play upon "Saki" (oblique case of sak, leg-calf)
and Saki a cupbearer see vol. ii. 327.

[FN#390] "On a certain day the leg shall be bared and men shall
be called upon to bow in adoration, but they shall not be able"
(Koran, lxviii. 42). "Baring the leg" implies a grievous
calamity, probably borrowed from the notion of tucking up the
skirts and stripping for flight. On the dangerous San Francisco
River one of the rapids is called "Tira-calcoens" = take off your
trousers (Highlands of the Brazil, ii. 35). But here the allusion
is simply ludicrous and to a Moslem blasphemous.

[FN#391] Arab. "Istahi," a word of every day use in reproof. So
the Hindost. "Kuchh sharm nahin?" hast thou no shame? Shame is a
passion with Orientals and very little known to the West.

[FN#392] i.e. Angels and men saying, "The Peace (of God) be on us
and on all righteous servants of Allah!" This ends every prayer.

[FN#393] Arab. "Al-Niyah," the ceremonial purpose or intent to
pray, without which prayer is null and void. See vol. v. 163. The
words would be "I purpose to pray a two-bow prayer in this hour
of deadly danger to my soul." Concerning such prayer see vol. i.
142.

[FN#394] Arab. "Sakin" = quiescent, Let a sleeping hound lie.

[FN#395] Arab. "Asar" lit. traces i.e. the works, the mighty
signs and marvels.

[FN#396] The mention of coffee now frequently occurs in this tale
and in that which follows: the familiar use of it showing a
comparatively late date, and not suggesting the copyist's hand.

[FN#397] Arab. "Al-Kahwah," the place being called from its
produce. See Pilgrimage i. 317-18.

[FN#398] Arab. "Al-Ghurbah Kurbah:" the translation in the text
is taken from my late friend Edward Eastwick, translator of the
Gulistan and author of a host of works which show him to have
been a ripe Oriental scholar.

[FN#399] The fiction may have been suggested by the fact that in
all Moslem cities from India to Barbary the inner and outer gates
are carefully shut during the noontide devotions, not "because
Friday is the day on which creation was finished and Mohammed
entered Al-Medinah;" but because there is a popular idea that in
times now approaching the Christians will rise up against the
Moslems during prayers and will repeat the "Sicilian Vespers."

[FN#400] i.e. the syndic of the Guild of Jewellers.

[FN#401] This is an Arab Lady Godiva of the wrong sort.

[FN#402] This is explained in my Pilgrimage i. 99 et seq.

[FN#403] About three pennyweights. It varies, however, everywhere
and in Morocco the "Mezkal" as they call it is an imaginary
value, no such coin existing.

[FN#404] i.e. over and above the value of the gold, etc.

[FN#405] This was the custom of contemporary Europe and more than
one master cutler has put to death an apprentice playing Peeping
Tom to detect the secret of sword-making.

[FN#406] Among Moslems husbands are divided into three species;
(1) of "Bahr" who is married for love; (2) of "Dahr," for defence
against the world, and (3) of "Mahr" for marriage-settlements
(money). Master Obayd was an unhappy compound of the two latter;
but he did not cease to be a man of honour.

[FN#407]The Mac. Edit. here is a mass of blunders and misprints.

[FN#408] The Mac. Edit. everywhere calls her "Sabiyah" = the
young lady and does not mention her name Halimah = the Mild, the
Gentle till the cmlxxivth Night. I follow Mr. Payne's example by
introducing it earlier into the story, as it avoids vagueness and
repetition of the indefinite.

[FN#409] Arab "Adim al-Zauk,"=without savour. applied to an
insipid mannerless man as "barid" (cold) is to a fool. "Ahl Zauk"
is a man of pleasure, a voluptuary, a hedonist.

[FN#410] Arab. "Finjan" the egg-shell cups from which the
Easterns still drink coffee.

[FN#411] Arab. "Awashik" a rare word, which Dozy translates
"osselet" (or osselle) and Mr. Payne, "hucklebones," concerning
which he has obliged me with this note. Chambaud renders osselet
by "petit os avec lequel les enfants jouent." Hucklebone is the
hip-bone but in the plural it applies to our cockals or cockles:
Latham gives "hucklebone," (or cockal), one of the small
vertebrae of the coccygis, and Littleton translates "Talus," a
hucklebone, a bone to play with like a dye, a play called cockal.
(So also in Rider.) Hucklebones and knucklebones are syn.: but
the latter is modern and liable to give a false idea, besides
being tautological. It has nothing to do with the knuckles and
derives from the German "Knochel" (dialectically Knochelein) a
bonelet.

[FN#412] For ablution after sleep and before prayer. The address
of the slave-girl is perfectly natural: in a Moslem house we
should hear it this day, nor does it show the least sign of
"frowardness. "

[FN#413] The perfect stupidity of the old wittol is told with
the driest Arab humour.

[FN#414] This is a rechauffe of the Language of Signs in "Aziz
and Azizah" vol. ii. 302.

[FN#415] In the Mac. Edit. "Ya Fulanah"=O certain person.

[FN#416] Arab. "Laylat al-Kabilah," lit.=the coming night, our
to-night; for which see vol. iii. 349.

[FN#417] Arab. "Ya Ahmak!" which in Marocco means a madman, a
maniac, a Santon.

[FN#418] The whole passage has a grammatical double entendre
whose application is palpable. Harf al-Jarr=a particle governing
the noun in the genitive or a mode of thrusting and tumbling.

[FN#419] Arab. "Al-Silah" =conjunctive (sentence), also coition;
Al-Mausul= the conjoined, a grammatical term for relative pronoun
or particle.

[FN#420] Arab. "Tanwin al-Izafah ma'zul" = the nunnation in
construction cast out. "Tanwin" (nunnation) is pronouncing the
vowels of the case-endings of a noun with nÄun for u
(nominative)Äin for i (genitive) andÄan for a (accusative). This
nunnation expresses indefiniteness, e.g. "Malikun"=a king, any
king. When the noun is made definite by the Ma'rifah or article
(al), the Tanwin must be dropped, e.g. Al-Maliku = the King; Al-
Malikun being a grammatical absurdity. In construction or regimen
(izafah) the nunnation must also disappear, as Maliku 'I-Hind) =
the King of Hind (a King of Hind would be Malikun min Muluki
'I-Hind) = a King from amongst the Kings of Hind). Thus whilst
the wife and the lover were conjoined as much as might be, the
hocussed and sleeping husband was dismissed (ma'zul=degraded)
like a nunnation dropped in construction. I may add that the
terminal syllables are invariably dropped in popular parlance and
none but Mr. G. Palgrave (who afterwards ignored his own
assertion) ever found an Arab tribe actually using them in
conversation although they are always pronounced when reading the
Koran and poetry.

[FN#421] This was a saying of Mohammed about overfrequency of
visits, "Zur ghibban, tazid hubban"=call rarely that friendship
last fairly. So the verse of Al-Mutanabbi,

"How oft familiarity breeds dislike."

Preston quotes Jesus ben Sirach, {Greek}. Also Al-Hariri (Ass.
xv. of "The Legal"; De Sacy p. 478 1. 2.) "Visit not your friend
more than one day in a month, nor stop longer than that with
him!" Also Ass. xvi. 487, 8. "Multiply not visits to thy friend."
"None so disliked as one visiting too often." (Preston p. 352).
In the Cent nouvelles (52) Nouvelles (No. lii.) the dying father
says to his son:--"Jamais ne vous hantez tent en l'ostel de votre
voisin que lion vous y serve de pain bis." In these matters
Moslems follow the preaching and practice of the Apostle, who was
about as hearty and genial as the "Great Washington." But the
Arab had a fund of dry humour which the Anglo-American lacked
altogether.

[FN#422] Arab. "'Amal"--action, operation. In Hindostani it is
used (often with an Alif for an Ayn) as intoxication e.g. Amal
pani strong waters and applied to Sharab (wine), Bozah (Beer),
Tadi (toddy or the fermented juice of the Tad, Borassus
flabelliformis), Naryali (juice of the cocoa-nut tree) Saynddi
(of the wild date, Elate Sylvestris), Afyun (opium an its
preparations as post=poppy seeds) and various forms of Cannabis
Sativa, as Ganja, Charas, Madad, Sahzi etc. for which see
Herklots' Glossary.

[FN#423] Arab "Sardab," mostly an underground room (vol. i. 340)
but here a tunnel.

[FN#424] Arab. "Al-Lawandiyah": this and the frequent mention of
coffee and presently of a watch (sa'ah) show that the tale in its
present state, cannot be older than the end of the sixteenth
century.

[FN#425] Arab. "Su'ban," vol. i. 172.

[FN#426] The lines have occurred in vol. i. 238, where I have
noted the punning "Sabr"= patience or aloes. I quote Torrens: the
Templar, however, utterly abolishes the pun in the last couplet:-
-

"The case is not at my command, but in fair Patience hand
I'm set by Him who order'th all and cloth such case command."

"Amr" here=case (circumstance) or command (order) with a
suspicion of reference to Murr=myrrh, bitterness. The reader will
note the resignation to Fate's decrees which here and in host of
places elevates the tone of the book.

[FN#427] i.e. as one loathes that which is prohibited, and with
a loathing which makes it unlawful for me to cohabit with thee.

[FN#428] This is quite natural to the sensitive Eastern.

[FN#429] Hence, according to Moslem and Eastern theory generally
her lewd and treasonable conduct. But in Egypt not a few freeborn
women and those too of the noblest, would beat her hollow at her
own little game. See for instance the booklet attributed to Jalal
al-Siyuti and entitled Kitah al-Özah (Book of Explanation) fi
'Ilm al-Nikah (in the Science of Carnal Copulation). There is a
copy of it in the British Museum; and a friend kindly suppl~ed me
with a lithograph from Cairo; warning me that there are doubts
about the authorship.

[FN#430] These lines have occurred in vol. iii. 214: I quote Mr.
Payne.

[FN#431] This ejaculation, as the waw shows, is parenthetic;
spoken either by Halimah, by Shahrazad or by the writer.

[FN#432] Arab. "Kasr" here meaning an upper room.

[FN#433] To avoid saying, I pardon thee.

[FN#434] A proverbial saying which here means I could only dream
of such good luck.

[FN#435] A good old custom amongst Moslems who have had business
transactions with each other: such acquittance of all possible
claims will be quoted on "Judgment-Day," when debts will be
severely enquired into.

[FN#436] Arab. "Kutr (tract or quarter) Misr," vulgarly
pronounced "Masr." I may remind the reader that the Assyrians
called the Nile-valley "Musur" whence probably the Heb. Misraim a
dual form denoting Upper and Lower Egypt which are still
distinguished by the Arabs into Sa'id and Misr. The hieroglyphic
term is Ta-mera=Land of the Flood; and the Greek Aigyptos is
probably derived from Kahi-Ptah (region of the great God Ptah) or
Ma Ka Ptah (House of the soul of Ptah). The word "Cops" or
"Kopt," in Egyptian "Kubti" and pronounced "Gubti," contains the
same consonants

[FN#437] Now an unimportant frontier fort and village dividing
Syria-Palestine from Egypt and famed for the French battle with
the Mamelukes (Feb. 19, 1799) and the convention for evacuating
Egypt. In the old times it was an important site built upon the
"River of Egypt" now a dried up Wady; and it was the chief port
of the then populous Najab or South Country. According to
Abulfeda it derived its name (the "boothy," the nest) from a hut
built there by the brothers of Joseph when stopped at the
frontier by the guards of Pharaoh. But this is usual Jewish
infection of history.

[FN#438] Arab. "Bab." which may also="Chapter" or category. See
vol. i., 136 and elsewhere (index). In Egypt "Bab" sometimes
means a sepulchral cave hewn in a rock (plur. Biban) from the
Coptic "Bib."

[FN#439] i.e. "The Holy," a town some three marches (60 miles)
N. East of Cairo; thus showing the honour done to our unheroic
hero. There is also a Salihlyah quarter or suburb of Damascus
famous for its cemetery of holy men, but the facetious Cits
change the name to Zalliniyah=causing to stray; in allusion to
its Kurdish population. Baron von Hammer reads "le faubourg
Adelieh" built by Al-Malik Al-Adil and founded a chronological
argument on a clerical error.

[FN#440] Kamar al-Zaman; the normal pun on the name; a practice
as popular in the East as in the West, and worthy only of a
pickpocket in either place.

[FN#441] Arab. "Azrar" plur. of "Zirr" and lit. = 'buttons,"
i.e. of his robe collar from which his white neck and face appear
shining as the sun.

[FN#442] Arab. "Dairah" the usual inclosure of Kanats or
tent-flaps pitched for privacy during the halt.

[FN#443] i.e. it was so richly ornamented that it resembled an
enchanted hoard whose spells, hiding it from sight, had been
broken by some happy treasure seeker.

[FN#444] The merchant who is a "stern parent" and exceedingly
ticklish on the Pundonor saw at first sight her servile origin
which had escaped the mother. Usually it is the other way.

[FN#445] Not the head of the Church, or Chief Pontiff, but the
Chief of the Olema and Fukaha (Fakihs or D.D.'s.) men learned in
the Law (divinity). The order is peculiarly Moslem, in fact the
succedaneum for the Christian "hierarchy " an institution never
contemplated by the Founder of Christianity. This title shows the
modern date of the tale.

[FN#446] Arab. "Maulid," prop. applied to the Birth-feast of
Mohammed which begins on the 3rd day of Rabi al-Awwal (third
Moslem month) and lasts a week or ten days (according to local
custom), usually ending on the 12th and celebrated with salutes
of cannon, circumcision feasts. marriage banquets. Zikr-litanies,
perfections of the Koran and all manner of solemn festivities
including the "powder-play" (Lab al-Barut) in the wilder corners
of Al-Islam. It is also applied to the birth-festivals of great
Santons (as Ahmad al- Badawi) for which see Lane M. E. chaps.
xxiv. In the text it is used like the Span. "Funcion" or the Hind
"Tamasha," any great occasion of merry-making.

[FN#447] Arab. "Sanajik" Plur. of Sanjak (Turk.) = a banner,
also applied to the bearer (ensign or cornet) and to a military
rank mostly corresponding with Bey or Colonel.

[FN#448] I have followed Mr. Payne's ordering of the text which,
both in the Mac. and Bull. Edits., is wholly inconsequent and has
not the excuse of rhyme.

[FN#449] Arab. "Jilbab," a long coarse veil or gown which in
Barbary becomes a "Jallabiyah," in a striped and hooded cloak of
woollen stuff.

[FN#450] i.e. a broken down pilgrim left to die on the road.

[FN#451] These lines have occurred in vol. i. 272. I quote Mr.
Payne.

[FN#452] Note the difference between "Zirt," the loud crepitus
and "Faswah" the susurrus which Captain Grose in his quaint
"Lexicum Balatronicum," calls a "fice" or a "foyse" (from the
Arabic Fas, faswah ?).

[FN#453] These lines have occurred in Night dcxix, vol. vi. 246;
where the pun on Khaliyah is explained. I quote Lane.

[FN#454] The usual pretext of "God bizness," as the Comoro men
call it. For the title of the Ka'abah see my Pilgrimage vol. iii.
149.

[FN#455] This was in order to travel as a respectable man, he
could also send the girl as a spy into the different Harims to
learn news of the lady who had eloped.

[FN#456] A polite form of alluding to their cursing him.

[FN#457] i.e. on account of the King taking offence at his
unceremonious departure.

[FN#458] i.e. It will be the worse for him.

[FN#459] I would here remind the reader that "'Arabiyyun" pl.
'Urb is a man of pure Arab race, whether of the Ahl al-Madar
(=people of mortar, i.e. citizens) or Ahl al-Wabar (=tents of
goat or camel's hair); whereas "A'rabiyyun" pl. A'rab is one who
dwells in the Desert whether Arab or not. Hence the verse:--

"They name us Al-A'rab but Al-'Urb is our name."

[FN#460] I would remind the reader that the Dinar is the golden
denarius (or solidus) of Eastern Rome while the Dirham is the
silver denarius, whence denier, danaro, dinheiro, etc., etc. The
oldest diners date from A.H. 91-92 (=714-15) and we find the
following description of one struck in A.H. 96 by Al-Walid the
VI. Ommiade:--

Obverse:
Area. "There is no ilah but Allah: He is one: He hath no
partner."
Circle. "Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah who hath sent
him with the true Guidance and Religion that he
manifest it above all other Creeds."

Reverse:
Area. "Allah is one: Allah is Eternal: He begetteth not,
nor is He begot."
Circle. "Bismillah: This Dinar was struck anno 96."

See "'Ilam-en-Nas" (warnings for Folk) a pleasant little volume
by Mr. Godfrey Clarke (London, King and Co., 1873), mostly
consisting of the minor tales from The Nights especially this
group between Nights ccxlvii. and cdlxi.; but rendered valuable
by the annotations of my old friend, the late Frederick Ayrton.

[FN#461] The reader will note the persistency with which the
duty of universal benevolence is preached.

[FN#462] Arab. from Pers. "Shah-bander": see vol. iv. 29.

[FN#463] i.e. of thy coming, a popular compliment.

[FN#464] This is the doctrine of the universal East; and it is
true concerning wives and widows, not girls when innocent or
rather ignorant. According to Western ideas Kamar al-Zaman was a
young scoundrel of the darkest dye whose only excuses were his
age, his inexperience and his passions.

[FN#465] Arab. "Dayyus" prop. = a man who pimps for his own wife
and in this sense constantly occurring in conversation.

[FN#466] This is taking the law into one's own hands with a
witness, yet amongst races who preserve the Pundonor in full and
pristine force, e.g. the Afghans and the Persian Iliyat, the
killing so far from being considered murder or even justifiable
homicide would be highly commended by public opinion.

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