One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  348 Arab. “Al-Háfi,” which in Egyptian means sore-footed as well. He was an ascetic of the eighth and ninth centuries (A.D.). He relates a tradition of the famous soldier saint Khálid bin Walíd who lies buried like the poet Ka’ab al-Ahbár near Hums (Emessa) once the Bœotia, Phrygia, Abdera, Suabia of Syria now Halbun (pronounced Halbáun) near Damascus. I cannot explain how this Kuraysh noble (a glorious figure in Moslem history) is claimed by the Afghans as one of their countrymen and made to speak Pukhtu or Pushtu, their rough old dialect of Persian. The curious reader will consult my Pilgrimage iii. 322 for the dialogue between Mohammed and Khalid. Again there is general belief in Arabia that the English sent a mission to the Prophet, praying that Khalid might be despatched to proselytise them: unfortunately Mohammed was dead and the “Ingríz” ratted. It is popularly held that no armed man can approach Khalid’s grave; but I suppose my revolver did not count.

  349 When he must again wash before continuing prayer.

  350 Bin Adham; another noted ascetic of the eighth century.

  Those curious about these unimportant names will consult the great

  Biographical Dictionary of Ibn Khallikan, translated by Baron

  MacGuckin de Slane (1842-45).

  351 Thus making Bishr the “Imám” (artistes) lit. one who stands in front. In Koran xvii. 74 it means “leader”: in ii. 118 Allah makes Abraham an “Imam to mankind.”

  352 A favourite sentiment in the East: we find it at the very beginning of Sa’di’s Gulistan: better a weal-bringing lie than a harm-dealing truth.

  353 A penny, one sixth of the drachma.

  354 Founder of the Hanbali, fourth (in date) of the four orthodox Moslem schools. The Caliph al-Mu’atasim bi’llah, son of Harun al-Rashid, who believed the Koran to have been created and not a Logos (whatever that may be), co-eternal with Allah, scourged this Imam severely for “differing in opinion” (A.H. 220=833). In fact few of the notable reverends of that day escaped without a caress of the scourge or the sword.

  355 A learned man of the eighth century at Bassorah (A.D.).

  356 A traditionist of Khorasan in the ninth century (A.D.).

  357 “Azal,” opp. to “Abad,” eternity without end, infinity.

  358 Koran lxvi. 6.

  359 A traditionist of Al-Medinah, eighth century (A.D.).

  360 Arab. “Músá”: the Egyptian word was “Mesu,” the “child” or the “boy” (brought up in the palace?), and the Hebrews made it “Mosheh” or “one drawn out of the water;” “Mu” in Egypt being water, the Arab “Ma”; whence probably the moderns have derived the dim. “Moyeh ,” vulg. Egyptian for water.

  361 Koran, chaps. xxviii.: Shu’ayb is our Jethro: Koran, chaps. vii. and xi. Mr. Rodwell suggests () that the name has been altered from Hobab (Numb. x. 29).

  362 Arab. “Taub” (Saub), the long shirt popularly written in English Tobe and pronounced so by Egyptians. It is worn by both sexes (Lane, M. E. chaps. i. “Tob”) in Egypt, and extends into the heart of Moslem Africa: I can compare it with nothing but a long nightgown dyed a dirty yellow by safflower and about as picturesque as a carter’s smock-frock.

  363 There is nothing of this in the Koran; and it is a most unhappy addition, as Moses utterly and pretentiously ignored a “next world.”

  364 Koran xxviii. 22-27. Mohammed evidently confounded the contract between Laban and Jacob. (Gen. xxix. 15-39.)

  365 So says Al-Hariri (Ass. of Sasan), “The neighbour before the house and the traveller before the journey.” In certain cities the neighbourhood is the real detective police, noting every action and abating scandals (such as orgies, etc.) with a strong hand and with the full consent of public opinion and of the authorities. This loving the neighbour shows evident signs of being borrowed from Christianity.

  366 Al-Asamm a theologian of Balkh, ninth century (A.D.).

  367 The founder of the Senior School, for which see Sale Prel.

  Disc. sect. viii.

  368 Thus serving the Lord by sinning against his own body.

  369 An Egyptian doctor of the law (ninth century).

  370 Koran lxxvii. 35, 36. This is one of the earliest and most poetical chapters of the book.

  371 Abu Hanifah was scourged for refusing to take office and was put to death in prison, it is said by poison (A.H. 150=A.D. 767), for a judicial sentence authorising rebellion against the second Abbaside, Al-Mansur, surnamed Abu’l-Dawánik (Father of Pence) for his exceeding avarice.

  372 “Lá rayba fí-hi” says the Koran (ii. 1) of itself; and the saying is popularly applied to all things of the Faith.

  373 Arab. “Rivál al-Ghayb,” somewhat like the “Himalayan Brothers” of modern superstition. See Herklots (Qanoon-e-Islam) for a long and careful description of these “Mardán-i-Ghayb” (Pers.), a “class of people mounted on clouds,” invisible, but moving in a circular orbit round the world, and suggesting the Hindu “Lokapálas.” They should not be in front of the traveller nor on his right, but either behind or on his left hand. Hence tables, memorial couplets and hemistichs are required to ascertain the station, without which precaution journeys are apt to end badly.

  374 A sweetmeat before noticed.

  375 Door hinges in the east are two projections for the top and bottom of the leaf playing in hollows of the lintel and threshold. It appears to be the primitive form, for we find it in the very heart of Africa. In the basaltic cities of the Hauran, where the doors are of thick stone, they move easily on these pins. I found them also in the official (not the temple)City of Palmyra, but all broken.

  376 The effect of the poison and of the incantation which accompanied it.

  377 King Omar who had raped her. My sympathies are all with the old woman who nightly punished the royal lecher.

  378 Arab. “Zunnár,” the Gr. . Christians and Jews were compelled by the fanatical sumptuary laws of the Caliph Al- Mutawakkil (AD. 856) to wear a broad leather belt in public, hence it became a badge of the Faith. Probably it was confounded with the “Janeo” (Brahmanical thread) and the Parsi sacred girdle called Kashti. (Dabistan i, 297, etc.). Both Mandeville and La Brocquière speak of “Christians of the Girdle, because they are all girt above,” intending Jacobites or Nestorians.

  379 “Siláh dár” (Arab. and Pers.)=a military officer of high rank; literally an “armour-bearer,” chosen for velour and trustworthiness. So Jonathan had a “young man” (brave) who bare his armour (I Sam. xiv. 1, 6 and 7); and Goliath had a man that bare the shield before him (ibid. xvii. 7, 41). Men will not readily forget the name of Sulayman Agha, called the Silahdar, in Egypt. (Lane M. E. chaps. iv.)

  380 It will be told afterwards.

  381 The elder brother thus showed himself a vassal and proved himself a good Moslem by not having recourse to civil war.

  382 Arab. “Ghazwah,” the corrupt Gallicism, now

  Europeanised=raid, foray.

  383 Turk in modern parlance means a Turkoman, a pomade: the settled people call themselves Osmanli or Othmanli. Turkoman=Turk- like.

  384 Arab. “Nimsá;” southern Germans, Austrians; from the Slav. “Nemica” (any Germans), literally meaning “The dumb” (nemac), because they cannot speak Slav.

  385 Arab. “Dubárá” from the Slav. “Dubrovnik,” from “Dub” (an oak) and “Dubrava” (an oak forest). Ragusa, once a rival of Venice, gave rise to the word “Argosy.” D’Herbelot calls it “Dobravenedik” or “Good Venice,” the Turkish name, because it paid tribute when Venice would not (?).

  386 Arab. “Jawarnah,” or, “Júrnah” evidently Zara, a place of many names, Jadera (Hirtius de Bell. Alex. ca), Jadra, Zadra (whence the modern term), Diadora, Diadosca and Jadrossa. This important Liburnian city sent forth many cruisers in crusading days; hence the Arabs came to know its name.

  387 Arab. “Banu’l-Asfar;” which may mean “Pale faces,” in the sense of “yeller girls” (New Orleans) and that intended by North American Indians, or, possibly, the peoples with yellow (or rather tow-coloured) hair we now call Russians. The
races of Hindostan term the English not “white men,” but “red men;” and the reason will at once be seen by comparing a Britisher with a high-caste Nágar Brahman whose face is of parchment colour as if he had drunk exsangue cuminum. The Yellow-faces of the text correspond with the Sansk. “Svetadvipa” — Whiteman’s Land.

  388 Arab. “Al-Musakhkham.” No Moslem believes that Isa was crucified and a favourite fancy is that Judas, changed to the likeness of Jesus, thus paid for his treason. (Evangel. Barnabæ.) Hence the resurrection is called not “Kiyámah” but “Kumámah”=rubbish. This heresy about the Cross they share with the Docetes, “certain beasts in the shape of men” (says Ignatius), who held that a phantom was crucified. So far the Moslems are logical, for “Isa,” being angelically, miraculously and immaculately conceived, could not be; but they contradict themselves when they hold a vacant place near Mohammed’s tomb for the body of Isa after his second coming as a forerunner to Mohammed and Doomday. (Pilgrimage ii. 89.)

  389 A diviner, priest, esp. Jewish, and not belonging to the tribe of Levi.

  390 Again the coarsest word “Khara.” The allusion is to the

  vulgar saying, “Thou eatest skite!” (i.e. thou talkest nonsense).

  Decent English writers modify this to, “Thou eatest dirt:” and Lord

  Beaconsfield made it ridiculous by turning it into “eating sand.”

  391 These silly scandals, which cause us only to smile, excite

  Easterns to fury. I have seen a Moslem wild with rage on hearing a

  Christian parody the opening words of the Koran, “Bismillahi ‘l-

  Rahmáni ‘l-Rahím, Mismish wa Kamar al-din,” roughly translated,

  “In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate! Apricots and marmalede.” The idea of the Holy Merde might have been suggested by the Hindus: see Mandeville, of the archiprotopapaton (prelate) carrying ox-dung and urine to the King, who therewith anoints his brow and breast, &c. And, incredible to relate, this is still practiced after a fashion by the Parsis, one of the most progressive and the sharpest witted of Asiatic races.

  392 Meaning that he had marked his brow with a cross (of ashes?) as certain do on Ash Wednesday.

  393 Syria, the “left-hand land” as has before been explained. The popular saying about its people is “Shámi shúmi!” — the Syrian is small potatoes (to render the sense Americanicè). Nor did Syrus, the slave in Roman days, bear the best of names. In Al-Hijaz the Syrian is addressed “Abú Shám” (Father of Syria) and insulted as “Abuser of the Salt” (a traitor). Yet many sayings of Mohammed are recorded in honour of Syria, and he sometimes used Syriac words. Such were “Bakh, bakh” (=euge, before noticed), and “Kakh,” a congener of the Latin Cacus and Caca which our day has docked to “cack.” (Pilgrimage iii. 115)

  394 Koran xiv. 34. “They (Unbelievers) shall be thrown therein (i.e., the House of Perdition=Hell); and an unhappy dwelling shall it be.”

  395 The leg-cut is a prime favourite with the Eastern Sworder, and a heavy two-handed blade easily severs a horse’s leg.

  396 Mohammed repeatedly declared (Koran lxi.) that the Christians had falsified the passage (“I go to my Father and the Paraclete shall come,” John xvi. 7) promising the advent of the Comforter, (ibid. xiv. 20; xv. 26) by substituting the latter word for glorious, renowned, i.e., Ahmed or Mohammed=the praised one. This may have been found in the Arabic translation of the Gospels made by Warakah, cousin to Mohammed’s first wife; and hence in Koran lxi. we find Jesus prophesying of an Apostle “whose name shall be Ahmad.” The word has consequently been inserted into the Arabic Gospel of Saint Barnabas (Dabistan iii. 67). Moslems accept the Pentateuch, the Psalter and the Gospel; but assert (Koran, passim.) that all extant copies have been hopelessly corrupted, and they are right. Moses, to whom the Pentateuch is attributed, notices his own death and burial— “the mair the miracle,” said the old Scotch lady. The “Psalms of David” range over a period of some five hundred years, and there are three Isaiahs who pass with the vulgar for one. The many apocryphal Gospels, all of which have been held genuine and canonical at different times and in different places, prove that the four, which are still in use, were retained because they lack the manifest absurdities of their discarded rivals.

  397 Arab. “ Labbayka; “ the Pilgrimage-cry (Night xxii.) which in Arabic is,

  Labbayk’ Allahumma, Labbayk’!

  Lá Sharíka lake, Labbayk’!

  Inna ‘l-hamda w’al ni’amata lake wa’l mulk!

  Labbayk’ Allahumma, Labbayk’!

  Some add “Here am I, and I honour Thee, the son of Thy two slaves; beneficence and good are all between Thy hands.”With the “Talbiyah” the pilgrims should bless the Prophet, pray Allah to grant Heaven and exclaim, “By Thy mercy spare us from the pains of Hell-fire!” (Pilgrimage iii. 232.) Labbayka occurs in the verses attributed to Caliph Ali; so labba=he faced, and yalubbu=it faces (as one house faces another); lastly, he professed submission to Allah; in which sense, together with the verbal noun “Talbiyah,” it is used by Al- Hanri (Pref. and Ass. of Su’adah).

  398 Arab. “Kissís” (plur. Kusús) from ‘ .

  399 Koran ii. The “red cow” is evidently the “red heifer” of

  Barnabas, chaps. vii.

  400 Arab. “Al-Jásalík”= .

  401 This is from the first “Gospel of Infancy,” wherein Jesus said to his mother, “Verily I am Jesus, the Son of God, the Word which thou hast brought forth, as the Angel Gabriel did declare unto thee; and my Father hath sent me to save the world” (chaps. i. 2.). The passage is virtually quoted in the Koran (chaps. iii. 141), of course omitting “ the Son of God”

  402 Mohammed allowed his locks to grow down to his ear-lobes but never lower.

  403 Arab. “Lisám” I have explained as a covering for the lower face, made by drawing over it the corner of the head-kerchief (Pilgrimage i. 346). The Lisám of the African Tawárik hoods the eyes so that a man must turn up his face to see, and swathes all the lower half, leaving only the nose exposed. And this is worn by many men by night as well as by day, doubtless to avoid the evil eye. The native Sultans of Darfur, like those of Bornu and others further west, used white muslin as a face-wrap: hence, too, the ceremonies when spitting, etc., etc. The Kúfiyah or head-kerchief of the Arabs soon reached Europe and became in Low Latin Cuphia; in Spanish Escofia; in Ital. Cuffia or Scuffia; in French Escoffion, Scofion (Reine Marguerite) Coëffe (une pellicule, marque de bonheur) Coiffe and Coife, &c.; the Scotch Curch or Coif, opposed to the maiden snood, and, lastly our Sergeant-at-Law’s Coif. Littré, the Learned, who in erudition was né coiffé, has missed this obvious derivation.

  404 “Cutting,” throughout the book, alludes to the scymitar with which Arabs never give point; and “thrusting” to the footman’s spear and the horseman’s lance.

  405 A popular phrase, I repeat, for extreme tenor and consternation.

  406 The name usually applies to a well-known district and city of Al Yaman, where “Koss the eloquent” was bishop in Mohammed’s day: the Negiran of D’Herbelot. Here, however, it is the Syrian Najrán (Nejrân of Missionary Porter’s miserable Handbook), now a wretched village near the volcanic Lajjá, about one hundred and twenty miles direct south of Damascus and held by Druzes and Christians.

  407 The Kantár (quintal) of 100 ratls (Ibs.) =98-99 Ibs. avoir.

  408 Arab. “Juráb (bag) mi’adat- ih (of his belly),” the “curdling of the testicles” in fear is often mentioned.

  409 Clearly alluding to the magic so deeply studied by mediæval Jews.

  410 Arab. “Sahákah,” lit. rubbing. The Moslem Harem is a great school for this “Lesbian (which I would call Atossan) love “; but the motive of the practice lies deeper. As amongst men the mixture of the feminine with the masculine temperament leads to sodomy, so the reverse makes women prefer their own sex. These tribades are mostly known by peculiarities of form and features, hairy cheeks and upper lips, gruff voices, hircine odour and the large projecting clitori
s with erectile powers known to the Arabs as “bazar” hence Tabzír=circumcision or amputation of such clitoris. Burckhardt (Prov. 436) translates “ Bazarah” by slut or wench. He adds “ it originally signifies the labia which the Cairenes also entice Zambúr and which are cut off in girlhood.” See also Lane, Lex. s.v.; Tabzír. Both writers confuse excision of the nymphæ with circumcision of the clitoris (Zambúr) Al-Siyúti (Kitab al-Izá’ fi’Ilm al-Nikah) has a very interesting chapter on Sapphic venery, which is well known to Europe as proved by such works as “Gamiani,” and “Anandria ou Confessions de Mademoiselle Sappho, avec la Clef,” Lesbos, 1718. Onanism is fatally prevalent: in many Harems and girls’ schools tallow candles and similar succedanea are vainly forbidden and bananas when detected are cut into four so as to be useless; of late years, however, China has sent some marvellous artificial phalli of stuffed bladder, horn and even caoutchouc, the latter material of course borrowed from Europe.

  411 This is considered a powerful aphrodisiac in the East. Hence male devotees are advised to avoid tile “two reds,” i.e. meat and wine; while the “two reds,” which corrupt women, are gold and saffron, that is perfumery. Hence also the saying of Mohammed:— “Perfumes for men should have scent and not colour; for women should have colour and not scent.” (Mishkát al-Masábíh ii. 361.)

  412 These are the “Hibás” or thin cords of wool which the

  Badawi binds round his legs, I believe to keep off cramp.

  (Pilgrimage iii. 78).

  413 Crying out “La iláha illa ‘llah.” (There is no god but the

  God.); technically called “Tahlíl.”

  414 i.e. Men, angels and devils, the “Triloka” (triple people) of the Hindus. Alamín (plur.), never Alamayn (dual), is the Triregno denoted by the papal Tiara, the three Christian kingdoms being Heaven, Hell and Purgatory.