One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  203 i.e. falsely to report the death.

  204 A famous grammarian, etc., of the tenth century.

  205 The classical Amorium in Phrygia now Anatolia: Anbαr is

  a town (before mentioned) on the Euphrates; by the rules of

  Arabic grammar the word is pronounced (though never written)

  Ambαr.

  206 “Art thou not the slave of the Messiah, the Rαhib (monk)?” “No! I am the slave of Allah, the Rαghib (desirous of mercy from the Almighty). “ A fair specimen of the Saj’a or rhymed prose. Abdallah (properly “Abdu’llah:”) is a kind of neutral name, neither Jewish, Moslem nor Christian; hence I adopted it, (Pilgrimage i. 20.)

  207 Arab. “Hanut,” prop. a tavern where liquors are sold, a term applied contemptuously to shops, inns, etc., kept by Christians.

  208 Arab. “Shirk” = syntheism of the “Mushrik” (one who makes other gods partners with God), a word pronounced “Mushrit” by the Wahhabis and the Badawin.

  209 Koran vii. 195. The passage declaims against the idols of the Arabs, sun, moon. stars, etc.

  210 This minor miracle is commonly reported, and is not, I believe, unknown to modern “Spiritualism.” The dead Wali or Waliyah (Saintess) often impels the bier-bearers to the spot where he would be buried: hence in Cairo the tombs scattered about the city. Lane notices it, Mod. E. chaps. xxviii.

  211 Koran x. 36, speaking of being turned aside from the true worship.

  212 One of the Wazirs of al-Maamun, Kurrat al-Ayn = “coolness (i.e. delight) of the eyes” Ali bin Hishαm surnamed Abu’l-Hasan, was prefect of Baghdad under the same reign.

  213 The Mac. Edit. (ii. 448) reads for Kawαid (plur. of Kαid = Governors, Span. Alcayde) “Fawαid”: hence Lane (ii. 606) translates “ try thy heart.”

  214 The mats of Sind were famous even in my day, but under

  English rule native industries are killed out by Manchester and

  Birmingham.

  215 Sajαh was the name of a famous female impostor, a contemporary of “Musaylimah the Liar.”

  216 A poet of Mohammed’s day.

  217 A singer and composer of the first century (A. H.).

  218 Arab = a roe, a doe; also the Yoni (of women, mares and bitches). It is the Heb. Tabitha and the Greek Dorcas.

  219 Within the Hudϊd al-Harem (bounds of the Holy Places), at Al-Medinah as well as Meccah, all “Muharramαt” (forbidden sins) are doubly unlawful, such as drinking spirits, immoral life, etc. The Imam Malik forbids slaying animals without, however, specifying any penalty. The felling of trees is a disputed point; and no man can be put to death except invaders, infidels and desecraters. (Pilgrimage ii. 167.)

  220 A poet of the first century (A.H.).

  221 In Arab. =a fawn beginning to walk, also the 28th lunar mansion or station, usually known as Batn al-Hut or Whale’s belly. These mansions or houses, the constellations through which the moon passes in her course along her orbit, are much used in Moslem astrology and meteorology.

  222 Arab. Kalla-mα = it is seldom (rare) that etc. used in books.

  223 Dishonoured by his love being made public. So Hafiz,

  Petrarch and Camoens.

  224 Sixth Abbaside, A.D. 809-813.

  225 Ala’llah, tenth Abbaside, A. H. 232-47 (847-61), grandson of Al-Rashid who succeeded Al-Wαsik. He was a fanatic Sunni, much opposed to the Shi’ahs and he ordered the Christians to wear round their necks the Ghull (collar of wood, iron, or leather), to dress in yellow head-gear and girdles, use wooden stirrups and place figures of devils in front of their dwelling-houses. He also gave distinct dresses to their women and slaves. The Ghull, or collar, was also used for a punishment and vermin gathered under it when riveted round the neck: hence Golius calls it “pediculosum columbar.”

  226 Wazir of the above. killed by al-Muntasir Billah A. H. 247 (= 861).

  227 Easterns during purgation are most careful and deride the want of precaution in Europeans. They do not leave the house till all is passed off, and avoid baths, wine and women which they afterwards resume with double zest. Here “breaking the seal” is taking the girl’s maidenhead.

  228 Johannes, a Greek favoured by Al-Mutawakkil and other

  Abbaside Caliphs.

  229 Lady of Shaykhs, elders in the faith and men of learning

  230 = A.D. 1166.

  231 Koran iv. 38. I have before noted what the advantages are.

  232 Koran ii. 282, “of those whom ye shall choose for witnesses.”

  233 Koran iv. 175, “Whereas if there be two sisters, they inherit only two-thirds between them.”

  234 The secondary meaning is “Fα’il” = the active sodomite and “Mafa’ϊl” = the passive, a catamite: the former is not an insulting word, the latter is a most injurious expression. “Novimus et qui te!”

  235 It is an unpleasant fact that almost all the poetry of Hαfiz is addressed to youths, as we see by the occasional introduction of Arabic (e.g., Afαka’llαh). Persian has no genders properly so called, hence the effect is less striking. Sa’di, the “Persian Moralist” begins one of the tales, “A certain learned man fell in love with a beautiful son of a blacksmith,” which Gladwin, translating for the general, necessarily changed to “daughter.”

  236 The famous author of the Anthology called Al-Hamαsah.

  237 i.e., teeth under the young mustachio.

  238 The “Silk man” and the celebrated author of the Makαmαt, assemblies or seances translated (or attempted) into all the languages of Europe. We have two in English, the first by Theodore Preston, M.A. (London, Madden, 1850); but it contains only twenty of the fifty pieces. The second by the late Mr. Chenery (before alluded to) ends with the twenty-sixth assembly: one volume in fact, the other never having been finished. English readers, therefore, are driven to the grand edition of the Makαmαt in folio by Baron Silvestre de Sacy.

  239 The sword of the eye has a Hamαil (baldrick worn over right shoulder, Pilgrimage i. 352) to support the “Ghimd” (vulg. Ghamad) or scabbard (of wood or leather): and this baldrick is the young whisker.

  240 The conceit of “Sulαfat” (ptisane, grape juice allowed to drain on the slabs) and “Sawαlif” (tresses, locks) has been explained. The newest wine is the most inebriating, a fact not much known in England, but familiar to the drinker of “Vino novo.”

  241 Koran xii. 51, this said by the nobleman’s (Potiphar’s) wife who adds, “I selected him to lie with me; and he (Joseph) is one of those who speak truth.”

  242 Here we have a specimen of the strained Saj’a or balanced prose: slave-girls (jawαrν) are massed with flowing tears (dam’u jαri) on account of the Kαfiyah or rhyme.

  243 The detected sodomite is punished with death according to Moslem law, but again comes the difficulty of proof. At Shiraz I have heard of a pious Moslem publicly executing his son.

  244 Koran xxvi. 165 et seq. The Lord speaks to the “people of Lot” (Sodomites). Mr. Payne renders “Min al-αlamνma,” “from the four corners of the world.”

  245 Meaning before and behind, a Moslemah “Bet Balmanno.”

  246 Arab. “ Lϊti,” (plur. Lawαtν), much used in Persian as a buffoon, a debauchee, a rascal. The orig. sig. is “One of (the people of) Lot.” The old English was Ingle or Yngle (a bardachio, a catamite, a boy kept for sodomy), which Minsheu says is, “Vox hispanica et significat Latinθ Inguen” (the groin). Our vulgar modern word like the Italian bugiardo is pop. derived from Fr. Bougre, alias Bulgarus, a Bulgarian, a heretic: hence Boulgrin (Rabelais i. chaps. ii.) is popularly applied to the Albigeois (Albigenses, whose persecution began shortly after A.D. 1200) and the Lutherans. I cannot but think that “bougre” took its especial modern signification after the French became acquainted with the Brazil, where the Huguenots (in A.D. 1555) were founding a Nouvelle France, alias Equinoctiale, alias Antarctique, and whence the savages were carried as curiosities to Paris. Their generic name was “Bugre” (properly a tribe in Southern Brazil, but applied to all the redskins) and they were a
ll born Sodomites. More of this in the terminal Essay.

  247 His paper is the whiteness of his skin. I have quoted the Persian saying of a young beard: “his cheeks don mourning for his beauty’s death.”

  248 Arab. “Khabαl,” lit. the pus which flows from the bodies of the damned.

  249 Most characteristic of Egypt is all this scene. Her reverence, it is true, sits behind a curtain; but her virtue uses language which would shame the lowest European prostitute; and which is filthy almost as Dean Swift’s.

  250 Arab. “Niyat:” the Moslem’s idea of intentions quite runs with the Christian’s. There must be a “Niyat” or purpose of prayer or the devotion is valueless. Lane tells a pleasant tale of a thief in the Mosque, saying “I purpose (before Prayer) to carry off this nice pair of new shoes!”

  251 Arab. “Ya ‘l-Ajϊz” (in Cairo “Agooz” pronounced “Ago-o- oz”): the address is now insulting and would elicit “The old woman in thine eye” (with fingers extended). In Egypt the polite address is “O lady (Sitt), O pilgrimess, O bride, and O daughter” (although she be the wrong side of fifty). In Arabia you may say “O woman (Imraah)” but in Egypt the reply would be “The woman shall see Allah cut out thy heart!” So in Southern Italy you address “bella fι” (fair one) and cause a quarrel by “vecchiarella.”

  252 Governor of Egypt, Khorasan, etc. under Al-Maamun.

  253 i.e., a companion, a solacer: it is also a man’s name (vol. i. xxiv.).

  254 At Baghdad; evidently written by a Baghdad or Mosul man.

  255 A blind traditionist of Bassorah (ninth century).

  256 Arab. “Zaghab”=the chick’s down; the warts on the cucumber which sometimes develop into projections.

  257 The Persian saying is, A kiss without moustachio is bread without salt.

  258 “And We will prove you with evil, and with good, for a trial of you; and unto Us shall ye return.” (Koran xxi. 36.) The saying is always in the Moslem’s mouth.

  259 Arab. “Sunnat,” lit.=a law, especially applied to the habit and practice of the Apostle in religious and semi-religious matters, completing the “Hadis,” or his spoken words. Anything unknown is entitled “Bida’ah”=innovation. Hence the strict Moslem is a model Conservative whose exemplar of life dates from the seventh century. This fact may be casuistically explained away; but is not less an obstacle to all progress and it will be one of the principal dangers threatening Al-Islam. Only fair to say that an “innovation” introduced by a perfect follower of the Prophet is held equal theoretically to a Sunnat; but vulgarly it is said, “The rabble will not take gold which is not coined.”

  260 Arab. “Arsh”=the ninth Heaven, the Throne of the Deity, above the Seven Heavens of the planets and the Primum Mobile which, in the Ptolemaic system, sets them all in motion.

  261 This description of a good Moslem’s death is at once concise, pathetic and picturesque.

  262 This is the first mention of coffee; apparently

  introduced by the scribe: the word rendered “coffee-makers” is

  “Kahwajiyah”; an Arab. plur. of a Turkish termination (-ji) to an

  Arab. word “Kahwah” (before noticed).

  263 Picnics are still made to Rauzah (Rodah) island: I have enjoyed many a one, but the ground is all private property.

  264 Arab. “Hosh,” plur. Hνshαn, the low courts surrounded by mean lodgings which in “native” Cairo still contrast so strongly with the “gingerbread” of the new buildings.

  265 This is the Moslem equivalent of “thank you.” He looks upon the donor as the channel through which Allah sends him what he wants and prays for more to come. Thus “May your shadow never be less” means, May you increase in prosperity so that I may gain thereby! And if a beggar is disposed to be insolent (a very common case), he will tell you his mind pretty freely on the subject, and make it evident to you that all you have is also his and that La propriιtι (when not shared) est le vol.

  266 I have noticed in my Pilgrimage (i. 51-53) the kindly care with which the stranger is treated by Moslems, a marvellous contrast to the ways of “civilization.”

  267 Arab. “Dimyat,” vulg. pronounced “Dumνyat.”

  268 Where the door-keepers sit and receive their friends.

  269 This is a traveller’s ‘Kit’ in the East.

  270 Arab. “Takht-rawαn,” from Persian meaning “moveable throne.”

  271 The use of the expression proved the speaker to be a

  Moslem Jinnν.

  272 The “haunted” house proper, known to the vulgar and to spiritualists becomes, I have said, amongst Moslems a place tenanted by Jinns.

  273 Needless to say there never was a Sultan or a King of Baghdad nor a Duke of Athens. This story would seem not to have been written by the author of “the Emir bin Tahir,” etc. Night ccccxxiv.

  274 Plur. of Αlim=one learned in the law, a D.D. Mohammed did his best to abolish the priest and his craft by making each Moslem paterfamilias a pontifex in his own household and he severely condemned monkery and celibacy. But human nature was too much for him: even before his death ascetic associations began to crop up. Presently the Olema in Al-Islam formed themselves into a kind of clergy; with the single but highly important difference that they must (or ought to) live by some honest secular calling and not by the “cure of souls”; hence Mahomet IV. of Turkey was solemnly deposed. So far and no farther Mohammed was successful and his success has secured for him the lively and lasting hatred of the ecclesiastical caste which he so honestly and wisely attempted to abate. Even to the present day missionaries have a good word for the Guebre and the Buddhist, the Brahmanist and the Confucian, but none for the Moslem: Dr. Livingstone, for one instance of many, evidently preferred the Fetichist, whom he could convert, to the Unitarian Faithful whom he could not.

  275 i.e. they recited seven times (an unusual number), for greater solemnity, the opening Chapter of the Koran which does general duty on such occasions as making covenants and swearing fealty. This proclaiming a King by acclamation suggests the origin of the old and venerable Portuguese institution.

  276 By affixing his own seal and that of the King. This in later times was supplanted by the “Tughrα,” the imperial cypher or counter-mark (much like a writing master’s flourish), with which Europe has now been made familiar through the agency of Turkish tobacco.

  277 Arab. “Wird”=the twenty-five last chapters of the Koran which are repeated, one or more at a time, after the end of the “Farz,” or obligatory prayers and ad libitum with the Sunnat or customary, and the Nαfilah or supererogatory.

  278 The sensible creed of Al-Islam freely allows anthropophagy when it saves life; a contrast to the sentimentalism of the West which brings a “charge of cannibalism” against unfortunate expeditionists. I particularly allude to the scandalous pulings of the English Press over the gallant and unfortunate Greely voyage. (The Academy, Sept. 25, 1884.)

  279 The story is mere Ζsopic: the “Two dogs” contains it all. One of Mohammed’s sensible sayings is recorded and deserves repetition:— “Empire endureth with infidelity (idolatry, etc.), but not with tyranny.”

  280 This couplet occurs in Night xxi. (vol. i. 207); so I give Torrens (p.207) by way of variety.

  281 Lane (ii. 636) omits this tale, “as it would not only require a volume of commentary but be extremely tiresome to most readers.” Quite true; but it is valuable to Oriental Students who are beginning their studies, as an excellent compendium of doctrine and practice according to the Shafi’ν School.

  282 Pronounced Aboo ‘l-Husn = Father of Beauty, a fancy name.

  283 As in most hot climates so in Egypt the dead are buried at once despite the risk of vivisepulture. This seems an instinct with the Semitic (Arabian) race teste Abraham, as with the Gypsy. Hence the Moslems have invoked religious aid. The Mishkαt al-Masαbih (i. 387) makes Mohammed say, “When any one of you dieth you may not keep him in the house but bear him quickly to his grave”; and again, “Be quick in raising up the bier: for if the d
ead have been a good man, it is good to bear him gravewards without delay; and if bad, it is frowardness ye put from your necks.”

  284 This biting of the hand in Al-Harνri expresses bitterness of repentance and he uses more than once the Koranic phrase (chapter vii., 148) “Sukita fν aydνhim,” lit. where it (the biting) was fallen upon their hands; i.e. when it repented them; “sukita” being here not a passive verb as it appears, but an impersonal form uncommon in Arabic. The action is instinctive, a survival of the days when man was a snarling and snapping animal (physically) armed only with claws and teeth.

  285 Arab. “‘Alam,” applied to many things, an “old man” of stones (Kαkϊr), a signpost with a rag on the top, etc.

  286 The moon of Ramazan was noticed in Night ix. That of Sha’aban (eighth month) begins the fighting month after the conclusion of the Treuga Dei in Rajab. See Night ccclxxviii.

  287 These lines have occurred in Night cccxix. I give Mr.

  Payne’s version for variety.

  288 i.e. in her prime, at fourteen to fifteen.

  289 i.e. pale and yellow.

  290 The word means the wood; but it alludes to a preparation made by levigating it on a stone called in India “Sandlαsα.” The gruel-like stuff is applied with the right hand to the right side of the neck, drawing the open fingers from behind forwards so as to leave four distinct streaks, then down to the left side, and so on to the other parts of the body.

  291 Arab. “Haykal” which included the Porch, the Holy and

  the Holy of Holies. The word is used as in a wider sense by

  Josephus A. J. v. v. 3. In Moslem writings it is applied to a

  Christian Church generally, on account of its images.

  292 These lines having occurred before, I here quote Mr.

  Payne.

  293 Arab writers often mention the smile of beauty, but rarely, after European fashion, the laugh, which they look upon as undignified. A Moslem will say “Don’t guffaw (Kahkahah) in that way; leave giggling and grinning to monkeys and Christians.” The Spaniards, a grave people, remark that Christ never laughed. I would draw the reader’s attention to a theory of mine that the open-hearted laugh has the sound of the vowels a and o; while e, i, and u belong to what may be roughly classed as the rogue order.