One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  313 The Persian hero of romance who converses with the

  Simurgh or Griffin.

  314 The word is as much used in Egypt as wunderbar in

  Germany. As an exclamation is equivalent to “mighty fine!”

  315 In modern days used in a bad sense, as a freethinker, etc. So Dalilah the Wily is noted to be a philosopheress.

  316 The game is much mixed up after Arab fashion. The

  “Tufat” is the Siyáhgosh= Black-ears, of India (Felis caracal),

  the Persian lynx, which gives very good sport with Dachshunds.

  Lynxes still abound in the thickets near Cairo

  317 The “Sons of Kahtán,” especially the Ya’arubah tribe, made much history in Oman. Ya’arub (the eponymus) is written Ya’arab and Ya’arib; but Ya’arub (from Ya’arubu Aorist of ‘Aruba) is best, because according to all authorities he was the first to cultivate primitive Arabian speech and Arabic poetry. (Caussin de Perceval’s Hist. des Arabes i.50, etc.)

  318 He who shooteth an arrow by night. See the death of Antar shot down in the dark by the archer Jazár, son of Jábír, who had been blinded by a red hot sabre passed before his eyes. I may note that it is a mere fiction of Al-Asma’i, as the real ‘Antar (or ‘Antarah) lived to a good old age, and probably died the “straw death.”

  319 See vol. ii., , for a reminiscence of masterful

  King Kulayb and his Himá or domain. Here the phrase would mean,

  “None could approach them when they were wroth; none were safe

  from their rage.”

  320 The sons of Nabhán (whom Mr. Badger calls Nebhán) supplied the old Maliks or Kings of Oman. (History of the Imams and Sayyids of Oman, etc., London, Hakluyt Soc. 1871.)

  321 This is a sore insult in Arabia, where they have not dreamt of a “Jawab-club,” like that of Calcutta in the old days, to which only men who had been half a dozen times “jawab’d” (= refused in Anglo-lndian jargon) could belong. “I am not a stallion to be struck on the nose,” say the Arabs.

  322 Again “inverted speech”: it is as if we said, “Now, you’re a damned fine fellow, so,” etc. “Allah curse thee! Thou hast guarded thy women alive and dead;” said the man of Sulaym in admiration after thrusting his spear into the eye of dead Rabi’ah.

  323 The Badawi use javelins or throw-spears of many kinds, especially the prettily worked Mizrák (Pilgrimage i. 349); spears for footmen (Shalfah, a bamboo or palm-stick with a head about a hand broad), and the knightly lance, a male bamboo some 12 feet long with iron heel and a long tapering point often of open work or damascened steel, under which are tufts of black ostrich feathers, one or two. I never saw a crescent-shaped head as the text suggests. It is a “Pundonor” not to sell these weapons: you say, “Give me that article and I will satisfy thee!” After which the Sons of the Sand will haggle over each copper as if you were cheapening a sheep. (Ibid. iii. 73.)

  324 The shame was that Gharib had seen the girl and had fallen in love with her beauty instead of applying for her hand in recognised form. These punctilios of the Desert are peculiarly nice and tetchy; nor do strangers readily realise them.

  325 The Arabs derive these Noachidć from Imlik, great- grandson of Shem, who after the confusion of tongues settled at Sana’a, then moved North to Meccah and built the fifth Ka’abah. The dynastic name was Arkam, M. C. de Perceval’s “Arcam,” which he would identify with Rekem (Numbers xxxi. 8). The last Arkam fell before an army sent by Moses to purge the Holy Land (Al- Hijaz) of idolatry. Commentators on the Koran (chaps. vii.) call the Pharaoh of Moses Al-Walid and derive him from the Amalekites: we have lately ascertained that this Mene-Ptah was of the Shepherd-Kings and thus, according to the older Moslems, the Hyksos were of the seed of Imlik. (Pilgrimage ii. 116, and iii. 190.) In Syria they fought with Joshua son of Nun. The tribe or rather nationality was famous and powerful: we know little about it and I may safely predict that when the Amalekite country shall have been well explored, it will produce monuments second in importance only to the Hittites. “A nomadic tribe which occupied the Peninsula of Sinai” (Smith’s Dict. of the Bible) is peculiarly superficial, even for that most superficial of books.

  326 The Amalekites were giants and lived 500 years.

  (Pilgrimage, loc. cit.)

  327 His men being ninety against five hundred.

  328 Arab. “Kaum” (pron. Gúm) here=a razzia, afterwards=a tribe. Relations between Badawi tribes are of three kinds; (1) Asháb, allies offensive and defensive, friends who intermarry; (2) Kímán (plur. of Kaum) when the blood-feud exists, and (3) Akhwan= brothers. The last is a complicated affair, “Akháwat” or brotherhood, denotes the tie between patron and client (a noble and an ignoble tribe) or between the stranger and the tribe which claims an immemorial and unalienable right to its own lands. Hence a small fee (Al-Rifkah) must be paid and the traveller and his beast become “dakhíl,” or entitled to brother-help. The guardian is known in the West as Rafík; Rabí’a in Eastern Arabia; Ghafír in “Sinai ;” amongst the Somal, Abbán and the Gallas Mogásá. Further details are given in Pilgrimage iii. 85-87.

  329 Arab. “Mál,” here=Badawi money, flocks and herds, our “fee” from feoh, vieh, cattle; as pecunia from pecus, etc., etc.

  330 The litholatry of the old Arabs is undisputed: Manát the goddess-idol was a large rude stone and when the Meccans sent out colonies these carried with them stones of the Holy Land to be set up and worshipped like the Ka’abah. I have suggested (Pilgrimage iii. 159) that the famous Black Stone of Meccah, which appears to me a large aerolite, is a remnant of this worship and that the tomb of Eve near Jeddah was the old “Sakhrah tawílah” or Long Stone (ibid. iii. 388). Jeddah is now translated the grandmother, alluding to Eve, a myth of late growth: it is properly Juddah=a plain lacking water.

  331 The First Adites, I have said, did not all perish: a few believers retired with the prophet Hud (Heber ?) to Hazramaut. The Second Adites, who had Márib of the Dam for capital and Lukman for king, were dispersed by the Flood of Al-Yaman. Their dynasty lasted a thousand years, the exodus taking place according to De Sacy in A.D. 150-170 or shortly after A.D. 100 (C. de Perceval), and was overthrown by Ya’arub bin Kahtán, the first Arabist; see Night dcxxv.

  332 This title has been noticed: it suggests the “Saint Abraham” of our medaeval travellers. Every great prophet has his agnomen: Adam the Pure (or Elect) of Allah, Noah the Nájiy (or saved) of Allah; Moses (Kalím) the Speaker with Allah; Jesus the Rúh (Spirit breath) or Kalám (the word) of Allah. For Mohammed’s see Al-Busiri’s Mantle-poem vv. 31-58.

  333 Koran (chaps. iii. 17), “Verily the true religion in the

  sight of Allah is Islam” i.e. resigning or devoting myself to the

  Lord, with a suspicion of “Salvation” conveyed by the root

  Salima, he was safe.

  334 Arab. “Sá’ikah,” which is supposed to be a stone. The allusion is to Antar’s sword, “Dhámi,” made of a stone, black, brilliant and hard as a rock (an aerolite), which had struck a camel on the right side and had come out by the left. The blacksmith made it into a blade three feet long by two spans broad, a kind of falchion or chopper, cased it with gold and called it Dhámi (the “Trenchant”) from its sharpness. But he said to the owner: —

  The sword is trenchant, O son of the Ghalib clan,

  Trenchant in sooth, but where is the sworder-man?

  Whereupon the owner struck off the maker’s head, a most satisfactory answer to all but one.

  335 Arab. “Kutá’ah”: lit. a bit cut off, fragment, nail- paring, and here un diminutif. I have described this scene in Pilgrimage iii. 68. Latro often says, “Thy gear is wanted by the daughter of my paternal uncle” (wife), and thus parades his politeness by asking in a lady’s name.

  336 As will appear the two brothers were joined by a party of horsemen.

  337 “Four” says the Mac. Edit. forgetting Falhun with characteristic inconsequence.

  338 Muhammad (the deserving great praise) is the name used by me
n; Ahmad (more laudable) by angels, and Mahmúd (praised) by devils. For a similar play upon the name, “Allah Allah Muhammad ast” (God is God the praisworthy) see Dabistan ii. 416.

  339 The Mac. Edit. here gives “Sás,” but elsewhere “Sásá,” which is the correct form

  340 Sapor the Second (A.D. 310-330) was compelled to attack the powerful Arab hordes of Oman, most of whom, like the Tayy, Aus and Khazraj, the Banu Nabhán and the Hináwi left Al-Yaman A.D. 100-170, and settled in the north and north-east of Al-Najd This great exodus and dispersion of the tribes was caused, as has been said, by the bursting of the Dam of Márib originally built by Abd al-Shams Sabá, father of Himyar. These Yamanian races were plunged into poverty and roamed northwards, planting themselves amongst the Arabs of Ma’add son of Adnán. Hence the kingdom of Ghassan in Syria whose phylarchs under the Romans (i.e. Greek Emperors of Constantinople) controlled Palestine Tertia, the Arabs of Syria and Palestine, and the kingdom of Hárah, whose Lakhmite Princes, dependent upon Persia, managed the Arabs of the Euphrates, Oman and Al-Bahrayn. The Ma’addites still continued to occupy the central plateau of Arabia, a feature analogous with India “above the Ghauts.”

  341 I have described (Pilgrimage i. 370) the grisly spot which a Badawi will dignify by the name of Wady al-Ward=Vale of Roses.

  342 Koran xiii. 3, “Of every fruit two different kinds “ i.e. large and small, black and white, sweet and sour.

  343 A graft upon an almond tree, which makes its kernel s..veet and gives it an especial delicacy of favour. See Russell’s (excellent) Natural History of Aleppo, .

  344 So called from the flavour of the kernel it is well- known at Damascus where a favourite fruit is the dried apricot with an almond by way of kernel. There are many preparations of apricots, especially the “Mare’s skin” (Jild al-fares or Kamar al-din) a paste folded into sheets and exactly resembling the article from which it takes a name. When wanted it is dissolved in water and eaten as a relish with bread or biscuit (Pilgrimage i. 289).

  345 “Ante Kamá takúl”=the vulgarest Cairene.

  346 This may be Ctesiphon, the ancient capital of the

  Chosroës, on the Tigris below Baghdad; and spoken of elsewhere in

  The Nights; especially as, in Night dclxvii., it is called

  Isbanir Al-Madáin; Madáin Kisrá (the cities of Chosroës) being

  the Arabic name of the old dual city.

  347 Koran vi. 103. The translation is Sale’s which I have generally preferred, despite many imperfections: Lane renders this sentence, “The eyes see not Him, but He seeth the eyes ;” and Mr. Rodwell, “No vision taketh in Him ( ?), but He taketh in all vision ,” and (better) “No eyesight reacheth to Him.”

  348 Sale (sect. 1.) tells us all that was then known of these three which with Yá’úk and Nasr and the three “daughters of God,” Goddesses or Energies (the Hindu Saktis) Allát Al-Uzzá and Manát mentioned in the Koran were the chiefs of the pre-lslamitic Pantheon. I cannot but suspect that all will be connected with old Babylonian worship. Al-Baydáwi (in Kor. Ixxi. 22) says of Wadd, Suwá’a, Yaghus, Ya’úk and Nasr that they were names of pious men between Adam and Noah, afterwards deified: Yaghús was the giant idol of the Mazhaj tribe at Akamah of Al-Yaman and afterwards at Najrán Al-Uzzá was widely worshipped: her idol (of the tree Semurat) belonging to Ghatafán was destroyed after the Prophet’s order by Khálid bin Walíd. Allát or Al-Lát is written by Pocock (spec. 110) “Ilahat” i.e. deities in general. But Herodotus evidently refers to one god when he makes the Arabs worship Dionysus as {Greek letters} and Urania as {Greek letters} and the “tashdid” in Allát would, to a Greek ear, introduce another syllable (Alilat). This was the goddess of the Kuraysh and Thakíf whose temple at Taíf was circuited like the Ka’abah before Mohammed destroyed it.

  349 Shays (Shayth) is Ab Seth (Father Seth,) of the Hebrews, a name containing the initial and terminal letters of the Egypto- Phoenico-Hebrew Alphabet and the “Abjad” of the Arabs. Those curious about its connection with the name of Allah (El), the Zodiacal signs and with the constellations, visions but not wholly uninteresting, will consult “Unexplored Syria” (vol. i. 33).

  350 The exclamation of an honest Fellah.

  351 This is Antar with the Chosroë who “kissed the Absian hero between the eyes and bade him adieu, giving him as a last token a rich robe.” The coarser hand of the story-teller exaggerates everything till he makes it ridiculous.

  352 The context suggests thee this is a royal form of “throwing the handkerchief;” but it does not occur elsewhere. In face, the European idea seems to have arisen from the oriental practice of sending presents in napkins or kerchiefs.

  353 i.e. if the disappointed suitor attack me.

  354 i.e. if ever I he tempted to deny it.

  355 Arab. “Musáfahah,¨’ the Arab fashion of shaking hands. The right palms are applied flat to each other; then the fingers are squeezed and the hand is raised to the forehead (Pilgrimage ii. 332).

  356 A city and province of Khuzistán the old Susiana. Dasht may be either the town in Khorasan or the “forests” (dasht) belonging to Ahwáz (Ahuaz in D’Herbelot).

  357 This is the contest between “Antar and the Satrap Khosrewan at the Court of Monzer.” but without its tragical finish.

  358 Elliptical “he rode out in great state, that is to say if greatness can truly be attributed to man,” for, etc.

  359 According to D’Herbelot (s.v. Rostac) it is a name given to the villages of Khorasan as “Souad” (Sawád) to those of Irak and Makhlaf to those of Al-Yaman: there is, how ever, a well- known Al-Rustak (which like Al-Bahrayn always takes the article) in the Province of Oman West of Maskat, and as it rhymes with “Irak” it does well enough. Mr. Badger calls this ancient capital of the Ya’arubah Imams “er-Rasták” (Imams of Oman).

  360 i.e. a furious knight.

  361 In the Mac. Edit. “Hassán,” which may rhyme with Nabhán, but it is a mere blunder.

  362 In Classical Arabic Irak (like Yaman, Bahrayn and

  Rusták) always takes the article.

  363 The story-teller goes back from Kufah founded in Omar’s day to the times of Abraham.

  364 This manuvre has often been practiced; especially by the first Crusaders under Bohemond (Gibbon) and in late years by the Arab slavers in Eastern Intertropical Africa. After their skirmishes with the natives they quartered and “bristled” the dead like game, roasted and boiled the choice pieces and pretended to eat the flesh. The enemy, who was not afraid of death, was struck with terror by the idea of being devoured, and this seems instinctive to the undeveloped mind.

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  VOLUME VII.

  I Inscribe these pages

  to

  An Old And Valued Friend,

  John W. Larking

  (Whilome of Alexandria).

  In Whose Hospitable Home (“The Sycamores”) I Made My Final

  Preparations For A Pilgrimage To Meccah

  and El-Medinah.

  R. F. Burton

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  The History of Gharib and His Brother Ajib (continued)

  When it was the Six Hundred and Thirty-seventh Night,

  Shahrazad continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sa’adan having broken into the palace of King Jamak and pounded to pieces those therein, the survivors cried out, “Quarter! Quarter!”; and Sa’adan said to them, “Pinion your King!” So they bound Jamak and took him up, and Sa’adan drove them before him like sheep and brought them to Gharib’s presence, after the most part of the citizens had perished by the enemy’s swords. When the King of Babel came to himself, he found himself bound and heard Sa’adan say, “I will sup to-night off this King Jamak:” whereupon he turned to Gharib and cried to him, “I throw myself on thy mercy.” Replied Gharib, “Become a Moslem, and thou shalt be safe from the Ghul and from the vengeance of the Living One who ceaseth not.” S
o Jamak professed Al-Islam with heart and tongue and Gharib bade loose his bonds. Then he expounded The Faith to his people and they all became True Believers; after which Jamak returned to the city and despatched thence provaunt and henchmen to Gharib; and wine to the camp before Babel where they passed the night. On the morrow, Gharib gave the signal for the march and they fared on till they came to Mayyáfárikín,1 which they found empty, for its people had heard what had befallen Babel and had fled to Cufa-city and told Ajib. When he heard the news, his Doom-day appeared to him and he assembled his braves and informing them of the enemy’s approach ordered them make ready to do battle with his brother’s host; after which he numbered them and found them thirty thousand horse and ten thousand foot.2 So, needing more, he levied other fifty- thousand men, cavalry and infantry, and taking horse amid a mighty host, rode forwards, till he came upon his brother’s army encamped before Mosul and pitched his tents in face of their lines. Then Gharib wrote a writ and said to his officers, “Which of you will carry this letter to Ajib?” Whereupon Sahim sprang to his feet and cried, “O King of the Age, I will bear thy missive and bring thee back an answer.” So Gharib gave him the epistle and he repaired to the pavilion of Ajib who, when informed of his coming, said, “Admit him!” and when he stood in the presence asked him, “Whence comest thou?” Answered Sahim, “From the King of the Arabs and the Persians, son-in-law of Chosroë, King of the world, who sendeth thee a writ; so do thou return him a reply.” Quoth Ajib, “Give me the letter;” accordingly Sahim gave it to him and he tore it open and found therein, “In the name of Allah the Compassionating, the Compassionate! Peace on Abraham the Friend await! But afterwards. As soon as this letter shall come to thy hand, do thou confess the Unity of the Bountiful King, Causer of causes and Mover of the clouds;3 and leave worshipping idols. An thou do this thing, thou art my brother and ruler over us and I will pardon thee the deaths of my father and mother, nor will I reproach thee with what thou hast done. But an thou obey not my bidding, behold, I will hasten to thee and cut off thy head and lay waste thy dominions. Verily, I give thee good counsel, and the Peace be on those who pace the path of salvation and obey the Most High King!” When Ajib read these words and knew the threat they contained, his eyes sank into the crown of his head and he gnashed his teeth and flew into a furious rage. Then he tore the letter in pieces and threw it away, which vexed Sahim and he cried out upon Ajib, saying, “Allah wither thy hand for the deed thou hast done!” With this Ajib cried out to his men, saying, “Seize yonder hound and hew him in pieces with your hangers.’’4 So they ran at Sahim; but he bared blade and fell upon them and slew of them more than fifty braves; after which he cut his way out, though bathed in blood, and won back to Gharib, who said, “What is this case, O Sahim?” And he told him what had passed, whereat he grew livid for rage and crying “Allaho Akbar God is most great!” bade the battle-drums beat. So the fighting-men donned their hauberks and coats of straitwoven mail and baldrick’d themselves with their swords; the footmen drew out in battle-array, whilst the horsemen mounted their prancing horses and dancing camels and levelled their long lances, and the champions rushed into the field. Ajib and his men also took horse and host charged down upon host. — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.