One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  163 Arab. “Judad,” plur. of Jadíd, lit.= new coin, ergo applied to those old and obsolete; 10 Judad were= one nusf or half dirham.

  164 Arab. “Raff,” a shelf proper, running round the room about 7-7˝ feet from the ground. During my day it was the fashion in Damascus to range in line along the Raff splendid porcelain bowls brought by the Caravans in olden days from China, whilst on the table were placed French and English specimens of white and gold “china” worth perhaps a franc each.

  165 Lane supposes that the glass and china-ware had fallen upon the divan running round the walls under the Raff and were not broken.

  166 These lines have occurred in Night dclxxxix. vol. vii. . I quote Lane.

  167 The lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne.

  168 This formula, I repeat, especially distinguishes the

  Tale of Hasan of Bassorah.

  169 These lines have occurred in vol. 1. 249. I quote Lane.

  170 She speaks to the “Gallery,” who would enjoy a loud laugh against Mistress Gadabout. The end of the sentence must speak to the heart of many a widow.

  171 These lines occur in vol. i. 25: so I quote Mr. Payne.

  172 Arab. “Musáhikah;” the more usual term for a Tribade is “Sahíkah” from “Sahk” in the sense of rubbing: both also are applied to onanists and masturbators of the gender feminine.

  173 i.e. by way of halter. This jar is like the cask in Auerbach’s Keller; and has already been used by witches; Night dlxxxvii. vol. vi. 158.

  174 Here they are ten but afterwards they are reduced to seven: I see no reason for changing the text with Lane and Payne.

  175 Wazir of Solomon. See vol. i. 42; and vol. iii. 97.

  176 Arab. “Ism al-A’azam,” the Ineffable Name, a superstition evidently derived from the Talmudic fancies of the Jews concerning their tribal god, Yah or Yahvah.

  177 The tradition is that Mohámmed asked Akáf al-Wadá’ah “Hast a wife?”; and when answered in the negative, “Then thou appertainest to the brotherhood of Satans! An thou wilt be one of the Christian monks then company therewithal; but an thou be of us, know that it is our custom to marry!”

  178 The old woman, in the East as in the West, being the most vindictive of her kind. I have noted (Pilgrimage iii. 70) that a Badawi will sometimes though in shame take the blood-wit; but that if it be offered to an old woman she will dash it to the ground and clutch her knife and fiercely swear by Allah that she will not eat her son’s blood.

  179 Neither dome nor fount etc. are mentioned before, the normal inadvertency.

  180 In Eastern travel the rest comes before the eating and drinking.

  181 Arab. “‘Id” (pron.’Eed) which I have said (vol. i. 42, 317) is applied to the two great annual festivals, the “Fęte of Sacrifice,” and the “Break-Fast.” The word denotes restoration to favour and Moslems explain as the day on which Adam (and Eve) who had been expelled from Paradise for disobedience was re-established (U’ída) by the relenting of Allah. But the name doubtless dates amongst Arabs from days long before they had heard of the “Lord Nomenclator.”

  182 Alluding to Hasan seizing her feather dress and so taking her to wife.

  183 Arab. “Kharajú”=they (masc.) went forth, a vulgarism for “Kharajna” (fem.)

  184 Note the notable housewife who, at a moment when youth would forget everything, looks to the main chance.

  185 Arab. “Al-Malakút” (not “Malkút” as in Freytag) a Sufi term for the world of Spirits (De Lacy Christ, Ar. i. 451). Amongst Eastern Christians it is vulgarly used in the fem. and means the Kingdom of Heaven, also the preaching of the Gospel.

  186 This is so rare, even amongst the poorest classes in the East, that it is mentioned with some emphasis.

  187 A beauty among the Egyptians, not the Arabs.

  188 True Fellah— “chaff.”

  189 Alluding to the well-known superstition, which has often appeared in The Nights, that the first object seen in the morning, such as a crow, a cripple, or a cyclops determines the fortunes of the day. Notices in Eastern literature are as old as the days of the Hitopadesa; and there is a something instinctive in the idea to a race of early risers. At an hour when the senses are most impressionable the aspect of unpleasant spectacles has double effect.

  190 Arab. “Masúkah,” the stick used for driving cattle, bâton gourdin (Dozy). Lane applies the word to a wooden plank used for levelling the ground.

  191 i.e. the words I am about to speak to thee.

  192 Arab. “Sahifah,” which may mean “page” (Lane) or “book”

  (Payne).

  193 Pronounce, “Abussa’ádát” = Father of Prosperities:

  Lane imagines that it came from the Jew’s daughter being called

  “Sa’adat.” But the latter is the Jew’s wife (Night dcccxxxiii)

  and the word in the text is plural.

  194 Arab. “Furkh samak” lit. a fish-chick, an Egyptian vulgarism.

  195 Arab. “Al-Rasif”; usually a river-quay, levée, an embankment. Here it refers to the great dyke which distributed the Tigris-water.

  196 Arab. “Dajlah,” see vol. i, p 180. It is evidently the origin of the biblical “Hid-dekel” “Hid” = fierceness, swiftness.

  197 Arab. “Bayáz” a kind of Silurus (S. Bajad, Forsk.) which Sonnini calls Bayatto, Saksatt and Hébedé; also Bogar (Bakar, an ox). The skin is lubricous, the flesh is soft and insipid and the fish often grows to the size of a man. Captain Speke and I found huge specimens in the Tangany ika Lake.

  198 Arab. “Mu’allim,” vulg. “M’allim,” prop.= teacher, master esp. of a trade, a craft. In Egypt and Syria it is a civil address to a Jew or a Christian, as Hájj is to a Moslem.

  199 Arab. “Gharámah,” an exaction, usually on the part of government like a corvée etc. The Europeo-Egyptian term is Avania (Ital.) or Avanie (French).

  200 Arab. “Sayyib-hu” an Egyptian vulgarism found also in Syria. Hence Sáibah, a woman who lets herself go (a-whoring) etc. It is syn. with “Dashar,” which Dozy believes to be a softening of Jashar; and Jashsh became Dashsh.

  201 The Silurus is generally so called in English on account of its feeler-acting mustachios.

  202 See Night dcccvii, vol. viii. .

  203 This extraordinary confusion of two distinct religious mythologies cannot be the result of ignorance. Educated Moslems know at least as much as Christians do, on these subjects, but the Rawi or story-teller speaks to the “Gallery.” In fact it becomes a mere ‘chaff’ and The Nights give some neat specimens of our modern linguistic.

  204 See vol. ii. 197. “Al-Siddíkah” (fem.) is a title of

  Ayishah, who, however, does not appear to have deserved it.

  205 The Jew’s wife.

  206 Here is a double entendre. The fisherman meant a word or two. The Jew understood the Shibboleth of the Moslem Creed, popularly known as the “Two Words,” — I testify that there is no Ilah (god) but Allah (the God) and I testify that Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah. Pronouncing this formula would make the Jew a Moslem. Some writers are surprised to see a Jew ordering a Moslem to be flogged; but the former was rich and the latter was poor. Even during the worst days of Jewish persecutions their money-bags were heavy enough to lighten the greater part, if not the whole of their disabilities. And the Moslem saying is, “The Jew is never your (Moslem or Christian) equal: he must be either above you or below you.” This is high, because unintentional praise of the (self-) Chosen People.

  207 He understands the “two words” (Kalmatáni) the Moslem’s double profession of belief; and Khalifah’s reply embodies the popular idea that the number of Moslems (who will be saved) is preordained and that no art of man can add to it or take from it.

  208 Arab. “Mamarr al-Tujjár” (passing-place of the traders) which Lane renders “A chamber within the place through which the traders passed.” At the end of the tale (Night dccxlv.) we find him living in a Khan and the Bresl. Edit. (see my terminal note) makes him dwell in a magazine
(i.e. ground- floor store-room) of a ruined Khan.

  209 The text is somewhat too concise and the meaning is that the fumes of the Hashish he had eaten (“his mind under the influence of hasheesh,” says Lane) suggested to him, etc.

  210 Arab. “Mamrak” either a simple aperture in ceiling or roof for light and air or a more complicated affair of lattice- work and plaster; it is often octagonal and crowned with a little dome. Lane calls it “Memrak,” after the debased Cairene pronunciation, and shows its base in his sketch of a Ka’áh (M.E., Introduction).

  211 Arab. “Kamar.” This is a practice especially amongst pilgrims. In Hindostan the girdle, usually a waist-shawl, is called Kammar-band our old “Cummerbund.” Easterns are too sensible not to protect the pit of the stomach, that great ganglionic centre, against sun, rain and wind, and now our soldiers in India wear flannel-belts on the march.

  212 Arab. “Fa-immá ‘alayhá wa-immá bihá,” i.e. whether (luck go) against it or (luck go) with it.

  213 “O vilest of sinners!” alludes to the thief. “A general plunge into worldly pursuits and pleasures announced the end of the pilgrimage-ceremonies. All the devotees were now “whitewashed” — the book of their sins was a tabula rasa: too many of them lost no time in making a new departure down South and in opening a fresh account” (Pilgrimage iii. 365). I have noticed that my servant at Jeddah would carry a bottle of Raki, uncovered by a napkin, through the main streets.

  214 The copper cucurbites in which Solomon imprisoned the rebellious Jinns, often alluded to in The Nights.

  215 i.e. Son of the Chase: it is prob. a corruption of the Persian Kurnas, a pimp, a cuckold, and introduced by way of chaff, intelligible only to a select few “fast” men.

  216 For the name see vol. ii.61, in the Tale of Ghánim bin

  ‘Ayyúb where the Caliph’s concubine is also drugged by the Lady

  Zubaydah.

  217 We should say, “What is this?” etc. The lines have occurred before so I quote Mr. Payne.

  218 Zubaydah, I have said, was the daughter of Ja’afar, son of the Caliph al-Mansur, second Abbaside. The story-teller persistently calls her daughter of Al-Kásim for some reason of his own; and this he will repeat in Night dcccxxxix.

  219 Arab. “Shakhs,” a word which has travelled as far as

  Hindostan.

  220 Arab. “Shamlah” described in dictionaries, as a cloak covering the whole body. For Hizám (girdle) the Bresl. Edit. reads “Hirám” vulg. “Ehrám,” the waist-cloth, the Pilgrim’s attire.

  221 He is described by Al-Siyúti () as “very fair, tall handsome and of captivating appearance.”

  222 Arab. “Uzn al-Kuffah” lit. “Ear of the basket,” which vulgar Egyptians pronounce “Wizn,” so “Wajh” (face) becomes “Wishsh” and so forth.

  223 Arab. “Bi-fardayn” = with two baskets, lit. “two singles,” but the context shows what is meant. English Frail and French Fraile are from Arab. “Farsalah” a parcel (now esp. of coffee-beans) evidently derived from the low Lat. “Parcella” (Du Cange, Paris, firmin Didot 1845). Compare “ream,” vol. v. 109.

  224 Arab. “Sátúr,” a kind of chopper which here would be used for the purpose of splitting and cleaning and scaling the fish.

  225 And, consequently, that the prayer he is about to make will find ready acceptance.

  226 Arab. “Ruh bilá Fuzúl” (lit. excess, exceeding) still a popular phrase.

  227 i.e. better give the fish than have my head broken.

  228 Said ironicč, a favourite figure of speech with the

  Fellah: the day began badly and threatened to end unluckily.

  229 The penalty of Theft. See vol. i. 274.

  230 This is the model of a courtly compliment; and it would still be admired wherever Arabs are not “frankified.”

  231 Arab. “Shibábah;” Lane makes it a kind of reed- flageolet.

  232 These lines occur in vol. i. 76: I quote Mr. Payne.

  233 The instinctive way of juggling with Heaven like our sanding the sugar and going to church.

  234 Arab. “Yá Shukayr,” from Shakar, being red (clay, etc.): Shukár is an anemone or a tulip and Shukayr is its dim. Form. Lane’s Shaykh made it a dim. of “Ashkar” = tawny, ruddy (of complexion), so the former writes, “O Shukeyr.” Mr. Payne prefers “O Rosy cheeks.”

  235 For “Sandal,” see vol. ii. {55}. Sandalí properly means an Eunuch clean rasé, but here Sandal is a P.N. = Sandal-wood.

  236 Arab. “Yá mumátil,” one who retards payment.

  237 Arab. “Kirsh al-Nukhál” = Guts of bran, a term little fitted for the handsome and distinguished Persian. But Khalifah is a Fellah-grazioso of normal assurance shrewd withal; he blunders like an Irishman of the last generation and he uses the first epithet that comes to his tongue. See Night dcccxliii. for the sudden change in Khalifah.

  238 So the Persian “May your shadow never be less” means, I have said, the shadow which you throw over your servant. Shade, cold water and fresh breezes are the joys of life in arid Arabia.

  239 When a Fellah demanded money due to him by the Government of Egypt, he was a once imprisoned for arrears of taxes and thus prevented from being troublesome. I am told that matters have improved under English rule, but I “doubt the fact.”

  240 This freak is of course not historical. The tale- teller introduces it to enhance the grandeur and majesty of Harun al-Rashid, and the vulgar would regard it as a right kingly diversion. Westerns only wonder that such things could be.

  241 Uncle of the Prophet: for his death see Pilgrimage ii. 248.

  242 First cousin of the Prophet, son of Abú Tálib, a brother of Al-Abbas from whom the Abbasides claimed descent.

  243 i.e. I hope thou hast or Allah grant thou have good tidings to tell me.

  244 Arab. “Nákhúzah Zulayt.” The former, from the Persian Nákhodá or ship-captain which is also used in a playful sense “a godless wight,” one owning no (ná) God (Khudá). Zulayt = a low fellow, blackguard.

  245 Yásamín and Narjis, names of slave-girls or eunuchs.

  246 Arab. Tamar-hanná, the cheapest of dyes used ever by the poorest classes. Its smell, I have said, is that of newly mown hay, and is prized like that of the tea-rose.

  247 The formula (meaning, “What has he to do here?”) is by no means complimentary.

  248 Arab. “Jarrah” (pron. “Garrah”) a “jar.” See Lane (M.E. chapt. v.) who was deservedly reproached by Baron von Hammer for his superficial notices. The “Jarrah” is of pottery, whereas the “Dist” is a large copper chauldron and the Khalkinah one of lesser size.

  249 i.e. What a bother thou art, etc.

  250 This sudden transformation, which to us seems exaggerated and unnatural, appears in many Eastern stories and in the biographies of their distinguished men, especially students. A youth cannot master his lessons; he sees a spider climbing a slippery wall and after repeated falls succeeding. Allah opens the eyes of his mind, his studies become easy to him, and he ends with being an Allámah (doctissimus).

  251 Arab. “Bismillah, Námí!” here it is not a blessing, but a simple invitation, “Now please go to sleep.”

  252 The modern inkcase of the Universal East is a lineal descendant of the wooden palette with writing reeds. See an illustration of that of “Amásis, the good god and lord of the two lands” (circ. B.C. 1350) in British Museum (, “The Dwellers on the Nile,” by E. A. Wallis Bridge, London, 56, Paternoster Row, 1885).

  253 This is not ironical, as Lane and Payne suppose, but a specimen of inverted speech — Thou art in luck this time!

  254 Arab. “Marhúb” = terrible: Lane reads “Mar’úb” = terrified. But the former may also mean, threatened with something terrible.

  255 i.e. in Kut al-Kulúb.

  256 Lit. to the son of thy paternal uncle, i.e. Mohammed.

  257 In the text he tells the whole story beginning with the eunuch and the hundred dinars, the chest, etc.: but— “of no avail is a twice-told tale.”

  258 Kora
n xxxix. 54. I have quoted Mr. Rodwell who affects the Arabic formula, omitting the normal copulatives.

  259 Easterns find it far easier to “get the chill of poverty out of their bones” than Westerns.

  260 Arab. “Dar al-Na’ím.” Name of one of the seven stages of the Moslem heaven. This style of inscription dates from the days of the hieroglyphs. A papyrus describing the happy town of Raamses ends with these lines. —

  Daily is there a supply of food:

  Within it gladness doth ever brood

  * * * *

  Prolonged, increased; abides there Joy, etc., etc.

  261 Arab. “Ansár” = auxiliaries, the men of Al-Medinah

  (Pilgrimage ii. 130, etc.).

  262 Arab. “Asháb” = the companions of the Prophet who may number 500 (Pilgrimage ii. 81, etc.).

  263 Arab. “Hásilah” prob. a corner of a “Godown” in some

  Khan or Caravanserai.

  264 Arab. “Funduk” from the Gr. {pandocheîon}, whence the

  Italian Fondaco e.g. at Venice the Fondaco de’ Turchi.

  265 Arab. “Astár” plur. of Satr: in the Mac. Edit. Sátúr, both (says Dozy) meaning “Couperet” (a hatchet). Habicht translates it “a measure for small fish,” which seems to be a shot and a bad shot as the text talks only of means of carrying fish. Nor can we accept Dozy’s emendation Astál (plur. of Satl) pails, situlć. In Petermann’s Reisen (i. 89) Satr=assiette.

  266 Which made him expect a heavy haul.

  267 Arab. “Urkúb” = tendon Achilles in man hough or pastern in beast, etc. It is held to be an incrementative form of ‘Akab (heel); as Kur’úb of Ka’b (heel) and Khurtúm of Khatm (snout).

  268 Arab. “Karmút” and “Zakzúk.” The former (pronounced Garmút) is one of the many Siluri (S. Carmoth Niloticus) very common and resembling the Shál. It is smooth and scaleless with fleshy lips and soft meat and as it haunts muddy bottoms it was forbidden to the Ancient Egyptians. The Zakzúk is the young of the Shál (Synodontis Schal: Seetzen); its plural form Zakázik (pronounced Zigázig) gave a name to the flourishing town which has succeeded to old Bubastis and of which I have treated in “Midian” and “Midian Revisited.”