One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  209 His dignity forbade him to walk even the length of a carpet: see vol. vii. for this habit of the Mameluke Beys. When Harun al-Rashid made his famous pilgrimage afoot from Baghdad to Meccah (and he was the last of the Caliphs who performed this rite), the whole way was spread with a “Pß-andßz” of carpets and costly cloths.

  210 The proverb suggests our “par nobile fratrum,” a pair resembling each other as two halves of a split bean.

  211 In the H. V. “If the elder Magician was in the East, the other was in the West; but once a year, by their skill in geomancy, they had tidings of each other.”

  212 The act was religiously laudable, but to the Eastern, as to the South European mind, fair play is not a jewel; moreover the story-teller may insinuate that vengeance would be taken only by foul and unlawful means — the Black Art, perjury, murder and so forth

  213 For this game, a prime favourite in Egypt, see vol. vi. 145, De Sacy (Chrestomathie i. 477) and his authorities Hyde, Syntagma Dissert. ii. 374, P. Labat, “Memoires du Chev d’Arvieux,” iii. 321; Thevenot, “Voyage du Levant,” , and Niebuhr, “Voyages,” i. 139, Plate 25, fig. H.

  214 Evidently=“(jeu de) dames” (supposed to have been invented in Paris during the days of the Regency: see LittrÚ); and, although in certain Eastern places now popular, a term of European origin. It is not in Galland. According to Ibn Khallikan (iii. 69) “Nard” = tables, arose with King ArdashÝr son of Babuk, and was therefore called NardashÝr (Nard ArdashÝr? ). He designed it as an image of the world and its people, so the board had twelve squares to represent the months; the thirty pieces or men represented the days, and the dice were the emblems of Fate and Lot.

  215 i.e. a weaner, a name of good omen for a girl-child: see vol. vi. 145. The Hindi translator, Totßrßm Shayyßn, calls her HamÝdah = the Praiseworthy.

  216 Arab. Kirßmßt: see vols. ii. 237; iv. 45. The

  Necromancer clearly smells a rat holding with Diderot:

  De par le Roi! Defense ß Dieu

  De faire miracle en ce lieu;

  and the stage properties afterwards found with the holy woman, such as the gallipot of colouring ointment, justify his suspicion.

  217 “ ‘Ajßib” plur. of “ ‘AjÝb,” a common exclamation amongst the populace. It is used in Persian as well as in Arabic.

  218 Evidently la force de l’imagination, of which a curious illustration was given in Paris during the debauched days of the Second Empire. Before a highly “fashionable” assembly of men appeared a youth in fleshings who sat down upon a stool, bared his pudenda and closed his eyes when, by “force of fancy,” erection and emission took place. But presently it was suspected and proved that the stool was hollow and admitted from below a hand whose titillating fingers explained the phenomenon.

  219 a Moslems are curious about sleeping postures and the popular saying is: — Lying upon the right side is proper to Kings; upon the left to Sages, to sleep supine is the position of Allah’s Saints and prone upon the belly is peculiar to the Devils.

  220 This “ æAsß,” a staff five to six feet long, is one of the properties of Moslem Saints and reverends who, imitating that furious old Puritan, Caliph Omar, make and are allowed to make a pretty liberal distribution of its caresses.

  221 i.e. as she was in her own home.

  222 Arab. “Sul·k” a Sufistical expression, the road to salvation, &c.

  223 In the H. V. her diet consisted of dry bread and fruits.

  224 This is the first mention of the windows in the Arabic

  MS.

  225 For this “Roc” of the older writers see vols. v. 122; vi. 16-49. I may remind the reader that the O. Egyptian “Rokh,” or “Rukh,” by some written “Rekhit,” whose ideograph is a monstrous bird with one claw raised, also denotes pure wise Spirits, the Magi, &c. I know a man who derives from it our “rook” = beak and parson.

  226 In the H. V he takes the Lamp from his bosom, where he had ever kept it since his misadventure with the African Magician

  227 Here the mythical Rukh is mixed up with the mysterious bird SÝmurgh, for which see vol. x. 117.

  228 The H. V. adds, “hoping thereby that thou and she and all the household should fall into perdition.”

  229 Rank mesmerism, which has been practiced in the East from ages immemorial. In Christendom Santa Guglielma worshipped at Brunate, “works many miracles, chiefly healing aches of head.” In the H. V. Alaeddin feigns that he is ill and fares to the Princess with his head tied up.

  230 Mr. Morier in “The Mirza” (vol. i. 87) says, “Had the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, with all their singular fertility of invention and never-ending variety, appeared as a new book in the present day, translated literally and not adapted to European taste in the manner attempted in M. Galland’s translation, I doubt whether they would have been tolerated, certainly not read with the avidity they are, even in the dress with which he has clothed them, however imperfect that dress maybe.” But in Morier’s day the literal translation was so despised that an Eastern book was robbed of half its charms, both of style and idea.

  231 In the MS. Of the BibliothÞque National, Supplement Arabe (No. 2523, vol. ii. fol. 147), the story which follows “Aladdin” is that of the Ten Wazirs, for which see Supp. Nights ii. In Galland the Histoire de Codadad et des ses FrÞres comes next to the tale of Zayn al-Asnam: I have changed the sequence in order that the two stories directly translated from the Arabic may be together.

  232 M. Hermann Zotenberg lately informed me that “Khudadad and his Brothers” is to be found in a Turkish MS., “Al-Faraj ba’d al-Shiddah” — Joy after Annoy — in the BibliothÞque Nationale of Paris. But that work is a mere derivation from the Persian “Hazßr o yek Roz” for which see my vol. x. p.441. The name Khudadad is common to most Eastern peoples, the Sansk. Devadatta, the Gr. {Greek} and Dorotheus; the Lat. Deodatus, the Ital. Diodato, and Span. Diosdado, the French Dieu-donnÚ, and the Arab.-Persic Alladßd, DÝvdßd and Khudßbaksh. Khudß is the mod. Pers. form of the old KhudßÝ=sovereign, king, as in Mßh-i-KhudßÝ=the sovereign moon, Kßm-KhudßÝ=master of his passions, etc.

  233 Lit. Homes (or habitations) of Bakr (see vol. v. 66), by the Turks pronounced “Diyßr-i-BekÝr.” It is the most famous of the four provinces into which Mesopotamia (Heb. Naharaym, Arab. Al-JazÝrah) is divided by the Arabs; viz: Diyßr Bakr (capital AmÝdah); Diyßr Modhar (cap. Rakkah or Aracta); Diyßr RabÝ’ah (cap. Nisibis) and Diyßr al-JazÝrah or Al-JazÝrah (cap. Mosul). As regards the “King of Harrßn,” all these ancient cities were at some time the capitals of independent chiefs who styled themselves royalties.

  234 The Heb. Charran, the Carrh of the classics where, according to the Moslems, Abraham was born, while the Jews and Christians make him emigrate thither from “Ur (hod. Mughayr) of the Chaldees.” Hence his Arab. title “Ibrahim al-Harrßni.” My late friend Dr. Beke had a marvellous theory that this venerable historic Harrßn was identical with a miserable village to the east of Damascus because the Fellahs call it Harrßn al-’AwßmÝd — of the Columns — from some Gr co-Roman remnants of a paltry provincial temple. See “Jacob’s Flight,” etc., London, Longmans, 1865.

  235 PÝrozah=turquoise, is the Persian, Fir·zah and Firuzakh (De Sacy, Chrest. ii. 84) the Arab. forms. The stone is a favourite in the East where, as amongst the Russians (who affect to despise the Eastern origin of their blood to which they owe so much of its peculiar merit), it is supposed to act talisman against wounds and death in battle; and the Persians, who hold it to be a guard against the Evil Eye, are fond of inscribing “turquoise of the old rock” with one or more of the “Holy Names.” Of these talismans a modern Spiritualist asks, “Are rings and charms and amulets magnetic, to use an analogue for what we cannot understand, and has the immemorial belief in the power of relics a natural not to say a scientific basis?”

  236 Samaria is a well-known name amongst Moslems, who call the city ShamrÝn and Shamr·n. It was built, according to Ibn Batrik, upon Mount Samir by Amri who gave it the first name; an
d the TarÝkh SamÝrÝ, by Aba al-Fath Ab· al-Hasan, is a detailed account of its garbled annals. As Nabl·s (Neapolis of Herod., also called by him Sebaste) it is now familiar to the Cookite.

  237 In the text Zangi-i-Adam-kh’wßr afterwards called Habashi=an Abyssinian. Galland simply says un negre. In India the “HabshÝ” (chief) of Jinjirah (=Al-Jazirah, the Island) was admiral of the Grand Moghul’s fleets. These negroids are still dreaded by Hind·s and HindÝs and, when we have another “Sepoy Mutiny,” a few thousands of them bought upon the Zanzibar coast, dressed, drilled and officered by Englishmen, will do us yeomans’ service.

  238 This seems to be a fancy name for a country: the term is Persian=the Oceanland or a seaport town: from “Daryß” the sea and bßr=a region, tract, as in Zanzibßr=Black-land. The learned Weil explains it (in loco) by Gegend der Brunnen, brunnengleicher ort, but I cannot accept Scott’s note (iv. 400), “Signifying the seacoast of every country; and hence the term is applied by Oriental geographers to the coast of Malabar.”

  239 The onager, confounded by our older travellers with the zebra, is the G·r-i-khßr of Persia, where it is the noblest game from which kings did not disdain to take a cognomen, e.g., Bahrßm-i-G·r. It is the “wild ass” of Jeremiah (ii. 24: xiv. 6). The meat is famous in poetry for combining the flavours peculiar to all kinds of flesh (Ibn Khallikan iii. 117; iii. 239, etc.) and is noticed by Herodotus (Clio. cxxxiii.) and by Xenophon (Cyro. lib. 1) in sundry passages: the latter describes the relays of horses and hounds which were used in chasing it then as now. The traveller Olearius (A. D. 1637) found it more common than in our present day: Shah Abbas turned thirty-two wild asses into an enclosure where they were shot as an item of entertainment to the ambassadors at his court. The skin of the wild ass’s back produces the famous shagreen, a word seemingly derived from the Pers. “SaghrÝ,” e.g. “Kyafash-i-Saghri”=slippers of shagreen, fine wear fit for a “young Duke”. See in Ibn Khallikan (iv. 245) an account of a “J·r” (the Arabised “G·r”) eight hundred years old.

  240 “Dasht-i-lß-siwß-H·”=a desert wherein is none save He

  (Allah), a howling wilderness.

  241 Per. “Nßz o andßz”=coquetry, in a half-honest sense. The Persian “Kßkß Siyßh,” i.e. “black brother” (a domestic negro) pronounces NßzÝ-n·zÝ.

  242 In the text Nimak-harßm: on this subject see vol. viii. 12.

  243 i.e., an Arab of noble strain: see vol. iii. 72.

  244 In the text “Kazzßk”=Cossacks, bandits, mounted highwaymen; the word is well known in India, where it is written in two different ways, and the late Mr. John Shakespear in his excellent Dictionary need hardly have marked the origin “U” (unknown).

  245 Here and below the Hindostani version mounts the lady upon a camel (“Ushtur” or “Unth”) which is not customary in India except when criminals are led about the bazar. An elephant would have been in better form.

  246 The AshrafÝ (Port. Xerafim) is a gold coin whose value has greatly varied with its date from four shillings upwards. In The (true) Nights we find (passim) that, according to the minting of the VIth Ommiade, ‘Abd al-Malik bin Marwßn (A.H. 65-86=A.D. 685-703), the coinage of Baghdad consisted of three metals. “Ita quoque peregrina suis nummis nomina posuit, aureum Dinar denarium, argentem Dirhen (lege dirham), Drachma, reum fols (fuls), follem appellans. * * * Nam Vera moneta aurea nomine follis lignabatur, ut reorum sub Aarone Raschido cussorum qui hoc nomen servavit.” (O. G. Tychsen . Introduct. in Rem numariam Muhammedanorum.) For the dinar, daric or miskßl see The Nights, vol i. 32; ix. 294; for the dirham, i. 33, ii. 316, etc.; and for the Fals or Fils=a fish scale, a spangle of metal, vol. i. 321. In the debased currency of the Maroccan Empire the Fals of copper or iron, a substantial coin, is worth 2,160 to the French five-franc piece.

  247 In the Hindi, as in Galland’s version, the horse is naturally enough of Turcoman blood. I cannot but think that in India we have unwisely limited ourselves for cavalry remounts to the Western market that exports chiefly the mongrel “Gulf Arab” and have neglected the far hardier animal, especially the G·tdßn blood of the Tartar plains, which supply “excellent horses whose speed and bottom are” say travellers in general, “so justly celebrated throughout Asia.” Our predecessors were too wise to “put all the eggs in one basket.”

  248 An act of worship, see my Pilgrimage in which “Tawßf”=circuiting, is described in detail, ii. 38; iii. 2O1 et seqq. A counterpart of this scene is found in the Histoire du Sultan Aqchid (Ikhshid) who determined to witness his own funeral. Gauttier vol. i. p-139. Another and similar incident occurs in the “Nineteenth Vezir’s Story” (p-18 of the History of the Forty Vezirs, before alluded to): here Hasan of Basrah, an ‘Alim who died in A.H. 110 (=A.D. 728) saw in vision (the “drivel of dreams?”) folk of all conditions, sages, warriors and moon-faced maids seeking, but in vain, to release the sweet soul of the Prince who had perished.

  249 Here, after Moslem fashion, the mother ranks before the wife: “A man can have many wives but only one mother.” The idea is old amongst Easterns: see Herodotus and his Christian commentators on the history of Intaphernes’ wife (Thalia, cap. cxix). “O King,” said that lady of mind logical, “I may get me another mate if God will and other children an I lose these; but as my father and my mother are no longer alive, I may not by any means have another brother,” etc., etc.

  250 In Galland the Histoire de Ganem, fils d’Abu A´oub, surnommÚ l’esclave d’Amour, precedes Zayn al-Asnßm. In the Arab texts Ghanim bin Ayy·b, the Thrall o’ Love, occurs much earlier: see The Nights vol. ii. 45.

  It is curious to compare the conclusions of these tales with the formula of the latest specimens, the Contes Arabes Modernes of Spitta-Bey, e.g. “And the twain lived together (p. iii.) and had sons and daughters (p. ii.), cohabiting with perfect harmony (fÝ al-Kamßl pp.42, 79); and at last they died and were buried and so endeth the story” (wa khalßs p.161).

  251 In Galland and his translators the Adventures of Khudadad and his Brothers is followed by the Histoire du Dormeur EveillÚ which, as “The Sleeper and the Waker,” is to be found in the first of my Supplemental Volumes, p-29. After this the learned Frenchman introduced, as has been said, the Histoire de la Lampe merveilleuse or “Alaeddin” to which I have assigned, for reasons given in loco, a place before Khudadad.

  252 i.e. Daddy Abdullah, the former is used in Pers., Turk. and Hindostani for dad! dear! child! and for the latter, see vol. v. 141.

  253 Here the Arab. syn. of the Pers. “Darwaysh,” which

  Egyptians pronounce “DarwÝsh.” In the Nile-valley the once

  revered title has been debased to an insult = “poor devil” (see

  Pigrimage i., p-22); “FakÝr” also has come to signify a

  Koran-chaunter.

  254 To “Nakh” is to make the camel kneel. See vo!. ii. 139, and its references.

  255 As a sign that he parted willingly with all his possessions.

  256 Arab. “‘Ubb” prop.=the bulge between the breast and the outer robe which is girdled round the waist to make a pouch. See vol. viii. 205.

  257 Thirst very justly takes precedence of hunger: a man may fast for forty days, but with out water in a tropical country he would die within a week. For a description of the horrors of thirst see my “First Footsteps in East Africa,” p-8.

  258 In Galland it is Sidi Nouman; in many English translations, as in the “Lucknow” (Newul Kishore Press, 1880), it has become “Sidi Nonman.” The word has occurred in King Omar bin al-Nu’uman, vol. ii. 77 and 325, and vol. v. 74. For SÝdÝ = my lord, see vol. v. 283; Byron, in The Corsair, ii. 2, seems to mistake it for “Sayyid.”

  High in his hall reclines the turban’d Seyd,

  Around — the bearded chiefs he came to lead.

  259 The Turco-English form of the Persian “Pulßo.”

  260 i.e. the secure (fem.). It was the name of the famous concubine of Solomon to whom he entrusted his ring (vol. vi. 84), also of the mother of Mohammed who having taken her son to A
l-Medinah (Yathrib) died on the return journey. I cannot understand why the Apostle of Al-Islam, according to his biographers and commentators, refused to pray for his parent’s soul, she having been born in Al-Fitrah (the interval between the fall of Christianity and the birth of Al-Islam), when he had not begun to preach his “dispensation.”

  261 The cane-play: see vol. vi. 263.

  262 Galland has une Goule, i.e., a Gh·lah, a she-Gh·l, an ogress. But the lady was supping with a male of that species, for which see vols. i. 55; vi. 36.

  263 In the text “WazÝfah” prop. = a task, a stipend, a salary, but here = the “Farz” devotions which he considered to be his duty. In Spitta-Bey (loc. cit. ) it is = duty,

  264 For this scene which is one of every day in the East; see Pilgrimage ii. p-54.

  265 This hate of the friend of man is inherited from Jewish ancestors; and, wherever the Hebrew element prevails, the muzzle, which has lately made its appearance in London, is strictly enforced, as at Trieste. Amongst the many boons which civilisation has conferred upon Cairo I may note hydrophobia; formerly unknown in Egypt the dreadful disease has lately caused more than one death. In India sporadic cases have at rare times occurred in my own knowledge since 1845.

  266 In Galland “Rougeau” = (for Rougeaud?) a red-faced (man), etc., and in the English version “Chance”: “Bakht” = luck, good fortune.

  267 In the text “Sarrßf” = a money-changer. See vols. i. 210; iv. 270.

  268 Galland has forgotten this necessary detail: see vol. i. 30 and elsewhere. In Lane’s story of the man metamorphosed to an ass, the old woman, “quickly covering her face, declared the fact.”

  269 In the normal forms of this story, which Galland has told very badly, the maiden would have married the man she saved.

  270 In other similar tales the injured one inflicts such penalty by the express command of his preserver who takes strong measures to ensure obedience.

  271 In the more finished tales of the true “Nights” the mare would have been restored to human shape after giving the best security for good conduct in time to come.