by A. S. Byatt
117. “Her stature tall—I hate a dumpy woman” (Don Juan).
118. A worthy who was Kazi of Kufah (Cufa) in the seventh century. Al-Najaf, generally entitled “Najaf al-Ashraf” (the Venerand) is the place where Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, lies or is supposed to lie buried, and has ever been a holy place to the Shi’ahs. I am not certain whether to translate “Sa’a-lab” by fox or jackal; the Arabs make scant distinction between them. “Abu Hosayn” (Father of the Fortlet) is certainly the fox, and as certainly “Sha’arhar” is the jackal from the Pehlevi Shagál or Shaghál.
119. Usually by all manner of extortions and robbery, corruption and bribery, the ruler’s motto being
Fiat in justitia ruat Cœlum.
There is no more honest man than the Turkish peasant or the private soldier; but the process of deterioration begins when he is made a corporal and culminates in the Pasha. Moreover official dishonesty is permitted by public opinion, because it belongs to the condition of society. A man buys a place (as in England two centuries ago) and retains it by presents to the heads of offices. Consequently he must recoup himself in some way, and he mostly does so by grinding the faces of the poor and by spoiling the widow and the orphan. The radical cure is high pay; but that phase of society refuses to afford it.
120. Arab. “Malik” (King) and “Malak” (angel) the words being written the same when lacking vowels and justifying the jingle.
121. Arab. “Hurr;” the Latin “ingenuus,” lit. freeborn; metaph. noble as opp. to a slave who is not expected to do great or good deeds. In pop. use it corresponds, like “Fatá,” with our “gentleman.”
THE TALE OF GHANIM BIN AYYUB, THE DISTRAUGHT, THE THRALL O’ LOVE
1. Our “Job.” The English translators of the Bible, who borrowed Luther’s system of transliteration (of A.D. 1522), transferred into English the German “j” which has the sound of “i” or “y;” intending us to pronounce Yacob (or Yakob), Yericho, Yimnites, Yob (or Hiob) and Yudah. Tyndall, who copied Luther (A.D. 1525-26), preserved the true sound by writing Iacob, Ben Iamin, and Iudas. But his successors unfortunately returned to the German; the initial “I” having from the thirteenth century been ornamentally lengthened and bent leftwards became a consonant; the public adopted the vernacular sound of “j” (dg) and hence our language and our literature are disgraced by such barbarisms as “Jehovah” and “Jesus”—Dgehovah and Dgeesus for Yehovah and Yesus. Future generations of school-teachers may remedy the evil; meanwhile we are doomed for the rest of our days to hear
Gee-rusalem! Gee-rusalem! etc.
Nor is there one word to be said in favour of the corruption except that, like the Protestant mispronunciation of Latin and the Erasmian ill-articulation of Greek, it has become “English,” and has lent its little aid in dividing the Britons from the rest of the civilized world.
2. The moon, I repeat, is masculine in the so-called “Semitic” tongues.
3. i.e., camel-loads, about 300 lbs.; and for long journeys 250 lbs.
4. Arab. “Janázah,” so called only when carrying a corpse; else Na’ash, Sarír, or Tábút: Irán being the large hearse on which chiefs are borne. It is made of plank or stick-work; but there are several varieties. (Lane, M. E., chap. xxviii.)
5. It is meritorious to accompany the funeral cortège of a Moslem even for a few paces.
6. Otherwise he could not have joined in the prayers.
7. Arab. “Halwá” made of sugar, cream, almonds, etc. That of Maskat is famous throughout the East.
8. i.e., “Camphor” to a negro as we say “Snowball,” by the figure antiphrase.
9. “Little Good Luck,” a dim. form of “bakht” = luck, a Persian word naturalized in Egypt.
10. There are, as I have shown, not a few cannibal tribes in Central Africa and these at times find their way into the slave market.
11. i.e., after we bar the door.
12. Arab. “Jáwísh” from Turk. Cháwúsh, Chiaoosh, a sergeant, poursuivant, royal messenger. I would suggest that this is the word “Shálish” or “Jálish” in Al-Siyuti’s History of the Caliphs (p. 501) translated by Carlyle “milites,” by Schultens “Sagittarius,” and by Jarett “picked troops.”
13. This familiarity with blackamoor slave-boys is common in Egypt and often ends as in the story: Egyptian blood is sufficiently mixed with negro to breed inclination for miscegenation. But here the girl was wickedly neglected by her mother at such an age as ten.
14. This ancient and venerable practice of inspecting the marriage-sheet is still religiously preserved in most parts of the East; and in old-fashioned Moslem families it is publicly exposed in the Harem to prove that the “domestic calamity” (the daughter) went to her husband a clean maid. Also the general idea is that no blood will impose upon the experts, or jury of matrons, except that of a pigeon-poult which exactly resembles hymeneal blood—when not subjected to the microscope. This belief is universal in Southern Europe and I have heard of it in England.
15. “Agha” Turk.=sir, gentleman, is, I have said, politely addressed to a eunuch.
16. As Bukhayt tell us, he lost only his testes, consequently his erectio et distensio penis was as that of a boy before puberty and it would last as long as his heart and circulation kept sound. Hence the eunuch who preserves his penis is much prized in the Zenanah where some women prefer him to the entire man, on account of his long performance of the deed of kind. Of this more in a future page.
17. It is or rather was the custom in Egypt and Syria to range long rows of fine China bowls along the shelves running round the rooms at the height of six or seven feet, and they formed a magnificent cornice. I bought many of them at Damascus till the people, learning their value, asked prohibitive prices.
18. The usual hysterical laughter of this nervous race.
19. Here the slave refuses to be set free and starve. For a master so to do without ample reason is held disgraceful. I well remember the weeping and wailing throughout Sind when an order from Sir Charles Napier set free the negroes whom British philanthropy thus doomed to endure if not to die of hunger.
20. Manumission, which is founded upon Roman law, is an extensive subject discussed in the Hidáyah and other canonical works. The slave here lays down the law incorrectly, but his claim shows his truly “nigger” impudence.
21. This is quite true to nature. The most remarkable thing in the wild central African is his enormous development of “destructiveness.” At Zanzibar I never saw a slave break a glass or plate without a grin or a chuckle of satisfaction.
22. Arab. “Khassá-ni;” Khusyatáni (vulg.) being the testicles, also called “bayzatán” (the two eggs) a double entendre which has given rise to many tales. For instance in the witty Persian book Dozd o Kazi (The Thief and the Judge) a footpad strips the man of learning and offers to return his clothes if he can ask him a puzzle in law or religion. The Kazi (in folklore mostly a fool) fails, and his wife bids him ask the man to supper for a trial of wits on the same condition. She begins with compliments and ends by producing five eggs which she would have him distribute equally amongst the three; and, when he is perplexed, she gives one to each of the men taking three for herself. Whereupon the “Dozd” wends his way, having lost his booty as his extreme stupidity deserved. In the text the eunuch, Kafur, is made a “Sandali” or smooth-shaven, so that he was of no use to women.
23. Arab. “Khara,” the lowest possible word: Yá Khara! is the commonest of insults, used also by modest women. I have heard one say it to her son.
24. Arab. “Kámah,” a measure of length, a fathom, also called “Bá’a.” Both are omitted in that sadly superficial book, Lane’s Modern Egyptians, App. B.
25. Names of her slave-girls which mean (in order), Garden-bloom, Dawn (or Beautiful), Tree o’ Pearl (p.n. of Saladin’s wife), Light of (right) Direction, Star o’ the Morn, Lewdness (= Shahwah, I suppose this is a chaff), Delight, Sweetmeat, and Miss Pretty.
26. This mode of disposing of a rival was very common in
Harems. But it had its difficulties and on the whole the river was (and is) preferred.
27. An Eastern dislikes nothing more than drinking in a dim dingy place: the brightest lights seem to add to his “drinkitite.”
28. He did not sleep with her because he suspected some palace-mystery which suggested prudence; she also had her reasons.
29. This is called in Egypt “Aslah.” (Lane M. E.; chap. i.)
30. It would be a broad ribbon-like band upon which the letters could be worked.
31. Arab. “Maragha” lit. rubbed his face on them like a fawning dog. Ghanim is another “softy” lover, a favourite character in Arab tales; and by way of contrast, the girl is masterful enough.
32. Because the Abbaside Caliphs descend from Al-Abbas, paternal uncle of Mohammed. The text more explicitly translated means, “O descendant of the Prophet’s uncle!”
33. The most terrible part of a belle passion in the East is that the beloved will not allow her lover leave of absence for an hour.
34. Apparently the writer forgets that the Abbaside banners and dress were black, originally a badge of mourning for the Imám Ibrahim bin Mohammed put to death by the Ommiade Caliph Al-Marwan. The modern Egyptian mourning, like the old Persian, is indigo-blue of the darkest; but, as before noted, the custom is by no means universal.
35. Koran, chap. iv. In the East as elsewhere the Devil quotes Scripture.
36. A servant returning from a journey shows his master due honour by appearing before him in travelling suit and uncleaned.
37. The first name means “Rattan;” the second “Willow-wand,” from the “Bán” or “Khiláf,” the Egyptian willow (Salix Ægyptiaca Linn.) vulgarly called “Safsáf.” Forskal holds the “Bán” to be a different variety.
38. Arab. “Ta’ám,” which has many meanings: in mod. parlance it would signify millet, holcus-seed.
39. i.e., “I well know how to deal with him.”
40. The Pen (title of the Koranic chap. lxviii.) and the Preserved Tablet (before explained).
41. These plunderings were sanctioned by custom. But a few years ago, when the Turkish soldiers mutinied about arrears of pay (often delayed for years), the governing Pasha would set fire to the town and allow the men to loot what they pleased during a stated time. Rochet (soi-disant D’Héricourt) amusingly describes this manœuvre of the Turkish Governor of Al-Hodaydah in the last generation. (Pilgrimage, iii. 381.)
42. Another cenotaph whose use was to enable women to indulge in their pet pastime of weeping and wailing in company.
43. The lodging of pauper travellers, as the chapel in Iceland is of the wealthy. I have often taken benefit of the mosque, but as a rule it is unpleasant, the matting being not only torn but over-populous. Juvenal seems to allude to the Jewish Synagogue similarly used:—“in quâ te quæro proseuchâ”? (iii. 296) and in Acts iii. we find the lame, blind, and impotent in the Temple-porch.
44. This foul sort of vermin is supposed to be bred by perspiration. It is an epoch in the civilized traveller’s life when he catches his first louse.
45. The Moslem peasant is a kind-hearted man and will make many sacrifices for a sick stranger even of another creed. It is a manner of “pun-donor” with the village.
46. Such treatment of innocent women was only too common under the Caliphate and in contemporary Europe.
47. This may also be translated as, “And Heaven will reward thee;” but camel-men do not usually accept any drafts upon futurity.
48. He felt that he was being treated like a corpse.
49. This hatred of the Hospital extends throughout Southern Europe, even in places where it is not justified.
50. The importance of the pillow (wisádah or makhaddah) to the sick man is often recognized in The Nights. “He took to his pillow” is = took to his bed.
51. i.e., in order that the reverend men, who do not render such suit and service gratis, might pray for him.
52. The reader will notice in The Nights the frequent mention of these physical prognostications, with which mesmerists are familiar.
53. The Pers. name of the planet Saturn in the Seventh Heaven. Arab. “Zuhal;” the Kiun or Chiun of Amos vi. 26.
54. i.e., “Pardon me if I injured thee”—a popular mode of expression.
55. A “seduction,” a charmer. The double entendre has before been noticed.
THE TALE OF THE BIRDS AND BEASTS AND THE CARPENTER
1. In beast stories generally when man appears he shows to disadvantage.
2. Shakespeare’s “stone bow” not Lane’s “cross-bow” (ii. 53).
3. The goad still used by the rascally Egyptian donkey-boy is a sharp nail at the end of a stick; and claims the special attention of societies for the protection of animals.
4. “The most ungrateful of all voices surely is the voice of asses” (Koran, xxxi. 18); and hence the “braying of hell” (Koran, lxvii. 7). The vulgar still believe that the donkey brays when seeing the Devil. “The last animal which entered the Ark with Noah was the Ass to whose tail Iblis was clinging. At the threshold the ass seemed troubled and could enter no further when Noah said to him:—‘Fie upon thee! come in.’ But as the ass was still troubled and did not advance Noah cried:—‘Come in, though the Devil be with thee!’ so the ass entered and with him Iblis. Thereupon Noah asked:—‘O enemy of Allah who brought thee into the Ark?’ and Iblis answered:—‘Thou art the man, for thou saidest to the ass, come in though the Devil be with thee!’” (Kitáb al-Unwán fi Makáid al-Niswán quoted by Lane ii. 54).
5. Arab. “Rihl,” a wooden saddle stuffed with straw and matting. In Europe the ass might complain that his latter end is the sausage. In England they say no man sees a dead donkey: I have seen dozens, one among them, unfortunately, my own.
6. The English reader will not forget Sterne’s old mare. Even Al-Hariri, the prince of Arab rhetoricians, does not disdain to use “pepedit,” the effect being put for the cause—terror. But Mr. Preston (p. 285) and polite men translate by “fled in haste” the Arabic “farted for fear.”
7. This is one of the lucky signs and adds to the value of the beast. There are some fifty of these marks, some of them (like a spiral of hair in the breast which denotes that the rider is a cuckold) so ill-omened that the animal can be bought for almost nothing. Of course great attention is paid to colours, the best being the dark rich bay (“red” of Arabs) with black points, or the flea-bitten grey (termed Azrak=blue or Akhzar = green) which whitens with age. The worst are dun, cream coloured, piebald and black, which last are very rare. Yet according to the Mishkát al-Masábih (Lane 2, 54) Mohammed said, “The best horses are black (dark brown?) with white blazes (Arab. ‘Ghurrah’) and upper lips; next, black with blaze and three white legs (bad, because white hoofs are brittle): next, bay with white blaze and white fore and hind legs.” He also said, “Prosperity is with sorrel horses;” and praised a sorrel with white forehead and legs; but he dispraised the “Shikál,” which has white stockings (Arab. “Muhajjil”) on alternate hoofs (e.g. right hind and left fore). The curious reader will consult Lady Anne Blunt’s Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, with some Account of the Arabs and their Horses (1879); but he must remember that it treats of the frontier tribes. The late Major Upton also left a book, Gleanings from the Desert of Arabia (1881); but it is a marvellous production deriving, e.g. Khayl (a horse generically) from Kohl or antimony (p. 275). What the Editor was dreaming of I cannot imagine. I have given some details concerning the Arab horse especially in Al-Yaman, among the Zú Mohammed, the Zú Husayn and the Banu Yam in Pilgrimage, iii. 270. As late as Marco Polo’s day they supplied the Indian market vîa Aden; but the “Eye of Al-Yaman” has totally lost the habit of exporting horses.
8. The shovel-iron which is the only form of spur.
9. Used for the dromedary: the baggage-camel is haltered.
10. Arab. “Harwalah,” the pas gymnastique affected when circumambulating the Ka’abah (Pilgrimage, iii. 208).
11. “This night” would
be our “last night”: the Arabs, I repeat, say “night and day,” not “day and night.”
12. The vulgar belief is that man’s fate is written upon his skull, the sutures being the writing.
13. Koran, ii. 191.
14. Arab. “Tasbíh” = saying, “Subhán’ Allah.” It also means a rosary (Egypt. Sebhah for Subhah) a string of 99 beads divided by a longer item into sets of three and much fingered by the would-appear pious. The professional devotee carries a string of wooden balls the size of pigeons’ eggs.
THE HERMITS
1. The pigeon is usually made to say, “Wahhidú Rabba-kumu ’llazi khalaka-kum, yaghfiru lakum zamba-kum” = “Unify (Assert the Unity of) your Lord who created you; so shall He forgive your sin!” As might be expected this “language” is differently interpreted. Pigeon-superstitions are found in all religions and I have noted (Pilgrimage, iii. 218) how the Hindu deity of Destruction-reproduction, the third Person of their Triad, Shiva and his Spouse (or active Energy), are supposed to have dwelt at Meccah under the titles of Kapoteshwara (Pigeon-god) and Kapoteshí (Pigeon-goddess).