by A. S. Byatt
55. Arab. “Hálah mutawassitah,” a phrase which has a European touch.
56. In the text “Jauharjíyyah,” common enough in Egypt and Syria; an Arab. plur. of an Arabised Turkish sing,—ji for—chí = (crafts-) man.
57. We may suppose some years may have passed in this process and that Alaeddin from a lad of fifteen had reached the age of manhood. The H. V. declares that for many a twelvemonth the mother and son lived by cotton spinning and the sale of the plate.
58. i.e. Full moon of full moons. It is pronounced “Badroo’l-Budoor,” hence Galland’s “Badr-oul-boudour.”
59. In the H. V. Alaeddin “bethought him of a room adjacent to the Baths where he might sit and see the Princess through the door-chinks, when she raised her veil before the handmaids and eunuchs.”
60. Such a statement may read absurdly to the West but it is true in the East. “Selim” had seen no woman’s face unveiled, save that of his sable mother Rosebud in Morier’s Tale of Yeldoz, the wicked woman (The Mirza, vol. iii. 135). The H. V. adds that Alaeddin’s mother was old and verily had little beauty even in her youth. So at the sight of the Princess he learnt that Allah had created women exquisite in loveliness and heart-ensnaring; and at first glance the shaft of love pierced his heart and he fell to the ground afaint. He loved her with a thousand lives and, when his mother questioned him, “his lips formed no friendship with his speech.”
61. “There is not a present (Teshurah) to bring to the Man of God” (1 Sam. ix. 7), and Menachem explains Teshurah as a gift offered with the object of being admitted to the presence. See also the offering of oil to the King in Isaiah lvii. 9. Even in Maundriell’s Day Travels (p. 26) it was counted uncivil to visit a dignitary without an offering in hand.
62. As we shall see further on, the magical effect of the Ring and the Lamp extend far and wide over the physique and morale of the owner: they turn a “raw laddie” into a finished courtier, warrior, statesman, etc.
63. In Eastern states the mere suspicion of having such an article would expose the suspected at least to torture. Their practical system of treating “treasure trove,” as I saw when serving with my regiment in Gujarát (Guzerat), is at once to imprison and “molest” the finder, in order to make sure that he has not hidden any part of his find.
64. Here the MS. text is defective, the allusion is, I suppose, to the Slave of the Lamp.
65. In the H. V. the King retired into his private apartment; and, dismissing all save the Grand Wazir, “took cognisance of special matters” before withdrawing to the Harem.
66. The levée, Divan or Darbár being also a lit de justice and a Court of Cassation.
67. All this is expressed by the Arabic in one word “Tamanná.” Galland adds pour marquer qu’il etait prêt à la perdre s’il y manquait; and thus he conveys a wrong idea.
68. This would be still the popular address, nor is it considered rude or slighting. In John (ii. 4) “Atto,” the Heb. Eshah, is similarly used, not com-plimentarily but in popular speech.
69. This sounds ridiculous enough in English, but not in German; e.g. Deine Königliche Hoheit is the formula de rigueur when an Austrian officer, who always addresses brother-soldiers in the familiar second person, is speaking to a camarade who is also a royalty.
70. “Suráyyát (lit. = the Pleiades) and “Sham’ádín” a would be Arabic plur. of the Persian “Sham’adán” = candlestick, chandelier, for which more correctly Sham’adánát is used.
71. i.e. betrothed to her—j’agrée la proposition, says Galland.
72. Here meaning Eunuch-officers and officials.
73. In the H. V. Alaeddin on hearing this became as if a thunderbolt had stricken him, and, losing consciousness, swooned away.
74. These calls for food at critical times, and oft-recurring allusions to eating are not yet wholly obsolete amongst the civilised of the nineteenth century. The ingenious M. Jules Verne often enlivens a tedious scene by Dejeunons! And French travellers, like English, are not unready to talk of food and drink, knowing that the subject is never displeasing to their readers.
75. The H. V. gives a sketch of the wedding. “And when the ceremonies ended at the palace with pomp and parade and pageant, and the night was far spent, the eunuchs led the Wazir’s son into the bridal chamber. He was the first to seek his couch; then the Queen, his mother-in-law, came into him leading the bride, and followed by her suite. She did with her virgin daughter as parents are wont to do, removed her wedding-raiment, and donning a night-dress, placed her in her bridegroom’s arms. Then, wishing her all joy, she with her ladies went away and shut the door. At that instant came the Jinni,” etc.
76. The happy idea of the wedding night in the water-closet is repeated from the tale of Nur-al-Din Ali Hasan, and the mishap of the Hunchback bridegroom.
77. For the old knightly practice of sleeping with a drawn sword separating man and maid, see Mr. Clouston’s Popular Tales and Fictions, vol. i. 316. In Poland the intermediary who married by procuration slept alongside the bride in all his armour. The H. V. explains, “He (Alaeddin) also lay a naked sword between him and the Princess, so she might perceive that he was ready to die by that blade should he attempt to do aught of villainy by the bride.”
78. Galland says: lis ne s’aperçurent que de l’ébranlement du lit et que de leur transport d’un lieu à l’autre: c’était bien assez pour leur donner une frayeur qu’il est aisé d’imaginer.
79. Galland very unnecessarily makes the Wazir’s son pass into the wardrobe (garderobe) to dress himself.
80. Professional singing and dancing girls: Properly the word is the fem. of ’Álim = a learned man; but it has been anglicised by Byron’s
“The long chibouque’s dissolving cloud supply,
Where dance the Almahs to wild minstrelsy.”—(The Corsair, ii. 2.)
They go about the streets with unveiled faces and are seldom admitted into respectable Harems, although on festal occasions they perform in the court or in front of the house; but even this is objected to by the Mrs. Grundy of Egypt. Lane (M. E. chap. xviii) derives with Saint Jerome the word from the Heb. or Phœnician Almah = a virgin, a girl, a singing-girl; and thus explains “Alámoth” in Psalms xlvi, and I Chron. xv. 20. Parkhurst (s.v. ’Alamah = an undeflowered virgin), renders Job xxxix. 30, “the way of a man with a maid” (bi-álmah) “The way of a man in his virgin state, shunning youthful lust and keeping himself pure and unspotted.”
81. The text reads “Rafa’” (he raised) “al-Bashkhánah” which is a hanging, a curtain. Apparently it is a corruption of the Pers. “Pashkhánah,” mosquito-curtain.
82. The father suspected that she had not gone to bed a clean maid.
83. Arab. Aysh = Ayyu Shayyin and Laysh = li ayyi Shayyin. This vulgarism, or rather popular corruption, is of olden date and was used by such a purist as Al-Mutanabbi in such a phrase as “Aysh Khabara-k?” = how art thou? See Ibn Khallikan, iii. 79.
84. In the H. V. the Minister sends the Chob-dár = rod-bearer, mace-bearer, usher, etc.
85. In the text Sáhal for Sahal, again the broad “Doric” of Syria.
86. Arab. Dahab ramli = gold dust washed out of the sand, placer-gold. I must excuse myself for using this Americanism, properly a diluvium or deposit of sand, and improperly (Bartlett) a find of drift gold. The word, like many mining terms in the Far West, is borrowed from the Spaniards; it is not therefore one of the many American vulgarisms which threaten hopelessly to defile the pure well of English speech.
87. Arab. “Ratl,” by Europeans usually pronounced “Rotl” (Rotolo).
88. In the H. V. she returns from the bazar; and, “seeing the house filled with so many persons in goodliest attire, marvelled greatly. Then setting down the meat lately bought she would have taken off her veil, but Alaeddin prevented her and said,” etc.
89. The word is popularly derived from Serai in Persian = a palace; but it comes from the Span. and Port. Cerrar—to shut up, and should be written with the reduplicated liquid.
90. In the H. V. the dresses and ornaments of the slaves were priced at ten millions (Karúr = a crore) of gold coins. I have noticed that Messer Marco “Milione” did not learn his high numerals in Arabia, but that India might easily have taught them to him.
91. Arab. “Ráih yasír,” peasant’s language.
92. Arab. Ká’ah, the apodyterium or undressing room upon which the vestibule of the Hammam opens. See the plan in Lane’s M. E. chapt. xvi. The Kár’ah is now usually called “Maslakh” = stripping-room.
93. Arab. “Hammam-hu” = went through all the operations of the Hammam, scraping, kneading, soaping, wiping and so forth.
94. An aphrodisiac. The subject of aphrodisiacs in the East would fill a small library: almost every medical treatise ends in a long disquisition upon fortifiers, provocatives, etc. We may briefly divide them into three great classes. The first is the medicinal, which may be either external or internal. The second is the mechanical, such as scarification, flagellation, and the application of insects as practised by certain savage races. There is a venerable Joe Miller of an old Brahmin whose young wife always insisted, each time before he possessed her, upon his being stung by a bee in certain parts. The third is magical, supersititious and so forth.
95. This may sound exaggerated to English ears, but a petty Indian Prince, such as the Gáikwár, or Rajah of Baroda, would be preceded in state processions by several led horses all whose housings and saddles were gold studded with diamonds. The sight made one’s mouth water.
96. Arab. “Al-Kandíl al-’ajíb”: here its magical virtues are specified and remove many apparent improbabilities from the tale.
97. This was the highest of honours. At Abyssinian Harar even the Grandees were compelled to dismount at the door of the royal “compound.” See my First Footsteps in East Africa, p. 296.
98. “The right hand” seems to me a European touch in Galland’s translation, leur chef mit Aladdin a sa droite. Amongst Moslems the great man sits in the sinistral corner of the Divan as seen from the door, so the place of honour is to his left.
99. Arab. “Músiká,” classically “Musiki” = the Pers. form is “Músikár;” and the Arab. equivalent is Al-Lahn. In the H. V. the King “made a signal and straightway drums (dhol) and trumpets (trafir) and all manner wedding instruments struck up on every side.”
100. Arab. “Marmar Sumáki” = porphyry of which ancient Egypt supplied the finest specimens. I found a vein of it in the Anti-Libanus. Strange to say, the quarries which produced the far-famed giallo antico, verd’ antico (serpentine limestone) and rosso antico (mostly a porphyry) worked by the old Nilotes, are now unknown to us.
101. i.e. velvets with gold embroidery.
102. The Arabic says, “There was a kiosque with four-and-twenty alcoves (Líwán) all builded of emerald, etc., and one remained with the kiosque (kushk) unfinished.” I adopt Galland’s reading salon à vingt-quatre croisées which are mentioned in the Arab. text towards the end of the tale, and thus avoid the confusion between kiosque and window. In the H. V. there is a domed belvedere (bárah-dari-i-gumbaz-dár), four-sided, with six doors on each front (i.e. twenty-four), and all studded with diamonds, etc.
103. In Persia this is called “Pá-andáz,” and must be prepared for the Shah when he deigns to visit a subject. It is always of costly stuffs, and becomes the perquisite of the royal attendants.
104. Here the European hand again appears to me: the Sultan as a good Moslem should have made the Wuzú-ablution and prayed the dawn-prayers before doing anything worldly.
105. Arab. “Fi ghuzúni zálika,” a peculiar phrase; Ghazn = a crease, a wrinkle.
106. In the H. V. the King “marvelled to see Alaeddin’s mother without her veil and magnificently adorned with costly jewels and said in his mind, ‘Methought she was a grey-haired crone, but I find her still in the prime of life and comely to look upon, somewhat after the fashion of Badr al-Budúr.’” This also was one of the miracles of the Lamp.
107. A Joe Miller is told in Western India of an old General Officer boasting his knowledge of Hindostani. “How do you say, Tell a plain story, General?” asked one of the hearers, and the answer was, “Maydán-kí bát bolo!” = “speak a word about the plain” (or level space).
108. The prehistoric Arabs.
109. Popularly, Jeríd, the palm-frond used as javelin.
110. In order to keep off the evil eye, one of the functions of iron and steel.
111. The H. V. adds, “Little did the Princess know that the singers were fairies whom the Slave of the Lamp had brought together.”
112. Alexander the Great. The H. V. adds, “Then only one man and one woman danced together, one with other, till midnight, when Alaeddin and the Princess stood up; for it was the wont of China in those days that bride and bridegroom perform together in presence of the wedding company.”
113. The exceptional reserve of this and other descriptions makes M. H. Zotenberg suspect that the tale was written for one of the Mameluke Princesses: I own to its modesty but I doubt that such virtue would have recommended it to the dames in question. The H. V. adds a few details:— “Then, when the bride and bridegroom had glanced and gazed each at other’s face, the Princess rejoiced with excessive joy to behold his comeliness, and he exclaimed, in the courtesy of his gladness, ‘O happy me, whom thou deignest, O Queen of the Fair, to honour despite mine un-worth, seeing that in thee all charms and graces are perfected.’”
114. The term has not escaped ridicule amongst Moslems. A common fellow having stood in his way the famous wit Abú al-’Ayná asked “What is that?” “A man of the Sons of Adam” was the reply. “Welcome, welcome,” cried the other, “Allah grant thee length of days! I deemed that all his sons were dead.” See Ibn Khallikan iii. 57.
115. This address to an inanimate object (here a window) is highly idiomatic and must be cultivated by the practical Arabist. In the H. V. the unfinished part is the four-and-twentieth door of the fictitious (ja’alí) palace.
116. This is true Orientalism, a personification or incarnation which Galland did not think proper to translate.
117. Arab. “La’ab al-Andáb;” the latter word is from “Nadb”= brandishing or throwing the javelin.
118. The “mothers” are the prime figures, the daughters being the secondary. For the “’Ilm al-Raml” = (Science of the sand) our geomancy see D’Herbelot’s sub. Raml or Reml.
119. This is from Galland, whose certaine boisson chaude evidently means tea. It is preserved in the H. V.
120. i.e. his astrolabe, his “Zíj” or table of the stars, his almanack, etc. For a highly fanciful derivation of the “Arstable” see Ibn Khallikán (iii. 580). He makes it signify “balance or lines (Pers. ‘Astur’) of the sun,” which is called “Láb” as in the case of wicked Queen Láb. According to him the Astrolabe was suggested to Ptolemy by an armillary sphere which had accidentally been flattened by the hoof of his beast: this is beginning late in the day, the instrument was known to the ancient Assyrians. Chardin (Voyages ii. 149) carefully describes the Persian variety of—
“The cunning man hight Sidrophil
(as Will. Lilly was called). Amongst other things he wore at his girdle an astrolabe not bigger than the hollow of a man’s hand, often two to three inches in diameter and looking at a distance like a medal.” These men practised both natural astrology = astronomy, as well as judicial astrology which foretells events and of which Kepler said that “she, albeit a fool, was the daughter of a wise mother, to whose support and life the silly maid was indispensable.” Isidore of Seville (A.D. 600-636) was the first to distinguish between the two branches, and they flourished side by side till Newton’s day. Hence the many astrological terms in our tongue, e.g. consider, contemplate, disaster, jovial, mercurial, saturnine, etc.
121. In the H. V. “New brass-lamps for old ones! who will exchange?” So in the story of the Fisherman’s son, a Jew who had been tricked of a cock, offers to give new rings for old rings. See Jonathan’s S
cott’s excerpts from the Wortley-Montague MSS. vol. vi. pp. 210-12.
122. The H. V. adds that Alaeddin loved to ride out a-hunting and had left the city eight days whereof three had passed by.
123. Galland makes her say, Hé bien, folle, veux-tu me dire pourquoi tu ris? The H. V. renders “Cease, giddyhead, why laughest thou?” and the vulgate “Well, giggler,” said the Princess, etc.
124. Nothing can be more improbable than this detail, but upon such abnormal situations almost all stories, even in our most modern “Society-novels,” depend and the cause is clear—without them there would be no story. And the modern will, perhaps, suggest that “the truth was withheld for a higher purpose, for the working out of certain ends.” In the H. V. Alaeddin, when about to go a-hunting, always placed the Lamp high up on the cornice with all care lest any touch it.