A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Volume 7 (of 17). Народное творчество
only because the Kafir had tried to slay his own son. He should have been summoned to become a tributary and then, on express refusal, he might legally have been put to death.
63
64
“Repentance acquits the penitent” is a favourite and noble saying popular in Al-Islam. It is first found in Seneca; and is probably as old as the dawn of literature.
65
Here an ejaculation of impatience.
66
67
68
The name does not appear till further on, after vague Eastern fashion which, here and elsewhere I have not had the heart to adopt. The same may be found in Ariosto,
69
A town in Persian Irak, unhappily far from the “Salt sea.”
70
“Earthquake son of Ennosigaius” (the Earthquake-maker).
71
Arab. “Ruba’al-Kharáb” or Ruba’al-Khálí (empty quarter), the great central wilderness of Arabia covering some 50,000 square miles and still left white on our maps (Pilgrimage, i. 14).
72
Pers. “Life King,” women also assume the title of Shah.
73
Arab. “Mujauhar”: the watery or wavy mark upon Eastern blades is called the “jauhar,” lit. = jewel. The peculiarity is also called water and grain, which gives rise to a host of
74
Etymologically meaning tyrants or giants; and applied to great heathen conquerors like Nimrod and the mighty rulers of Syria, the Anakim, Giants and other peoples of Hebrew fable. The Akásirah are the Chosroës before noticed.
75
Arab. “Askar jarrár” lit. “drawing”: so in Egyptian slang “Nás jarrár” = folk who wish to draw your money out of your pocket, greedy cheats.
76
In Turkestan: the name means “Two lights.”
77
In Armenia, mentioned by Sadik Isfaháni (Transl. p. 62).
78
This is the only ludicrous incident in the tale which justifies Von Hammer’s suspicion. Compare it with the combat between Rustam and his son Sohráb.
79
I cannot understand why Trébutien, iii., 457, writes this word Afba. He remarks that it is the “Oina and Riya” of Jámí, elegantly translated by M. de Chezy in the Journal Asiatique, vol. 1, 144.
80
I have described this part of the Medinah Mosque in Pilgrimage ii, 62–69. The name derives from a saying of Mohammed (of which there are many variants), “Between my tomb and my pulpit is a garden of the Gardens of Paradise” (Burckhardt, Arabia, p. 337). The whole Southern portico (not only a part) now enjoys that honoured name and the tawdry decorations are intended to suggest a parterre.
81
Mohammed’s companions (Asháb), numbering some five hundred, were divided into two orders, the Muhájirin (fugitives) or Meccans who accompanied the Apostle to Al-Medinah (Pilgrimage ii. 138) and the Ansár (Auxiliaries) or Medinites who invited him to their city and lent him zealous aid (Ibid ii. 130). The terms constantly occur in Arab history.
82
The “Mosque of the Troops,” also called Al-Fath (victory), the largest of the “Four Mosques:” it is still a place of pious visitation where prayer is granted. Koran, chapt. xxxiii., and Pilgrimage ii. 325.
83
Arab. “Al-Wars,” with two meanings. The Alfáz Adwiyah gives it = Kurkum, curcuma, turmeric, safran d’Inde; but popular usage assigns it to Usfur, Kurtum or safflower (
84
Two men of the great ’Anazah race went forth to gather Karaz, the fruit of the Sant (
85
Name of a desert (Mafázah) and a settlement on the Euphrates’ bank between Basrah and the site of old Kufah near Kerbela; the well known visitation place in Babylonian Irak.
86
Of the Banu Sulaym tribe; the adjective is Sulami not Sulaymi.
87
Arab. “Amám-ak” = before thee (in space); from the same root as Imám = antistes, leader of prayer; and conducing to perpetual puns,
88
He was angry, as presently appears, because he had heard of certain love passages between the two and this in Arabia is a dishonour to the family.
89
Euphemy for “my daughter.”
90
The Badawin call a sound dollar “Kirsh hajar” or “Riyal hajar” (a stone dollar; but the word is spelt with the greater
91
Arab. Burdah and Habárah. The former often translated mantle is a thick woollen stuff, brown or gray, woven oblong and used like a plaid by day and by night. Mohammed’s Burdah woven in his Harem and given to the poet, Ka’ab, was 7½ ft. long by 4½: it is still in the upper Serraglio of Stambul. In early days the stuff was mostly striped; now it is either plain or with lines so narrow that it looks like one colour. The Habarah is a Burd made in Al-Yaman and not to be confounded with the Egyptian mantilla of like name (Lane, M. E. chapt. iii).
92
Every Eastern city has its special title. Al-Medinah is entitled “Al-Munawwarah” (the Illumined) from the blinding light which surrounds the Prophet’s tomb and which does not show to eyes profane (Pilgrimage ii. 3). I presume that the idea arose from the huge lamps of “The Garden.” I have noted that Mohammed’s coffin suspended by magnets is an idea unknown to Moslems, but we find the fancy in Al-Harawi related of St. Peter, “Simon Cephas (the rock) is in the City of Great Rome, in its largest church within a silver ark hanging by chains from the ceiling.” (Lee, Ibn Batutah, p. 161).
93
Here the fillets are hung instead of the normal rag-strips to denote an honoured tomb. Lane (iii. 242) and many others are puzzled about the use of these articles. In many cases they are suspended to trees in order to transfer sickness from the body to the tree and whoever shall touch it. The Sawáhílí people term such articles a Keti (seat or vehicle) for the mysterious haunter of the tree who prefers occupying it to the patient’s person. Briefly the custom still popular throughout Arabia, is African and Fetish.
94
Al-Mas’údí (chapt. xcv.), mentions a Hind bint Asmá and tells a facetious story of her and the “enemy of Allah,” the poet Jarír.
95
Here the old Shiah hatred of the energetic conqueror of Oman crops out again. Hind’s song is that of Maysum concerning her husband Mu’áwiyah which Mrs. Godfrey Clark (’Ilâm-en-Nâs, p. 108) thus translates:—