The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 5 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (best romance novels of all time txt) 📕

[FN#125] “Sultan” is here an anachronism: I have noted that the title was first assumed independently by Mohammed of Ghazni after it had been conferred by the Caliph upon his father the Amir Al-Umar� (Mayor of the Palace), Sabuktagin A.D. 974.

[FN#126] The “Sakk�” or water-carrier race is peculiar in Egypt and famed for trickery and intrigue. Opportunity here as elsewhere makes the thief.

[FN#127] A famous saying of Mohammed is recorded when an indiscretion of his young wife Ayishah was reported to him, “There be no adultress without an adulterer (of a husband).”

Fatimah the Apostle’s daughter is supposed to have remained a virgin after bearing many children: this coarse symbolism of purity was known to the classics (Pausanias), who made Juno recover her virginity by bathing in a certain river every year.

In the last phrase, “Al-Salaf” (ancestry) refers to Mohammed and his family.

[FN#128] Khusrau Parwiz, grandson of Anushirwan, the Guebre King who tore his kingdom by tearing Mohammed’s letter married the beautiful Maria or Irene (in Persian “Sh�r�n = the sweet) daughter of the Greek Emperor Maurice: their loves were sung by a host of poets; and likewise the passion of the sculptor Farh�d for the same Shirin. Mr. Lyall writes “Parw�z” and holds “Parw�z” a modern form.

[FN#129] he could afford it according to historians. His throne was supported by 40,000 silver pillars; and 1,000 globes, hung in the dome, formed an orrery, showing the motion of the heavenly bodies; 30,000 pieces of embroidered tapestry overhung the walls below were vaults full of silver, gold and gems.

[FN#130] Arab. “Khuns�,” meaning also a catamite as I have explained. Lane (ii. 586) has it; “This fish is of a mixed kind.” (!).

[FN#131] So the model lovers became the ordinary married couple.

[FN#132] Arab. “Jamm.” Heb. “Yamm.” Al-Har�ri (Ass. Of Sinjar and S�wah) uses the rare form Yam for sea or ocean.

[FN#133] Al-Hadi, immediate predecessor of Harun al-Rashid, called “Al-Atbik”: his upper lip was contracted and his father placed a slave over him when in childhood, with orders to say, “Musa! atbik!” (draw thy lips together) when he opened his mouth.

[FN#134] Immediate successor of Harun al-Rashid. Al-Amin is an imposing physical figure, fair, tall, handsome and of immense strength; according to Al-Mas’�di, he killed a lion with his own hands; but his mind and judgement were weak. He was fond of fishing; and his reply to the courtier bringing important news, “Confound thee! leave me! for Kausar (an eunuch whom he loved) hath caught two fish and I none,” reminds one of royal frivolity in France.

[FN#135] Afterwards governor in Khorasan under Al-Maamun.

[FN#136] Intendant of the palace under Harun al-Rashid.

[FN#137] Moslem women have this advantage over their Western sisterhood: they can always leave the house of father or husband and, without asking permission, pay a week or ten days’ visit to their friends. But they are not expected to meet their lovers.

[FN#138] The tale of “Susannah and the Elders” in Moslem form.

D�niy�l is the Arab Daniel, supposed to have been buried at Alexandria. (Pilgrimage, i. 16.)

[FN#139] According to Moslem law, laid down by Mohammed on a delicate occasion and evidently for a purpose, four credible witnesses are required to prove fornication, adultery, sodomy and so forth; and they must swear that actually saw rem in re, the “Kohl-needle in the Kohl-�tui,” as the Arabs have it. This practically prevents conviction and the sabre cuts the Gordian knot.

[FN#140] Who, in such case, would represent our equerry.

[FN#141] The Badawi not only always tells the truth, a perfect contrast with the townsfolk; he is blunt in speech addressing his Sultan “O Sa’�d!” and he has a hard rough humour which we may fairly describe as “wut.” When you chaff him look out for falls.

[FN#142] The answer is as old as the hills, teste the tale of what happened when Amasis (who on horseback) raised his leg, “broke wind and bad the messenger carry it back to Apries.”

Herod. Ii. 162. But for the full significance of the Badawi’s most insulting reply see the Tale of Abu Hasan in Night ccccxi.

[FN#143] Arab. “Y� s�ki” al-Dakan” meaning long bearded (foolish) as well as frosty bearded.

[FN#144] P. N. of the tribe, often mentioned in The Nights.

[FN#145] Adnan, which whom Arab genealogy begins, is generally supposed to be the eighth (Al-Tabari says the fortieth) descendant from Ishmael and nine generations are placed between him and Fahr (Fihr) Kuraysh. The Prophet cut all disputes short by saying, “Beyond Adnan none save Allah wotteth and the genealogists lie.” (Pilgrimage ii. 344) M.C. de Perceval dates Adnan about B.C. 130.

[FN#146] Koran xxxiii., 38.

[FN#147] Arab. “Arab al-Arab�,” as before noticed (vol. i. 12) the pure and genuine blood as opposed to the “Musta’aribah,” the “Muta’arribah,” the “Mosarabians” and other Araboids; the first springing from Khatan (Yaktan?) and the others from Adnan. And note that “Arabi” = a man of pure Arab race, either of the Desert or of the city, while A’ar�bi applies only to the Desert man, the Badawi.

[FN#148] Koran xxxviii. 2, speaking of the Unbelievers (i.e.

non-Moslems) who are full of pride and contention.

[FN#149] One of the Ash�b, or Companions of the Apostle, that is them who knew him personally. (Pilgrimage ii. 80, etc.) The Ash�b al-Suffah (Companions of the bench or sofa) were certain houseless Believers lodged by the Prophet. (Pilgrimage ii. 143).

[FN#150] Hence Omar is entitled “Al-Adil = the Just.” Readers will remember that by Moslem law and usage murder and homicide are offences to be punished by the family, not by society or its delegates. This system reappears in civilisation under the denomination of “Lynch Law,” a process infinitely distasteful to lawyers (whom it abolishes) and most valuable when administered with due discretion.

[FN#151] Lane translates (ii. 592) “from a desire of seeing the face of God;” but the general belief of Al-Islam is that the essence of Allah’s corporeal form is different from man’s. The orthodox expect to “see their Lord on Doom-day as they see the full moon” (a tradition). But the Mu’atazilites deny with the existence of matter the corporiety of Alah and hold that he will be seen only with the spiritual eyes, i.e. of reason.

[FN#152] See Gesta Romanorum, Tale cviii., “of Constancy in adhering to Promises,” founded on Damon and Pythias or, perhaps, upon the Arabic.

[FN#153] Arab. “Al-Ahr�m,” a word of unknown provenance. It has been suggested that the singular form (Haram), preceded by the Coptic article “pi” (= the) suggested to the Greeks “Pyramis.” But this word is still sub judice and every Egyptologist seems to propose his own derivation. Brugsch (Egypt i. 72) makes it Greek, the Egyptian being “Abumir,” while “pir-am-us” = the edge of the pyramid, the corners running from base to apex. The Egyptologist proves also what the Ancients either ignored or forgot to mention, that each pyramid had its own name.

[FN#154] Arab. “Ahk�m,” in this matter supporting the “Pyramidologists.”

[FN#155] All imaginative.

[FN#156] It has always been my opinion founded upon considerations too long to detail, that the larger Pyramids contain many unopened chambers. Dr. Grant Bey of Cairo proposed boring through the blocks as Artesian wells are driven. I cannot divine why Lane (ii, 592) chose to omit this tale, which is founded on historic facts and interests us by suggesting a comparison between Medi�val Moslem superstitions and those of our xixth Century, which to our descendants will appear as wild, if not as picturesque, as those of The Nights. The “inspired British inch” and the building by Melchisedek (the Shaykh of some petty Syrian village) will compare not unaptly with the enchanted swords, flexible glass and guardian spirits. But the Pyramidennarren is a race which will not speedily die out: it is based on Nature, the Pyramids themselves.

[FN#157] Arab. “Rizm”; hence, through the Italian Risma our ream (= 20 quires of paper, etc.), which our dictionaries derive from (!). See “frail” in Night dcccxxxviii.

[FN#158] Arab. “Tar�kah” = the path trodden by ascetics and mystics in order to attain true knowledge (Ma’rifat in Pers.

D�nish). These are extensive subjects: for the present I must refer readers to the Dabistan, iii. 35 and iii. 29, 36-7.

[FN#159] Alluding to the Fish�r or “Squeeze of the tomb.” This is the Jewish Hibbut hakkeber which all must endure, save those who lived in the Holy Land or died on the Sabbath-eve (Friday night). Then comes the questioning by the Angels Munkar and Nakir (vulgarly called N�kir and Nak�r) for which see Lane (M.E.

chapt. xviii.). In Egypt a “Mulakkin” (intelligencer) is hired to prompt and instruct the dead. Moslems are beginning to question these facts of their faith: a Persian acquaintance of mine filled his dead father’s mouth with flour and finding it in loco on opening the grave, publicly derided the belief. But the Mullahs had him on the hip, after the fashion of reverends, declaring that the answers were made through the whole body, not only by the mouth. At last the Voltairean had to quit Shiraz.

[FN#160] Arab. “Wal�” = a saint, Santon (Ital. Form) also a slave. See in Richardson (Dissert. iii.), an illustration of the difference between Wali and W�li as exemplified by the Caliph al-K�dir and Mahm�d of Ghazni.

[FN#161] Arab. “T�n” = the tenacious clay puddled with chaff which serves as mortar for walls built of Adobe or sun dried brick. I made a mistake in my Pilgrimage (i.10) translating Ras al-T�n the old Pharos of Alexandria, by “Headland of Figs.” It is Headland of Clay, so called from the argile there found and which supported an old pottery.

[FN#162] The danik (Pers. Dang) is the sixth of a dirham. Mr.

S. L. Poole (The Acad. April 26, ‘79) prefers his uncle’s translation “a sixth” (what of?) to Mr. Payne’s “farthing.” The latter at any rate is intelligible.

[FN#163] The devotee was “S�im al-dahr” i.e. he never ate nor drank from daylight to dark throughout the year.

[FN#164] The ablution of a common man differs from that of an educated Moslem as much as the eating of a clown and a gentleman.

Moreover there are important technical differences between the Wuzu of the Sunni and the Shi’ah.

[FN#165] i.e., by honouring his father.

[FN#166] This young saint was as selfish and unnatural a sinner as Saint Alexius of the Gesta Romanorum (Tale xv.), to whom my friend, the late Thomas Wright, administered just and due punishment.

[FN#167] The verses are affecting enough, though by no means high poetry.

[FN#168] The good young man cut his father for two reasons: secular power (an abomination to good Moslems) and defective title to the Caliphate. The latter is a trouble to Turkey in the present day and with time will prove worse.

[FN#169] Umm Amr� (written Amr� and pronounced Amr’) a matronymic, “mother of Amru.” This story and its terminal verse is a regular Joe Miller.

[FN#170] Abuse and derision of schoolmaster are staple subjects in the East as in the West, (Quem Dii oderunt p�dagogum fecerunt). Anglo-Indians will remember: “Miy�n-ji ti-ti!

Bachche-k� g�nd men anguli k� thi!”

(“Schoolmaster hum!

Who fumbled and fingered the little boy’s bum?”) [FN#171] Arab. “Mujawirin” = the lower servants, sweepers, etc. See Pilgrimage ii. 161, where it is also applied to certain “settlers” at Al-Medinah. Burckhardt (No. 480) notices another meaning “foreigners who attend mosque-lectures” and quotes the saying, “A. pilgrimaged:” quoth B. “yes!