The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 9 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (ebook reader library .TXT) 📕

[FN#469] Iblis and his connection with Diabolos has been noticed in vol. i. 13. The word is foreign as well as a P.N. and therefore is imperfectly declined, although some authorities deduce it from “ablasa”=he despaired (of Allah’s mercy). Others call him Al-H�ris (the Lion) hence Eve’s first-born was named in his honour Abd al-Harts. His angelic name was Az�z�l before he sinned by refusing to prostrate himself to Adam, as Allah had commanded the heavenly host for a trial of faith, not to worship the first man, but to make him a Keblah or direction of prayer addressed to the Almighty. Hence he was ejected from Heaven and became the arch enemy of mankind (Koran xviii. 48). He was an angel but related to the Jinn: Al-Bayz�wi, however (on Koran ii.

82), opines that angelic by nature he became a Jinn by act. Ibn Abbas held that he belonged to an order of angels who are called Jinn and begot issue as do the nasn�s, the Gh�l and the Kutrub which, however are male and female, like the pre-Adamite manwoman of Genesis, the “bi-une” of our modern days. For this subject see Terminal Essay.

[FN#470] As usual in the East and in the West the husband was the last to hear of his wife’s ill conduct. But even Othello did not kill Emilia.

[FN#471] i.e. Star of the Morning: the first word occurs in Bar Cokba Barchocheba=Son of the Star, i.e., which was to come out of Jacob (Numbers xxiv. 17). The root, which does not occur in Heb., is Kaukab to thine. This Rabbi Akilah was also called Bar Cozla=

Son of the Lie.

[FN#472] Here some excision has been judged advisable as the names of the bridegrooms and the brides recur with damnable iteration.

[FN#473] See the note by Lane’s Shaykh at the beginning of the tale. The contrast between the vicious wife of servile origin and the virtuous wife of noble birth is fondly dwelt upon but not exaggerated.

[FN#474] i.e. those of his water skins for the journey, which as usual required patching and supplying with fresh handles after long lying dry.

[FN#475] A popular saying also applied to men. It is usually accompanied with showing the open hand and a reference to the size of the fingers. I find this story most interesting from an anthropological point of view; suggesting how differently various races regard the subject of adultery. In Northern Europe the burden is thrown most unjustly upon the man, the woman who tempts him being a secondary consideration; and in England he is absurdly termed “a seducer.” In former times he was “paraded” or “called out,” now he is called up for damages, a truly ignoble and shopkeeper-like mode of treating a high offence against private property and public morality. In Anglo-America, where English feeling is exaggerated, the lover is revolver’d and the woman is left unpunished. On the other hand, amongst Eastern and especially Moslem peoples, the woman is cut down and scant reckoning is taken from the man. This more sensible procedure has struck firm root amongst the nations of Southern Europe where the husband kills the lover only when he still loves his wife and lover like is furious at her affection being alienated.

Practically throughout the civilised world there are only two ways of treating women, Moslems keep them close, defend them from all kinds of temptations and if they go wrong kill them.

Christians place them upon a pedestal, the observed of all observers, expose them to every danger and if they fall, accuse and abuse them instead of themselves. And England is so grandly logical that her law, under certain circumstances, holds that Mrs. A. has committed adultery with Mr. B. but Mr. B. has not committed adultery with Mrs. A. Can any absurdity be more absurd?

Only “summum jus, summa injuria.” See my Terminal Essay. I shall have more to say upon this curious subject, the treatment of women who can be thoroughly guarded only by two things, firstly their hearts and secondly by the “Spanish Padlock.”

[FN#476] Lane owns that this is “one of the most entertaining tales in the work,” but he omits it “because its chief and best portion is essentially the same as the story of the First of the Three Ladies of Baghdad.” The truth is he was straitened for space by his publisher and thus compelled to cut out some of the best stories in The Nights.

[FN#477] i.e. Ibrahim of Mosul, the musician poet often mentioned in The Nights. I must again warn the reader that the name is pronounced Is-h�k (like Isaac with a central aspirate) not Ish�k.

This is not unnecessary when we hear Tait-shill for Tait’s hill and “Frederick-shall” for Friedrich, shall.

[FN#478] i.e. He was a proficient, an adept.

[FN#479] Arab. from Pers. D�l�b=a waterwheel, a buttery, a cupboard.

[FN#480] Arab. “Fut�r,” the chhot� h�zir� of Anglo-India or breakfast proper, eaten by Moslems immediately after the dawn-prayer except in Ram�z�n. Amongst sensible people it is a substantial meal of bread and boiled beans, eggs, cheese, curded milk and the pastry called fat�rah, followed by coffee and a pipe. See Lane M. E. chapt. v. and my Pilgrimage ii. 48.

[FN#481] This “off-with-his-head” style must not be understood literally. As I have noted, it is intended by the writer to show the Kingship and the majesty of the “Vicar of Allah.”

[FN#482] Lit. “the calamity of man (ins�n) is from the tongue”

(lis�n).

[FN#483] For Khatt Shar�f, lit.=a noble letter, see vol. ii. 39.

[FN#484] Arab. “Allah yastura-k”=protect thee by hiding what had better be hidden.

[FN#485] Arab. “Jan�z�r”=chains, an Arabised plural of the Pers.

Zanj�r with the metathesis or transposition of letters peculiar to the vulgar; “Jan�z�r” for “Zan�j�r.”

[FN#486] Arab. “Saf�nah”=(Noah’s) Ark, a myth derived from the Baris of Egypt with subsequent embellishments from the Babylonian deluge-legends: the latter may have been survivals of the days when the waters of the Persian Gulf extended to the mountains of Eastern Syria. Hence I would explain the existence of extinct volcanoes within sight of Damascus (see Unexplored Syria i. p.

159) visited, I believe, for the first time by my late friend Charles F. Tyrwhitt-Drake and myself in May, 1871.

[FN#487] Mansur and N�sir are passive and active participles from the same root, Nasr=victory; the former means triumphant and the latter triumphing.

[FN#488] The normal term of Moslem mourning, which Mohammed greatly reduced disliking the abuse of it by the Jews who even in the present day are the strictest in its observance.

[FN#489] An euphuistic and euphemistic style of saying, “No, we don’t know.”

[FN#490] Arab. “Rahan,” an article placed with him in pawn.

[FN#491] A Moslem is bound, not only by honour but by religion, to discharge the debts of his dead father and mother and so save them from punishment on Judgment-day. Mohammed who enjoined mercy to debtors while in the flesh (chapt. ii. 280, etc.) said “Allah covereth all faults except debt; that is to say, there will be punishment therefor.” Also “A martyr shall be pardoned every fault but debt.” On one occasion he refused to pray for a Moslem who died insolvent. Such harshness is a curious contrast with the leniency which advised the creditor to remit debts by way of alms. And practically this mild view of indebtedness renders it highly unadvisable to oblige a Moslem friend with a loan.

[FN#492] i.e. he did not press them for payment; and, it must be remembered, he received no interest upon his monies, this being forbidden in the Koran.

[FN#493] Al-Mas’�di (chap. xvii.) alludes to furs of Sable (Sam�r), hermelline (Al-Farwah) and Bort�s (Turkish) furs of black and red foxes. For Sam�r see vol. iv. 57. Sinj�b is Persian for the skin of the grey squirrel (Mu. lemmus, the lemming), the meniver, erroneously miniver, (menu vair) as opposed to the ermine=(Mus Armenius, or mustela erminia.) I never visit England without being surprised at the vile furs worn by the rich, and the folly of the poor in not adopting the sheepskin with the wool inside and the leather well tanned which keeps the peasant warm and comfortable between Croatia and Afghanistan.

[FN#494] Arab. “T�jir Alf�” which may mean a thousand dinars (�500) or a thousand purses (=�5,000). “Alf�” is not an uncommon P.N., meaning that the bearer (Pasha or pauper) had been bought for a thousand left indefinite.

[FN#495] Tigris-Euphrates.

[FN#496] Possibly the quarter of Baghdad so called and mentioned in The Nights more than once.

[FN#497] For this fiery sea see Sind Revisited i. 19.

[FN#498] Arab. “Al-Ghayb” which may also mean “in the future”

(unknown to man).

[FN#499] Arab. “Jabal”; here a mountainous island: see vol. i.

140.

[FN#500] i.e. ye shall be spared this day’s miseries. See my Pilgrimage vol. i. 314, and the delight with which we glided into Mars� Damghah.

[FN#501] Arab. “S�w�n”=“Syenite” (-granite) also used for flint and other hard stones. See vol. i. 238.

[FN#502] Koran xxiv. Male children are to the Arab as much prized an object of possession as riches, since without them wealth is of no value to him. Mohammed, therefore, couples wealth with children as the two things wherewith one wards off the ills of this world, though they are powerless against those of the world to come.

[FN#503] An exclamation derived from the Surat Nasr (cx. 1) one of the most affecting in the Koran. It gave Mohammed warning of his death and caused Al-Abb�s to shed tears; the Prophet sings a song of victory in the ixth year of the Hijrah (he died on the xth) and implores the pardon of his Lord.

[FN#504] Arab. “D�irah,” a basin surrounded by hills. The words which follow may mean, “An hour’s journey or more in breadth.

[FN#505] These petrified folk have occurred in the “Eldest Lady’s Tale” (vol. i. 165), where they are of “black stone.”

[FN#506] Arab. “T�j Kisrawi,” such as was worn by the Chosroes Kings. See vol. i. 75.

[FN#507] The familiar and far-famed Napoleonic pose, with the arms crossed over the breast, is throughout the East the attitude assumed by slave and servant in presence of his master. Those who send statues to Anglo-India should remember this.

[FN#508] Arab. “T� �l�k”=hanging lamps, often in lantern shape with coloured glass and profuse ornamentation; the Maroccan are now familiar to England.

[FN#509] Arab. “Kidrah,” lit.=a pot, kettle; it can hardly mean “an interval.”

[FN#510] The wicket or small doorway, especially by the side of a gate or portal, is called “the eye of the needle” and explains Matt. xix. 24, and Koran vii. 38. In the Rabbinic form of the proverb the camel becomes an elephant. Some have preferred to change the Koranic Jamal (camel) for Habl (cable) and much ingenuity has been wasted by Christian commentators on Mark x.

25, and Luke xviii. 25.

[FN#511] i.e. A “Kanz” (enchanted treasury) usually hidden underground but opened by a counter-spell and transferred to earth’s face. The reader will note the gorgeousness of the picture.

[FN#512] Oriental writers, Indian and Persian, as well as Arab, lay great stress upon the extreme delicacy of the skin of the fair ones celebrated in their works, constantly attributing to their heroines bodies so sensitive as to brook with difficulty the contact of the finest shift. Several instances of this will be found in the present collection and we may fairly assume that the skin of an Eastern beauty, under the influence of constant seclusion and the unremitting use of cosmetics and the bath, would in time attain a pitch of delicacy and