One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  13 The negroids and negroes of Zanzibar.

  14 i.e. Why not make thy heart as soft as thy sides! The converse of this was reported at Paris during the Empire, when a man had by mistake pinched a very high personage: “Ah, Madame! if your heart be as hard as (what he had pinched) I am a lost man.”

  15 “Na’íman” is said to one after bathing or head-shaving: the proper reply, for in the East every sign of ceremony has its countersign, is “Allah benefit thee!” (Pilgrimage i. 11, iii. 285; Lane M. E. chaps. viii.; Caussin de Perceval’s Arabic Grammar, etc., etc.) I have given a specimen (Pilgrimage i., 122) not only of sign and countersign, but also of the rhyming repartee which rakes love. Hanien ! (pleasant to thee! said when a man drinks). Allah pleasure thee (Allah yuhanník which Arnauts and other ruffians perverted to Allah yaník, Allah copulate with thee); thou drinkest for ten! I am the cock and thou art the hen! (i.e. a passive catamite) Nay, I am the thick one (the penis which gives pleasure) and thou art the thin! And so forth with most unpleasant pleasantries.

  16 In the old version she is called “The Fair Persian,” probably from the owner: her name means “The Cheerer of the Companion.”

  17 Pronounce “Nooraddeen.” I give the name written in

  Arabic.

  18 Amongst Moslems, I have said, it is held highly disgraceful when the sound of women’s cries can be heard by outsiders.

  19 In a case like this, the father would be justified by Rasm (or usage) not by Koranic law, in playing Brutus with his son. The same would be the case in a detected intrigue with a paternal concubine and, in very strict houses, with a slave-girl.

  20 Orientals fear the “Zug” or draught as much as Germans; and with even a better reason. Draughts are most dangerous in hot climates.

  21 The Unity of the Godhead and the Apostleship of Mohammed.

  22 This would be done only in the case of the very poor.

  23 Prayers over the dead are not universal in Al-Islam; but when they are recited they lack the “sijdah” or prostration.

  24 Or, “Of the first and the last,” i.e. Mohammed, who claimed (and claimed justly) to be the “Seal” or head and end of all Prophets and Prophecy. For note that whether the Arab be held inspired or a mere imposter, no man making the same pretension has moved the world since him. Mr. J. Smith the Mormon (to mention one in a myriad) made a bold attempt and failed.

  25 i.e. flatterers.

  26 In one matter Moslems contrast strongly with Christians, by most scrupulously following the example of their law-giver: hence they are the model Conservatives. But (European) Christendom is here, as in other things, curiously contradictory: for instance, it still keeps a “Feast of the Circumcision,” and practically holds circumcision in horror. Eastern Christians, however, have not wholly abolished it, and the Abyssinians, who find it a useful hygenic precaution, still practise it. For ulcers, syphilis and other venereals which are readily cured in Egypt become dangerous in the Highlands of Ethiopia.

  27 Arab. “Sabab,” the orig. and material sense of the word; hence “a cause,” etc.

  28 Thus he broke his promise to his father, and it is insinuated that retribution came upon him.

  29 “O Pilgrim” (Ya Hájj) is a polite address even to those who have not pilgrimaged. The feminine “Hájjah” (in Egypt pronounced “Hággeh”) is similarly used.

  30 Arab. “usúl”=roots, i.e. I have not forgotten my business.

  31 Moslems from Central and Western North Africa.

  (Pilgrimage i. 261; iii. 7, etc); the “Jabarti” is the Moslem

  Abyssinian.

  32 This is a favourite bit of chaff and is to be lengthened out almost indefinitely e.g. every brown thing is not civet nor every shining thing a diamond; every black thing is not charcoal nor every white chalk; every red thing is not a ruby nor every yellow a topaz; every long-necked thing is not a camel, etc., etc., etc.

  33 He gives him the name of his grandfather; a familiar usage.

  34 Arab. “Ma’janah,” a place for making unbaked bricks (Tob=Span. Adobe) with chaff and bruised or charred straw. The use of this article in rainless lands dates from ages immemorial, and formed the outer walls of the Egyptian temple.

  35 Arab. “Barsh,” a bit of round matting used by the poor as a seat. The Wazir thus showed that he had been degraded to the condition of a mat-maker.

  36 The growth (a Poa of two species) which named Wady Halfá (vulg. “Halfah”), of which the home public has of late heard perhaps a trifle too much. Burckhardt (Prov. 226) renders it “dry reeds” — incorrectly enough.

  37 This “Háshimi” vein, as they call it, was an abnormal development between the eyes of the house of Abbas, inherited from the great- grandfather of the Prophet; and the latter had it remarkably large, swelling in answer and battle-rage. The text, however, may read “The sweat of wrath,” etc.

  38 Torrens and Payne prefer “Ilm”=knowledge. Lane has more correctly “Alam”=a sign, a flag.

  39 The lines were in Night xi.: I have quoted Torrens () for a change.

  40 Still customary in Tigris-Euphrates land, where sea-craft has not changed since the days of Xisisthrus-Noah, and long before.

  41 To cool the contents.

  42 Hence the Khedivial Palace near Cairo “Kasr al-Nuzhah;” literally, “of Delights;” one of those flimsy new-Cairo buildings which contrast so marvellously with the architecture of ancient and even of mediæval Egypt, and which are covering the land with modern ruins. Compare Mohammed Ali’s mosque in the citadel with the older Sultan Hasan. A popular tale is told that, when the conquering Turk, Yáwúz Sultan Selim, first visited Cairo, they led him to Mosque Al-Ghúrí. “This is a splendid Ká’ah (saloon)!” quoth he. When he entered Sultan Hasan, he exclaimed, “This is a citadel!”; but after inspecting the Mosque Al-Mu’ayyad he cried, “’Tis a veritable place of prayer, a fit stead for the Faithful to adore the Eternal!”

  43 Arab. gardeners are very touchy on this point. A friend of mine was on a similar occasion addressed, in true Egyptian lingo, by an old Adam-son, “Ya ibn al-Kalb! beta’mil ay?” (O dog- son, what art thou up to?).

  44 “The green palm-stick is of the trees of Paradise;” say the Arabs in Solomonic style but not Solomonic words: so our “Spare the rod,” etc.

  45 Wayfarers, travellers who have a claim on the kindness of those at home: hence Abd al-Rahman al-Burai sings in his famous Ode: —

  He hath claim on the dwellers in the places of their birth, *

  Whoso wandereth the world, for he lacketh him a home.

  It is given in my “First Footsteps in East Africa” (p-55).

  46 The good old man treated the youth like a tired child.

  47 In Moslem writings the dove and turtle-dove are mostly feminine, whereas the female bird is always mute and only the male sings to summon or to amuse his mate.

  48 An unsavoury comparison of the classical Narcissus with the yellow white of a nigger’s eyes.

  49 A tree whose coals burn with fierce heat: Al-Hariri (Vth Seance). This Artemisia is like the tamarisk but a smaller growth and is held to be a characteristic of the Arabian Desert. A Badawi always hails with pleasure the first sight of the Ghazá, after he has sojourned for a time away from his wilds. Mr. Palgrave (i. 38) describes the “Ghadá” as an Euphorbia with a woody stem often 5-6 feet high and slender, flexible green twigs (?), “forming a feathery tuft, not ungraceful to the eye, while it affords some shelter to the traveller, and food to his camels.”

  50 Arab. “Sal’am”=S(alla) A(llah) a(layhi) was S(allam);

  A(llah) b(less) h(im) a(nd) k(eep)=Allah keep him and assain!

  51 The ass is held to be ill-omened. I have noticed the braying elsewhere. According to Mandeville the Devil did not enter the Ark with the Ass, but he left it when Noah said “Benedicite.” In his day (A.D. 1322) and in that of Benjamin of Tudela, people had seen and touched the ship on Ararat, the Judi (Gordiæi) mountains; and this dates from Berosus (S.C. 250) who, of course, refers to the Ark of Xi
sisthrus. See Josephus Ant. i. 3, 6; and Rodwell (Koran, p, 530).

  52 As would happen at a “Zikr,” rogation or litany. Those who wish to see how much can be made of the subject will read “Pearls of the Faith, or Islam’s Rosary, being the ninety-nine beautiful names of Allah” (Asmá-el-Husna) etc. by Edwin Arnold: London, Trübner, 1883.

  53 i.e. the Sáki, cup-boy or cup-bearer. “Moon-faced,” as I have shown elsewhere, is no compliment in English, but it is in Persian and Arabic.

  54 He means we are “Záhirí,” plain honest Moslems, not “Bátiní,” gnostics (ergo reprobates) and so forth, who disregard all appearances and external ordinances. This suggests his opinion of Shaykh Ibrahim and possibly refers to Ja’afar’s suspected heresy.

  55 This worthy will be noticed in a subsequent page.

  56 Arab. “Lisám,” the end of the “Kufiyah,” or head-kerchief passed over the face under the eyes and made fast on the other side. This mouth-veil serves as a mask (eyes not being recognisable) and defends from heat, cold and thirst. I also believe that hooding the eyes with this article, Badawi-fashion, produces a sensation of coolness, at any rate a marked difference of apparent temperature; somewhat like a pair of dark spectacles or looking at the sea from a sandy shore. (Pilgrimage i., 210 and 346.) The woman’s “Lisám” (chin-veil) or Yashmak is noticed in i., 337.

  57 Most characteristic is this familiarity between the greatest man then in the world and his pauper subject. The fisherman alludes to a practise of Al-Islman, instituted by Caliph Omar, that all rulers should work at some handicraft in order to spare the public treasure. Hence Sultan Mu’ayyad of Cairo was a calligrapher who sold his handwriting, and his example was followed by the Turkish Sultans Mahmúd, Abd al-Majíd and Abd al-Azíz. German royalties prefer carpentering and Louis XVI, watch-making.

  58 There would be nothing singular in this request. The democracy of despotism levels all men outside the pale of politics and religion.

  59 “Wa’lláhi tayyib!” an exclamation characteristic of the

  Egyptian Moslem.

  60 The pretended fisherman’s name Karím=the Generous.

  61 Such an act of generosity would appear to Europeans well- nigh insanity, but it is quite in Arab manners. Witness the oft- quoted tale of Hatim and his horse. As a rule the Arab is the reverse of generous, contrasting badly, in this point, with his cousin the Jew: hence his ideal of generosity is of the very highest. “The generous (i.e. liberal) is Allah’s friend, aye, though he be a sinner; and the miser is Allah’s foe, aye, though he be a saint!” Indian Moslems call a skin-flint Makhi-chús = fly-sucker. (Pilgrimage i. 242.)

  62 Arab. “Ammá ba’ad” or (Wa ba’ad), an initiatory formula attributed to Koss ibn Sa’idat al-Iyadi, bishop of Najrán (the town in Al-Yaman which D’Herbelot calls Negiran) and a famous preacher in Mohammed’s day, hence “more eloquent than Koss” (Maydání, Arab. Prov., 189). He was the first who addressed letters with the incept, “from A. to B.”; and the first who preached from a pulpit and who leant on a sword or a staff when discoursing. Many Moslems date Ammá ba’ad from the Prophet David, relying upon a passage of the Koran (xxxviii. 19).

  63 Arab. “Nusf”=half (a dirham): vulgarly pronounced “nuss,” and synonymous with the Egypt. “Faddah” (=silver), the Greek “Asper,” and the Turkish “paráh.” It is the smallest Egyptian coin, made of very base metal and, there being forty to the piastre, it is worth nearly a quarter of a farthing.

  64 The too literal Torrens and Lane make the Caliph give the gardener-lad the clothes in which he was then clad, forgetting, like the author or copier, that he wore the fisherman’s lousy suit.

  65 In sign of confusion, disappointment and so forth: not “biting his nails,” which is European and utterly un-Asiatic.

  66 See lines like these in Night xiii. (i. 136); the sentiment is trite.

  67 The Arab will still stand under his ruler’s palace and shout aloud to attract his attention. Sayyid Sa’íd known as the “Imán of Muskat” used to encourage the patriarchal practice. Mohammed repeatedly protested against such unceremonious conduct (Koran xciv. 11, etc.). The “three times of privacy” (Koran cv. 57) are before the dawn prayer, during the Siesta (noon) and after the even-prayer.

  68 The Judges of the four orthodox schools.

  69 That none might see it or find it ever after.

  70 Arab. “Khatt Sharíf”=a royal autographical letter: the term is still preserved in Turkey, but Europeans will write “Hatt.”

  71 Meaning “Little tom-cat;” a dim. of “Kitt” vulg. Kutt or

  Gutt.

  72 Arab. “Matmúrah” — the Algerine “Matamor” — a “silo,” made familiar to England by the invention of “Ensilage.”

  73 The older “Mustapha”=Mohammed. This Intercession-doctrine is fiercely disputed. (Pilgrimage ii. 77.) The Apostle of Al- Islam seems to have been unable to make up his mind upon the subject: and modern opinion amongst Moslems is apparently borrowed from the Christians.

  74 Lane (i. 486) curiously says, “The place of the stagnation of blood:” yet he had translated the word aright in the Introduction (i. 41). I have noticed that the Nat’a is made like the “Sufrah,” of well-tanned leather, with rings in the periphery, so that a thong passed through turns it into a bag. The Sufrah used for provisions is usually yellow, with a black border and small pouches for knives or spoons. (Pilgrimage i. 111.)

  75 This improbable detail shows the Caliph’s greatness.

  76 “Cousin” is here a term of familiarity, our “coz.”

  77 i.e. without allowing them a moment’s delay to change clothes.

  78 i.e. according to my nature, birth, blood, de race.

  79 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 lacob, Ben Iamin and Iudas. But his successors unfortunately returned to the German; the initial I, having from the xiii century been ornamentally lengthened and bent leftwards, became a consonant. The public adopted the vernacular sound of “j” (da) 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 civilised world.

  80 The moon, I repeat, is masculine in the so-called

  “Semitic” tongues.

  81 i.e. camel loads, about lbs. 300; and for long journeys lbs. 250.

  82 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. chaps. xxviii.)

  83 It is meritorious to accompany the funeral cortège of a

  Moslem even for a few paces.

  84 Otherwise he could not have joined in the prayers.

  85 Arab. “Halwá” made of sugar, cream, almonds, etc. That of

  Maskat is famous throughout the East.

  86 i.e. “Camphor” to a negro, as we say “Snowball,” by the figure antiphrase.

  87 “Little Good Luck,” a dim. form of “bakht”=luck, a

  Persian word naturalized in Egypt.

  88 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.

  89 i.e. After we bar the door.

  90 Arab. “Jáwísh” from Turk. Cháwúsh, Chiaoosh, a sergeant, poursui
vant, royal messenger. I would suggest that this is the word “Shálish” or “Jálish” in Al-Siynti’s History of the Caliphs () translated by Carlyle “milites,” by Schultens “Sagittarius” and by Jarett “picked troops.”

  91 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.

  92 Arab. “Farj”; hence a facetious designation of the other sex is “Zawi’l-furuj” (grammatically Zawátu’l- furúj)=habentes rimam, slit ones.

  93 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 exerts, 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. Further details will be given in Night ccxi.

  94 “Agha” Turk.=sir, gentleman, is, I have said, politely addressed to a eunuch.

  95 As Bukhayt tells 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.

  96 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.

  97 The tale is interesting as well as amusing, excellently describing the extravagance still practiced in middle-class Moslem families on the death of the pater familias. I must again note that Arab women are much more unwilling to expose the back of the head covered by the “Tarhah” (head-veil) than the face, which is hidden by the “Burke” or nose bag.