One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  153 Arab. “Khuff” worn under the “Bбbъg” (a corruption of the Persian pб-push=feet-covers, papooshes, slippers). [Lane M. E. chaps. i.]

  154 Done in hot weather throughout the city, a dry line for camels being left in mid-street to prevent the awkward beasts slipping. The watering of the Cairo streets of late years has been excessive; they are now lines of mud in summer as well as in winter and the effluvia from the droppings of animals have, combined with other causes, seriously deteriorated the once charming climate. The only place in Lower Egypt, which has preserved the atmosphere of 1850, is Suez.

  155 Arab. “Hurбk:” burnt rag, serving as tinder for flint and steel, is a common styptic.

  156 Of this worthy, something has been said and there will be more in a future page.

  157 i.e. the person entitled to exact the blood-wite.

  158 Al-Maamum was a man of sense with all his fanaticism One of his sayings is preserved “Odious is contentiousness in Kings, more odious vexation in judges uncomprehending a case; yet more odious is shallowness of doctors in religions and most odious are avarice in the rich, idleness in youth, jesting in age and cowardice in the soldier.”

  159 The second couplet is not in the Mac. Edit. but Lane’s

  Shaykh has supplied it (ii. 339)

  160 Adam’s loins, the “Day of Alast,” and the Imam (who stands before the people in prayer) have been explained. The “Seventh Imam” here is Al-Maamun, the seventh Abbaside the Ommiades being, as usual, ignored.

  161 He sinned only for the pleasure of being pardoned, which is poetical-and hardly practical-or probable.

  162 The Katб (sand-grouse) always enters into Arab poetry because it is essentially a desert bird, and here the comparison is good because it lays its eggs in the waste far from water which it must drink morning and evening. Its cry is interpreted “man sakat, salam” (silent and safe), but it does not practice that precept, for it is usually betrayed by its piping “ Kata! Kata!” Hence the proverb, “More veracious than the sand-grouse,” and “speak not falsely, for the Kata sayeth sooth,” is Komayt’s saying. It is an emblem of swiftness: when the brigand poet Shanfara boasts, “The ash-coloured Katas can drink only my leavings, after hastening all night to slake their thirst in the morning,” it is a hyperbole boasting of his speed. In Sind it is called the “rock pigeon” and it is not unlike a grey partridge when on the wing.

  163 Joseph to his brethren, Koran, xii. 92, when he gives them his “inner garment” to throw over his father’s face.

  164 Arab. “Hajjбm”=a cupper who scarifies forehead and legs, a bleeder, a (blood-) sucker. The slang use of the term is to thrash, lick, wallop. (Burckhardt. Prov. 34.)

  165 The Bresl. Edit. (vii. 171-174) entitles this tale, “Story of Shaddбd bin Ad and the City of Iram the Columned ;” but it relates chiefly to the building by the King of the First Adites who, being promised a future Paradise by Prophet Hъd, impiously said that he would lay out one in this world. It also quotes Ka’ab al-Ahbбr as an authority for declaring that the tale is in the “Pentateuch of Moses.” Iram was in al-Yaman near Adan (our Aden) a square of ten parasangs (or leagues each= 18,000 feet) every way, the walls were of red (baked) brick 500 cubits high and 20 broad, with four gates of corresponding grandeur. It contained 300,000 Kasr (palaces) each with a thousand pillars of gold-bound jasper, etc. (whence its title). The whole was finished in five hundred years, and, when Shaddad prepared to enter it, the “Cry of Wrath” from the Angel of Death slew him and all his many. It is mentioned in the Koran (chaps. Ixxxix. 6-7) as “Irem adorned with lofty buildings (or pillars).” But Ibn Khaldun declares that commentators have embroidered the passage; Iram being the name of a powerful clan of the ancient Adites and “imбd” being a tent-pole: hence “Iram with the numerous tents or tent-poles.” Al-Bayzawi tells the story of Abdullah ibn Kilabah (D’Herbelot’s Colabah). At Aden I met an Arab who had seen the mysterious city on the borders of Al-Ahkбf, the waste of deep sands, west of Hadramaut; and probably he had, the mirage or sun-reek taking its place. Compare with this tale “The City of Brass” (Night dlxv.).

  166 The biblical-”Sheba,” named from the great-grandson of Joctan, whence the Queen (Bilkis) visited Solomon It was destroyed by the Flood of Mбrib.

  167 The full title of the Holy City is “Madinat al-Nab)” = the City of the Prophet, of old Yasrib (Yathrib) the Iatrippa of the Greeks (Pilgrimage, ii. 119). The reader will remember that there are two “Yasribs:” that of lesser note being near Hujr in the Yamбmah province.

  168 “Ka’ab of the Scribes,” a well-known traditionist and religious poet who died (A.H. 32) in the Caliphate of Osman. He was a Jew who islamised; hence his name (Ahbбr, plur. of Hibr, a Jewish scribe, doctor of science, etc. Jarrett’s El-Siyuti, ). He must not be confounded with another Ka’ab al-Ahbбr the Poet of the (first) Cloak-poem or “Burdah,” a noble Arab who was a distant cousin of Mohammed, and whose tomb at Hums (Emesa) is a place of pious visitation. According to the best authorities (no Christian being allowed to see them) the cloak given to the bard by Mohammed is still preserved together with the Khirkah or Sanjak Sherif (“Holy Coat” or Banner, the national oriflamme) at Stambul in the Upper Seraglio. (Pilgrimage, i. 213.) Many authors repeat this story of Mu’awiyah, the Caliph, and Ka’ab of the Burdah, but it is an evident anachronism, the poet having been dead nine years before the ruler’s accession (A.H. 41).

  169 Koran, lxxxix. 6-7.

  170 Arab. “Kahramбn” from Pers., braves, heroes.

  171 The Deity in the East is as whimsical-a despot as any of his “shadows” or “vice regents.” In the text Shaddбd is killed for mere jealousy a base passion utterly unworthy of a godhead; but one to which Allah was greatly addicted.

  172 Some traditionist, but whether Sha’abi, Shi’abi or

  Shu’abi we cannot decide.

  173 The Hazarmaveth of Genesis (x. 26) in South Eastern Arabia. Its people are the Adramitae (mod. Hazrami) of Ptolemy who places in their land the Arabiж Emporium, as Pliny does his Massola. They border upon the Homeritж or men of Himyar, often mentioned in The Nights. Hazramaut is still practically unknown to us, despite the excursions of many travellers; and the hard nature of the people, the Swiss of Arabia, offers peculiar obstacles to exploration.

  174 i.e. the prophet Hud generally identified (?) with Heber. He was commissioned (Koran, chaps. vii.) to preach Al-Islam to his tribe the Adites who worshipped four goddesses, Sбkiyah (the rain-giver), Rбzikah (food-giver), Hбfizah (the saviouress) and Sбlimah (who healed sickness). As has been seen he failed, so it was useless to send him.

  175 Son of Ibraham al-Mosili, a musician poet and favourite with the Caliphs Harun al-Rashid and Al-Maamun. He made his name immortal-by being the first who reduced Arab harmony to systematic rules, and he wrote a biography of musicians referred to by Al-Hariri in the Sйance of Singar.

  176 This must not be confounded with the “pissing against the wall” of I Kings, xiv. 10, where watering against a wall denotes a man as opposed to a woman.

  177 Arab. “Zambнl” or “Zimbнl,” a limp basket made of plaited palm-leaves and generally two handled. It is used for many purposes, from carrying poultry to carrying earth.

  178 Here we have again the Syriac ‘‘Bakhkh -un-Bakhkh-un-’’=well done! It is the Pers Бferнn and means “all praise be to him.”

  179 Arab. “A Tufayli?” So the Arab. Prov. (ii. 838) “More intrusive than Tufayl” (prob. the P.N. of a notorious sponger). The Badawin call “Wбrish” a man who sits down to meat unbidden and to drink Wбghil; but townsfolk apply the latter to the “Wбrish.”

  180 Arab. “Artбl”=rotoli, pounds; and

  “A pint is a pound

  All the world round;”

  except in highly civilised lands where the pint has a curious power of shrinking.

  181 One of Al-Maamun’s Wazirs. The Caliph married his daughter whose true name was Bъrбn; but this tale of girl’s freak and courtship was invented (?) by Ishak. For
the splendour of the wedding and the munificence of the Minister see Lane, ii. 350-352.

  182 I have described this scene, the wretch clinging to the curtain and sighing and crying as if his heart would break (Pilgrimage iii. 216 and 220). The same is done at the place Al-Multazam’”the attached to;” (ibid. 156) and various spots called Al-Mustajбb, “where prayer is granted” (ibid. 162). At Jerusalem the Wailing place of the Jews” shows queer scenes; the worshippers embrace the wall with a peculiar wriggle crying out in Hebrew, “O build Thy House, soon, without delay,” etc.

  183 i.e. The wife. The scene in the text was common at Cairo twenty years ago; and no one complained of the stick. See Pilgrimage i., 120.

  184 Arab. “Udm, Udum” (plur. of Idбm) = “relish,” olives, cheese, pickled cucumbers, etc.

  185 I have noticed how the left hand is used in the East. In the second couplet we have “Istinjб”=washing the fundament after stool. The lines are highly appropriate for a nightman. Easterns have many foul but most emphatic expressions like those in the text I have heard a mother say to her brat, “I would eat thy merde!” (i.e. how I love thee!).

  186 Arab. “Harrбk,” whence probably our “Carack” and

  “Carrack” (large ship), in dictionaries derived from Carrus

  Marinus.

  187 Arab. “Ghбshiyah”=lit. an йtui, a cover; and often a saddle-cover carried by the groom.

  188 Arab. “Sharбb al-tuffбh” = melapio or cider.

  189 Arab. “Mudawwarah,” which generally means a small round cushion, of the Marocco-work well known in England. But one does not strike a cushion for a signal, so we must revert to the original-sense of the word “something round,” as a circular plate of wood or metal, a gong, a “bell” like that of the Eastern Christians.

  190 Arab. “Tъfбn” (from the root tauf, going round) a storm, a circular gale, a cyclone the term universally applied in Al-lslam to the “Deluge,” the “Flood” of Noah. The word is purely Arabic; with a quaint likeness to the Gr. {Greek letters}, in Pliny typhon, whirlwind, a giant (Typhњus) whence “Typhon” applied to the great Egyptian god “Set.” The Arab word extended to China and was given to the hurricanes which the people call “Tee foong,” great winds, a second whimsical-resemblance. But Sir John Davis (ii. 383) is hardly correct when he says, “the name typhoon, in itself a corruption of the Chinese term, bears a singular (though we must suppose an accidental) resemblance to the Greek {Greek letters}.”

  191 Plurale majestatis acting superlative; not as Lane supposes (ii. 224) “a number of full moons, not only one.” Eastern tongues abound in instances beginning with Genesis (i. 1), “Gods (he) created the heaven,” etc. It is still preserved in Badawi language and a wildling greatly to the astonishment of the citizens will address his friend “Yб Rijбl”= O men!

  192 Arab. “Hбsid” = an envier: in the fourth couplet “Azъl” (Azzбl, etc.) = a chider, blamer; elsewhere “Lawwбm” = accuser, censor, slanderer; “Wбshн,”=whisperer, informer; “Rakib”=spying, envious rival; “Ghбbit”=one emulous without envy; and “Shбmit”= a “blue” (fierce) enemy who rejoices over another’s calamities. Arabic literature abounds in allusions to this unpleasant category of “damned ill-natured friends;” and Spanish and Portuguese letters, including Brazilian, have thoroughly caught the trick. In the Eastern mind the “blamer” would be aided by the “evil eye.”

  193 Another plural for a singular, “O my beloved!”

  194 Arab. “Khayr”=good news, a euphemistic reply even if the tidings be of the worst.

  195 Abbбs (from ‘Abs, being austere; and meaning the “grim faced”) son of Abd al-Muttalib; uncle to Mohammed and eponym of the Abbaside Khalifahs. A.D. 749=1258.

  196 Katнl = the Irish “kilt.”

  197 This hat been explained as a wazirial title of the time.

  198 The phrase is intelligible in all tongues: in Arabic it is opposed to “dark as night,” “black as mud” and a host of unsavoury antitheses.

  199 Arab. “Awwбdah,” the popular word; not Udнyyah as in Night cclvi. “Ud” liter.= rood and “Al-Ud”=the wood is, I have noted, the origin of our ‘lute.” The Span. ‘laud” is larger and deeper than the guitar, and its seven strings are played upon with a plectrum of buffalo-horn.

  200 Arab. “Tabban lahu!”=loss (or ruin) to him. So “bu’dan lahu”=away with him, abeat in malam rem; and “Suhkan lahu”=Allah and mercy be far from him, no hope for him I

  201 Arab. “Бyah”=Koranic verses, sign, miracle.

  202 The mole on cheek calls to prayers for his preservation; and it is black as Bilal the Abyssinian. Fajran may here mean either “A.-morning” or “departing from grace.”

  203 i.e. the young beard (myrtle) can never hope to excel tile beauties of his cheeks (roses).

  204 i.e. Hell and Heaven.

  205 The first couplet is not in the Mac. Edit. (ii. 171)

  which gives only a single couplet but it is found in the Bres.

  Edit. which entitles this tale “Story of the lying (or false kбzib)

  Khalнfah.” Lane (ii. 392) of course does not translate it.

  206 In the East cloth of frieze that mates with cloth of gold must expect this treatment. Fath Ali Shah’s daughters always made their husbands enter the nuptial-bed by the foot end.

  207 This is always done and for two reasons; the first humanity, that the blow may fall unawares; and, secondly, to prevent the sufferer wincing, which would throw out the headsman.

  208 Arab. “Ma’бni-hб,” lit. her meanings, i.e. her inner woman opposed to the formal-seen by every one.

  209 Described in my Pilgrimage (iii. 168, 174 and 175): it is the stone upon which the Patriarch stood when he built the Ka’abah and is said to show the impress of the feet but unfortunately I could not afford five dollars entrance-fee. Caliph Omar placed the station where it now is; before his time it adjoined the Ka’abah. The meaning of the text is, Be thy court a place of pious visitation, etc. At the “Station of Abraham” prayer is especially blessed and expects to be granted. “This is the place where Abraham stood; and whoever entereth therein shall be safe” (Koran ii. 119). For the other fifteen places where petitions are favourably heard by Heaven see ibid. iii. 211-12.

  210 As in the West, so in the East, women answer an unpleasant question by a counter question.

  211 This “Cry of Haro” often occurs throughout The Nights. In real-life it is sure to colece a crowd. especially if an Infidel (non Moslem) be its cause.

  212 In the East a cunning fellow always makes himself the claimant or complainant.

  213 On the Euphrates some 40 miles west of Baghdad The word is written “Anbбr” and pronounced “Ambбr” as usual with the “n” before “b”; the case of the Greek double Gamma.

  214 Syene on the Nile.

  215 The tale is in the richest Rabelaisian humour; and the requisitions of the “Saj’a” (rhymed prose) in places explain the grotesque combinations. It is difficult to divine why Lane omits it: probably he held a hearty laugh not respectable.

  216 A lawyer of the eighth century, one of the chief pupils of the Imam Abu Hanifah, and Kazi of Baghdad under the third, fourth and fifth Abbasides. The tale is told in the quasi- historical-Persian work “Nigбristбn” (The Picture gallery), and is repeated by Richardson, Diss. 7, xiii. None seem to have remarked that the distinguished legist, Abu Yusuf, was on this occasion a law-breaker; the Kazi’s duty being to carry out the code not to break it by the tricks of a cunning attorney. In Harun’s day, however, some regard was paid to justice, not under his successors, one of whom, Al-Muktadir bi ‘llбh (A.H. 295=907), made the damsel Yamika President of the Diwбn al-Mazбlim (Court of the Wronged), a tribunal which took cognizance of tyranny and oppression in high places.

  217 Here the writer evidently forgets that Shahrazad is telling the story to the king, as Boccaccio (ii. 7) forgets that Pamfilo is speaking. Such inconsequences are common in Eastern story-books and a goody-goody sentiment is always heartily
received as in an English theatre.

  218 In the Mac. Edit. (ii. 182) “Al-Kushayri.” Al-Kasri was

  Governor of the two Iraks (I.e. Bassorah and Cufa) in the reign of

  Al-Hisham, tenth Ommiade (A.D. 723-741)

  219 Arab. “Thakalata k Ummak!” This is not so much a curse as a playful phrase, like “Confound the fellow.” So “Kбtala k Allah” (Allah slay thee) and “Lб abб lak” (thou hast no father or mother). These words are even complimentary on occasions, as a good shot or a fine recitation, meaning that the praised far excels the rest of his tribe.

  220 Koran, iii. 178.

  221 Arab. “Al-Nisбb”=the minimum sum (about half-a crown) for which mutilation of the hand is prescribed by religious law. The punishment was truly barbarous, it chastised a rogue by means which prevented hard honest labour for the rest of his life.

  222 To show her grief.

  223 Abъ Sa’нd Abd al-Malik bin Kurayb, surnamed Al-Asma’i from his grandfather, flor. A.H. 122-306 (=739-830) and wrote amongst a host of compositions the well-known Romance of Antar. See in D’Herbelot the right royal-directions given to him by Harun al-Rashid.

  224 There are many accounts of his death, but it is generally held that he was first beheaded. The story in the text is also variously told and the Persian “Nigбristбn” adds some unpleasant comments upon the House of Abbas. The Persians, for reasons which will be explained in the terminal-Essay, show the greatest sympathy with the Barmecides; and abominate the Abbasides even more than the latter detested the Ommiades.

  225 Not written, as the European reader would suppose.

  226 Arab. “Fъl al-hбrr” = beans like horsebeans soaked and boiled as opposed to the “Fъl Mudammas” (esp. of Egypt)=unshelled beans steamed and boiled all night and eaten with linseed oil as “kitchen” or relish. Lane (M.E., chaps. v.) calls them after the debased Cairene pronunciation, Mudemmes. A legend says that, before the days of Pharaoh (always he of Moses), the Egyptians lived on pistachios which made them a witty, lively race. But the tyrant remarking that the domestic ass, which eats beans, is degenerate from the wild ass, uprooted the pistachio-trees and compelled the lieges to feed on beans which made them a heavy, gross, cowardly people fit only for burdens. Badawis deride “beaneaters” although they do not loathe the pulse like onions. The principal-result of a bean diet is an extraordinary development of flatulence both in stomach and intestines: hence possibly, Pythagoras who had studied ceremonial-purity in Egypt, forbade the use, unless he referred to venery or political-business. I was once sitting in the Greek quarter of Cairo dressed as a Moslem when arose a prodigious hubbub of lads and boys, surrounding, a couple of Fellahs. These men had been working in the fields about a mile east of Cairo and, when returning home, one had said to the other, “If thou wilt carry the hoes I will break wind once for every step we take.” He was as good as his word and when they were to part he cried, “And now for thy bakhshish!” which consisted of a volley of fifty, greatly to the delight of the boys.