One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  “They name us Al-A’rбb but Al-’Urb is our name.”

  460 I would remind the reader that the Dinбr is the golden denarius (or solidus) of Eastern Rome while the Dirham is the silver denarius, whence denier, danaro, dнnheiro, etc., etc. The oldest dinars date from A.H. 91-92 (=714-15) and we find the following description of one struck in A.H. 96 by Al-Walid the VI. Ommiade: —

  Obverse:

  Area. “There is no ilбh but Allah: He is one: He hath no

  partner.”

  Circle. “Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah who hath sent

  him with the true Guidance and Religion that he

  manifest it above all other Creeds.”

  Reverse:

  Area. “Allah is one: Allah is Eternal: He begetteth not,

  nor is He begot.”

  Circle. “Bismillah: This Dinar was struck anno 96.”

  See “‘Ilвm-en-Nas” (warnings for Folk) a pleasant little volume by Mr. Godfrey Clarke (London, King and Co., 1873), mostly consisting of the minor tales from The Nights, especially this group between Nights ccxlvii. and cdlxi.; but rendered valuable by the annotations of my old friend, the late Frederick Ayrton.

  461 The reader will note the persistency with which the duty of universal benevolence is preached.

  462 Arab. from Pers. “Shah-bandar”: see vol. iv. 29.

  463 i.e. of thy coming, a popular compliment.

  464 This is the doctrine of the universal East; and it is true concerning wives and widows, not girls when innocent or rather ignorant. According to Western ideas Kamar al-Zaman was a young scoundrel of the darkest dye whose only excuses were his age, his inexperience and his passions.

  465 Arab. “Dayyъs” prop. = a man who pimps for his own wife and in this sense constantly occurring in conversation.

  466 This is taking the law into one’s own hands with a witness; yet amongst races who preserve the Pundonor in full and pristine force, e.g. the Afghans and the Persian Iliyat, the killing so far from being considered murder or even justifiable homicide would be highly commended by public opinion.

  467 Arab. “Nбkisбtu’aklin wa dнn”: the words are attributed to the Prophet whom we find saying, “Verily in your wives and children ye have an enemy, wherefore beware of them” (Koran lxiv. 14): compare 1 Cor. vii. 28, 32. But Maоtre Jehan de Meung went farther,

  “Toutes кtez, serez ou fыtes

  De faict ou de volontй, putes.”

  468 Arab. “Habнbн wa tabнbн,” the common jingle.

  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-Hбris (the Lion) hence Eve’s first-born was named in his honour Abd al-Haris. His angelic name was Azбzнl 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-Bayzбwi, 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 nasnбs, the Ghъl 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.

  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.

  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 shine. This Rabbi Akilah was also called Bar Cozla=

  Son of the Lie.

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

  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.

  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.

  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.”

  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.

  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-hбk (like Isaac with a central aspirate) not Ishбk. This is not unnecessary when we hear Tait-shill for Tait’s hill and “Frederick-shall” for {Friedrichs-hall.}

  478 i.e. He was a proficient, an adept.

  479 Arab. from Pers. Dъlбb=a waterwheel, a buttery, a cupboard.

  480 Arab. “Futъr,” the chhotн hбzirн of Anglo-India or breakfast proper, eaten by Moslems immediately after the dawn- prayer except in Ramбzбn. Amongst sensible people it is a substantial meal of bread and boiled beans, eggs, cheese, curded milk and the pastry called fatнrah, followed by coffee and a pipe. See Lane M. E. chapt. v. and my Pilgrimage ii. 48.

  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.”

  482 Lit. “the calamity of man (insбn) is from the tongue” (lisбn).

  483 For Khatt Sharнf, lit.=a noble letter, see vol. ii. 39.

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

  485 Arab. “Janбzнr”=chains, an Arabised plural of the Pers. Zanjнr with the metathesis or transposition of letters peculiar to the vulgar; “Janбzнr” for “Zanбjнr.”

  486 Arab. “Safнnah”=(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. ) visited, I believe, for the first time by my late friend Charles F. Tyrwhitt-Drake and myself in May, 1871.

  487 Mansur and Nбsir are passive and active participles from the same root, Nasr=victory; the former means triumphant and the latter triumphing.

  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.

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

  490 Arab. “Rahan,” an article placed with him in pawn.

  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.

  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.

  493 Al-Mas’ъdi (chap. xvii.) alludes to furs of Sable (Samъr), hermelline (Al-Farwah) and Bortбs (Turkish) furs of black and red foxes. For Samъr see vol. iv. 57. Sinjбb is Persian for the skin of the grey squirrel (Mus 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.

  494 Arab. “Tбjir Alfн” which may mean a thousand dinars

  (ВЈ500) or a thousand purses (=ВЈ5,000). “Alfн” is not an uncommon

  P.N., meaning that the bearer (Pasha or pauper) had been bought

  for a thousand left indefinite.

  495 Tigris-Euphrates.

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

  497 For this fiery sea see Sind Revisited i. 19.

  498 Arab. “Al-Ghayb” which may also mean “in the future” (unknown to man).

  499 Arab. “Jabal”; here a mountainous island: see vol. i. 140.

  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

  Marsб Damghah.

  501 Arab. “Sъwбn”=“Syenite” (-granite) also used for flint and other hard stones. See vol. i. 238.

  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.

  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-Abbбs 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.

  504 Arab. “Dбirah,” a basin surrounded by hills. The words which follow may mean, “An hour’s journey or more in breadth.”

  505 These petrified folk have occurred in the “Eldest Lady’s

  Tale” (vol. i. 165), where they are of “black stone.”

  506 Arab. “Tбj Kisrawi,” such as was worn by the Chosroes

  Kings. See vol. i. 75.

  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.

  508 Arab. “Tб бlнk”=hanging lamps, often in lantern shape with coloured glass and profuse ornamentation; the Maroccan are now familiar to England.

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

  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.

  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.

  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 sensitiveness such as would in some measure justify the seemingly extravagant statements of their poetical admirers, of which the following anecdote (quoted by Ibn Khellikan from the historian Et Teberi) is a fair specimen. Ardeshir ibn Babek (Artaxerxes I.), the first Sassanian King of Persia (A.D. 226-242), having long unsuccessfully besieged El Hedr, a strong city of Mesopotamia belonging to the petty King Es Satiroun, at last obtained possession of it by the treachery of the owner’s daughter Nezireh and married the latter, this having been the price stipulated by her for the betrayal to him of the place. “It happened afterwards that, one night, as she was unable to sleep and turned from side to side in the bed, Ardeshir asked her what prevented her from sleeping. She replied, ‘I never yet slept on a rougher bed than this; I feel something irk me.’ He ordered the bed to be changed, but she was still unable to sleep. Next morning, she complained of her side, and on examination, a myrtle-leaf was found adhering to a fold of the skin, from which it had drawn blood. Astonished at this circumstance, Ardeshir asked her if it was this that had kept her awake and she replied in the affirmative. ‘How then,’ asked he, ‘did your father bring you up?’ She answered, ‘He spread me a bed of satin and clad me in silk and fed me with marrow and cream and the honey of virgin bees and gave me pure wine to drink.’ Quoth Ardeshir, ‘The same return which you made your father for his kindness would be made much more readily to me’; and bade bind her by the hair to the tail of a horse, which galloped off with her and killed her.” It will be remembered that the true princess, in the well-known German popular tale, is discovered by a similar incident to that of the myrtle-leaf. I quote this excellent note from Mr. Payne (ix. 148), only regretting that annotation did not enter into his plan of producing The Nights. Amongst Hindu story-tellers a phenomenal softness of the skin is a lieu commun: see Vikram and the Vampire (p.285, “Of the marvellous delicacy of their Queens”); and the Tale of the Sybarite might be referred to in the lines given above.

  513 “(55) Indeed joyous on that day are the people of Paradise in their employ; (56) In shades, on bridal couches reclining they and their wives: (57) Fruits have they therein and whatso they desire. (58) ‘Peace!’ shall be a word from a compassionating Lord.” Koran xxxvi. 55-58, the famous Chapt. “Yб Sнn;” which most educated Moslems learn by heart. See vol. iii. 19. In addition to the proofs there offered that the Moslem Paradise is not wholly se
nsual I may quote, “No soul wotteth what coolth of the eyes is reserved (for the good) in recompense of their works” (Koran lxx. 17). The Paradise of eating, drinking, and copulating which Mr. Palgrave (Arabia, i. 368) calls “an everlasting brothel between forty celestial concubines” was preached solely to the baser sort of humanity which can understand and appreciate only the pleasures of the flesh. To talk of spiritual joys before the Badawin would have been a non-sens, even as it would be to the roughs of our great cities.

  514 Arab. “Lajlaj” lit.=rolling anything round the mouth when eating; hence speaking inarticulately, being tongue-tied, stuttering, etc.

  515 The classical “Phylarchs,” who had charge of the

  Badawin.

  516 “The Jabбbirah” (giant-rulers of Syria) and the

  “Akбsirah” (Chosroлs-Kings of Persia).

  517 This shows (and we are presently told) that the intruder was Al-Khizr, the “Green Prophet,” for whom see vol. iv. 175.

  518 i.e. of salvation supposed to radiate from all Prophets, esp. from Mohammed.

  519 This formula which has occurred from the beginning (vol.i.1) is essentially Koranic: See Chapt. li. 18-19 and passim.

  520 This trick of the priest hidden within the image may

  date from the days of the vocal Memnon, and was a favourite in

  India, especially at the shrine of Somnauth (Soma-nбth), the

  Moon-god, Atergatis Aphrodite, etc.

  521 Arab. “Almбs”=Gr. Adamas. In opposition to the learned ex-Professor Maskelyne I hold that the cutting of the diamond is of very ancient date. Mr. W. M. Flinders Patrie (The Pyramids and Temples of Gizah, London: Field and Tuer, 1884) whose studies have thoroughly demolished the freaks and unfacts, the fads and fancies of the “Pyramidists,” and who may be said to have raised measurement to the rank of a fine art, believes that the Euritic statues of old Egypt such as that of Khufu (Cheops) in the Bulak Museum were drilled by means of diamonds. Athenжus tells us (lib. v.) that the Indians brought pearls and diamonds to the procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus; and this suggests cutting, as nothing can be less ornamental than the uncut stone.