One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  258 From the Calc. Edit. (181418), Nights cxcvi.cc., vol. ii., p78. The translation has been compared and collated with that of Langlčs (Paris, 1814), appended to his Edition of the Voyages of Sindbad. The story is exceedingly clever and well deserves translation.

  259 It is regretable that this formula has not been preserved throughout The Nights: it affords, I have noticed, a pleasing break to the long course of narrative.

  260 Arab. “Banát-al-hawá” lit. daughters of love, usually meaning an Anonyma, a fille de joie; but here the girl is of good repute, and the offensive term must be modified to a gay, frolicsome lass.

  261 Arab. “Jabhat,” the lintel opposed to the threshold.

  262 Arab. “Ghattí,” still the popular term said to a child showing its nakedness, or a lady of pleasure who insults a man by displaying any part of her person.

  263 She is compared with a flashing blade (her face) now drawn from its sheath (her hair) then hidden by it.

  264 The “Muajjalah” or money paid down before consummation was about Ł25; and the “Mu’ajjalah” or coin to be paid contingent on divorce was about Ł75. In the Calc. Edit ii. 371, both dowers are Ł35.

  265 i.e. All the blemishes which justify returning a slave to the slave-dealer.

  266 Media: see vol. ii. 94. The “Daylamite prison” was one of many in Baghdad.

  267 See vol. v. 199. I may remark that the practice of bathing after copulation was kept up by both sexes in ancient Rome. The custom may have originated in days when human senses were more acute. I have seen an Arab horse object to be mounted by the master when the latter had not washed after sleeping with a woman.

  268 On the morning after a happy night the bridegroom still offers coffee and Halwá to friends.

  269 i.e. More bewitching.

  270 Arab. “Sharífí” more usually Ashrafi, the Port. Xerafim, a gold coin = 6s.7s.

  271 The oft-repeated Koranic quotation.

  272 Arab. “‘Irk”: our phrase is “the apple of the eye.”

  273 Meaning that he was a Sayyid or a Sharíf.

  274 i.e. than a Jew or a Christian. So the Sultan, when appealed to by these religionists, who were as usual squabbling and fighting, answered, “What matter if the dog tear the hog or the hog tear the dog”?

  275 The “Sharí’at” forbidding divorce by force.

  276 i.e. protect my honour.

  277 For this proverb see vol. v. 138. 1 have remarked that “Shame” is not a passion in Europe as in the East; the Western equivalent to the Arab. “Hayá’ ‘would be the Latin “Pudor.”

  278 Arab. “Talákan báinan,” here meaning a triple divorce before witnesses, making it irrevocable.

  279 i.e. who had played him that trick.

  280 The Bresl. Edit. (vol. xii. p-116, Nights dcccclviii- dcccclxv.) entitles it “Tale of Abu al-Hasan the Damascene and his son Sídí Nur al-Dín ‘ Alí.” Sídí means simply, “my lord,” but here becomes part of the name, a practice perpetuated in Zanzibar. See vol. v.283.

  281 i.e. at the hours of canonical prayers and other suitable times he made an especial orison (du’á) for issue.

  282 See vol. i.85, for the traditional witchcraft of

  Babylonia.

  283 i.e. More or less thoroughly.

  284 i.e. “He who quitteth not his native country diverteth not himself with a sight of the wonders of the world.”

  285 For similar sayings, see vol. ix. 257, and my Pilgrimage i. 127.

  286 i.e. relying upon, etc.

  287 The Egyptian term for a khan, called in Persia caravanserai (karwán-serái); and in Marocco funduk, from the Greek; whence the Spanish “fonda.” See vol. i. 92.

  288 Arab. “Baliyah,” to jingle with “Bábiliyah.”

  289 As a rule whenever this old villain appears in The Nights, it is a signal for an outburst of obscenity. Here, however, we are quittes pour la peur. See vol. v. 65 for some of his abominations.

  290 The lines are in vols. viii. 279 and ix. 197. I quote Mr.

  Payne.

  291 Lady or princess of the Fair (ones).

  292 i.e. of buying.

  293 Arab. “Ázán-hú” = lit. its ears.

  294 Here again the policeman is made a villain of the deepest dye; bad enough to gratify the intelligence of his deadliest enemy, a lodging-keeper in London.

  295 i.e. You are welcome to it and so it becomes lawful (halál) to you.

  296 Arab. “Sijn al-Dam,” the Carcere duro inasprito (to speak Triestine), where men convicted or even accused of bloodshed were confined.

  297 Arab. “Mabásim”; plur. of Mabsim, a smiling mouth which shows the foreteeth.

  298 The branchlet, as usual, is the youth’s slender form.

  299 Subaudi, “An ye disdain my love.”

  300 In the text “sleep.”

  301 “Them” and “him” for “her.”

  302 ‘Urkúb, a Jew of Yathrib or Khaybar, immortalised in the A.P. (i. 454) as “more promise-breaking than ‘Urkúb.”

  303 Uncle of Mohammed. See vol. viii. 172.

  304 First cousin of Mohammed. See ib.

  305 This threat of “‘Orf with her ‘ead” shows the Caliph’s lordliness.

  306 Arab. “Al-Bashkhánah.”

  307 i.e. Amen. See vol. ix. 131.

  308 When asked, on Doomsday, his justification for having slain her.

  309 Khorasan which included our Afghanistan, turbulent then as now, was in a chronic state of rebellion during the latter part of Al-Rashid’s reign.

  310 The brutality of a Moslem mob on such occasions is phenomenal: no fellow-feeling makes them decently kind. And so at executions even women will take an active part in insulting and tormenting the criminal, tearing his hair, spitting in his face and so forth. It is the instinctive brutality with which wild beasts and birds tear to pieces a wounded companion.

  311 The popular way of stopping hemorrhage by plunging the stump into burning oil which continued even in Europe till

  Ambrose Paré taught men to take up the arteries.

  312 i.e. folk of good family.

  313 i.e. the result of thy fervent prayers to Allah for me.

  314 Arab. “Al-Abárík” plur. of lbrik, an ewer containing water for the Wuzu-ablution. I have already explained that a Moslem wishing to be ceremonially pure, cannot wash as Europeans do, in a basin whose contents are fouled by the first touch.

  315 Arab. “Náihah”, the prćfica or myriologist. See vol. i. 311. The proverb means, “If you want a thing done, do it yourself.”

  316 Arab. “Burka’,” the face veil of Egypt, Syria, and Arabia with two holes for the eyes, and the end hanging to the waist, a great contrast with the “Lithám” or coquettish fold of transparent muslin affected by modest women in Stambul.

  317 i.e. donned petticoat-trousers and walking boots other than those she was wont to wear.

  318 “Surah” (Koranic chapter) may be a clerical error for

  “Súrah” (with a Sád) = sort, fashion (of food).

  319 This is solemn religious chaff; the Shaykh had doubtless often dipped his hand abroad in such dishes; but like a good Moslem, he contented himself at home with wheaten scones and olives, a kind of sacramental food like bread and wine in southern Europe. But his retort would be acceptable to the True Believer who, the strictest of conservatives, prides himself on imitating in all points, the sayings and doings of the Apostle.

  320 i.e. animals that died without being ceremonially killed.

  321 Koran ii. 168. This is from the Chapter of the Cow where “that which dieth of itself (carrion), blood, pork, and that over which other name but that of Allah (i.e. idols) hath been invoked” are forbidden. But the verset humanely concludes:

  “Whoso, however, shall eat them by constraint, without desire, or as a transgressor, then no sin shall be upon him.”

  322 i.e. son of Simeon = a Christian.

  323 Arab. and Heb. “Haykal,” suggesting the idea of large space, a temple, a sanctuary, a palace
which bear a suspicious likeness to the Accadian Ę-kal or Great House = the old Egyptian Perao (Pharaoh?), and the Japanese “Mikado.”

  324 Wine, carrion and pork being lawful to the Moslem if used to save life. The former is also the sovereignest thing for inward troubles, flatulence, indigestion, etc. See vol. v. 2, 24.

  325 Arab. “Názilah,” i.e., a curse coming down from Heaven.

  326 Here and below, a translation of her name.

  327 “A picture of Paradise which is promised to the God-fearing! Therein are rivers of water which taint not; and rivers of milk whose taste changeth not; and rivers of wine, etc.” — Koran xlvii. 16.

  328 Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,

  Sermons and soda-water the day after.

  Don Juan ii. 178.

  329 The ox (Bakar) and the bull (Taur, vol. i. 16) are the Moslem emblems of stupidity, as with us are the highly intelligent ass and the most sagacious goose.

  330 In Arab. “‘Ud” means primarily wood; then a lute. See vol. ii. 100. The Muezzin, like the schoolmaster, is popularly supposed to be a fool.

  331 I have noticed that among Arab lovers it was the fashion to be jealous of the mistress’s nightly phantom which, as amongst mesmerists, is the lover’s embodied will.

  332 i.e. I will lay down my life to save thee from sorrow — a common-place hyperbole of love.

  333 Arab. “Katl.” I have noticed the Hibernian “kilt” which is not a bull but, like most provincialisms and Americanisms, a survival, an archaism. In the old Frisian dialect, which agrees with English in more words than “bread, butter and cheese,” we find the primary meaning of terms which with us have survived only in their secondary senses, e.g. killen = to beat and slagen = to strike. Here is its great value to the English philologist. When the Irishman complains that he is “kilt” we know through the Frisian what he really means.

  334 The decency of this description is highly commendable and I may note that the Bresl. Edit. is comparatively free from erotic pictures.

  335 i.e. “I commit him to thy charge under God.”

  336 This is an Americanism, but it translates passing well

  “Al-iláj” = insertion.

  337 Arab. (and Heb.) “Tarjumán” = a dragoman, for which see vol. i. 100. In the next tale it will occur with the sense of polyglottic.

  338 See vol. i. .

  339 After putting to death the unjust Prefect.

  340 Arab. “Lajlaj.” See vol. ix. 322.

  341 Arab. “Mawálid” lit. = nativity festivals (plur. of

  Maulid). See vol. ix. 289.

  342 Bresl. Edit., vol. xii. p-237, Nights dcccclxvi-dcccclxxix. Mr. Payne entitles it “El Abbas and the King’s Daughter of Baghdad.”

  343 “Of the Shayban tribe.” I have noticed (vol. ii. 1) how loosely the title Malik (King) is applied in Arabic and in medićval Europe. But it is ultra-Shakespearean to place a Badawi King in Baghdad, the capital founded by the Abbasides and ruled by those Caliphs till their downfall.

  344 i.e. Irák Arabí (Chaldća) and ‘Ajami (Western Persia). For the meaning of Al-Irák, which always, except in verse, takes the article, see vol. ii. 132.

  345 See supra, . Mr. Payne suspects a clerical error for “Turkumániyah” = Turcomanish; but this is hardly acceptable.

  346 As fabulous a personage as “King Kays.”

  347 Possibly a clerical error for Zabíd, the famous capital of the Tahámah or lowlands of Al-Yaman.

  348 The Moslem’s Holy Land whose capital is Meccah.

  349 A hinted protest against making a picture or a statue which the artist cannot quicken; as this process will be demanded of him on Doomsday. Hence also the Princess is called Máriyah (Maria, Mary), a non-Moslem name.

  350 i.e. day and night, for ever.

  351 Koran xxxiii. 38; this concludes a “revelation” concerning the divorce and marriage to Mohammed of the wife of his adopted son Zayd. Such union, superstitiously held incestuous by all Arabs, was a terrible scandal to the rising Faith, and could be abated only by the “Commandment of Allah.” It is hard to believe that a man could act honestly after such fashion; but we have seen in our day a statesman famed for sincerity and uprightness honestly doing things the most dishonest possible. Zayd and Abu Lahab (chap. cxi. i.) are the only contemporaries of Mohammed named in the Koran.

  352 i.e. darkened behind him.

  353 Here we have again, as so common in Arab romances, the expedition of a modified Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

  354 Arab. “Arzi-há” = in its earth, its outlying suburbs.

  355 The king’s own tribe.

  356 i.e. he was always “spoiling for a fight.”

  357 In the text the two last sentences are spoken by Amir and the story-teller suddenly resumes the third person.

  358 Mr. Payne translates this “And God defend the right” (of plunder according to the Arabs).

  359 Arab. “Lilláhi darruk”; see vol. iv. 20. Captain Lockett (p.28) justly remarks that “it is a sort of encomiastic exclamation of frequent occurrence in Arabic and much easier to comprehend than translate.” Darra signifies flowing freely (as milk from the udder) and was metaphorically transferred to bounty and to indoles or natural capacity. Thus the phrase means “your flow of milk is by or through Allah.” i.e., of unusual abundance.

  360 The words are euphemistic: we should say “comest thou to our succour.”

  361 i.e. If his friend the Devil be overstrong for thee, flee him rather than be slain; as

  He who fights and runs away

  Shall live to fight another day.

  362 i.e. I look to Allah for aid (and keep my powder dry).

  363 i.e. to the next world.

  364 This falling backwards in laughter commonly occurs during the earlier tales; it is, however, very rare amongst the Badawin.

  365 i.e. as he were a flying Jinni, swooping down and pouncing falcon-like upon a mortal from the upper air.

  366 This may be (reading Imraan = man, for Amran = matter) “a masterful man”; but I can hardly accept it.

  367 Arab. “Bundukí,” the adj. of Bunduk, which the Moslems evidently learned from Slav sources; Venedik being the Dalmatian corruption of Venezia. See Dubrovenedik in vol. ii. 219.

  368 i.e. the castle’s square.

  369 In sign of quitting possession. Chess in Europe is rarely played for money, with the exception of public matches: this, however, is not the case amongst Easterns, who are also for the most part as tricky as an old lady at cribbage rightly named.

  370 i.e. he was as eloquent and courtly as he could be.

  371 Arab. “Ya Zínat al-Nisá,” which may either be a P.N. or a polite address as Bella fé (Handsome woman) is to any feminine in Southern Italy.

  372 Arab. “Raas Ghanam”: this form of expressing singularity is common to Arabic and the Eastern languages, which it has influenced.

  373 This most wearisome form of politeness is common in the Moslem world, where men fondly think that the more you see of them the more you like of them. Yet their Proverbial Philosophy (“the wisdom of many and the wit of one”) strongly protests against the practice: I have already quoted Mohammed’s saying, “Zur ghibban, tazid Hibban” — visits rare keep friendship fair.

  374 This clause in the text is evidently misplaced (vol. xii.144).

  375 Arab. Dara’ or Dira’=armour, whether of leather or metal; here the coat worn under the mail.

  376 Called from Rustak, a quarter of Baghdad. For Rusták town see vol. vi. 289.

  377 From Damietta comes our “dimity.” The classical name was Tamiáthis apparently Coptic grćcised: the old town on the shore famed in Crusading times was destroyed in A.H. 648 = 1251.

  378 Easterns are always startled by a sudden summons to the presence either of King or Kazi: here the messenger gives the youth to understand that it is in kindness, not in anger.

  379 i.e. in not sending for thee to court instead of allowing thee to live in the city without guest-rite.


  380 In sign of agitation: the phrase has often been used in this sense and we find it also in Al-Mas’udi.

  381 I would remind the reader that the “Dawát” (ink-case) contains the reed-pens.

  382 Two well-known lovers.

  383 On such occasions the old woman (and Easterns are hard de dolo vetularum) always assents to the sayings of her prey, well knowing what the doings will inevitably be.

  384 Travellers, Nomads, Wild Arabs.

  385 Whither they bear thee back dead with the women crying and keening.

  386 Arab. Aznání = emaciated me.

  387 Either the Deity or the Love-god.

  388 Arab. “Himŕ” = the tribal domain, a word which has often occurred.

  389 “O ye who believe! seek help through patience and prayer: verily, Allah is with the patient.” Koran ii. 148. The passage refers to one of the battles, Bedr or Ohod.

  390 Arab. “Sirr” (a secret) and afterwards “Kitmán” (concealment) i.e. Keeping a lover down-hearted.

  391 Arab. “‘Alkam” = the bitter gourd, colocynth; more usually “Hanzal.”

  392 For “Jazírah” = insula, island, used in the sense of “peninsula,” see vol. i. 2.

  393 Meccah and Al-Medinah. Pilgrimage i. 338 and ii. 57, used in the proverb “Sharr fi al-Haramayn” = wickedness in the two Holy Places.

  394 Arab. Al-hamd (o li’llah).

  395 i.e. play, such as the chase, or an earnest matter, such as war, etc.

  396 Arab. “Mizwad,” or Mizwád = lit. provision-bag, from Zád = viaticum; afterwards called Kirbah (pron. Girbah, the popular term), and Sakl. The latter is given in the Dictionaries as Askálah = scala, échelle, stage, plank.

  397 Those blood-feuds are most troublesome to the traveller, who may be delayed by them for months: and, until a peace be patched up, he will never be allowed to pass from one tribe to their enemies. A quarrel of the kind prevented my crossing Arabia from Al-Medinah to Maskat (Pilgrimage, ii. 297), and another in Africa from visiting the head of the Tanganyika Lake. In all such journeys the traveller who has to fight against Time is almost sure to lose.

  398 i.e. his fighting-men.

  399 The popular treatment of a detected horse-thief, for which see Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia (1829), and Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys (1830).

  400 Arab “Ashírah”: see vol. vii. 121.