One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  315 The father (whom Heron calls “Hichia Barmaki”) spoke not at random, but guessed that the Caliph had been reading the book Al-Jafr.

  316 Heron calls Ja’afar’s wife “Fatmé” from the French.

  317 This is the open grassy space on the left bank of the

  Baradah River, first sighted by travellers coming from Bayrút.

  See vol. i. 234, where it is called Al-Hasá = the Plain of

  Pebbles.

  318 Heron names him Chebib (Habíb) also “Xakem Tai-Chebib”

  = Hátim Tayy Habíb.

  319 The scene is described at full length in the Cotheal

  MS. with much poetry sung by a fair slave-girl and others.

  320 Again showing the date of the tale to be modern. See my Terminal Essay, .

  321 This might serve even in these days to ask a worshipful guest why he came, and what was his business — it is the address of a well-bred man to a stranger of whose rank and station he is ignorant. The vulgar would simply say, “Who art thou, and what is thy native country?”

  322 In Heron the host learns everything by the book

  Al-Jafr.

  323 In text “Muzawwa” which the Egyptian pronounces

  “Mugawwaz.”

  324 Which would be necessary after car. cop. with his women.

  325 In text “Kabr al-Sitt,” wherein the Sitt Zaynab, aunt to Mohammed, is supposed to lie buried. Here the cultivation begins about half a mile’s ride from the Báb-al-Shághúr or S. Western gate of the city. It is mentioned by Baedeker (), and ignored by Murray, whose editor, Mr. Missionary Porter, prefers to administer the usual dainty dish of “hashed Bible.”

  326 Arab. “Jámi’ al-Amawí”: for this Mosque, one of the

  Wonders of the Moslem World, consult any Guide Book to Damascus.

  See Suppl. vol. iv. Night cccxlii. In Heron it becomes the

  “Giamah Illamoue,” one of the three most famous mosques in the

  world.

  327 M. houdas trasnlates “Tarz,” “Márkaz” or “Mirkáz” by Un pierrre en forme de dame, instrument qui sert à enfoncer les pavés (= our “beetle”); c’est-à-dire en form de borne.

  328 For this “window-gardening,” an ancient practice in the

  East, see vol. i. 301.

  329 Heron calls her “Negemet-il-Souper” = Najmat al-Sabáh = Constellation of Morn. In the Cotheal MS. she uses very harsh language to the stranger, “O Bull (i.e. O stupid), this be not thy house nor yet the house of thy sire,” etc.; “go forth to the curse of God and get thee to Hell,” etc.

  330 For “Kayf” = joy, the pleasure of living, see my

  Pligrimage i. 12-13.

  331 In text, “‘Ayyik,” or “‘Ayyuk” = a hinderer (of disease) from ‘Ayk or ‘Auk, whence also ‘Ayyúk = Capella, a bright star proverbial for its altitude, as in the Turk, saw “to give praise to the ‘Ayyúk” = skies.

  332 Auspicious formulæ. The Cotheal MS. calls the physician “Dubdihkán.”

  333 In text “Kullu Shayyin lí mu’as’as”; the latter from

  “‘As’as” = to complicate a matter.

  334 A sign that he diagnosed a moral not a bodily disorder. We often find in The Nights, the doctor or the old woman distinguishing a love-fit by the pulse or similar obscure symptoms, as in the case of Seleucus, Stratonice and her step-son Antiochus — which seems to be the arch-type of these anecdotes.

  335 Arab. “Kirsh,” before explained; in Harun’s day = 3 francs.

  336 In the Cotheal MS. the recipe occupies a whole page of ludicrous items, e.g. Let him take three Miskals of pure “Union-with-the-lover,” etc.

  337 In the Cotheal MS. Attaf seeks his paternal uncle and father-in-law with the information that he is going to the Pilgrimage and Visitation.

  338 Called in the old translation or rather adaptation “Scheffander-Hassan” or simply “Scheffander” = Shahbandar Hasan, for which see vol. iv. 29. In the Cotheal MS. () he becomes the “Emir Omar, and the Báshá of Damascus” ().

  339 The passage is exceedingly misspelt. “Ammá min Maylí

  Binti-ka sháshí Aná Aswadu (for Sháshi M. Houdas reads “Jáshí” =

  my heart) Wa Taná (read “Thaná,” reputation) Binti-ka abyazu min

  Sháshí.”

  340 One of the formulæ of divorce.

  341 In text “Muábalár min Shaani-ka.” M. Houdas reads the first word “Muzábal” = zublán, wearied, flaccid, weak.

  342 For “Al-’iddah,” in the case of a divorcée three lunar months, for a widow four months and ten days and for a pregnant woman, the interval until her delivery, see vols. iii. 292; vi. 256; and x. 43: also Lane (M.E.) chap. iii.

  343 In text “Alfi (4th form of ‘Lafw’) Hájatan,” the reading is that of M. Houdas; and the meaning would be “what dost thou want (in the way of amusement)? I am at thy disposal.”

  344 Heron has here interpolated an adventure with a Bazar-cook and another with a Confectioner: both discover Ja’afar also by a copy of the “Giaffer” (Al-Jafr). These again are followed by an episode with a fisherman who draws in a miraculous draught by pronouncing the letters “Gim. Bi. Ouaow” (wáw = J. B. W.), i.e. Ja’afar, Barmecide, Wazir; and discovers the Minister by a geomantic table. Then three Darvishes meet and discourse anent the virtues of “Chebib” (i.e. Attaf); and lastly come two blind men, the elder named Benphises, whose wife having studied occultism and the Dom-Daniel of Tunis, discovers Ja’afar. All this is to marshal the series of marvels and wonders upon wonders predicted to Ja’afar by his father when commanding him to visit Damascus; and I have neither space nor inclination to notice their enormous absurdities.

  345 This Governor must not be confounded with the virtuous and parsimonious Caliph of the same name the tenth of the series (reign A.D. 692-705) who before ruling studied theology at Al-Medinah and won the sobriquet of “Mosque-pigeon.” After his accession he closed the Koran saying, “Here you and I part,” and busied himself wholly with mundane matters. The Cotheal MS. mentions only the “Nabob” (Náib = lieutenant) of Syria.

  346 “Kapú” (written and pronounced Kapi in Turk.) is a door, a house or a government office and Kapújí = a porter; Kapújí-báshí = head porter; also a chamberlain in Arab. “Hájíb”; and Kapú Katkhúdási (pron. Kapi-Kyáyasí) = the agent which every Governor is obliged to keep at Constantinople.

  347 In text “Al-buyúrdi,” clerical error for “Buyúruldi” (pron. Buyúruldu) = the written order of a Governor.

  348 “Al-Yamaklak” = vivers, provaunt; from the T. “Yamak” = food, a meal.

  349 Meaning that he waived his right to it.

  350 In text “Zawádah” (gen. “Azwád” or “Azwi’dah”) = provisions, viaticum.

  351 In text “Takhtrawún”; see vols. ii. 180; v. 175. In the Cotheal MS. it is a “Haudaj” = camel-litter (vol. viii. 235).

  352 “Kubbat al-’Asáfír,” now represented by the “Khan al-Asáfír,” on the road from Damascus to Palmyra, about four hours’ ride from and to the N. East of the Báb Túmá or N. Eastern gate. The name is found in Baedeker (). IN the C. MS. it becomes the “Thaníyyat al-’Ukáb” = the Vulture’s Pass.

  353 Meaning that Attaf had not the heart to see his cousin-wife leave her home.

  354 Written in Turkish fashion with the Jím (j) and three dots instead of one. This Persian letter is still preserved in the Arabic alphabets of Marocco, Algiers, etc.

  355 In Arab. “Jinn” = spirit or energy of a man, which here corresponds with the Heb. “Aub”; so in the Hamasah the poet says, “My Jinn have not fled; my life is not blunted; my birds never drooped for fear,” where, say commentators, the Arabs compare an energetic man with a Jinní or Shaytán. So the Prophet declared of Omar, “I never saw such an ‘Abkarí amongst men,” ‘Abkar, in Yamámah, like Yabrín and Wabár near Al-Yaman, being a desolate region, the home of wicked races destroyed by Allah and now haunted by gruesome hosts of non-human nature. Chenery, p-9.

  356 In the C. MS. it is
an Emir of the Emirs.

  357 Arab. “Tábah.”

  358 This excellent episode is omitted in the C. MS. where

  Attaf simply breaks gaol and reaching Aleppo joins a caravan to

  Baghdad.

  359 In text “Katalú-ní”: see vols. v. 5; vi. 171.

  360 In the C. MS. he enters a mosque and finds a Ja’ídí (vagabond) who opens his bag and draws out a loaf, a roast food, lemons, olives, cucumbers and date-cake, which suggest to Attaf, who had not eaten such things for a month, “the table of Isá bin Maryam.” For the rest see Mr. Cotheal’s version.

  361 The C. MS. gives the short note in full.

  362 In text “al-Towáb,” Arab. plur. of the Persian and

  Turk. “Top.” We hardly expected to find ordinance in the age of

  Harun al-Rashid, although according to Milton they date before

  the days of Adam.

  363 M. Houdas would read for “Alhy Tys” in the text “Tuhá Tays” a general feast; “Tuhá” = cooked meat and “Tays” = myriads of.

  364 M. Houdas translates les injures devancèrent les compliments, an idiom = he did not succeed in his design.

  365 “Cousin” being more polite than “wife”: see vols. vi. 145; ix. 225.

  366 Les vertèbres ont fait bourrelet, says M. Houdas who adds that “Shakbán” is the end of a cloth, gown, or cloak, which is thrown over the shoulders and serves, like the “Jayb” in front, to carry small parcels, herbs, etc.

  367 In the local Min jargon, the language of Fellahs,

  “Addíki” = I will give thee.

  368 In text “Min al-’Án wa sá’idan;” lit. = from this moment upwards.

  369 “Tarajjum” taking refuge from Satan the Stone (Rajím).

  See vol. iv. 242.

  370 i.e. a descenant of Al-Háshim, great-grandfather of the

  Prophet. See ix. 24.

  371 In text “Shobási,” for “Sobáshí” which M. Houdas translates prévôt du Palais.

  372 In the C. MS. Attaf’s head was to be cut off.

  373 In the C. MS. the anagnorisis is much more detailed. Ja’afar asks Attaf if he knew a Damascus-man Attaf hight and so forth; and lastly an old man comes forward and confesses to have slain the Sharíf or Háshimi.

  374 The drink before the meal, as is still the custom in

  Syria and Egypt. See vol. vii. 132.

  375 Gauttier (vii. 256), illustrating the sudden rise of low-caste and uneducated men to high degree, quotes a contemporary celebrity, the famous Mirza Mohammed Husayn Khan who, originally a Bakkál or greengrocer, was made premier of Fath Ali Shah’s brilliant court, the last bright flash of Iranian splendour and autocracy. But Irán is a land upon which Nature has inscribed “Resurgam”; and despite her present abnormal position between two vast overshadowing empires — British India and Russia in Asia — she has still a part to play in history. And I may again note that Al-Islam is based upon the fundamental idea of a Republic which is, all (free) men are equal, and the lowest may aspire to the highest dignity.

  376 In text “‘Aramramí.”

  377 “Wa’lláha ‘l-Muwaffiku ‘l-Mu’in” = God prospereth and directeth, a formula often prefixed or suffixed to a book.

  378 MS. p-685. Gauttier, vii. 64-90; Histoire du Prince Habib et de la Princesse Dorrat-el-Gawas. The English translation dubs it “Story of Habib and Dorathil-goase, or the Arabian Knight” (vol. iii. 219-89); and thus degrades the high sounding name to a fair echo of Dorothy Goose. The name = Pearl of the Diver: it is also the P.N. of a treatise on desinental syntax by the grammarian-poet Al-Hariri (Chenery, ).

  379 The “Banú Hilál,” a famous tribe which formed part of a

  confederation against the Prophet on his expedition to Honayn.

  See Tabari, vol. iii. chapt. 32, and Doughty, Arabia Deserta

  (Index, B. Helal). In the text we have the vulgarism “Baní” for

  “Banú”.

  380 Gauttier (vii. 64) clean omits the former Emir because he has nothing to do with the tale. In Heron it is the same, and the second chief is named “Emir-Ben-Hilac-Salamis”; or for shortness tout bonnement “Salamis”; and his wife becoming Amírala which, if it mean anything, is = Colonel, or Captain R. N.

  381 ie. Moon of the Nobles.

  382 = the Beloved, le bien-aimé.

  383 As has been seen Gauttier reduces the title to “Prince.” Amongst Arabs, however, it is not only a name proper but may denote any dignity from a Shaykh to a Sultan rightly so termed.

  384 For the seven handwritings see vol. iv. 196. The old English version says, “He learned the art of writing with pens cut in seven different ways.” To give an idea of the style it renders the quatrain:— “Father,” said the youth, “you must apply to my master, to give you the information you desire. As for me, I must long be all eye and all ear. I must learn to use my hand, before I begin to exercise my tongue, and to write my letters as pure as pearls from the water.” And this is translation!

  385 I need hardly note that “Voices from the other world” are a lieu commun of so-called Spiritualism. See also vol. i. 142 and Suppl. Vol. iii.

  386 This tale and most of those in the MS. affect the Ká1a l-Ráwí (= quoth the reciter) showing the true use of them. See Terminal Essay, vol. x. 144.

  387 The missing apodosis would be, “You would understand the cause of my weeping.”

  388 In the text there are only five lines. I have borrowed the sixth from the prose.

  389 “Dáúd” = David: see vols. ii. 286; vi. 113.

  390 For “Samharí” see vol. iv. 258.

  391 From “Rudaynah,” either a woman or a place: see vols. ii. 1; vii. 265; and for “Khatt Hajar” vol. ii. 1.

  392 This is the idiomatic meaning of the Arab word “Nizál” = dismounting to fight on foot.

  393 In the text “Akyál,” plur. of “Kayl” = Kings of the Himyarite peoples. See vol. vii. 60; here it is = the hero, the heroes.

  394 An intensive word, “on the weight,” as the Arabs say of ‘Abbás (stern-faced) and meaning “Very stern-faced, austere, grim.” In the older translations it becomes “Il Haboul” — utterly meaningless.

  395 The Arab. “Moon of the Time” becomes in the olden versions “Camaulzaman,” which means, if anything, “Complete Time,” and she is the daughter of a Jinn-King “Illabousatrous (Al-’Atrús?).” He married her to a potent monarch named “Shah-Goase” (Shah Ghawwás=King Diver), in this version “Sábúr” (Shahpur), and by him Kamar Al-Zaman became the mother of Durrat al-Ghawwas.

  396 In text “Sádát wa Ashráf:” for the technical meaning of

  “Sayyid” and “Sharif” see vols. iv. 170; v. 259.

  397 Gauttier, vii. 71. Les Isles Bellour. see vol. iii. 194.

  398 Heron’s “Illabousatrous”(?).

  399 In text “Zayjah,” from Pers. “Záycheh” = lit. a horoscope, a table for calculating nativities and so forth. In page 682 of the MS. the word is used = marriage-lines.

  400 In text “Snsál,” for “Salsál “ = lit. chain.

  401 In Sindbad the Seaman I have shown that riding men as asses is a facetious exaggeration of an African practice, the Minister being generally the beast of burden for the King. It was the same in the Maldive Islands. “As soon as the lord desires to land, one of the rhief Catibes (Arab. Khatíb = a preacher, not Kátib = a writer) comes forward to offer his shoulder (a function much esteemed) and the other gets upon his shoulders; and so, with a leg on each side, he rides him horse fashion to land, and is there set down.” See , “The Voyage of François Pyrard,” etc. The volume is unusually well edited by Mr. Albert Gray, formerly of the Ceylon Civil Service, for the Hakluyt Society, MDCCCLXXXVII: it is, however, regretable that he and Mr. Bell, his collaborateur, did not trace out the Maldive words to their “Aryan” origin showing their relationship to vulgar Hindostani as Mas to Machhí (fish) from the Sanskrit Matsya.

  402 In text “Ghayth al-Hátíl = incessant rain of small drops and widely dispread. I
n Arab. the names for clouds, rain and all such matters important to a pastoral race are well nigh innumerable. Poetry has seized upon the material terms and has converted them into a host of metaphors; for “the genius of the Arabic language, like that of the Hebrew, is to form new ideas by giving a metaphorical signification to material objects (e.g. ‘Azud, lit. the upper arm; met. a helper).” Chenery, .

  403 In the text “To the palace:” the scribe, apparently forgetting that he is describing Badawi life, lapses at times into “decorating the capital” and “adorning the mansion,” as if treating of the normal city-life. I have not followed his example.

  404 Heron translates “A massy cuirass of Haoudi.”

  405 In text, “Inbasata ‘l-Layl al-Asá,” which M. Houdas renders et s’étendit la nuit (mère) de la tristesse.

  406 “Rauzah” in Algiers is a royal park; also a prairie, as

  “Rauz al-Sanájirah,” plain of the Sinjars: Ibn Khaldun, ii. 448.

  407 The “Miskál” (for which see vols. i. 126; ix. 262) is the weight of a dinar = 1½ dirham = 71-72 grains avoir. A dose of 142 grains would kill a camel. In 1848, when we were marching up the Indus Valley under Sir Charles Napier to attack Náo Mall of Multan, the Sind Camel Corps was expected to march at the rate of some 50 miles a day, and this was done by making the animals more than half drunk with Bhang or Indian hemp.

  408 In text, “Yakhat,” probably clerical error for “Yakhbut,” lit. = he was panting in a state of unconsciousness: see Dozy, Suppl. s. v.

  409 In text “Al-Dán, which is I presume a clerical error for

  “Al-Uzn” = ear. [“Dán,” with the dual “Dánayn,” and “Wudn,” with

  the plural “Audán,” are popular forms for the literary “Uzn.”-

  -ST.]

  410 This name has occurred in MS. , but it is a mere nonentity until — the normal incuriousness. Heron dubs him “Rabir.”

  411 In the text “Zimmat” = obligation, protection, clientship.

  412 “Sahha ‘alakah” (=a something) “fí hazá ‘l-Amri.” The first word appears de trop being enclosed in brackets in the MS.

  413 “Wa yabkí alaykum Mabálu-h.” [For “Mabál” I would read “Wabál,” in the sense of crime or punishment, and translate: “lest the guilt of it rest upon you.” — ST.)