The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights (Modern Library Classics)

by A. S. Byatt

  2. I have seen this absolute horror of women amongst the Monks of the Coptic Convents.

  3. After the Day of Doom, when men’s actions are registered, that of mutual retaliation will follow and all creatures (brutes included) will take vengeance on one another.

  THE TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN

  1. Lane is in error (vol. ii. 78) when he corrects this to “Sháh Zemán;” the name is fanciful and intended to be old Persian, on the “weight” of Kahramán. The Bul. Edit. has by misprint “Shahramán.”

  2. The “topothesia” is worthy of Shakespeare’s day. “Khálidán” is evidently a corruption of “Khálidatáni” (for Khálidát), the Eternal, as Ibn Wardi calls the Fortunate Islands, or Canaries, which owe both their modern names to the classics of Europe. Their present history dates from A.D. 1385, unless we accept the Dieppe-Rouen legend of Labat which would place the discovery in A.D. 1326.I for one thoroughly believe in the priority, on the West African Coast, of the gallant descendants of the Northmen.

  3. Four wives are allowed by Moslem law and for this reason. If you marry one wife she holds herself your equal, answers you and “gives herself airs;” two are always quarrelling and making a hell of the house; three are “no company” and two of them always combine against the nicest to make her hours bitter. Four are company; they can quarrel and “make it up” amongst themselves, and the husband enjoys comparative peace. But the Moslem is bound by his law to deal equally with the four; each must have her dresses, her establishment and her night, like her sister wives. The number is taken from the Jews (Arbah Turim Ev. Hazaer, i.) “the wise men have given good advice that a man should not marry more than four wives.” Europeans, knowing that Moslem women are cloistered and appear veiled in public, begin with believing them to be mere articles of luxury; and only after long residence they find out that nowhere has the sex so much real liberty and power as in the Moslem East. They can possess property and will it away without the husband’s leave: they can absent themselves from the house for a month without his having a right to complain; and they assist in all his counsels for the best of reasons: a man can rely only on his wives and children, being surrounded by rivals who hope to rise by his ruin. As regards political matters the Circassian women of Constantinople really rule the Sultanate and there soignez la femme! is the first lesson of getting on in the official world.

  4. This two-bow prayer is common on the bride-night; and at all times when issue is desired.

  5. The older Camaralzaman = “Moon of the age.” Kamar is the moon between her third and twenty-sixth day: Hilál during the rest of the month: Badr (plur. Budúr, whence the name of the Princess) is the full moon.

  6. Showing how long ago forts were armed with metal plates which we have applied to warships only of late.

  7. Two fallen angels who taught men the art of magic. They are mentioned in the Koran (chap. ii); and the commentators have extensively embroidered the simple text. Popularly they are supposed to be hanging by their feet in a well in the territory of Babel, hence the frequent allusions to “Babylonian sorcery” in Moslem writings; and those who would study the black art at headquarters are supposed to go there. They are counterparts of the Egyptian Jamnes and Mambres, the Jannes and Jambres of St. Paul (2 Tim. iii. 8).

  8. An idol or idols of the Arabs (Allat and Ozza) before Mohammed (Koran, chap. ii. 256). Etymologically the word means “error” and the termination is rather Hebraic than Arabic.

  9. Arab. “Khayt hamayán” (wandering threads of vanity), or Mukhát al-Shaytan (Satan’s snivel), = our “gossamer” = God’s summer (Mutter-Gottes-Sommer) or God’s cymar (?).

  10. A posture of peculiar submission; contrasting strongly with the attitude afterwards assumed by Prince Charming.

  11. A mere term of vulgar abuse not reflecting on either parent: I have heard a mother call her own son, “Child of adultery.”

  12. Arab. “Ghazá,” the Artemisia (Euphorbia?) before noticed. If the word be a misprint for Ghadá it means a kind of Euphorbia which, with the Arák (wild caper-tree) and the Daum-palm (Crucifera thebiaca), is one of the three normal growths of the Arabian desert (Pilgrimage, iii. 22).

  13. Lane (ii. 222) first read “Múroozee” and referred it to the Murúz tribe near Herat: he afterwards (iii. 748) corrected it to “Marwazee,” of the fabric of Marw (Margiana), the place now famed for “Mervousness.” As a man of Rayy (Rhages) becomes Rázi (e.g. Ibn Fáris al-Rází), so a man of Marw is Marázi, not Murúzi nor Márwazi. The “Mikna’” was a veil forming a kind of “respirator,” defending from flies by day and from mosquitos, dews and draughts by night. Easterns are too sensible to sleep with bodies kept warm by bedding, and heads bared to catch every blast. Our grandfathers and grandmothers did well to wear bonnets-de-nuit, however ridiculous they may have looked.

  14. Iblis, meaning the Despairer, is called in the Koran (chap. xviii. 48) “One of the genii (Jinn) who departed from the command of his Lord.” Mr. Rodwell (in loco) notes that the Satans and Jinn represent in the Koran (ii. 32, etc.) the evil-principle and finds an admixture of the Semitic Satans and demons with the “Genii from the Persian (Babylonian?) and Indian (Egyptian?) mythologies.”

  15. Of course she could not see his eyes when they were shut; nor is this mere Eastern inconsequence. The writer means, “had she seen them, they would have showed,” etc.

  16. To keep off the evil eye.

  17. Like Dahnash this is a fanciful p. n., fit only for a Jinni. As a rule the appellatives of Moslem “genii” end in-ús (oos), as Tarnús, Húliyánus; the Jewish in-nas, as Jattunas; those of the Tarsá (the “funkers” i.e. Christians) in-dús, as Sidús; and the Hindus in-tús, as Naktús (who entered the service of the Prophet Shays, or Seth, and was converted to the Faith). The King of the Genii is Malik Katshán who inhabits Mount Kaf; and to the west of him lives his son-in-law, Abd al-Rahman with 33,000 domestics: these names were given by the Apostle Mohammed. “Baktanús” is lord of three Moslem troops of the wandering Jinn, which number a total of twelve bands and extend from Sind to Europe. The Jinn, Divs, Peris (“fairies”) and other pre-Adamitic creatures were governed by seventy-two Sultans all known as Sulayman, and the last, I have said, was Ján bin Ján. The angel Háris was sent from Heaven to chastise him, but in the pride of victory he also revolted with his followers the Jinn whilst the Peris held aloof. When he refused to bow down before Adam he and his chiefs were eternally imprisoned but the other Jinn are allowed to range over earth as a security for man’s obedience. The text gives the three orders, flyers, walkers and divers.

  18. i.e. distracted (with love); the Lakab, or poetical name, of apparently a Spanish poet.

  19. Nothing is more “anti-pathetic” to Easterns than lean hips and flat hinder-cheeks in women and they are right in insisting upon the characteristic difference of the male and female figure. Our modern sculptors and painters, whose study of the nude is usually most perfunctory, have often scandalized me by the lank and greyhound-like fining off of the frame, which thus becomes rather simian than human.

  20. The small fine foot is a favourite with Easterns as well as Westerns. Ovid (A.A.) is not ashamed “ad teneros Oscula (not basia or suavia) ferre pedes.” Ariosto ends the august person in

  Il breve, asciutto, e ritondetto piede,

  (The short-sized, clean-cut, roundly-moulded foot).

  And all the world over it is a sign of “blood,” i.e. the fine nervous temperament.

  21. i.e. “full moons”: the French have corrupted it to “Badoure;” we to “Badoura,” which is worse.

  22. As has been said, a single drop of urine renders the clothes ceremonially impure, hence a stone or a handful of earth must be used after the manner of the torche-cul. Scrupulous Moslems, when squatting to make water, will prod the ground before them with the point of stick or umbrella, so as to loosen it and prevent the spraying of the urine.

  23. It is not generally known to Christians that Satan has a wife called Awwá (“Hawwá” being the Moslem E
ve) and, as Adam had three sons, the Tempter has nine, viz., Zu ’l-baysun who rules in bazars; Wassin who prevails in times of trouble; Awan who counsels kings; Haffan patron of wine-bibbers; Marrah of musicians and dancers; Masbut of news-spreaders (and newspapers?); Dulhán who frequents places of worship and interferes with devotion; Dasim, lord of mansions and dinner tables, who prevents the Faithful saying “Bismillah” and “Inshallah,” as commanded in the Koran (xviii. 23), and Lakís, lord of Fire-worshippers (Herklots, chap. xxix. sect. 4).

  24. Strong perfumes, such as musk (which we Europeans dislike and suspect), are always insisted upon in Eastern poetry; and Mohammed’s predilection for them is well known. Moreover the young and the beautiful are held (justly enough) to exhale a natural fragrance which is compared with that of the blessed in Paradise. Hence in the Mu’allakah of Imr al-Kays:—

  Breathes the scent of musk when they rise to rove,

  As the Zephyr’s breath with the flavour o’ clove.

  It is made evident by dogs and other fine-nosed animals that every human being has his, or her, peculiar scent which varies according to age and health. Hence animals often detect the approach of death.

  25. Arab. “Kahlá.” This has been explained. Mohammed is said to have been born with “Kohl’d eyes.”

  26. [Burton’s note for this word appears in full for a tale not included in this edition. It reads:]

  Mr. Payne (ii. 227) translates “Hawá al-’Uzrí” by “the love of the Beni Udhra, an Arabian tribe famous for the passion and devotion with which love was practised among them.” I understand it as “excusable love” which, for want of a better term, is here translated “platonic.” It is, however, more like the old “bundling” of Wales and Northern England; and allows all the pleasures but one, the toyings which the French call les plaisirs de la petite oie; a term my dear old friend Fred. Hankey derived from la petite voie. The Afghans know it as “Námzad-bází” or betrothed-play (Pilgrimage, ii. 56); the Abyssinians as eye-love; and the Kafirs as Slambuka a Shlabonka, for which see the traveller Delegorgue.

  27. These lines, with the Názir (eye or steward), the Hájib (Groom of the Chambers or Chamberlain) and Joseph, are also repeated from the 114th night. [Notes from the 114th night read:] Arab. “Názir,” a steward or an eye (a “looker”). The idea is borrowed from Al-Hariri (Assemblies, xiii.), and,—Arab. “Hájib,” a groom of the chambers, a chamberlain; also an eyebrow. See Al-Hariri, ibid. xiii. and xxii. For the Nazir see Al-Hariri (Nos. xiii. and xxii.).

  28. The usual allusion to the Húr (Houris) from “Hawar,” the white and black of the eye shining in contrast. The Persian Magi also placed in their Heaven (Bihisht or Minu) “Huran,” or black-eyed nymphs, under the charge of the angel Zamiyád.

  29. This is a peculiarity of the Jinn tribe when wearing hideous forms. It is also found in the Hindu Rakshasa.

  30. Which, by the by, are small and beautifully shaped. The animal is very handy with them, as I learnt by experience when trying to “Rareyfy” one at Bayrut.

  31. She being daughter of Al-Dimiryát, King of the Jinn. Mr. W. F. Kirby has made him the subject of a pretty poem.

  32. The young man must have been a demon of chastity.

  33. Arab. “Kirát” from , i.e., bean, the seed of the Abrus precatorius, in weight = two to three (English) grains; and in length = one finger-breadth here; 24 being the total. The Moslem system is evidently borrowed from the Roman “as” and “uncia.”

  34. Lit. “my liver;” which viscus, and not the heart, is held the seat of passion; a fancy dating from the oldest days. Theocritus says of Hercules, “In his liver Love had fixed a wound” (Idyl. xiii.). In the Anthologia, “Cease, Love, to wound my liver and my heart” (lib. vii.). So Horace (Odes, i. 2); his Latin Jecur and the Persian “Jigar” being evident congeners. The idea was long prevalent and we find in Shakespeare:—

  Alas, then Love may be called appetite,

  No motion of the liver but the palate.

  35. A marvellous touch of nature, love ousting affection; the same trait will appear in the lover and both illustrate the deep Italian saying, “Amor discende, non ascende.” The further it goes down the stronger it becomes, as of grandparent for grandchild and vice versa.

  36. This tenet of the universal East is at once fact and unfact. As a general-ism asserting that women’s passion is ten times greater than man’s (Pilgrimage, ii. 282), it is unfact. The world shows that while women have more philoprogenitiveness, men have more amativeness; otherwise the latter would not propose and would nurse the doll and baby. Fact, however, in low-lying lands, like Persian Mazanderan versus the Plateau; Indian Malabar compared with Marátha-land; California as opposed to Utah and especially Egypt contrasted with Arabia. In these hot-damp climates the venereal requirements and reproductive powers of the female greatly exceed those of the male; and hence the dissoluteness of morals would be phenomenal, were it not obviated by seclusion, the sabre and the revolver. In cold-dry or hot-dry mountainous lands the reverse is the case; hence polygamy there prevails whilst the low countries require polyandry in either form, legal or illegal (i.e., prostitution). I have discussed this curious point of “geographical morality” (for all morality is, like conscience, both geographical and chronological), a subject so interesting to the lawgiver, the student of ethics and the anthropologist, in The City of the Saints. But strange and unpleasant truths progress slowly, especially in England.

  37. This morning evacuation is considered, in the East, a sine quâ non of health; and old Anglo-Indians are unanimous in their opinion of the “bari fajar” (as they mispronounce the dawn-clearance). The natives of India, Hindús (pagans) and Hindís (Moslems), unlike Europeans, accustom themselves to evacuate twice a day, evening as well as morning. This may, perhaps, partly account for their mildness and effeminacy; for:—

  C’est la constipation qui rend l’homme rigoureux.

  The English, since the first invasion of cholera, in October, 1831, are a different race from their costive grandparents who could not dine without a “dinner-pill.” Curious to say the clyster is almost unknown to the people of Hindostan although the barbarous West Africans use it daily to “wash ’um belly,” as the Bonney-men say. And, as Sonnini notes, to propose the process in Egypt under the Beys might have cost a Frankish medico his life.

  38. The Egyptian author cannot refrain from this characteristic polissonnerie; and reading it out is always followed by a roar of laughter. Even serious writers like Al-Hariri do not, as I have noted, despise the indecency.

  39. “Long beard and little wits,” is a saying throughout the East where the Kausaj (= man with thin, short beard) is looked upon as cunning and tricksy. There is a venerable Joe Miller about a schoolmaster who, wishing to singe his long beard short, burnt it off and his face to boot:—which reminded him of the saying. A thick beard is defined as one which wholly conceals the skin; and in ceremonial ablution it must be combed out with the fingers till the water reach the roots. The Sunnat, or practice of the Prophet, was to wear the beard not longer than one hand and two fingers’ breadth. In Persian “Kúseh” (thin-beard) is an insulting term opposed to “Khush-rísh,” a well-bearded man. The Iranian growth is perhaps the finest in the world, often extending to the waist; but it gives infinite trouble, requiring, for instance, a bag when travelling. The Arab beard is often composed of two tufts on the chin-sides and straggling hairs upon the cheeks; and this is a severe mortification, especially to Shaykhs and elders, who not only look upon the beard as one of man’s characteristics, but attach a religious importance to the appendage. Hence the enormity of Kamar al-Zaman’s behaviour. The Persian festival of the vernal equinox was called Kusehnishín (Thin-beard sitting). An old man with one eye paraded the streets on an ass with a crow in one hand and a scourge and fan in the other, cooling himself, flogging the bystanders and crying heat! heat! (garmá! garmá!). For other particulars see Richardson (Dissertation, p. lii.). This is the Italian Giorno delle Vecchie, Thursday in Mid-Lent,
March 12(1885), celebrating the death of Winter and the birth of Spring.

  40. I quote Torrens (p. 400).

  41. Moslems have only two names for week days, Friday, Al-Jum’ah or meeting-day and Al-Sabt, Sabbath-day, that is Saturday. The others are known by numbers after Quaker fashion with us, the usage of Portugal and Scandinavia.

  42. Our last night.

  43. Arab. “Tayf” = phantom, the nearest approach to our “ghost,” that queer remnant of Fetishism imbedded in Christianity; the phantasma, the shade (not the soul) of the dead. Hence the accurate Niebuhr declares, “apparitions (i.e., of the departed) are unknown in Arabia.” Haunted houses are there tenanted by Ghuls, Jinn and a host of supernatural creatures; but not by ghosts proper; and a man may live years in Arabia before he ever hears of the “Tayf.” With the Hindus it is otherwise (Pilgrimage, iii. 144). Yet the ghost, the embodied fear of the dead and of death is common, in a greater or less degree, to all peoples; and, as modern Spiritualism proves, that ghost is not yet laid.