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

by A. S. Byatt

  8. Egypt had not then been conquered from the Christians.

  9. Arab. “Kízán fukká’a,” i.e., thin and slightly porous earthenware jars used for Fukká’a, a fermented drink, made of barley or raisins.

  10. I retain this venerable blunder: the right form is Samúm, from Samm, the poison-wind.

  11. Koran, xxiv. 39. The word “Saráb” (mirage) is found in Isaiah (xxxv. 7) where the passage should be rendered “And the mirage (sharab) shall become a lake” (not, “and the parched ground shall become a pool”). The Hindus prettily call it “Mrigatrishná” = the thirst of the deer.

  12. A name of Allah.

  13. Arab. “Kintár” = a hundredweight (i.e., 100 lbs.), about 98¾ lbs. avoir. Hence the French quintal and its congeners (Littré).

  14. i.e., “from Shám (Syria) to (the land of) Adnan,” ancestor of the Naturalized Arabs, that is to say, to Arabia.

  15. Koran, lii. 21. “Every man is given in pledge for that which he shall have wrought.”

  16. There is a constant clerical confusion in the texts between “Arar” (Juniperus Oxycedrus used by the Greeks for the images of their gods) and “Marmar” marble or alabaster, in the Talmud “Marmora” = marble, evidently from = brilliant, the brilliant stone.

  17. These Ifritical names are chosen for their bizarrerie. “Al-Dáhish” = the Amazed; and “Al-A’amash” = one with weak eyes always watering.

  18. The Arabs have no word for million; so Messer Marco Miglione could not have learned it from them. On the other hand the Hindus have more quadrillions than modern Europe.

  19. This formula, according to Moslems, would begin with the beginning “There is no iláh but Allah and Adam is the Apostle (rasúl = one sent, a messenger; not nabí = prophet) of Allah.” And so on with Noah, Moses, David (not Solomon as a rule) and Jesus, to Mohammed.

  20. This son of Barachia has been noticed in previous instances. The text embroiders the Koranic chapter xxvii.

  21. The Bresl. Edit. (vi. 371) reads “Samm-hu” = his poison, prob. a clerical error for “Sahmhu” = his shaft. It was a duel with the “Shiháb” or falling stars, the meteors which are popularly supposed, I have said, to be the arrows shot by the angels against devils and evil spirits when they approach too near Heaven in order to overhear divine secrets.

  22. A fanciful name for a sea, from the Latin “Carcer” (?).

  23. Andalusian = Spanish, the Vandal-land, a term accepted by the Moslem invader.

  24. This fine description will remind the traveller of the old Haurani towns deserted since the sixth century, which a silly writer miscalled the “Giant Cities of Bashan.” I have never seen anything weirder than a moonlight night in one of these strong places whose masonry is perfect as when first built, the snowy light pouring on the jet-black basalt and the breeze sighing and the jackal wailing in the desert around.

  25. “Zanj,” I have said, is the Arab. form of the Persian “Zang-bar” (= Black-land), our Zanzibar. Those who would know more of the etymology will consult my Zanzibar, etc., chap. i.

  26. Arab. “Tanjah” = Strabo Tlvyi? (derivation uncertain), Tingitania, Tangiers. But why the terminal s?

  27. Or Amidah, by the Turks called “Kara (black) Amid” from the colour of the stones; and the Arabs “Diyar-bakr” (Diarbekir), a name which they also give to the whole province—Mesopotamia.

  28. Mayyáfárikín, an episcopal city in Diyar-bakr: the natives are called Fárikí; hence the abbreviation in the text.

  29. Arab. “Ayát al-Naját,” certain Koranic verses which act as talismans, such as, “And wherefore should we not put our trust in Allah?” (xiv. 15); “Say thou, ‘Naught shall befall us save what Allah hath decreed for us,’” (ix. 51), and sundry others.

  30. These were the “Brides of the Treasure,” alluded to in the story of Hasan of Bassorah and elsewhere.

  31. Arab. “Ishárah,” which may also mean beckoning. Easterns reverse our process: we wave hand or finger towards ourselves; they towards the object; and our fashion represents to them, Go away!

  32. i.e., musing a long time and a longsome.

  33. Arab. “Dihlíz” from the Persian. This is the long dark passage which leads to the inner or main gate of an Eastern city, and which is built up before a siege. It is usually furnished with Mastabah-benches of wood and masonry, and forms a favourite lounge in hot weather. Hence Lot and Moses sat and stood in the gate, and here man speaks with his enemies.

  34. The names of colours are as loosely used by the Arabs as by the Classics of Europe; for instance, a light grey is called a “blue or a green horse.” Much nonsense has been written upon the colours in Homer by men who imagine that the semi-civilized determine tints as we do. They see them but they do not name them, having no occasion for the words. As I have noticed, however, the Arabs have a complete terminology for the varieties of horse-hues. In our day we have witnessed the birth of colours, named by the dozen, because of the requirements of women’s dress.

  35. [In a note explaining “Davidean” in a tale not included in this edition Burton wrote:] All Prophets had some manual trade and that of David was making coats of mail, which he invented, for before his day men used plate-armour. So “Allah softened the iron for him” and in his hands it became like wax (Koran, xxi., xxxiv, etc.). Hence a good coat of mail is called “Davidean.” I have noticed (First Footsteps, p. 33 and elsewhere) the homage paid to the blacksmith on the principle which made Mulciber (Malik Kabir) a god. The myth of David inventing mail possibly arose from his peculiarly fighting career. Moslems venerate Dáúd on account of his extraordinary devotion; nor has this view of his character ceased: a modern divine preferred him to “all characters in history.”

  36. Arab. “Khwárazm,” the land of the Chorasmioi, who are mentioned by Herodotus (iii. 93) and a host of classical geographers. They place it in Sogdiana (hod. Sughd) and it corresponds with the Khiva country.

  37. Arab. “Burka’,” usually applied to a woman’s face-veil and hence to the covering of the Ka’abah, which is the “Bride of Meccah.”

  38. Alluding to the trick played upon Bilkís by Solomon who had heard that her legs were hairy like those of an ass: he laid down a pavement of glass over flowing water in which fish were swimming and thus she raised her skirts as she approached him and he saw that the report was true. Hence, as I have said, the depilatory. (Koran, xxvii.)

  39. I understand the curiously carved windows cut in arabesque-work of marble (India) or basalt (the Haurán) and provided with small panes of glass set in emeralds where tinfoil would be used by the vulgar.

  40. Arab. “Bulád” from the Pers. “Pulád.” Hence the name of the famous Druze family “Jumblat,” a corruption of “Ján-pulád” = Life o’ Steel.

  41. Pharaoh, so called in Koran (xxxviii. 11) because he tortured men by fastening them to four stakes driven into the ground. Sale translates “the contriver of the stakes” and adds, “Some understand the word figuratively, of the firm establishment of Pharaoh’s kingdom, because the Arabs fix their tents with stakes; but they may possibly intend that prince’s obstinacy and hardness of heart.” I may note that in “Tasawwuf,” or Moslem Gnosticism, Pharaoh represents, like Prometheus and Job, the typical creature who upholds his own dignity and rights in presence and despight of the Creator. Sáhib the Súfí declares that the secret of man’s soul (i.e., its emanation) was first revealed when Pharaoh declared himself god; and Al-Ghazálí sees in his claim the most noble aspiration to the divine, innate in the human spirit. (Dabistan, vol. iii.)

  42. In the Calc. Edit. “Tarmuz, son of the daughter,” etc. According to the Arabs, Tadmur (Palmyra) was built by Queen Tadmurah, daughter of Hassán bin Uzaynah.

  43. It is only by some such drought that I can account for the survival of those marvellous Haurani cities in the great valley S. E. of Damascus.

  44. So Moses described his own death and burial.

  45. Arab. “Jum’ah” (= the assembly) so called because the General Resurrection will take p
lace on that day and it witnessed the creation of Adam. Both these reasons are evidently after-thoughts; as the Jews received a divine order to keep Saturday, and the Christians, at their own sweet will, transferred the weekly rest-day to Sunday, wherefore the Moslem preferred Friday. Sabbatarianism, however, is unknown to Al-Islam and business is interrupted, by Koranic order (lxii. 9-10), only during congregational prayers in the Mosque. The most a Mohammedan does is not to work or travel till after public service. But the Moslem hardly wants a “day of rest;” whereas a Christian, especially in the desperately dull routine of daily life and toil, without a gleam of light to break the darkness of his civilized and most unhappy existence, distinctly requires it.

  46. Mankind, which sees itself everywhere and in everything, must create its own analogues in all the elements, air (Sylphs), fire (Jinn), water (Mermen and Mermaids) and earth (Kobolds). These merwomen were of course seals or manatees, as the wild women of Hanno were gorillas.

  THE LADY AND HER FIVE SUITORS

  1. This witty tale, ending somewhat grossly here, has over-wandered the world. First we find it in the Kathá S. S. where Upakoshá, the merry wife of Vararuchi, disrobes her suitors, a family priest, a commander of the guard and the prince’s tutor, under plea of the bath and stows them away in baskets which suggest Falstaff’s “buck-basket.” In Miss Stokes’ Indian Fairy Tales the fair wife of an absent merchant plays a similar notable prank upon the Kotwal, the Wazir, the Kazi and the King; and akin to this is the exploit of Temal Rámákistnan, the Madrasi Tyl Eulenspiegel and Scogin who by means of a lady saves his life from the Rajah and the High Priest. Mr. G. H. Damant (pp. 357-360 of the Indian Antiquary of 1873) relates the “Tale of the Touchstone,” a legend of Dinahpur, wherein a woman “sells” her four admirers. In the Persian Tales ascribed to the Dervish “Mokles” (Mukhlis) of Isfahan, the lady Aruyá tricks and exposes a Kazi, a doctor and a governor. Boccaccio (viii. 1) has the story of a lady who shut up her gallant in a chest with her husband’s sanction; and a similar tale (ix. 1) of Rinuccio and Alexander with the corpse of Scannadeo (Throkh-god). Hence a Lydgate (circ. A.D. 1430) derived the plot of his metrical tale of “The Lady Prioress and her Three Sisters;” which was modified in the Netherlandish version by the introduction of the Long Wapper, a Flemish Robin Goodfellow Followed in English the metrical tale of “The Wright’s Chaste Wife,” by Adam of Cobham (edited by Mr. Furnivall from a MS. of circ. A.D. 1460) where the victims are a lord, a steward and a proctor. See also “The Master-Maid” in Dr. (now Sir George) Dasent’s Popular Tales from the Norse. Mr. Clouston, who gives these details more fully, mentions a similar Scottish story concerning a lascivious monk and the chaste wife of a miller.

  2. When Easterns sit down to a drinking bout, which means to get drunk as speedily and pleasantly as possible, they put off dresses of dull colours and robe themselves in clothes supplied by the host, of the brightest he may have, especially yellow, green and red of different shades. So the lady’s proceeding was not likely to breed suspicion: although her tastes were somewhat fantastic and like Miss Julia’s—peculiar.

  3. Arab. “Najásah,” meaning anything unclean which requires ablution before prayer. Unfortunately mucus is not of the number, so the common Moslem is very offensive in the matter of nose.

  4. Here the word “la’an” is used which most Moslems express by some euphemism. The vulgar Egyptian says “Na’al” (Sapré and Sapristi for Sacré and Sacristie); the Hindostani use the expression “I send him the three letters”—lám, ayn and nún.

  JUDAR AND HIS BRETHREN

  1. The name is old and classical Arabic: in Antar the young Amazon Jaydá was called Judar in public (Story of Jaydá and Khálid). It is also, as will be seen, the name of a quarter in Cairo, and men are often called after such places, e.g., Al-Jubní from the Súk al-Jubn in Damascus. The story is exceedingly Egyptian and the style abounds in Cairene vulgarisms; especially in the Bresl. Edit. (ix. 311).

  2. Had the merchant left his property to be divided after his death and not made a will the widow would have had only one-eighth instead of a fourth.

  3. Lit. “from tyrant to tyrant,” i.e., from official to official, Al-Zalamah, the “tyranny” of popular parlance.

  4. The coin is omitted in the text but it is evidently the “Nusf” or half-dirham. Lane (iii. 235), noting that the dinar is worth 170 “nusfs” in this tale, thinks that it was written (or copied?) after the Osmanli Conquest of Egypt. Unfortunately he cannot tell the precise period when the value of the small change fell so low.

  5. Arab. “Yaum mubárak!” still a popular exclamation.

  6. i.e., of the door of daily bread.

  7. Arab. “Sírah,” a small fish differently described (De Sacy Relation de l’Egypte par Abd-allatif, pp. 278-288: Lane, Nights, iii. 234). It is not found in Sonnini’s list.

  8. A tank or lakelet in the southern part of Cairo, long ago filled up; Von Hammer believes it inherited the name of the old Charon’s Lake of Memphis, over which corpses were ferried.

  9. Thus making the agreement a kind of religious covenant; as Catholics would recite a Pater or an Ave Maria.

  10. Arab. “Yá miskín” = O poor devil; mesquin, meschino, words evidently derived from the East.

  11. Plur. of Maghribí, a Western man, a Moor. I have already derived the word through the Lat. “Maurus” from Maghribiyún. Europeans being unable to pronounce the Ghayn (or gh like the modern Cairenes) would turn it into “Ma’ariyún.” They are mostly of the Maliki school (for which see Sale) and are famous as magicians and treasure-finders. Amongst the suite of the late Amir Abd al-Kadir, who lived many years and died in Damascus, I found several men profoundly versed in Eastern spiritualism and occultism.

  12. The names are respectively, Slave of the Salvation; of the One (God); of the Eternal; of the Compassionate; and of the Loving.

  13. i.e., “the most profound;” the root is that of “Bátiní,” a gnostic, a reprobate.

  14. i.e., the Tall One.

  15. The loud-pealing or (ear-) breaking Thunder.

  16. Arab. “Fás and Miknás” which the writer evidently regards as one city. “Fás” means a hatchet, from the tradition of one having been found, says Ibn Sa’íd, when digging the base, under the founder Idrís bin Idrís (A.D. 808). His sword was placed on the pinnacle of the minaret built by the Imám Abu Ahmad bin Abi Bakr enclosed in a golden étui studded with pearls and precious stones. From the local pronunciation “Fes” is derived the name of the red cap of the nearer Moslem East (see Ibn Batutah, p. 230).

  17. Arab. “Al-Khurj,” whence the Span. Las Alforjas.

  18. Arab. “Kabáb,” mutton or lamb cut into small squares and grilled upon skewers: it is the roast meat of the nearer East where, as in the West, men have not learned to cook meat so as to preserve all its flavour. This is found in the “Asa’o” of the Argentine Gaucho who broils the flesh while still quivering and before the fibre has time to set. Hence it is perfectly tender, if the animal be young, and has a “meaty” taste that is usually half lost by keeping.

  19. This is the equivalent of our puritanical “Mercy.”

  20. Arab. “Bukjah,” from the Persian Bukcheh: a favourite way of keeping fine clothes in the East is to lay them folded in a piece of rough long-cloth with pepper and spices to drive away moths.

  21. This is always specified, for respectable men go out of town on horseback, never on “foot-back,” as our friends the Boers say. I have seen a Syrian put to sore shame when compelled by politeness to walk with me, and every acquaintance he met addressed him, “Anta Zalamah!”—What! afoot?

  22. This tale, including the Enchanted Sword which slays whole armies, was adopted in Europe as we see in Straparola (iv. 3), and the “Water of Life” which the Grimms found in Hesse, etc., Gammer Grethel’s German Popular Stories, Edgar Taylor, Bells, 1878; and now published in fuller form as Grimm’s Household Tales, by Mrs. Hunt, with Introduction by A. Lang, 2 vols. 8vo, 1884. It is curious that so biting and carpin
g a critic, who will condescend to notice a misprint in another’s book, should lay himself open to general animadversion by such a rambling farrago of half-digested knowledge as that which composes Mr. Andrew Lang’s Introduction.

  23. These retorts of Judar are exactly what a sharp Egyptian Fellah would say on such occasions.

  24. Arab. “Salámát,” plur. of Salam, a favourite Egyptian welcome.

  25. This sentence expresses a Moslem idea which greatly puzzles strangers. Arabic has no equivalent of our “Thank you” (Kassara ’llah Khayr-ak being a mere blessing—Allah increase thy weal!), nor can Al-Islam express gratitude save by a periphrase. The Moslem acknowledges a favour by blessing the donor and by wishing him increase of prosperity. “May thy shadow never be less!” means, Mayest thou always extend to me thy shelter and protection. I have noticed this before but it merits repetition. Strangers, and especially Englishmen, are very positive and very much mistaken upon a point, which all who have to do with Egyptians and Arabs ought thoroughly to understand. Old dwellers in the East know that the theory of ingratitude in no way interferes with the sense of gratitude innate in man (and beast) and that the “lively sense of favours to come,” is as quick in Orient land as in Europe.