Richard Burton - A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 (of 17)

Meaning that he appeared intoxicated by the pride of his beauty as though it had been strong wine.

i. e. against the evil eye.

Meaning that he had been delicately reared.

A traditional saying of Mohammed.

So Boccaccio’s “Capo bianco” and “Coda verde.” (Day iv., Introduct.)

The opening chapter is known as the “Mother of the Book,” (as opposed to Yá Sín, the “heart of the Koran”) the “Surat (chapter) of Praise,” and the “Surat of repetition,” (because twice revealed?) or thanksgiving, or laudation (Al-Masáni) and by a host of other names for which see Mr. Rodwell who, however, should not write “Fatthah” (p. xxv.) nor “Fathah” (xxvii.). The Fátihah, which is to Al-Islam much what the “Paternoster” is to Christendom, consists of seven verses, in the usual Saj’a or rhymed prose, and I have rendered it as follows: —

In the name of the Compassionating, the Compassionate! ✿ Praise be to Allah who all the Worlds made ✿ The Compassionating, the Compassionate ✿ King of the Day of Faith! ✿ Thee only do we adore and of Thee only do we crave aid ✿ Guide us to the path which is straight ✿ The path of those for whom Thy love is great, not those on whom is hate, nor they that deviate ✿ Amen! O Lord of the World’s trine.

My Pilgrimage (i. 285; ii. 78 and passim ) will supply instances of its application; how it is recited with open hands to catch the blessing from Heaven and the palms are drawn down the face (Ibid. i. 286), and other details.

i. e. when the evil eye has less effect than upon children. Strangers in Cairo often wonder to see a woman richly dressed leading by the hand a filthy little boy (rarely a girl) in rags, which at home will be changed to cloth of gold.

Arab. “Asídah” flour made consistent by boiling in water with the addition of “Samn” (clarified butter) and honey: more like pap than custard.

Arab. “Ghábah” = I have explained as a low-lying place where the growth is thickest and consequently animals haunt it during the noon-heats.

Arab. “Akkám,” one who loads camels and has charge of the luggage. He also corresponds with the modern Mukharrij or camel-hirer (Pilgrimage i. 339); and hence the word Moucre (Moucres) which, first used by La Brocquière (A.D. 1432), is still the only term known to the French.

i. e. I am old and can no longer travel.

Taken from Al-Asma’i, the “Romance of Antar,” and the episode of the Asafir Camels.

A Mystic of the twelfth century A.D. who founded the Kádirí order (the oldest and chiefest of the four universally recognised), to which I have the honour to belong, teste my diploma (Pilgrimage, Appendix i.). Visitation is still made to his tomb at Baghdad. The Arabs (who have no hard g-letter) alter to “Jílán” the name of his birth-place “Gilan,” a tract between the Caspian and the Black Seas.

The well-known Anglo-Indian “Mucuddum;” lit. “one placed before (or over) others;” an overseer.

Koran xiii. 14.

i. e. his chastity: this fashion of objecting to infamous proposals is very characteristic: ruder races would use their fists.

Arab. “Ráfizí” = the Shi’ah (tribe, sect) or Persian schismatics who curse the first three Caliphs: the name is taken from their own saying “Inná rafizná-hum” = verily we have rejected them. The feeling between Sunni (the so-called orthodox) and Shi’ah is much like the Christian love between a Catholic of Cork and a Protestant from the Black North. As Al-Siyuti or any historian will show, this sect became exceedingly powerful under the later Abbaside Caliphs, many of whom conformed to it and adopted its practices and innovations (as in the Azan or prayer-call), greatly to the scandal of their co-religionists. Even in the present day the hatred between these representatives of Arab monotheism and Persian Guebrism continues unabated. I have given sundry instances in my Pilgrimage, e. g. how the Persians attempt to pollute the tombs of the Caliphs they abhor.

Arab. “Sakká,” the Indian “Bihishtí” (man from Heaven): Each party in a caravan has one or more.

These “Kirámát” or Saints’ miracles, which Spiritualists will readily accept, are recorded in vast numbers. Most men have half a dozen to tell, each of his “Pír” or patron, including the Istidráj or prodigy of chastisement (Dabistan, iii. 274).

Great-grand-daughter of the Imam Hasan, buried in Cairo and famed for “Kirámát.” Her father, governor of Al-Medinah, was imprisoned by Al-Mansur and restored to power by Al-Mahdi. She was married to a son of the Imam Ja’afar al-Sadik and lived a life of devotion in Cairo, dying in A.H. 218 = 824. The corpse of the Imam al-Shafi’i was carried to her house, now her mosque and mausoleum: it stood in the Darb al-Sabúa which formerly divided Old from New Cairo and is now one of the latter’s suburbs. Lane (M. E. chapt. x.) gives her name but little more. The mention of her shows that the writer of the tale or the copyist was a Cairene: Abd al-Kadir is world-known: not so the “Sitt.”

Arab. “Farkh akrab” for Ukayrib, a vulgarism.

The usual Egyptian irreverence: he relates his abomination as if it were a Hadis or Tradition of the Prophet with due ascription.

A popular name, dim. of Zubdah, cream, fresh butter, “creamkin.”

Arab. “Mustahall,” “Mustahill” and vulg. “Muhallil” (= one who renders lawful). It means a man hired for the purpose who marries pro formâ and after wedding, and bedding with actual consummation, at once divorces the woman. He is held the reverse of respectable and no wonder. Hence, probably, Mandeville’s story of the Islanders who, on the marriage-night, “make another man to lie by their wives, to have their maidenhead, for which they give great hire and much thanks. And there are certain men in every town that serve for no other thing; and they call them cadeberiz, that is to say, the fools of despair, because they believe their occupation is a dangerous one.” Burckhardt gives the proverb (No. 79), “A thousand lovers rather than one Mustahall,” the latter being generally some ugly fellow picked up in the streets and disgusting to the wife who must permit his embraces.

This is a woman’s oath, not used by men.

Pronounced “Yá Sín” (chapt. xxxvi.) the “heart of the Koran” much used for edifying recitation. Some pious Moslems in Egypt repeat it as a Wazífah, or religious task, or as masses for the dead, and all educated men know its 83 versets by rote.

Arab. “Ál Dáúd” = the family of David, i. e. David himself, a popular idiom. The prophet’s recitation of the “Mazámir” (Psalter) worked miracles.

There is a peculiar thickening of the voice in leprosy which at once betrays the hideous disease.