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)

Arab. “Durká’ah,” the lower part of the floor, opposed to the “liwan” or daïs. Liwán = Al-Aywán (Arab. and Pers.) the hall (including the daïs and the sunken parts).

i. e. he would toast it as he would a mistress.

This till very late years was the custom in Persia; and Fath Ali Shah never appeared in scarlet without ordering some horrible cruelties. In Dar-For wearing a red cashmere turban was a sign of wrath and sending a blood-red dress to a subject meant that he would be slain.

That is, this robbery was committed in the palace by some one belonging to it. References to vinegar are frequent; that of Egypt being famous in those days. “Optimum et laudatissimum acetum a Romanis habebatur Ægyptum” (Facciolati); and possibly it was sweetened: the Gesta (Tale xvii.) mentions “must and vinegar.” In Arab Proverbs, “One mind by vinegar and another by wine” = each mind goes its own way. (Arab. Prov. ii. 628); or, “with good and bad,” vinegar being spoilt wine.

We have not heard the last of this old “dowsing rod”: the latest form of rhabdomancy is an electrical rod invented in the United States.

This is the procès verbal always drawn up on such occasions.

The sight of running water makes a Persian long for strong drink as the sight of a fine view makes the Turk feel hungry.

Arab. “Min wahid aduww” a peculiarly Egyptian or rather Cairene phrase.

Al-Danaf = the Distressing Sickness: the title would be Ahmad the Calamity. Al-Zaybak (the Quicksilver) = Mercury Ali: Hasan “Shuuman” = a pestilent fellow. We shall meet all these worthies again and again: see the Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo, Night dccviii., a sequel to The Rogueries of Dalilah, Night dcxcviii.

For the “Sacrifice-place of Ishmael” (not Isaac) see my Pilgrimage (iii. 306). According to all Arab ideas Ishmael, being the eldest son, was the chief of the family after his father. I have noted that this is the old old quarrel between the Arabs and their cousins the Hebrews.

This black-mail was still paid to the Badawin of Ramlah (Alexandria) till the bombardment in 1881.

The famous Issus of Cilicia, now a port-village on the Gulf of Scanderoon.

Arab. “Wada’á” = the concha veneris , then used as small change.

Arab. “Sakati” = a dealer in “castaway” articles, such as old metal, damaged goods, the pluck and feet of animals, etc.

The popular tale of Burckhardt’s death in Cairo was that the names of the three first Caliphs were found written upon his slipper-soles and that he was put to death by decree of the Olema. It is the merest nonsense, as the great traveller died of dysentery in the house of my old friend John Thurburn and was buried outside the Bab al-Nasr of Cairo, where his tomb was restored by the late Rogers Bay (Pilgrimage i. 123).

Prob. a mis-spelling for Arslán, in Turk, a lion, and in slang a piastre.

Arab. “Maka’ad”; lit. = sitting-room.

Arab. “Khammárah”; still the popular term throughout Egypt for a European Hotel. It is not always intended to be insulting but it is, meaning the place where Franks meet to drink forbidden drinks.

A reminiscence of Mohammed who cleansed the Ka’abah of its 360 idols (of which 73 names are given by Freytag, Einleitung, etc. pp. 270, 342-57) by touching them with his staff, whereupon all fell to the ground; and the Prophet cried (Koran xvii. 84), “Truth is come, and falsehood is vanished: verily, falsehood is a thing that vanisheth” (magna est veritas, etc.). Amongst the “idols” are said to have been a statue of Abraham and the horns of the ram sacrificed in lieu of Ishmael, which (if true) would prove conclusively that the Abrahamic legend at Meccah is of ancient date and not a fiction of Al-Islam. Hence, possibly, the respect of the Judaising Tobbas of Himyarland for the Ka’abah (Pilgrimage, iii. 295).

This was evidently written by a Sunni as the Shí’ahs claim to be the only true Moslems. Lane tells an opposite story (ii. 329). It suggests the common question in the South of Europe, “Are you a Christian or a Protestant?”

Arab. “Ana fí jírat-ak!” a phrase to be remembered as useful in time of danger.