Richard Burton - A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 (of 17)

Arab. Sal'am=S(alla) A(llah) a(layhi) wa S(allam); A(llah) b(less) h(im) a(nd) k(eep)=Allah keep him and assain!

The ass is held to be ill-omened. I have noticed the braying elsewhere. According to Mandeville the Devil did not enter the Ark with the Ass, but he left it when Noah said "Benedicite." In his day (A.D. 1322) and in that of Benjamin of Tudela, people had seen and touched the ship on Ararat, the Judi (Gordiæi) mountains; and this dates from Berosus (S.C. 250) who, of course, refers to the Ark of Xisisthrus. See Josephus Ant. i. 3, 6; and Rodwell (Koran, pp. 65, 530).

As would happen at a "Zikr," rogation or litany. Those who wish to see how much can be made of the subject will read "Pearls of the Faith, or Islam's Rosary, being the ninety-nine beautiful names of Allah" (Asmá-el-Husna) etc. by Edwin Arnold: London. Trübner, 1883.

i. e. the Sáki, cup-boy or cup-bearer. "Moon-faced," as I have shown elsewhere, is no compliment in English, but it is in Persian and Arabic.

He means we are "Záhirí," plain honest Moslems, not "Bátiní" gnostics (ergò reprobates) and so forth, who disregard all appearances and external ordinances. This suggests his opinion of Shaykh Ibrahim and possibly refers to Ja'afar's suspected heresy.

This worthy will be noticed in a subsequent page.

Arab. "Lisám," the end of the "Kúfiyah," or head-kerchief passed over the face under the eyes and made fast on the other side. This mouth-veil serves as a mask (eyes not being recognisable) and defends from heat, cold and thirst. I also believe that hooding the eyes with this article, Badawi-fashion, produces a sensation of coolness, at any rate a marked difference of apparent temperature; somewhat like a pair of dark spectacles or looking at the sea from a sandy shore. Pilgrimage i., 210 and 346. The woman's "Lisám" (chin-veil) or Yashmak is noticed in i., 337.

Most characteristic is this familiarity between the greatest man then in the world and his pauper subject. The fisherman alludes to a practise of Al-Islam, instituted by Caliph Omar, that all rulers should work at some handicraft in order to spare the public treasure. Hence Sultan Mu'ayyad of Cairo was a calligrapher who sold his handwriting, and his example was followed by the Turkish Sultans Mahmúd, Abd al-Majíd and Abd al-Aziz. German royalties prefer carpentering and Louis XVI. watch-making.

There would be nothing singular in this request. The democracy of despotism levels all men outside the pale of politics and religion.

"Wa'lláhi tayyib!" an exclamation characteristic of the Egyptian Moslem.

The pretended fisherman's name Karím=the Generous.

Such an act of generosity would appear to Europeans well-nigh insanity, but it is quite in Arab manners. Witness the oft-quoted tale of Hátim and his horse. As a rule the Arab is the reverse of generous, contrasting badly, in this point, with his cousin the Jew: hence his ideal of generosity is of the very highest. "The generous ( i. e. liberal) is Allah's friend, aye, though he be a sinner; and the miser is Allah's foe, aye, though he be a saint!" Indian Moslems call a skin-flint Makhi-chús=fly-sucker (Pilgrimage i. 242).

Arab. Ammá ba'ad (or Wa ba'ad), an initiatory formula attributed to Koss ibn Sa'idat al-Iyadi, bishop of Najrán (the town in Al-Yaman which D'Herbelot calls Negiran and a famous preacher in Mohammed's day) hence "more eloquent than Koss" (Maydáni, Arab. Prov., 189). He was the first who addressed letters with the incept, "from A. to B."; and the first who preached from a pulpit and who leant on a sword or a staff when discoursing. Many Moslems date Ammá ba'ad from the Prophet David, relying upon a passage of the Koran (xxxviii. 19).

Arab. "Nusf"=half (a dirham): vulgarly pronounced "nuss," and synonymous with the Egypt. "Faddah" (=silver), the Greek Asper, and the Turkish "paráh." It is the smallest Egyptian coin, made of very base metal and, there being forty to the piastre, it is worth nearly a quarter of a farthing.

The too literal Torrens and Lane make the Caliph give the gardener-lad the clothes in which he was then clad, forgetting, like the author or copier, that he wore the fishermen's lousy suit.

In sign of confusion, disappointment and so forth: not "biting his nails," which is European and utterly un-Asiatic.

See lines like these in Night xiii. (i. 136); the sentiment is trite.

The Arab will still stand under his ruler's palace and shout aloud to attract his attention. Sayyid Sa'id known as the "Imán of Muskat" used to encourage the patriarchal practice. Mohammed repeatedly protested against such unceremonious conduct (Koran xciv. 11, etc.). The "three times of privacy" (Koran cv. 57) are before the dawn prayer, during the Siesta (noon) and after the even-prayer.

The Judges of the four orthodox schools.

That none might see it or find it ever after.

Arab. "Khatt Sharif"=a royal autographical letter: the term is still preserved in Turkey, but Europeans will write "Hatt."

Meaning "Little tom-cat"; a dim. of "Kitt" vulg. Kutt or Gutt.

Arab. "Matmúrah" – the Algerine "Matamor" – a "silo," made familiar to England by the invention of "Ensilage."

The older "Mustapha"=Mohammed. This Intercession-doctrine is fiercely disputed. Pilgrimage ii. 77. The Apostle of Al-Islam seems to have been unable to make up his mind upon the subject: and modern opinion amongst Moslems is apparently borrowed from the Christians.

Lane (i. 486) curiously says, "The place of the stagnation of blood: " yet he had translated the word aright in the Introduction (i. 41). I have noticed that the Nat'a is made like the "Sufrah," of well-tanned leather, with rings in the periphery, so that a thong passed through turns it into a bag. The Sufrah used for provisions is usually yellow, with a black border and small pouches for knives or spoons (Pilgrimage i. 111).

This improbable detail shows the Caliph's greatness.

"Cousin" is here a term of familiarity, our "coz."

i. e. without allowing them a moment's delay to change clothes.

i. e. according to my nature, birth, blood, de race .

Our "Job." The English translators of the Bible, who borrowed Luther's system of transliteration (of A.D. 1522), transferred into English the German "j" which has the sound of "i" or "y"; intending us to pronounce Yacob (or Yakob), Yericho, Yimnites, Yob (or Hiob) and Yudah. Tyndall who copied Luther (A.D. 1525-26), preserved the true sound by writing Iacob, Ben Iamin and Iudas. But his successors unfortunately returned to the German; the initial I having from the xiii. century been ornamentally lengthened and bent leftwards became a consonant; the public adopted the vernacular sound of "j" (dg) and hence our language and our literature are disgraced by such barbarisms as "Jehovah" and "Jesus" – Dgehovah and Dgeesus for Yehovah and Yesus. Future generations of school-teachers may remedy the evil; meanwhile we are doomed for the rest of our days to hear