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)

Because the Abbaside Caliphs descend from Al-Abbas paternal uncle of Mohammed. The text means more explicitly, "O descendant of the Prophet's uncle!"

The most terrible part of a belle passion in the East is that the beloved will not allow her lover leave of absence for an hour.

It is hard to preserve these wretched puns. In the original we have "O spray" (or branch) of capparis-shrub ( aráki ) which has been thinned of leaf and fruit ( tujna , i. e. , whose fruit, the hymen, has been plucked before and not by me) I see thee ( aráka ) against me sinning ( tajní ).

Apparently the writer forgets that the Abbaside banners and dress were black, originally a badge of mourning for the Imám Ibrahim bin Mohammed put to death by the Ommiade Caliph Al-Marwán. The modern Egyptian mourning, like the old Persian, is indigo-blue of the darkest; but, as before noted, the custom is by no means universal.

Koran, chapt. iv. In the East as elsewhere the Devil quotes Scripture.

A servant returning from a journey shows his master due honour by appearing before him in travelling suit and uncleaned.

The first name means "Rattan"; the second "Willow-wand," from the "Bán" or "Khiláf" the Egyptian willow ( Salix Ægyptiaca Linn.) vulgarly called "Safsáf." Forskal holds the "Bán" to be a different variety.

Arab. "Ta'ám," which has many meanings: in mod. parlance it would signify millet, holcus-seed.

i. e. "I well know how to deal with him."

The Pen (title of the Koranic chapt. lxviii.) and the Preserved Tablet (before explained).

These plunderings were sanctioned by custom. But a few years ago, when the Turkish soldiers mutinied about arrears of pay (often delayed for years) the governing Páshá would set fire to the town and allow the men to loot what they pleased during a stated time. Rochet ( soi-disant D'Héricourt) amusingly describes this manœuvre of the Turkish Governor of Al-Hodaydah in the last generation (Pilgrimage iii. 381).

Another cenotaph whose use was to enable women to indulge in their pet pastime of weeping and wailing in company.

The lodging of pauper travellers, as the chapel in Iceland is of the wealthy. I have often taken benefit of the mosque, but as a rule it is unpleasant, the matting being not only torn but over-populous. Juvenal seems to allude to the Jewish Synagogue similarly used: – "in quâ te quæro proseuchâ"? (iii. 296) and in Acts iii. we find the lame, blind and impotent in the Temple-porch.

This foul sort of vermin is supposed to be bred by perspiration. It is an epoch in the civilised traveller's life when he catches his first louse.

The Moslem peasant is a kind-hearted man and will make many sacrifices for a sick stranger even of another creed. It is a manner of "pundonor" with the village.

Such treatment of innocent women was only too common under the Caliphate and in contemporary Europe.

This may also mean, "And Heaven will reward thee;" but camel-men do not usually accept any drafts upon futurity.

He felt that he was being treated like a corpse.

This hatred of the Hospital extends throughout Southern Europe, even in places where it is not justified.

The importance of the pillow (wisádah or makhaddah) to the sick man is often recognised in The Nights. "He took to his pillow" is=took to his bed.

i. e. in order that the reverend men, who do not render such suit and service gratis, might pray for him.

The reader will notice in The Nights the frequent mention of these physical prognostications, with which mesmerists are familiar.

The Pers. name of the planet Saturn in the Seventh Heaven. Arab. "Zuhal"; the Kiun or Chiun of Amos vi. 26.

i. e. "Pardon me if I injured thee" – a popular phrase.

A "seduction," a charmer. The double-entendre has before been noticed.

This knightly tale, the longest in the Nights (xliv-cxlv.), about one-eighth of the whole, does not appear in the Bres. Edit. Lane, who finds it "objectionable," reduces it to two of its episodes, Aziz-cum-Azízah and Táj al-Mulúk. On the other hand it has been converted into a volume (8vo, pp. 240) "Scharkan, Conte Arabe;" etc. Traduit par M. Asselan Riche, etc. Paris: Dondey-Dupré. 1829. It has its longueurs and at times is longsome enough; but it is interesting as a comparison between the chivalry of Al-Islam and European knight-errantry. Although all the characters are fictitious the period is evidently in the early crusading days. Cæsarea, the second capital of Palestine, taken during the Caliphate of Omar (A.H. 19) and afterwards recovered, was fortified in A.H. 353=963 as a base against the Arabs by the Emperor Phocas, the Arab. "Nakfúr" i. e. Nicephorus. In A.H. 498=1104, crusading craft did much injury by plundering merchantmen between Egypt and Syria, to which allusion is found in the romance. But the story-teller has not quite made up his mind about which Cæsarea he is talking, and M. Riche tells us that Césarée is a "ville de la Mauritanie, en Afrique" (p. 20).

The fifth Ommiade Caliph reign. A.H. 65-86=685-704.

This does not merely mean that no one was safe from his wrath: or, could approach him in the heat of fight: it is a reminiscence of the masterful "King Kulayb," who established game-laws in his dominions and would allow no man to approach his camp-fire. Moreover the Jinn lights a fire to decoy travellers; but if his victim be bold enough to brave him, he invites him to take advantage of the heat.

China.

The Jaxartes and the Bactrus (names very loosely applied).

In full "Sharrun kána" i. e. an evil (Sharr) has come to being (kána), that is, "bane to the foe" – a pagan and knightly name. The hero of the Romance "Al-Dalhamah" is described as a bitter gourd (colocynth), a viper, a calamity.

This is a Moslem law (Koran chapt. iv. bodily borrowed from the Talmud) which does not allow a man to marry one wife unless he can carnally satisfy her. Moreover he must distribute his honours equally and each wife has a right to her night unless she herself give it up. This was the case even with the spouses of the Prophet; and his biography notices several occasions when his wives waived their rights in favour of one another. M. Riche kindly provides the King with la piquante française (p. 15).

So the celebrated mosque in Stambul, famed for being the largest church in the world, is known to the Greeks as "Agia (pron. Aya) Sophia" and to Moslems as "Aya Sofíyeh" (Holy Wisdom) i. e. the Logos or Second Person of the Trinity (not a Saintess). The sending a Christian girl as a present to a Moslem would, in these days be considered highly scandalous. But it was done by the Mukaukis or Coptic Governor of Egypt (under Heraclius) who of course hated the Greeks. This worthy gave two damsels to Mohammed, one called Sírín and the other Máriyah (Maria) whom the Prophet reserved for his especial use and whose abode is still shown at Al-Medinah. The Rev. Doctor Badger (loc. cit. p. 972) gives the translation of an epistle by Mohammed to this Mukaukis, written in the Cufic character (??) and sealed "Mohammed, The Apostle of Allah." My friend seems to believe that it is an original, but upon this subject opinions will differ. It is, however, exceedingly interesting, beginning with "Bismillah," etc., and ending (before the signature) with a quotation from the Koran (iii. 57); and may be assumed as a formula addressed to foreign potentates by a Prophet who had become virtually "King of Arabia."