Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand and One Nights - Sir Richard Francis Burton (little readers TXT) 📗

[FN#248] The Hudhud, so called from its cry “Hood! Hood!” It is the Lat. upupa, Gr. from its supposed note epip or upup; the old Egyptian Kukufa; Heb. Dukiphath and Syriac Kikuph� (Bochart Hierozoicon, part ii. 347). The Spaniards call it Gallo de Marzo (March-Cock) from its returning in that month, and our old writers “lapwing” (Deut. xiv. 18). This foul-feeding bird derives her honours from chapt. xxvii. of the Koran (q.v.), the Hudhud was sharp-sighted and sagacious enough to discover water underground which the devils used to draw after she had marked the place by her bill.

[FN#249] Here the vocative Y� is designedly omitted in poetical fashion (e.g., Khal�liyya—my friend!) to show the speaker’s emotion. See p. 113 of Captain A. Lockett’s learned and curious work the “Miet Amil” (=Hundred Regimens), Calcutta, 1814.

[FN#250] The story-teller introduces this last instance with considerable art as a preface to the d�no�ement.

[FN#251] See Chavis and Cazotte “Story of the King of Haram and the slave.”

[FN#252] i.e. men caught red-handed.

[FN#253] Arab. “Libwah,” one of the multitudinous names for the king of beasts, still used in Syria where the animal has been killed out, soon to be followed by the bear (U. Syriacus). The author knows that lions are most often found in couples.

[FN#254] Arab. “Himy�n or Hamy�n,”=a girdle.

[FN#255] As he would kiss a son. I have never yet seen an Englishman endure these masculine kisses, formerly so common in France and Italy, without showing clearest signs of his disgust.

[FN#256] A cheap way of rewarding merit, not confined to Eastern monarchs, but practised by all contemporary Europe.

[FN#257] Arab. “Kasf,”=houghing a camel so as to render it helpless. The passage may read. “we are broken to bits (Kis�) by our own sin.”

[FN#258] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 251-4, Night dlxv.

[FN#259] See vol. vi. 175. A Moslem should dress for public occasions, like the mediaeval student, in vestibus (quasi) nigris aut subfuscis; though not, except amongst the Abbasides, absolutely black, as sable would denote Jewry.

[FN#260] A well-known soldier and statesman, noted for piety and austerity. A somewhat fuller version of this story, from which I have borrowed certain details, is given in the Biographical Dictionary of Ibn Khallik�n (i. 303-4). The latter, however, calls the first Abd al-Malik “Ibn Bahr�n” (in the index Ibn Bahr�m), which somewhat spoils the story. “Ibn Khallikan,”

by-the-by, is derived popularly from “Khalli” (let go), and “K�na” (it was, enough), a favourite expression of the author, which at last superseded his real name, Abu al-Abb�s Ahmad. He is better off than the companion nicknamed by Mohammed Ab�

Horayrah=Father of the She-kitten (not the cat), and who in consequence has lost his true name and pedigree.

[FN#261] In Ibn Khallik�n (i. 303) he is called the “Hashimite,”

from his ancestor, Hashim ibn Abd Man�f. The Hashimites and Abbasides were fine specimens of the Moslem “Pharisee,” as he is known to Christians, not the noble Purushi of authentic history.

[FN#262] Meaning a cap, but of what shape we ignore. Ibn Khallikan afterwards calls it a “Kalans�a,” a word still applied to a mitre worn by Christian priests.

[FN#263] Arab. “L� baas,” equivalent in conversation to our “No matter,” and “All right.”

[FN#264] As a member of the reigning family, he wore black clothes, that being the especial colour of the Abbasides, adopted by them in opposition to the rival dynasty of the Ommiades, whose family colour was white, that of the Fatimites being green. The Moslems borrowed their sacred green, “the hue of the Pure,” from the old Nabatheans and the other primitive colours from the tents of the captains who were thus distinguished. Hence also amongst the Turks and Tartars, the White Horde and the Black Horde.

[FN#265] The word has often occurred, meaning date-wine or grape-wine. Ibn Khald�n contends that in Ibn Khallikan it here means the former.

[FN#266] �25,000. Ibn Khallikan (i. 304) makes the debt four millions of dirhams or �90,000-�100,000.

[FN#267] In the Biographer occurs the equivalent phrase, “That a standard be borne over his head.”

[FN#268] Here again we have a suggestion that Ja’afar presumed upon his favour with the Caliph; such presumption would soon be reported (perhaps by the aust�re intrigant himself) to the royal ears, and lay the foundation of ill-will likely to end in utter destruction.

[FN#269] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 258-60, Night dlxvii.

[FN#270] Fourth Abbaside, A.D. 785-786, vol. v. 93. He was a fantastic tyrant who was bent upon promoting to the Caliphate his own son, Ja’afar; he cast Harun into prison and would probably have slain him but for the intervention of the mother of one of the two brothers, Khayzar�n widow of Al-Mahdi, and Yahya the Barmecide.

[FN#271] Third Abbaside, A.D. 775-785, vol. vii. 136; ix. 334.

[FN#272] This reminds us of the Bir Al-Kh�tim (Well of the Signet) at Al-Medinah; in which Caliph Osman during his sixth year dropped from his finger the silver ring belonging to the founder of AlIslam, engraved in three lines with “Mohammed /

Apostle (of) / Allah /.” It had served to sign the letters sent to neighboring kings and had descended to the first three successors (Pilgrimage ii. 219). Mohammed owned three seal-rings, the golden one he destroyed himself; and the third, which was of carnelian, was buried with other objects by his heirs.

The late Subhi Pasha used to declare that the latter had been brought to him with early Moslem coins by an Arab, and when he died he left it to the Sultan.

[FN#273] Mr. Payne quotes Al-Tabari’s version of this anecdote.

“El-Mehdi had presented his son Haroun with a ruby ring, worth a hundred thousand dinars, and the latter being one day with his brother (the then reigning Khalif), El Hadi saw the ring on his finger and desired it. So, when Haroun went out from him, he sent after him, to seek the ring of him. The Khalif’s messenger overtook Er Reshid on the bridge over the Tigris and acquainted him with his errand; whereupon the prince, enraged at the demand, pulled off the ring and threw it into the river. When El Hadi died and Er Rashid succeeded to the throne, he went with his suite to the bridge in question and bade his Vizier Yehya ben Khalid send for divers and cause them to make search for the ring. It had then been five months in the water and no one believed it would be found. However, the divers plunged into the river and found the ring in the very place where he had thrown it in, whereat Haroun rejoiced with an exceeding joy, regarding it as a presage of fair fortune.”

[FN#274] Not historically correct. Al-Rashid made Y�hy�, father of Ja’afar, his Wazir; and the minister’s two sons, Fazl and Ja’afar, acted as his lieutenants for seventeen years from A.D.

786 till the destruction of the Barmecides in A.D. 803. The taleteller quotes Ja’afar because he was the most famous of the house.

[FN#275] Perhaps after marrying Ja’afar to his sister. But the endearing name was usually addressed to Ja’afar’s elder brother Fazl, who was the Caliph’s foster-brother.

[FN#276] Read seventeen: all these minor inaccuracies tend to invalidate the main statement.

[FN#277] Arab. “Yar’ad” which may mean “thundereth.” The dark saying apparently means, Do good whilst thou art in power and thereby strengthen thyself.

[FN#278] The lady seems to have made the first advances and Bin Ab� H�jilah quotes a sixaine in which she amorously addresses her spouse. See D’Herbelot, s.v. Abbassa.

[FN#279] The taleteller passes with a very light hand over the horrors of a massacre which terrified and scandalised the then civilised world, and which still haunt Moslem history. The Caliph, like the eking, can do no wrong; and, as Viceregent of Allah upon Earth, what would be deadly crime and mortal sin in others becomes in his case an ordinance from above. These actions are superhuman events and fatal which man must not judge nor feel any sentiment concerning them save one of mysterious respect. For the slaughter of the Barmecides, see my Terminal Essay, vol. x.

[FN#280] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 260-1, Night dlxviii.

[FN#281] Ibn al-Samm�k (Son of the fisherman or fishmonger), whose name was Ab� al-Abb�s Mohammed bin Sab�h, surnamed Al-Mazk�r (Ibn al-Athir says Al-Muzakkar), was a native of Kufah (where he died in A.H. 183 = 799-80), a preacher and professional taleteller famed as a stylist and a man of piety. Al-Siyuti (p.

292) relates of him that when honoured by the Caliph with courteous reception he said to him, “Thy humility in thy greatness is nobler than thy greatness.” He is known to have been the only theologician who, ex cathedr�, promised Al-Rashid a place in Paradise.

[FN#282] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 261-2, Night dlxviii.

[FN#283] Seventh Abbaside, A.H. 198-227 = 813-842. See vol. iv.

109. He was a favourite with his father, who personally taught him tradition; but he offended the Faithful by asserting the creation of the Koran, by his leaning to Shi’ah doctrine, and by changing the black garments of the Banu Abbas into green. He died of a chill at Budandun, a day’s march from Tarsus, where he was buried: for this Podendon = = stretch out thy feet, see Al-Siyuti, pp. 326-27.

[FN#284] Sixth Abbaside, A.D. 809-13. See vol. v. 93: 152. He was of pure Abbaside blood on the father’s side and his mother Zubaydah’s. But he was unhappy in his Wazir Al-Fazl bin Rab�, the intriguer against the Barmecides, who estranged him from his brothers Al-K�sim and Al-Maam�n. At last he was slain by a party of Persians, “who struck him with their swords and cut him through the nape of his neck and went with his head to Tahir bin al-Husayn, general to Al-Maam�n, who set it upon a garden-wall and made proclamation, This is the head of the deposed Mohammed (Al-Am�n).” Al-Siyuti, pp. 306-311. It was remarked by Moslem annalists that every sixth Abbaside met with a violent death: the first was this Mohammed al-Amin surnamed Al-Makhl�’ = The Deposed; the second sixth was Al-Musta’�n; and the last was Al-Muktad� bi’ll�h.

[FN#285] Lit. “Order and acceptance.” See the Tale of the Sandal-wood Merchant and the Sharpers: vol. vi. 202.

[FN#286] This is not noticed by Al-Siyuta (p. 318) who says that his mother was a slave-concubine named Mar�jil who died in giving him birth. The tale in the text appears to be a bit of Court scandal, probably suggested by the darkness of the Caliph’s complexion.

[FN#287] Bresl. Edit., vol. viii. pp. 226-9, Nights dclx-i.

[FN#288] King of the Arab kingdom of Hirah, for whom see vol. v.

74. This ancient villain rarely appears in such favourable form when tales are told of him.

[FN#289] The tribe of the chieftain and poet, H�tim T��, for whom see vol. iv. 94.

[FN#290] i.e. I will make a covenant with him before the Lord.

Here the word “Allah” is introduced among the Arabs of The Ignorance.

[FN#291] i.e. the man of the Tribe of Tay.

[FN#292] A similar story of generous dealing is told of the Caliph Omar in The Nights. See vol. v. 99 et seq.

[FN#293] Bresl. Edit., vol. viii. pp. 273-8, Nights dclxxv-vi.

In Syria and Egypt Fir�z (the Persian “P�roz”) = victorious, triumphant, is usually pronounced Fayr�s. The tale is a rechauff�

of the King and the Wazir’s Wife in The Nights. See vol. vi. 129.

[FN#294] i.e. I seek refuge with Allah = God forfend.

[FN#295] Bresl. Edit., vol. xi. pp. 84�318, Nights dccclxxv�dccccxxx. Here again the names are Persian, showing the provenance of the tale; Shah Bakht