A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Volume 7 (of 17)

Patient I seemed, yet Patience shown by meWas but self-guiling till thy sight I see:Had my soul done as due my life had gone,Had fled before mankind forestalling thee:Then, after me and thee none shall to friendBe just, nor any soul with soul agree.

Then she sobbed a single sob and gave up the ghost. We dug one grave for them and laid them in the earth, and I returned to the dwellings of my people, where I abode seven years. Then I betook me again to Al-Hijaz and entering Al-Medinah the Illumined for pious visitation said in my mind, “By Allah, I will go again to Otbah’s tomb!” So I repaired thither, and, behold, over the grave was a tall tree, on which hung fillets of red and green and yellow stuffs.93 So I asked the people of the place, “How be this tree called?”; and they answered, “The tree of the Bride and the Bridegroom.” I abode by the tomb a day and a night, then went my way; and this is all I know of Otbah. Almighty Allah have mercy upon him! And they also tell this tale of

HIND DAUGHTER OF AL-NU’MAN AND AL-HAJJAJ. 94

It is related that Hind daughter of Al-Nu’man was the fairest woman of her day, and her beauty and loveliness were reported to Al-Hajjaj, who sought her in marriage and lavished much treasure on her. So he took her to wife, engaging to give her a dowry of two hundred thousand dirhams in case of divorce, and when he went into her, he abode with her a long time. One day after this, he went in to her and found her looking at her face in the mirror and saying:—

Hind is an Arab filly purest bred,Which hath been covered by a mongrel mule;An colt of horse she throw by Allah! well;If mule, it but results from mulish rule.95

When Al-Hajjaj heard this, he turned back and went his way, unseen of Hind; and, being minded to put her away, he sent Abdullah bin Táhir to her, to divorce her. So Abdullah went in to her and said to her, “Al-Hajjaj Abu Mohammed saith to thee: Here be the two hundred thousand dirhams of thy contingent dowry he oweth thee; and he hath deputed me to divorce thee.” Replied she, “O Ibn Tahir, I gladly agree to this; for know that I never for one day took pleasure in him; so, if we separate, by Allah, I shall never regret him, and these two hundred thousand dirhams I give to thee as a reward for the glad tidings thou bringest me of my release from yonder dog of the Thakafites.”96 After this, the Commander of the Faithful, Abd al-Malik bin Marwán, heard of her beauty and loveliness, her stature and symmetry, her sweet speech and the amorous grace of her glances and sent to her, to ask her in marriage;–And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Six Hundred and Eighty-second Night,

She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Prince of True Believers, Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, hearing of the lady’s beauty and loveliness, sent to ask her in marriage; and she wrote him in reply a letter, in which, after the glorification of Allah and benediction of His Prophet, she said, “But afterwards. Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that the dog hath lapped in the vase.” When the Caliph read her answer, he laughed and wrote to her, citing his saying (whom may Allah bless and keep!) “If a dog lap in the vessel of one of you, let him wash seven times, once thereof with earth,” and adding, “Wash the affront from the place of use.”97 With this she could not gainsay him; so she replied to him, saying (after praise and blessing), “O Commander of the Faithful I will not consent save on one condition, and if thou ask me what it is, I reply that Al-Hajjaj lead my camel to the town where thou tarriest barefoot and clad as he is.”98 When the Caliph read her letter, he laughed long and loudly and sent to Al-Hajjaj, bidding him do as she wished. He dared not disobey the order, so he submitted to the Caliph’s commandment and sent to Hind, telling her to make ready for the journey. So she made ready and mounted her litter, when Al-Hajjaj with his suite came up to Hind’s door and as she mounted and her damsels and eunuchs rode around her, he dismounted and took the halter of her camel and led it along, barefooted, whilst she and her damsels and tirewomen laughed and jeered at him and made mock of him. Then she said to her tirewoman, “Draw back the curtain of the litter;” and she drew back the curtain, till Hind was face to face with Al-Hajjaj, whereupon she laughed at him and he improvised this couplet:—

Though now thou jeer, O Hind, how many a nightI’ve left thee wakeful sighing for the light.

And she answered him with these two:—

We reck not, an our life escape from bane,For waste of wealth and gear that went in vain:Money may be regained and rank re-wonWhen one is cured of malady and pain.

And she ceased not to laugh at him and make sport of him, till they drew near the city of the Caliph, when she threw down a dinar with her own hand and said to Al-Hajjaj, “O camel-driver, I have dropped a dirham; look for it and give it to me.” So he looked and seeing naught but the dinar, said, “This is a dinar.” She replied, “Nay, ’tis a dirham.” But he said, “This is a dinar.” Then quoth she, “Praised be Allah who hath given us in exchange for a paltry dirham a dinar! Give it us.” And Al-Hajjaj was abashed at this. Then he carried her to the palace of the Commander of the Faithful, and she went in to him and became his favourite.–And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Six Hundred and Eighty-third Night,

She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that men also tell a tale anent

KHUZAYMAH BIN BISHR AND IKRIMAH AL-FAYYAZ. 99

There lived once, in the days of the Caliph Sulayman bin Abd al-Malik100 a man of the Banu Asad, by name Khuzaymah bin Bishr, who was famed for bounty and abundant wealth and excellence and righteous dealing with his brethren. He continued thus till times grew strait with him and he became in need of the aid of those Moslem brethren on whom he had lavished favour and kindness. So they succoured him a while and then grew weary of him, which when he saw, he went in to his wife who was the daughter of his father’s brother, and said to her, “O my cousin, I find a change in my brethren; wherefore I am resolved to keep my house till death come to me.” So he shut his door and abode in his home, living on that which he had by him, till it was spent and he knew not what to do. Now Ikrimah al-Raba’í, surnamed Al-Fayyáz, governor of Mesopotamia,101 had known him, and one day, as he sat in his audience-chamber, mention was made of Khuzaymah, whereupon quoth Ikrimah, “How is it with him?” And quoth they, “He is in a plight past telling, and hath shut his door and keepeth the house.” Ikrimah rejoined, “This cometh but of his excessive generosity: but how is it that Khuzaymah bin Bishr findeth nor comforter nor requiter?” And they replied, “He hath found naught of this.” So when it was night, Ikrimah took four thousand dinars and laid them in one purse; then, bidding saddle his beast, he mounted and rode privily to Khuzaymah’s house, attended only by one of his pages, carrying the money. When he came to the door, he alighted and taking the purse from the page made him withdraw afar off; after which he went up to the door and knocked. Khuzaymah came out to him, and he gave him the purse, saying, “Better thy case herewith.” He took it and finding it heavy put it from his hand and laying hold of the bridle of Ikrimah’s horse, asked, “Who art thou? My soul be thy ransom!” Answered Ikrimah, “O man I come not to thee at a time like this desiring that thou shouldst know me.” Khuzaymah rejoined, “I will not let thee go till thou make thyself known to me,” whereupon Ikrimah said “I am hight Jábir Atharát al-Kirám.”102

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1

Mayyáfárikín, whose adjective for shortness is “Fárikí”: the place is often mentioned in the Nights as the then capital of Diyár Bakr, thirty parasangs from Násibín, the classical Nisibis, between the upper Euphrates and Tigris.

2

This proportion is singular to moderns but characterised Arab and more especially Turcoman armies.

3

Such is the bathos caused by the Saja’-assonance: in the music of the Arabic it contrasts strangely with the baldness of translation. The same is the case with the Koran, beautiful in the original and miserably dull in European languages; it is like the glorious style of the “Anglican Version” by the side of its bastard brothers in Hindostani or Marathi; one of these marvels of stupidity translating the “Lamb of God” by “God’s little goat.”

4

This incident is taken from the Life of Mohammed who, in the “Year of Missions” (A.H. 7) sent letters to foreign potentates bidding them embrace Al-Islam; and, his seal being in three lines, Mohammed | Apostle | of Allah, Khusrau Parwíz (= the Charming) was offended because his name was placed below Mohammed’s. So he tore the letter in pieces adding, says Firdausi, these words:—

5

This “Taklíd” must not be translated “girt on the sword.” The Arab carries his weapon by a baldrick or bandoleer passed over his right shoulder. In modern days the “Majdal” over the left shoulder supports on the right hip a line of Tatárif or brass cylinders for cartridges: the other cross-belt (Al-Masdar) bears on the left side the Kharízah or bullet-pouch of hide; and the Hizám or waist-belt holds the dagger and extra cartridges. (Pilgrimage iii. 90.)

6

Arab. “Bab,” which may mean door or gate. The plural form (Abwáb) occurs in the next line, meaning that he displayed all manner of martial prowess.

7

Arab. “Farrásh” (also used in Persian), a man of general utility who pitches tents, sweeps the floors, administers floggings, etc. etc. (Pilgrimage iii. 90).

8

i.e. the slogan-cry of “Allaho Akbar,” which M. C. Barbier de Meynard compares with the Christian “Te Deum.”

9

The Anglo-Indian term for the Moslem rite of killing animals for food. (Pilgrimage i. 377.)

10

Arab “tawílan jiddan”—a hideous Cairenism in these days; but formerly used by Al-mas’údí and other good writers.

11

Arab “’Ajwah,” enucleated dates pressed together into a solid mass so as to be sliced with a knife like cold pudding. The allusion is to the dough-idols of the Hanífah tribe, whose eating their gods made the saturnine Caliph Omar laugh.

12

Mr. Payne writes “Julned.” In a fancy name we must not look for grammar; but a quiescent lám (l) followed by nún (n) is unknown to Arabic while we find sundry cases of “lan” (fath’d lám and nún), and Jalandah means noxious or injurious. In Oman also there was a dynasty called Julándah, for which see Mr. Badger xiii:. and passim.

13

Doubtless for Jawán-mard—un giovane, a brave. (See vol. iv., p. ).

14

Mr. Payne transposes the distichs, making the last first. I have followed the Arabic order finding it in the Mac. and Bul. Edits. (ii. 129).

15

Al-Irak like Al-Yaman may lose the article in verse.

16

Arab. “Ka’ka’at”: hence Jabal Ka’ka’án, the higher levels in Meccah, of old inhabited by the Jurhamites and so called from their clashing and jangling arms; whilst the Amalekites dwelt in the lower grounds called Jiyád from their generous steeds (Pilgrimage iii. 191).

17

Al-Shara’, a mountain in Arabia.

18

See vol. vi., 249. “This (mace) is a dangerous weapon when struck on the shoulders or unguarded arm: I am convinced that a blow with it on a head armoured with a salade (cassis cælata, a light iron helmet) would stun a man” (says La Brocquière).

19

Oman, which the natives pronounce “Amán,” is the region best known by its capital, Maskat. These are the Omana Moscha and Omanum Emporium of Ptolemy and the Periplus. Ibn Batutah writes Ammán, but the best dictionaries give “Oman.” (N.B.—Mr. Badger, p. 1, wrongly derives Sachalitis from “Sawáhíly”: it is evidently “Sáhili.”) The people bear by no means the best character: Ibn Batutah (fourteenth century) says, “their wives are most base; yet, without denying this, their husbands express nothing like jealousy on the subject.” (Lee, p. 62.)

20

The name I have said of a quasi historical personage, son of Joktan, the first Arabist and the founder of the Tobbá (“successor”) dynasty in Al-Yaman; while Jurham, his brother, established that of Al-Hijaz. The name is probably chosen because well-known.

21

Arab “Hákim”: lit. one who orders; often confounded by the unscientific with Hakím, a doctor, a philosopher. The latter re-appears in the Heb. Khákhám applied in modern days to the Jewish scribe who takes the place of the Rabbi.

22

As has been seen, acids have ever been and are still administered as counter-inebriants, while hot spices and sweets greatly increase the effect of Bhang, opium, henbane, datura, &c. The Persians have a most unpleasant form of treating men when dead-drunk with wine or spirits. They hang them up by the heels, as we used to do with the drowned, and stuff their mouths with human ordure which is sure to produce emesis.

23

Compare the description of the elephant-faced Vetála (Kathá S.S. Fasc. xi. p. 388).

24

The lover’s name Sá’ik = the Striker (with lightning); Najmah, the beloved = the star.

25

I have modified the last three lines of the Mac. Edit. which contain a repetition evidently introduced by the carelessness of the copyist.

26

The Hindu Charvakas explain the Triad, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, by the sexual organs and upon Vishnu’s having four arms they gloss, “At the time of sexual intercourse, each man and woman has as many.” (Dabistan ii. 202). This is the Eastern view of Rabelais’ “beast with two backs.”

27

Arab. “Rabbat-i,” my she Lord, fire (nár) being feminine.

28

The prose-rhyme is answerable for this galimatias.

29

A common phrase equivalent to our “started from his head.”

30

Arab. “Máridúna” = rebels (against Allah and his orders).

31

Arab. Yáfis or Yáfat. He had eleven sons and was entitled Abú al-Turk because this one engendered the Turcomans as others did the Chinese, Scythians, Slaves (Saklab), Gog, Magog, and the Muscovites or Russians. According to the Moslems there was a rapid falling off in size amongst this family. Noah’s grave at Karak (the Ruin) a suburb of Zahlah, in La Brocquière’s “Valley of Noah, where the Ark was built,” is 104 ft. 10 in. long by 8 ft. 8 in. broad. (N.B.—It is a bit of the old aqueduct which Mr. Porter, the learned author of the “Giant Cities of Bashan,” quotes as a “traditional memorial of primeval giants”—talibus carduis pascuntur asini!). Nabi Ham measures only 9 ft. 6 in. between headstone and tombstone, being in fact about as long as his father was broad.

32

See Night dcliv., vol. vii., p. 43, infra.

33

According to Turcoman legends (evidently post-Mohammedan) Noah gave his son Japhet a stone inscribed with the Greatest Name, and it had the virtue of bringing on or driving off rain. The Moghuls long preserved the tradition and hence probably the sword.

34

This expresses Moslem sentiment; the convert to Al-Islam being theoretically respected and practically despised. The Turks call him a “Burmá” = twister, a turncoat, and no one either trusts him or believes in his sincerity.

35

The name of the city first appears here: it is found also in the Bul. Edit., vol. ii, p. 132.

36

Arab. “’Amala hílah,” a Syro-Egyptian vulgarism.

37

i.e. his cousin, but he will not use the word.

38

Arab. “La’ab,” meaning very serious use of the sword: we still preserve the old “sword-play.”

39

Arab. “Ikhsa,” from a root meaning to drive away a dog.

40

Arab. “Hazza-hu,” the quivering motion given to the “Harbak” (a light throw-spear or javelin) before it leaves the hand.

41

Here the translator must either order the sequence of the sentences or follow the rhyme.

42

Possibly taken from the Lions’ Court in the Alhambra = (Dár) Al-hamrá, the Red House.

43

Arab. “Sházarwán” from Pers. Shadurwán, a palace, cornice, etc. That of the Meccań Ka’abah is a projection of about a foot broad in pent house shape sloping downwards and two feet above the granite pavement: its only use appears in the large brass rings welded into it to hold down the covering. There are two breaks in it, one under the doorway and the other opposite Ishmael’s tomb; and pilgrims are directed during circuit to keep the whole body outside it.

44

The “Musáfahah” before noticed, (vol. vi., p. ).

45

i.e. He was confounded at its beauty.

46

Arab. “’Ajíb,” punning upon the name.

47

Arab. “Zarráf” (whence our word) from “Zarf” = walking hastily: the old “camelopard” which originated the nursery idea of its origin. It is one of the most timid of the antelope tribe and unfit for riding.

48

Arab. “Takht,” a useful word, meaning even a saddle. The usual term is “Haudaj” = the Anglo-Indian “howdah.”

49

“Thunder-King,” Arab. and Persian.

50

i.e. “He who violently assaults his peers” (the best men of the age). Batshat al-Kubrá = the Great Disaster, is applied to the unhappy “Battle of Bedr” (Badr) on Ramazan 17, A.H. 2 (= Jan. 13, 624) when Mohammed was so nearly defeated that the Angels were obliged to assist him (Koran, chapts. iii. 11; i. 42; viii. 9). Mohammed is soundly rated by Christian writers for beheading two prisoners Utbah ibn Rabí’a who had once spat on his face and Nazir ibn Háris who recited Persian romances and preferred them to the “foolish fables of the Koran.” What would our forefathers have done to a man who spat in the face of John Knox and openly preferred a French play to the Pentateuch?

51

Arab. “Jilbáb” either habergeon (mail-coat) or the buff-jacket worn under it.

52

A favourite way, rough and ready, of carrying light weapons; often alluded to in The Nights. So Khusrawán in Antar carried “under his thighs four small darts, each like a blazing flame.”

53

Mr. Payne very reasonably supplants here and below Fakhr Taj (who in Night dcxxxiv. is left in her father’s palace and who is reported to be dead in Night dclxvii.) by Star o’ Morn. But the former is also given in the Bul. Edit. (ii. 148), so the story-teller must have forgotten all about her. I leave it as a model specimen of Eastern incuriousness.

54

There is some chivalry in his unwillingness to use the magical blade. As a rule the Knights of Romance utterly ignore fair play and take every dirty advantage in the magic line that comes to hand.

55

Arab. “Hammál al-Hatabi” = one who carries to market the fuel-sticks which he picks up in the waste. In the Koran (chapt. cxi.) it is applied to Umm Jamíl, wife of Mohammed’s hostile cousin, Abd al-Uzza, there termed Abú Lahab (Father of smokeless Flame) with the implied meaning that she will bear fuel to feed Hell-fire.

56

Arab. “Akyál,” lit. whose word (Kaul) is obeyed, a title of the Himyarite Kings, of whom Al-Bergendi relates that one of them left an inscription at Samarcand, which many centuries ago no man could read. This evidently alludes to the dynasty which preceded the “Tobba” and to No. xxiv. Shamar Yar’ash (Shamar the Palsied). Some make him son of Malik surnamed Náshir al-Ni’am (Scatterer of Blessings) others of Afríkús (No. xviii.), who, according to Al-Jannabi, Ahmad bin Yusuf and Ibn Ibdun (Pocock, Spec. Hist. Arab.) founded the Berber (Barbar) race, the remnants of the Causanites expelled by the “robber, Joshua son of Nún,” and became the eponymous of “Africa.” This word which, under the Romans, denoted a small province on the Northern Sea-board, is, I would suggest, A’far-Káhi (Afar-land), the Afar being now the Dankali race, the country of Osiris whom my learned friend, the late Mariette Pasha, derived from the Egyptian “Punt” identified by him with the Somali country. This would make “Africa,” as it ought to be, an Egyptian (Coptic) term.

57

Herodotus (i. 80) notes this concerning the camel. Elephants are not allowed to walk the streets in Anglo-Indian cities, where they have caused many accidents.

58

Arab. Wahk or Wahak, suggesting the Roman retiarius. But the lasso pure and simple, the favourite weapon of shepherd and herdsmen was well-known to the old Egyptians and in ancient India. It forms one of the T-letters in the hieroglyphs.

59

Compare with this and other Arab battle-pieces the Pandit’s description in the Kathá Sarit Sagara, e.g. “Then a confused battle arose with dint of arrow, javelin, lance, mace and axe, costing the lives of countless soldiers (N.B.—Millions are nothing to him); rivers of blood flowed with the bodies of elephants and horses for alligators, with the pearls from the heads of elephants for sands and with the heads of heroes for stones. That feast of battle delighted the flesh-loving demons who, drunk with blood instead of wine, were dancing with the palpitating trunks,” etc., etc. Fasc. xii. 526.

60

The giraffe is here mal-placé: it is, I repeat, one of the most timid of the antelope tribe. Nothing can be more graceful than this huge game as it stands under a tree extending its long and slender neck to the foliage above it; but when in flight all the limbs seem loose and the head is carried almost on a level with the back.

61

The fire-arms may have been inserted by the copier; the cross-bow (Arcubalista) is of unknown antiquity. I have remarked in my book of the Sword (p. 19) that the bow is the first crucial evidence of the distinction between the human weapon and the bestial arm, and like the hymen or membrane of virginity proves a difference of degree if not of kind between man and the so-called lower animals. I note from Yule’s Marco Polo (ii., 143) “that the cross-bow was re-introduced into European warfare during the twelfth century”; but the arbalest was well known to the bon roi Charlemagne (Regnier Sat. X).

62

In Al-Islam this was unjustifiable homicide, excused only because the Kafir had tried to slay his own son. He should have been summoned to become a tributary and then, on express refusal, he might legally have been put to death.

63

i.e. “Rose King,” like the Sikh name “Gulab Singh” = Rosewater Lion, sounding in translation almost too absurd to be true.

64

“Repentance acquits the penitent” is a favourite and noble saying popular in Al-Islam. It is first found in Seneca; and is probably as old as the dawn of literature.

65

Here an ejaculation of impatience.

66

i.e. “King Intelligence”: it has a ludicrous sound suggesting only “Dandanha-i-Khirad” = wisdom-teeth. The Mac. Edit. persistently keeps “Ward Shah,” copyist-error.

67

i.e. Fakhr Taj, who had been promised him in marriage. See Night dcxxxiii. supra, vol. vi.