ABU AL-HASAN AND ABU JA’AFAR THE LEPER.[501]
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Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
And haply Fate shall lend thee aidance due,
Rest from rejection and estrangement-stress,
And Joy thy wish and will shall choicely bless.
His court wide open for the suer is dight:—
One, very God, the Lord, th’ Almighty might.
And they also tell a tale of
Source notes
501. Arabs note two kinds of leprosy, “Bahak” or “Baras” the common or white, and “Juzám” the black leprosy; the leprosy of the joints, mal rouge. Both are attributed to undue diet as eating fish and drinking milk; and both are treated with tonics, especially arsenic. Leprosy is regarded by Moslems as a Scriptural malady on account of its prevalence amongst the Israelites who, as Manetho tells us, were expelled from Egypt because they infected and polluted the population. In mediæval Christendom an idea prevailed that the Saviour was a leper; hence the term “morbus sacer”; the honours paid to the sufferers by certain Saints and the Papal address (Clement III. A.D. 1189) dilectis filiis leprosis. (Farrar’s Life of Christ, i. 149.) For the “disgusting and impetuous lust” caused by leprosy, see Sonnini (p. 560) who visited the lepers at Canea in Candia. He is one of many who describes this symptom; but in the Brazil, where the foul malady still prevails, I never heard of it.
502. A city in Irak; famous for the three days’ battle which caused the death of Yezdegird, last Sassanian king.
503. A mountain pass near Meccah famous for the “First Fealty of the Steep” (Pilgrimage ii. 126). The mosque was built to commemorate the event.
504. To my surprise I read in Mr. Redhouse’s “Mesnevi” (Trübner, 1881), “Arafat, the mount where the victims are slaughtered by the pilgrims” (p. 60). This ignorance is phenomenal. Did Mr. Redhouse never read Burckhardt or Burton?
505. i.e. listening to the sermon.
506. It is sad doggrel.