The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 02...

281. "Haphsa" in older writers; Omar's daughter and one of Mohammed's wives, famous for her connection with the manuscripts of the Koran. From her were (or claimed to be) descended the Hafsites who reigned in Tunis and extended their power far and wide over the Maghrib (Mauritania), till dispossessed by the Turks.

282. i.e. humbly without the usual strut or swim: it corresponds with the biblical walking or going softly (1 Kings xxi. 27; Isaiah xxxviii. 15, etc.).

283. A theologian of the seventh and eighth centuries.

284. i.e. to prepare himself by good works, especially alms-giving, for the next world.

285. A theologian of the eighth century.

286. Abd al-Aziz was eighth Ommiade (regn. A.H. 99=717) and the fifth of the orthodox, famed for a piety little known to his house. His most celebrated saying was, "Be constant in meditation on death: if thou be in straitened case 'twill enlarge it, and if in affluence 'twill straiten it upon thee." He died, poisoned, it is said, in A.H. 101.

287. Abu Bakr originally called Abd al-Ka'ahah (slave of the Ka'abah) took the name of Abdullah and was surnamed Abu Bakr (father of the virgin) when Mohammed, who before had married only widows, took to wife his daughter, the famous or infamous Ayishah. "Bikr" is the usual form, but "Bakr," primarily meaning a young camel, is metaphorically applied to human youth (Lane's Lex. s. v.). The first Caliph was a cloth-merchant, like many of the Meccan chiefs. He is described as very fair with bulging brow, deep-set eyes and thin-cheeked, of slender build and lean-loined, stooping and with the backs of his hands fleshless. He used tinctures of Henna and Katam for his beard. The Persians who hate him, call him "Pir-i-Kaftár," the old she-hyæna, and believe that he wanders about the deserts of Arabia in perpetual rut which the males must satisfy.

288. The second, fifth, sixth and seventh Ommiades.

289. The mother of Omar bin Abd al-Aziz was a granddaughter of Omar bin Al-Khattab.

290. Brother of this Omar's successor, Yezid II.

291. So the Turkish proverb "The fish begins to stink at the head."

292. Calling to the slaves.

293. When the "Day of Arafat" (9th of Zú'l-Hijjah) falls upon a Friday. For this Hajj al-Akbar see my Pilgrimage iii. 226. It is often confounded by writers (even by the learned M. Caussin de Perceval) with the common Pilgrimage as opposed to the Umrah, or "Lesser Pilgrimage" (ibid. iii. 342, etc.). The latter means etymologically cohabiting with a woman in her father's house as opposed to 'Ars or leading her to the husband's home: it is applied to visiting Meccah and going through all the pilgrim-rites but not at the Pilgrimage-season. Hence its title "Hajj al-Asghar" the "Lesser Hajj." But "Umrah" is also applied to a certain ceremony between the hills Safá (a large hard rock) and Marwah (stone full of flints), which accompanies the Hajj and which I have described (ibid. iii. 344). At Meccah I also heard of two places called Al-Umrah, the Greater in the Wady Fátimah and the Lesser half way nearer the city (ibid. iii. 344).

294. A fair specimen of the unworthy egoism which all religious systems virtually inculcate. Here a pious father leaves his children miserable to save his own dirty soul.

295. Chief of the Banú Tamím, one of noblest of tribes derived from Tamím, the uncle of Kuraysh (Koreish); hence the poets sang:—

There cannot be a son nobler than Kuraysh,

Nor an uncle nobler than Tamím.

The high-minded Tamím is contrasted with the mean-spirited Kays, who also gave rise to a tribe; and hence the saying concerning one absolutely inconsistent, "Art thou now Tamím and then Kays?"

296. Surnamed Al-Sakafí, Governor of Al-Yaman and Irak.

297. Tenth Ommiade (regn. A.H. 105-125=724-743).

298. Or "clothe thee in worn-out clothes" i.e. "Become a Fakir" or religious mendicant.

299. This gratuitous incest in ignorance injures the tale and is as repugnant to Moslem as to Christian taste.

300. The child is named either on the day of its birth or on that day week. The father whispers it in the right ear, often adding the Azán or prayer-call, and repeating in the left ear the "Ikámah" or Friday sentence. There are many rules for choosing names according to the week-day, the ascendant planet, the "Sortes Coranicæ," etc.

301. Amongst Moslems as amongst Christians there are seven deadly sins: idolatry, murder, falsely charging modest women with unchastity, robbing orphans, usury, desertion in Holy War and disobedience to parents. The difference between the two creeds is noteworthy. And the sage knows only three, intemperance, ignorance and egoism.