The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I. Commonly Called the...

360 Thus commonly pronounced for "Sharrun kán," signifying "an evil hath come into existence." Names of this kind are sometimes given by the Arabs not in dispraise, but as prophetic of great achievements.

361 "Light of the Place."

362 "Delight of the Age."

363 Mir-át ez-Zemán.

364 "Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys," 8vo. vol. i. pp. 55 and 56.

365 The Dynasty of the Fáṭimee Khaleefehs was founded by El-Mahdee in Western Africa, in the year of the Flight 297. His third successor, El-Mo'ezz li-deeni-lláh, conquered Egypt in the year 358, and the seat of his government was transferred to Cairo. As they claimed descent from Fáṭimeh, and were of the Shiya'ee sect, their possession of the fairest province of the orthodox (or 'Abbásee) Khaleefehs forms a strange episode in the history of El-Islám.—Their power was overthrown by Ṣaláḥ-ed-Deen, in the year 567.—Ed.

366 See Note 15 to Chapter ii.

367 "El-Khiṭaṭ:" Account of the Palaces of the Khaleefehs.

368 Dr. Millengen's Curiosities of Medical Experience, quoted in the Literary Gazette, No. 1043.

369 The art here mentioned was first made known to Europeans by a Frenchman, M. Du Vigneau, in a work entitled "Secrétaire Turc, contenant l'Art d'exprimer ses pensées sans se voir, sans se parler, et sans s'écrire:" Paris, 1688: in-12.—Von Hammer has also given an interesting paper on this subject in the "Mines de l'Orient," No. 1: Vienna, 1809. (Note to Marcel's "Contes du Cheykh El-Mohdy," vol. iii. pp. 327 and 328: Paris, 1833.)

370 Called "ghásool el-azrár." In Delile's Flora Ægyptiaca, the name of ghásool is given to the mesembryanthemum nodiflorum, class icosandria, order pentagynia.

371 This name is now given to sherbet.

372 Ḥalbet el-Kumeyt, ch. x.—The aloe-plant is called "ṣabir," "ṣabr," "ṣibr," and "ṣabbárah." The second of these words signifies "patience;" and so does the root of all of them: and the last signifies "very patient." The reason of its having these appellations cannot, of course, be proved.

373 See Marcel, ubi suprà. He states that Von Hammer's vocabulary of flowers and other hieroglyphic objects contains 120 articles; and that of Du Vigneau, 179; almost all of the former being the same as those of the latter.

374 Ch. xxviii. v. 19.

375 Ch. v. v. 27.—This anecdote is from the Ḥalbet el-Kumeyt, ch. viii.—[Káfoor was a black eunuch purchased by El-Ikhsheed, the first of the virtually-independent dynasty of the Ikhsheedeeyeh, which fell before the Fáṭimee Khaleefehs. Káfoor was regent of Egypt for upwards of twenty years, during the reigns of his master's two sons; and was actual governor from the year of the Flight 355 to 357.—Ed.]

376 Sometimes, also, it means "May God cause thee to experience grief!" or "sorrow!" and, used in this sense, it is similar to the phrase, often occurring in this work, "the world became black before his face."

377 The zikr here described was performed near the tomb of a saint, for whose sake it was celebrated. The ceremony is often performed in a sepulchral mosque, and often in the court, or in a chamber, of a private house.

378 Marginal note by my sheykh.

379 Idem.

380 The "Modern Egyptians."

381 See Note 57 to Chapter iii.

382 As shewn in Note 68 to Chapter iv.