FOOTNOTES:
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana and Redhouse, James W. (James William), Sir
Source notes
236 This section purports to be a dissertation on the dictum: “What God wills, is.”
237 Man’s “record” is the register of his thoughts, words, and deeds, kept by angels, to be produced in the last judgment.
238 The same word in Persian, bū, signifies “odour” and “hope.” The thing hoped for becomes a distant, odoriferous flower.
239 Qur’ān ii. 23, and forty places in all.
240 Jacob is said to have wept himself blind on losing Joseph; the smell of his son’s coat, when refound, later, restored him.
241 Ferhād was Shīrīn’s lover. (See Tale 6, distich 107, note.)
242 Majnūn, in story, went mad for love of Laylà.
243 The “Sage of Gazna” is the poet Sanā’ī, already mentioned in the notes to the present tale, distich 230.
244 Joseph is held to have been most superlatively beautiful.
245 Isrāfīl is the angel who will blow the last trump, twice. At the first, all living will die; at the second, all the dead will rise to be judged. His voice is the most musical among all those of the angels.
246 Our word “fairy” is connected with the Persian “perī,” used here by the poet instead of the Arabic “jinn,” whence our “genie.”
247 Qur’ān lv. 33.
248 That is, it would appear: Individuals created out of nothing.
249 That is: The Lord is with him who strives on the Lord’s side.
250 A dried gourd, a calabash, is commonly used as a wine-decanter.
251 An apostolic tradition.
252 Also an apostolic tradition.
253 Another apostolic tradition.
254 The traditionary saying of Muhammed, of which this section is an amplification, is the following:—“Verily your Lord hath, in your time, sundry breathings; lo, then, turn ye towards them.”
255 Qur’ān xxxiii. 72. When all things had declined responsibility, Adam voluntarily accepted it; was tempted; and fell. Had they not shrunk, man would not have been the sinner or the saint that he is.
256 Luqmān’s story may be read in D’Herbelot, voce “Locman.”
257 Arabian poets sing of women; often imaginary. In Persia, this is considered very immodest. In Persian poetry, a boy, imaginary also, is always assumed to be the beloved object. Muhammed so addressed his youthful wife, ‘Ā’isha. Humayrā means Rosina,—little rosy-cheeks. See also No. 9, distich 184.
258 A horseshoe, as a charm, with an absent one’s name on it, placed in the fire, is supposed to exercise a magical influence over him, and make him come there in all speed, even though his feet bleed from his haste.
259 That “Soul” is God, the “animus mundi.”
260 Through humility.
261 The “call” of God is the call to divine service, the ‘Adhān (ezān).
262 Bilāl, a negro, was the first caller to divine service. He was an early convert, a slave, then ‘Abū-Bekr’s freedman; then Mu’edhdhin.
263 Mustafà, Chosen, Elect, is one of Muhammed’s titles.
264 The night of his marriage with Safiyya, after the capture of Khaybar, in the seventh year of the Hijra, as he was returning to Medīna. That night has a special name, based on this circumstance: the night of the early morning halt (laylatu ’t-ta’rīs).
265 An explanation of this wild expression were much to be desired. Doubtless there is one.
266 There are seven different Persian games of backgammon. The second of the seven, the one mentioned by the poet, is called “Plus” (Ziyād). At each throw of the dice, one is added, arbitrarily, to each number shown on the two, ace becoming deuce, &c. The poet likens the body to this supposititious number, the soul alone being real.
267 In performing her devotions, a Muslimess has to veil herself, even at home, as though she were abroad in public.
268 These four lines are quoted from Sanā’ī, for comment.
269 This section and the next two form a comment on Sanā’ī.
270 Qur’ān l. 14. The “new creation” is the resurrection.
271 The tradition, in prose, is as follows, quoted by the poet: “Take ye advantage of the coolness of spring; it invigorates your bodies, as it acts on plants. Avoid ye also the cold of autumn; it acts on your frames as it acts on vegetation.”
272 Prisoners and fugitive slaves have iron rings or a kind of wooden pillory fastened round their necks to prevent flight or insubordination.
273 Venus, the musician, who inhabits the planet. See Tale iii., dist. 223.
274 Muhammed.
275 The original name of Medīna,—Jatrippa.