Lane owns that this is “one of the most entertaining tales in the work,” but he omits it because its chief and best portion is essentially the same as “The story of the First of the Three Ladies of Baghdad.” The truth is he was straightened for space by his publisher and thus compelled to cut out some of the best stories in The Nights.
_i.e._ Ibrahim of Mosul, the musician poet often mentioned in The Nights. I must again warn the reader that the name is pronounced Is-hák (like Isaac with a central aspirate) not Ishák. This is not unnecessary when we hear Tait-shill for Tait’s hill and “Frederick-shall” for Friedrich, shall.
Arab. from Pers. Dúláb = a waterwheel, a buttery, a cupboard.
Arab. “Futúr,” the chhotí házirí of Anglo-India or breakfast proper, eaten by Moslems immediately after the dawn-prayer except in Ramázán. Amongst sensible people it is a substantial meal of bread and boiled beans, eggs, cheese, curded milk and the pastry called fatírah, followed by coffee and a pipe. See Lane M. E. chapt. v. and my Pilgrimage ii. 48.
This “off-with-his-head” style must not be understood literally. As I have noted, it is intended by the writer to show the Kingship and the majesty of the “Vicar of Allah.”
Lit. “the calamity of man (insán) is from the tongue” (lisán).
For Khatt Sharíf, lit. = a noble letter, see vol. ii. 39.
Arab. “Allah yastura-k” = protect thee by hiding what had better be hidden.
Arab. “Janázír” = chains, an Arabised plural of the Pers. Zanjír with the metathesis or transposition of letters peculiar to the vulgar; “Janázír” for “Zanájír.”
Arab. “Safínah” = (Noah’s) Ark, a myth derived from the Baris of Egypt with subsequent embellishments from the Babylonian deluge-legends: the latter may have been survivals of the days when the waters of the Persian Gulf extended to the mountains of Eastern Syria. Hence I would explain the existence of extinct volcanoes within sight of Damascus (see Unexplored Syria i. p. 159) visited, I believe, for the first time by my late friend Charles F. Tyrwhitt-Drake and myself in May, 1871.
Mansur and Násir are passive and active participles from the same root, Nasr = victory; the former means triumphant and the latter triumphing.