[150] A pious Muslim generally sits at his meals with the right knee raised, after the example of the Prophet, who adopted this custom in order to avoid too comfortable a posture in eating, as tempting to unnecessary gratification.
[151] Hist. Aegypt. Compend. 180-182. (Oxon. 1800.)
[152] El-Maḳreezee's Khiṭaṭ: Account of the Khaleefehs' Palaces.
[154] Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys, 8vo. ed. i. 178, 179.
[155] Price's Retrospect of Mahom. History, ii. 229.
[157] De Sacy, Chrestomathie Arabe, i. 125-131, Arabic text.
[158] That is, a race-course for sallies of wit and eloquence on the subject of wine: the word "kumeyt" being used, in preference to more than a hundred others that might have been employed, to signify "wine," because it bears also the meaning of "a deep red horse." The book has been already quoted in these pages.
[159] His name is not mentioned in my copy; but D'Herbelot states it to have been Shems-ed-Deen Moḥammad ibn-Bedr-ed-Deen Ḥasan el-Ḳáḍee; and writes his surname "Naouagi," or "Naouahi."
[160] [Mr. Lane followed the usual custom of travellers of his day who wished to be intimate with the Egyptians, and took the name of Manṣoor Effendee. A letter from Bonomi to him, under this name, exists in the British Museum (25,658, f. 67), and has led the compilers of the Index to the Catalogue of Additions to the MSS., published in 1880, into the pardonable error of inventing an "Edward Mansoor Lane." S. L-P.]
[168] Fakhr-ed-Deen, in De Sacy, Chrest. Arabe.
[169] "While tears of blood trickle from the strainer, the ewer beneath it giggles." (Eṣ-Ṣadr Ibn-El-Wekeel, quoted in the Ḥalbet el-Kumeyt, chap. xiii.)--The strainer is called "ráwooḳ."
[170] The Moḥtesib is inspector of the markets, the weights and measures, and provisions, etc.
[171] Mir-át ez-Zemán, events of the year 295.
[172] The cup, when full, was generally called "kás:" when empty, "ḳadaḥ," or "jám." The name of kás is now given to a small glass used for brandy and liqueurs, and similar to our liqueur-glass: the glass or cup used for wine is called, when so used, "koobeh:" it is the same as that used for sherbet; but in the latter case it is called "ḳulleh."
[173] Es-Suyooṭee, account of the fruits of Egypt, in his history of that country (MS.)