Nigārīn: idol-like,ārNā beautiful, embellished, a beloved object.
Under the title of _Hindoo Tales_ (London: Strahan & Co.), Dr P. W. Jacob has issued a very readable translation of this entertaining romance.
_Tibetan Tales, derived from Indian Sources._ Translated from the Tibetan of the _Kah-Gyur_, by F. Anton Von Schiefner. Done into English, from the German, by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. London: Trübner & Co.
_Descriptive Catalogue of the Mackenzie Collection of Oriental MSS._ By H. H. Wilson. Calcutta, 1828. Vol. i, p. 17.
Translated from the German of Bergmann, by Mr William J. Thoms, and published, in 1834, in his very interesting _Lays and Legends of Various Nations_, a work which is now become extremely scarce, and well merits being reprinted.
The King was wont to visit the well where Abū Saber lay, and to jeer and mock his practice of patience.
That is, the story of Abraha, obscurely referred to in the opening paragraph, page 56. Abraha, we are there informed, “was the son of the King of Zangībār, who, _by chance_, had fallen into slavery, and never disclosed the secret to any one.” Lescallier says, that he was reduced to slavery “by some extraordinary adventure,” but the text does not explain the nature of the “adventure.”
Khōja: in its more restricted meaning, a lord, a master; Muhammad is styled _Khōja-i bas o nashr_, literally, “lord of the raising and dispersing,” that is, the Resurrection. In its general signification, a man of distinction, doctor, professor, &c. But the title of Khōja, like our “Mr” is now very commonly applied to any respectable person.
“Zangistān.”—The Oriental adjunct _stān_ or _istān_, the participle of _istādan_, “to reside,” or “dwell,” denotes “place,” or “country,” whence Moghol-istān, a port of Tartary; Fars-istān, Persia; Khūz-istān, Susiana. The root of _stān_ may be seen in our English word “station.”
“Four parasangs.”—A Persian league, about 18,000 feet in length, is _Fars-sang_, that is, the Stone of Persia, which Herodotus and other Greek authors term _Parasanga_. It seems that in ancient times the distance of a league was marked in the East, as well as in the West, by large elevated stones.
The love of Jacob for his son Joseph, and his grief at his supposed death, are proverbial amongst Muslims, and very frequently alluded to by Persian poets. In the 12th sura of the Kur’ān it is stated that Jacob became blind through constant weeping for his lost son, and that his sight was restored by means of Joseph’s inner garment, which the Governor of Egypt sent to his father by his brethren. In the _Makamat_ of El-Hariri, the celebrated Arabian poet, are such allusions as “passed a night of sorrow like Jacob’s,” “wept more than Jacob when he lost his son.”