_Page 37._ “One hundred lacs of dīnars.”—The ārNāvalue of the _dīnar_ (originally _din-ār_, “brought into circulation by the law”) varied considerably at different periods, but the average value is about ten shillings. As a _lac_ is one hundred thousand, and the Kaisar demanded a hundred lacs; taking the value of the dīnar at ten shillings, this would amount to five million pounds of our money: but Oriental romancers are fond of dealing with immense sums of money—on paper! “The Persians,” says Chardin, “express silver money by the term _dirhem_, or _dragme_, and that of gold by that of _dīnar_, or _denier_. They reckon by _dīnar-bisty_ and _tomāns_, although they have not any pieces of money so called. There is the common dīnar, and the legal dīnar (or chemy) and the dīnar-chemy signify the weight and the value of a dīnar of gold, or of a gold crown. A bisty makes ten dīnars, or deniers, and a tomān ten thousand dīnars.” (_Voyage en Perse, &c._, ii, 91–2.)
_Page 38._ “They produced twenty lacs.”—Bihzād said: “Make a forced contribution throughout the land, and [demand] one-eighth of the garden [produce].” The Pādishāh replied: “This I will never do, for the city is small and the people have not the means; every one would take flight and be ruined.” Bihzād said: “A portion of the sum [required] exact by a forced contribution; after that, about the remainder let us not concern ourselves” [_lit._ eat anxiety]. The Pādishāh was incapable [of further opposition]; he commanded that the land [owners] should make a present of twenty lacs of dīnars.
_Page 40._ “Set out upon his journey.”—For what purpose? Surely not to go and demand the Kaisar’s daughter in marriage, without payment of the balance of the stipulated hundred lacs? Sir William Ouseley has omitted to add that _loot_ was the object of Bihzād’s expedition. The text says that, with two confidential attendants Bihzād set out upon his journey, “_until he should fall in with a caravan, and make up the total sum required_.” The “good old rule” of our own famous Scottish freebooter Rob Roy—
the simple plan, That they should take, who have the power, And they should keep, who can—
was very commonly put into practice in former times by Arabian lovers in order to procure the dowry. Thus, in the _Romance of `Antar_, which Von Hammer says presents true pictures of Arabian life about the age of Nushirvān the Just, King of Persia (sixth century), Malik, the father of the beauteous Abla, requires `Antar to procure for her dowry a thousand Asafīr camels by plundering the owner, Mundzir, King of Hīra; and when Khalid demands his cousin Jaida in marriage of her father, the heroic damsel consents, on condition that he provide for slaughter at her wedding-feast a thousand camels belonging to the “Brandisher of Spears,” which he does by plundering the tribe of `Āmir; and when Malik the perfidious father of Abla betrothes her to the Bedawī exquisite Amara (mentioned in a previous note), he collects a party of his followers and sets out on a looting expedition to procure her dowry.—Prince Bihzād, however, appears to have “caught a Tartar” in attacking the caravan which he and his comrades overtook—“in the morning,” according to our translation—“at the hour of mid-day prayer,” says the lithographed text. The old Arabs always made their attacks on the tents of a hostile tribe, and on caravans, in the early morning—on the first gray streaks of dawn appearing, and this is frequently alluded to in their poetry. Thus in the _Mu`allaqa_ of Hareth: “They assembled their forces at night, and as soon as the dawn appeared, there was nothing heard among them but a tumultuous noise, of those who called and those who answered; the neighing of horses, and, among the rest, the lowing of camels.” In the _Romance of `Antar_, the heroic Prince Malik is represented as being slain in one of those morning raids, when his bridal party were attacked by Hadifa and his tribesmen: “by morning their joys were converted into sorrows, and shots were precipitated at them from arrows for which there is no surgeon.” To wish peace in the morning was therefore among the Arabs a most appropriate salutation. So `Antar, in his famous _Mu`allaqa_ (verse 2), exclaims: “O bower of Abla, in the valley of Jiwā, give me tidings of my love! O bower of Abla, may the morning rise on thee with prosperity and health!” And Zuhayr, also author of a _Mu`allaqa_, on viewing the traces of his mistress’ former abode: “Hail, sweet bower! may thy morning be fair and auspicious!”