Note 150 — ALAEDDIN; OR, THE WONDERFUL LAMP. (continued 2)
Richard Francis Burton translation
Professional singing and dancing girls: properly the word is the fem. of ’Álim = a learned man; but it has been anglicised by Byron’s
“The long chibouque’s dissolving cloud supply,
Where dance the Almahs to wild minstrelsy.”—(The Corsair, ii. 2.)
They go about the streets with unveiled faces and are seldom admitted into respectable Harems, although on festal occasions they perform in the court or in front of the house; but even this is objected to by the Mrs. Grundy of Egypt. Lane (M. E. chap. xviii) derives with Saint Jerome the word from the Heb. or Phœnician Almah = a virgin, a girl, a singing-girl; and thus explains “Alámoth” in Psalms xlvi, and I Chron. xv. 20. Parkhurst (s.v. ’Alamah) = an undeflowered virgin, renders Job xxxix. 30, “the way of a man with a maid” (bi-álmah). “The way of a man in his virgin state, shunning youthful lust and keeping himself pure and unspotted.”