Note 378 — TALE OF KING OMAR BIN AL-NU'UMAN AND HIS SONS SHARRKAN AND ZAU AL-MAKAN, AND WHAT BEFEL THEM OF THINGS SELD-SEEN AND PEREGRINE.[138] (continued 4)

Arab. "Zunnár," the Gr. ζώνη. Christians and Jews were compelled by the fanatical sumptuary laws of the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil (A.D. 856) to wear a broad leather belt in public; hence it became a badge of the Faith. Probably it was confounded with the "Janeo" (Brahmanical thread) and the Parsi sacred girdle called Kashti. (Dabistan i, 297, etc.). Both Mandeville and La Brocquière speak of "Christians of the Girdle, because they are all girt above;" intending Jacobites or Nestorians.