Note 446 — KAMAR AL-ZAMAN AND THE JEWELLER’S WIFE.[375] (continued 2)

Arab. “Maulid,” prop. applied to the Birth-feast of Mohammed which begins on the 3rd day of Rabí al-Awwal (third Moslem month) and lasts a week or ten days (according to local custom), usually ending on the 12th and celebrated with salutes of cannon, circumcision-feasts, marriage banquets, Zikr-litanies, perlections of the Koran and all manner of solemn festivities including the “powder-play” (Láb al-Bárút) in the wilder corners of Al-Islam. It is also applied to the birth-festivals of great Santons (as Ahmad al-Badawi) for which see Lane M. E. chapt. xxiv. In the text it is used like the Span. “Funcion” or the Hind. “Tamáshá,” any great occasion of merrymaking.