Note 530
More correctly Bab Zawilah from the name of a tribe in Northern Africa. This gate dates from the same age as the Eastern or Desert gate, Bab al-Nasr (A.D. 1087) and is still much a…
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Notes to The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 — Page 23
698 notes in Richard Francis Burton translation. Follow a thought back to its place in the book.
698 notes
Note 531
This ornament is still seen in the older saloons of Damascus: the inscriptions are usually religious sentences, extracts from the Koran, etc., in uncial characters. They take the p…
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Arab. "Bayáz al-Sultání," the best kind of gypsum which shines like polished marble. The stucco on the walls of Alexandria, built by Alexander of the two Horns, was so exquisitely …
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This Iklíl, a complicated affair, is now obsolete, its place having been taken by the "Kurs," a gold plate, some five inches in diameter, set with jewels, etc. Lane (M. E. Appendix…
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The woman-artist who applies the dye is called "Munakkishah."
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"Kissing with th' inner lip," as Shakespeare calls it; the French langue fourrée: and Sanskrit "Samputa." The subject of kissing is extensive in the East. Ten different varieties a…
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Arab. "asal-nahl," to distinguish it from "honey" i.e. syrup of sugar-cane and fruits
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The lines have occurred in Night xii. By way of variety I give Torrens' version p. 273.
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The way of carrying money in the corner of a pocket-handkerchief is still common.
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He sent the provisions not to be under an obligation to her in this matter. And she received them to judge thereby of his liberality
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Those who have seen the process of wine-making in the Libanus will readily understand why it is always strained.
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Arab. "Kulkasá," a kind of arum or yam, eaten boiled like our potatoes.
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At first he slipped the money into the bed-clothes: now he gives it openly and she accepts it for a reason.
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Arab. Al-Zalamah lit. = tyrants, oppressors, applied to the police and generally to employés of Government. It is a word which tells a history.
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Moslem law is never completely satisfied till the criminal confess. It also utterly ignores circumstantial evidence and for the best of reasons: amongst so sharp-witted a people th…
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Cutting off the right hand is the Koranic punishment (chapt. v.) for one who robs an article worth four dinars, about forty francs to shillings. The left foot is to be cut off at t…
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Koran viii. 17.
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A universal custom in the East, the object being originally to show that the draught was not poisoned.
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Out of paste or pudding.
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Boils and pimples are supposed to be caused by broken hair-roots and in Hindostani are called Bál-tor.
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He intended to bury it decently, a respect which Moslems always show even to the exuviæ of the body, as hair and nail parings. Amongst Guebres the latter were collected and carried…
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Without which the marriage was not valid. The minimum is ten dirhams (drachmas) now valued at about five francs to shillings; and if a man marry without naming the sum, the woman, …
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Arab. "Khatmah" = reading or reciting the whole Koran, by one or more persons, usually in the house, not over the tomb. Like the "Zikr," Litany or Rogation, it is a pious act confi…
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Arab. "Zirbájah" = meat dressed with vinegar, cumin-seed (Pers. Zír) and hot spices. More of it in the sequel of the tale.
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