Note 121
Arab. "Kurrat al-ayn;" coolness of eyes as opposed to a hot eye ("sakhin") one red with tears. The term is true and picturesque so I translate it literally. All coolness is pleasan…
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Notes to The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 — Page 6
698 notes in Richard Francis Burton translation. Follow a thought back to its place in the book.
698 notes
Note 122
Popularly rendered Caucasus (see Night cdxcvi): it corresponds so far with the Hindu "Udaya" that the sun rises behind it; and the "false dawn" is caused by a hole or gap. It is al…
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Arab. "Mizr" or "Mizar;" vulg. Búzah; hence the medical Lat. Buza, the Russian Buza (millet beer), our booze, the O. Dutch "buyzen" and the German "busen." This is the old of negro…
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There is a terrible truth in this satire, which reminds us of the noble dame who preferred to her handsome husband the palefrenier laid, ord et infâme of Queen Margaret of Navarre …
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Every Moslem burial-ground has a place of the kind where honourable women may sit and weep unseen by the multitude. These visits are enjoined by the Apostle:—Frequent the cemetery,…
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Arab. "Ajal"=the period of life, the appointed time of death: the word is of constant recurrence and is also applied to sudden death. See Lane's Dictionary, s.v.
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"The dying Badawi to his tribe" (and lover) appears to me highly pathetic. The wild people love to be buried upon hill slopes whence they can look down upon the camp; and they stil…
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The Akásirah (plur. of Kasrá=Chosroës) is here a title of the four great dynasties of Persian Kings. 1. The Peshdadian or Assyrian race, proto-historics for whom dates fail, 2. The…
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The words are the very lowest and coarsest; but the scene is true to Arab life.
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Arab."Hayhát:" the word, written in a variety of ways is onomatopoetic, like our "heigh-ho!" it sometimes means "far from me (or you) be it!" but in popular usage it is simply "Ala…
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Lane (i., 134) finds a date for the book in this passage. The Soldan of Egypt, Mohammed ibn Kala'ún, in the early eighth century (Hijrah = our fourteenth), issued a sumptuary law c…
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The ancient "Mustaphá" = the Chosen (prophet, i. e. Mohammed), also titled Al-Mujtaba, the Accepted (Pilgrimage, ii., 309). "Murtaza"=the Elect, i.e. the Caliph Ali is the older "M…
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The gleam (zodiacal light) preceding the true dawn; the Persians call the former Subh-i-kázib (false or lying dawn) opposed to Subh-i-sádik (true dawn) and suppose that it is cause…
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So the Heb. "Arún" = naked, means wearing the lower robe only; = our "in his shirt."
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Here we have the vulgar Egyptian colloquialism "Aysh" (—Ayyu shayyin) for the classical "Má" = what.
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"In the name of Allah!" here said before taking action.
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Arab. "Mamlúk" (plur. Mamálik) lit. a chattel; and in The Nights a white slave trained to arms. The "Mameluke Beys" of Egypt were locally called the "Ghuzz," I use the convenient w…
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The name of this celebrated successor of Nineveh, where some suppose The Nights were written, is orig. Μεσοπύλαι (middle-gates) because it stood on the way where four great highway…
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This is Mr. Thackeray's "nose-bag." I translate by "walking-shoes" the Arab "Khuff" which are a manner of loose boot covering the ankle; they are not usually embroidered, the ornam…
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i.e. Syria (says Abulfeda) the "land on the left" (of one facing the east) as opposed to Al-Yaman the "land on the right." Osmani would mean Turkish, Ottoman. When Bernard the Wise…
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From Oman = Eastern Arabia.
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Arab. "Tamar Hannà" lit. date of Henna, but applied to the flower of the eastern privet (Lawsonia inermis) which has the sweet scent of freshly mown hay. The use of Henna as a dye …
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Lane. (i. 211) pleasantly remarks, "A list of these sweets is given in my original, but I have thought it better to omit the names" (!) Dozy does not shirk his duty, but he is not …
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The new moon carefully looked for by all Moslems because it begins the Ramazán-fast.
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