Chapter 33

Music

bowing the head and body twice in each repetition of "Lá iláha illa-lláh." Thus they continued about a quarter of an hour; and then, for about the same space of time, they repeated the same words to the same air, but in a quicker measure, and with correspondingly quicker motions. In the meantime, the munshids frequently sang, to the same, or a variation of the same, air, portions of a ḳaṣeedeh, or of a muweshshaḥ; an ode of a similar nature to the Song of Solomon, generally alluding to the Prophet as the object of love and praise; and at frequent intervals, one of them sang out the word "meded," implying an invocation for spiritual or supernatural aid.

The zikkeers, after having performed as above described, next repeated the same words to a different air for about the same length of time; first, very slowly; then, quickly. The air was as follows:—

Music

Then they repeated these words again, to the following air, in the same manner:—

Music

They next rose, and, standing in the same order in which they had been sitting, repeated the same words to another air. After which, still standing, they repeated these words in a very deep and hoarse tone; laying the principal emphasis upon the word "Lá" and the first syllable of the last word "Allah;" and uttering it, apparently, with a considerable effort: the sound much resembled that which is produced by beating the rim of a tambourine. Each zikkeer turned his head alternately to the right and left at each repetition of "Lá iláha illa-lláh." One of them, a eunuch, at this part of the zikr, was seized with an epileptic fit, evidently the result of a high state of religious excitement; but nobody seemed surprised at it; for occurrences of this kind at zikrs are not uncommon. All the performers now seemed much excited; repeating their ejaculations with greater rapidity, violently turning their heads, and sinking the whole body at the same time: some of them jumping. The eunuch above mentioned again was seized with fits several times; and I generally remarked that this happened after one of the munshids had sung a line or two and exerted himself more than usually to excite his hearers: the singing was, indeed, to my taste, very pleasing. The contrast presented by the vehement and distressing exertions of the performers at the close of the zikr, and their calm gravity and solemnity of manner at the commencement, was particularly striking. Money was collected during the performance for the munshids. The zikkeers receive no pay.

Note38.From the last of these verses it appears that the flowers are described aslaidupon the tomb (in accordance with the custom mentioned in the last paragraph of Note 16 to Chapter i.), and not asplantedupon it; though this is frequently done in some countries of the East; the monument being filled with mould, and the whole of its top open.

Note39.See Note 25 to Chapter v.

Note40.See Note 35 to Chapter ii.

Note41.The "rod" (in Arabic "ḳaṣabeh") was, according to the Egyptian measurement, until lately reduced, about twelve English feet and a half.

Note42.See Note 12 to Chapter iii.

Note43.It is common (as my sheykh has remarked) to say, of a very spacious chamber, that a horseman might gallop in it. The playing at goff by horsemen has been mentioned in a former tale. It was a common exercise in Egypt as well as Persia and other Eastern countries.

Note44."Deleeleh" is an epithet used in modern Arabic as indicative of artifice, machination, or fraud.378It is often employed as a female nickname.

Note45.From this point to the end of the story of 'Azeez and 'Azeezeh I omit some portions which are tedious, and others which are more objectionable.

Note46.Any one may enter the public bath, but none can go out of it, without paying.379

Note47.The "kaạk," commonly called "kaḥk," has been described in Note 16 to Chapter i. De Sacy has remarked that our English word "cake" seems to be from the same origin.

Note48.—On Oaths.To explain this passage, I must repeat, with a few slight additions, some remarks which I have made in a former publication.380—Among a people by whom falsehood, in certain cases, is not only allowed but commended,381oaths of different kinds are more or less binding. In considering this subject, we should alsoremember that oaths may sometimes be expiated.382There are some oaths which, I believe, few Muslims would falsely take; such as saying, three times, "By God the Great!" (Wa-lláhi-l-Aẓeem), and the oath upon the muṣ-ḥaf (or copy of the Ḳur-án), saying, "By what this contains of the word of God!" This latter is rendered more binding by placing a sword with the sacred volume; and still more so, by the addition of a cake, or piece, of bread, and a handful of salt. But a form of oath which is generally yet more to be depended upon is that of saying, "I impose upon myself divorcement!" (that is, "the divorce of my wife, if what I say be false"); or, "I impose upon myself interdiction!" which has a similar meaning ("My wife be unlawful to me!"); or, "I impose upon myself a triple divorcement!" which binds a man by the irrevocable divorce of his wife. If a man use any of these three forms of oath falsely, his wife, if he have but one, is divorced by the oath itself, if proved to be false, without the absolute necessity of any further ceremony; and if he have two or more wives, he must, under such circumstances, choose one of them to put away.

In the case which this note is principally intended to illustrate, the wife of 'Azeez makes him swear by the sword and the Ḳur-án in the hope of inducing him to return to her; and by the oath of divorce, to make the inducement more strong, and that she might be enabled, in case he did not fulfil his vow, legally to contract another marriage as soon as she should have waited the period which the law requires.

Note49.The verses I have omitted as they are the same (with the exception of some slight variations) as the first, second, third, and fifth, of those commencing at page 185 in this volume; and the contents of the accompanying paper as being tiresome and in some parts unmeaning.

Note50.See the first note in the present series.

Note51.I have substituted "Sháh-Zemán" (signifying "King of the Age") for Shahramán; the latter being evidently a mistake of a copyist.

Note52."Dunyà" signifies the "world."

Note53."Riḍwán," which signifies "approbation," "complacency," &c., is the name of the Guardian of Paradise.—The meaning of this passage is, "Surely this handsome young person is one of the Wildán, or Weleeds, those beautiful youths prepared to wait upon the faithful in Paradise; and he hath escaped thence through the inadvertence of Riḍwán." The very meanest in Paradise is promised eighty thousand of these servants, besides seventy-two Ḥooreeyehs, &c.

Note54.A compliment of this kind is generally uttered on letting a shop or house, and on selling an article of dress, &c.; and "God bless thee!" is usually said in reply. In like manner, a merchant selling goods to be re-sold says, "May God grant thee a profit upon them!"

Note55.The word thus translated signifies taking a morning-draught of wine, milk, sherbet, or any other beverage.

Note56.When Zeleekhà invited her female friends that they might behold Yoosuf (or Joseph) and excuse her for inclining to him, at the sight of him they cut their own hands, and praised God, ejaculating these words, "This is not a mortal," &c. (Ḳur-án, ch. xii. v. 31).

Note57.To persons more or less above him in rank, the shopkeeper rises and stands, or merely makes a slight motion as if he were about to rise.

Note58.This is a common invocation, for the protection of a person from envy, or the evil eye, founded upon the last chapter but one of the Ḳur-án, in which thebeliever is desired to "seek refuge with the Lord of the Daybreak" from various evils, and among these "from the mischief of the envious." It is very often said to imply admiration of a child, that the mother may not fear.

Note59.This ejaculation is addressed to God.

Note60.This alludes to one of the stages of the creation of man explained in the Ḳur-án, ch. xxii. v. 5.

Note61.The old woman is described as being "full of joy" because, having induced her mistress to answer the letter, she saw a prospect of continuing the correspondence, and so obtaining additional presents.

Note62."Es-Suhà" is an obscure star in the Greater Bear, at which people look to try their powers of sight. It is the star 80, by [Greek: z]

Note63.My sheykh has remarked in a marginal note on the "Five Elders" or Sheykhs here mentioned, "the known number is the four; namely the [first four] Khaleefehs; or the Four Welees (eminent saints), the seyyid El-Bedawee and the seyyid Ed-Dasooḳee and Er-Rifá'ee and El-Geelánee" The latter four are often mentioned together as being the saints generally most esteemed in the present day and the founders of the four principal orders of Darweeshes.—Who, then, can be meant by "the Five Elders" I do not know; but I have retained this number as it occurs again in a variation of the same verses in a subsequent tale, which is almost exactly the same as that of Táj-el-Mulook.

Note64."Ibn-Seenà" ("Son of Seenà") is the true name of the great physician called by us "Avicenna."

Note65.The gait of Arab ladies is very remarkable: they incline the lower part of the body from side to side as they step, and with the hands raised to the level of the bosom they hold the edges of their outer covering. Their pace is slow, and they look not about them, but keep their eyes towards the ground in the direction to which they are going.

Note66.It should be remarked here, that the private room of an Eastern princess is not to be regarded as a Western bed-room. In the East, a guest may lay himself down upon a deewán in the presence of another, to pass the night, without any infringement of decorum.

Note67.See the latter paragraph of the first note in the present series.

Note68.See Note 9 to Chapter vii.

Note69.The doors in Eastern houses generally turn on two wooden pins; one fitting into a hole in the lintel; the other, into a hole immediately behind the threshold; and the latter is very short. It is therefore often easy to displace a door by raising it a little, which may be done by means of a projecting wooden lock; and in many cases, when the door cannot be displaced from its sockets, it may be raised sufficiently to remove the inner latch from its catch. The doors of the ancient temples and tombs in Egypt were formed as above described, with pins, which were often made of bronze.

Note70.I here read "nimsheh" (also written "nimjeh" and "nimjáh"—from the Persian "neemjah") instead of "ḳamsheh." The latter is described by my sheykh, in a marginal note, as "a strip of leather divided into two, and tied together and nailed at the upper end to a piece of wood;" but the use of such an instrument in this case would be ridiculous. The name of "nimsheh" is often given to a royal dagger.

Note71.As persons are often decapitated in an Eastern palace, a skin is made use of to receive the head and the blood. I believe it to be similar to the round skin used by travellers to eat upon; which is converted into a bag by means of a running string round the edge.

In concluding the present series of notes, I may state my opinion, that the two stories to which they relate are fully worthy of insertion in this collection, as extending the picture ofArablife and manners, whatever may be thought of theirorigin.

Tail-piece to Notes to Chapter VIII.

360Thus commonly pronounced for "Sharrun kán," signifying "an evil hath come into existence." Names of this kind are sometimes given by the Arabs not in dispraise, but as prophetic of great achievements.

361"Light of the Place."

362"Delight of the Age."

363Mir-át ez-Zemán.

364"Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys," 8vo. vol. i. pp. 55 and 56.

365The Dynasty of the Fáṭimee Khaleefehs was founded by El-Mahdee in Western Africa, in the year of the Flight 297. His third successor, El-Mo'ezz li-deeni-lláh, conquered Egypt in the year 358, and the seat of his government was transferred to Cairo. As they claimed descent from Fáṭimeh, and were of the Shiya'ee sect, their possession of the fairest province of the orthodox (or 'Abbásee) Khaleefehs forms a strange episode in the history of El-Islám.—Their power was overthrown by Ṣaláḥ-ed-Deen, in the year 567.—Ed.

366See Note 15 to Chapter ii.

367"El-Khiṭaṭ:" Account of the Palaces of the Khaleefehs.

368Dr. Millengen's Curiosities of Medical Experience, quoted in the Literary Gazette, No. 1043.

369The art here mentioned was first made known to Europeans by a Frenchman, M. Du Vigneau, in a work entitled "Secrétaire Turc, contenant l'Art d'exprimer ses pensées sans se voir, sans se parler, et sans s'écrire:" Paris, 1688: in-12.—Von Hammer has also given an interesting paper on this subject in the "Mines de l'Orient," No. 1: Vienna, 1809. (Note to Marcel's "Contes du Cheykh El-Mohdy," vol. iii. pp. 327 and 328: Paris, 1833.)

370Called "ghásool el-azrár." In Delile's Flora Ægyptiaca, the name of ghásool is given to the mesembryanthemum nodiflorum, class icosandria, order pentagynia.

371This name is now given to sherbet.

372Ḥalbet el-Kumeyt, ch. x.—The aloe-plant is called "ṣabir," "ṣabr," "ṣibr," and "ṣabbárah." The second of these words signifies "patience;" and so does the root ofallof them: and the last signifies "very patient." Thereasonof its having these appellations cannot, of course, beproved.

373See Marcel,ubi suprà. He states that Von Hammer's vocabulary of flowers and other hieroglyphic objects contains 120 articles; and that of Du Vigneau, 179; almost all of the former being the same as those of the latter.

374Ch. xxviii. v. 19.

375Ch. v. v. 27.—This anecdote is from the Ḥalbet el-Kumeyt, ch. viii.—[Káfoor was a black eunuch purchased by El-Ikhsheed, the first of the virtually-independent dynasty of the Ikhsheedeeyeh, which fell before the Fáṭimee Khaleefehs. Káfoor was regent of Egypt for upwards of twenty years, during the reigns of his master's two sons; and was actual governor from the year of the Flight 355 to 357.—Ed.]

376Sometimes, also, it means "May God cause thee to experience grief!" or "sorrow!" and, used in this sense, it is similar to the phrase, often occurring in this work, "the world became black before his face."

377The zikr here described was performed near the tomb of a saint, for whose sake it was celebrated. The ceremony is often performed in a sepulchral mosque, and often in the court, or in a chamber, of a private house.

378Marginal note by my sheykh.

379Idem.

380The "Modern Egyptians."

381See Note 57 to Chapter iii.

382As shewn in Note 68 to Chapter iv.

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