[FN#173] This is a twice-told tale whose telling I have lightened a little without omitting any important detail. Gauttier reduces the ending of the history to less than five pages. [FN#174] The normal idiom for "I accept." [FN#175] In text Khila't dakk al-Matrakah," which I have rendered literally: it seems to signify an especial kind of brocade. [FN#176] The Court of Baghdad was, like the Urdú (Horde or Court) of the "Grand Mogul," organised after the ordinance of an army in the field, with its centre, the Sovran, and two wings right and left, each with its own Wazir for Commander, and its vanguard and rearguard. [FN#177] Being the only son he had a voice in the disposal of his sister. The mother was the Kabírah = head of the household, in Marocco Al-Sídah = Madame mère; but she could not interfere single-handed in affairs concerning the family. See Pilgrimage, vol. iii. 198. Throughout Al-Islam in default of a father the eldest brother gives away the sisters, and if there be no brother this is done by the nearest male relation on the "sword" side. The mother has no authority in such matters nor indeed has anyone on the "spindle" side. [FN#178] Alluding to the Wali and his men. [FN#179] Arab. "Kunyah" (the pop. mispronunciation of "Kinyah") is not used here with strict correctness. It is a fore-name or bye-name generally taken from the favourite son, Abú (father of) being prefixed. When names are written in full it begins the string, e.g., Abu Mohammed (fore-name), Kásim (true name), ibn Ali (father's name), ibn Mohammed (grandfather's), ibn Osman (great-grandfather), Al-Hariri (= the Silkman from the craft of the family), Al-Basri (of Bassorah). There is also the "Lakab" (sobriquet), e.g. Al-Bundukání or Badí'u'l-Zamán (Rarity of the Age), which may be placed either before or after the "Kunyah" when the latter is used alone. Chenery (Al-Hariri, p.315) confines the "Kunyah" to fore-names beginning with Abú; but it also applies to those formed with Umm (mother), Ibn (son), Bint (daughter), Akh (brother) and Ukht (sister). See vol. iv. 287. It is considered friendly and graceful to address a Moslem by this bye-name. -Gaudent prænomine molles Auriculæ. [FN#180] In text "Yá Kawákí," which M. Houdas translates "O piailleur," remarking that here it would be = poule mouillée. [FN#181] "'Alakah khárijah" = an extraordinary drubbing. [FN#182] In text "Ij'alní fí kll," the latter word being probably, as M. Houdas suggests, a clerical error for "Kal-a" or "Kiláa" = safety, protection. [FN#183] I am surprised that so learned and practical an Arabist as the Baron de Slane in his Fr. translation of Ibn Khaldún should render le surnom d'Er-Rechid (le prudent), for "The Rightly Directed," the Orthodox (vol. ii. 237), when (ibid. p. 259) he properly translates "Al-Khulafá al-rashidín" by Les Califes qui marchent dans la voie droite.