Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 1
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 1
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
The text causes some confusion by applying “Sullam” to staircase and
ladder, hence probably the latter is not mentioned by Galland and Co.,
who speak only of an _escalier de cinquante marches_. “Sullam” (plur.
“Salálim”) in modern Egyptian is popularly used for a flight of steps:
see Spitta-Bey’s “Contes Arabes Modernes,” p. 70. The H. V. places
under the slab a hollow space measuring four paces (kadam = 2·5 feet),
and at one corner a wicket with a ladder. This leads to a vault of
three rooms, one with the jars of gold; the second not to be swept by
the skirts, and the third opening upon the garden of gems. “There thou
shalt see a path, whereby do thou fare straight forwards to a lofty
palace with a flight of fifty steps leading to a flat terrace; and
here shalt thou find a niche wherein a lamp burneth.”
Footnote 98:
In the H. V. he had thrust the lamp into the bosom of his dress,
which, together with his sleeves, he had filled full of fruit, and had
wound his girdle tightly around him lest any fall out.
Footnote 99:
Africa (Arab. Afrikíyah) here is used in its old and classical sense
for the limited tract about Carthage (Tunis) _i.e._, Africa Propria.
But the scribe imagines it to be the P.N. of a city: so in Júdar (vol.
vi. 222) we find Fás and Miknás (Fez and Mequinez) converted into one
settlement. The Maghribi, Mauritanian or Maroccan is famed for sorcery
throughout the Moslem world: see vol. vi. 220. The Moslem “Kingdom of
Afrikiyah” was composed of four provinces, Tunis, Tripoli,
Constantina, and Bugia; and a considerable part of it was held by the
Berber tribe of Sanhája or Sinhága, also called the Zenag, whence our
modern “Senegal.” Another noted tribe which held Bajaiyah (Bugia) in
Afrikiyah proper was the “Zawáwah,” the European “Zouaves,” (Ibn
Khall. iv. 84.)
Footnote 100:
Galland omits the name, which is outlandish enough.
Footnote 101:
Meaning that he had incurred no blood-guiltiness, as he had not killed
the lad and only left him to die.
Footnote 102:
The H. V. explains away the improbability of the Magician forgetting
his gift. “In this sore disquietude he bethought him not of the ring
which, by the decree of Allah, was the means of Alaeddin’s escape; and
indeed not only he but oft times those who practice the Black Art are
baulked of their designs by Divine Providence.”
Footnote 103:
See vol. vii. 60. The word is mostly derived from “’afar” = dust, and
denotes, according to some, a man coloured like the ground or one who
“dusts” all his rivals. “’Ifr” (fem. ’Ifrah) is a wicked and dangerous
man. Al-Jannabi, I may here notice, is the chief authority for Afrikus
son of Abraha and xviiith Tobba being the eponymus of “Africa.”
Footnote 104:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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