The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)
Fairy tales -- Arab countries; Folklore -- Arab countries
Arab. "'Urban," now always used of the wild people, whom the French
have taught us to call _les Bedouins_; "Badw" being a waste or
desert; and Badawi (fem. Badawíyah, plur. Badáwi and Bidwán), a man
of the waste. Europeans have also learnt to miscall the Egyptians
"Arabs": the difference is as great as between an Englishman and a
Spaniard. Arabs proper divide their race into sundry successive
families. "The Arab al-Arabá" (or al-Aribah, or al-Urubíyat) are the
autochthones, prehistoric, proto-historic and extinct tribes; for
instance, a few of the Adites who being at Meccah escaped the
destruction of their wicked nation, but mingled with other classes.
The "Arab al-Muta'arribah," (Arabised Arabs) are the first advenæ
represented by such noble strains as the Koraysh (Koreish), some
still surviving. The "Arab al-Musta'aribah," (insititious,
naturalised or instituted Arabs, men who claim to be Arabs) are Arabs
like the Sinaites, the Egyptians and the Maroccans descended by
intermarriage with other races. Hence our "Mosarabians" and the
"Marrabais" of Rabelais (not, "a word compounded of Maurus and
Arabs"). Some genealogists, however, make the Muta'arribah
descendants of Kahtan (possible the Joktan of Genesis x., a
comparatively modern document, B.C. 700?); and the Musta'aribah those
descended from Adnán the origin of Arab genealogy. And, lastly, are
the "Arab al-Musta'ajimah," barbarised Arabs, like the present
population of Meccah and Al-Medinah. Besides these there are other
tribes whose origin is still unknown; such as the Mahrah tribes of
Hazramaut, the "Akhdám" (=serviles) of Oman (Maskat); and the "Ebná"
of Al-Yaman: Ibn Ishak supposes the latter to be descended from the
Persian soldiers of Anushirwan who expelled the Abyssinian invader
from Southern Arabia. (Pilgrimage, iii., 31, etc.).
Footnote 201:
Arab. "Amír al-Muuminín." The title was assumed by the Caliph Omar to
obviate the inconvenience of calling himself "Khalífah" (successor)
of the Khalífah of the Apostle of Allah (_i.e._ Abu Bakr); which
after a few generations would become impossible. It means "Emir
(chief or prince) of the Muumins;" men who hold to the (true Moslem)
Faith, the "Imán" (theory, fundamental articles) as opposed to the
"Dín," ordinance or practice of the religion. It once became a
Wazirial title conferred by Sultan Malikshah (King King-king) on his
Nizám al-Mulk. (Richardson's Dissert. lviii).
Footnote 202:
This may also mean "according to the seven editions of the Koran,"
the old revisions and so forth (Sale, Sect. iii. and D'Herbelot
"Alcoran.") The schools of the "Mukri," who teach the right
pronunciation wherein a mistake might be sinful, are seven, Hamzah,
Ibn Katír, Ya'akúb, Ibn Amir, Kisái, Asim and Hafs, the latter being
the favourite with the Hanafis and the only one now generally known
in Al-Islam.
Footnote 203:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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