The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)

Fairy tales -- Arab countries; Folklore -- Arab countries

The reader of The Nights will remark that the merchant is often a
   merchant-prince, consorting and mating with the highest dignitaries.
   Even amongst the Romans, a race of soldiers, statesmen and lawyers,
   "mercatura" on a large scale was "not to be vituperated." In
   Boccaccio (x. 19) they are netti e delicati uomini. England is
   perhaps the only country which has made her fortune by trade, and
   much of it illicit trade, like that in slaves which built Liverpool
   and Bristol, and which yet disdains or affects to disdain the trader.
   But the unworthy prejudice is disappearing with the last generation,
   and men who formerly would have half starved as curates and ensigns,
   barristers and _carabins_ are now only too glad to become merchants.

Footnote 383:

   These lines in the Calc. and Bul. Edit. have already occurred (Night
   vii.) but such carelessness is characteristic despite the proverb,
   "In repetition is no fruition." I quote Torrens (p. 60) by way of
   variety. As regards the anemone (here called a tulip) being named
   "Shakík"=fissure, I would conjecture that it derives from the flower
   often forming long lines of red like stripes of blood in the
   landscape. Travellers in Syria always observe this.

Footnote 384:

   Such an address to a royalty (Eastern) even in the present day, would
   be a passport to future favours.

Footnote 385:

   In England the man marries and the woman is married: there is no such
   distinction in Arabia.

Footnote 386:

   "Sultan" (and its corruption "Soldan") etymologically means lord,
   victorious, ruler, ruling over. In Arabia it is a not uncommon proper
   name; and as a title it is taken by a host of petty kinglets. The
   Abbaside Caliphs (as Al-Wásik who has been noticed) formally created
   these Sultans as their regents. Al-Tá'i bi'llah (regn. A.H. 363=974),
   invested the famous Sabuktagin with the office; and, as
   Alexander-Sikandar was wont to do, fastened for him two flags, one of
   silver, after the fashion of nobles, and the other of gold, as
   Viceroy-designate. Sabuktagin's son, the famous Mahmúd of the
   Ghaznavite dynasty in A.H. 393=1002, was the first to adopt "Sultan"
   as an independent title some two hundred years after the death of
   Harun al-Rashid. In old writers we have the Soldan of Egypt, the
   Soudan of Persia, and the Sowdan of Babylon; three modifications of
   one word.

Footnote 387:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

General

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)

Fairy tales -- Arab countries; Folklore -- Arab countries

The reader of The Nights will remark that the merchant is often a
   merchant-prince, consorting and mating with the highest dignitaries.
   Even amongst the Romans, a race of soldiers, statesmen and lawyers,
   "mercatura" on a large scale was "not to be vituperated." In
   Boccaccio (x. 19) they are netti e delicati uomini. England is
   perhaps the only country which has made her fortune by trade, and
   much of it illicit trade, like that in slaves which built Liverpool
   and Bristol, and which yet disdains or affects to disdain the trader.
   But the unworthy prejudice is disappearing with the last generation,
   and men who formerly would have half starved as curates and ensigns,
   barristers and _carabins_ are now only too glad to become merchants.

Footnote 383:

   These lines in the Calc. and Bul. Edit. have already occurred (Night
   vii.) but such carelessness is characteristic despite the proverb,
   "In repetition is no fruition." I quote Torrens (p. 60) by way of
   variety. As regards the anemone (here called a tulip) being named
   "Shakík"=fissure, I would conjecture that it derives from the flower
   often forming long lines of red like stripes of blood in the
   landscape. Travellers in Syria always observe this.

Footnote 384:

   Such an address to a royalty (Eastern) even in the present day, would
   be a passport to future favours.

Footnote 385:

   In England the man marries and the woman is married: there is no such
   distinction in Arabia.

Footnote 386:

   "Sultan" (and its corruption "Soldan") etymologically means lord,
   victorious, ruler, ruling over. In Arabia it is a not uncommon proper
   name; and as a title it is taken by a host of petty kinglets. The
   Abbaside Caliphs (as Al-Wásik who has been noticed) formally created
   these Sultans as their regents. Al-Tá'i bi'llah (regn. A.H. 363=974),
   invested the famous Sabuktagin with the office; and, as
   Alexander-Sikandar was wont to do, fastened for him two flags, one of
   silver, after the fashion of nobles, and the other of gold, as
   Viceroy-designate. Sabuktagin's son, the famous Mahmúd of the
   Ghaznavite dynasty in A.H. 393=1002, was the first to adopt "Sultan"
   as an independent title some two hundred years after the death of
   Harun al-Rashid. In old writers we have the Soldan of Egypt, the
   Soudan of Persia, and the Sowdan of Babylon; three modifications of
   one word.

Footnote 387:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)

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