The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 02 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 02 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
[FN#238] i.e., "Thou art only just recovered."
[FN#239] To "Nakh" is to gurgle "Ikh! Ikh!" till the camel kneels. Hence the
space called "Barr al-Manákhah" in Al-Medinah (Pilgrimage i. 222, ii. 91).
There is a regular camel vocabulary amongst the Arabs, made up like our "Gee"
(go ye!), etc. of significant words worn down.
[FN#240] Arab. "Laza," the Second Hell provided for Jews.
[FN#241] The word has been explained (vol. i. 112).[see Volume 1, note 199] It
is trivial, not occurring in the Koran which uses "Arabs of the Desert ;"
"Arabs who dwell in tents," etc. (chaps. ix. and xxxiii.). "A'arábi" is the
classical word and the origin of "Arab" is disputed. According to Pocock (Notæ
Spec. Hist. Arab.): "Diverse are the opinions concerning the denomination of
the Arabs; but the most certain of all is that which draws it from Arabah,
which is part of the region of Tehama (belonging to Al-Medinah Pilgrimage ii.
118), which their father Ismail afterwards inhabited." Tehamah (sierra
caliente) is the maritime region of Al Hijaz, the Moslems Holy Land; and its
"Arabah," a very small tract which named a very large tract, must not be
confounded, as some have done, with the Wady Arabah, the ancient outlet of the
Dead Sea. The derivation of "Arab" from "Ya'arab" a fancied son of Joktan is
mythological. In Heb. Arabia may be called "Eretz Ereb" (or "Arab")=land of the
West; but in Arabic "Gharb" (not Ereb) is the Occident and the Arab dates long
before the Hebrew.
[FN#242] "When thine enemy extends his hand to thee, cut it off if thou can, or
kiss it," wisely said Caliph al-Mansur.
[FN#243] The Tartur was a peculiar turban worn by the Northern Arabs and shown
in old prints. In modern Egypt the term is applied to the tall sugar-loaf caps
of felt affected mostly by regular Dervishes. Burckhardt (Proverbs 194 and 398)
makes it the high cap of felt or fur proper to the irregular cavalry called
Dely or Delaty. In Dar For (Darfour) "Tartur" is a conical cap adorned with
beads and cowries worn by the Manghwah or buffoon who corresponds with the
Egyptian "Khalbús" or "Maskharah" and the Turkish "Sutari." For an illustration
see Plate iv. fig. 10 of Voyage au Darfour par Mohammed El Tounsy (The
Tunisian), Paris, Duprat, 1845.
[FN#244] The term is picturesque and true; we say "gnaw," which is not so good.
[FN#245] Here, meaning an Elder, a Chief, etc.; the word has been almost
naturalised in English. I have noted that Abraham was the first "Shaykh."
[FN#246] This mention of weighing suggests the dust of Dean Swift and the money
of the Gold Coast It was done, I have said, because the gold coin, besides
being "sweated" was soft and was soon worn down.
[FN#247] Fem. of Nájí (a deliverer, a saviour)=Salvadora.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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