The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 06 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 06 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
[FN#348] Sale (sect. 1.) tells us all that was then known of these
three which with Yá’úk and Nasr and the three “daughters of God,”
Goddesses or Energies (the Hindu Saktis) Allát Al-Uzzá and Manát
mentioned in the Koran were the chiefs of the pre-lslamitic Pantheon. I
cannot but suspect that all will be connected with old Babylonian
worship. Al-Baydáwi (in Kor. Ixxi. 22) says of Wadd, Suwá’a, Yaghus,
Ya’úk and Nasr that they were names of pious men between Adam and Noah,
afterwards deified: Yaghús was the giant idol of the Mazhaj tribe at
Akamah of Al-Yaman and afterwards at Najrán Al-Uzzá was widely
worshipped: her idol (of the tree Semurat) belonging to Ghatafán was
destroyed after the Prophet’s order by Khálid bin Walíd. Allát or
Al-Lát is written by Pocock (spec. 110) “Ilahat” i.e. deities in
general. But Herodotus evidently refers to one god when he makes the
Arabs worship Dionysus as {Greek letters} and Urania as {Greek letters}
and the “tashdid” in Allát would, to a Greek ear, introduce another
syllable (Alilat). This was the goddess of the Kuraysh and Thakíf whose
temple at Taíf was circuited like the Ka’abah before Mohammed destroyed
it.
[FN#349] Shays (Shayth) is Ab Seth (Father Seth,) of the Hebrews, a
name containing the initial and terminal letters of the
Egypto-Phoenico-Hebrew Alphabet and the “Abjad” of the Arabs. Those curious
about its connection with the name of Allah (El), the Zodiacal signs
and with the constellations, visions but not wholly uninteresting, will
consult “Unexplored Syria” (vol. i. 33).
[FN#350] The exclamation of an honest Fellah.
[FN#351] This is Antar with the Chosroë who “kissed the Absian hero
between the eyes and bade him adieu, giving him as a last token a rich
robe.” The coarser hand of the story-teller exaggerates everything till
he makes it ridiculous.
[FN#352] The context suggests thee this is a royal form of “throwing
the handkerchief;” but it does not occur elsewhere. In face, the
European idea seems to have arisen from the oriental practice of
sending presents in napkins or kerchiefs.
[FN#353] i.e. if the disappointed suitor attack me.
[FN#354] i.e. if ever I be tempted to deny it.
[FN#355] Arab. “Musáfahah,” the Arab fashion of shaking hands. The
right palms are applied flat to each other; then the fingers are
squeezed and the hand is raised to the forehead (Pilgrimage ii. 332).
[FN#356] A city and province of Khuzistán the old Susiana. Dasht may be
either the town in Khorasan or the “forests” (dasht) belonging to Ahwáz
(Ahuaz in D’Herbelot).
[FN#357] This is the contest between “Antar and the Satrap Khosrewan at
the Court of Monzer.” but without its tragical finish.
[FN#358] Elliptical “he rode out in great state, that is to say if
greatness can truly be attributed to man,” for, etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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