The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I.: Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments
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The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I.: Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
But I have not yet mentioned all that contributes to the pleasures of an
Eastern carousal. For the juice of the grape is not fully relished
without melodious sounds. "Wine is as the body; music, as the soul; and
joy is their offspring."[238] All the five senses should be gratified.
For this reason, an Arab toper, who had nothing, it appears, but wine to
enjoy, exclaimed,--
"Ho! give me wine to drink; and tell me, 'This is wine.'"
For, on drinking, his sight and smell and taste and touch would all be
affected; but it was desirable that his hearing should also be
pleased.[239]
Music was condemned by the Prophet almost as severely as wine. "Singing
and hearing songs," said he, "cause hypocrisy to grow in the heart, like
as water promoteth the growth of corn:"[240]--and musical instruments he
declared to be among the most powerful means by which the Devil seduces
man. An instrument of music is the Devil's muëddin, serving to call men
to his worship, as stated in a former note. Of the hypocrisy of those
attached to music, the following anecdote presents an instance:--A
drunken young man with a lute in his hand was brought one night before
the Khaleefeh 'Abd-El-Melik the son of Marwán, who, pointing to the
instrument, asked what it was, and what was its use. The youth made no
answer; so he asked those around him; but they also remained silent,
till one, more bold than the rest, said, "O Prince of the Faithful,
this is a lute: it is made by taking some wood of the pistachio-tree,
and cutting it into thin pieces, and glueing these together, and then
attaching over them these chords, which, when a beautiful girl touches
them, send forth sounds more pleasant than those of rain falling upon a
desert land; and my wife is separated from me by a triple divorce if
every one in this council is not acquainted with it, and doth not know
it as well as I do, and thou the first of them, O Prince of the
Faithful." The Khaleefeh laughed, and ordered that the young man should
be discharged.[241]
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