The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night - Volume II Part 16
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Volume II Part 16

[FN#22] Medina.

[FN#23] Oriental subst.i.tutes for soap.

[FN#24] i.e., death.

[FN#25] Apparently the Bedouin was angry with the merchant for praising the girl to her face and perhaps also alarmed at finding that he had kidnapped a young lady of consequence, where he only thought to have made prize of a pretty wench of humble condition and friendless.

[FN#26] Delight of the age.

[FN#27] Affliction (or wrath) of the age.

[FN#28] For fuel.

[FN#29] "G.o.d will open on me another gate (or means) of making my living." A common formula, meaning, "It is not enough."

[FN#30] Or state problems.

[FN#31] One of the four great Muslim sects or schools of theology, taking its name from the Imam es Shafi (see post, p.

131, note). {see Vol. 2 FN#89}

[FN#32] Second of the Abba.s.side Khalifs, A.H. 136-158.

[FN#33] The second Khalif after Mohammed (A.H. 13-23) and the most renowned for piety and just government of all the borders of the office, except perhaps his descendant Omar ben Abdulaziz (A.H. 99-102).

[FN#34] As a reward (in the next world) for good deeds.

[FN#35] The fourth Khalif.

[FN#36] The word rendered "good breeding" may also be translated "polite accomplishments" or "mental discipline" and has a great number of other meanings.

[FN#37] Sixth Khalif and founder of the Ommiade dynasty (A.H. 41 60).

[FN#38] One of the most notable men of the day, chief of the great tribe of the Benou Temim. He was a contemporary of the Prophet and was held in much esteem by Muawiyeh.

[FN#39] Surname of Ahnaf.

[FN#40] Governor of Ba.s.sora and other places under the first four Khalifs.

[FN#41] Ziad teen Abou Sufyan, illegitimate brother of the Khalif Muawiyeh, afterwards governor of Ba.s.sora Cufa and the Hejaz.

[FN#42] Because it might have been taken to mean, "inhabitants of h.e.l.l."

[FN#43] i.e. death.

[FN#44] A battle fought near Medina, A.D. 625, in which Mohammed was defeated by the Meccans under Abou Sufyan.

[FN#45] One of Mohammed's widows and Omar's own daughter.

[FN#46] A well-known man of letters and theologian of the seventh and eighth centuries.

[FN#47] i.e. to prepare himself by good works, etc., for the world to come.

[FN#48] A celebrated Cufan theologian of the eighth century.

[FN#49] i.e. for the next world.

[FN#50] The eighth Khalif of the Ommiade dynasty, a rival in piety and single-mindedness of Omar ben Khettab.

[FN#51] The descendants of Umeyyeh and kinsmen of the reigning house.

[FN#52] The second, fifth, sixth and seventh Khalifs of the Ommiade dynasty.

[FN#53] The mother of Omar ben Abdulaziz was a granddaughter of Omar ben Khettab.

[FN#54] Brother of Omar's successor, Yezid II.

[FN#55] This pa.s.sage apparently belongs to the previous account of Omar's death-bed; but I have left it as it stands in the text, as it would be a hopeless task to endeavour to restore this chaos of insipid anecdote and devotional commonplace to anything like symmetry.

[FN#56] Lit. with (or by) neither book (i.e. Koran) nor Sunneh (i.e. the Traditions of the Prophet).

[FN#57] Chief of the tribe of Temim and one of the most elegant orators of the eighth century.

[FN#58] Surnamed Eth Thekefi, Governor of Yemen and Irak: also a well known orator, but a most cruel and fantastic tyrant.

[FN#59] Tenth Khalif of the Ommiade dynasty (A.D. 723-742).

[FN#60] i.e. slave-girl.

[FN#61] i.e. It was decreed, so it was.

[FN#62] Nuzhet ez Zeman.

[FN#63] Nuzhet ez Zeman.

[FN#64] Zoulmekan.

[FN#65] Nuzhet ez Zeman.

[FN#66] Sedic.

[FN#67] Sidc.

[FN#68] Mohammed Ibn Shihab ez Zuhri, a celebrated Traditionist and jurisconsult of Medina in the seventh and eighth centuries.

[FN#69] Alexander.

[FN#70] The celebrated fabulist, said to have been a black slave of the time of David, but supposed by some to be identical with Aesop.

[FN#71] Koran iii. 185.