Arabian Society in the Middle Ages: Studies From The Thousand and One Nights

by Edward William Lane

"I appeal unto God against the affliction which He hath sent upon me through the Khaleefeh.
"The world heareth of his justice; but he is a tyrant in the affair of Ḍa´eefeh.[238]
"Love of her is fixed in my heart as ink upon the surface of paper."

Er-Rasheed, being informed of his complaint, restored to him his mistress, and with her his peace of mind. This anecdote is given as a proof of strong love; but perhaps may not be thought much to the purpose. The following, from the same work, is more apt.

During the hottest hour of an excessively sultry day, the Khaleefeh Mo´áwiyeh the son of Aboo-Sufyán was sitting in a chamber which was open on each side to allow free passage to the air, when he beheld a barefooted Bedawee approaching him. Wondering what could induce this man to brave the scorching heat, he declared to his attendants that if he were come to demand of him any favour or aid or act of justice, his request should be granted. The Bedawee addressed him in verse with a pathetic appeal for justice against the tyranny of Marwán the son of El-Ḥakam (afterwards Khaleefeh, Mo´áwiyeh's fourth successor), by whom he had been forcibly deprived of his beloved wife Soạdà. The Khaleefeh requiring a more particular account of his case, he related the following facts. He had a wife, the daughter of his paternal uncle, excessively beloved by him, and possessed a number of camels, which enabled him to live in comfort; but a year of terrible drought deprived him of his property and reduced him to utter want: his friends deserted him, and his wife was taken away from him by her father. To seek redress he repaired to Marwán, the Governor of his district, at El-Medeeneh, who, having summoned the father of his wife, and herself, was so smitten by the beauty of the woman that he determined to obtain her for himself in marriage. To accomplish this, he threw the husband into prison, and offered the father of the woman a thousand deenárs and ten thousand dirhems for his consent to his marriage with her, promising to compel her actual husband to divorce her; and this latter object, having obtained the father's approval, he gained by severely torturing the unfortunate Bedawee. It would have been vain for the woman to attempt resistance; and so she became the wife of Marwán.

The oppressed Bedawee, having related these circumstances, fell down in a swoon, and lay on the floor senseless, coiled up like a dead snake. As soon as he recovered, the Khaleefeh wrote a poetical epistle to Marwán, severely reproaching him for his baseness, and commanding him, on pain of death, to divorce the woman and send her with his messenger. She was accordingly divorced and sent, with an answer composed in the same measure and rhyme, assuring the Khaleefeh that the sight of Soạdà would convince him that her charms were irresistible; and this proved too true. Mo´áwiyeh himself no sooner saw her than he coveted her, and offered to give the Bedawee, if he would resign her to him, three virgins from among his female slaves, together with a thousand deenárs and an ample annual pension. The Bedawee shrieked with dismay, as though he had received his death-blow, and indignantly rejected the offer. The Khaleefeh then said to him, "Thou confessest that thou hast divorced her, and Marwán has married her and acknowledged that he has divorced her: we will therefore give her her choice: if she desire any other than thee as her husband we will marry her to him, and if she prefer thee we will restore her to thee." She, however, had the merit to prefer the destitute Bedawee, and the Khaleefeh gave her up to him, with a present of ten thousand dirhems.

Numerous instances of unreasonable love are recorded in the writings of Arabs. It is related that a man fell in love with a lady from seeing the impression of her hand upon a wall; and, being unable to win her, died. Many men are said to have conceived a violent passion for damsels seen in dreams; others, again, to have been affected thus merely by the ear. An author relates his having been acquainted with an accomplished schoolmaster who lost his heart from hearing a man sing the praises of a woman named Umm-´Amr, and two days after shut himself up in his house to mourn for her death, in consequence of his hearing the same man sing,—

"The ass went away with Umm-´Amr; and she returned not, nor did the ass return."[239]

The reader should have some idea of the qualifications or charms which the Arabs in general consider requisite to the perfection of female beauty. He must not imagine that excessive fatness is one of these characteristics, though it is said to be esteemed a chief essential to beauty throughout the greater part of Northern Africa: on the contrary, the maiden whose loveliness inspires the most impassioned expressions in Arabic poesy and prose is celebrated for her slender figure,—she is like the cane among plants, and is elegant as a twig of the oriental willow. Her face is like the full moon, presenting the strongest contrast to the colour of her hair, which (to preserve the nature of the simile just employed) is of the deepest hue of night, and falls to the middle of her back. A rosy blush overspreads the centre of each cheek; and a mole is considered an additional charm. The Arabs, indeed, are particularly extravagant in their admiration of this natural beauty-spot; which, according to its place, is compared to a drop of ambergris upon a dish of alabaster or upon the surface of a ruby. The Anacreon of Persia affected to prize the mole upon the cheek of his beloved above the cities of Samarḳand and Bukhárà.

The eyes of the Arab beauty are intensely black,[240] large, and long, of the form of an almond: they are full of brilliancy, but this is softened by a lid slightly depressed and by long silken lashes, giving a tender and languid expression that is full of enchantment and scarcely to be improved by the adventitious aid of the black border of koḥl; for this the lovely maiden adds rather for the sake of fashion than necessity, having what the Arabs term natural koḥl. The eyebrows are thin and arched; the forehead is wide, and fair as ivory; the nose, straight; the mouth, small; the lips of a brilliant red; and the teeth, "like pearls set in coral." The forms of the bosom are compared to two pomegranates; the waist is slender; the hips are wide and large; the feet and hands, small; the fingers, tapering, and their extremities dyed with the deep orange-red tint imparted by the leaves of the ḥennà. The maid in whom these charms are combined exhibits a lively image of "the rosy-fingered Aurora:" her lover knows neither night nor sleep in her presence, and the constellations of heaven are no longer seen by him when she approaches. The most bewitching age is between fourteen and seventeen years; for then the forms of womanhood are generally developed in their greatest beauty; but many a maiden in her twelfth year possesses charms sufficient to fascinate every man who beholds her.

The reader may perhaps desire a more minute analysis of Arabian beauty. The following is the most complete that I can offer him.—"Four things in a woman should be black,—the hair of the head, the eyebrows, the eyelashes, and the dark part of the eyes: four white,—the complexion of the skin, the white of the eyes, the teeth, and the legs: four red,—the tongue, the lips, the middle of the cheeks, and the gums: four round,—the head, the neck, the forearms, and the ankles: four long,—the back, the fingers, the arms, and the legs:[241] four wide,—the forehead, the eyes, the bosom, and the hips: four fine,—the eyebrows, the nose, the lips, and the fingers: four thick,—the lower part of the back, the thighs, the calves of the legs, and the knees: four small,—the ears, the breasts, the hands, and the feet."[242]

Arab ladies are extremely fond of full and long hair; and, however amply endowed with this natural ornament, to add to its effect they have recourse to art. But the Prophet, abhorring all false attractions that might at first deceive a husband and then disappoint him, "cursed the woman who joined her own hair to that of another, or that of another to her own, without her husband's permission: if she do it, therefore, with his permission, it is not prohibited, unless she so make use of human hair; for this is absolutely forbidden."[243] Hence the Arab women prefer strings of silk to add to their hair.[244] Over the forehead, the hair is cut rather short; but two full locks hang down on each side of the face: these are often curled in ringlets, and sometimes plaited. The rest of the hair is arranged in plaits or braids which hang down the back. They are generally from eleven to twenty-five in number, but always of an uneven number: eleven is considered a scanty number, thirteen and fifteen are more common. Three times the number of black silk strings (three to each plait of hair, and each three united at the top), from sixteen to eighteen inches in length, are braided with the hair for about a quarter of their length; or they are attached to a lace or band of black silk which is bound round the head, and in this case hang entirely separate from the plaits of hair. These strings, together with certain ornaments of gold, etc., composed what is termed the ṣafà. Along each string, except from the upper extremity to about a quarter or (at most) a third of its length, are generally attached nine or more little flat ornaments of gold, which are usually all of the same form. The most common form is oblong, round at the lower extremity and pointed at the upper, or the reverse. They are affixed (each by a little ring at its upper extremity) about an inch, or a little more, apart; but those of each string are purposely placed so as not exactly to correspond with those of the others. At the end of each string is a small gold tube, or a small polygonal gold bead, beneath which is most commonly suspended (by a little ring) a gold coin, a little more than half an inch in diameter. Such is the most general description of ṣafà; but some ladies substitute for the gold coin a fanciful ornament of the same metal, either simple, or with a pearl in the centre; or they suspend in the place of this a little tassel of pearls, or attach alternately pearls and emeralds to the bottom of the triple strings, and a pearl with each of the little ornaments of gold first mentioned. Coral beads are also sometimes attached in the same manner as these pearls. The ṣafà I think the prettiest, as well as most singular, of all the ornaments worn by Arab ladies. The glittering of the little ornaments of gold, and their chinking together as the wearer walks, have a peculiarly lively effect. A kind of crown—a circle of jewelled gold (the lower edge of which was straight, and the upper fancifully heightened to four or more points) surrounding the lower part of a dome-shaped cap with a jewel or some other ornament at the summit—was worn by many Arab ladies of high rank or great wealth, probably until about two centuries ago. Another kind of crown is now more generally worn, called a ḳurṣ. This is a round convex ornament, generally about five inches in diameter, composed of gold set with a profusion of diamonds, of open work, representing roses, leaves, etc. It is sewed upon the top of the ṭarboosh; and is worn by most of the ladies of Cairo, at least in full dress.[245]