[135]. Arab. “’Ashírah.” Books tell us there are seven degrees of connection among the Badawin: Sha’ab, tribe or rather race, nation (as the Anazah) descended from a common ancestor; Kabílah the tribe proper (whence les Kabyles); Fasílah (sept), Imárah, Ashirah (all a man’s connections); Fakhiz (lit. the thigh, i.e., his blood relations) and Batn (belly) his kith and kin. Practically Kabílah is the tribe, Ashírah the clan, and Bayt the household; while Hayy may be anything between tribe and kith and kin.

[136]. This is the true platonic love of noble Arabs, the Ishk ’uzrí, noted in vol. ii., 104.

[137]. Arab. “’Alà raghm,” a favourite term. It occurs in theology; for instance, when the Shi’ahs are asked the cause of such and such a ritual distinction they will reply, “Ala raghmi ’l-Tasannun”: lit. = to spite the Sunnis.

[138]. In the text “Al-Kaus” for which Lane and Payne substitute a shield. The bow had not been mentioned but—n’importe, the Arab reader would say. In the text it is left at home because it is a cowardly, far-killing weapon compared with sword and lance. Hence the Spaniard calls and justly calls the knife the “bravest of arms” as it wants a man behind it.

[139]. Arab. “Rahim” or “Rihm” = womb, uterine relations, pity or sympathy, which may here be meant.

[140]. Reciting Fátihahs and so forth, as I have described in the Cemetery of Al-Medinah (ii. 300). Moslems do not pay for prayers to benefit the dead like the majority of Christendom and, according to Calvinistic Wahhábi-ism, their prayers and blessings are of no avail. But the mourner’s heart loathes reason and he prays for his dead instinctively like the so-termed “Protestant.” Amongst the latter, by the bye, I find four great Sommités, (1) Paul of Tarsus who protested against the Hebraism of Peter; (2) Mohammed who protested against the perversions of Christianity; (3) Luther who protested against Italian rule in Germany, and lastly (4) one (who shall be nameless) that protests against the whole business.

THE BADAWI AND HIS WIFE.[[141]]

Caliph Mu’áwiyah was sitting one day in his palace[[142]] at Damascus, in a room whose windows were open on all four sides, that the breeze might enter from every quarter. Now it was a day of excessive heat, with no breeze from the hills stirring, and the middle of the day, when the heat was at its height, and the Caliph saw a man coming along, scorched by the heat of the ground and limping, as he fared on barefoot. Mu’awiyah considered him awhile and said to his courtiers, “Hath Allah (may He be extolled and exalted!) created any miserabler than he who need must hie abroad at such an hour and in such sultry tide as this?” Quoth one of them, “Haply he seeketh the Commander of the Faithful;” and quoth the Caliph, “By Allah, if he seek me, I will assuredly give to him, and if he be wronged, I will certainly succour him. Ho, boy! Stand at the door, and if yonder wild Arab seek to come in to me, forbid him not therefrom.” So the page went out and presently the Arab came up to him and he said, “What dost thou want?” Answered the other, “I want the Commander of the Faithful,” and the page said, “Enter.” So he entered and saluted the Caliph,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Six Hundred and Ninety-second Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the page allowed him to enter, the Badawi saluted the Caliph, who said to him, “Who art thou?” Replied the Arab, “I am a man of the Banú Tamím.”[[143]] “And what bringeth thee here at this season?” asked Mu’awiyah; and the Arab answered, “I come to thee, complaining and thy protection imploring.” “Against whom?” “Against Marwan bin al-Hakam,[[144]] thy deputy,” replied he, and began reciting:—