[484]. Arab. “Allah yastura-k” = protect thee by hiding what had better be hidden.
[485]. Arab. “Janázír” = chains, an Arabised plural of the Pers. Zanjír with the metathesis or transposition of letters peculiar to the vulgar; “Janázír” for “Zanájír.”
[486]. Arab. “Safínah” = (Noah’s) Ark, a myth derived from the Baris of Egypt with subsequent embellishments from the Babylonian deluge-legends: the latter may have been survivals of the days when the waters of the Persian Gulf extended to the mountains of Eastern Syria. Hence I would explain the existence of extinct volcanoes within sight of Damascus (see Unexplored Syria i. p. 159) visited, I believe, for the first time by my late friend Charles F. Tyrwhitt-Drake and myself in May, 1871.
[487]. Mansur and Násir are passive and active participles from the same root, Nasr = victory; the former means triumphant and the latter triumphing.
[488]. The normal term of Moslem mourning, which Mohammed greatly reduced disliking the abuse of it by the Jews who even in the present day are the strictest in its observance.
[489]. An euphuistic and euphemistic style of saying, “No, we don’t know.”
[490]. Arab. “Rahan,” an article placed with him in pawn.
[491]. A Moslem is bound, not only by honour but by religion, to discharge the debts of his dead father and mother and so save them from punishment on Judgment-day. Mohammed who enjoined mercy to debtors while in the flesh (chapt. ii. 280, etc.) said “Allah covereth all faults except debt; that is to say, there will be punishment therefor.” Also “A martyr shall be pardoned every fault but debt.” On one occasion he refused to pray for a Moslem who died insolvent. Such harshness is a curious contrast with the leniency which advised the creditor to remit debts by way of alms. And practically this mild view of indebtedness renders it highly unadvisable to oblige a Moslem friend with a loan.
[492]. i.e. he did not press them for payment; and, it must be remembered, he received no interest upon his monies, this being forbidden in the Koran.
[493]. Al-Mas’údi (chap. xvii.) alludes to furs of Sable (Samúr), hermelin (Al-Farwah) and Bortás (Turkish) furs of black and red foxes. For Samúr see vol. iv. [57]. Sinjáb is Persian for the skin of the grey squirrel (Mus lemmus, the lemming), the meniver, erroneously miniver, (menu vair) as opposed to the ermine = (Mus Armenius, or mustela erminia.) I never visit England without being surprised at the vile furs worn by the rich, and the folly of the poor in not adopting the sheepskin with the wool inside and the leather well tanned which keeps the peasant warm and comfortable between Croatia and Afghanistan.