[151]. The well-known Rauzah or Garden-island, of old Al-Saná’ah (Al-Mas’udi chapt. xxxi.), which is more than once noticed in The Nights. The name of the pavilion Al-Haudaj = a camel-litter, was probably intended to flatter the Badawi girl.
[152]. He was the Seventh Fatimite Caliph of Egypt: regn. A.H. 495–524 (= 1101–1129).
[153]. Suggesting a private pleasaunce in Al-Rauzah which has ever been and is still a succession of gardens.
[154]. The writer in The Athenæum calls him Ibn Miyyah, and adds that the Badawiyah wrote to her cousin certain verses complaining of her thraldom, which the youth answered, abusing the Caliph. Al-’Ámir found the correspondence and ordered Ibn Miyah’s tongue to be cut out, but he saved himself by a timely flight.
[155]. In Night dccclxxxv. we have the passage “He was a wily thief: none could avail against his craft as he were Abu Mohammed Al-Battál”: the word etymologically means The Bad; but see infra.
[156]. Amongst other losses which Orientalists have sustained by the death of Rogers Bey, I may mention his proposed translation of Al-Makrízí’s great topographical work.
[157]. The name appears only in a later passage.
[158]. Mr. Payne notes (viii. 137) “apparently some famous brigand of the time” (of Charlemagne). But the title may signify The Brave, and the tale may be much older.
[159]. In his “Mémoire sur l’origine du Recueil des Contes intitulé Les Mille et une Nuits” (Mém. d’Hist. et de Littér. Orientale, extrait des tomes ix. et x. des Mémoires de l’Inst. Royal Acad. des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1833). He read the Memoir before the Royal Academy on July 31, 1829. Also in his Dissertation “Sur les Mille et une Nuits” (pp. i.-viii.) prefixed to the Bourdin Edit. When the first Arabist in Europe landed at Alexandria he could not exchange a word with the people: the same is told of Golius the lexicographer at Tunis.
[160]. Lane, Nights ii. 218.