[FN#171] A passage has apparently dropped out here. The Khalif seems to have gone away without buying, leaving Ishac behind, whereupon the latter was accosted by another slave-girl, who came out of a cell in the corridor.
[FN#172] Or "have withheld myself."
[FN#173] For not selling me?
[FN#174] i.e. Tuhfeh the fool. Hemca is the feminine form of ahmec, fool. If by a change in the (unwritten) vowels, we read Humeca, which is the plural form of ahmec, the title will signify, "Gift (Tuhfeh) of fools" and would thus represent a jesting alteration of the girl's real name (Tuhfet el Culoub, Gift of hearts), in allusion to her (from the slave-merchant's point of view) foolish and vexatious behaviour in refusing to be sold to the first comer, as set out below.
[FN#175] Or "folly" (hemakeh).
[FN#176] i.e. not every one is lucky enough to be in Ishac's house.
[FN#177] Apparently some part of Baghdad adjoining the Tigris.
Khanekah means "a convent of dervishes."
[FN#178] Lit. stronger (acwa).
[FN#179] The gist of this curious comparison is not very apparent. Perhaps "blander" is meant.
[FN#180] About 10s.