[54]. Khōja: in its more restricted meaning, a lord, a master; Muhammad is styled Khōja-i bas o nashr, literally, “lord of the raising and dispersing,” that is, the Resurrection. In its general signification, a man of distinction, doctor, professor, &c. But the title of Khōja, like our “Mr” is now very commonly applied to any respectable person.
[55]. “Zangistān.”—The Oriental adjunct stān or istān, the participle of istādan, “to reside,” or “dwell,” denotes “place,” or “country,” whence Moghol-istān, a port of Tartary; Fars-istān, Persia; Khūz-istān, Susiana. The root of stān may be seen in our English word “station.”
[56]. “Four parasangs.”—A Persian league, about 18,000 feet in length, is Fars-sang, that is, the Stone of Persia, which Herodotus and other Greek authors term Parasanga. It seems that in ancient times the distance of a league was marked in the East, as well as in the West, by large elevated stones.
[57]. The love of Jacob for his son Joseph, and his grief at his supposed death, are proverbial amongst Muslims, and very frequently alluded to by Persian poets. In the 12th sura of the Kur’ān it is stated that Jacob became blind through constant weeping for his lost son, and that his sight was restored by means of Joseph’s inner garment, which the Governor of Egypt sent to his father by his brethren. In the Makamat of El-Hariri, the celebrated Arabian poet, are such allusions as “passed a night of sorrow like Jacob’s,” “wept more than Jacob when he lost his son.”
[58]. Probably the messenger went to Yemen in the assumed capacity of a merchant, which would render him least liable to suspicion, and also enable him to smuggle Abraha out of the city without attracting particular notice.
[59]. The same savage maxim occurs in the Anvār-i Suhailī: “When thou hast got thy enemy fast, show him no mercy.”
[60]. Islām is not, as is commonly believed in Europe, synonymous with Fatalism. “What Muhammad taught,” remarks Mr Redhouse, “what the Kur’ān so eloquently and so persistently sets forth, and what real faithful Muslims believe, conformably with what is contained in the Gospels and accepted by devout Christians, is—that God’s Providence pre-ordains, as His Omniscience foreknows, all events, and over-rules the designs of men, to the sure fulfilment of His all-wise purposes.”—El-Esmā’u-’l-Husna, “The Most Comely Names” [i.e. of God], by J. W. Redhouse, M.R.A.S. Trübner & Co., London.
[61]. There are many varieties of this amusing story in Europe as well as in Asia—whether Father Beschi found it in India or took it with him.
[62]. “The ‘Uygur’ language,” Mr J. W. Redhouse writes to me, “is simply Turkish; what we should term ‘a little provincial.’ It is very much more consistent with the Ottoman Turkish of to-day than the English of four hundred years ago was like the modern English.”
[63]. Here, surely, the Tātār translator—or adapter—anticipates the course of the narrative; since the King (unfortunately for the Vezīr Kārdār) did not possess, at one and the same time, two Vezīrs and a beautiful wife—if by the latter be meant the pious daughter of Kerdār.