[FN#54] He means we are "Záhirí," plain honest Moslems, not "Bátiní," gnostics (ergo reprobates) and so forth, who disregard all appearances and external ordinances. This suggests his opinion of Shaykh Ibrahim and possibly refers to Ja'afar's suspected heresy.
[FN#55] This worthy will be noticed in a subsequent page.
[FN#56] Arab. "Lisám," the end of the "Kufiyah," or head-kerchief passed over the face under the eyes and made fast on the other side. This mouth-veil serves as a mask (eyes not being recognisable) and defends from heat, cold and thirst. I also believe that hooding the eyes with this article, Badawi-fashion, produces a sensation of coolness, at any rate a marked difference of apparent temperature; somewhat like a pair of dark spectacles or looking at the sea from a sandy shore. (Pilgrimage i., 210 and 346.) The woman's "Lisám" (chin-veil) or Yashmak is noticed in i., 337.
[FN#57] Most characteristic is this familiarity between the greatest man then in the world and his pauper subject. The fisherman alludes to a practise of Al-Islam, instituted by Caliph Omar, that all rulers should work at some handicraft in order to spare the public treasure. Hence Sultan Mu'ayyad of Cairo was a calligrapher who sold his handwriting, and his example was followed by the Turkish Sultans Mahmúd, Abd al-Majíd and Abd al-Azíz. German royalties prefer carpentering and Louis XVI, watch-making.
[FN#58] There would be nothing singular in this request. The democracy of despotism levels all men outside the pale of politics and religion.
[FN#59] "Wa'lláhi tayyib!" an exclamation characteristic of the
Egyptian Moslem.
[FN#60] The pretended fisherman's name Karím=the Generous.
[FN#61] Such an act of generosity would appear to Europeans well- nigh insanity, but it is quite in Arab manners. Witness the oft- quoted tale of Hatim and his horse. As a rule the Arab is the reverse of generous, contrasting badly, in this point, with his cousin the Jew: hence his ideal of generosity is of the very highest. "The generous (i.e. liberal) is Allah's friend, aye, though he be a sinner; and the miser is Allah's foe, aye, though he be a saint!" Indian Moslems call a skin-flint Makhi-chús = fly-sucker. (Pilgrimage i. 242.)
[FN#62] Arab. "Ammá ba'ad" (or Wa ba'ad), an initiatory formula attributed to Koss ibn Sa'idat al-Iyadi, bishop of Najrán (the town in Al-Yaman which D'Herbelot calls Negiran) and a famous preacher in Mohammed's day, hence "more eloquent than Koss" (Maydání, Arab. Prov., 189). He was the first who addressed letters with the incept, "from A. to B."; and the first who preached from a pulpit and who leant on a sword or a staff when discoursing. Many Moslems date Ammá ba'ad from the Prophet David, relying upon a passage of the Koran (xxxviii. 19).
[FN#63] Arab. "Nusf"=half (a dirham): vulgarly pronounced "nuss," and synonymous with the Egypt. "Faddah" (=silver), the Greek "Asper," and the Turkish "paráh." It is the smallest Egyptian coin, made of very base metal and, there being forty to the piastre, it is worth nearly a quarter of a farthing.