[77]. D’Herbelot renders Soghd Samarkand = plain of Samarkand. Hence the old “Sogdiana,” the famed and classical capital of Máwaránnahr, our modern Transoxiana, now known as Samarkand. The Hindi translator has turned “Soghd” into “Sadá” and gravely notes that “the village appertained to Arabia.” He possibly had a dim remembrance of the popular legend which derives “Samarkand” from Shamir or Samar bin Afrikús, the Tobba King of Al-Yaman, who lay waste Soghd-city (“Shamir kand” = Shamir destroyed); and when rebuilt the place was called by the Arab. corruption Samarkand. See Ibn Khallikan ii. 480. Ibn Haukal (Kitáb al Mamálik wa al-Masálik = Book of Realms and Routes), whose Oriental Geography (xth century) was translated by Sir W. Ouseley (London, Oriental Press, 1800), followed by Abú ’l-Fidá, mentions the Himyaritic inscription upon an iron plate over the Kash portal of Samarkand (Appendix No. iii).
[78]. The wish might have been highly indiscreet and have exposed the wisher to the resentment of the two other brothers. In parts of Europe it is still the belief of the vulgar that men who use telescopes can see even with the naked eye objects which are better kept hidden; and I have heard of troubles in the South of France because the villagers would not suffer the secret charms of their women to become as it were the public property of the lighthouse employés.
[79]. “Jám-i-Jamshíd” is a well worn commonplace in Moslem folk-lore; but commentators cannot agree whether “Jám” be = a mirror or a cup. In the latter sense it would represent the Cyathomantic cup of the Patriarch Joseph and the symbolic bowl of Nestor. Jamshíd may be translated either Jam the Bright or the Cup of the Sun: this ancient King is the Solomon of the grand old Guebres.
[80]. This passage may have suggested to Walter Scott one of his descriptions in “The Monastery.”
[81]. In the text “Lájawardí,” for which see vols. iii. 33, and ix. 190.
[82]. In Galland and the H.V. “Prince Husayn’s.”
[83]. This is the “Gandharba-lagana” (fairy wedding) of the Hindus; a marriage which lacked only the normal ceremonies. For the Gandharbas = heavenly choristers see Moor’s “Hindú Pantheon,” p. 237, etc.
[84]. “Perfumed with amber” (-gris?) says Galland.
[85]. The Hind. term for the royal levée, as “Selám” is the Persian.
[86]. Arab. “’Ilm al-Ghayb” = the Science of Hidden Things which, says the Hadis, belongeth only to the Lord. Yet amongst Moslems, as with other faiths, the instinctive longing to pry into the Future has produced a host of pseudo-sciences, Geomancy, Astrology, Prophecy and others which serve only to prove that such knowledge, in the present condition of human nature, is absolutely unattainable.