[62]. La nuit de l’entrée, say the French: see Lane “Leylet ed-dukhlah” (M.E. chapt. vi.)
[63]. This MS. uses “Miláh” (pleasant) for “Mubáh” (permitted). I must remark, before parting with Zayn al-Asnam, that its object is to inculcate that the price of a good wife is “far above rubies” (Prov. xxxi. 10: see the rest of this fine chapter), a virtuous woman being “a crown to her husband” (ibid. xxii. 4); and “a prudent wife is from the Lord” (Prov. xix. 4). The whole tale is told with extreme delicacy and the want of roughness and energy suggests a European origin.
[64]. i.e. Sun of the Heart.
[65]. Shīve-Zād is his daughter whom he wants Prince Asīl to marry.
[66]. i.e. the “Height or Glory (’Alá) of the Faith (al-Dín)” pron. Aláaddeen; which is fairly represented by the old form “Aladdin;” and better by De Sacy’s “Ala-eddin.” The name has occurred in The Nights, vol. iv. 29–33; it is a household word in England and who has not heard of Thomas Hood’s “A-lad-in?” Easterns write it in five different ways and in the Paris MS. it is invariably “’Alí al-dín,” which is a palpable mistake. The others are (1) ’Alá al-Dín, (2) ’Alá yadín, (3) ’Alah Dín in the H. V., and (4) ’Aláa al-Din (with the Hamzah), the last only being grammatical. In Galland the Histoire de la Lampe merveilleuse is preceded by the Histoire du Dormeur Eveillé which, being “The Story of Abú al-Hasan the Wag, or the Sleeper awakened,” of the Bresl. Edit. (Nights cclxxi-ccxc), is here omitted. The Alaeddin Story exists in germ in Tale ii. of the “Dravidian Nights Entertainments,” (Madana Kamara-Sankádái), by Pandit S. M. Natisa Shastri (Madras, 1868, and London, Trübner.) We are told by Mr. Coote that it is well represented in Italy. The Messina version is by Pitrè, “La Lanterna Magica,” also the Palermitan “Lanterne;” it is “Il Matrimonio di Cajussi” of Rome (R. H. Busk’s Folk-lore); “Il Gallo e il Mago,” of Visentini’s “Fiabe Mantovane,” and the “Pesciolino,” and “Il Contadino che aveva tre Figli,” of Imbriana. In “La Fanciulla e il Mago,” of De Gubernatis (“Novelline di Santo Stefano de Calcenaja,” p. 47), occurs the popular incident of the original. “The Magician was not a magician for nothing. He feigned to be a hawker and fared through the streets, crying out, ‘Donne, donne, chi baratta anelli di ferro contra anelli di argento?’”
Alaeddin has ever been a favourite with the stage. Early in the present century it was introduced to the Parisian opera by M. Etienne, to the Feydeau by Théaulon’s La Clochette; to the Gymnase by La Petite-Lampe of MM. Scribe and Melesville, and to the Panorama Dramatique by MM. Merle, Cartouche and Saintine (Gauttier, vii. 380.)
[67]. This MS. always uses Dínárzád like Galland.
[68]. Arab. “’Abadan,” a term much used in this MS. and used correctly. It refers always and only to future time, past being denoted by “Kattu” from Katta = he cut (in breadth, as opposed to Kadda = he cut lengthwise). See De Sacy, Chrestom. ii. 443.
[69]. In the text “Ibn mín,” a vulgarism for “man.” Galland adds that the tailor’s name was Mustapha—il y avait un tailleur nommé Mustafa.
[70]. In classical Arabic the word is “Maghribi,” the local form of the root Gharaba = he went far away, (the sun) set, etc., whence “Maghribi” = a dweller in the Sunset-land. The vulgar, however, prefer “Maghrab” and “Maghrabi,” of which foreigners made “Mogrebin.” For other information see vols. vi. 220; ix. 50. The “Moormen” are famed as magicians; so we find a Maghrabi Sahhár = wizard, who by the by takes part in a transformation scene like that of the Second Kalandar (vol. i. p. 134, The Nights), in p. 10 of Spitta Bey’s “Contes Arabes Modernes,” etc. I may note that “Sihr,” according to Jauhari and Firozábádi = anything one can hold by a thin or subtle place, i.e., easy to handle. Hence it was applied to all sciences, “Sahhár” being = to ’Álim (or sage): and the older Arabs called poetry “Sihr al-halál”—lawful magic.