[FN#49] These "Kirбmбt" or Saints' miracles, which Spiritualists will readily accept, are recorded in vast numbers. Most men have half a dozen to tell, each of his "Pнr" or patron, including the Istidrбj or prodigy of chastisement. (Dabistan, iii. 274.)
[FN#50] Great granddaughter of the Imam Hasan buried in Cairo and famed for "Kirбmбt." Her father, governor of Al-Medinah, was imprisoned by Al-Mansur and restored to power by Al-Mahdi. She was married to a son of the Imam Ja'afar al-Sadik and lived a life of devotion in Cairo, dying in A.H. 218=824. The corpse of the Imam al-Shafi'i was carried to her house, now her mosque and mausoleum: it stood in the Darb al-Sabъa which formerly divided Old from New Cairo and is now one of the latter's suburbs. Lane (M. E. chaps. x.) gives her name but little more. The mention of her shows that the writer of the tale or the copyist was a Cairene : Abd al-Kadir is world-known : not so the "Sitt."
[FN#51] Arab. "Farkh akrab" for Ukayrib, a vulgarism.
[FN#52] The usual Egyptian irreverence: he relates his abomination as if it were a Hadis or Tradition of the Prophet with due ascription.
[FN#53] A popular name, dim. of Zubdah cream, fresh butter, "creamkin."
[FN#54] Arab. "Mustahall," "Mustahill' and vulg. "Muhallil" (=one who renders lawful). It means a man hired for the purpose who marries pro forma and after wedding, and bedding with actual-consummation, at once divorces the woman. He is held the reverse of respectable and no wonder. Hence, probably, Mandeville's story of the Islanders who, on the marriage-night, "make another man to lie by their wives, to have their maidenhead, for which they give great hire and much thanks. And there are certain men in every town that serve for no other thing; and they call them cadeberiz, that is to say, the fools of despair, because they believe their occupation is a dangerous one." Burckhardt gives the proverb (No. 79), "A thousand lovers rather than one Mustahall," the latter being generally some ugly fellow picked up in the streets and disgusting to the wife who must permit his embraces.
[FN#55] This is a woman's oath. not used by men.
[FN#56] Pronounced "Yб Sнn" (chaps. xxxvi.) the "heart of the
Koran" much used for edifying recitation. Some pious Moslems in
Egypt repeat it as a Wazifah, or religious task, or as masses for
the dead, and all educated men know its 83 versets by rote.
[FN#57] Arab. "Бl-Dбъd"=the family of David, i.e. David himself, a popular idiom. The prophet's recitation of the "Mazбmir" (Psalter) worked miracles.
[FN#58] There is a peculiar thickening of the voice in leprosy which at once betrays the hideous disease.