[FN#14] "Sun of the Day."
[FN#15] Arab. "Shirk"=worshipping more than one God. A theological term here most appropriately used.
[FN#16] The Bul. Edit. as usual abridges (vol. i. 534). The Prince lands on the palace-roof where he leaves his horse, and finding no one in the building goes back to the terrace. Suddenly he sees a beautiful girl approaching him with a party of her women, suggesting to him these couplets,
"She came without tryst in the darkest hour, *
Like full moon lighting horizon's night:
Slim-formed, there is not in the world her like *
For grace of form or for gifts of sprite:
'Praise him who made her from semen-drop,' *
I cried, when her beauty first struck my sight:
I guard her from eyes, seeking refuge with *
The Lord of mankind and of morning-light."
The two then made acquaintance and "follows what follows."
[FN#17] Arab. "Akαsirah," explained (vol. i., 75) as the plur. of Kisrα.
[FN#18] The dearest ambition of a slave is not liberty but to have a slave of his own. This was systematised by the servile rulers known in history as the Mameluke Beys and to the Egyptians as the Ghuzz. Each had his household of servile pages and squires, who looked forward to filling the master's place as knight or baron.
[FN#19] The well-known capital of Al-Yaman, a true Arabia Felix, a Paradise inhabited by demons in the shape of Turkish soldiery and Arab caterans. According to Moslem writers Sana'a was founded by Shem son of Noah who, wandering southward with his posterity after his father's death, and finding the site delightful, dug a well and founded the citadel, Ghamdαn, which afterwards contained a Mason Carrιe rivalling (or attempting to rival) the Meccan Ka'abah. The builder was Surahbνl who, says M.C. de Perceval coloured its four faces red, white, golden and green; the central quadrangle had seven stories (the planets) each forty cubits high, and the lowest was a marble hall ceiling'd with a single slab. At the four corners stood hollow lions through whose mouths the winds roared. This palatial citadel-temple was destroyed by order of Caliph Omar. The city's ancient name was Azal or Uzal whom some identify with one of the thirteen sons of Joktan (Genesis xi. 27): it took its present name from the Ethiopian conquerors (they say) who, seeing it for the first time, cried "Hazα Sana'ah!" meaning in their tongue, this is commodious, etc. I may note that the word is Kisawahili (Zanzibarian) e.g. "Yαmbo sαnα—is the state good?" Sana'a was the capital of the Tabαbi'ah or Tobba Kings who judaized; and the Abyssinians with their Negush made it Christian while the Persians under Anushirwαn converted it to Guebrism. It is now easily visited but to little purpose; excursions in the neighborhood being deadly dangerous. Moreover the Turkish garrison would probably murder a stranger who sympathised with the Arabs, and the Arabs kill one who took part with their hated and hateful conquerors. The late Mr. Shapira of Jerusalem declared that he had visited it and Jews have great advantages in such travel. But his friends doubted him.
[FN#20] The Bresl. Edit. (iii. 347) prints three vile errors in four lines.
[FN#21] Alcove is a corruption of the Arab. Al-Kubbah (the dome) through Span. and Port.