[FN#230] The Farz or obligatory prayers, I have noted, must be recited (if necessary) in the most impure place; not so the other orisons. Hence the use of the “Sajjádah” or prayer-rug an article too well known to require description.
[FN#231] Anglicč a stomach-ache, a colic.
[FN#232] Arab. “Al-Háfizah” which has two meanings. Properly it signifies the third order of Traditionists out of a total of five or those who know 300,000 traditions and their ascriptions. Popularly “one who can recite the Koran by rote.” There are six great Traditionists whose words are held to be prime authorities; (1) Al-Bokhári, (2) Muslim, and these are entitled Al-Sahíhayn, The (two true) authorities. After them (3) Al-Tirmidi; and (4) Abu Daúd: these four being the authors of the “Four Sunan,” the others are (5) Al-Nasái and (6) Ibn Májah (see Jarrett’s Al-Siyuti pp. 2, 6; and, for modern Arab studies, Pilgrimage i. 154 et seq.).
[FN#233] Lane (iii. 176) marries the amorous couple, thus making the story highly proper and robbing it of all its point.
[FN#234] Arab. “Sabbahat,” i.e. Sabbah-ak’ Allah bi’l khayr =
Allah give thee good morning: still the popular phrase.
[FN#235] Arab. “Ta’rísak,” with the implied hint of her being a “Mu’arrisah” or she pander. The Bresl. Edit. (xii. 356) bluntly says “Kivádatak” thy pimping.
[FN#236] Arab. “Rafw”: the “Rafu-gar” or fine-drawer in India, who does this artistic style of darning, is famed for skill.
[FN#237] The question sounds strange to Europeans, but in the Moslem East a man knows nothing, except by hearsay, of the women who visit his wife.
[FN#238] Arab. “Ahl al-bayt,” so as not rudely to say “wife.”
[FN#239] This is a mere abstract of the tale told in the Introduction (vol. i. 10-12). Here however, the rings are about eighty; there the number varies from ninety to five hundred and seventy.