[FN#177] He was Wazir to the Great “Saladin” (Saláh al-Din = one conforming with the Faith): see vol. iv. 271, where Saladin is also entitled Al-Malik al-Nasir = the Conquering King. He was a Kurd and therefore fond of boys (like Virgil, Horace, etc.), but that perversion did not prevent his being one of the noblest of men. He lies in the Great Amawi Mosque of Damascus and I never visited a tomb with more reverence.
[FN#178] Arab. “Ahassa bi’l-Shurbah;” in our idiom “he smelt a rat”.
[FN#179] This and the next tale are omitted by Lane (iii. 254) on “account of its vulgarity, rendered more objectionable by indecent incidents.” It has been honoured with a lithographed reprint at Cairo A.H. 1278 and the Bresl. Edit. ix. 193 calls it the “Tale of Ahmad al-Danaf with Dalílah.”
[FN#180] “Ahmad, the Distressing Sickness,” or “Calamity;” Hasan the Pestilent and Dalílah the bawd. See vol. ii. 329, and vol. iv. 75.
[FN#181] A fœtus, a foundling, a contemptible fellow.
[FN#182] In the Mac. Edit. “her husband”: the end of the tale shows the error, infra, p. 171. The Bresl. Edit., x. 195, informs us that Dalilah was a “Faylasúfiyah”=philosopheress.
[FN#183] Arab. “Ibrík” usually a ewer, a spout-pot, from the Pers. Ab-ríz=water-pourer: the old woman thus vaunted her ceremonial purity. The basin and ewer are called in poetry “the two rumourers,” because they rattle when borne about.
[FN#184] Khátún in Turk. is=a lady, a dame of high degree; at times as here and elsewhere, it becomes a P. N.
[FN#185] Arab. “Maut,” a word mostly avoided in the Koran and by the Founder of Christianity.
[FN#186] Arab. “Akákír,” drugs, spices, simples which cannot be distinguished without study and practice. Hence the proverb (Burckhardt, 703), Is this an art of drugs?—difficult as the druggist’s craft?