[FN#85] The Convent of Abdun on the east bank of the Tigris opposite the Jezirah was so called from a statesman who caused it to be built. For a variant of these lines see Ibn Khallikan, vol. ii. 42; here we miss “the shady groves of Al-Matírah.”
[FN#86] Arab. “Ghurrah” the white blaze on a horse’s brow. In Ibn
Khallikan the bird is the lark.
[FN#87] Arab. “Táy’i”=thirsty used with Jáy’i=hungry.
[FN#88] Lit. “Kohl’d with Ghunj” for which we have no better word than “coquetry.” But see vol. v. 80. It corresponds with the Latin crissare for women and cevere for men.
[FN#89] i.e. gold-coloured wine, as the Vino d’Oro.
[FN#90] Compare the charming song of Abu Miján translated from the German of Dr. Weil in Bohn’s Edit. of Ockley (p. 149),
When the Death-angel cometh mine eyes to close,
Dig my grave ’mid the vines on the hill’s fair side;
For though deep in earth may my bones repose,
The juice of the grape shall their food provide.
Ah, bury me not in a barren land,
Or Death will appear to me dread and drear!
While fearless I’ll wait what he hath in hand I
An the scent of the vineyard my spirit cheer.
The glorious old drinker!
[FN#91] Arab. “Rub’a al-Kharáb” in Ibn al-Wardi Central Africa south of the Nile-sources, one of the richest regions in the world. Here it prob. alludes to the Rub’a al-Kháli or Great Arabian Desert: for which see Night dclxxvi. In rhetoric it is opposed to the “Rub’a Maskún,” or populated fourth of the world, the rest being held to be ocean.
[FN#92] This is the noble resignation of the Moslem. What a dialogue there would have been in a European book between man and devil!