[298]. In the text “Náfishah” = Pers. “Náfah,” derived, I presume, from the ✓ “Náf” = belly or testicle, the part which in the musk-deer was supposed to store up the perfume.
[299]. For “Nahávand,” the celebrated site in Al-Irak where the Persians sustained their final defeat at the hands of the Arabs A.H. 21. It is also one of the many musical measures, like the Ispaháni, the Rásti, the Rayháni, the Búsalik, the Navá, etc., borrowed from the conquered ’Ajamí.
[300]. This second half of the story is laid upon the lines of “The Man of Al-Yaman and his six Slave-girls”: vol. iv. 245.
[301]. This history again belongs to the class termed “Abtar” = tailless. In the text we find for all termination, “After this he (Yúsuf) invited Mohammed ibn Ibrahim to lie that night in the palace.” Scott (vi. 364) ends after his own fashion:—“They (the ten girls) recited extempore verses before the caliph, but the subject of each was so expressive of their wish to return to their beloved sovereign, and delivered in so affecting a manner, that Mamoon, though delighted with their wit and beauty, sacrificed his own pleasure to their feelings, and sent them back to Eusuff by the officer who carried the edict, confirming him in his dominions, where the prince of Sind and the fair Aleefa continued long, amid a numerous progeny, to live the protectors of their happy subjects.”
[302]. This tale is headless as the last is tailless. We must suppose that soon after Mohammed ibn Ibrahim had quitted the Caliph, taking away the ten charmers, Al-Maamun felt his “breast straitened” and called for a story upon one of his Ráwis named Ibn Ahyam. This name is repeated in the text and cannot be a clerical error for Ibn Ibrahim.
[303]. Scott (vi. 366) “Adventures of the Three Princes, sons of the Sultan of China.”
[304]. In the text “’Ajam,” for which see vol. i. 2, 120. Al-Irak, I may observe, was the head-quarters of the extensive and dangerous Khárijite heresy; and like Syria has ever a bad name amongst orthodox Moslems.
[305]. In the Arab. “Salkh,” meaning also a peculiar form of circumcision, for which see Pilgrimage iii. 80–81. The Jew’s condition was of course a trick, presenting an impossibility and intended as a mere pretext for murdering an enemy to his faith. Throughout the Eastern world this idea prevails, and both Sir Moses Montefiore and M. Cremieux were utterly at fault and certainly knew it when they declared that Europe was teaching it to Asia. Every Israelite community is bound in self-defence, when the murder of a Christian child or adult is charged upon any of its members, to court the most searching enquiry and to abate the scandal with all its might.
[306]. The text has “Fí Kíb,” which Scott (vol. vi. 367) renders “a mat.” [According to the Muhít “Kíb” is a small thick mat used to produce shade, pl. “Kiyáb” and “Akyáb.” The same authority says the word is of Persian origin, but this seems an error, unless it be related to “Keb” with the Yá majhúl, which in the Appendix to the Burháni Káti’ is given as synonymous with “Pech,” twist, fold. Under “Bardí” = papyrus the Muhít mentions that this is the material from which the mats known by the name of “Akyáb” are made.—St.]
[307]. [The text has here “Wasayah,” probably a clerical error for “wa Miah” (spelt “Máyah”), and a hundred pair of pigeons.—St.]