[FN#77] i.e. to any one, as we should say, "to Tom, Dick or
Harry."
[FN#78] El Hejjaj ben Yousuf eth Thekefi, a famous statesman and soldier of the seventh and eighth centuries. He was governor of Chaldæa under the fifth and sixth Ommiade Khalifs and was renowned for his cruelty; but appears nevertheless to have been a prudent and capable administrator, who probably used no more rigour than was necessary to restrain the proverbially turbulent populations of Bassora and Cufa. Most of the anecdotes of his brutality and tyranny, some of which will be found in this collection, are, in all probability, apocryphal.
[FN#79] Wool is the distinctive wear of Oriental devotees.
[FN#80] Koran xxv. 70.
[FN#81] Of the Koran.
[FN#82] This verse contains a series of jeux-de-mots, founded upon the collocation of the three proper names, Num, Suada and Juml, with the third person feminine singular, preterite-present, fourth conjugation, of their respective verb-roots, i.e. idka anamet Num, if Num vouchsafe, etc., etc.
[FN#83] Nimeh.
[FN#84] "And he (Jacob) turned from them, saying, 'Woe is me for Joseph!' And his eyes grew white for grief … (Quoth Joseph to his brethren) 'Take this my shirt and throw it over my father's face and he will recover his sight' … So, when the messenger of glad tidings came (to Jacob), he threw it (the shirt) over his face and he was restored to sight."—Koran xii. 84, 93, 96.
[FN#85] Hemzeh and Abbas were uncles of Mohammed. The Akil here alluded to is apparently a son of the Khalif Ali, who deserted his father and joined the usurper Muawiyeh, the founder of the Ommiade dynasty.
[FN#86] One of the numerous quack aphrodisiacs current in the middle ages, as with us cock's cullions and other grotesque prescriptions.