The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I. / Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments

by Unknown

Note [82.] I here return to the Cairo edition.

Note [83.] Some of the incidents described in this story, as the shipwrecks caused by the image, and the opening of the forbidden closet, &c., appear to be taken from the romance of Seyf Zu-l-Yezen, of which I possess a copy, purchased during my second visit to Egypt. This romance, which has become extremely scarce, is filled with stories of genii and enchantments of the most extravagant kind. Some of the public story-tellers in Cairo used, a few years since, to amuse their audiences by recitations from it. I was not able to discover the period at which it was composed; but it is said to have been written long before the Tales of a Thousand and One Nights. I saw once a portion of a copy of which it appeared, from the hand-writing and the paper, to be three or four centuries old.

Note [84.] So in the Calcutta edition of the first two hundred nights, and in the edition of Breslau.

Note [85.] Those decrees which are written with "the Pen" on the "Preserved Tablet" are believed to be unchangeable. "The Pen" is also the title of one of the chapters of the Ḳur-án, the 68th.

Note [86.] In all the copies of the original which I have by me, El-Baṣrah is said to have been the place to which the lady designed to voyage; but this is inconsistent with the sequel of the story.

Note [87.] In the old version, two strange errors occur in the passage corresponding with this: two words in the original, "nár" and "doon," having been mistaken for a proper name; and the word "jebbár," which, applied to God, signifies "almighty," or rather the "Compeller of his creatures to do whatsoever He willeth," being taken in the sense of "giant," which it bears in many other cases.

Note [88.]—On Martyrs. The Mohammadan law distinguishes several different descriptions of martyrs. This honourable title is given to the soldier who dies in fighting for the faith, or on his way to do so, or who dies almost immediately after his having been wounded when so engaged; to a person who innocently meets with his death from the hand of another; to a victim of the plague, who does not flee from the disease, or of dysentery; to a person who is drowned; and to one who is killed by the falling of a wall or any building. It is said that the souls of martyrs, after quitting their bodies, reside, until the day of resurrection, in the crops of green birds, which eat of the fruits, and drink of the waters, of Paradise. Such we are to consider as the first and lowest state of felicity to which the young prince in this tale was introduced as the reward of his virtue.

Note [89.] The share inherited, according to the law, by the wife, or by the wives conjointly when there are more than one, is one-eighth of what remains of the property of the deceased after the discharge of his debts and legacies, if he have left issue; and one-fourth, if he have left no issue.

Note [90.] The Arabs, fond of hyperbole, often thus describe a lofty building.

Note [91.]—On the Magnificence of Arab Palaces, &c. After remarking upon the preceding sentence as presenting an instance of Oriental hyperbole, it may be necessary to inform the reader that he needs not regard this in the same light. The magnificence of the palaces of Baghdád in the times of the Khaleefehs almost exceeds belief.