Note [5.] Literally, "the sons of thine uncle;" but the meaning is, "thy kinsmen."
Note [6.]—On Bastinading. In Arabian, and some other Eastern, countries, it is a common custom, when a person is accused of a crime before a magistrate, and denies his guilt, to bastinade him, in order to induce him to confess; and even witnesses, sometimes, are treated in the same manner. The beating is usually inflicted with a kurbáj (a thong or whip of hippopotamus' hide hammered into a round form) or with a stick, and generally on the soles of the feet. For this purpose the feet are confined by a chain or rope attached at each end to a staff, which is turned round to tighten it. This is called a "falaḳah." Two persons (one on each side) strike alternately; and the punishment is often continued until the sufferer becomes insensible, and even longer.
Note [7.]—Of Sales by Auction. In many of the sooḳs (market-streets, or bázárs) in Arabian cities, auctions are held on stated days, once or more frequently in every week. They are conducted by brokers (delláls), hired either by private persons or by shopkeepers. These brokers carry the goods up and down the street, announcing the sums bidden, with cries of "ḥaráj," &c.; and the shopkeepers, as well as others, purchase of them.
Note [8.] I have before mentioned, that this horrid mode of punishing a woman suspected of incontinence is not unfrequently practised among the Arabs. Many similar cases have been mentioned to me in Egypt as having occurred in that country in the present age; and often the murder is committed by the father or a brother of the woman, as her relations are considered as more disgraced than the husband by her crime. The present tale is probably founded on some particular occurrence of this kind. One is related as having happened in the reign of the Khaleefeh El-Moạtaḍid. In this case, some limbs of the murdered woman, in two leathern bags, were brought up from the bed of the Tigris in the net of a fisherman.[276] [Such barbarity, however, is contrary to law, as is stated in two former notes.—Ed.]
Note [9.]—Of the Retaliation of Injuries on the Day of Resurrection. The "examination being past, and every one's works weighed in a just balance, that mutual retaliation will follow according to which every creature will take vengeance one of another, or have satisfaction made to him for the injuries which he hath suffered. And since there will then be no other way of returning like for like, the manner of giving this satisfaction will be, by taking away a proportionable part of the good works of him who offered the injury, and adding it to those of him who suffered it. Which being done, if the angels (by whose ministry this is to be performed) say, 'Lord, we have given to every one his due, and there remaineth of this person's good works so much as equalleth the weight of an ant,' God will of his mercy cause it to be doubled unto him, that he may be admitted into Paradise; but if, on the contrary, his good works be exhausted, and there remain evil works only, and there be any who have not yet received satisfaction from him, God will order that an equal weight of their sins be added unto his, that he may be punished for them in their stead, and he will be sent to Hell laden with both."[277]
Note [10.] "Reyḥán" is a common proper name of men, now commonly given to slaves; and the name of the sweet basil in particular (also called "reeḥán") and of sweet-smelling plants in general. It also signifies "any favour of God," "the supplies necessary for subsistence," "a son," &c.
Note [11.] This ejaculation is addressed to God.
Note [12.] In the original, "Miṣr," vulg., "Maṣr." This is the name which the Arabs give to Egypt, and which they have also given to its successive capitals, or seats of government, Memphis, Egyptian Babylon, El-Fusṭáṭ, and El-Ḳáhireh, or Cairo. It is here applied to Cairo, as will be shewn by the following note, and by the sequel of the tale, though this city was not founded until long after the reign of Hároon Er-Rasheed. I may here remark, that I have not found the name of "Miṣr" applied to Cairo in any Arabic work anterior to the conquest of Egypt by the 'Osmánlee Turks, which happened in the year of the Flight 923 (A.D. 1517). El-Fusṭáṭ retained this appellation in the time of Es-Suyooṭee, who died in the year of the Flight 911, but it ceased to do so before the time of El-Is-ḥáḳee, who brought down his history to the month of Ramaḍán, 1032 (A.D. 1623). It is probable, therefore, that the name of "Misr"[typo Miṣr] was transferred to Cairo on the occasion of the conquest by the Turks. I must not assert, that this observation alone enables us to form a decided judgment as to the period when this work was composed, as it may be objected that copyists have perhaps substituted "Miṣr" for "El-Ḳáhireh;" but I persue the inquiry in the next note.
Note [13.]—On several Evidences of the Period when this Work, in the states in which it is known to us, was composed or compiled or remodelled. The tale here presents another anachronism. The title of "Sulṭán," as a prefix, was first borne by Maḥmood Ibn-Sabuktekeen, in the year of the Flight 393, just two hundred years after the death of Hároon Er-Rasheed; and there was no Sulṭán of Egypt until the year of the Flight 567 of a little later; the first being the famous Ṣaláḥ-ed-Deen, or Saladin.
I have now given several data upon which to found a reasonable opinion as to the age when these tales, in the states in which they are known to us, were composed or compiled or remodelled. First, in Note 55 to Chapter ii., I have shewn that a fiction in one of the tales is framed in accordance with the distinction of Muslims, Christians, and Jews, by the colours of their turbans, which mode of distinction originated in the beginning of the eighth century of the Flight. Secondly, in the present note, I have mentioned a fact which affords some reason for inferring that there had been a long series of Sulṭáns in Egypt before the age of the writer or writers. In the third place, I must remark, that all the events described in this work are said to have happened in ages which, with respect to that of the writer or writers, were ancient, being related to an ancient king; from which I think we may infer its age to have been at least two centuries posterior to the period mentioned in the first of these data. Fourthly, in Note 22 to Chapter iii., I have shewn that the state of manners and morals described in many of these tales agrees, in a most important point of view, with the manners and morals of the Arabs at the commencement of the tenth century of the Flight. This I regard as an argument of great weight, and especially satisfactory as agreeing with the inference just before drawn. Fifthly, from what I have stated in the note immediately preceding, I incline to the opinion that few of the copies of this work now known to us, if any, were written until after the conquest of Egypt by the Turks, in the year 1517 of our era. This opinion, it should be remarked, respects especially the early portion of the work, which is the least likely to have been interpolated, as later parts evidently have been. At the last-mentioned period, a native of Cairo (in which city I believe the principal portion of the work to have been written) might, if about forty years of age, retain a sufficient recollection of the later Memlook Sulṭáns and of their ministers to describe his kings and courts without the necessity of consulting the writings of historians; deriving his knowledge of early times not from the perusal of any regular record, but only from traditions or from works like the present.—I should have delayed the insertion of the foregoing remarks, had I not considered it a point of some importance to suggest to the reader, as early as possible, that the manners and customs, and in general even the dresses and dwellings, described in most of the present tales, are those of a very late period. The lax state of morals which appears to have prevailed among the Arabs in the time of the writer or writers probably continued at least until the period when coffee became a common beverage, about the middle of the tenth century of the Flight (or near the middle of the sixteenth century of our era), and perhaps considerably later, until some years after the introduction of tobacco into the East. The researches of Von Hammer have satisfactorily shewn that the Thousand and One Nights, in the states in which it is known to us, is based upon a very old work, in Persian; an Arabic translation of which bore a similar, or perhaps the same, title as that which we are considering; but I believe the last to be, in its best features, a very late production.