[10]The Mamlûks suffer not the beard to grow till they be emancipated, and hold some office, as Cashef, &c.—A similar practice obtains among the Osmanli. The Ytch oghlans, though free in their persons, yet exercising a kind of servitude, shave the beard: so that though it be not absolutely the mark of a slave, the want of a beard seems to denote a dependent situation. Among the Osmanli, (European Turks) the beard is allowed to grow rather in conformity to the precept and practice of the Prophet, than as a national fashion. The Tatars wear no beard; and the Arabs alone shew great respect to that ornament.
[11]The two last offices are annual.
[12]The patacke may be rated at from three shillings to three and four-pence. The foddân is a given measure, taking its name from the quantity that a yoke of oxen can plough in a day, roughly taken, equivalent to an acre.
[13]English edit. p. 188.
[14]The length may be estimated at about three thousand five hundred yards.
[15]The city is still infested with the usual herds of dogs, and the kites still shriek wildly over the canal; while the turtle-doves, unmolested by men or children, breed in the houses, building their nests under the projecting beams.
[16]Histoire de l’Afrique, et de l’Espagne sous la domination des Arabes; composée sur differens Manuscrits Arabes de la Bibliotheque du Roi, par M. Cardonne, &c. Paris 1765, 3 tomes 12mo. It is to be regretted that the learned author did not divide his work into epochs and chapters, and particularly separate the history of Africa from that of Spain.
[17]Vol. ix. p. 448-466, 8vo.
[18]Their authority did not extend over the ancient Mauritania. The Edrissite dynasty ruled Ceuta, Fez, Tangier, &c. Fez was built by them in 788.
[19]The power of the Chalîfs, successors of Mohammed, had fallen about the middle of the eleventh century. The Turks, a Tataric nation, seized Iconium, and most of Asia Minor, about 1074. Twenty years after, Aleppo and Damascus became separate sovereignties under the grandsons of Elf Arslân; the former city had been long subject to the Chalîfs of Egypt.