[FN#71] An artful touch, showing how a tale grows by repetition.  In Abu al-Hasan’s case (infra) the eyes are swollen by the swathes.

[FN#72] A Hadis attributed to the Prophet, and very useful to Moslem husbands when wives differ overmuch with them in opinion.

[FN#73] Arab.  “Masarat fi-ha,” which Lane renders, “And she threw money to her.”

[FN#74] A saying common throughout the world, especially when the afflicted widow intends to marry again at the first opportunity.

[FN#75] Arab.  “Ya Khalati” = O my mother’s sister; addressed by a woman to an elderly dame.

[FN#76] i.e., That I may put her to shame.

[FN#77] Arab.  “Zalabiyah.”

[FN#78] Arab. “’Ala al-Kaylah,” which Mr. Payne renders by “Siesta-carpet.”  Land reads “Kiblah” ("in the direction of the Kiblah”) and notes that some Moslems turn the corpse’s head towards Meccah and others the right side, including the face.  So the old version reads “feet towards Mecca.”  But the preposition “Ala” requires the former sig.

[FN#79] Many places in this text are so faulty that translation is mere guess-work; e.g.  “Basharah” can hardly be applied to ill-news.

[FN#80] i.e. of grief for his loss.

[FN#81] Arab.  “Tobani” which Lane renders “two clods.”  I have noted that the Tob (Span.  Adobe = Al-Tob) is a sunbaked brick.  Beating the bosom with such material is still common amongst Moslem mourners of the lower class, and the hardness of the blow gives the measure of the grief.

[FN#82] i.e. of grief for her loss.

[FN#83] Arab.  “Ihtirak” often used in the metaphorical sense of consuming, torturing.

[FN#84] Arab.  “Halawat,” lit.=a sweetmeat, a gratuity, a thank-offering.

[FN#85] Bresl.  Edit., vol. vi.  Pp. 182-188, Nights ccccxxxii.- ccccxxxiv.

[FN#86] “The good Caliph” and the fifth of the Orthodox, the other four being Abu Bakr, Omar, Osman and Ali; and omitting the eight intervening, Hasan the grandson of the Prophet included.  He was the 13th Caliph and 8th Ommiade A.H. 99-101 (=717-720) and after a reign of three years he was poisoned by his kinsmen of the Banu Umayyah who hated him for his piety, asceticism, and severity in making them disgorge their ill-gotten gains.  Moslem historians are unanimous in his praise.  Europeans find him an anachorete couronne, a froide et respectable figure, who lacked the diplomacy of Mu’awiyah and the energy of Al-Hajjaj.  His principal imitator was Al-Muhtadi bi’llah, who longed for a return to the rare old days of Al-Islam.

[FN#87] Omar ’Adi bin Artah; governor of Kufah and Basrah under “the good Caliph.”

[FN#88] Jarir al-Khatafah, one of the most famous of the “Islami” poets, i.e. those who wrote in the first century (A.H.) before the corruption of language began. (See Terminal Essay, p. 230).  Ibn Khallikan notices him at full length i. 294.