[FN#4] i.e. the part he had taken for spending money.

[FN#5] i.e. “those,” a characteristic Arab idiom.

[FN#6] Lit. draw thee near (to them).

[FN#7] i.e. that over the Tigris.

[FN#8] “Platter bread,” i.e. bread baked in a platter, instead of, as usual with the Arabs, in an oven or earthen jar previously heated, to the sides of which the thin cakes of dough are applied, “is lighter than oven bread, especially if it be made thin and leavened.”—­Shecouri, a medical writer quoted by Dozy.

[FN#9] Or cooking-pots.

[FN#10] Or fats for frying.

[FN#11] Or clarified.

[FN#12] Taam, lit. food, the name given by the inhabitants of Northern Africa to the preparation of millet-flour (something like semolina) called kouskoussou, which forms the staple food of the people.

[FN#13] Or “In peace.”

[FN#14] Eastern peoples attach great importance, for good or evil omen, to the first person met or the first thing that happens in the day.

[FN#15] Or “attributed as sin.”

[FN#16] A common Eastern substitute for soap.

[FN#17] This common formula of assent is an abbreviation of “Hearkening and obedience are due to God and to the Commander of the Faithful” or other the person addressed.

[FN#18] Dar es Selam, one of the seven “Gardens” into which the Mohammedan Paradise is divided.

[FN#19] i.e. a mattrass eighteen inches thick.

[FN#20] Complimentary form of address to eunuchs, generally used by inferiors only.

[FN#21] The morning-prayer consists of four inclinations (rekäat) only.  A certain fixed succession of prayers and acts of adoration is called a rekah (sing, of rekäat) from the inclination of the body that occurs in it.

[FN#22] i.e. the terminal formula of prayer, “Peace be on us and on all the righteous servants of God!”

[FN#23] i.e. said “I purpose to make an end of prayer.”

[FN#24] Or “linen.”

[FN#25] A well-known poet of the time.

[FN#26] i.e.  Ibrahim of Mosul, the greatest musician of his day.

[FN#27] i.e., doughty men of war, guards.

[FN#28] The Abbaside Khalifs traced their descent from Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed, and considered themselves, therefore, as belonging to the family of the Prophet.

[FN#29] i.e.  May thy dwelling-place never fall into ruin.

[FN#30] i.e. the raised recess situate at the upper end of an Oriental saloon, wherein is the place of honour.

[FN#31] ie, the necromancers.

[FN#32] Lit.  I have not found that thou hast a heel blessed (or propitious) to me.

[FN#33] i.e.  O thou who art a calamity to those who have to do with thee!

[FN#34] Abou Nuwas ibn Hani, the greatest poet of the time.

[FN#35] As a charm against evil spirits.