[FN#167] El Mamoun was of a very swarthy complexion and is said to have been the son of a black slave-girl.  Zubeideh was Er Reshid’s cousin, and El Amin was, therefore, a member of the house of Abbas, both on the father’s and mother’s side.  Of this purity of descent from the Prophet’s family (in which he is said to have stood alone among the Khalifs of the Abbaside dynasty) both himself and his mother were exceedingly proud, and it was doubtless this circumstance which led Er Reshid to prefer El Amin and to assign him the precedence in the succession over the more capable and worthier El Mamoun.

[FN#168] Breslau Text, vol. viii. pp. 226-9, Nights dclx-i.

[FN#169] A pre-Mohammedan King of the Arab kingdom of Hireh (a town near Cufa on the Euphrates), under the suzerainty of the Chosroes of Persia, and a cruel and fantastic tyrant.

[FN#170] The tribe to which belonged the renowned pre-Mohammedan chieftain and poet, Hatim Tal, so celebrated in the East for his extravagant generosity and hospitality.

[FN#171] i.e.  I will make a solemn covenant with him before God.

[FN#172] i.e. he of the tribe of Tai.

[FN#173] In generosity.

[FN#174] A similar anecdote is told of Omar ben el Khettab, second successor of Mohammed, and will be found in my “Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night,” Vol.  IV. p. 239.

[FN#175] Breslau Text, vol. viii. pp. 273-8, Nights dclxxv—­vi.

[FN#176] A similar story will be found in my “Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night”, Vol.  V. p. 263.

[FN#177] Breslau Text, vol xi. pp. 84-318, Nights dccclxxv-dccccxxx.

[FN#178] i.e.  A pilgrimage.  Pilgrimage is one of a Muslim’s urgent duties.

[FN#179] By a rhetorical figure, Mecca is sometimes called El Hejj (the Pilgrimage) and this appears to be the case here.  It is one of the dearest towns in the East and the chief occupation of its inhabitants a the housing and fleecing of pilgrims.  An Arab proverb says, “There is no place in which money goes [so fast] as it goes in Mecca.”

[FN#180] lit. loved with it.

[FN#181] It is not clear what is here meant by El Hejj; perhaps Medina, though this is a “visitation” and not an obligatory part of the pilgrimage.  The passage is probably corrupt.

[FN#182] It is not clear what is here meant by El Hejj; perhaps Medina, though this is a “visitation” and not an obligatory part of the pilgrimage.  The passage is probably corrupt.

[FN#183] Syn. whole or perfect (sehik).

[FN#184] i.e. in white woollen garments.

[FN#185] i.e.  I desire a privy place, where I may make the preliminary ablution and pray.

[FN#186] It is customary in the East to give old men and women the complimentary title of “pilgrim,” assuming, as a matter of course, that they have performed the obligatory rite of pilgrimage.