Part 16
“The passion which this frail beauty of antiquity conceived for her young Hebrew slave has given rise to a much-esteemed poem in the Persian language, entitled _Yusef vau Zelikha_, by _Noureddin Jami_; the manuscript copy of which, in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, is supposed to be the finest in the whole world.”—_Note upon Nott’s Translation of Hafez._
Footnote 92:
p. 67.—_With a new text to consecrate their love._
The particulars of Mahomet’s amour with Mary, the Coptic girl, in justification of which he added a new chapter to the Koran, may be found in _Gagnier’s Notes upon Abulfeda_, p. 151.
Footnote 93:
p. 70.—_But in that deep-blue, melancholy dress._
“Deep blue is their mourning colour.”—_Hanway._
Footnote 94:
p. 71.—_Sat in her sorrow like the sweet night-flower._
The sorrowful nyctanthes, which begins to spread its rich odour after sunset.
Footnote 95:
p. 73.—_As the viper weaves its wily covering._
“Concerning the vipers, which Pliny says were frequent among the balsam-trees, I made very particular inquiry: several were brought me alive both to Yambo and Jidda.”—_Bruce._
Footnote 96:
p. 81.—_The sunny apples of Istkahar._—“In the territory of Istkahar there is a kind of apple, half of which is sweet and half sour.”—_Ebn Haukal._
Footnote 97:
p. 82.—_They saw a young Hindoo girl upon the bank._—For an account of this ceremony, see _Grandpré_’s Voyage in the Indian Ocean.
Footnote 98:
p. 82.—_The Oton-tala, or Sea of Stars._—“The place where the Whangho, a river of Tibet, rises, and where there are more than a hundred springs, which sparkle like stars; whence it is called Hotun-nor, that is, the Sea of Stars.”—_Description of Tibet in Pinkerton._
Footnote 99:
p. 84.—_Hath sprung up here._
“The Lescar or Imperial Camp is divided, like a regular town, into squares, alleys, and streets, and from a rising ground furnishes one of the most agreeable prospects in the world. Starting up in a few hours in an uninhabited plain, it raises the idea of a city built by enchantment. Even those who leave their houses in cities to follow the prince in his progress are frequently so charmed by the Lescar, when situated in a beautiful and convenient place, that they cannot prevail with themselves to remove. To prevent this inconvenience to the court, the Emperor, after sufficient time is allowed to the tradesmen to follow, orders them to be burnt out of their tents.”—_Dow_’s Hindostan.
Colonel Wilks gives a lively picture of an Eastern encampment:—“His camp, like that of most Indian armies, exhibited a motley collection of covers from the scorching sun and dews of the night, variegated according to the taste or means of each individual, by extensive inclosures of coloured calico surrounding superb suites of tents; by ragged cloths or blankets stretched over sticks or branches; palm leaves hastily spread over similar supports; handsome tents and splendid canopies; horses, oxen, elephants, and camels; all intermixed without any exterior mark of order or design, except the flags of the chiefs, which usually mark the centres of a congeries of these masses; the only regular part of the encampment being the streets of shops, each of which is constructed nearly in the manner of a booth at an English fair.”—_Historical Sketches of the South of India._
Footnote 100:
p. 84.—_Built the high pillar’d halls of_ CHILMINAR.
The edifices of Chilminar and Balbec are supposed to have been built by the Genii, acting under the orders of Jan ben Jan, who governed the world long before the time of Adam.
Footnote 101:
p. 85.—_And camels, tufted o’er with Yemen’s shells._
“A superb camel, ornamented with strings and tufts of small shells.”—_Ali Bey._
Footnote 102:
p. 85.—_But the far torrent, or the locust bird._
A native of Khorassan, and allured southward by means of the water of a fountain between Shiraz and Ispahan, called the Fountain of Birds, of which it is so fond that it will follow wherever that water is carried.
Footnote 103:
p. 85.—_Of laden camels and their drivers’ songs._
“Some of the camels have bells about their necks, and some about their legs, like those which our carriers put about their forehorses’ necks, which together with the servants (who belong to the camels, and travel on foot), singing all night, make a pleasant noise, and the journey passes away delightfully.”—_Pitt_’s Account of the Mahometans.
“The camel-driver follows the camels singing, and sometimes playing upon his pipe; the louder he sings and pipes, the faster the camels go. Nay, they will stand still when he gives over his music.”—_Tavernier._
Footnote 104:
p. 85.—_Of the’ Abyssinian trumpet, swell and float._
“This trumpet is often called, in Abyssinia, _nesser cano_, which signifies the Note of the Eagle.”—_Note of Bruce’s Editor._
Footnote 105:
p. 85.—_The Night and Shadow, over yonder tent._
The two black standards borne before the Caliphs of the House of Abbas were called, allegorically, The Night and The Shadow.—See _Gibbon_.
Footnote 106:
p. 86.—_Defiance fierce at Islam._—The Mahometan religion.
Footnote 107:
p. 86.—_But, having sworn upon the Holy Grave._
“The Persians swear by the tomb of Shah Besade, who is buried at Casbin; and when one desires another to asseverate a matter, he will ask him, if he dare swear by the Holy Grave.”—_Struy._
Footnote 108:
p. 86.—_Were spoil’d to feed the Pilgrim’s luxury._
Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of gold.
Footnote 109:
p. 86.—_Of_ MECCA’S _sun, with urns of Persian snow._
“Nivem Meccam apportavit, rem ibi aut nunquam aut raro visam.”—_Abulfeda._
Footnote 110:
p. 86.—_First, in the van, the People of the Rock._
The inhabitants of Hejaz or Arabia Petræa, called by an Eastern writer “The People of the Rock.”—See _Ebn Haukal_.
Footnote 111:
p. 86.—_On their light mountain steeds, of royal stock._
“Those horses, called by the Arabians Kochlani, of whom a written genealogy has been kept for 2,000 years. They are said to derive their origin from King Solomon’s steeds.”—_Niebuhr._
Footnote 112:
p. 87.—_The flashing of their swords’ rich marquetry._
“Many of the figures on the blades of their swords are wrought in gold or silver, or in marquetry with small gems.”—_Asiat. Misc._ v. i.
Footnote 113:
p. 87.—_With dusky legions from the land of Myrrh._
Azab or Saba.
Footnote 114:
p. 87.—_Waving their heron crests with martial grace._
“The chiefs of the Uzbek Tartars wear a plume of white heron’s feathers in their turbans.”—_Account of Independent Tartary._
Footnote 115:
p. 87.—_Wild warriors of the turquoise hills._
“In the mountains of Nishapour and Tous (in Khorassan) they find turquoises.”—_Ebn Haukal._
Footnote 116:
p. 87.—_Of_ HINDOO KOSH, _in stormy freedom bred._
For a description of these stupendous ranges of mountains, see _Elphinstone’s Caubul_.
Footnote 117:
p. 88.—_Her Worshippers of Fire._
The Ghebers or Guebres, those original natives of Persia, who adhered to their ancient faith, the religion of Zoroaster, and who, after the conquest of their country by the Arabs, were either persecuted at home, or forced to become wanderers abroad.
Footnote 118:
p. 88.—_From_ YEZD’S _eternal Mansion of the Fire._
“Yezd, the chief residence of those ancient natives, who worship the Sun and the Fire, which latter they have carefully kept lighted, without being once extinguished for a moment, about 3,000 years, on a mountain near Yezd, called Ater Quedah, signifying the House or Mansion of the Fire. He is reckoned very unfortunate who dies off that mountain.”—_Stephen_’s Persia.
Footnote 119:
p. 88.—_That burn into the_ CASPIAN, _fierce they came._
“When the weather is hazy, the springs of Naphtha (on an island near Baku) boil up the higher, and the Naphtha often takes fire on the surface of the earth, and runs in a flame into the sea to a distance almost incredible.”—_Hanway on the Everlasting Fire at Baku._
Footnote 120:
p. 88.—_By which the prostrate Caravan is aw’d._
_Savary_ says of the south wind, which blows in Egypt from February to May, “Sometimes it appears only in the shape of an impetuous whirlwind, which passes rapidly, and is fatal to the traveller surprised in the middle of the deserts. Torrents of burning sand roll before it, the firmament is enveloped in a thick veil, and the sun appears of the colour of blood. Sometimes whole caravans are buried in it.”
Footnote 121:
p. 89.—_The Champions of the Faith through_ BEDER’S _vale._
In the great victory gained by Mahomed at Beder, he was assisted, say the Mussulmans, by three thousand angels, led by Gabriel, mounted on his horse Hiazum.—See _The Koran and its Commentators_.
Footnote 122:
p. 92.—“_Alla Akbar!_”
The Tecbir, or cry of the Arabs. “Alla Acbar!” says Ockley, means “God is most mighty.”
Footnote 123:
p. 92.—_And light your shrines and chaunt your ziraleets._
The ziraleet is a kind of chorus, which the women of the East sing upon joyful occasions.—_Russel._
Footnote 124:
p. 92.—_Or warm or brighten,—like that Syrian Lake._
The Dead Sea, which contains neither animal nor vegetable life.
Footnote 125:
p. 95.—_O’er his lost throne—then pass’d the_ JIHON’S _flood._
The ancient Oxus.
Footnote 126:
p. 95.—_Rais’d the white banner within_ NEKSHEB’S _gates._
A city of Transoxiana.
Footnote 127:
p. 95.—_To-day’s young flower is springing in its stead._
“You never can cast your eyes on this tree, but you meet there either blossoms or fruit; and as the blossom drops underneath on the ground (which is frequently covered with these purple-coloured flowers), others come forth in their stead,” &c. &c.—_Nieuhoff._
Footnote 128:
p. 96.—_With which the Dives have gifted him._
The Demons of the Persian mythology.
Footnote 129:
p. 96.—_That spangle_ INDIA’S _fields on showery nights._
Carreri mentions the fire-flies in India during the rainy season.—See his Travels.
Footnote 130:
p. 96.—_Who brush’d the thousands of the’ Assyrian King._
Sennacherib, called by the Orientals King of Moussal.—_D’Herbelot._
Footnote 131:
p. 97.—_Of_ PARVIZ.
Chosroes. For the description of his Throne or Palace, see _Gibbon_ and _D’Herbelot._
There were said to be under this Throne or Palace of Khosrou Parviz a hundred vaults filled with “treasures so immense that some Mahometan writers tell us, their Prophet, to encourage his disciples, carried them to a rock, which at his command opened, and gave them a prospect through it of the treasures of Khosrou.”—_Universal History._
Footnote 132:
p. 97.—_And the heron crest that shone._
“The crown of Gerashid is cloudy and tarnished before the heron tuft of thy turban.”—From one of the elegies or songs in praise of Ali, written in characters of gold round the gallery of Abbas’s tomb.—See _Chardin_.
Footnote 133:
p. 97.—_Magnificent, o’er_ ALI’S _beauteous eyes._
The beauty of Ali’s eyes was so remarkable, that whenever the Persians would describe any thing as very lovely, they say it is Ayn Hali, or the Eyes of Ali.—_Chardin._
Footnote 134:
p. 98.—_Rise from the Holy Well, and cast its light._
We are not told more of this trick of the Impostor, than that it was “une machine, qu’il disoit être la Lune.” According to Richardson, the miracle is perpetuated in Nekscheb.—“Nakshab, the name of a city in Transoxiana, where they say there is a well, in which the appearance of the moon is to be seen night and day.”
Footnote 135:
p. 98.—_Round the rich city and the plain for miles._
“Il amusa pendant deux mois le peuple de la ville de Nekhscheb, en faisant sortir toutes les nuits du fond d’un puits un corps lumineux semblable à la Lune, qui portoit sa lumière jusqu’à la distance de plusieurs milles.”—_D’Herbelot._ Hence he was called Sazendéhmah, or the Moon-maker.
Footnote 136:
p. 99.—_Had rested on the Ark._
The Shechinah, called Sakînat in the Koran.—See _Sale’s Note_, chap. ii.
Footnote 137:
p. 99.—_Of the small drum with which they count the night._
The parts of the night are made known as well by instruments of music, as by the rounds of the watchmen with cries and small drums.—See _Burder’s Oriental Customs_, vol. i. p. 119.
Footnote 138:
p. 99.—_On for the lamps, that light yon lofty screen._
The Serrapurda, high screens of red cloth, stiffened with cane, used to enclose a considerable space round the royal tents.—_Notes on the Bahardanush._
The tents of Princes were generally illuminated. Norden tells us that the tent of the Bey of Girge was distinguished from the other tents by forty lanterns being suspended before it.—See _Harmer’s Observations on Job_.
Footnote 139:
p. 100.—_Pour to the spot, like bees of_ KAUZEROON.
“From the groves of orange trees at Kauzeroon the bees cull a celebrated honey.”—_Morier_’s Travels.
Footnote 140:
p. 102.—_Of nuptial pomp, she sinks into his tide._
“A custom still subsisting at this day, seems to me to prove that the Egyptians formerly sacrificed a young virgin to the God of the Nile; for they now make a statue of earth in shape of a girl, to which they give the name of the Betrothed Bride, and throw it into the river.”—_Savary._
Footnote 141:
p. 103.—_Engines of havoc in, unknown before._
That they knew the secret of the Greek fire among the Mussulmans early in the eleventh century, appears from _Dow_’s Account of Mamood I. “When he arrived at Moultan, finding that the country of the Jits was defended by great rivers, he ordered fifteen hundred boats to be built, each of which he armed with six iron spikes, projecting from their prows and sides, to prevent their being boarded by the enemy, who were very expert in that kind of war. When he had launched this fleet, he ordered twenty archers into each boat, and five others with fire-balls, to burn the craft of the Jits, and naphtha to set the whole river on fire.”
The _agnee aster_, too, in Indian poems the Instrument of fire, whose flame cannot be extinguished, is supposed to signify the Greek Fire.—See _Wilks_’s South of India, vol. i. p. 471.—And in the curious Javan Poem, the _Brata Yudha_, given by _Sir Stamford Raffles_ in his History of Java, we find, “He aimed at the heart of Soéta with the sharp-pointed Weapon of Fire.”
The mention of gunpowder as in use among the Arabians, long before its supposed discovery in Europe, is introduced by _Ebn Fadhl_, the Egyptian geographer, who lived in the thirteenth century. “Bodies,” he says, “in the form of scorpions, bound round and filled with nitrous powder, glide along, making a gentle noise; then, exploding, they lighten, as it were, and burn. But there are others which, cast into the air, stretch along like a cloud, roaring horribly, as thunder roars, and on all sides vomiting out flames, burst, burn, and reduce to cinders whatever comes in their way.” The historian _Ben Abdalla_, in speaking of the sieges of Abulualid in the year of the Hegira 712, says, “A fiery globe, by means of combustible matter, with a mighty noise suddenly emitted, strikes with the force of lightning, and shakes the citadel.”—See the Extracts from _Casiri_’s Biblioth. Arab. Hispan. in the Appendix to _Berington_’s Literary History of the Middle Ages.
Footnote 142:
p. 103.—_And horrible as new;—javelins that fly._
The Greek fire, which was occasionally lent by the emperors to their allies. “It was,” says Gibbon, “either launched in red hot balls of stone and iron, or darted in arrows or javelins, twisted round with flax and tow, which had deeply imbibed the inflammable oil.”
Footnote 143:
p. 103.—_Discharge, as from a kindled Naphtha fount._
See _Hanway_’s Account of the Springs of Naphtha at Baku (which is called by _Lieutenant Pottinger_ Joala Mokee, or, the Flaming Mouth) taking fire and running into the sea. _Dr. Cooke_, in his Journal, mentions some wells in Circassia, strongly impregnated with this inflammable oil, from which issues boiling water. “Though the weather,” he adds, “was now very cold, the warmth of these wells of hot water produced near them the verdure and flowers of spring.”
_Major Scott Waring_ says, that naphtha is used by the Persians, as we are told it was in hell, for lamps.
... many a row Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed With naphtha and asphaltus, yielding light As from a sky.
Footnote 144:
p. 104.—_Like those wild birds that by the Magians oft._
“At the great festival of fire, called the Sheb Sezê, they used to set fire to large bunches of dry combustibles, fastened round wild beasts and birds, which being then let loose, the air and earth appeared one great illumination; and as these terrified creatures naturally fled to the woods for shelter, it is easy to conceive the conflagrations they produced.”—_Richardson_’s Dissertation.
Footnote 145:
p. 106.—_Keep, seal’d with precious musk, for those they love._
“The righteous shall be given to drink of pure wine, sealed; the seal whereof shall be musk.”—_Koran_, chap. lxxxiii.
Footnote 146:
p. 110.—_On its own brood;—no Demon of the Waste._
“The Afghauns believe each of the numerous solitudes and deserts of their country to be inhabited by a lonely demon, whom they call the Ghoolee Beeabau, or Spirit of the Waste. They often illustrate the wildness of any sequestered tribe, by saying, they are wild as the Demon of the Waste.”—_Elphinstone_’s Caubul.
Footnote 147:
p. 111.—_With burning drugs, for this last hour distill’d._
“Il donna du poison dans le vin à tous ses gens, et se jetta lui-même ensuite dans une cuve pleine de drogues brûlantes et consumantes, afin qu’il ne restât rien de tous les membres de son corps, et que ceux qui restoient de sa secte puissent croire qu’il étoit monté au ciel, ce qui ne manqua pas d’arriver.”—_D’Herbelot._
Footnote 148:
p. 113.—_In the lone Cities of the Silent dwell._
“They have all a great reverence for burial-grounds, which they sometimes call by the poetical name of Cities of the Silent, and which they people with the ghosts of the departed, who sit each at the head of his own grave, invisible to mortal eyes.”—_Elphinstone._
Footnote 149:
p. 120.—_And to eat any mangoes but those of Mazagong was, of course, impossible._—“The celebrity of Mazagong is owing to its mangoes, which are certainly the best fruit I ever tasted. The parent-tree, from which all those of this species have been grafted, is honoured during the fruit-season by a guard of sepoys; and, in the reign of Shah Jehan, couriers were stationed between Delhi and the Mahratta coast to secure an abundant and fresh supply of mangoes for the royal table.”—_Mrs. Graham_’s Journal of a Residence in India.
Footnote 150:
p. 120.—_Laden with his fine antique porcelain._—This old porcelain is found in digging, and “if it is esteemed, it is not because it has acquired any new degree of beauty in the earth, but because it has retained its ancient beauty; and this alone is of great importance in China, where they give large sums for the smallest vessels which were used under the Emperors Yan and Chun, who reigned many ages before the dynasty of Tang, at which time porcelain began to be used by the Emperors” (about the year 442).—_Dunn_’s Collection of curious Observations, &c.;—a bad translation of some parts of the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses of the Missionary Jesuits.
Footnote 151:
p. 122.—_And if Nasser, the Arabian merchant, told no better._—“La lecture de ces Fables plaisoit si fort aux Arabes, que, quand Mahomet les entretenoit de l’Histoire de l’Ancien Testament, ils les méprisoient, lui disant que celles que Nasser leur racontoit étoient beaucoup plus belles. Cette préférence attira à Nasser la malédiction de Mahomet et de tous ses disciples.”—_D’Herbelot._
Footnote 152:
p. 122.—_Like the blacksmith’s apron converted into a banner._—The blacksmith Gao, who successfully resisted the tyrant Zohak, and whose apron became the Royal Standard of Persia.
Footnote 153:
p. 125.—_That sublime bird, which flies always in the air, and never touches the earth._—“The Huma, a bird peculiar to the East. It is supposed to fly constantly in the air, and never touch the ground: it is looked upon as a bird of happy omen; and that every head it overshades will in time wear a crown.”—_Richardson._
In the terms of alliance made by Fuzzel Oola Khan with Hyder in 1760, one of the stipulations was, “that he should have the distinction of two honorary attendants standing behind him, holding fans composed of the feathers of the Humma, according to the practice of his family.”—_Wilk_’s South of India. He adds in a note:—“The Humma is a fabulous bird. The head over which its shadow once passes will assuredly be circled with a crown. The splendid little bird suspended over the throne of Tippoo Sultaun, found at Seringapatam in 1799, was intended to represent this poetical fancy.”
Footnote 154:
p. 125.—_Like those on the Written Mountain, last for ever._—“To the pilgrims to Mount Sinai we must attribute the inscriptions, figures, &c. on those rocks, which have from thence acquired the name of the Written Mountain.”—_Volney._ M. Gebelin and others have been at much pains to attach some mysterious and important meaning to these inscriptions; but Niebuhr, as well as Volney, thinks that they must have been executed at idle hours by the travellers to Mount Sinai, “who were satisfied with cutting the unpolished rock with any pointed instrument; adding to their names and the date of their journeys some rude figures which bespeak the hand of a people but little skilled in the arts.”—_Niebuhr._
Footnote 155:
p. 125.—_Like the old Man of the Sea, upon his back._—The Story of Sinbad.
Footnote 156:
p. 126.—_To which Hafez compares his mistress’s hair._—See _Nott_’s Hafez, Ode v.
Footnote 157:
p. 126.—_To the Cámalatá, by whose rosy blossoms the heaven of Indra is scented._—“The Cámalatá (called by Linnæus, Ipomæa) is the most beautiful of its order, both in the colour and form of its leaves and flowers; its elegant blossoms are ‘celestial rosy red, Love’s proper hue,’ and have justly procured it the name of Cámalatá, or Love’s Creeper.”—_Sir W. Jones._
“Cámalatá may also mean a mythological plant, by which all desires are granted to such as inhabit the heaven of Indra; and if ever flower was worthy of paradise, it is our charming Ipomæa”—_Sir W. Jones._
Footnote 158:
p. 126.—_That flower-loving Nymph whom they worship in the temples of Kathay._—“According to Father Premare, in his tract on Chinese Mythology, the mother of Fo-hi was the daughter of heaven, surnamed Flower-loving; and as the nymph was walking alone on the bank of a river, she found herself encircled by a rainbow, after which she became pregnant, and, at the end of twelve years, was delivered of a son radiant as herself.”—_Asiat. Res._
Footnote 159:
p. 130.—_With its plane-tree Isle reflected clear._
“Numerous small islands emerge from the Lake of Cashmere. One is called Char Chenaur, from the plane-trees upon it.”—_Foster._
Footnote 160:
p. 130.—_And the golden floods that thitherward stray._
“The Altan Kol or Golden River of Tibet, which runs into the Lakes of Sing-su-hay, has abundance of gold in its sands, which employs the inhabitants all the summer in gathering it.”—_Description of Tibet in Pinkerton._
Footnote 161:
p. 131.—_Blooms nowhere but in Paradise._
“The Brahmins of this province insist that the blue campac flowers only in Paradise.”—_Sir W. Jones._ It appears, however, from a curious letter of the sultan of Menangcabow, given by Marsden, that one place on earth may lay claim to the possession of it. “This is the Sultan, who keeps the flower champaka that is blue, and to be found in no other country but his, being yellow elsewhere.”—_Marsden_’s Sumatra.
Footnote 162:
p. 131.—_Flung at night from angel hands._
“The Mahometans suppose that falling stars are the firebrands wherewith the good angels drive away the bad, when they approach too near the empyrean or verge of the heavens.”—_Fryer._
Footnote 163:
p. 132.—_Beneath the pillars of_ CHILMINAR.
The Forty Pillars; so the Persians call the ruins of Persepolis. It is imagined by them that this palace and the edifices at Balbec were built by Genii, for the purpose of hiding in their subterraneous caverns immense treasures, which still remain there.—See _D’Herbelot_ and _Volney._
Footnote 164:
p. 132.—_To the south of sun-bright Araby._—The Isles of Panchaia.