Arabian Society in the Middle Ages

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/arabiansocietyinOOIaneuoft ARABIAN SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE AGES STUDIES FROM THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS BY EDWARD WILLIAM' LANE HON. DOCTOR OF LITERATURE, LEYDEN CORRESPONDANT DE l'iNSTITUT DE FRANCK EDITED BY HIS GRANDNEPHEW STANLEY LANE-POOLE B.A., M.R.A.S., LAUREAT DE l'INSTITUT HonUon CIIATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY 1883 [All rights reserved] r PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. TO THE MEMORY OF E. H. PALMEE, THE TRUE SUCCESSOR OF EDWARD WILLIAM LANE, IN HIS IKSIGHT IXTO EASTEU>f CHARACTER AKD THOUGHT AND HIS GENIUS FOB THE ARABIC LANGUAGE, THIS BOOK IS SORROWFULLY DEDICATED. PREFACE. When Mr. Lane translated the " Thousand and One Nights," he was not content with pro- ducing a mere rendering of the Arabic text : he saw that the manners and ideas there described required a commentary if they were to become intelHgible to an unlearned reader. At the end of each chapter of his translation, therefore, he appended a series of explanatory notes, which often reached the proportions of elaborate essays on the main characteristics of Mohammadan life. These notes have long been recognized by Orientalists as the most complete picture in existence of Arabian society—or rather of those Arab, Persian, or Grreek, but still Moham- madan, conditions of life and boundaries of the mental horizon which are generally distinguished by the name of Arabian. Their position and " Vlll PREFACE. arrangement, however, scattered as tliey were through three large vokimes, and inserted in the order required not by their subjects but by the tales they illustrated, rendered them difficult to consult, and cumbrous, if not impossible, to read consecutively. It has often been suggested that a reprint of the principal notes, in a convenient form and in natural sequence, would be a wel- come addition to the scholar's as well as to the general library. The publication of a new im- pression of the " Thousand and One Nights presented an opportunity for discussing the project ; and the result is the present volume. My task, as editor, has been a simple one. I have rejected only those notes which have no ^ value apart from the main work—glossarial notes, for instance, giving the English of the proper names occurring in the Arabian Nights ; disquisitions on the probable date of the composition of the tales ; and others inseparably connected with the stories themselves. The rest I have arranged in a series of chapters, interweaving the shorter notes in the longer, and giving as far as possible an air of unity to PREFACE. IX eacli division. Beyond sucli verbal alterations as were required by the separation of the notes from the text to which they referred, occasional changes in punctuation, and a slight alteration in the spelling of Oriental names in accordance with my great-uncle's latest method, I have not interfered with the form of the notes as they appeared in the edition of 1859. Such insig- nificant changes as I have made, I think I may state with confidence, would have been approved by the author. Beyond a few notes distinguished by square brackets, a new and very minute index (in which all Arabic words are explained), and a list of the authorities quoted, I have added nothing of my own. It may be objected to the title of the book that a considerable part of the notes is composed of recollections of Mr. Lane's personal experi- ences in Cairo in the early part of the present century. The subject-matter, however, is really medi93val. The notes have all the same pur- pose : to explain the conditions of life and society as they were at the time when the " Thousand and One Nights " assumed their X PREFACE. present collected form. Upon various grounds Mr. Lane placed this redaction or composition at about the end of the fifteenth century. Accordingly a large proportion of these notes consist of extracts from the more famous Arabic historians and other authors of the later Middle Ages, such as Ibn El-Jowzee (who died in a.d. 1256), El-Kazweenee (1283), Ibn-el-Wardee (1348), Ibn-Khaldoon (1406), El-Makreezee (1441), Es-Suyootee (1505), who all knew Arabian society in precisely the state described in the " Thousand and One Nights." Most of these authorities were unpublished when the notes were written, and Mr. Lane's quotations are from manuscripts in his own possession. Some are still inedited ; and though many have been printed at the Boolak Press and elsewhere, it is surprising how little they have been used by European authors. To the records of these mediaeval writers, Mr. Lane added the results of his personal experience ; and in doing so he was guilty of no anachronism : for the Arabian Society in which a Saladin, a Beybars, a Barkook, and a Kait-Bey ; PREFACE. XI moved, and of whicli the native historians have preserved so full and graphic a record, survived almost unchanged to the time of Mohammad 'Alee, when Mr. Lane spent many years of in- timate acquaintance among the people of Cairo. The life that he saw was the same as that described by El-Makreezee and Es-Suyootee and the purely Muslim society in which Mr. Lane preferred to move was in spirit, in custom, and in all essentials the same society that once hailed a Haroon er-Rasheed, a Jaafar el-Bar- mekee, and an Aboo-Nuwas, among its members. The continuity of Arabian social tradition was practically unbroken from almost the beginning of the Khalifate to the present century, at least in such a metropolis of Islam as Cairo, or as Damascus or Baghdad. European influence has been busy in demolishing it. Cairo has long been trying to become a bastard Paris instead of the picturesque city of El-Mo'izz and Salah-ed- Deen, and to forget its traditions of the palmy days of Islam and its memorials of the chivalrous heroes of crusading times. It would be impossible now to gather the minute details of a Xll PREFACE. purely Mohammadan society whicli Mr. Lane found ready to his eye and hand; and it is therefore the more fortunate that the record of Arabian Society, as it was during the Khalifate and under the rule of the Memlooks in the Middle Ages, and as it continued to be in Egypt to the days of Mohammad 'Alee, was faithfully preserved in the " Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians," and in the notes to the " Thousand and One Nights," which are here for the first time presented in a separate and consecutive form. STANLEY LANE-POOLE. Becemher, 1882. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. RELIGION. I'AOB Articles of Faith—Predestination—Eitual and Moral Laws: prayer, almsgiving, fasting, pilgrimage, etc. —Civil Laws: marriage, divorce, inheritance, manumission — Criminal Laws : murder, retaliation, theft, etc. —Eoligious Festivals 1 CHAPTER IL DEMONOLOGY. Angels and Jinn (Genii)—Various kinds of Jinn—Preadamite Jinn—History of Iblees—Long life of the Jinn and manner of death ; assumed shapes—A Jiuneeyeh wife—Spirits of the w^hirlwind and waterspout—Abodes of the Jinn—Solomon's power over them—Ghools and other inferior orders ... 2.5 CHAPTER IIL SAINTS. Welees and their Kutbs—El-Khidr and Elias—Miracles—In- fluence—Self-denial and asceticism—Two authentic saints —General habits—A historical saint—Pilgrimage to the tombs—Annual festivals—A Zikr performed by Darweeshes —A Khatmeh—Religious murder ... ... ... 47 —— xiv CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. Spiritual magic, divine or satauic—Babel—Haroot and Maroot Enchantment—Divination—Astrology—Geomancy—Augiu- ation — Cliiromancy— Omens — Dreams—A dream of the Great Plague, 1835—Lucky and unlucky days—Natural magic—Alchymy—The magician Sadoomeh and his miracles 80 CHAPTER V. COSMOGKAPHY. The seven Heavens—Paradise—Form and divisions of the earth —The Sea of Darkness—Fountain of Life—Mountains of Kaf—The lower earths—^^Vhat the earth stands on—The stages of Hell ... ... ... ... ... 97 CHAPTER VL LITEBATCKE. The Heroic Age—'Okadh—— The Kur-dn—The Middle Age- Corrupt dialects 'Abd-el-Melik—Haroon Er-Rasheed and Abu-l'Atahiyeh—The Barmekees —Dresses of honour—Two items in Iluroon's account book—Rewards to poets—Ham- mad's good fortune—Reception of Greek ambassadors by a Khalecfch—A niggardly king outwitted—The decline of Arabian literature—Letters—The language of flowers, and emblematical conversation—Secret signs—El-Mutanebbee's warning—The langixage of birds and beasts ... ... lOO CHAPTER Vn. FEASTING AND MEBBYMAKING. Muslim meals and mode of eating—Principal dishes—A typical feast—Public dinners—Clean and unclean meats— Drinks Hospitality — Bread and salt — A thief thwarted — An Arabian room—A hall or saloon—The use of \Yiue—Date . ——A CONTENTS. XV PAGE wine, etc.—Prevalence of the habit of drinking -wine in the present day and in history—A bout interrupted—Moderate drinking—Effects of wine—'Abd-el-Melik and his slave Preparations for a banquet—Fruits—A rose-lover— Favourite flowers — Music — Ibraheem El-M6silee and Haroon Er- Easheed—Ishak El-Mdsilee—Mukhiirik—Performers—Un- veiled women singers—Arab music—Lyric songs—Other amusements—The Bath—Hunting and hawking... ,., 135 CHAPTEE VIII. CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION. Ceremonies at birth, and on the seventh day— Giving the name — Sacrifice—Shaving the head—Suckling— Care of children —Evil eye—Eespect for parents—The future state of children who die young—Early education of the father Circumcision — Schools and teaching — Private tuition Education of girls—Arab character ... ... ... 186 CHAPTEE IX. Love among Arabs—Three tales of true love —Umm-'Ami"—The ideal of beauty—Coiffure—Gait—Woman's counsel—Mar- riage and divorce—Laws and general habits—Choice of a wife — Prohibited degrees — Cousins preferred —Ages— wife's qualifications—Dowry—Marriage contract—Festivi- ties and ceremonies of marriage—Wedding horoscopes—Em- ployment of the hareem—Polygamy and the Muslim social system in general—Affection between wives ..

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