The Ghûṭah.—This is the fertile plain in which the city of Damascus is situated. A ghûṭah is a low, well-watered plain; and the name is applied especially to one of the richest spots with which the Arabs were acquainted. Some writers have rather fancifully identified the of Job with this place. (See Gesenius, sub voce). A commentator says, “The Ghûṭah of Damascus is reckoned among the gardens or paradises of the earth, which, according to Al Wâḥidi, are four in number; the Ghûṭah of Damascus, the valley or pass of Bawwân, the Ubulleh of Basra, and the Sughd of Samarcand.” To these the Andalusians would add the Vega of Granada. According to Al Aṣma‘î, the beautiful places of the earth were three, Damascus, Samarcand, and Basra. Sherîshi compares Damascus with Irem thât al ‘Imâd, for its beauty and splendour. Irem with the Columns was the city which Sheddâd, son of ‘Âd, built for himself before his accursed race was destroyed by God; it is mentioned in Koran lxxxix. 6. It remains invisible to the eyes of mortals in the desert near Aden, though God sometimes permits it to be seen, as was the case in the days of the Khalif Mu‘âwiyeh, when one Abû Kilâbeh, crossing the deserts of Yemen in search of a run-away camel, came upon it, and brought back some of the jewels with which its streets are strewed. When a place is exceedingly beautiful and magnifi­cent it is said to be like Irem al ‘Imâd. It is a Tradition that Mohammed, before his death, held out to his disciples the pos­session of Damascus as the chief incentive to an invasion of Syria. The Moslem legend is that the city received its name from its founder Dimeshḳ, son of Nimrod, son of Canaan, or as others say, Dimeshḳ, son of Bâtir, son of Mâlik, son of Arphaxad, son of Shem, son of Noah.

Steeds.—Having short and fine hair, which is one of the signs of a good breed.

Freedom of arm; fulness of store: Literally, “of udder.” These metaphors are used to signify ease of life and affluence. Compare Job xxi, 24: “His breasts are full of milk.”

Agreement was completed.—, it became complete and in a right state; literally, it demanded loss, or diminution, or destruction; because these sometimes follow completeness: or the may be substituted for , the meaning being (Lane).

From every tribe.—The largest division or tribe of Arabs descended from a common ancestor was called ; a part of this was ; a part of this again was ; a part of this was ; a part of this ; and, lastly, a part of this . The single family was called .

In the clans.— appears to be a word of general significa­tion, applied to the descendants of one ancestor, whether many or few. It is sometimes equivalent to , sometimes to , and sometimes to .

The gate of Jayrûn.—A gate of the great mosque of Damas­cus, built by the magnificent Khalif Welîd, son of ‘Abd al Melik, on the site of a church of St. John, and still known as the mosque of the Benû Omayyeh. This celebrated structure, which is the exemplar after which so many great works have been executed, both in the East and in Spain, has been so often described that it is needless to speak further of it here. It occupied the Khalif during the ten years of his reign, from 86 to 96; but did not prevent him from enriching Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem with costly monuments. In Mecca he adorned the Ka‘beh with gold; in Medina he enlarged the mosque of the Prophet’s tomb. Jayrûn is said to be the name of an ancient patriarch, son of the builder of Damascus. It was pro­bably applied also to one of the gates of the city, for in De Sacy’s Commentary we find, “Jayrûn is the name of one of the gates of Damascus, on the eastern side,” and it is more likely that the travellers assembled outside the city.

Tying and untying, and plaiting and twining.—Metaphorical expressions, signifying the formation of schemes, complicated or simple, and the subsequent abandonment of them.

The rosary of women.—A string of beads, used in wor­ship to count the number of prayers or ejaculations. The use of this rosary is described in Lane’s Modern Egyptians. The worshipper, at a certain period of his devotions, repeats “The perfection of God;” “Praise be to God;” and “God is most great,” each thirty-three times, and he counts these repe­titions with a string of beads. The beads are 99, and they have a mark between each thirty-three. They are of aloes, or other odoriferous or precious wood, or of coral, or of certain fruit-stones, or seeds, &c. Chapter iii.

As the garb of monks.—Religious devotees in Islam assimi­lated their practices to those of the Christian monks, in spite of a celebrated Tradition of the Prophet; “No monkery in Islam, and no celibacy.” This Tradition is alluded to in the Forty-third Assembly. The Prophet said to ‘Akâf ibn Wadâ‘ah, “Hast thou a wife?” He answered, “No.” “Then,” said the Prophet, “thou belongest to the brotherhood of the devils. If thou wilt be one of the Christian monks, then keep with them; but if thou wilt be one of us, know that it is our custom to marry.”

Giddiness from watchings.—Literally, the look of religious intoxication produced by watching and contemplation.

To steal a hearing.—As the devils do when they approach heaven to listen to what passes there. It is said, in Koran xv. 16: “We have set towers (constellations of the zodiac) in heaven, we have made them goodly to those who look thereon. —And we guard them from every devil, cast at with stones:— Save when one steals a hearing, and then a flame, visible to all follows him.”—This is the foundation of the belief that shooting stars are darts hurled by the angels against listening demons. Compare xxxvii. 6. I have seen it somewhere stated that a great flight of shooting stars, no doubt one of those whose period modern science has so accurately determined, was seen in the time of the Prophet, and gave rise to the revelations on this subject in the Koran. Certain days on which such phenomena occurred were afterwards known as .

Their secret was manifest to him.—Either the state of conceal­ment departed or ceased, or else what was in a state of conceal­ment became apparent, from , meaning “what is open and apparent of land.” This is a phrase from a traditional verse of Shiḳḳ the Diviner, one of the most famous personages of ancient Arabia. As Shiḳḳ and Saṭîḥ are often alluded to, and the latter is spoken of in the Eighteenth Assembly, it may be as well to give some account of them. Ibn Khallikân says, in his life of Khâlid al Ḳasri, one of the officers of the Khalif Hishâm, “Shiḳḳ was a son of the aunt of Saṭîḥ, the diviner, who foretold the coming of the Prophet, as is related in the Sîrat ar Resûl of Ibn Hishâm.” He then proceeds to describe them. We learn from him, and other authorities, that they were two deformed beings. Shiḳḳ was only half a man, and for this reason was called Shiḳḳ (half). He had but one cheek, one arm, and one leg. Saṭîḥ was without bones; he was a mere mass of flesh, with his face in his stomach, for he had neither head nor neck. He could not sit up except when angry. He then swelled and took a sitting posture. They received the gift of pro­phecy from Ẓarîfeh, the same who predicted to her hus­band, ‘Amr Muzayḳîyâ, the bursting of the dyke of Mareb. In an extract from the book called Kitâb al Jomân, given by De Sacy (Mémoires de l’Académie Royale, Vol. 48), the following account is given of this occurrence: “Shiḳḳ had received from God only half the form of a man. Saṭîḥ was a shapeless mass of flesh; he had no limbs, and his face was in his breast. In their time there was among the Arabs a woman called Ẓarîfeh, daughter of ‘Amr ibn ‘Âmir. None of the children of Adam had ever had more intercourse with Jinn, or was more able to make them speak by divination and au­guries. When she was about to die she sent for Shiḳḳ and Saṭiḥ, on account of their deformity, and the influence that demons had possessed upon them, and she spat in their mouth, and be­queathed to them her Jinn, after which she died, and was buried at Al Joḥfah.” The narrative goes on to say that they suc­ceeded her in the functions of divination, and rose to the highest degree of skill. Shiḳḳ died leaving behind him children. Saṭîḥ also died about the time Moḥammed was born; each of them having lived three hundred, or, as some say, six hundred years. The prophecy of Saṭîḥ respecting the Prophet is told as follows by the same author: The Tobba‘ of Yemen had a troublesome dream, the matter of which he could not remember. He sum­moned his wise men, who declared themselves ready to interpret if he could tell them what he had dreamed; but only Shiḳḳ and Saṭîḥ were able to tell him the dream itself. It was that a dove had flown from a holy place, and had settled in the Tihâmeh, the sea-coast region south of Mecca; and Saṭîḥ interpreted it to mean that a noble prophet would arise who would destroy idols, and teach the best of religions. According to Ṭabari, from whom de Sacy also gives an extract, the two diviners predicted to Rabî‘ah, son of Naṣr, a Jewish king of Yemen, that the Abyssinians should conquer the country and govern it, that they should be expelled, and that afterwards a prophet should arise among the Arabs, bringing a new religion, which all men should embrace, and which should endure in Yemen to the Day of Judgment. These theological prophecies have obtained for the two soothsayers great celebrity. The narrative in the Sîrat ar Resûl will be found at page 9, Wüstenfeld’s edition, Göttingen 1860. It relates, like that of Ṭabari, to Rabî‘at ibn Naṣr. The Jinn of this Arab divineress may be compared with the of the Israelite wizards and witches: Levit. xx. 27; 1 Sam. xxviii. 8.