THE THIRTY-FIRST ASSEMBLY.

Travel fills the provision-bags, i.e., increases a man’s wealth, in accordance with the saying, “motion produces and rest is barren.” Readers of the “Arabian Nights” will remember the numerous quotations of verses in praise of travel contained in it, to which may be added, from De Sacy’s commentary, the following lines of Gurrudurru (for whom see Ibn Khallikân, i. 500):

“Press on thy camels to the open plain, and leave fair damsels to abide in palaces.

For those who cling to their countries are like the dwellers in the graves.

If it were not for resorting to foreign parts the pearls of the seas would not adorn the necks of beauty.

Rise and bestir thyself briskly in the lands, for he who sticks at home is looked down upon,

As the Pawn is made little of until, when he moves on, he queens it right royally.”

The last simile, taken from chess, is a translation into our phraseology of the game of the Arabic, iẕâ sâra ṣâra farzânan, when he travels, he becomes a wazîr.

I made up my mind, etc., in Arabic istajashtu, I asked for an army (jaish) and help from it. The following “started” is in the original aṣ‘adtu, which generally has the meaning of “I ascended,” but must here evidently be taken in the sense of tawajjahtu, “I travelled in the direction of.”

To the mother of cities.—Ummu ’l-qurá, a name given by the Mohammedans to Mecca, because she is the first and therefore maternal city created by Allah, and because the people of all other towns resort to her (ya’ummûna-hâ).

So between night-faring and journeying by day, between trotting and ambling.—In Arabic baina idlâjin wa ta’wîbin wa îjâfin wa taqrîbin, infinitives of verbs, signifying various modes of travelling on camels, amongst which îfâf, the verbal noun of the fourth form of wajf, occurs in the Koran, lix. 6. I have translated it by “trotting,” but its literal meaning is “running in leaps” (sâra ’l-‘anaq).

That which rescues on the day of the mutual call, that is, of resur­rection, in allusion to Koran, xl. 34: “And, O my people! I indeed fear for you the day of mutual outcry,” when, according to vii. 42, “The inmates of Paradise shall cry to the inmates of the fire, ‘now have we found what our Lord promised us to be true; have ye too found what your Lord promised you to be true?’ And they shall answer ‘Yes’; and a Herald shall proclaim between them, ‘The curse of God be upon the evil-doers.’” Other commentators, however, explain it as the day of assembly, the expression tanadá ’l-qaum being synonymous with ijtama‘û.

Flocking together from the mountain-paths, an-nâsilîna min al-fijâj, for which comp. Koran, xxi. 96.

That piety is the tucking up of sleeves.—In Arabic naẓwu ’l-ardân, which is usually called tashmîr, and done to show readiness for work, especially in travelling. The word naẓw may also be taken in the sense of putting off, in which case the sleeves would be pars pro toto, and the expression would indicate the stripping of the body from all other garments, in order to don the iḥrâm, or pilgrim-cloak. But as the latter act does not precede, but follow the separation from family and country, the former interpretation seems preferable.

In making for yonder building, meaning the Ka‘bah, to which the preacher had alluded when he said at the beginning of his address: “Do ye comprehend what ye are about to face?”

For by Him, who prescribed the rites for the devout.—Here in particular the ceremonies of the pilgrimage, for a description of which see the article Ḥajj in Hughes’ “Dictionary of Islâm,” pp. 155–159; Burkhardt’s “Travels in Arabia,” i. 363; and Burton’s “Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.”

The girding with the izâr profits [avails] not when one is burdened with iniquities.—In the original ma‘a ’l-iẓt̤ila‘i bi ’l-auzâr. The last word is the plural of wizr, “a heavy load,” and metaphorically “crime,” “iniquity,” which occurs in Koran, vi. 164: “No soul shall labour but for itself; and no burdened one (wâzirah) shall bear (yazir) another’s burden (wizr).”

None prospers by visiting mount ‘Arafât.—In Arabic bi-‘arafata, without article and imperfectly declined. In this form the word is the technical term for the ceremony of visiting the holy mountain, the name of which latter is ‘arafât, a plural without singular. Another term for the said ceremony is ta‘rîf, verbal noun of the second form, which is explained as wuqûfun bi‘arifât, the station on mount ‘Arafât, and which occurs lower down in connection with ifâẓah, the running down or dispersion from it, as in Koran, ii. 194: “And when ye disperse from ‘Arafât.”

For a losing bargain of dissemblers it suffices that they plant and reap not, lit., the sufficiency of dissemblers with regard to or for deception is that they plant and reap not, for they are sufficiently punished thereby. The accusative ghabnan is analogous to that in Koran, iv. 47: wa kafá bi ’llâhi naṣîran, and God is a sufficient helper, lit., suffices as to a helper.

For, lo, no hidden deed shall remain hidden from the Compassionate, allusion to Koran, lxix. 18.

And the threader of the pearl-strings that he had displayed, lit., recited (anshada-hâ). Naṣîf al-Yazaji objects to the change of vowel between anshada, the reading of De Sacy and most manuscripts, and the preceding anshudu, “I was searching for.” He proposes unshadu-hâ, aor. pass. of the fourth form, in the sense of “which had been recited to me.” In this case the verb would govern two accusatives, one of which has become nominative in the passive voice, the admissibility of which seems doubtful, and, moreover, the change of vowel is not avoided thereby. The editors of the second edition of De Sacy, while preserving his reading in the text, remark in a note, that if an alteration should appear desirable they would suggest unshida-hâ, when the meaning would be, “which I am reciting or quoting throughout my narrative.” Curiously enough this suggestion is confirmed by my own MS., and it has certainly much to recommend it.

Until he had climbed up (tawaqqala) one of the mountains, to which comp. Ar. Prov., ii. 840: auqalu min ghufrin, “a better climber than the young of a chamois or mountain-goat.”

He made hand fall upon hand, i.e., he clapped his hands, as to mark time. The word banân, which literally means the finger-tips, is here used for hand, as in the Koran, viii. 12, it is used, according to some commentators, for hands and feet, or the extremities in general.

Curing (lit., tanning) it with sore repentance before the hide all through is rotten, a popular saying, for which comp. Ar. Prov., ii. 346.