The Infidels, In
Their Headlong Fight, Lightened Their Beasts By Emptying Their Bags Of
"Sawik." This Is The Old And Modern Arabic Name For A Dish Of Green
Grain, Toasted, Pounded, Mixed With Dates Or Sugar, And Eaten On
Journeys When It Is Found Difficult To Cook.
Such is the present
signification of the word:
M.C. de Perceval (vol. iii., p. 84) gives it
a different and a now unknown meaning. And our popular authors
erroneously call the affair the "War of the Meal-sacks."
[FN#13] A popular but not a bad pun-"Harb" (Fight), becomes, by the
alteration of the H, "Harb" (Flight).
[FN#14] The old Arabic proverb is "A greater wiseacre than the goat of
Akhfash"; it is seldom intelligible to the vulgar.
[FN#15] That is to say, "I will burn them (metaphorically) as the fiery
wick consumes the oil,"-a most idiomatic Hijazi threat.
[FN#16] A "cold-of-countenance" is a fool. Arabs use the word "cold" in
a peculiar way. "May Allah refrigerate thy countenance!" i.e. may it
show misery and want. "By Allah, a cold speech!" that is to say, a
silly or an abusive tirade.
[FN#17] That is to say, they would use, if necessary, the dearest and
noblest parts of their bodies (their eyes) to do the duty of the basest
(i.e. their feet).
[FN#18] Writers mention two Al-Akik. The superior comprises the whole
site of Al-Madinah, extending from the Western Ridge, mentioned below,
to the cemetery Al-Bakia. The inferior is the Fiumara here alluded to;
it is on the Meccan road, about four miles S.W. of Al-Madinah, and its
waters fall into the Al-Hamra torrent. It is called the "Blessed
Valley" because the Prophet was ordered by an angel to pray in it.
[FN#19] The esoteric meaning of this couplet is, "Man! this is a lovely
portion of God's creation: then stand by it, and here learn to love the
perfections of thy Supreme Friend."
[FN#20] Al-Harratayn for Al-Harratani, the oblique case of the dual and
plural noun being universally used for the nominative in colloquial
Arabic. The other one of the Two Ridges will be described in a future
part of this Book.
[FN#21] The city is first seen from the top of the valley called Nakb,
or Shuab Ali, close to the Wady al-Akik, a long narrow pass, about five
miles from Al-Madinah. Here, according to some, was the Mosque Zu'l
Halifah, where the Prophet put on the Pilgrim's garb when travelling to
Meccah. It is also called "The Mosque of the Tree," because near it
grew a fruit tree under which the Prophet twice sat. Ibn Jubayr
considers that the Harim (or sacred precincts of Al-Madinah) is the
space enclosed by three points, Zu'l Halifah, Mount Ohod, and the
Mosque of Kuba. To the present day pilgrims doff their worldly garments
at Zu'l Halifah.
[FN#22] That is to say, "throughout all ages and all nations." The
Arabs divide the world into two great bodies:
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