The Badawin Sometimes, Though Rarely, Use
A Table Or Kettledrum.
Yet, amongst the “Pardah,” or miuscal modes of the
East, we find the Hijazi ranking with the Isfahani and
The Iraki.
Southern Arabia has never been celebrated for producing musicians, like
the banks of the Tigris to which we owe, besides castanets and cymbals,
the guitar, the drum, and the lute, father of the modern harp. The name
of this instrument is a corruption of the Arabic “Al-’ud” ([Arabic text]),
through liuto and luth, into lute.
[FN#6] NOTE TO THIRD EDITION.—Since this was written there have been two
deadly epidemics, which began, it is reported, at Muna. The victims,
however, have never numbered 700,000, nor is “each pilgrim required to
sacrifice one animal at the shrine of Mohammed,”(!) as we find it in
“Cholera Prospects,” by Tilbury Fox, M.D. (Hardwicke).
[FN#7] A scarf thrown over the head, with one end brought round under
the chin and passed over the left shoulder composes the “Taylasan.”
[FN#8] As late as Ibn Jubayr’s time the preacher was habited from head to
foot in black; and two Mu’ezzins held black flags fixed in rings on both
sides of the pulpit, with the staves propped upon the first step.
[FN#9] Mr. Lane remarks, that the wooden sword is never held by the
preacher but in a country that has been won from infidels by Moslems.
Burckhardt more correctly traces the origin of the custom to the early
days of Al-Islam, when the preachers found it necessary to be prepared
for surprises.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 290 of 630
Words from 78241 to 78507
of 175520
