Leg over Leg: Volumes Three and Four

GLOSSARY

ʿAbd al-Majīd, Sultanthirty-first Ottoman sultan, reigned 1839–61.

ʿAbd al-Qādir (ibn Muḥyī l-Dīn al-Jazāʾirī), Emir(1808–83) from 1834 the most successful leader of resistance to French rule in Algeria; exiled to France in 1847.

Abū l-Ḥasan al-Tihāmī al-Ḥasanīa poet of Arabian origin who died (416/1025) in Cairo.

Abū NuwāsAbū Nuwās Al-Ḥasan ibn Hāniʾ al-Ḥakamī (ca. 140–ca. 198/755–813), Abbasid poet, best known for his poetry in praise of wine and boys.

Abū TammāmAbū Tammām Ḥabīb ibn Aws al-Ṭāʾī (ca. 189/805 to ca. 232/845), Abbasid court poet and anthologist, teacher and rival of al-Buḥturī.

Aḥmad Pasha BāyAḥmad I ibn Muṣṭafā (r. 1837–55).

Akhfash (al-)‘Abd al-Ḥamīd ibn ‘Abd al-Majīd al-Akhfash al-Akbar (d. 177/793), a noted grammarian of the school of Basra, teacher of Sībawayh and others.

ʿAmr ibn Kulthūma pre-Islamic poet and tribal chieftain (sixth century AD), whose only surviving poem is that included among the muʿallaqāt (the “suspended odes”).

Andalus (al-)those parts of the Iberian Peninsula that were under Islamic rule from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries.

Ashʿarī (al-)ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ashʿarī (260–324/873–936), a theologian famed for his rational argumentation in the defense of Islamic orthodoxy.

Ashmūnī (al-)ʿAli ibn Muḥammad al-Ashmūnī (838–918/1434–35—1512–13), author of a well-known commentary on Ibn Mālik’s Alfiyyah, a poem of a thousand lines containing the principal rules of Arabic grammar.

ʿAyn Tirāza village in Mount Lebanon (“Ain Traz”) southeast of Beirut and the site, from 1790 to 1870, of a Greek Melkite seminary.

Baalbeka town in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, east of the Litani River, site of the celebrated ruins of a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter-Baal.

badīʿan innovative style appearing in poetry starting in the third/ninth centuries featuring complex wordplay; eventually, the term evolved to mean “rhetorical figures” collectively.

Bag-men (khurjiyyūn)the author’s term for Protestant missionaries in the Middle East, whether the American Congregationalists of the Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions with whom he first came into contact in Beirut or the British Anglicans of the Church Missionary Society for whom he worked later in Malta, Egypt, and London. The Congregationalists established their first mission station in Beirut in 1823 (Makdisi, Artillery, 81, 83). In December 1823, when their intention to proselytize became clear, Maronite patriarch Yūsuf Ḥubaysh (1787–1845), who had initially received them cordially, ordered his flock to avoid all contact with what he referred to as “the Liberati” or “Biblemen” (Makdisi, Artillery, 95–97).

Barāmikahthe Barāmikah family held high office at the court of the early Abbasid caliphs and became known for the extravagance of their lifestyle.

BilqīsQueen of Sabaʾ (Sheba) in Yemen, the story of whose visit to Sulaymān (Solomon) is told in the Qurʾān (Q Naml 27:22–44).

Buḥturī (al-)Abū ʿUbādah al-Walīd ibn ʿUbayd (Allāh) al-Buḥturī (206/821 to 284/897), Abbasid court poet, student and rival of Abū Tammām.

BūlāqCairo’s river port.

Chodźko, AlexandreAleksander Borejko Chodźko (1804–91), Polish poet, Slavist, and Iranologist, who worked for the French ministry of foreign affairs from 1852 to 1855 and was later appointed to the chair of Slavic languages at the Collège de France.

Church Missionary Societyan evangelical Protestant missionary society founded in London in 1799 and active in Egypt (as a mission to the Copts) as of 1825.

Committee, thethe Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, which oversaw many of the translation projects, including that of the Bible, in which al-Shidyāq was involved.

Dayr al-Qamara village in south-central Lebanon, site of the residence of the governors of Lebanon from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.

Derenbourg, Joseph(1811–95) a Hebraist and Arabist.

de Sacysee Silvestre de Sacy.

Desgranges, ConteAlix Desgranges (d. 1854) held the post of secrétaire interprète to the French state, in addition to being, as of 1833, professor of Turkish at the Collège de France; in his former capacity “he welcomes and escorts all Orientals who pass through Paris” (Pouillon, Dictionnaire, 292).

dhikrthe repetition of the name of God as an exercise intended to bring the one who pronounces it closer to Him.

Dhū l-Rummahnickname (“He of the Frayed Cord”) of Abū Ḥārith Ghaylān ibn ʿUqba, an Umayyad poet (d. 117/735?).

emir (amīr)a title (literally, “commander” or “prince”) assumed by local leaders in the Arab world; as used in this work, the term most often refers to the emirs of the Shihābī dynasty of Mount Lebanon.

Fāriyāq, thethe hero of the events described in the book and the author’s alter ego, the name itself being a contraction of Fāri(s al-Shid)yāq.

Fātiḥah, thethe opening sūrah (“chapter”) of the Qurʾān.

Fīrūzābādī (al-)Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Fīrūzābādī (d. 817/1415), compiler of the Qāmūs (q.v.).

Ḥalq al-Wādthe port of Tunis, also known as La Goulette.

Ḥarīrī (al-)Abū Muḥammad al-Qāsim ibn ʿAli al-Ḥarīrī (446/1054 to 516/1122), Iraqi poet, man of letters, and official, best known for his collection of fifty maqāmāt (see maqāmah).

ḤimṣHoms, a city between Damascus and Aleppo.

Ibn Abī ʿAtīqMuḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr (1st–2nd/7th–8th century), usually referred to as Ibn Abī ʿAtīq, was the great-grandson of the caliph Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq and “a friend of many poets and singers, who appears in many stories and anecdotes as a kind of wit” (Van Gelder, Classical, 379, 460); it is not obvious why the author brackets him with Ibn Ḥajjāj (q.v.), as unlike the latter he was irreverent rather than foulmouthed.

Ibn al-FāriḍʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Fāriḍ (576–632/1181–1235), an important Egyptian Sufi poet, celebrated for his blending of erotic and divine imagery.

Ibn Ḥajjājal-Ḥusayn ibn Aḥmad Ibn (al-)Ḥajjāj (ca. 333–91/941–1000): a Baghdadi poet best known for his obscene poetry.

Ibn Khālawayh, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn(d. 370/980–81) a leading philologist of Baghdad.

Ibn MālikMuḥammad ibn Mālik (600 or 601 to 672/1203 or 1205 to 1274), a scholar best known for his Alfiyyah (Thousand-Line Poem), in which he presents the rules of Arabic grammar.

Ibn NubātahJamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Shams al-Dīn (686/1287 to 768/1366), an Egyptian poet.

Ibn Ṣarīʿ al-DilāʾAbū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Wāhid (d. 412/1021), a poet of Baghdadi origin whose later life was spent in Cairo. Ibn Khallikān refers to him as a poet of mujūn (“license”).

Imruʾ al-QaysImruʾ al-Qays ibn Ḥujr (sixth century AD), a pre-Islamic poet, author of one of the muʿallaqāt (“suspended odes”).

ʿĪsāJesus.

IslāmbūlIstanbul.

Jubārah, Ghubrāʾīlone of a group of Levantines who supported the author financially and morally during his years in Paris and London; on May 1, 1851 he took the author with him from Paris to London for the opening of the Great Exhibition as a translator and guide.

jubbahan open-fronted mantle with wide sleeves.

Kaḥlā, Rāfāʾīllitterateur and collaborator of al-Shidyāq’s in Paris, who paid for the publication of Al-Sāq ʿalā l-sāq and contributed to it a publisher’s introduction (Volume One, 0.3).

Khawājāa title of reverence and address afforded to Christians of substance.

Majnūn LaylāQays ibn al-Muwallaḥ (first/seventh century), known as Majnūn Laylā, said to have gone insane (majnūn) when his childhood love, Laylā, was married off to another; he came to epitomize obsessive devotion to the beloved and its expression in verse.

maqāmah, plural maqāmāt“ short independent prose narrations written in ornamented rhymed prose (sajʿ) with verse insertions which share a common plot scheme and two constant protagonists: the narrator and the hero” (Meisami and Starkey, Encyclopedia, 2/507). The thirteenth chapter of each volume of the present work is described by the author as a maqāmah, the plot scheme in these maqāmāt being a debate. See, further, Zakharia: “Aḥmad Fāris al-Šidyāq.”

Maroniteof or pertaining to the Maronite Christian community, whose historical roots lie in northern Syria and Lebanon and whose church, while using Syriac as a liturgical language, is in communion with the Roman Catholic church.

Market-men (sūqiyyūn)the author’s term for the Maronite and Roman Catholic clergy, or the Maronite and Roman Catholic churches in general.

mawāliyāa nonclassical (i.e., not monorhymed) verse form that lends itself to both non-colloquial and colloquial varieties of the language.

Mikhallaʿ (al-), Mikhāʾīlone of the group of Levantines who assisted the author financially and morally during his years in Paris and London, and an early convert to Protestantism.

Mountain (the)Mount Lebanon, a mountain range in Lebanon extending for 170 kilometers parallel to the Mediterranean coast and the historical homeland of both the Maronite and Druze Lebanese communities.

MūsāMoses.

Muṣṭafā PashaMuṣṭafā Pasha Khāzindār (1817–78), a Greek slave raised at the Tunisian court who married the sister of the ruler Aḥmad I Muṣṭafā and became treasurer (khāzindār) and eventually prime minister of the Tunisian state.

Musurus, PrinceKostaki Musurus (1814 or 1815 to 1891) served as Ottoman ambassador to London without interruption from 1851 until 1885; he translated Dante’s Divine Comedy into Turkish and Greek.

Mutanabbī (al-)Abū l-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn al-Mutanabbī (ca. 303–54/915–65), a poet renowned for his virtuosity and innovation, which he often deployed in praise of the rulers of the day.

Nakhaʿī (al-)the name of a number of related Traditionists, of whom the best known is perhaps Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī (AD 666–71).

Perron, Nicolas(1798–1876) French physician, Arabist, and Saint-Simonist. Perron studied medicine and also took courses at the École des langues orientales, especially those given by Caussin de Perceval. Later he became director of the hospital of Abū Zaʿbal, near Cairo, Egypt’s first health facility based on a Western model.

Qāmūs (al-)Al-Qāmūs al-muḥīṭ (The Encompassing Ocean), a dictionary compiled by Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Fīrūzābādī (d. 817/1415) that became so influential that qāmūs (“ocean”) eventually came to mean simply “dictionary.” The author later published a study of the Qāmūs entitled Al-jāsūs ʿalā l-Qāmūs (The Spy on the Qāmūs).

Rashīd Pasha, Muṣṭafā(ca. 1800–58) Ottoman politician, diplomat, reformer, litterateur, and traveler. Ambassador to Paris and London, then foreign minister and later chief minister, he met al-Shidyāq during his second tenure as ambassador to Paris and was later instrumental in bringing him to Constantinople.

Reinaud, Joseph Toussaint(1795–1867) French Orientalist; Toussaint succeeded to Silvestre de Sacy’s chair at the École des langues orientales on the latter’s death.

Sāmī Pasha, ʿAbd al-Raḥmānan Ottoman reformer, born in the Peloponnese. He entered Egyptian service in 1821, was appointed director in 1828 of the official gazette, al-Waqāʾiʿ al-Miṣriyyah (where al-Shidyāq may have made his acquaintance), and became the Ottoman Empire’s first minister of education in 1856. He wrote prose and verse in Turkish (al-Maṭwī, Aḥmad, 898–99).

Sayyid al-Raḍī (al-)see Sharīf al-Raḍī (al-).

Sharīf al-Raḍī (al-)Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṭāhir al-Ḥusayn ibn Mūsā (359–406/970–1015), poet and syndic of the descendents of ʿAlī ibn Ṭālib at the Buyid court.

SībawayhiʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qanbar Sībawayhi (second/eighth century), the creator of systematic Arabic grammar.

Silvestre de Sacy, Antoine Isaac(1758–1838) prominent French philologist who wrote grammars of Arabic and edited a number of Arabic texts, including al-Ḥarīrī’s Maqāmāt.

Ṣubḥī Baykson of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Sāmī Pasha (q.v.) and later himself also Ottoman minister of education and then governor of Syria (al-Maṭwī, Aḥmad, 902).

Sublime State, thethe Ottoman Empire.

SulaymānSolomon.

tanwīnpronunciation of word-final short vowels followed by —n, thus —un, — an, -in; also called “nunation.”

Tūnusī (al-), Muḥammad ibn al-Sayyid ʿUmar (ibn Sulaymān)an interpreter at the Abū Zaʿbal medical school who wrote an account of his travels in Darfur in the early nineteenth century.

ʿUdhrīpertaining to the Banū ʿUdhra, a Yemeni tribe, and applied to a type of elegiac love poetry that flourished during the Umayyad period.

wirda section of the Qurʾān specified for recitation at a certain time of day or night or for use in private prayer.

Yāzijī (al-), Sheikh NāṣīfNāṣīf al-Yāzijī (1800–71), a leading Maronite scholar of Arabic, prolific author and translator, and contemporary of the author, with whom he was later to maintain a celebrated feud over linguistic issues that was inherited by al-Yāzijī’s son Ibrāhīm after his father’s death (see, e.g., Patel, Arab Nahdah, 103ff).

Yūsufthe Prophet Joseph, whose story is told in the Qurʾān (Sūrah 12) and who is often invoked in verse as the epitome of young male beauty and virtue.

zaqqūm treea tree mentioned in the Qurʾān as growing in hell and bearing exceedingly bitter fruit.