110
Arab. Makaad; lit. = sitting-room.
111
Arab. Khammárah; still the popular term throughout Egypt for a European Hotel. It is not always intended to be insulting but it is, meaning the place where Franks meet to drink forbidden drinks.
112
A reminiscence of Mohammed who cleansed the Kaabah of its 360 idols (of which 73 names are given by Freytag, Einleitung, etc. pp. 270, 342-57) by touching them with his staff, whereupon all fell to the ground; and the Prophet cried (Koran xvii. 84), Truth is come, and falsehood is vanished: verily, falsehood is a thing that vanisheth (magna est veritas, etc.). Amongst the idols are said to have been a statue of Abraham and the horns of the ram sacrificed in lieu of Ishmael, which (if true) would prove conclusively that the Abrahamic legend at Meccah is of ancient date and not a fiction of Al-Islam. Hence, possibly, the respect of the Judaising Tobbas of Himyarland for the Kaabah (Pilgrimage, iii. 295).
113
This was evidently written by a Sunni as the Shíahs claim to be the only true Moslems. Lane tells an opposite story (ii. 329). It suggests the common question in the South of Europe, Are you a Christian or a Protestant?
114
Arab. Ana fí jírat-ak! a phrase to be remembered as useful in time of danger.