Only a fool would think to keep a girl
From love’s pursuit with nothing but a veiclass="underline"
Not till the cloth’s been set to the wind
Is the ship in a state to sail.
2.2.5
“As for the city’s men, the Turks boss the Arabs around like tyrants. The Arab is as much forbidden to look into the face of a Turk as he is into that of another man’s wife. If by some quirk of fate a Turk and an Arab should walk together, the Arab will follow the custom that has been imposed, namely of walking on the Turk’s left-hand side out of modesty and submission, head bent in self-derision, making himself as small and as thin as possible, shriveling, shrunken, unextended, drawing into himself, shrinking, cowering, tightly compressed, withered, making himself as short as possible, walking slowly and curled over himself, puckered, suckered, snookered, desiccated, tight as a miser, crouching, hugging himself to himself, making himself as small as possible, sucking in his sides and holding his buttocks tight, retracting and contracting, quaking and frozen in place, depressed, head and elbows pulled in, head bowed, aloof, dispirited, humiliated, regimented, intimidated, terrified, petrified, eyes downcast, recoiling and regressing, cringing, curled into a ball like a spider, debased [?],415 twisted, coiled upon himself like an old snake, bent over in abjection, drawing back, cleaving, constricting himself and restricting himself, pulling back, holding back, compressing, repressing, and constringeing himself. If the Turk sneezes, the Arab tells him, ‘God have mercy on you!’ If he clears his throat, he tells him, ‘God protect you!’ If he blows his nose, he tells him, ‘God guard you!’ And if he trips, the other trips along with him out of respect and says, ‘May God right you and not us!’
2.2.6
“I have heard that once the Turks here held a consultative assembly at which, upon deliberation, they decided that they would use the backs of the Arabs as a comfortable conveyance, for they had tried horse saddles and camel saddles (both bardhaʿahs and ikāfs, as well as qitbahs and bāṣars416) and their riding mats, and all other kinds of carrying devices, namely,
the kifl,
[a kind of saddlecloth] “a thing for men to ride on”
or the shijār,
“a conveyance for an old man or anyone whom illness prevents from moving”
or the ḥidj,
“a conveyance for women resembling the miḥaffah”
or the ajlaḥ,
“a camel litter that does not have a high peak”
or the ḥawf,
“something that resembles a litter but is not one”
or the qarr,
“a conveyance for men, or a hawdaj”
or the miḥaffah,
“a conveyance for women”
or the farfār,
“a conveyance for women”
or the ḥaml or ḥiml,
“a camel litter”
or the ḥilāl,
“a conveyance for women”
2.2.7
or the kadn,
“a conveyance for women”
or the qaʿsh,
“a conveyance like a camel litter”
or the maḥārah,
“something like a camel litter”
or the qaʿadah,
“a conveyance for women”
or the katr,
“a small camel litter”
or the mītharah,
“plural mawāthir: things that people ride on made of silk or brocade”
or the rijāzah,
“a conveyance smaller than a camel litter”
or the ʿarīsh,
“something like a camel litter”
or the ʿabīṭ,
“a conveyance”
or the ḥizq,
“a thing people ride on resembling the bāṣar”
or the bulbulah,
“a camel litter for noble people”
or the ḥiql,
“a camel litter”
or the tawʾamah,
“a conveyance for women; plural tawʾamāt”
or the fawdaj,
“a camel litter; a conveyance for a bride”
or saddles, wheels, thrones, dead men’s stretchers, bridal litters, podiums, beds, and biers, and found that none were good enough for them.
2.2.8
“Once I saw a Turk leading a band of Arabs with a thread of paper417 while all of them were ‘leading’ him…. Whatever am I saying? I meant ‘were being led by him.’418 I have never been able to work out the reason for the sense of superiority felt by these Turks here with regard to the Arabs, when the Prophet (peace be upon him) was an Arab, the Qurʾan was revealed in Arabic, and the imams, Rightly-guided Caliphs, and scholars of Islam were all Arabs. I think, though, that most Turks are unaware of these facts and believe that the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to say şöyle böyle (‘thus and so’) and bakalım kapalım (‘let’s see-bee’)419 and
Ghaṭālıq420chāp khay dilhā
Ṭughālıq pāq yakh balhā
Ṣafālıq pāh khusht wa-kurd
Faṣālıq hāp daraklahā
Dakhā zāwusht geldi nang
Khudā shawizt qardlahā
Eshekler hem gibi va-llāh
Qalāqiluhā balābiluhā
“Never, I swear, was the language of the Prophet so, nor that of the Companions or the generation that followed them or the Rightly-guided Imams, God be pleased with them all unto the Day of Resurrection, amen and again amen!