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From the Library of Sarah Renko
Secure Coding
in C and C++
Second Edition

From the Library of Sarah Renko

The SEI Series in Software Engineering
Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University and Addison-Wesley

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From the Library of Sarah Renko

Secure Coding
in C and C++
Second Edition

Robert C. Seacord

Upper Saddle River, NJ • Boston • Indianapolis • San Francisco

New York • Toronto • Montreal • London • Munich • Paris • Madrid
Capetown • Sydney • Tokyo • Singapore • Mexico City

From the Library of Sarah Renko

The SEI Series in Software Engineering
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Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at Edwards Brothers Malloy in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
First printing, March 2013

From the Library of Sarah Renko

To my wife, Rhonda, and our children, Chelsea and Jordan

From the Library of Sarah Renko

This page intentionally left blank

From the Library of Sarah Renko

Contents

Foreword xvii
Preface xxi
Acknowledgments xxv
About the Author xxvii

Chapter 1 Running with Scissors 1

1.1 Gauging the Threat 5
What Is the Cost? 6
Who Is the Threat? 8
Software Security 11
1.2 Security Concepts 12
Security Policy 14
Security Flaws 14
Vulnerabilities 15
Exploits 16
Mitigations 17
1.3 C and C++ 17
A Brief History 19
What Is the Problem with C? 21
Legacy Code 24
Other Languages 25
1.4 Development Platforms 25
Operating Systems 26
Compilers 26

vii

From the Library of Sarah Renko

viii Contents

1.5 Summary 27
1.6 Further Reading 28

Chapter 2 Strings 29
2.1 Character Strings 29
String Data Type 30
UTF-8 32
Wide Strings 33
String Literals 34
Strings in C++ 36
Character Types 37
Sizing Strings 39
2.2 Common String Manipulation Errors 42
Improperly Bounded String Copies 42
Off-by-One Errors 47
Null-Termination Errors 48
String Truncation 49
String Errors without Functions 49
2.3 String Vulnerabilities and Exploits 50
Tainted Data 51
Security Flaw: IsPasswordOK 52
Buffer Overflows 53
Process Memory Organization 54
Stack Management 55
Stack Smashing 59
Code Injection 64
Arc Injection 69
Return-Oriented Programming 71
2.4 Mitigation Strategies for Strings 72
String Handling 73
C11 Annex K Bounds-Checking Interfaces 73
Dynamic Allocation Functions 76
C++ std::basic_string 80
Invalidating String Object References 81
Other Common Mistakes in basic_string Usage 83
2.5 String-Handling Functions 84
gets() 84
C99 84
C11 Annex K Bounds-Checking Interfaces: gets_s() 86
Dynamic Allocation Functions 87
strcpy() and strcat() 89
C99 89
strncpy() and strncat() 93
memcpy() and memmove() 100
strlen() 100

From the Library of Sarah Renko

Contents ix

2.6 Runtime Protection Strategies 101

Detection and Recovery 101
Input Validation 102
Object Size Checking 102
Visual Studio Compiler-Generated Runtime Checks 106
Stack Canaries 108
Stack-Smashing Protector (ProPolice) 110
Operating System Strategies 111
Detection and Recovery 111
Nonexecutable Stacks 113
W^X 113
PaX 115
Future Directions 116
2.7 Notable Vulnerabilities 117
Remote Login 117
Kerberos 118
2.8 Summary 118
2.9 Further Reading 120

Chapter 3 Pointer Subterfuge 121

3.1 Data Locations 122
3.2 Function Pointers 123
3.3 Object Pointers 124
3.4 Modifying the Instruction Pointer 125
3.5 Global Offset Table 127
3.6 The .dtors Section 129
3.7 Virtual Pointers 131
3.8 The atexit() and on_exit() Functions 133
3.9 The longjmp() Function 134
3.10 Exception Handling 136
Structured Exception Handling 137
System Default Exception Handling 139
3.11 Mitigation Strategies 139
Stack Canaries 140
W^X 140
Encoding and Decoding Function Pointers 140
3.12 Summary 142
3.13 Further Reading 143

Chapter 4 Dynamic Memory Management 145

4.1 C Memory Management 146
C Standard Memory Management Functions 146
Alignment 147
alloca() and Variable-Length Arrays 149

From the Library of Sarah Renko

x Contents

4.2 Common C Memory Management Errors 151

Initialization Errors 151
Failing to Check Return Values 153
Dereferencing Null or Invalid Pointers 155
Referencing Freed Memory 156
Freeing Memory Multiple Times 157
Memory Leaks 158
Zero-Length Allocations 159
DR #400 161
4.3 C++ Dynamic Memory Management 162
Allocation Functions 164
Deallocation Functions 168
Garbage Collection 169
4.4 Common C++ Memory Management Errors 172
Failing to Correctly Check for Allocation Failure 172
Improperly Paired Memory Management Functions 172
Freeing Memory Multiple Times 176
Deallocation Function Throws an Exception 179
4.5 Memory Managers 180
4.6 Doug Lea’s Memory Allocator 182
Buffer Overflows on the Heap 185
4.7 Double-Free Vulnerabilities 191
Writing to Freed Memory 195
RtlHeap 196
Buffer Overflows (Redux) 204
4.8 Mitigation Strategies 212
Null Pointers 212
Consistent Memory Management Conventions 212
phkmalloc 213
Randomization 215
OpenBSD 215
The jemalloc Memory Manager 216
Static Analysis 217
Runtime Analysis Tools 218
4.9 Notable Vulnerabilities 222
CVS Buffer Overflow Vulnerability 222
Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 223
CVS Server Double-Free 223
Vulnerabilities in MIT Kerberos 5 224
4.10 Summary 224

Chapter 5 Integer Security 225

5.1 Introduction to Integer Security 225
5.2 Integer Data Types 226
Unsigned Integer Types 227

From the Library of Sarah Renko

Contents xi

Wraparound 229
Signed Integer Types 231
Signed Integer Ranges 235
Integer Overflow 237
Character Types 240
Data Models 241
Other Integer Types 241
5.3 Integer Conversions 246
Converting Integers 246
Integer Conversion Rank 246
Integer Promotions 247
Usual Arithmetic Conversions 249
Conversions from Unsigned Integer Types 250
Conversions from Signed Integer Types 253
Conversion Implications 256
5.4 Integer Operations 256
Assignment 258
Addition 260
Subtraction 267
Multiplication 269
Division and Remainder 274
Shifts 279
5.5 Integer Vulnerabilities 283
Vulnerabilities 283
Wraparound 283
Conversion and Truncation Errors 285
Nonexceptional Integer Logic Errors 287
5.6 Mitigation Strategies 288
Integer Type Selection 289
Abstract Data Types 291
Arbitrary-Precision Arithmetic 292
Range Checking 293
Precondition and Postcondition Testing 295
Secure Integer Libraries 297
Overflow Detection 299
Compiler-Generated Runtime Checks 300
Verifiably In-Range Operations 301
As-If Infinitely Ranged Integer Model 303
Testing and Analysis 304
5.7 Summary 307

Chapter 6 Formatted Output 309

6.1 Variadic Functions 310
6.2 Formatted Output Functions 313
Format Strings 314

From the Library of Sarah Renko

xii Contents

GCC 318
Visual C++ 318
6.3 Exploiting Formatted Output Functions 319
Buffer Overflow 320
Output Streams 321
Crashing a Program 321
Viewing Stack Content 322
Viewing Memory Content 324
Overwriting Memory 326
Internationalization 331
Wide-Character Format String Vulnerabilities 332
6.4 Stack Randomization 332
Defeating Stack Randomization 332
Writing Addresses in Two Words 334
Direct Argument Access 335
6.5 Mitigation Strategies 337
Exclude User Input from Format Strings 338
Dynamic Use of Static Content 338
Restricting Bytes Written 339
C11 Annex K Bounds-Checking Interfaces 340
iostream versus stdio 341
Testing 342
Compiler Checks 342
Static Taint Analysis 343
Modifying the Variadic Function Implementation 344
Exec Shield 346
FormatGuard 346
Static Binary Analysis 347
6.6 Notable Vulnerabilities 348
Washington University FTP Daemon 348
CDE ToolTalk 348
Ettercap Version NG-0.7.2 349
6.7 Summary 349
6.8 Further Reading 351

Chapter 7 Concurrency 353

7.1 Multithreading 354
7.2 Parallelism 355
Data Parallelism 357
Task Parallelism 359
7.3 Performance Goals 359
Amdahl’s Law 361
7.4 Common Errors 362
Race Conditions 362

From the Library of Sarah Renko

Contents xiii

Corrupted Values 364

Volatile Objects 365
7.5 Mitigation Strategies 368
Memory Model 368
Synchronization Primitives 371
Thread Role Analysis (Research) 380
Immutable Data Structures 383
Concurrent Code Properties 383
7.6 Mitigation Pitfalls 384
Deadlock 386
Prematurely Releasing a Lock 391
Contention 392
The ABA Problem 393
7.7 Notable Vulnerabilities 399
DoS Attacks in Multicore Dynamic Random-Access Memory
(DRAM) Systems 399
Concurrency Vulnerabilities in System Call Wrappers 400
7.8 Summary 401

Chapter 8 File I/O 403

8.1 File I/O Basics 403
File Systems 404
Special Files 406
8.2 File I/O Interfaces 407
Data Streams 408
Opening and Closing Files 409
POSIX 410
File I/O in C++ 412
8.3 Access Control 413
UNIX File Permissions 413
Process Privileges 415
Changing Privileges 417
Managing Privileges 422
Managing Permissions 428
8.4 File Identification 432
Directory Traversal 432
Equivalence Errors 435
Symbolic Links 437
Canonicalization 439
Hard Links 442
Device Files 445
File Attributes 448
8.5 Race Conditions 450
Time of Check, Time of Use (TOCTOU) 451

From the Library of Sarah Renko

xiv Contents

Create without Replace 453

Exclusive Access 456
Shared Directories 458
8.6 Mitigation Strategies 461
Closing the Race Window 462
Eliminating the Race Object 467
Controlling Access to the Race Object 469
Race Detection Tools 471
8.7 Summary 472

Chapter 9 Recommended Practices 473

9.1 The Security Development Lifecycle 474
TSP-Secure 477
Planning and Tracking 477
Quality Management 479
9.2 Security Training 480
9.3 Requirements 481
Secure Coding Standards 481
Security Quality Requirements Engineering 483
Use/Misuse Cases 485
9.4 Design 486
Secure Software Development Principles 488
Threat Modeling 493
Analyze Attack Surface 494
Vulnerabilities in Existing Code 495
Secure Wrappers 496
Input Validation 497
Trust Boundaries 498
Blacklisting 501
Whitelisting 502
Testing 503
9.5 Implementation 503
Compiler Security Features 503
As-If Infinitely Ranged (AIR) Integer Model 505
Safe-Secure C/C++ 505
Static Analysis 506
Source Code Analysis Laboratory (SCALe) 510
Defense in Depth 511
9.6 Verification 512
Static Analysis 512
Penetration Testing 513
Fuzz Testing 513
Code Audits 515
Developer Guidelines and Checklists 516

From the Library of Sarah Renko

 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
 The King of Kirmān is a great dispenser of justice;
On our behalf he will bestow a look of indulgence
He will furnish troops, gold, and silver:
Unless this course be pursued, there is no other remedy.

Kirmān (Carmania) is a province of Persia (the ancient Gedrasia),

having to the north Khurasan, to the east Afghanistān and
Bilūchistān, to the south the Persian Gulf, to the west Fars and
Luristān. Carmanicus Sinus: the Gulf of Ormuz. Kirmān is the plural
of kirm, a worm, and the province where silkworms were originally
bred. It is celebrated for the cultivation of the white rose, from which
`itr-i-gul (attar of roses) is distilled; and also for a peculiar breed of
sheep, called dumbadār, small, short-legged, with a long bushy tail.
Page 9. “Directed their course towards the desert,” i.e. of Kirmān.
—The text has this quatrain:
Behold to what misery misfortune has thrown me!
Owing to breach of good faith, she has cast me into a sea of troubles;
For adverse Fortune has devised an evil design against me,
Inasmuch as she has separated friends from each other.

Page 9. “A hundred thousand lives such as mine are not in value

equal to a single hair of the King’s head.”—In less extravagant terms
does a distressed damsel in another romance express herself: “Of a
truth, noble man, you have displayed your compassionate nature;
but I cannot consent to save my body at the cost of yours: for who
ought to save a common stone by the sacrifice of a gem?”—Vetāla
Panchavinsati, or Twenty-five Tales of a Demon.
Page 10. “The Queen brought forth a son; in beauty he was lovely
as the moon,” &c.—The Orientals compare beautiful youths, as well
as damsels, to the moon: Hafiz styles Joseph the Hebrew patriarch—
who is throughout the Muhammadan world regarded as the type of
youthful beauty—“the Moon of Canaan.” Morier remarks, in his
Second Journey to Persia, &c.: “The Eastern women suffer little
from parturition, for the better sort of them are frequently on foot
the day after delivery, and out of all confinement on the third day
[this on the authority of Harmer, vol. iv, p. 434]. They are sometimes
‘delivered ere the midwives come in unto them’: Exodus, i, 19; and
the lower orders often deliver themselves. I knew an instance where
a peasant’s wife, in Turkey, who was at work in a vineyard, stepped
behind the hedge, delivered herself, and carried the child home slung
behind her back.”
Page 10. “They wrapped up the child in a cloak embroidered with
gold, and fastened a bracelet of large pearls,” &c.—In the legend of
Pope Gregory, the child is exposed with gold at his head and silver at
his feet (see the English Gesta Romanorum, chapter 51; edited by
Herrtage); and in one of the Tales of the Vetāla, a child is similarly
exposed, with a sum of gold, at the gate of a royal palace, and the
King adopts him as his son and successor (Kathā Sarit Sāgara,
Ocean of the Rivers of Narrative).
Page 10. “He sent his servants to welcome them, and received
them with the greatest respect and hospitality;” that is, by a
deputation (istikbāl), one of the principal modes among the Persians
of doing honour to their guests. Those sent in advance to meet the
guests are called pīsh vāz, “openers of the way.” In the ninth chapter
we find the approaching guests met at the distance of two days’
journey[31] from the city. “On the day of our entry,” says Morier, in his
Second Journey, “we were met by the youngest son of the Amīnu-’d-
Dawla, a boy of about thirteen years of age, who received the
ambassador [Sir Gore Ouseley] with all the ease of an old courtier.”
So, too, the King of Kirmān “sent his own son and two attendants to
wait on Āzādbakht.”
Page 11. “The musicians singing and playing, and the guests
drinking.”—Music contributes as much as wine to the pleasures of an
Eastern carousal. “Wine,” they say, “is as the body, music is the soul,
and joy is their offspring.” The gamut, or scale of musical notes, is
called in the East, durr-imafassal, “separate pearls.” The musical
instruments commonly employed are: the Kānūn, the dulcimer or
harp; the sitār, a three-stringed instrument (from si, three, and tār,
string), whence cithara and guitar; and the arghān or orghanūn, the
organ. Old Persian writers describe the arghān as invented by
Iflatūn (Plato), and as superior to all psalteries (mazamīr), and used
in Yūnan (Ionia or Greece) and in Rūm (Iconium). Also the chang
(Arabic, junk), the harp; the rabāb, rebeck; the tambūr, tambourine;
and the barbat, or barbitan.—Morier, in his Second Journey (p. 92),
was treated with a concert of four musicians; “one of whom played
on the Kamāncha [viol]; a second sang, fanning his mouth with a
piece of paper to aid the undulations of his voice; the third was a
tambourine-player; and the last beat two little drums placed on the
ground before him.” Gentius, in a note to the Gulistān of Sa`dī, says
that “music is in such consideration [in Persia], that it is a maxim of
their sages, that when a king is about to die, if he leaves for his
successor a very young son, his aptitude for reigning should be
proved by some agreeable songs; and if the child is pleasurably
affected, then it is a sign of his capacity and genius, but if the
contrary, he should be declared unfit.”—It would appear that the old
Persian musicians, like Timotheus, know the secret art of swaying
the passions. The celebrated philosopher Alfarabi (who died about
the middle of the tenth century), among his other accomplishments,
excelled in music, in proof of which a curious anecdote is told.
Returning from the pilgrimage to Mecca, he introduced himself,
though a stranger, at the court of Sayfu-’d-Dawla, Sultan of Syria,
when a party of musicians chanced to be performing, and he joined
them. The prince admired his skill, and desiring to hear something of
his own, Alfarabi unfolded a composition, and distributed the parts
among the band. The first movement threw the prince and his
courtiers into violent and inextinguishable laughter, the next melted
all into tears, and the last lulled even the performers to sleep.—At the
retaking of Bagdād by the Turks, in 1638, when the springing of a
mine, whereby eight hundred janissaries perished, was the signal for
a general massacre, and thirty thousand Persians were put to the
sword, “a Persian musician, named Shāh Kūlī, who was brought
before Murād, played and sang so sweetly, first a song of triumph,
and then a dirge, that the Sultan, moved to pity by his music, gave
orders to stop the massacre.”[32]
Page 11. “His eyes were filled with tears.”—Although Muslims are
remarkably calm and resigned under the heaviest afflictions, yet they
do not consider the shedding of tears as either evidence of
effeminacy or inconsistent with a heroic mind.—Lane. In the old
Badawī Romance of `Antar (of which an epitome is given in my
Arabian Poetry for English Readers) the hero is frequently
represented as weeping.
Page 11. “The King of Kirmān then inquired into the particulars of
Āzādbakht’s misfortunes.”—It thus appears that, in accordance with
the time-honoured rules of Eastern hospitality, the King received
Āzādbakht as his guest without subjecting him to any preliminary
questioning; and only diffidently “inquired into the particulars” after
the unhappy monarch had informed him that he was a fugitive from
his kingdom. The old Arabs, like the old Scottish Highlanders, were
scrupulous in abstaining from inquiring the name and tribe of a
chance guest, lest he should prove an enemy; and if, after the guest
had eaten of their bread and salt, he was found to belong to a hostile
tribe or clan, he would be entertained during three days, should he so
desire, and then be dismissed unharmed.
Page 12. Farrukhsuwār: from farrukh, fortunate, happy, and
suwār, a cavalier, a horseman; especially a Persian chief, as being
skilled in horsemanship and archery. Suwār-i-Sīstān: Rustam, the
famous Persian hero.
Page 13. “He resolved to adopt the infant as his own.”—The
Muhammadan law (says Lane) allows the adoption of sons, provided
that the person to be adopted consents to the act, if of age to judge
for himself; also that he has been deprived of his parents by death or
other means; and that there be such a difference of age between the
two parties as might subsist between a natural father and son. The
adopted son enjoys the same right of inheritance as the natural son.
—Farrukhsuwār, we see, though a chief of banditti, yet took care that
his adopted son should be “instructed in all the necessary
accomplishments.” The adoption of sons is universal throughout the
East—in Persia, India, Japan; in the latter country, “the principle of
adoption,” says Mr Mitford, in his Tales of Old Japan, “prevails
among all classes, from the Emperor down to his meanest subject;
nor is the family line considered to have been broken because an
adopted son has succeeded to the estate.”
Page 13. Khudā-dād, i.e., “granted by God”: Deodatus; Theodore.
Page 13. “Able to fight, alone, five hundred men.” This is one of the
few instances of Oriental hyperbole which occur in the work; and
since we do not find our hero represented subsequently as
distinguishing himself by his prowess, except on the occasion which
led to his capture, it must be considered as introduced by the author
conventionally, or by way of embellishment. The heroes of Eastern
romance, for the most part, are not only beautiful as the moon, and
accomplished in all the arts and sciences, but also strong and
courageous as a lion. In the romance of Dūshwanta and Sakūntalā,
an episode of the great Indian epic poem, Mahābharata, the son of
the beautiful heroine is thus described: “Sakūntalā was delivered of a
son, of inconceivable strength, bright as the God of Fire, the image of
Dūshwanta, endowed with personal beauty and generosity of soul....
This mighty child seemed as if he could destroy lions with the points
of his white teeth. He bore on his hand the mark of a wheel, which is
the sign of sovereignty. His person was beautiful, his head capacious,
he possessed great bodily strength, and his appearance was that of a
celestial. During the short time that he remained under the care of
Kanwa, he grew exceedingly; and when he was only six years old, his
strength was so great that he was wont to bind such beasts as lions,
tigers, elephants, wild boars, and buffaloes to the trees about the
hermitage. He would even mount them, ride them about, and play
with them to tame them; whence the inhabitants of Kanwa’s
hermitage gave him a name: ‘Let him,’ said they, ‘be called Sarva-
damana, because he tameth all;’ and thus the child obtained the
name of Sarva-damana.”—And the Arabian hero `Antar, while yet a
mere stripling, slew a wolf, and carried home its paws to his slave-
mother as a trophy. (Compare with this the youthful exploit of David
with a lion and a bear, 1 Sam. xvii, 34, 35.) So, too, in the Early
English Romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton;—when only seven years
old, Bevis knocked down two stout men with his cudgel; and while
still in his “teens” he slew single-handed sixty Saracen knights.
Page 14. “The chief of the caravan.”—The Mihtar Kārwān, or
Kārwān Bash, held a position of responsibility and importance. By
the payment of armed attendants he took precautions against the
attack of brigands, as the merchants who formed a caravan were, it is
said, on most occasions, so devoid of courage that they cried
“quarter” at the mere sight of a drawn sword.
Page 15. “He also put on him his own robe” (Kabā-i Khāss).—The
Kabā is a tunic, or long cloth coat, of any colour, quite open in front,
and worn over the shirt, and is the special garment of the rich, and so
distinguished by Sa`dī (Gulistān, ch. ii, story 17) from the aba, or
abaya, a kind of woollen cloak, either black or striped brown and
white, the garment of the poor.
Page 15. “The name of Bakhtyār,” that is, “he whom Fortune
assists,” or, “Fortune-befriended.”
Page 16. “The keys of the treasury” were of gold.
 Page 16. “A splendid robe of honour.”—A Khil`at, or dress of
honour, is bestowed by Eastern monarchs on men of learning and
genius, as well as on tributary princes on their accession to their
principalities, and on viceroys and governors of provinces. The
custom is very ancient; see Esther vi, 8, 9. “A common Khil`at,” says
Morier, “consists of a Kāba, or coat; a Kemerbend, or zone; a gūch
pīch, or shawl for the head: when it is intended to be more
distinguishing, a sword or a dagger is superadded. To persons of
distinction rich furs are given, such as a Katabī, or a Koordī; but
when the Khal`at is complete it consists exactly of the same articles
as the present which Cyrus made to Syennesis, namely: a horse with
a golden bridle; a golden chain; a golden sword[33]; besides the dress,
which is complete in all its parts.”[34]—In India an elephant and a
palanquin splendidly decorated are added to the dress, sword, &c. Dr
Forbes, in a note to his translation of the Bāgh o Bahār (Garden and
Spring), the Hindustani version of the entertaining Persian romance,
Kissa Chehar Dervish, or Tale of the Four Dervishes, remarks that
“in the zenith of the Mogul empire Khil`ats were expensive honours,
as the receivers were obliged to make presents for the Khil`ats they
received. The perfection of these Oriental dresses,” he adds, “is to be
so stiff with embroidery as to stand on the floor unsupported.”—After
Rustam’s Seven Adventures in releasing Kai Kaus from the power of
the White Giant, we read in Firdausī’s Shāh Nāma (or Book of Kings)
that he received from Kaus a splendid Khil`at besides other
magnificent presents. And in the Romance of `Antar, King Zuhayr
causes a great feast to be prepared to celebrate the defeat of the tribe
of Taï, which was chiefly due to the hero; at which he presents `Antar
with a robe worked with gold, girds on him a trusty sword, and
placing in his hand a pike of Khāta, and mounting him on a fine Arab
horse, proclaims him champion of the tribes of `Abs and `Adnān.
Page 16. “There were Ten Viziers.”—“Wezeer,” says Lane, “is an
Arabic word, and is pronounced by the Arabs as I have written it, but
the Turks and Persians pronounce the first letter V. There are three
opinions respecting the etymology of this word. Some derive it from
wizr (a burden), because the Wezeer bears the burden of the King;
others, from wezer (a refuge), because the King has recourse to the
counsels of his Wezeer, and his knowledge and prudence; others,
again, from azr (back, or strength), because the King is strengthened
by his Wezeer, as the human frame is strengthened by the back. The
proper and chief duties of a Wezeer are explained by the above, and
by a saying of the Prophet: ‘Whosoever is in authority over Muslims,
if God would prosper him, He giveth him a virtuous Wezeer, who
when he forgetteth his duty remindeth him, and when he
remembereth assisteth him; but if He would do otherwise, He giveth
him an evil Wezeer, who when he forgetteth doth not remind him,
and when he remembereth doth not assist him.’”—The Kur’ān and
the Sūnna (or Traditions) both distinctly authorise a sovereign to
select a Vizier to assist him in the government. The Prophet makes
Moses say (Kur. xx, 30): “Give me a counsellor [Ar. Wezeer] of my
family, namely Aaron my brother;” and again, in ch. xxv, 37: “We
appointed him [Moses] Aaron his brother for a counsellor.” Wahidi,
in his commentary on the Kur’ān, says: “Wezeer signifies refuge and
assistance.” In the fourth year of his mission Muhammad assumed
the prophetic office, when “he prepared a banquet, a lamb, as it is
said, and a bowl of milk, for the entertainment of forty guests of the
race of Hashem. ‘Friends and kinsmen,’ said Muhammad to the
assembly, ‘I offer you, and I alone can offer, the most precious of
gifts, the treasures of this world and of the world to come. God has
commanded me to call you to His service. Who among you will
support my burthen? Who among you will be my companion and
my vizier?’”—Gibbon, chap. 1.
King Āzādbakht, we see, had no fewer than ten of such “burden-
bearers”; in chapter ix there is another King with ten viziers; and in
an ancient Indian romance referred to by El-Mas’ūdī in his Meadows
of Gold and Mines of Gems, the same number of viziers is given to a
king: “Shelkand and Shimas, or the Story of an Indian King and his
Ten Viziers”; in what is probably a modernised version of the same
romance, included in the Thousand and One Nights, under the title
of “King Jilāa, the Vizier Shimas, and their Sons,” there are however
but Seven Viziers—the number in most of the romances of the
Sindibād cycle. According to the learned Imam El-Jara’ī, cited by
Lane, ten is the proper number of counsellors for any man: “It is
desirable,” says he, “for a man, before he enters upon any important
undertaking, to consult ten intelligent persons among his particular
friends; or if he have not more than five such friends, let him consult
each of them twice; or if he have not more than one friend, he should
consult him ten times, at ten different visits[35];—if he have not one to
consult, let him return to his wife and consult her, and whatever she
advises him to do, let him do the contrary, so shall he proceed rightly
in his affair and attain his object.”—This reminds me of a story told
of Khōja Nasru-’d-Dīn Efendī, the Turkish joker, who, wishing to
make Timūr a present of some fruit, consulted his wife as to whether
he should take him figs or quinces, and on her answering, “Oh,
quinces, of course,” the Khōja, reflecting that a woman’s advice is
never good, took Timūr a basket of figs; and when the emperor
ordered his attendants to pelt the Khōja on his bald pate with the
ripe, juicy figs, he thanked Heaven that he had not taken his wife’s
advice: “for had I, as she advised, brought quinces instead of figs, my
head had surely been broken!”[36] This most unjust estimate of
women, so generally held by Muslims and giving rise to such
proverbial sayings as “women have long hair and short wits,” is in
accordance with the atrocious saying ascribed (falsely, let us hope) to
the Prophet: “I stood at the gate of Paradise, and lo! most of its
inmates were poor; and I stood at the gate of Hell, and lo! most of its
inmates were women!” Contrast this with the following passage from
the Mahābharata: “The wife is half the man; a wife is man’s dearest
friend; a wife is the source of his religion, his worldly profit, and his
love. He who hath a wife maketh offerings in his house. Those who
have wives are blest with good fortune. Wives are friends, who by
their gentle speech soothe ye in your retirement. In the performance
of religious duties they are as fathers; in your distresses they are as
mothers[37]; and they are a refreshment to those who are travellers in
the rugged paths of life.”
Page 16. “Indulged in the pleasures of wine.”—The Kur’ān
prohibits the use of wine and all other intoxicating liquors: “They will
ask thee concerning wine and lots; answer, in both there is great sin”
(ch. ii, 216). Some of the early followers of the Prophet held this text
as doubtful, and continued to indulge in wine; but another text
enjoins them not to come to prayer while they are drunk, until they
know what they would say (ch. iv, 46). From this it would appear that
Muhammad “meant merely to restrain his followers from
unbecoming behaviour, and other evil effects of intoxication;”
serious quarrels, however, resulting from drinking wine, a text in
condemnation of the practice was issued: “Ye who have become
believers! verily wine, and lots, and images, and divining arrows are
an abomination of the work of the Devil; therefore avoid them that ye
may prosper” (ch. v, 92).—Mills was certainly in error in stating that
“for ages before the preaching of the Prophet of Mecca, wine was but
little drunk either in Egypt or Arabia.”[38] In the Mu`allaqāt, or
Seven Poems suspended in the Temple at Mecca, which present true
pictures of Arabian manners and customs during the century
immediately preceding the time of Muhammad, wine-drinking is
frequently mentioned. Thus the poet `Amru calls for his morning
draught of rich hoarded wine, saying that it is the liquor which
diverts the lover from his passion, and even causes the miser to
forget his pelf; Lebeid says that he often goes to the shop of the wine-
merchant, when he spreads his flag in the air, and sells his wine at a
high price; and the poet-hero `Antar quaffs old wine when the
noontide heat is abated. However this may be, the law of the Kur’ān
is clear—believers are not allowed to drink intoxicating liquors. Yet it
would appear, from the tales of the Thousand and One Nights, that
wine was extensively drunk by the higher classes of Muslims in all
countries until a comparatively recent date; and assuredly the wine
there mentioned was not the harmless beverage which the Prophet
indulged in and permitted to his followers—“prepared by putting
grapes or dry dates in water to extract their sweetness, and suffering
the liquor to ferment slightly until it acquired a little sharpness or
pungency”—since we read in the story, for instance, of “The Three
Ladies of Bagdād and the Porter,” that wine was drunk to
intoxication. The modern Persians justify their occasional excessive
wine-drinking by the remark: “there is as much sin in a flagon as in a
glass;”[39] and the Turks despise the small glasses commonly used by
Europeans in their potations.[40] Cantemir, in his History of the
Othman Empire, relates a curious story of how Murād IV, the
seventeenth Turkish Sultan (1622–1639), became a drunkard:

Not content to drink wine in private, Murād compelled even the

Muftis and other ministers to drink with him, and also, by a public
edict, allowed wine to be sold and drunk by men of all ranks. It is
said Murād was led into this degrading vice by a man named Bakrī
Mustafa. As the Sultan was one day going about the market-place in
disguise, he chanced to see this man wallowing in the mud, almost
dead drunk. Wondering at the novelty of the thing, he inquired of his
attendants what was the matter with the man, who seemed to him a
lunatic. Being told that the fellow was drunk with wine, he wanted to
know what sort of liquor that was, of whose effects he was yet
ignorant. Meanwhile Mustafa gets up, and with opprobrious words
bids the Sultan stand off. Astonished at the man’s boldness, “Rascal!”
he exclaimed, “dost thou bid me, who am the Sultan Murād, be
gone?”—“And I,” answered the fellow, “am Bakrī [i.e. the Drunkard]
Mustafa, and if thou wilt sell me this city, I will buy it, and then I
shall be Sultan Murād, and thou Bakrī Mustafa.”—Murād demanding
where he would get the money to purchase such a city, Mustafa
replied: “Don’t trouble thyself about that; for, what is more, I will
buy, too, the son of a bond-woman.”[41] Murād agreed to this, and
ordered Mustafa to be taken to the palace. After some hours, the
fumes of the wine being dispersed, Mustafa came to his senses, and
finding himself in a gilded and sumptuous room, he inquired of
those who attended him: “What does this mean?—am I dreaming?—
or do I taste of the pleasures of Paradise?” They told him of what had
passed, and of his bargain with the Sultan. Upon this he fell into a
great fright, well knowing Murād’s fierce disposition. But necessity
abetting his invention, he declared himself on the point of death,
unless he could have some wine to restore his spirits. The keepers,
that he might not die before being brought into the Sultan’s
presence, gave him a pot full of wine, which he concealed in his
bosom. On being ushered into the audience-chamber, the Sultan
commanded him to pay so many millions as the price of the city.
Taking the pot of wine from his bosom, Mustafa said: “This, O
Sultan, is what would yesterday have purchased Istambol. And were
you likewise possessed of this wealth, you would think it preferable
to the sovereignty of the universe.” Murād asked how that could be.
“By drinking of this divine liquor,” answered Mustafa, offering the
cup to the Sultan, who, from curiosity, took a large draught, which,
as he was unused to wine, immediately made him so drunk that he
fancied the world could not contain him. Afterwards growing giddy,
he was seized with sleep, and in a few hours waking with a headache,
sent for Mustafa, in a great passion. Mustafa instantly appeared, and
perceiving the case, “Here,” said he, “is your remedy,” and gave him a
cup of wine, by which his headache was presently removed, and his
former gladness restored. When this had been repeated two or three
times, Murād was by degrees so addicted to wine that he was drunk
almost every day. Bakrī Mustafa, his tutor in drunkenness, was
admitted among the privy-counsellors, and was always near the
Sultan. At his death Murād ordered the whole court to go into
mourning, but caused his body to be buried with great pomp in a
tavern among the wine-casks. After his decease the Sultan declared
he never enjoyed one merry day; and when Mustafa chanced to be
mentioned he was often seen to burst into tears, and to sigh from the
bottom of his heart. “Seldom, if ever,” moralises Cantemir, “has so
much favour been obtained by the precepts of virtue as Mustafa
acquired by the dictates of vice.”

To return to the quotation at the beginning of this long note; that

the wine in which our young hero Bakhtyār indulged to such an
extent as to deprive him of his senses was not a mild beverage,
admits of no question: again, in chapter viii, page 93, we find a King
and his favourite companion carousing together, until the former
falls into a drunken sleep.
Page 18. “How could a person bred up in a desert, and by
profession a robber, be fit for the society of a king?”—Sa`dī, the
celebrated Persian poet, in his Gulistān, or Rose-Garden, says: “No
one whose origin is bad ever catches the reflection of the good” (ch. i,
tale 4); and again: “How can we make a good sword out of bad iron?
A worthless person cannot by education become a person of worth;”
and yet again: “Evil habits, which have taken root in one’s nature,
will only be got rid of at the hour of death.” Firdausī, the Homer of
Persia, in his scathing satire on the Sultan Mahmūd of Ghazni, has
the following remarks on the same subject:
 To exalt the head of the unworthy,
To look for anything of good from them,
Is to lose the thread which guideth your purpose,
And to nourish a serpent in your bosom.
The tree which is by nature bitter,
Though thou shouldst plant it in the Garden of Paradise,
And spread honey about its roots—yea the purest honey-comb,
And water it in its season from the Fountain of Eternity,
Would in the end betray its nature,
And would still produce bitter fruit.
If thou shouldst pass through the shop of the seller of amber
Thy garments will retain its odour;
If thou shouldst enter the forge of the blacksmith,
Thou wilt there see nothing but blackness.
That evil should come of an evil disposition is no wonder,
For thou canst not sponge out the darkness from the night.
Of the son of the impure man entertain no hope,
For the Ethiopian by washing will never become white.[42]

Page 19. “You have entered the recesses of my harem.”—Only

husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles, fathers-in-law, and very young
boys are mahram, or privileged to enter the apartments of women in
Muslim countries. The fact of the chief Vizier visiting the Queen in
the harem (page 19) should lead us to conclude, either that the story
is of Indian origin, or that the worthy minister was “a neutral
personage”—not to put too fine a point on it.
Page 20. “By a false testimony.”—Among the Muslims falsehood in
certain cases is not only allowed but commended. Even oaths of
different kinds are more or less binding. Expiation is permitted by
law for an inconsiderate oath, and, according to some, even for the
violation of a deliberate oath. The expiation consists in once feeding
or clothing ten poor men, liberating a slave or captive, or fasting
three days. An unintentional oath requires no expiation; but the
swearing to a falsehood can only be expiated by deep repentance.—
Lane.

In Cazotte’s French rendering—or rather, adaptation—of the

Arabian version of this work, under the title of “The Story of King
Bohetzad and his Ten Viziers,” the name of the young hero is not
Bakhtyār, but Aladdin—properly, `Ala`u-’d-Dīn, “Exaltation of the
Faith”; for Sipahsālār there is a prime minister whose name is
Asphand, and his daughter, Baherjoa, was being conveyed, not to the
Vizier, as in our version, but to the Prince of Babylon, to whom she
was to be married. The order of the tales varies from that in the
Persian work and two additional tales are interpolated. There is one
point, however, in which this rendering, or version, is, I think,
superior to the Persian, namely, that while in the Bakhtyār-story we
are told that after the King recovered his throne and kingdom, he
and the Queen “passed their days in tranquillity, interrupted only by
the remembrance of their child, whom they had left in the desert,
and whom, they were persuaded, wild beasts must have devoured the
same hour in which they abandoned him,” but they do not appear to
have taken any steps to ascertain his fate;—in Cazotte’s version trusty
messengers are despatched far and wide to learn, if possible, tidings
of the child, though without success. This is but natural, and what we
should expect, particularly on the part of an Eastern monarch, from
the well-known affection of Asiatics for their male offspring, which
are considered as the light or splendour of the house; and if it be an
interpolation by Cazotte—one of the “disfigurements” of which he is
accused by Deslongchamps[43]—it is very decidedly an improvement
on his original.—Bohetzād’s kingdom is called Dineroux, “which
comprehends all Syria, and the Isles of India lying at the mouth of
the Persian Gulf;” his capital is Issessara. One or two other points of
difference may also find a place here. In our translation, when the
royal fugitives abandoned their infant in the desert, “their hearts
were afflicted with anguish;” but in Lescallier’s French rendering, the
King is represented as exclaiming, on this occasion: “O my dear
infant! thy father sheds rivers of tears from his eyes, because of thy
absence, like the father of Joseph the Egyptian, when his son was
departed from the land of Canaan!”—while according to Cazotte:
“Great God!” cried the afflicted mother, bedewing her babe with her
tears, “who didst watch over the safety of young Ishmael, preserve
this innocent babe!” The reference to Ishmael is possibly an
alteration by the Arabian translator.—It is not, as in the Persian
work, the King of Kirmān of whom the fugitive pair seek protection
and assistance, but Kassera, King of Persia—no doubt, meaning
Khusrū (called by the Greeks Chosroes), the general title of the
Persian Kings of the Sassanian dynasty, thus, Khusrū Parvīz, Khusrū
Nushirvān. He furnishes Bohetzād with an immense army for the
recovery of his kingdom, and the Queen (Baherjoa) remains under
his protection until Bohetzād should have punished his rebellious
Vizier. But meanwhile the King of Persia becomes deeply enamoured
of the beauteous Baherjoa; and when envoys arrive from Bohetzād to
bring back the Queen, Khusrū’s first impulse is to refuse to deliver
her up, but at length better feelings prevail over his passion, and he
restores her to the envoys in a magnificent litter, and with numerous
female attendants.
 Notes on Chapter II.
Page 22. “Rooted out of the soil of his empire;” the text adds, “as
an example to evil-doers.”
Page 22. “On the eve of my departure from this world,” &c. The
text reads: “But the law of God hath commanded that an innocent
person should exculpate and exert himself in his own defence. God,
the Most Holy and the Most High (hakk subhānāhu wa ta`āla),
knows that I am innocent of these suspicions” [or allegations].
Page 23. Bakhtyār saluted the Pādishāh, and spoke out with
fluency and eloquence.
Page 23. Basra.—Situated on the Shattu-’l-`Arab (the river of the
Arabs—the united stream of the Tigris and the Euphrates), Basra is
the principal port in the Persian Gulf, and is so named from the
white stones (basra) near and around it. Renowned for its school of
grammar, the Arabic dual al-basratān (the Two Basras) denotes the
rival seats of learning, Basra and Kūfa.—See D’Herbelot, art. Coufeh.
—Built by the command of the pious Khalif `Omar, A.H. 15 (A.D. 636),
it was called “the land of purity,” never having been polluted by any
idolatrous worship. Irrigated by the river Ayla, which falls into the
Tigris close to it, its gardens are so fruitful that it is reckoned one of
the four earthly paradises of Asia—the other three being the valleys
of Shīrāz, Damascus, and Samarkand.
Page 23. “And the Merchant thought”—the text has “that a voyage
by sea and land might jeopardise life and property, but by laying out
what remained,” &c.—The antipathy of the Persians to a sea-voyage
is well known, and very distinctly professed by the poet Hāfiz. “He
had heard of the munificent encouragement which Sultan Mahmūd
Shāh Bahamī, an accomplished prince then reigning in the Dek’han,
afforded to poets and learned men, and became desirous of visiting
his court. Hearing of this wish, and desirous himself of forming an
acquaintance with Hāfiz, Sultān Mahmūd sent him, through the
hands of his vizier, Mīr Fazlu’llāh Anjū, an invitation and a
handsome sum of money to defray the expenses of his journey.
Thereupon he set out and advanced on his expedition as far as Lār.
There he encountered a friend who had been plundered by robbers,
on whom he bestowed a part of his money, and not having left
himself sufficient to prosecute his journey, was compelled to accept
the assistance of two merchants whom he fortunately met with there,
and who kindly took him with them to Hurmuz. There he found a
ship ready to sail to the Dek’han, and took his passage in her. But a
storm having arisen, he was so terrified by it, that he abandoned his
intention, and sending a letter of excuse to the vizier, with an ode to
the King, returned himself to Shīrāz. He says:
“The splendour of a Sultan’s diadem, within which, like a casket enclosed, are fears
for one’s life,
May be heart-attracting as a cap, but is not worth the loss of the head it covers.

The sufferings of the sea may appear easy to bear in the prospect of its pearls;
But I have erred, for its waves are not worth one hundred munns of gold.”[44]

Page 24. “Most of the houses were washed away.”—Probably

owing to the non-adhesive qualities of the mortar generally
employed in the construction of Persian houses: a mixture, half of
mud, one fourth of lime, and the rest ashes of burnt straw and
rubbish.
Page 25. “Trees and running streams.”—The dryness of the
Persian climate and the deficiency of rivers have exercised in ancient
(Polybius, lib. 10, 25) as in modern times the ingenuity of the natives
in the discovery of springs.—In the Story of Abū Temām (page 98) a
city is also described as “adorned with gardens and running
streams.” It was a saying of Muhammad that “three things fortify the
sight: looking at verdure, at running water, and at a handsome face.”
Page 25. Dihkān is a compound word, from dih, a village, and
khān, lord, or chief.
Page 25. “Erected a summer-house”—the text adds, “and on it a
lofty watch-tower.”
Page 25. “The stranger was entertained with politeness and
hospitality.”—The Kur’ān (iv, 40) enjoins the believer to “serve
God ... and show kindness unto ... your neighbour who is a
stranger ... and the traveller” (ibnu-’s sabīl: son of the road). The
practice of hospitality among the pre-Islamite Arabs is too well
known to require more than passing mention, and reference to
Professor Lee’s note on Job xxi, 16.
Page 25. “A suit of his clothes”; his own jubba and dastār. The
jubba is a vest with cotton quilted between the outside and the
lining; the dastār is the sash, or fine muslin cloth, wrapped round
the turban.
Page 25. “Account of his property” &c.—signet, chattels, and ledger
—“and said, ‘you must manifest your zeal in the seasons of sowing
and of harvest, and become the mushrif of my property.’” A mushrif
is an officer of the treasury, who authenticates accounts and writings.
The dihkān gave him his signet, in order that he might transact his
business with full authority. “Seals, or signets,” says Dr H. H. Wilson,
“were from the earliest periods commonly used in the East.
Ahasuerus takes his signet off his hand and gives it, first to Haman,
and again to Mordecai; and Herodotus notices that each of the
Babylonians wore a seal-ring. The Greeks and Romans had their
rings curiously engraved with devices, and that cast by Polycrates
into the sea was the work of an engraver whose name the historian
has thought not unworthy of commemoration. The use of the seal
amongst the Orientals at the present day is not, as with us, to secure
an envelope, but to verify letters and documents in place of a written
signature. Amongst the natives of Hindūstān, both Muhammadan
and Hindū, the seal is engraved with the name of the wearer, and the
surface being smeared superficially only with ink, the application of
the seal to the paper leaves the letters which are cut in the stone
white on a black ground. Such also was the manner in which the
seals of the Greeks and Romans were applied.” Lane, in his Modern
Egyptians, says: “On the little finger of the right hand is worn a seal-
ring (Khātim), which is generally of silver, with a cornelian, or other
stone, upon which is engraved the wearer’s name; the name is
accompanied by the words ‘his servant’—signifying the servant, or
worshipper, of God—and often by other words expressive of the
person’s trust in God, &c. (see St. John’s Gospel iii, 33, and Exodus
xxxix, 30). The Prophet disapproved of gold; therefore few Muslims
wear gold rings; but the women have various ornaments (rings,
bracelets &c.) of that precious metal. The impression of the seal-ring
is considered as more valid than the sign-manual. Therefore giving
the ring to another person is the utmost mark of confidence.—See
Genesis xli, 42.”
Page 27. “Bit the finger of amazement.”—Biting the hand or finger
is a common mode in the East of manifesting surprise, grief, or
anger. Thus in the Kur’ān, xxv, 29: “On that day the unjust person
shall bite his hands for anguish;” and iii, 119: “When they assemble
together privately they bite their fingers’-ends out of wrath against
you.” In the Gulistān of Sa`dī, i, 4: “The King seized the hand of
amazement with his teeth;” again, v, 19: “Thine enemy bites the back
of his hand through vexation;” and again, vii, 19: “The fingers of
astonishment were between their teeth.” In one of the beautiful
poems of Bahāu-’d-Dīn Zuhayr, of Egypt (A.D. 1186–1258), elegantly
translated by Professor E. H. Palmer:
When she passed me without speaking, I declare,
I could almost bite my hand off with despair.

And in the Turkish poem of Khusrev and Shīrīn, by Shayki, ob. A.D.
1426 (Mr Gibb’s Ottoman Poems, p. 6):
No power was left him, neither sport nor pleasure,
He bit his finger, wildered beyond measure.

Page 27. “Driven forth from the village”; the text adds; “and they
deprived him of whatever they had given.”
Page 27. “For the sake of God:” a common phrase among Muslims.
A rather humorous example of its use occurs in the Gulistān (chap,
iv, tale 14): A harsh-voiced man was reading the Kur’ān in a loud
tone. A pious man passed by him, and said: “What is thy monthly
stipend?”—“Nothing,” he replied.—“Why then,” he inquired, “dost
thou give thyself all this trouble?”—“I read for the sake of God,” he
replied.—“For God sake, then, don’t read,” said he.
Page 27. “A pearl of such exquisite beauty,” &c.—In the East it is
popularly believed that the pearl is formed in the oyster from a rain-
drop: Sa’dī, in the fourth book of his Bustān, has some beautiful
verses on this notion, in which he inculcates the practice of humility.
Pearls are called marvārīd, “production of light,” and, usually when
they are unpierced, lū’lū’, “luminous,” “brilliant.” They are divided
into twelve classes, each having a distinctive name, according to their
“water” or lustre; the first class being called shahvār, “the regal,” the
clearest, purest, and most lustrous. Pearls are also divided into
twelve classes, according to shape. They are further divided, in
respect of size, into fifteen classes, according to the number of holes
in the different sieves through which they are passed, from the
smallest, of which twelve hundred weigh a miskal, up to the largest,
of which forty weigh a miskal. The best pearl-fisheries are at Ceylon,
and in the Persian Gulf, at Bahrayn, Kīsh, and Sharak; but the
Arabian pearls are less prized than the Indian. Their colour and
quality are said to depend on the bottom of the sea where they are
produced: in black slime they are dark; in shallow waters, yellowish.
—Tavernier mentions a remarkable pearl found at Katifa, in Arabia,
the fishery probably alluded to by Pliny (Nat. Hist. b. ix, c. 54), which
he purchased for £10,000 of our money! It is said to be now in the
possession of the Shah of Persia.
Page 28. “He put three of the pearls into his mouth and the other
three among his clothes.”—It is customary for travellers and others
in the East to conceal their money and valuables about their clothes
and in the folds of their turbans. Many Oriental stories illustrate this
practice. For example, in the tale of the Poor Ropemaker (Arabian
Nights—vol. vi, of Jonathan Scott’s edition), he receives a sum of
money from a benevolent stranger, and having laid out a moiety of it
in material for his trade, he places the remainder within the folds of
his turban-cloth, but unluckily a bird snatches it off his head and
flies away with it. And in the Talmud there is a story of a poor
Hebrew, named Joseph, who paid great respect to the Sabbath. This
man had a wealthy neighbour, who was a firm believer in judicial
astrology, and having been told by a sagacious professor of the
science that all his riches should one day become the property of the
Sabbath-observing Joseph, he straightway sold his estate and
invested the proceeds in a large diamond, which he secretly sewed
within his turban, and departed in a vessel for some distant country
—thus preventing, as he fondly imagined, the verification of the
astrologer’s prediction. But his precautions were of no avail, for
while standing on the deck of the vessel, a sudden gust of wind
carried his turban, with all his wealth, into the sea. What became of
the ruined man after this misfortune we are not informed. But we are
told that, some time after this accident, the pious Joseph went to the
market and bought a fish to furnish his table on the Sabbath eve. On
opening the fish, the diamond which his old neighbour had lost with
his turban was found in its stomach—and thus was the good man’s
strict observance of the Sabbath rewarded, and the astrologer’s
prediction fulfilled to the letter.
Page 28. The unlucky Merchant’s adventure with the covetous and
dishonest jeweller finds a curious parallel in an incident in the “Story
of the Jackal, the Barber, and the Brāhman,” one of the charming
fairy tales in Miss Frere’s Old Deccan Days. The poor Brāhman,
however, though robbed of the precious stones he offers to the
jeweller for sale, escapes home all safe, unlike the Merchant of our
story. Possibly the incident in both tales had a common origin;—yet
the “roguery of villanous man” (to employ honest Jack Falstaff’s
phrase) is pretty much alike in all ages and countries!
Page 29. “They distributed some money among those who were
confined.”—Alms are recommended in many passages of the Kur’ān:
“Pay your legal alms,” ii, 43; “alms are to be distributed to the poor
and the needy ... for the redemption of captives, insolvent debtors,
and, for religion’s sake, unto the traveller,” ix, 53, 60. Alms are of two
kinds: (1) obligatory (or zakāt), ii, 172; and (2) voluntary (or
sadakāt), as in the present instance. In scripture we find a trace of
the same doctrine: see Daniel iv, 27. The Khalif `Omar Ibn `Abdu-’l-
`Azīz used to say: “Prayer carries us half-way to God; Fasting brings
us to the door of the palace; and Alms procure us admission.” And
assuredly no Eastern moralist has more frequently or more
impressively and beautifully inculcated the duty of alms-giving and
of liberality than Sa`dī. He tells us in the Gulistān, ii, 49, that on the
monument of Bahrām Gūr, a famous Persian King, was written: “The
liberal hand is better than the strong arm;” and adds: “Distribute in
alms the tithe of thy wealth; for the more the husbandman loppeth
off the exuberance of the vine, the more it will yield of grapes.” And
in his Bustān, or Fruit-Garden, b. ii, he says: “Bestow thy gold and
thy wealth while they are thine; for when thou art gone they will be
no longer in thy power.... Distribute thy treasure readily to-day, for
to-morrow the key may no longer be in thy hand.... Exert thyself to
cast a covering over the poor, that God’s own veil may be a covering
for thee.”[45]
Page 30. “When he had related the story of the Merchant and of
the pearls which they had given him”—the text adds, “and the other
five divers had confirmed what he said.”
Page 30. “He was then led away to execution; and the King caused
to be proclaimed throughout the city,” &c. So, too, in the Thousand
and One Nights, the Barber relates how his Fourth Brother was
punished with a hundred lashes, “after which they mounted him
upon a camel, and proclaimed before him: ‘This is the recompense of
him who breaketh into men’s houses.’” Morier, in his Second
Journey, gives a graphic description of the punishment of
Muhammad Zamān Khān, governor of Astrābād, who, in 1814,
“entered into a league with the Turkmāns, disavowed the King’s
authority, and even made pretensions to the royal power and
prerogative.” The King offered a reward for his capture; and the
people of Astrābād surrounded the traitor’s palace, forced their way
into the room where he was seated, seized and bound him, and
carried him before the King. “When he had reached the camp, the
King ordered the chief of his camel-artillery to put a mock-crown
upon the rebel’s head, armlets on his arms, a sword by his side; to
mount him upon an ass, with his face towards the tail and the tail in
his hand; then to parade him throughout the camp, and to proclaim:
‘This is he who wished to be King!’ After this was over, and the
people had mocked and insulted him, he was brought before the
King, who called for the looties and ordered them to turn him into
ridicule by making him dance and perform antics against his will. He
then ordered that whoever chose might spit in his face. After this he
received the bastinado on the soles of his feet, which was
administered by the chiefs of his own tribe; and some time after he
had his eyes put out.—The strong coincidence,” adds Morier,
“between these details and the most awfully affecting part of our own
scripture history is a striking illustration of the permanence of
Eastern manners.”
Page 30. “Appointed him keeper of the treasury.”—The sudden
elevation of persons from a humble and even distressed condition to
places of great dignity and wealth has ever been a characteristic of
the absolute monarchs of Eastern countries, as well as the
degradation and ruin, frequently from mere caprice, and seldom with
any justification, of men of the highest rank. The most remarkable
instance of the many which Oriental history presents is the execrable
conduct of the Khalif Hārūnu-’r-Rāshīd, so undeservedly celebrated
in the Thousand and One Nights, in murdering his principal Vizier
Ja`far and utterly ruining the other members of the noble house of
Barmak (the Barmecides of our common translation of the Arabian
Nights), all of whom were as famed for their unbounded liberality as
for their brilliant abilities. An interesting account of the Barmakis
and their ruin is given in Dr Jonathan Scott’s Tales, Anecdotes, &c.,
from the Arabic and Persian.
Page 32. “Put out the Merchant’s eyes.”—A too common and
barbarous punishment in the East. In Turkey a needle was used for
this purpose in the case of state prisoners. The Arabian poet-hero
`Antar is said to have blinded his implacable and treacherous enemy
Wezār by passing a red-hot sword-blade close before his eyes. Years
afterwards the blinded chief executed poetical justice by slaying
`Antar with a poisoned arrow, which he shot at him on the bank of
the Euphrates.

In Cazotte’s version this story is entitled “The Obstinate Man,”

perhaps more appropriately than our “Ill-fated Merchant,” since his
own wrong-headedness was the main cause of his misfortunes. His
place of abode is Bagdād, not Basra. The divers give him ten pearls.
The jeweller, having been lately robbed of some pearls, believes
Kaskas (such is the man’s name) to be the thief, and accordingly he
accuses him; and when the latter is proved to be innocent, the
jeweller is punished with two hundred blows of the bastinado. The
catastrophe is very differently related: One day he observed in the
apartment which had been assigned to him, a door walled-up and
concealed by a slight covering of mastic, which was now so much
wasted by the effects of time that it crumbled into dust on the
slightest touch. Without any exertion of strength, he opened this
door and entered unthinkingly into a rich apartment entirely
unknown to him, but which he found to be in the interior of the
palace. Hardly had he advanced two or three steps when he was
perceived by the chief of the eunuchs, who instantly reported what he
had seen to the King. The monarch came immediately to the spot.
The fragments of the mastic remained upon the ground to show that
the door had been forced open, and the stupid amazement of Kaskas
completed the appearance of his guilt. “Wretch!” said the King, “dost
thou thus repay my favours? My justice saved thee, when I believed
thee innocent; now thou art guilty, and I condemn thee to lose thy
sight.” The imprudent Kaskas durst not even attempt to justify
himself, but was immediately delivered into the hands of the
executioner, of whom the only favour he asked was, that he would
give him his eyes when he had torn them from their sockets.[46] He
went groping through the streets of the capital with them in his
hands, crying: “Behold, all ye good people who hear me, what the
unfortunate Kaskas has gained by striving against the decrees of
Destiny, and despising the advice of his friends!”
 Notes on Chapter III.
Page 33. “Expressed many apprehensions.”—The text gives the
address of the Third Vizier as follows: “I am apprehensive lest the
affair of Bakhtyār should be known in the out-lying provinces of the
world [kingdom], and reaching the ears of sovereigns, occasion
scandal, an evil repute arise therefrom. Before this story of Bakhtyār
become the common talk, it is expedient to put him to death.”
Page 33. “He petitioned for mercy:” he cried, al-amān!—quarter!—
pardon! Byron’s couplet in the Giaour has rendered this word
familiar to English readers:
Resigned carbine or ataghān,
Nor ever raised the craven cry, Amaun!

Page 33. “If a king punish without due investigation.”—A Hindū

dramatist says:
Though the commands of royalty pervade
The world, yet sovereigns should remember,
The light of justice must direct their path.

And Sa`di, in his Bustān, b. I, regarding the duties of a king, says:

“If thou sheddest blood, it must not be done without a decree.” But
there is too much reason to believe that Eastern monarchs have
seldom been guided by the law in administering punishment. Many
of the Muslim princes of Northern Africa, in particular, have slain
even favourite attendants, from sheer wantonness and love of
bloodshed.
Page 34. Aleppo.—The Berica of the Greeks; Aleppo is the Italian
form of Hālab, the native name. On the fall of Palmyra, Hālabu-’s-
Shabha (Hālab the ash-coloured) became the grand emporium for
the productions of Persia and India, conveyed by caravans from
Bagdād and Basra to be shipped at Iskenderūn, or Latakia, for the
different ports of Europe. Under the Greek sovereigns of Syria,
Aleppo acquired great wealth and consequence, and flourished still
more under the Roman Emperors. An aqueduct, constructed before
the time of Constantine, conveys a plentiful supply of water from the
springs; and the mosques Jāmī, Zacharī, and Halawé, originally
Christian churches, are fine specimens of the ancient Roman style,
the latter built by the Empress Helena. To the peculiar quality of the
water of the Kuwayk (ancient Chalus), which irrigates its far-famed
gardens, is ascribed the ring-worm (hābala-’s-sina), which attacks
the natives once in their lives, and leaves an indelible scar, which
distinguishes an Aleppine throughout the East. In 1797 Aleppo was
the victim of the plague, and of earthquakes in 1822 and 1830.
Page 34. “Protected strangers.”—The text reads: “A friend of the
stranger; who never at any time injured any person, deemed all
injustice improper, and never deprived any one of aught.”
Page 34. “A son named Bih-zād,” meaning “well-born,”
“legitimate.”
Page 35. “A magnificent litter”—the text adds, “and the curtains of
the litter were thrown back;”—thus the youth was able to obtain a
view of the lady’s beauty.
Page 35. “When the young man had advanced thus far in his
narrative;” the lithographed text says, “when the boon companion
had described the lady.”—Readers familiar with Oriental fictions will
probably recollect many instances of princes and others becoming
enamoured, not only at sight of the portrait of a beautiful woman,
but at the mere description of her charms: in such celebrated
collections of tales as the Arabian Nights, the Persian Tales ascribed
to the Dervish Mokles of Isfahān, and the Bahār-i-Danish (Spring of
Knowledge) of `Ināyatu-’llah of Dihli. In the Bedawī Romance of
`Antar, a noble `Absian named Amara, “a conceited coxcomb, very
particular in his dress, fond of perfumes, and always keeping
company with women and young girls,” having heard of the beauty of
Abla, sends a female slave to the tents of her family to discover
whether the damsel was as beautiful as was reported of her; and the
girl returning with a glowing account of Abla’s charms, the Bedawī
exquisite immediately conceives a violent passion for her—“his ears
fell in love before his eyes.”—There is at least one instance on record
of a European becoming enamoured from imagination; in the case of
Geoffrey Rudel, the gallant troubadour, who fell desperately in love
with the Countess of Tripoli, from a description of her beauty and
accomplishments: but see the story in Warton’s History of English
Poetry.
Page 35. “The city of Rūm, the capital and residence of the Kaisar,
or Greek Emperor”: Constantinople.—The signification of “Rūm” is
very vague, as it may denote Rome, the Turkish Empire, Greece, or
Rumelia (Rūm Eyli). The Persians called the chief of the Seljukī
dynasty at Konia (i.e. Iconium), Kaisar-i-Rūm. D’Herbelot defines
the term Rūm as applicable to the countries which the Romans, and
afterwards the Greeks and Turks, subdued under their domination.
“Roumy [Rūmī],” observes Burckhardt, “is a word applied by the
Arabs to the Greeks of the Lower Empire, and afterwards to all
Christians.” (Travels in Nubia, App. n. iii.) The Persian proverb, Ez
Rūm ta Shām, “from Rūm to Syria,” is quoted to indicate an extent
of territory. Kaisar (Cæsar, whence Czar) was the general title of the
sovereigns of the Lower Empire, as Khusrū was that of the Persian
Kings of the Sassanian dynasty.
Page 36. “Prince Bihzād immediately arose, and hastened to the
house of the Vizier, and said,” &c.—The following is a close
translation of this passage as given in the lithographed text:
“You must go this moment and tell my father, Bihzād says thus:
‘Thou dost not turn thine eye upon me and hast not any care for me.
There is no mortal in the world to whom a wife should not be given;
if thou carest for me, you would bestow on me a help-mate.’” The
Vizier replied: “Your order I obey;” then rose up and went to the
King’s palace, asked for an audience, and reported to the King all
that Bihzād had said. The King said: “Bihzād has fallen in love; say to
him, ‘This wish is in my thoughts; but I have paused until I could
discover some companion for thy sake; but if there be a longing for
any one, speak out that I may give it my attention—that I may effect a
settlement, and bring this thy desire within thy embrace.’”—The
Vizier returned, and repeated to Bihzād what the King had said, to
which Bihzād replied: “Go and tell my father that the Kaisar of Rūm
has a daughter, Nigārīn[47] by name; he must send ambassadors and
demand the daughter on my behalf.” The Vizier returned and told
the King, who became unhappy.
Page 37. “The Vizier returned to Bihzād, and delivered him this
message from his father.”—The lithographed text says:
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