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Data for Dating a Tale in the Nights
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
According to the Breslau edition of the Nights (vol. ii, p. 11), Nûr ad-Dîn ‘Alî, after his quarrel with his brother Shams ad-Dîn Muḥammad, leaves Cairo in the morning, and arrives at Bilbais at mid-day, then at 
in the evening. For 
Macnaghten (vol. i, p. 151) reads 
; but there can be no doubt that the original reading was 
, as will be shown. According to Breslau, Nûr ad-Dîn at 
sleeps in the 
, “ post-horse station.” Historically, a place called 
appears in the Mamlûk postal service as the next station north of Bilbais on the route out of Cairo, and corresponding exactly to the 
of the tale (e.g. Qalqashandî, ed. 1919, vol. xiv, p. 376); it was at as-Sa‘îdîya that two roads branched respectively to Damietta and Gazza.
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page 1 note 1 In aẓ-Ẓahirî's Zubdat Kashf al Mamálik (ed. Ravaisse, p. 119) the same data are given : “ The Damietta road branches off from 
, to be mentioned later ” ; the “ later mention ”, however, is missing, having fallen out, with other words, from the sentence 
; this incomplete sentence evidently was intended to describe the road from Cairo which branched off at as-Sa‘îdîya and led to Syria via several stations before the 
mentioned (cf. Qalqashandî, loc. cit.). The question of the post-road has been discussed in detail by R. Hartman, “ Die Strasse von Damaskus nach Kairo,” ZDMG., lxiv, pp. 665–702, particularly pp. 686–92; but the dates of the two authors mentioned, aẓ-Ẓâhirî (a.h. 872 = a.d. 1468) and Qalqashandî (a.h. 868 = a.d. 1464), are misleading, since both writers borrowed their data from the Ta‘rîf of al-‘Umarî (died a.h. 748 = a.d. 1348 ; see further, below).
page 3 note 1 In another reference in Khiṭaf, ii, 30, referring to the death of Quṭuz at the hands of Baibars “ between as-Ṣaliḥîya and as-Sa‘îdîya, at 
al-Qurain” in a.h. 658 = a.d. 1259, Maqrîzî was evidently either citing his sources—which were, of course, later than the date a.h. 658—or he himself added the location ; Khiṭat, ii, 238, says the assassination occurred near Manzilat as-Ṣâliḥîya ; “ Mamlouks,” I, i, 113, says “ near as-Ṣâliḥîya ” ; Ibn Iyâs: “ When he arrived at al-Qurain ”—all without mention of as-Sa‘îdîya.
page 6 note 1 In the passage quoted by Dozy, s.v., from Ibn al-Athîr, x, p. 275, and referring to the year A.h. 499, 
means “ a dirham-weight of silvermetal ” (or possibly alloy), not a coin : “ The people (of Tarabulus) sold rare jewelry and vessels in unmeasurable quantities, so that a hundred dirhams of nuqra were sold for a dînâr ” ; similarly in the passage cited in Journal Asiatique, xxxix (Jan., 1882), p. 62, referring to the reign of al-Ḥâkim (a.h. 386–411) and quoting as-Suyûtî, Ḥusn, ii, p. 140: “ elle pesait 5000 dirhams de noqrah.”
page 9 note 1 And then adds : “ he set out, journeying he knew not whither and continued going until he approached Basrah.”