"
[FN#57] Cf. Aristophanes, Lysistrata and Ecclesiazus? passim.
[FN#58] An audacious parody of the Koran, applied ironically,
"And the pious work God shall raise up."--Koran, xxxv. 11.
[FN#59] Lit. The chapter of clearing (oneself from belief in any
but God), or Unity, Koran, cxii. It ends with the words, "There
is none like unto Him."
[FN#60] i.e. but for the soul that animated them.
[FN#61] The word "nights" (more commonly "days," sometimes also
"days and nights," as in the verses immediately following) is
constantly used in the sense of "fortune" or "fate" by the poets
of the East.
[FN#62] Abdallah ibn ez Zubeir revolted (A.D. 680) against Yezid
(second Khalif of the Ommiade dynasty) and was proclaimed Khalif
at Mecca, where he maintained himself till A.D. 692, when he was
killed in the siege of that town by the famous Hejjaj, general of
Abdulmelik, the fifth Ommiade Khalif.
[FN#63] The allusion here appears to be to the burning of part of
Mecca, including the Temple and Kaabeh, during the (unsuccessful)
siege by Hussein, A.D. 683.
[FN#64] Three Muslim sectaries (Kharejites), considering the
Khalif Ali (Mohammed's son-in-law), Muawiyeh (founder of the
Ommiade dynasty) and Amr (or Amrou), the conqueror of Egypt, as
the chief authors of the intestine discords which then (A.
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