One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  506 In this tale, we see, Khizr appears to the distressed in white raiment.

  507 In an old English metrical version of the “Seven Sages,” the tutors of the prince, in order to test his progress in general science, secretly place an ivy leaf under each of the four posts of his bed, and when he awakes in the morning —

  “Par fay!” he said, “a ferli cas!

  Other ich am of wine y-drunk,

  Other the firmament is sunk,

  Other wexen is the ground,

  The thickness of four leavčs round!

  So much to-night higher I lay,

  Certes, than yesterday.”

  508 See also the same story in The Nights, vols. vii. and viii., which Mr. Kirby considers as probably a later version. (App. vol. x. of The Nights, ).

  509 So, too, in the “Bahár-i-Dánish” a woman is described as being so able a professor in the school of deceit, that she could have instructed the devil in the science of stratagem: of another it is said that by her wiles she could have drawn the devil’s claws; and of a third the author declares, that the devil himself would own there was no escaping from her cunning!

  510 There is a similar tale by the Spanish novelist Isidro de Robles (circa 1660), in which three ladies find a diamond ring in a fountain; each claims it; at length they agree to refer the dispute to a count of their acquaintance who happened to be close by. He takes charge of the ring and says to the ladies, “Whoever in the space of six weeks shall succeed in playing off on her husband the most clever and ingenious trick (always having due regard to his honour) shall possess the ring; in the meantime it shall remain in my hands.” (See Roscoe’s “Specimens of the Spanish Novelists,” Chandos edition, ff.) This story was probably brought by the Moors to Spain, whence it may have passed into France, since it is the subject of a faliau, by Haisiau the trouvčre, entitled “Des Trois Dames qui trouverent un Anel,” which is found in Méon’s edition of Barbazan, 1808, tome iii. p-229, and in Le Grand, ed. 1781, tome iv. p-165.

  511 Idiots and little boys often figure thus in popular tales: readers of Rabelais will remember his story of the Fool and the Cook; and there is a familiar example of a boy’s precocity in the story of the Stolen Purse— “Craft and Malice ofWomen,” or the Seven Wazirs, vol. vi. of The Nights.

  512 I have considerably abridged Mr. Knowles’ story in several places.

  513 A species of demon.

  514 This is one of the innumerable parallels to the story of Jonah in the “whale’s” belly which occur m Asiatic fictions. See, for some instances, Tawney’s translation of the “Kathá Sarit Ságara,” ch. xxxv. and lxxiv.; “Indian Antiquary,” Sept. 1885, Legend of Ahlá; Miss Stokes’ “Indian Fairy Tales,” p, 76; and Steel and Temple’s “Wide-Awake Stories from the Panjáb and Kashmír,” . In Lucian’s “Vera Historia,” a monster fish swallows a ship and her crew, who live a long time in the extensive regions comprised in its internal economy. See also Herrtage’s “Gesta Romanorum” (Early English Text Society), .

  515 In the Arabian version the people resolve to leave the choice of a new king to the royal elephant because they could not agree among themselves (vol. i., ), but in Indian fictions such an incident frequently occurs as a regular custom. In the “Sivandhi Sthala Purana,” a legendary account of the famous temple at Trichinopoli, as supposed to be told by Gautama to Matanga and other sages, it is related that a certain king having mortally offended a holy devotee, his capital and all its inhabitants were, in consequence of a curse pronounced by the enraged saint, buried beneath a shower of dust. “Only the queen escaped, and in her flight she was delivered of a male-child. After some time, the chiefs of the Chola kingdom, proceeding to elect a king, determined, by the advice of the saint, to crown whomsoever the late monarch’s elephant should pitch upon. Being turned loose for this purpose, the elephant discovered and brought to Trisira-málí the child of his former master, who accordingly became the Chola king.” (Wilson’s Desc. Catal. of Mackenzie MSS., i. 17.) In a Manipurí story of two brothers, Turi and Basanta— “Indian Antiquary,” vol. iii. — the elder is chosen king in like manner by an elephant who meets him in the forest, and takes him on his back to the palace, where he is immediately placed on the throne. See also “Wide-Awake Stories from the Panjáb and Kashmír,” by Mrs. Steel and Captain Temple, ; and Rev. Lal Behari Day’s “Folk-Tales of Bengal,” for similar instances. The hawk taking part, in this story, with the elephant in the selection of a king does not occur in any other tale known to me.

  516 So that their caste might not be injured. A dhobí, or washerman, is of much lower caste than a Bráhman or a Khshatriya.

  517 A responsible position in a rájá’s palace.

  518 “And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” Rájá Ambá must have been fully twelve years in the stomach of the alligator.

  519 This device of the mother to obtain speech of the king is much more natural than that adopted in the Kashmiri version.

  520 The story of Abú Sábir (see vol. i. ff.) may also be regarded as an analogue. He is unjustly deprived of all his possessions, and, with his wife and two young boys, driven forth of his village. The children are borne off by thieves, and their mother forcibly carried away by a horseman. Abú Sábir, after many sufferings, is raised from a dungeon to a throne. He regains his two children and his wife, who had steadfastly refused to cohabit with her captor.

  521 Introduction to the romance of “Torrent of Portingale,” re-edited (for the Early English Text Society, 1886) by E. Adam, Ph.D., pp. xxi. xxii.

  522 Morning.

  523 Bird.

  524 Mean; betoken.

  525 Thee.

  526 Tho: then.

  527 Yede: went.

  528 Case.

  529 Avaunced: advanced; promoted.

  530 Holpen: helped.

  531 Brent: burnt.

  532 But if: unless.

  533 To wed: in pledge, in security.

  534 Beth: are.

  535 Or: either.

  536 Lever dey: rather die.

  537 Far, distant.

  538 Unless.

  539 Oo: one.

  540 Ayen: again.

  541 Or: ere, before.

  542 Army; host.

  543 Part.

  544 That.

  545 Grief, sorrow.

  546 Poor.

  547 Gathered, or collected, together.

  548 Arms; accoutrements; dress.

  549 Bravely.

  550 Those.

  551 Done, ended.

  552 Their lodgings, inn.

  553 Since.

  554 Comrades.

  555 Truly.

  556 Lodged.

  557 Inn.

  558 Hem: them.

  559 Chief of the army.

  560 I note: I know not.

  561 Nor.

  562 Place.

  563 That is by means of his hounds.

  564 A wood.

  565 Those.

  566 Her: their.

  567 Looks towards; attends to.

  568 Give.

  569 Excepting; unless.

  570 Face; countenance.

  571 Care; close examination.

  572 Palata, Lat. (Paletot, O. Fr. ), sometimes signifying a particular stuff, and sometimes a particular dress. See Du

  Cange.

  573 Cut; divided

  574 Wept.

  575 Sailing.

  576 More.

  577 Much.

  578 Sultan.

  579 Name.

  580 Voice, i.e., command.

  581 Slew.

  582 Labour.

  583 Drew.

  584 Went.

  585 Burning coal.

  586 Pray; beg.

  587 Recovered.

  588 Head.

  589 Weeping.

  590 Saw.

  591 Waving.

  592 Began to climb.

  593 Against.

  594 More.

  595 From an early vo
lume of the “Asiatic Journal,” the number of which I did not “make a note of — thus, for once at least, disregarding the advice of the immortal Captain Cuttle.

  596 “It was no wonder,” says this writer, “that his (i.e.

  Galland’s) version of the ‘Arabian Nights’ achieved a universal popularity, and was translated into many languages, and that it provoked a crowd of imitations, from ‘Les Mille et Un Jours’ to the ‘Tales of the Genii.’”

  597 This is a version of The Sleeper and the Waker — with a vengeance! Abú Hasan the Wag, the Tinker, and the Rustic, and others thus practiced upon by frolic-loving princes and dukes, had each, at least, a most delightful “dream.” But when a man is similarly handled by the “wife of his bosom” — in stories, only, of course — the case is very different as the poor chief of police experienced. Such a “dream” as his wife induced upon him we may be sure he would remember “until that day that he did creep into his sepulchre!”

  598 I call this “strikingly similar” to the preceding Persian story, although it has fewer incidents and the lady’s husband remains a monk; she could not have got him back even had she wished; for, having taken the vows, he was debarred from returning to “the world “ which a kalandar or dervish may do as often as he pleases.

  599 “The Woman’s trick against her Husband.”

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  SUPPLEMENTAL NIGHTS VOLUME III.

  To Henry Edward John, Lord Stanley

  of Alderley

  This

  The Most Innocent Volume of the Nights

  is Inscribed by His Old Companion,

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  The Translator’s Foreword.

  The peculiar proceedings of the Curators, Bodleian Library, 1 Oxford, of which full particulars shall be given in due time, have dislocated the order of my volumes. The Prospectus had promised that Tome III. should contain detached extracts from the MS. known as the Wortley-Montague, and that No. IV. and part of No. V. should comprise a reproduction of the ten Tales (or eleven, including “The Princess of Daryßbßr”), which have so long been generally attributed to Professor Galland. Circumstances, however, wholly beyond my control have now compelled me to devote the whole of this volume to the Frenchman’s stories.

  It will hardly be doubted that for a complete recueil of The Nights a retranslation of the Gallandian histoires is necessary. The learned Professor Gustav Weil introduced them all, Germanised literally from the French, into the Dritter Band of his well-known version — Tausend und eine Nacht; and not a few readers of Mr. John Payne’s admirable translation (the Villon) complained that they had bought it in order to see Ali Baba, Aladdin, and others translated into classical English and that they much regretted the absence of their old favourites.

  But the modus operandi was my prime difficulty. I disliked the idea of an unartistic break or change in the style, ever

  “TÔchnat de rendre mien cet air d’antiquitÚ,”

  and I aimed at offering to my readers a homogeneous sequel. My first thought for securing uniformity of treatment was to tender the French text into Arabic, and then to retranslate it into English. This process, however, when tried was found wanting; so I made inquiries in all directions for versions of the Gallandian histories which might have been published in Persian, Turkish, or Hindustani. Though assisted by the Prince of London Bibliopoles, Bernard Quaritch, I long failed to find my want: the vernaculars in Persian and Turkish are translated direct from the Arabic texts, and all ignore the French stories. At last a friend, Cameron McDowell, himself well known to the world of letters, sent me from Bombay a quaint lithograph with quainter illustrations which contained all I required. This was a version of Totßrßm Shßyßn (No. III.), which introduced the whole of the Gallandian Tales: better still, these were sufficiently orientalised and divested of their inordinate Gallicism, especially their lonesome dialogue, by being converted into Hindustani, the Urdu Zabßn (camp or court language) of Upper India and the Lingua Franca of the whole Peninsula.

  During one of my sundry visits to the British Museum, I was introduced by Mr. Alexander G. Ellis to Mr. James F. Blumhardt, of Cambridge, who pointed out to me two other independent versions, one partly rhymed and partly in prose.

  Thus far my work was done for me. Mr. Blumhardt, a practical Orientalist and teacher of the modem Prakrit tongues, kindly undertook, at my request, to English the Hindustani, collating at the same time, the rival versions; and thus, at a moment when my health was at its worst, he saved me all trouble and labour except that of impressing the manner with my own sign manual, and of illustrating the text, where required, with notes anthropological and other.

  Meanwhile, part of my plan was modified by a visit to Paris in early 1887. At the BibliothÞque Nationale I had the pleasure of meeting M. Hermann Zotenberg, keeper of Eastern manuscripts, an Orientalist of high and varied talents, and especially famous for his admirable Chronique de Tabari. Happily for me, he had lately purchased for the National Library, from a vendor who was utterly ignorant of its history, a MS. copy of The Nights, containing the Arabic originals of Zayn al-Asnam and Alaeddin. The two volumes folio are numbered and docketed SupplÚment Arabe, Nos. 2522-23;” they measure 31 cent. by 20; Vol. i. contains 411 folios (822 pages) and Vol. ii. 402 (p); each page numbers fifteen lines, and each folio has its catchword. The paper is French, English and Dutch, with four to five different marks, such as G. Gautier; D. and C. Blaew; Pro PatrÔ and others. The highly characteristic writing, which is the same throughout the two folios, is easily recognised as that of Michel (MikhaÝl) Sabbßgh, the Syrian, author of the Colombe MessagÞre, published in Paris A.D. 1805, and accompanied by a translation by the celebrated Silvestre de Sacy (Chrestomathie iii. 365). This scribe also copied, about 1810, for the same Orientalist, the Ikhwßn al-Safß.

  I need say nothing more concerning this MS., which M. Zotenberg purposes to describe bibliographically in volume xxviii. of Notices et extraits des Manuscrits de la BibliothÞque rationale publiÚs par l’Academie des inscriptions et belles lettres. And there will be a tirage Ó part of 200-300 copies entitled Histoire d’ ‘Alß al-D¯n ou La Lampe Merveilleuse, Texte Arabe, publiÚ par H. Zotenberg, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1888; including a most important contribution: — Sur quelques Manuscrits des Mille et une Nuits et la traduction de Galland.1

  The learned and genial author has favoured me with proof sheets of his labours: it would be unfair to disclose the discoveries, such as the Manuscript Journals in the BibliothÞque Nationale (Nos. 15277 to 15280), which the illustrious Garland kept regularly till the end of his life, and his conversations with “M. Hanna, Maronite d’Halep,” alias Jean Dipi (Dippy, a corruption of Diab): suffice it to say that they cast a clear and wholly original light upon the provenance of eight of the Gallandian histories. I can, however, promise to all “Aladdinists” a rich harvest of facts which wholly displace those hitherto assumed to be factual. But for the satisfaction of my readers I am compelled to quote the colophon of M. Zotenberg’s great “find” (vol. ii.), as it bears upon a highly important question.

  “And the finishing thereof was during the first decade of Jamßdi the Second, of the one thousand and one hundred and fifteenth year of the Hegirah (= A.D. 1703) by the transcription of the neediest of His slaves unto Almighty Allah, Ahmad bin Mohammed al-TarßdÝ, in Baghdad City: he was a Shßfi’Ý of school, and a Mosuli by birth, and a Baghdadi by residence, and he wrote it for his own use, and upon it he imprinted his signet. So Allah save our lord Mohammed and His Kin and Companions and assain them! KabÝkaj.”2

  Now as this date corresponds with A.D. 1703, whereas Galland did begin publishing until 1705-1705 the original MS. of Ahmad al- TarßdÝ could not have been translated or adapted from the French; and although the transcription by Mikhail Sabbagh, writing in 1805-10, may have introduced modification borrowed from Galland, yet the scrupulous fidelity of his copy, s
hown by sundry marginal and other notes, lays the suspicion that changes of importance have been introduced by him. Remains now only to find the original codex of Al-TarßdÝ.

  I have noticed in my translation sundry passages which appear to betray the Christian hand; but these are mostly of scanty consequence in no wise affecting the genuineness of the text.

  The history of Zayn al Asnam was copied from the Sabbßgh MS. and sent to me by M. Houdas, Professeur d’Arabe vulgaire a l’Ecole des langues orientales vivantes; an Arabist, whose name is favourably quoted in the French Colonies of Northern Africa M. Zotenberg kindly lent me his own transcription of Alaeddin before sending it to print; and I can only regret that the dilatory proceedings of the Imprimerie Nationale, an establishment supported by the State, and therefore ignoring the trammels of private industry, have prevented my revising the version now submitted to the public. This volume then begins with the two Gallandian Tales, “Zeyn Alasnam” and “Aladdin,” whose Arabic original was discovered by M. Zotenberg during the last year: although separated in the French version, I have brought them together for the sake of uniformity. The other eight (or nine, including the Princess of Daryabar), entitled History of Khudadad and his Brothers, and the Princess of Daryabar;

  History of Khudadad and his Brothers, and the Princess of

  Daryabar;

  History of the Blind Man, Baba Abdullah;

  History of Sidi Nu’uman;

  History of Khwajah Hasan al-Habbal;

  History of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves;

  History of Ali Khwajah and the Merchant of Baghdad;

  History of Prince Ahmad and the Fairy Peri-banu;

  History of the two Sisters who envied their Cadette,

  are borrowed mainly from the Indian version of Totßrßm Shßyßn.

  And here I must quote the bibliographical notices concerning the sundry versions into Urdu or Hindustani which have been drawn up with great diligence by Mr. Blumhardt.

  “The earliest attempt to translate the Arabian Nights was made by Munshi Shams al-DÝn Ahmad Shirwßni. A prose version of the first two hundred Nights made by him æfor the use of the College at Fort St. George’ was lithographed at Madras in the year A.H. 1252 (A.D. 1836) and published in 8vo volumes (p, 426) under the title ‘Hikayat ool jaleeah’3 (Hikßyßt al-jalÝlah). The translation was made from an Arabic original but it does not appear what edition was made use of. The translator had intended to bring out a version of the entire work, but states in his preface that, being unable to procure the Arabic of the other Nights, he could not proceed with the translation, and had to be content to publish only two hundred Nights. This version does not appear to have become popular, for no other edition seems to have been published. And the author must not be confounded with Shaykh Ahmad Shirwßni, who, in A.D. 1814, printed an Arabic edition of the Arabian Nights Entertainments (Calcutta, Pereira) which also stopped at No. CC.