Arabic Authors / A Manual of Arabian History and Literature

by F. F. Arbuthnot

Time goes on, and the Cobbler's first wife, Fatimah, turns up in town, brought there also by a Jinn, and tells the story of the want and suffering she had undergone since his departure from Cairo. Ma'aruf treats her generously, and sets her up in a palace with a separate establishment, but the wickedness of the woman reappears, and she tries to get hold of the ring for her own purposes. Just as she has secured it she is cut down and killed on the spot by Ma'aruf's son, who had been watching her proceedings, and is thus finally disposed of. The King and his son then marry, and live happily in the manner of Eastern story, all the other characters being properly provided for.

So much for the 'Nights' proper. Other stories translated from the Breslau text (a Tunisian manuscript acquired, collated and translated by Professor Habicht, of Breslau, Von der Hagen, and another; 15 volumes, 12mo., Breslau, 1825), the Calcutta fragment of 1814-1818, and other sources, have been given by Payne in three extra volumes entitled 'Tales from the Arabic,' and by Burton in two of his six volumes of the 'Supplemental Nights.' Payne's three books and Burton's two first volumes follow the same lines. They both contain twenty principal, and sixty-four subordinate stories, or eighty-four altogether, divided into nine short stories and seventy-five longer ones. Some of them are very interesting, and some are amusing, especially a few of the sixteen Constables' Stories, which describe the cleverness of women, and the adroitness of thieves, and people of that class. It is probable that these are more or less of a modern date.

The first story in this collection, called 'The Sleeper and the Waker,' commonly known as 'The Sleeper Awakened,' is good, and also particularly interesting as one of Galland's stories not traced at the time, but afterwards turning up in the Tunis text of the 'Nights.'

The third volume of Burton's 'Supplemental Nights' is one of the most interesting of the whole lot. It contains eight principal and four subordinate stories of Galland's 'Contes Arabes,' which are not included in the Calcutta, Boulak, or Breslau editions of the 'Nights.' For many years the sources from which Galland procured these tales were unknown. Some said that he invented them himself. Others conjectured that he got them from the story-tellers in Constantinople and other places in the East. But in A.D. 1886 Mr. H. Zotenberg, the keeper of Eastern Manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, obtained a manuscript copy of the "Nights," which contained the Arabic originals of the stories of "Zayn Al Asnam," and of "Aladdin," two of Galland's best stories. This was a very valuable acquisition, for it sets at rest the doubts that had always been expressed about the origin of these two tales, and also leads to the supposition that the Arabic originals of the other stories will also turn up some day.

Of these eight principal and four subordinate stories of Galland, those of "Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp," and of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," have ever been most popular tales, and have been appreciated by many generations from the time that Galland first introduced them to Europe. But some of the other stories are equally good, and all are worth reading, as Burton has not only taken Galland as a guide, but has also adapted his own translation from the Hindustani version of the Gallandian tales, prepared by one Totárám Shayán, whose texts of the "Nights," along with those of others, are fully discussed. By this method Burton endeavoured to preserve the Oriental flavour of the work itself, without introducing too much French sauce.

After the discovery of the Arabic original of the stories of "Zayn Al-Asnam" and "Aladdin," Payne recognized its importance, and published his translation of these two tales in a separate volume in 1889, which forms a sort of appendix to his previously issued twelve volumes. This thirteenth book contains also an interesting introduction, giving a résumé of Mr. Zotenberg's work, published at Paris in 1888, and which contains the Arab text of the story of Aladdin, along with an exhaustive notice of certain manuscripts of the "Thousand and One Nights," and of Galland's translation.

The fourth and fifth volumes of Burton's "Supplemental Nights" contain certain new stories from an Arabic manuscript of the "Nights" in seven volumes, brought to Europe by Edward Wortley Montague, Esq., and bought at the sale of his library by Dr. Joseph White, Professor of Hebrew and Arabic at Oxford, from whom it passed into the hands of Dr. Jonathan Scott, who sold it to the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, for fifty pounds.

Wortley Montague's manuscript contains many additional tales not included in the Calcutta, Boulak, or Breslau editions, and these additional stories Burton has now translated. It is uncertain how or where Wortley Montague obtained his copy of the 'Thousand and One Nights.' Dr. White had at one time intended to translate the whole lot, but this was never accomplished. Jonathan Scott did, however, translate some of the stories, which were published in the sixth volume of his 'Arabian Nights Entertainment' in A.D. 1811, but the work was badly and incompletely done. It has now been thoroughly revised and put into better form by Burton in these two volumes.

In Appendix I. to Volume V. there is a catalogue of the contents of the Wortley Montague MS., which is very interesting, as it contains not only a description of the manuscript itself, but also a complete list of the tales making up the "Thousand and One Nights," many of which are, of course, to be found in the "Nights" proper.

These two supplemental volumes contain 25 principal and 31 subordinate stories, or 56 in all. Some of them are very amusing, especially the tales of the Larrikins, while the whole add to our knowledge of this vast répertoire of tales from the East, which has been gradually brought to the notice of Europe during the last one hundred and eighty-five years.