The Arabian Nights, Volume I of IV

by Unknown

As the mass of readers may, on a broad scale, be divided into two classes; those who read for amusement only, and those who read for information and instruction; so also may the writers be ranged, under those who address themselves to the imagination, and those who endeavour to direct the understanding. But, however we may, among the former, wish, for the sake of perspicuity of system, to class them under these distinct heads, we shall probably often find a combination of both in the same person. There are very few, it is to be feared, whose anxiety for knowledge is so strong, that they seek it in its most rugged and intricate paths, unless incited to the pursuit by the powerful motives of interest or ambition. While among the more numerous class, although amusement be their predominant principle, yet many wish to find information and instruction amidst their pleasures; and most, if their choice be not very unfortunate, be their wishes what they may, cannot avoid picking up and retaining something by the way, that may stimulate the understanding, or expand the heart. Surely then such writers, I will not say, “who enlist the imagination under the banners of science,” for with much ultimate success that perhaps is impossible, but who blend moral instruction and useful information with amusing tales, have some merit. And when a work even does more than this, when it contains a correct delineation, and gives a detailed account of the peculiar manners, customs, and modes of life, of a part of the globe in which some of the most singular nations of the earth once flourished, its merit is infinitely great, and it deserves the perusal and attention of every one. And such a work, in the fullest extent, is the Arabian Nights; which is more descriptive of the people, customs, and conduct of Eastern countries during the middle ages, than any other existing work; and, as far as other writers or travellers have investigated these subjects, so far have the correctness and authenticity of this work been confirmed.

I know the Arabian Nights have been formerly regarded as a literary forgery; and considered merely as a collection of tales, in which the marvellous and absurd have been even clumsily mixed up with scraps of eastern manners, and as calculated only for the amusement of children. But, however people may differ as to the greater or less degree of merit of the work itself, there is, I believe, hardly any one who now questions its authenticity: and I shall take the liberty not only of quoting some authors, who have spoken much in its favor, but also of mentioning some individuals now alive, whose talents will, it is presumed, give great weight to their testimony.

The original Arabic work is much more voluminous than M. Galland’s translation; but I have very high authority for asserting, that he has selected all the best and most interesting tales. At the conclusion of a translation of some tales and anecdotes, from the Arabic and Persian, by Jonathan Scott, Esq. this gentleman states, that he has purchased of Dr. White, professor of Arabic, in the University of Oxford, seven volumes of Arabic manuscript tales, which were brought over from Turkey by Edward Wortley Montague, Esq. and that these tales are not in Galland. The size of these seven volumes is not mentioned, and it is impossible, therefore, to judge of the quantity they contain. In the catalogue of Oriental manuscripts belonging to Mr. Montague, and sold by auction in 1787, was one called, “The Arabian Tales, of one thousand and one nights, in six volumes complete.”

These Tales were purchased at Mr. Montague’s sale by Dr. White, and were afterwards transferred to Mr. Scott, as mentioned by him at the end of his volume of Translations, published in 1800. And I believe they will soon be deposited in the Bodleian library at Oxford. They contain many other tales besides those which M. Galland has translated; but most of those which he has omitted, are not near so entertaining as the tales he translated, although there are some equally so. In a work, indeed, of so great an extent, equality of excellence could not perhaps be expected. Certainly not, when we consider the tales as the work of different authors. It is, indeed, the opinion of a gentleman of very extensive Oriental knowledge, that the Arabian Nights originally consisted of not more perhaps than a fourth part of the manuscript purchased by Dr. White; but that writers in various parts of the East, where the Mussulman religion prevailed, have added to them so as to complete the thousand and one nights, which I believe to be the division of those Tales formerly in the possession of Dr. White. In a copy of the Arabic work, which is in the possession of Dr. Russel, the number of nights is about two hundred only; and it is also a doubt, whether the manuscripts either in the Vatican or in the Royal Library at Paris are complete.

It is the opinion of most Oriental scholars, that no two copies will be found exactly to correspond, even in the original contracted work, and still less so in the more enlarged manuscripts. The original work has probably been frequently increased, through the different provinces and kingdoms of the east, by the addition of such tales as were popular in each, either as a continuation, or blended into one work. For this reason the copy of Cairo will be found to differ from that of Constantinople. This also is a very strong reason, and amply accounts for any difference there may be in the same story, as literally translated by Mr. Richardson at the end of his Arabic Grammar, and as given by M. Galland. The former made use of a manuscript belonging to Sir William Jones; the latter translated from that in the king’s library at Paris. The copy also which was formerly in the possession of Dr. White, has the signature of the person who transcribed it, and of the family to which he belonged; namely, “Omar al Siftee;” but it has not the name of the place where he resided; it is now, therefore, impossible to ascertain the place whence Mr. Montague procured the manuscript.

Many of the tales, also omitted by Galland, besides those which are uninteresting, are extremely indelicate, both as to language and sentiments, and consequently very unfit for the perusal of a chaste and discerning public.

There have also been four volumes of tales published, as the continuation of the Arabian Nights, and which M. Galland did not translate, although the Arabic manuscript of the whole, as the French translator states, was brought over, and placed in the library of the king of France at the same time. This latter French work has since been published in English. These, however, are universally believed to be spurious, and the work of an European. Abundant evidence might be given of this, were I inclined to enter into the question. I shall only mention one instance.—An inhabitant of the country where the fact happened, is made to express the greatest astonishment at an appearance the most common. “What a thick infectious mist! How could it arise from dry sand, destitute of water! It is a very extraordinary phenomenon!” The man who wrote this could never have been in Arabia, nor even have consulted modern travellers, or he would have known, that this appearance is most frequent: and I cannot here resist giving, in proof of this, the words of an early Arabian poet, as beautifully translated by that elegant scholar, Professor Carlyle, whose death must be considered by all as a severe loss, from the elegance and refinement of his cultivated mind. I must be permitted to transcribe the whole of this exquisite little poem. The passage alluded to is in the last stanza but one. It is an elegy by Lebid Ben Rabiat Alamary, a native of Yeman, and a contemporary with Mahomet, to whom he was an early convert. “This elegy, as is evident from its nature, must have been written previous to Lebid’s change of religion. Its subject is one that must ever interest a feeling mind—the return of a person, after a long absence, to a place where he had spent his early years. It is, in fact, an Arabian Deserted Village.”

Those dear abodes, which once contain’d the fair,

Amidst Mitata’s wilds I seek in vain;

Nor towers, nor tents, nor cottages are there,