Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 6 (of 6)
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 6 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
[Section II.]--At the beginning of the 17th century, only two MSS. of the
Nights existed m the libraries of Paris, one in Arabic, and the other in
Turkish. The Arabic MS. contains 870 Nights, and is arbitrarily divided into
29 sections. M. Zotenberg considers that it was to this MS. that Galland
referred, when he said that the complete work was in 36 parts The tales follow
the order of our Table as far as No. 7 (Nos. 2ab, 2ac and 3ba are wanting),
the remainder are irregular, and run as follows: 153, 154, 154a, 20; story of
Khailedján ibn Háman, the Persian; Story of the Two Old Men, and of Báz
al-Aschbáb Abou Lahab; 9, apparently including as episodes 9a, 9aa, 21, 8, 9b,
170, 181r to 181bb 137, 154 (commencement repeated), 181u to 181bb (repeated),
135a, Adventures of a traveller who entered a pond (étang) and underwent
metamorphoses:[FN#433] anecdotes and apothegms; a portion of the Kalila and
Dimna ?
The Turkish MS. (in 11 vols.) is made up of several imperfect copies, which
have been improperly put together. The bulk is formed by vols. 2-10 which are
written in three different hands, and some of which bear date 1046 A.H. The
contents of these nine vols. are as follows: Introduction and 1-3 (wanting
2ab), Story of 'Abdallah of Basra, 5; Story of 'Attáf ibn Ismá'il al-Schoqláni
of Damascus and the schaikh Abou-'l-Baraka al-Nawwám, 6; Story told by the
Christian Merchant (relating to Qamar al-Zamán during the reign of Sultan
Mahmoud, and different from the story known under this title); Story of Ahmad
al- Saghir (the tattle) and Schams al-Qosour; Story of the Young Man of
Baghdad and the Bathman (Baigneur, attendant in a Hammam), 7; 153; 21; Story
of Khaledjan ibn Maháni; Story of Nour al-Din 'All and of Dounya (or Dinar) of
Damascus, 133, Story of Prince Qamar-Khan and of the schaikh 'Ate, of the
Sultan Mahmoud-Khán, of Bahrám-Scháh, of 'Abdallah ibn Hilal, of Harout and
Marout, &c.; Story of Qowwat al-Qoloub; 9, including as episodes 9a; 8; Story
of Moubaref who slept in the bath; ( ? = 96); and 170; Fables.
The other volumes (1 and 11 of the MS.) both contain the beginning of the MS.
Vol. I was written towards the end of the 17th century, and extends about as
far as Night 55, concluding with No. 7, which follows No. 3. Vol. 11., which
once belonged to Galland, includes only a portion of the Introduction. The
text of these two fragments is similar, but differs considerably from that of
vol. 2 of the MS.; and specimens of the commencement of vols. 1 and 2 are
given to show this. Yet it is singular that Galland does not seem to have used
these Turkish volumes; and the second MS. which he actually used, like the 4th
vol. of the copy preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, appears to be
missing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account