Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 6 (of 6) — John Shaqi
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
Upon these tales I would be permitted to offer a few
observetions. No. i. begins with a Christian formula:--"In the
name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost"
(Rúhu'l-Kudus); and it is not translated, because it is a mere
replica of the Ten Wazirs (Suppl. vol. i. 55-151). The second,
containing "The Sage Haykár," which is famous in folk-lore
throughout the East, begins with the orthodox Moslem "Bismillah,"
etc. "King Sapor" is prefaced by a Christian form which to the
Trinitarian formula adds, "Allah being One"; this, again, is not
translated, because it repeats the "Ebony Horse" (vol. v. 1). No
iv., which opens with the Bismillah, is found in the Sabbágh MS.
of The Nights (see Suppl. vol. iii.) as the Histoire de Haroun
al-Raschid et de la descendante de Chosroès. Albondoqani (Nights
lxx.-lxxvii.). No. v., which also has the Moslem invocation, is
followed by the "Caliph and the Three Kalandars," where, after
the fashion of this our MS., the episodes (vol. i., 104-130) are
taken bodily from "The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad"
(i. 82), and are converted into a separate History. No. vi. has
no title to be translated, being a replica of the long sea-tale
in vol. vii., 264. Nos. vii., viii., ix., x. and xi. lack
initiatory invocation betraying Christian or Moslem provenance.
No. viii. is the History of Sí Mustafá and of Shaykh Shaháb al-
Dín in the Turkish Tales: it also occurs in the Sabbágh MS.
(Nights ccclxxxvi.-cdviii.). The Bímáristán (No. ix.), alias Ali
Chalabi (Halechalbé), has already appeared in my Suppl. vol. iv.
35. No. xii., "The Caliph and the Fisherman," makes Harun
al-Rashid the hero of the tale in "The Fisherman and the Jinni"
(vol. i. 38); it calls the ensorcelled King of the Black Islands
Mahmúd, and his witch of a wife Sitt al-Mulúk, and it also
introduces into the Court of the Great Caliph Hasan Shumán and
Ahmad al-Danaf, the prominent personages in "The Rogueries of
Dalílah" (vol. vii. 144) and its sister tale (vii. 172). The two
last Histories, which are ingenious enough, also lack initial
formulæ.
Dr. Russell (the historian of Aleppo) brought back with him a
miscellaneous collection comprising--
Al-Bundukani, or the Robber Caliph;
The Power of Destiny (Attaf the Syrian);
Ali Chelebi, or the Bimaristan;
King Sankharib and the Sage Haykar;
Bohetzad (Azádbakht) and the Ten Wazirs; and, lastly,
Habib, or the Arabian Knight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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