The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I.: Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments — John Shaqi
The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I.: Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments
General
The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I.: Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
Besides those relating to the court and adventures of
Hároon Er-Rasheed, which, as I have before remarked, are curiously
Egyptian, many others appear to have been remodelled, if not actually
composed, in Egypt. It is not less true that these tales are generally
the best in the collection, if those of the Slave Káfoor, of 'Azeez and
'Azeezeh, and of Es-Sindibád, be excepted; for these certainly are
inferior to none. The more colloquial and familiar stories point to the
same origin; such as that of 'Alá-ed-Deen Abu-sh-Shámát (which is
pervaded by Egyptian characteristics in phraseology and in other
respects), that of Aboo-Ṣeer and Aboo-Ḳeer, and that of Maạroof. The
stories founded mainly on Persian or Indian originals appear to be
those in which supernatural beings play the most conspicuous parts; and,
as Mr. Lane remarks, these are generally deficient in verses, although
the converse does not hold good of the former class. The anecdotes are
mostly historical: many of them are, in the Notes, identified with
similar ones in other Arabic works; and almost all are of Arab origin.
The evidences of a late date scattered through the book may be additions
of copyists and reciters; but considered with reference to its general
character, they have a certain weight that cannot be overlooked: this is
carefully stated in the Review.
Mr. Lane's arguments in favour of the collective "Thousand and One
Nights" being an individual work, and not one of many similar
collections, seem to me to be conclusive: not the least important of
these is the fact that no similar collection is known to exist, nor is
mentioned by any Arab author, with the sole exception of the old
"Thousand Nights," which I believe he has demonstrated to be the
prototype, in a remote degree, of the "Thousand and One." To cite the
words of the Preface on the question of the original of the work as it
is known to us--"I have shewn it to be my opinion that all the complete
copies of 'The Thousand and One Nights' now known are in the main
derived, though not immediately, from one original; and I hold the same
opinion with respect to every fragment containing the commencement of
the work;" "not regarding the work as wholly original, nor as the first
of its kind; for many of the tales which it contains are doubtless of
different and early origins; and I think that its general plan is
probably borrowed from a much older production, bearing the same title
of 'The Thousand and One Nights,' [or 'The Thousand Nights,'] a
translation of a Persian work having a corresponding title, namely
'Hezár Afsáneh.'... One thing is certain--that 'The Thousand and One
Nights,' [or 'The Thousand Nights,'] translated from the Persian was
much older than the work now known by that title, and also extremely
different from the latter."
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