Henry Torrens: The Forgotten Man of the 1001 Nights

Henry Whitelock Torrens (1806-1852)

Should you ever have occasion to look up the name of Henry Torrens on Wikipedia, you may have some difficulty actually locating him. You'll find Major-General Sir Henry Torrens KCB, author of that standard textbook Field Exercise and Evolutions of the Army (1824):

Sir Henry Torrens (1779-1828)

Chances are you'll also find his grandson, the even more eminent Lieutenant General Sir Henry D'Oyley Torrens KCB KCMG, without too much trouble:

Felice Beato: Henry D'Oyley Torrens (1833-1889)

What you won't find, unless you look very hard indeed, is the entry on Henry Whitelock Torrens, son of the first, and father of the second of the military gentlemen listed above:

Henry Whitelock Torrens (20 May 1806 – 16 August 1852), son of Major-General Henry Torrens, was born on 20 May 1806. He received his B.A. at Christ Church, Oxford (where he was a president of the United Debating Society), and entered the Inner Temple. After a short service under the Foreign Office, he obtained a writership from the Court of Directors of the East India Company and arrived in India in November 1828 and held various appointments at Meerut. In 1835 he joined the Secretariat, in which he served in several departments under Sir William Hay Macnaghten. In 1839 he assisted in the editing of the Calcutta Star, a weekly paper, which became a daily paper called the Eastern Star. He was secretary (1840–1846) and a Vice-President (1843–1845) to the Asiatic Society of Bengal (now the Asiatic Society). In December 1846, he was appointed Agent to the Governor-General at Murshidabad. Here in his endeavours to improve the Nizamat administration, his relations with the Nawab Nizam and his officials became greatly strained.
He was a clever essayist as well as a journalist and scholar, and his scattered papers were deservedly collected and published at Calcutta in 1854.
Torrens died of dysentery at Calcutta while on a visit to the Governor-General on 16 August 1852 and was buried in the Lower Circular Road Cemetery.

A bit of a nobody, one might feel tempted to conclude: a lawyer and journalist, who died young, leaving behind a son and a pile of "scattered papers."

What this entry fails to mention, however, is his importance as the author of the first serious attempt at a complete English translation of the 1001 Nights from the Arabic. He is included on the page devoted to Translations of One Thousand and One Nights, however:

Henry Torrens translated the first fifty nights from Calcutta II, which were published in 1838. Having heard that Edward William Lane began his own translation, Torrens abandoned his work.

Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890)

There's a bit more to it than that, however. Luckily Richard Burton, in the preface to his own complete 1885 translation of the collection, is somewhat more expansive:

At length in 1838, Mr. Henry Torrens, B.A., Irishman, lawyer ("of the Inner Temple") and Bengal Civilian, took a step in the right direction; and began to translate, "The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," (1 vol., 8vo, Calcutta: W. Thacker and Co.) from the Arabic of the Ægyptian (!) MS. edited by Mr. (afterwards Sir) William H. Macnaghten. The attempt, or rather the intention, was highly creditable; the copy was carefully moulded upon the model and offered the best example of the verbatim et literatim style. But the plucky author knew little of Arabic, and least of what is most wanted, the dialect of Egypt and Syria. His prose is so conscientious as to offer up spirit at the shrine of letter; and his verse, always whimsical, has at times a manner of Hibernian whoop which is comical when it should be pathetic. Lastly he printed only one volume of a series which completed would have contained nine or ten.

- Richard F. Burton, "The Translator's Foreword." A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, 10 vols. Benares: Kamashastra Society, 1885. vol.1: xi.

You'll note that his wikipedia entry above made no mention of Torrens' Irish antecedents. Burton's remarks about the "Hibernian whoop" in his verses underlines it rather patronisingly ("plucky" seems a rather belitting epithet to apply to a fellow author, also). The curious thing is that Burton himself was often discriminated against as an Irishman by his intensely class and caste-conscious English contemporaries. Whilst he himself was born in Torquay, both of his parents were of Irish extraction.

Anyway, whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, here are the title-pages of Torrens' two principal publications. Fortunately both are readily available online as free e-texts:

Henry W. Torrens: The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (1838)


1. Torrens, Henry. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night: From the Arabic of the Aegyptian Ms. as edited by Wm Hay Macnaghten, Esqr., Done into English by Henry W. Torrens. Calcutta: W. Thacker & Co. / London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1838.




James Hume: A Selection from the Writings of the late Henry W. Torrens (1854)


2. Hume, James, ed. A Selection from the Writings, Prose and Poetical, of the late Henry W. Torrens, Esq., B.A., Bengal Civi Service, and of the Inner Temple; with a Biographical Memoir. 2 vols. Calcutta & London: R. C. Lepage & Co., 1854.

The editor of the second of these volumes explains that:

I have taken nearly all the poetry from the volume of the Arabian Nights ... because I found selection most difficult where all appeared good. The book is out of print, or nearly so I believe, and the severest critic will not blame me for preserving what otherwise might soon have been lost, or at any rate difficult to procure.

So who's correct? Did Torrens have any poetic talent or not? Burton (of course) had a tendency to play down the merits of any possible rivals. He himself has a reputation as a most execrable versifier (unlike his fellow Nights translator, John Payne).

William Harvey: The Ifrit and the Lady (1839)

Perhaps, then, you should judge for yourselves:

Then they both gave her rings from off their hands, and she said to them, "This Ufreet carried me off secretly on the night of my marriage, and put me into a coffer, and placed the coffer in a chest, and put on the chest seven strong locks, and laid me low in the midst of the roaring sea, the ever restless in the dashing of waves; yet he does not know that when a woman desires aught, there is nothing can prevail against her, as certain poets say.

"With confidence no women grace,
Nor trust an oath that's given by them;
Passion's the source and resting place,
Of anger and joy with them;
False love they show with lying face,
But ’neath the cloak all's guile with them;
In Yoosoof's story you may trace,
Some of the treacheries rife in them;
See ye not father Adam's case?
He was driven forth by cause of them.

Certain poets too have said,

“But alas! for you, who blame me
Fix the blamed one in his fault!
Is the sin with which you shame me,
Great and grievous as you call't?
Say, I be indeed a lover,
Have I done aught greater crime
Than in all men you discover,
Even from the olden time?
Ne'er at earthly thing I'll wonder,
Whatsoe'er the marvel be,
Till on one I chance to blunder
Scaped from woman's wile scot free."

The passage above comes from the frame-story to the Nights, where the two brothers Shahryar and Shahzaman, having executed their wives for adultery, are riding out to try and discover a virtuous woman. This one, even though she was abducted on her wedding night by a seemingly all-powerful Ifrit, has still managed to cuckold him more than 500 times.

Albert Letchford: The Ifrit and the Lady (1897)

Here's Burton's 1885 version of the same passage:

When they had drawn their two rings from their hands and given them to her, she said to them, "Of a truth this Ifrit bore me off on my bride-night, and put me into a casket and set the casket in a coffer and to the coffer he affixed seven strong padlocks of steel and deposited me on the deep bottom of the sea that raves, dashing and clashing with waves; and guarded me so that I might remain chaste and honest, quotha! that none save himself might have connexion with me. But I have lain under as many of my kind as I please, and this wretched Jinni wotteth not that Destiny may not be averted nor hindered by aught, and that whatso woman willeth the same she fulfilleth however man nilleth. Even so saith one of them:—

'Rely not on women;
Trust not to their hearts,
Whose joys and whose sorrows
Are hung to their parts!
Lying love they will swear thee
Whence guile ne'er departs:
Take Yusuf for sample
'Ware sleights and 'ware smarts!
Iblis ousted Adam
(See ye not?) thro' their arts.'

And another saith:—

'Stint thy blame, man! 'Twill drive to a passion without bound;
My fault is not so heavy as fault in it hast found.
If true lover I become, then to me there cometh not
Save what happened unto many in the by-gone stound.
For wonderful is he and right worthy of our praise
Who from wiles of female wits kept him safe and kept him sound.'"

John Tenniel: The Sleeping Genie and the Lady (1865)

And here's John Payne's (1882):

So each of them took off a ring and gave it to her. And she said to them, "Know that this genie carried me off on my wedding night and laid me in a box and shut the box up in a glass chest, on which he clapped seven strong locks and sank it to the bottom of the roaring stormy sea, knowing not that nothing can hinder a woman, when she desires aught, even as says one of the poets:

I rede thee put no Faith in womankind,
Nor trust the oaths they lavish all in vain:
For on the satisfaction of their lusts
Depend alike their love and their disdain.
They proffer lying love, but perfidy
Is all indeed their garments do contain.
Take warning, then, by Joseph's history,
And how a woman sought to do him bane;
And eke thy father Adam, by their fault
To leave the groves of Paradise was fain.

Or as another says:

Out on yon! blame confirms the blamed one in his way.
My fault is not so great indeed as you would say.
If I'm in love, forsooth, my case is but the same
As that of other men before me, many a day.
For great the wonder were if any man alive
From women and their wiles escape unharmed away!"

My 1001 Nights Project: The Ifrit and his Stolen Bride (tumblr)

So what do you think? I certainly think it would be difficult to claim that Torrens's version was any worse than either of the others. On the contrary, it's much easier to follow, and seems to mean much the same thing. As for Burton's accusation that the former's translation exemplified "the verbatim et literatim style," it's surely the case that both Payne and Burton make far greater efforts to follow the verbal and syntactical oddities of the original Arabic.

No doubt it's true that Torrens gave up on his project when he heard that Edward W. Lane was engaged in a not dissimiar work - not knowing, perhaps, how sadly bowdlerised the resulting translation would turn out to be. There's a curious echo, there, of Burton's discovery, fifty years later, that John Payne was embarked on the same project of a complete and literal translation of The Thousand Nights and One Night.

Unlike Torrens, though, Burton did not choose to step aside meekly. Instead he offered Payne priority of publication, but then went on to issue his own extensively annotated version a year later. The embarrassing similarities between large parts of the two translations has led to accusations of plagiarism on Burton's part. Whether or not this is true, even Burton admitted that when a previous scholar has hit on the perfect way to express something, it would be needless pedantry to insist on phrasing it differently. Make of that what you will.

It does seem possible that Burton was so scornful of Torrens because the latter resembled him in so many ways: the 'un-English' exuberance of manner, the gift for languages ... Unlike Torrens, though, Burton was sent down from Oxford without a degree, and managed to antagonise almost all of his well-wishers both in India and England.

Torrens, by contrast, managed to work harmoniously even with the eminent but eccentric William Hay Macnaghten, whose four-volume edition of the Arabic text of the 1001 Nights - the basis for his own translation - remains a monumental and irreplaceable work.

Wm H. Macnaghten, ed.: The Alif Laila, or Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (1839-42)

Of course, to anyone familiar with the history of nineteenth-century India, and particularly the ill-judged 1839 invasion of Afghanistan, Macnaghten is better known as the blundering political officer who was captured and killed by the Afghans in December 1841, shortly before the disastrous retreat from Kabul - generally thought to be among the worst military disasters in British history.

Macnaghten has a cameo role in the section devoted to the Afghanistan debacle in George MacDonald Fraser's irreverent but highly readable pisstake version of imperial history Flashman (1969), which purports to be the memoirs of the bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays.

George MacDonald Fraser: Flashman (1839-42)

Interestingly enough, the city I live in, Auckland, is named after George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, Governor-General of India between 1836 and 1842, whose other great claim to fame is principal responsibility for the Afghanistan disaster.

My father could never walk past the toga'd statue of the great fool - originally erected in Calcutta in 1848, but donated to our city in 1969 - without shaking his fist and calling down curses upon his name.

The connections are all there, once you're ready to see them.

Lord Auckland (1848)

My New Massey Course on the 1001 Nights

Bronwyn Lloyd: Arabian Nights bookcase (3/2/17)

In three weeks from now, my new paper 139.329: Advanced Fiction Writing will be starting at Massey Albany (where I teach), as well as in an extramural version for distance students.

The most innovative aspect of this course is that it's centred firmly on the Arabian Nights - or, rather, on the almost infinite variety of fictional techniques on display in that work (if it is a work, that is, rather than just an eclectic anthology of stories collected over the centuries by different compilers in different languages and cultures).

How exactly am I proposing to do that? Well, if you're curious, you could do worse than check out the following link to the (publicly available) course website: http://albany139329.blogspot.co.nz/. That will give you a pretty good overview. If you're really interested, of course, we're always open to new enrolments. (After all, as an old Linguistics Professor told the idealistic young J. R. R. Tolkien when he first arrived at university, "What is a university, lad? It's a factory. And what does it produce? It produces fees").

For those of you who are bit less passionate about the subject, I thought it might be best here to reprint a kind of q-&-a interview I did on the subject with the Canadian-Sikh Indian writer Jaspreet Singh when he came to stay with us a few months ago. He was particularly intrigued by the large bookcase full of all the different translations and versions of the collection which we have in our living room.

Given his upbringing in North India, in Kashmir and New Delhi, Jaspreet preferred to use the Persian form of the title, Hazar Afsaneh [Thousand Tales], rather than the more familiar Arabic Alf Layla wa Layla [One Thousand Nights and a Night].

•


Bronwyn Lloyd: Arabian Nights bookcase [close-up] (3/2/2017)

Hazaar Afsaneh [The Thousand Nights]:
An Interview by Jaspreet Singh

John W. MacDonald: Jaspreet Singh (2008)

[Jaspreet:] Who introduced you to Hazaar Afsaneh as a child? How old were you? Where were you based?

[Jack]: You know, it’s quite hard to say. I suppose it must have been my father. At any rate he was the one who bought the beautifully illustrated editions of Aladdin and Sinbad the Sailor which I remember poring over with such attention. I still have one of them now:

Maraja: The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor (1964)

The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. Retold by Shirley Goulden. Illustrated by Maraja. London: W. H. Allen, 1964.

I suppose that puts it back well before the age of 10 or so. We were already in the house in Mairangi Bay. All my siblings were born and brought up there.

When did the Nights become an incurable obsession?

I think that they really took over – from being one of many other bookish interests – after I’d finished my PhD thesis and was utterly sick of the subject matter of said subject of study (books about South America in European literature). So that would put it around 1990: 25 years ago.

Tahiti?

Ah, well, you make a good point. It was while I was in Tahiti, studying French, in 1978, at the age of 16, that I bought my first substantive copy of the Nights (or, rather, arranged to have it given to me as a birthday present: they’d bought me another book which I already owned, and offered to exchange it. I – somewhat cheekily, in retrospect – asked to be allowed to swap it for the two volume Classiques Garnier edition of Galland’s Mille et Une Nuits.) I read virtually every word of it in French, then, long before I owned it in English.

Do you have a name for the bookshelf? Hazaar Afsaneh (1000 Stories) bookshelf?

Bronwyn Lloyd: Glass-fronted bookcase (2/2/17)

Just the Arabian Nights bookshelf, I suppose. Before that they were scattered all over the place: the main ones in that glass-fronted bookshelf I inherited from my grandmother.

When exactly did you start seeing your growing collection as a separate bookshelf?

I suppose, probably, when I was living in Palmerston North in 1991. I already owned a number of editions in various languages, and the sheer bulk of them was beginning to make it difficult to house them.

Strange, the bookshelf is only a few meters away from the room where you first read 'Sindbad the Sailor' and 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'!!! Talk a bit about this.

Yes that’s right. Of course, it’s true to say that if you stay in or around the same house for a very long time, it goes through a number of evolutions in your mind. That far-off house of my childhood is harder for me to remember than some of its more recent incarnations: the house my mother and father grew old in together, after all of us had left to the four corners of the globe.

Nevertheless, there is something strange about literally being in the same place – again. Comforting on the one hand, but also somewhat disconcerting. It doesn’t seem to fit with the peripatetic nature of the modern world.

Memory/Story of the 'last' book you acquired for the bookshelf? The first 3 books (now part of the bookshelf)?

The Mardrus-Mathers Translation (1899-1904; 1923)

I think that the latest book I inserted into the bookshelf (every one that goes in means that another one has to go out now) was a beautiful little copy of Dr J. C. Mardrus’s The Queen of Sheba: Translated into French from his own Arabic Text. Translated into English by E. Powys Mathers (London: The Casanova Society, n.d. [1924]). I bought it in the Browns Bay market (of all places!) Mardrus’s turn-of-the-century version of the Nights is – though wildly inaccurate – extremely entertaining, and the English translation of it is in some ways even more stylish than the original (Powys Mathers was a far better poet than Dr. Mardrus).

The first three books I got for this bookcase were, I would imagine:

Galland's Translation (1704-17)


• Les Mille et Une Nuits: Contes arabes traduits par Galland. Trans. Antoine Galland. 12 vols. 1704-17. Ed. Gaston Picard. 2 vols. 1960. Paris: Garnier, 1975. (bought in Tahiti in 1978)




Burton's Translation (1885-88)


• The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. Trans. Richard F. Burton. 1885. Decorated with 1001 Illustrations by Valenti Angelo. 3 vols. New York: The Heritage Press, 1934. (bought in Auckland sometime in the early 80s)




Lane's Translation (1839-41)


• The Thousand and One Nights; Commonly Called The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. Trans. Edward William Lane. 3 vols. 1839-41. Ed. Edward Stanley Poole. 1859. London: Chatto, 1912. (the first two volumes I found in one shop; the other, a couple of years later, in another – the coincidence has always intrigued me …)

But is it really a 'book'? What kind of a book is the 1001 Nights?

Syrian Ms. of the 1001 Nights (14th century CE)

It’s more the assertion of a book than an actual book. Certainly there was (or must have been) a Persian collection called the Hazar Afsaneh, which almost certainly predated Islam. It doesn’t survive, however. What does survive is a tiny scrap of manuscript from the ninth century AD, which seems to be part of a translation of the frame-story of the Nights – though probably not quite as we know it. After that there are various not-entirely-consistent references in Arabic reference books around the turn of the millennium, and finally the Galland ms. – a fourteenth-century, 3 vol manuscript of the (so-called) “Syrian” version of the Nights. This is the oldest extant text and was – interestingly – also the first one to be translated more-or-less in full.

After that, after the Nights had become the rage of 18th century Europe, the pressure to find a “complete” version of the collection became overwhelming. It was possibly in response to this that the (so-called) “Egyptian” text was put together – it’s also known as “ZER” ("Zotenberg’s Egyptian Recension”) after the scholar who first identified it. It was a version of this text which was first printed in Cairo in 1835, and it was a variant of it which was translated by Lane, Payne, and Burton, the three most significant English translators.

In other words, it has no identifiable author, dates from a variety of eras, originated in a language and tradition different from the one with which it’s now identified, and has an endlessly varied table of contents. All that really makes it a book is the central idea of Scheherazade telling stories for her life to the tyrannical King Shahryar. In other word, a fictional character constitutes its main authority for being (a little like the Bible, perhaps, which similarly rests its status as a book on the fiction of “divine inspiration”: i.e. having God as its author) …

Galland's Translation (1704-17)

Storytelling techniques?

These are very interesting, and repay much study. While it’s true to say that it’s more of a library than a single book, nevertheless the central core of stories already present in the Galland ms.: “The Fisherman and the Genie,” “The Porter and the three ladies of Baghdad,” and the “Tale of the Hunchback” establish a set of conventions which, while gradually adulterated in much of the rest of the collection, give us our notion of an “Arabian Nights tale.” The Chinese box effect of tale within tale within tale is part of it (what Todorov calls “l’homme récit”: the person who is the story they have to tell); also the supernatural atmosphere of magic and enchantment, particularly the ubiquitous presence of genies and magicians alongside scenes from everyday life; also the convention of Haroun Al-Rashid’s boredom, which leads him to undertake visits to the seedier quarters of his own city; also the highly eroticised encounters between beautiful youths and maidens; also the cliffhanger convention of ending each story at a dramatic point each morning in order to take the serial up the next night; also the highly ritualised and repetitive language employed to maintain our interest (there are hundreds of poems embedded in the stories, also: each one quoted by a character as a kind of reflection on the situation they find themselves in). Is that enough?

Djinn or Gin?

The French word génie, which Galland used to translate the Arabic word “Djinn” (plural “Djinni”) of course really means “spirit” – hence its use as a loanword in English for a “genius” (great spirit). “Gin” in the sense of a gin-trap, yes indeed: since once I fell into this particular pit I quickly realised there was no obvious way out. As for other kinds of gin, I’ve always been more of a wine and beer man myself …

Will your bookshelf continue to grow?

I’d like to say no, but I fear that the real answer is probably yes.

What is unique and unusual about this bookshelf? Books absolutely essential? Books you are proud of? Trophy books? Books you would like to add? Books you would like to discard? Books you have given away?
Books you have tossed aside? Thrown away?
Books you would like to steal?
Books others would like to steal from your collection?

I suppose I treasure most the books I’ve had longest: the 1934 3-volume “Heritage Press” edition of Burton; my first complete 16-volume set of Burton’s Nights, that French edition of Galland I bought in Tahiti almost 40 years ago.

Ideal Hazaar Afsaneh bookshelf?

Payne's Translation (1882-84)

Well, that would include a complete copy of John Payne’s 1882-89 translation as well as my complete Burton (1885-88). It would include Henry Torren’s 1938 attempt at a complete translation (which he abandoned after one volume). It would also include a copy of the 4-volume 1839 MacNaghten Arabic edition of the Nights, as well as the 1835 Bulaq edition. I’d also like a copy of Weber’s three-volume Tales of the East (1812).

What does your mother think about it? Your partner? What would your father say? Your ancestors?

I think they all think (or would think, in the case of those no longer with us) that I’m quite mad on the subject.

The mind, and impulses, of a collector?

Strange, certainly. One can contemplate the assemblage with perfect satisfaction without it having any appreciable contact with the rest of your life. If the whole thing suddenly disappeared, would one be any worse off?

Have you read your entire collection?

No, not really. There are many versions of the Nights I haven’t read, as well as a lot of the associated collections. I proceed by fits and starts.

The number of times you've read the Nights? When and where and how?

It took me a number of starts to get to the end of the Burton edition, and as I worked my way through some of the more arid regions of the 16 volumes, I think at times I was impelled only by the desire to prove Borges wrong (he said it was impossible to get to the end of that version).

For instance, is it possible to read Hazaar Afsaneh in the kitchen?

I question whether I could read any book in the kitchen.

Do you prefer reading during day or night?

I used to be able to read any time of the day or night. Now I only really read first thing in the morning, over coffee, and last thing at night, before going to sleep. Sometimes I have a bit of a read in the middle of the day, in the guise of a siesta.

Did someone ever read them aloud to you? Did you?

No, I’m not sure that I’ve ever really experienced that outside movies and audio books, which isn’t quite the same thing.

Illustrators of the nights?

There are so many! Edmund Dulac, Marc Chagall, Kay Nielsen, Maxfield Parrish, and – going back a bit – the beautiful illustrations of William Harvey from the original edition of Lane …

Edmund Dulac: Arabian Nights (1907)

Maxfield Parrish: Arabian Nights (1909)

Marc Chagall: Arabian Nights (1948)

William Narvey: Arabian Nights (1839-41)

Translations of the nights?
Translators of the nights?

Some swear by the German translator Littmann; others (Marina Warner, for example) by the 3-volume French Pléiade translation of Bencheikh and Gabrieli; some like Malcolm & Ursula Lyons recent complete Penguin translation; personally, my adherence is still to Burton, for all his eccentricities. Joseph Campbell was a great fan of John Payne’s translation. For sheer entertainment, I think I would read Powys Mathers’ English version of Dr. J. C. Mardrus’ belle infidèle turn-of-the-century French translation.

Littmann's Translation (1921-28)

Bencheikh & Miquel's Translation (2005-7)

The Lyons' Translation (2008)

Burton?

A landmark: indispensable, never to be superseded.

Talk a bit about your blog.

I put up the blog ["Scheherazade's Web"] because I couldn’t face the task of editing and reconciling all the various essays I’d written (and published, or read at conferences) about the Nights at various times into a single rational text. Instead, I just plonked them all online, together with a lot of the supplementary materials I’d collected. It seems to provoke a lot of correspondence from isolated Nights fanatics in far-off places.

Did the Nights inspire your own writing?

Jack Ross: EMO (2008)
Cover illustration: Emma Smith

It has had a certain influence, yes: one of my novels, EMO, has a character in it who has written a book about the Nights, said book being my own projected, half-written book about the Nights. It also comes up in quite a few short stories.

Do you recall ever dreaming about the 1001 Nights?

I’m not sure that I do, though I have had many dreams where I was in a second-hand bookshop making all sorts of amazing discoveries in the stacks …

Did you ever dream about your Hazaar Afsaneh bookshelf? About a paradisiacal library of sorts?

No, my dreams tend to be much more suffused by anxiety than that.

Borges and the Arabian Nights?

Well, I wrote an essay about that, as well as various other twentieth-century interpreters of the Nights (John Barth, Andras Hamori, Abdelfatto Kilito) – I even translated his poem on the subject (both are on the blog).

The whole world is within this bookshelf? Not W. G. Sebald's 'Rings of Saturn' but Jack Ross' 'Rings of Arabian Nights'?

In a sense, yes, though I’d hate to be condemned to read only the Arabian Nights for the rest of time. There are other stories, however all-encompassing this one collection has come to be.

Thoughts about Marina Warner? A. S. Byatt? Salman Rushdie?

All have been inspired by the Nights – none know quite so much about it as they think. Quite superficial thoughts about it keep on coming up again and again in their work. Rushdie, of course, has been more inspired by the Kathasaritsagara [Ocean of the Streams of Story] than by the Nights themselves. Warner failed to write the book she could have written on the subject. Byatt has done some nice, rather mannered, imitations of it.

Why are Non-Western books about the Nights not very popular in the West?

Interesting question. It’s true that Mahfouz and other Arabic novelists (especially female ones) who’ve been inspired by it are not widely read – but then, I’m not sure that any contemporary Arabic writing - most unjustly - is very much read in the West!

New Zealand Maori and Pakeha and the 1001 Nights?

I think that would be for Maori writers to say. If they see value in its structures and formulae, it would be very interesting to hear in just what way.

Do you recommend the Arabian Nights Encyclopedia?

Very much so. An indispensable work.

Freud, et al.?

I guess Freudian readings of the central Shahryar / Sharazad dilemma are pretty frequent and (some of them) pretty persuasive. But then I’ve always been rather a fan of Freud as a literary critic.

Edward Said, et al.?

He has little to say about it directly, but I imagine it would strike him as a particularly egregious piece of Orientalist clap-trap – in its larger cultural overtones, at least.

Future of Hazaar Afsaneh?

I think the Academic mill has only just begun to grind away at it. I hope they don’t succeed in crushing its appeal altogether.

Future of your bookshelf?

I like to fantasise about presenting it to some appreciative institution, but I doubt that will ever happen. Sooner or later, I fear, it will be dispersed into a second-hand bookshop somewhere and hopefully continue to fertilise and inspire future bookworms like myself …

Early Copies of Lane's Translation (1839-41)

[13/7-22/8/15]


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Kay Nielsen: Scheherazade (1922)

The True Story of the Novel (1): The Eastern Frame-Story

Chez Chiara: The 1001 Nights

I suspect that one reason why Ian Watt's Rise of the Novel scenario looks so out-of-date is because the novel itself is a very different beast now than in 1957. That was the heyday of the Movement in Britain, with novels by Kingsley Amis, John Wain and Iris Murdoch on the bestseller lists. It was before the "boom" in Latin American writing, before Magic Realism, before the Empire had even really started to write back ...

What I'd like to do in this series of posts, then, is to present a fairly uncontroversial account of the evolution of prose fiction as it seems to have taken place in a number of parallel traditions all over the world.

There's no particular reason to keep you in suspense over what I think I've detected in my desultory reading of Eastern and Western fiction over the past twenty-five years or so (the period I've been interested in the subject). So, here are my findings in a nutshell:

1. Folktales can be patterned into larger fictional entities through more or less complex Frame-story structures:
   • The 1001 Nights / Apuleius' Golden Ass / Boccaccio's Decameron


2. Auto/biographical Writing (both in the form of Confessions and Exemplary Lives) inspires similar tropes in fiction:
   • St. Augustine's Confessions / Xenophon's Cyropaedia / Plutarch's Parallel Lives


3. Anthologies of Poems, with commentary on the events which inspired them, can provide a model for individual Chapter structures:
   • The Tales of Ise / Egil's Saga / Dante's Vita Nuova


4. Epic Narratives in verse set an example for Prose Romances on a smaller or larger scale
   • Aucassin et Nicolette / The French Prose Vulgate of the Arthurian Legends / Malory's Morte d'Arthur


5. Historiography (both Chronicles and more Analytical Accounts) inspires historical sagas and other fictions:
   • Ari Þorgilsson's Íslendingabók & Landnámabók / Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian / Nihongi: The Chronicles of Japan


6. Religious Texts combine history, prophecy and philosophy in complex prose structures which can be adapted for the purposes of Secular Storytelling:
   • Confucius' Analects / Kojiki: Record of Ancient Matters / The Bible


7. Satire and Parody of any and all previous genres encourages ever bolder experimentation in the emerging Modern Novel:
   • Cervantes' Don Quixote / Fielding's Shamela / Sterne's Tristram Shandy

I'd like to look at each of these processes in turn, in terms of one of the seven traditions I outlined in my first post on the subject, concentrating each time on one key text.

So the pattern should look something like this:

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1001 Nights Manuscript



1. The Eastern Frame-story [c.1st millennium BCE to 18th century CE]:
   • Alf Layla wa Layla [1001 Nights] (c.8th-14th century)

   There's a certain limit on the size a folktale can attain. Given it's an essentially oral medium, it tends to lose coherence and interest if carried on for too long. The idea of the frame-story (no. 1 above), allows authors and storytellers (if that distinction can really be made in this context) to carry their stories further. This allows the possibility of ironic reference between different levels of the frame: Scheherazade telling stories about adulterous and destructive women, for instance. It also tends to carry with it, as a corollary, an almost excessive layer of repetitive patterning (repeated threes, sevens, and nines: colour motifs such as the black knight, the red knight, etc.) If it weren't for the revival of many of these techniques in the postcolonial and postmodern novel, one might have seen these as characteristics of an embryonic stage of the novel's development. That did, in fact, use to be the critical orthodoxy on the subject. I don't think that view is tenable any longer, though.




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Apuleius: The Golden Ass



2. The Greek and Roman Novel [c.1st century BCE to 4th century CE]:
   • Apuleius: The Golden Ass (c.125–c.180)

   Who is the narrator of the Asinus Aureus [Golden Ass]? Given the hero is called Lucius, and its author was called Lucius Apuleius (the two also share a hometown: Madaurus in Algeria), it's not surprising that many of its early readers saw it as essentially autobiographical (no.2 above) - St. Augustine among them. In fact, it's said to have been one of the major stylistic influences on his Confessions, composed in the late 4th century. More modern readings have pointed out the immense complexity and sophistication of Apuleius' narrative techniques. Far from a piece of naive picaresque, the novel can be read as satire, religious allegory, postmodern game-playing, or - yes - an apology for the life of one who was himself accused of black magic during his lifetime. Apuleius himself seems to have more in common with Borges and Nabokov than most of the prose writers in the intervening two millennia, in fact.


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Murasaki Shikibu: Genji Monogatari (1987)



3. The Japanese Monogatari [c.9th-18th century CE]:
   • Murasaki Shikibu: Genji Monogatari [The Tale of Genji] (c.1000)

   Like all of the world's great masterpieces, Lady Murasaki's Tale of Genji can be approached from a lot of different directions, and read in a lot of different ways. She herself admits (in her diary) the influence of earlier historical writing on hers (or, rather, quotes a remark by the Emperor to that effect). The fact that each individual chapter - especially initially - is such an exercise in mood and atmosphere, encourages one to see the influence of poetry anthologies (no. 3 above) such as the earlier Tales of Ise on her conception of narrative. Interestingly, this same method resulted in Melville's last extended prose work, Billy Budd. It began as the headnote to a poem, and grew from there.


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Malory: Morte D'Arthur (1485)



4. The Medieval and Renaissance Romance [c.12th-16th century CE]:
   • Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte d'Arthur (1485)

   The discovery of the Winchester Ms. of Malory in the 1930s has enabled us to understand a lot more about his methods of composition. Essentially he drew from a pre-existing body of romance-writing (no. 4 above) in French - composed initially in verse (by the likes of Chrétien de Troyes), but subsequently in prose (by among others, the anonymous compilers of the prose Lancelot and its various successors). The pruning and condensation he used to simplify his originals transcended mere translation, however. Whle his editor, Caxton, had a good deal to do with our idea of him as the author of a single book in many parts, rather than a series of inter-related prose romances, the result is one of the most influential pieces of fiction ever composed.


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Njals saga (c.1300)



5. The Sagas of Icelanders [c.13th-14th century CE]:
   • Brennu-Njáls saga [Njal's Saga] (late 13th century)

   Just how historical the Icelandic family sagas, or sagas of Icelanders, really are, was a subject of controversy for a long time. The initial assumption, by their first readers in Europe, was that they were fairly straight records of particular crimes and feuds in the era of the first settlement of the island. Subsequent research, though (notably in Sigurður Nordal's 1940 book on Hrafnkel's Saga) has pointed out a considerable number of historical inaccuracies in their narratives. They should, it is now argued by the likes of Hermann Pálsson (1988), be seen as sophisticated works of creative fiction based on regional history (no. 5 above), rather than being dismissed as mere transcripts of oral tradition. The more closely they are studied, in fact, the more complex and artful their narrative techniques turn out to be.


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Cao Xue Qin: The Red Chamber Dream (c.1780)



6. The Chinese Novel [c.14th-18th century CE]:
   • Cao Xueqin: Hóng Lóu Mèng [The Red Chamber Dream] (late 18th century)

   The peculiarities of the classic Chinese novel - the immense length of most of them; the intense care with which each, essentially stand-alone, chapter is constructed - are familiar to most readers who've adventured into even one of them. The transition from historiography to fiction in China (as in Iceland) is an obvious one, hence one which has often been pointed out. A composition as intricate and self-conscious as the Hung Lou Meng [Red Chamber Dream - also knows as "The Story of the Stone"] draws its inspiration from many sources, however. On the one hand, the author of the preface sees it as largely autobiographical. Its weird mixture of supernatural and realist writing, though, tends to align it with earlier fictions such as the Journey to the West or the Ch'in P'ing Mei. I've argued above (no. 6) that one might see analogies with this genre-bending in certain religious narratives, both Eastern and Western. Whether the pious allegories at the end of this huge book are really meant to be taken straight, or were even composed by the original author, remain matters of controversy, however.


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Gustave Doré: Don Quixote (1863)



7. The Modern Novel [c.17th century CE to the present]:
   • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (1605 & 1615)

   What can one say about Don Quixote that hasn't already been said a thousand times? Well, quite a lot, as it turns out. Given that most readers don't persevere past the first few chapters, and very few make it even as far as the end of part one, let alone into the intricacies of part two, I think it's fair to say that the reason why it's been quite so influential on the evolution of the European novel is not really so obvious as it might be. A satire, yes (no. 7 above), but a satire of a genre that Cervantes actually returned to after finishing his novel (his last work, Persiles y Sigismunda (1617) is as romantic and absurd as any of the chivalric romances he abuses in the Quixote). Establishing the contention that Cervantes, rather than Richardson (or even Defoe) is the best point of departure for a fuller comprehension the modern novel is clearly an area where a great deal of work remains to be done.

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So there you have it: that's the plan. Given this blog is mostly dedicated to recording my own adventures among books (and particularly the ins and outs of my own library), I'll try to illustrate each of these points with the readings that have inspired it as I go along:

Let's start, then, In India. Whether or not nineteenth-century scholars were correct in attributing the invention of virtually everything to the ancient Sanskrit-speaking Aryan cultures of Central Asia and (later) India is hard to say at this date. What is certain is that these are among the oldest works of creative prose fiction in existence:

Panchatantra Relief (Java)

India:

Authors & Works: (chronological)

1. The Jātaka Tales (c.4th century BCE)
2. The Pañcatantra (c.3rd century BCE)
3. Somadeva (c.11th century)
4. Narayana (c.12th century)
5. The Simhāsana Dvātrimśikā (c.12th century)
6. Śivadāsa (c.12th-14th century)

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The Jātaka Tales (c.4th century BCE)


1. Rhys Davids, T. W. trans. Buddhist Birth-Stories (Jātaka Tales): The Commentarial Introduction Entitled Nidāna-Kathā, The Story of the Lineage. 1880. Broadway Translations. London & New York: Routledge & Dutton, 1925.


2. Cowell, E. B., ed. The Jātaka, or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births. Trans. R. Chambers, W. H. D. Rouse, H. T. Francis & R. A. Neil, W. H. D. Rouse, H. T. Francis, E. B. Cowell & W. H. D. Rouse. 6 vols in 3. 1895-1907. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1990.

The Panchatantra [Pañcatantra] (c.3rd century BCE)


3. Ryder, Arthur W., trans. The Panchatantra. 1925. Chicago: Phoenix Books, 1964.


4. Edgerton, Franklin, trans. The Panchatantra. London: Allen & Unwin, 1965.


5. Olivelle, Patrick, trans. The Pañcatantra: The Book of India’s Folk Wisdom. The World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Somadeva (c.11th century)


6. Penzer, N. M., ed. The Ocean of Story: Being C. H. Tawney’s Translation of Somadeva’s Kathā Sarit Sāgara (or Ocean of Streams of Story). 1880-84. 10 vols. 1924. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1968.


7. Somadeva. Tales from the Kathāsaritsāgara. Trans. Arshia Sattar. Foreword by Wendy Doniger. 1994. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1996.


8. Somadeva. Océan des rivières de contes. Ed. Nalini Balbir, with Mildrède Besnard, Lucien Billoux, Sylvain Brocquet, Colette Caillat, Christine Chojnacki, Jean Fezas & Jean-Pierre Osier. Traduction des ‘Contes du Vampire’ par Louis & Marie-Simone Renou, 1963. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 438. Paris: Gallimard, 1997.

Narayana (c.12th century)


9. Chandiramani, G. L., trans. The Hitopadesha: An Ancient Fabled Classic. 1995. Mumbai: Jaico Publishing House, 1999.

The Simhāsana Dvātrimśikā [Thirty-two Tales of the Throne] (c.12th century)


10. Edgerton, Franklin, ed. & trans. Vikrama’s Adventures, or the Thirty-two Tales of the Throne. Harvard Oriental Series, ed. Charles Rockwell Lanman, 26 & 27. 1926. 2 vols. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1993.


11. Haksar, A. N. D., trans. Simhāsana Dvātrimśikā: Thirty-two Tales of the Throne of Vikramaditya. New Delhi: Penguin, 1998.


12. Bhoothalingam, Mathuram. Stories of Vikramaditya. Illustrated by Jomraj. New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1982.

Śivadāsa (c.12th-14th century)


13. [Burton, Richard F. Vikram and the Vampire, or Tales of Hindu Devilry. 1870. Memorial Edition. Ed. Isabel Burton. London: Thylston & Edwards, 1893.]


14. Śivadāsa. The Five-and-Twenty Tales of the Genie: Vetālapañćavinśati. Trans. Chandra Rajan. 1995. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2006.



Anthologies & Secondary Literature:


15. Alphonso-Karkala, John B., trans. An Anthology of Indian Literature. A Pelican Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.


16. Beck, Brenda E. F., Peter J. Claus, Praphulladata Goswami, & Jawaharlal Handoo, ed. Folktales of India. Foreword by A. K. Ramanujan. Folktales of the World, ed. Richard M. Dorson. 1987. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1989.


17. Keith, A. Berriedale. A History of Sanskrit Literature. 1920. London: Oxford University Press, 1966.


18. Ramanujan, A. K. ed. Folktales from India: A Selection of Oral Tales from Twenty-two Languages. 1991. The Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library. Pantheon Books. New York: Random House, Inc., 1993.


19. Souza, Eunice de. 101 Folktales from India. Illustrated by Sujata Singh. A Puffin Book. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2004.

Most of these works are very hard to date. Somadeva, author of the Ocean of the Streams of Story (which I've written about here), describes a most complicated, semi-mythical genesis for his work. It's certainly based on a much older version, but just how old it is, is almost impossible to establish.

The beast-fables of the Panchatantra have travelled across the world, but disentangling every stage of their journey at this late date is, once again, an almost unimaginably complex task.

The fact that the Jātaka tales of Buddha's early incarnations may predate even these early collections of folktales reminds me to acknowledge that all seven of the lines of transmission from other genres to extended prose fiction (what we might plausibly refer to as roads towards the Novel) can exist in any one of the traditions under examination here. It's only for convenience's sake that I've chosen to isolate one technique per tradition, in fact. The influence of religious texts on Sanskrit fiction is clearly omnipresence, however "secular" the motivations (sex, money, prestige) of most of the actual protagonists of the tales may be.

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From India we move to Persia (or Iran, if you prefer). The main reason for this is because this is supposed to have been the route of transmission for the frame-tale tradition: from India to Persia and thence into the Arabian Middle East.

Certainly the original version of the Thousand and One Nights is said to have been written in Persian. Unfortunately this Hazār Afsān [Thousand Stories] is no longer extant, but the fact that all the major characters in the frame story (Shahryār, Shahrazad and Dunyazad) have Persian names, and are located historically in Pre-Islamic Persia, during the era of the Sassanids (224 to 651 AD), makes this genealogy fruitless to question:

Baysunghur: Shahnameh (1430)

Persia:

Authors & Works: (chronological)

1. Ferdowsi (940-1020)
2. Omar Khayyám (1048-1131)
3. Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209)
4. Farīd ud-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (1145-1221)
5. Rumi (1207-1273)
6. Saʿdī (1210-1291)
7. Sa'ad ad-Din Varavini (c. 13th century

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Hakīm Abul-Qāsim Ferdowsī Tūsī (940-1021)


1. Ferdowsi. The Epic of the Kings: Shah-Nama, the National Epic of Persia. Trans. Reuben Levy. 1967. Rev. Amin Banani. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985.

Omar Khayyám (1048-1131)


2. Avery, Peter, & John Heath-Stubbs, trans. The Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam. 1979. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.


3. Fitzgerald, Edward, trans. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Ed. Reynold Alleyne Nicholson. 1909. London: A. & C. Black., 1973.


4. Fitzgerald, Edward, trans. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and Six Plays of Calderon. Everyman’s Library 819. 1928. London & New York: J. M. Dent & E. P. Dutton, 1948.


5. Fitzgerald, Edward. Selected Works. Ed. Joanna Richardson. The Reynard Library. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1962.


6. Graves, Robert, & Omar Ali-Shah, trans. The Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayaam: A New Translation with Critical Commentaries. 1967. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.

Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209)


7. Ganjavi, Nizami. Haft Paykar: A Medieval Persian Romance. 1197. Trans. Julie Scott Meisami. World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Farīd ud-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (1145-1221)


8. Attar, Farid ud-Din. The Conference of the Birds. Trans. Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984.


9. Attar, Farid ud-Din. The Conference of the Birds, Mantiq ut-Tair: A Philosophical Religious Poem in Prose - Rendered into English from the Literal and Complete French Translation of Garcin de Tassy. Trans. C. S. Nott. 1954. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207–1273)


10. Rumi, Jalal al-Din. Tales from the Masnavi. Trans. A. J. Arberry. 1961. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1968.


11. Rumi, Jalal al-Din. Selected Poems. Trans. Coleman Banks, with John Moyne, A. J. Arberry & Reynold Nicholson. As 'The Essential Rumi', 1995. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2004.

Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī, Saadi Shirazi [(1210-1291)


12. Burton, R. F., trans [Edward Retnisak]. Tales from the Gulistân, or Rose-Garden of the Sheikh Sa’di of Shirâz. 1888. London: Philip Allen, 1928.


13. Sadi. Gulistan or Flower-Garden. Trans. James Ross. Ed. Charles Sayle. London: Walter Scott, n.d. [c.1890].

Sa'ad ad-Din Varavini (c. 13th century)


14. Varâvini, Sa’d al-Dîn. Contes du Prince Marzbân. 1220. Trans. Marie-Hélène Ponroy. Connaissance de l’Orient. Paris: Gallimard, 1992.



Anthologies & Secondary Literature:


15. Arberry, A. J., ed. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and Other Persian Poems: An Anthology of Verse Translations. Everyman’s Library 1996. London & New York: Dent & Dutton, 1954.


16. Dole, Nathan Haskell, & Belle M. Walker, eds. The Persian Poets. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1901.


17. Ernst, Paul, ed. Erzählungen aus tausendundein Tag; Vermehrt um andere Morgenländische Geschichten. Trans. Felix Paul Greve and Paul Hansmann. 2 vols. Frankfurt: Insel Verlag, 1987.


18. Fehse, Willi, ed. The Thousand and One Days. Trans. Anthea Bell. London: Abelard-Schumann, 1971.


19. Levy, Reuben, trans. The Three Dervishes and other Persian Tales and Legends. Oxford: Humphrey Milford, 1923.


20. McCarthy, J., trans. The Thousand and One Days: Persian Tales. 2 vols. London: Chatto, 1892.


21. Olcott, Frances Jenkins. Tales of the Persian Genii. Illustrated by Willy Pogany. London: George G. Harrap & Company Limited, 1919.


22. Pétis de la Croix, ed. The Persian and Turkish Tales, compleat. Trans. Dr. King. 2 vols. London: Richard Ware, 1714.


23. Safâ, Z., ed. Anthologie de la poésie persane: XIe-XXe siècle. Trans. G. Lazard, R. Lescot & H. Massé. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1964.

I've included poets as well as prose-writers here, as some of the crucial works in the frame-story tradition are in verse rather than prose (like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales). You'll observe that they all postdate the era of the original transmission of the 1001 Nights by quite some considerable margin. There are some fascinating and influential works of fiction here, though: Rumi's Gulistan (1259), for instance, or Varavini's Marzubannama (1220).

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Which brings us, at long last, to the Nights themselves. I've had a great deal to say about them on this blog already (at various times). And for basic information about them I can't do better than refer you to my blog on the subject: Scheherazade's Web

Philip Cole: 1001 Nights (1952)

The 1001 Nights:

Categories: (chronological)

1. Texts
2. Major Translations:
   1. Antoine Galland [1704-1717] (French)
   2. Dom Dennis Chavis & M. Cazotte [1788-89] (French)
   3. Max. Habicht, Fr. H. von der Hagen, and Carl Schall [1824-25] (German)
   4. Gustav Weil [4 vols: 1837-41] (German)
   5. Edward William Lane [1839-40] (English)
   6. John Payne [1882-89] (English)
   7. Richard F. Burton [1885-88] (English)
   8. Max Henning [24 vols: 1895-97] (German)
   9. Andrew Lang [1898] (English)
   10. Dr. J. C. Mardrus [1899-1904] (French)
   11. Cary von Karwath [1906-14] (German)
   12. Laurence Housman [1907-14] (English)
   13. Enno Littmann [1921-28] (German)
   14. M. A. Salier [1929-36] (Russian)
   15. Francesco Gabrieli [1948] (Italian)
   16. A. J. Arberry [1953] (English)
   17. N. J. Dawood [1954-57] (English)
   18. René R. Khawam [1965-67 & 1985-88] (French)
   19. Felix Tauer [1928-34] (Czech & German)
   20. Husain Haddawy [1990-95] (English)
   21. Jamel Eddine Bencheikh & André Miquel [1991-2001 & 2005-7] (French)
   22. Malcolm & Ursula Lyons [2008] (English)
3. Analogous Collections
4. Imitations & Tributes
5. Anthologies & Secondary Literature

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Texts:


1. Habicht, Maximilian, & M. H. L. Fleischer, ed. Tausend und Eine Nacht Arabisch. Nach einer Handschrift aus Tunis. 12 vols. Breslau, 1825-43.


2. Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 2 vols. Bulaq, A.H. 1251 [= 1835].


3. Macnaghten, W. H., ed. The Alif Laila, or Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Commonly Known as ‘The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments;’ Now, for the First Time, Published Complete in the Original Arabic, from an Egyptian Manuscript Brought to India by the Late Major Turner Macan, Editor of the Shah-Nameh. 4 vols. Calcutta: W. Thacker, 1839-42.


4. Zotenberg, Hermann. Histoire d’Alâ al-Din ou La Lampe Merveilleuse: Texte Arabe publié avec une notice sur quelques manuscrits des Mille et une nuits. Paris; Imprimerie Nationale, 1888.


5. Alph Laylé Wa Laylé. 4 vols. Beirut: Al-Maktaba Al-Thakafiyat, A.H. 1401 [= 1981].



Major Translations:


Antoine Galland [12 vols: 1704-1717] (French)


6. Galland, Antoine, trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits: Contes arabes traduits par Galland. 12 vols. 1704-17. Ed. Gaston Picard. 2 vols. 1960. Paris: Garnier, 1975.


7. Galland, Antoine, trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits: Contes arabes. 12 vols. 1704-17. Ed. Jean Gaulmier. 3 vols. 1965. Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1990, 1985, 1991.


8. Arabian Nights Entertainments: Consisting of One Thousand and One Stories, Told by the Sultaness of the Indies, to divert the Sultan from the Execution of a bloody Vow he had made to marry a Lady every day, and have her cut off next Morning, to avenge himself for the Disloyalty of his first Sultaness, &c. Containing a better Account of the Customs, Manners, and Religion of the Eastern Nations, viz. Tartars, Persians, and Indians, than is to be met with in any Author hitherto published. Translated into French from the Arabian Mss. by M. Galland of the Royal Academy, and now done into English from the last Paris Edition. London: Andrew Bell, 1706-17. 16th ed. 4 vols. London & Edinburgh: C. Elliot, 1781.


9. Forster, Edward, trans. The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. 1812. Rev. G. Moir Bussey. London: J. J. Chidley, 1846.


10. The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. [Trans. Antoine Galland]. Sir John Lubbock’s Hundred Books 67. London: Routledge, 1893.


11. Mack, Robert L., ed. Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. The World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.


Dom Dennis Chavis & M. Cazotte [4 vols: 1788-89] (French)


12. Chavis, Dom, and M. Cazotte, trans. La Suite des Mille et une Nuits, Contes Arabes. Cabinet des Fées 38-41. 4 vols. Geneva: Barde & Manget, 1788-89.


Max. Habicht, Fr. H. von der Hagen, and Carl Schall [15 vols: 1824-25] (German)


13. Habicht, Max., Fr. H. von der Hagen, and Carl Schall, trans. Tausend und Eine Nacht, Arabische Erzählungen. 1824-25. Ed. Karl Martin Schiller. 12 vols. Leipzig: F. W. Hendel, 1926.


Gustav Weil [4 vols: 1837-41] (German)


14. Weil, Gustav, trans. Tausendundeine Nacht. 1837-41. Ed. Inge Dreecken. 3 vols. Wiesbaden: R. Löwit, n.d. [c. 1960s]


15. Weil, Gustav, trans. Liebesgeschichten aus Tausendundeiner Nacht, übertragen aus dem arabischen Urtext von Gustav Weil: Mit Holzstichen der Ausgabe von 1865. 1837-41. München: Delphin Verlag, 1987.


Edward William Lane [3 vols: 1839-40] (English)


16. Lane, Edward William, trans. The Thousand and One Nights, Commonly Called, in England, The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. A New Translation from the Arabic, with Copious Notes. 3 vols. London: Charles Knight, 1839-41.


17. Lane, Edward William, trans. The Thousand and One Nights; Commonly Called The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. Ed. Edward Stanley Poole. 3 vols. 1859. London: Chatto, 1912.


18. Lane, Edward William, trans. The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. Ed. Stanley Lane-Poole. 4 vols. 1906. Bohn’s Popular Library. London: G. Bell, 1925.


19. Lane, Edward William, trans. The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments or The Thousand and One Nights: The Complete, Original Translation of Edward William Lane, with the Translator’s Complete, Original Notes and Commentaries on the Text. New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1927.


20. Lane, Edward William, trans. The Thousand and One Nights, or Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. Wood Engravings from Original Designs by William Harvey. London: Chatto and Windus, 1930.


John Payne [13 vols: 1882-89] (English)


21. Payne, John, trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night; Now First Completely Done into English Prose and Verse, from the Original Arabic. 9 vols. London: Villon Society, 1882-84.


22. Payne, John, trans. Tales from the Arabic of the Breslau and Calcutta (1814-’18) Editions of the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Not Occurring in the Other Printed Texts of the Work; Now First Done into English. 3 vols. London: Villon Society, 1884.


23. John Payne, Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp; Zein ul Asnam and the King of the Jinn; two stories done into English from the recently discovered Arabic text. London: Villon Society, 1889.


24. Payne, John, trans. The Portable Arabian Nights. 1882-1884. Ed. Joseph Campbell. 1952. New York: The Viking Press, 1963.


25. Payne, John, trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night. 1882-1884. Publisher's Note by Steven Moore. 3 vols. Ann Arbor, MI: Borders Classics, 2007.


Richard F. Burton [16 vols: 1885-88] (English)


26. Burton, Richard F, trans. A Plain and Literal Translation of The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, Now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: With Introduction, Explanatory Notes on the Manners and Customs of Moslem Men and a Terminal Essay upon the History of the Nights. 10 vols. Benares [= Stoke-Newington]: Kamashastra Society, 1885. N.p. [= Boston]: The Burton Club, n.d.


27. Burton, Richard F., trans. Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night with Notes Anthropological and Explanatory. 6 vols. Benares [= Stoke-Newington]: Kamashastra Society, 1886-88. 7 vols. N.p. [= Boston]: The Burton Club, n.d.


28. Burton, Richard F., trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. 1885. 3 vols. New York: The Heritage Press, 1934.


29. Burton, Richard F., trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. 1885. 10 vols. U.S.A.: The Burton Club, n.d. [c.1940s].


30. Burton, Richard F., trans. Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights with Notes Anthropological and Explanatory. 1886-88. 6 vols. U.S.A..: The Burton Club, n.d. [c. 1940s].


31. Zipes, Jack, ed. Arabian Nights: The Marvels and Wonders of the Thousand and One Nights, Adapted from Richard F. Burton’s Unexpurgated Translation. Signet Classic. New York: Penguin, 1991.


32. Zipes, Jack, ed. Arabian Nights, Volume II: More Marvels and Wonders of the Thousand and One Nights, Adapted from Sir Richard F. Burton’s Unexpurgated Translation. Signet Classic. New York: New American Library, 1999.


Max Henning [24 vols: 1895-97] (German)


33. Henning, Max, trans. Tausend und eine Nacht. 1895-97. Ed. Hans W. Fischer. Berlin & Darmstadt: Deutsche Buch-Gemeinschaft, 1957.


Andrew Lang [1 vol: 1898] (English)


34. Lang, Andrew, ed. Tales from the Arabian Nights. Illustrated by H. J. Ford. 1898. London: Wordsworth Classics, 1993.


Dr. J. C. Mardrus [16 vols: 1899-1904] (French)


35. Mardrus, Dr. J. C., trans. Le Livre des Mille et une Nuits. 16 vols. Paris: Édition de la Revue blanche, 1899-1904. Ed. Marc Fumaroli. 2 vols. Paris: Laffont, 1989.


36. Mathers, Edward Powys, trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night: Rendered from the Literal and Complete Version of Dr. J. C. Mardrus; and Collated with Other Sources. 1923. 8 vols. London: The Casanova Society, 1929.


37. Mathers, E. Powys. Sung to Shahryar: Poems from the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night. London: The Casanova Society, 1925.


38. Mathers, E. Powys, trans. Arabian Love Tales: Being Romances Drawn from the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Rendered into English from the Literal French Translation of Dr. J. C. Mardrus. Illustrated by Lettice Sandford. London: The Folio Society, 1949.


39. Mathers, E. Powys, trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night: Rendered into English from the Literal and Complete French Translation of Dr. J. C. Mardrus. 4 vols. 1949. 2nd ed. 1964. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972.


Cary von Karwath [19 vols: 1906-14] (German)


40. Karwath, Cary Von, trans. 1001 Nacht: Vollständige Ausgabe in 18 Taschenbüchern mit einem Zusatzband: Nach dem arabischen Urtext angeordnet und übertragen von Cary von Karwath. 1906-14. 19 vols. München: Goldmann Verlag, 1987.


Laurence Housman [4 vols: 1907-14] (English)


41. Housman, Laurence. Stories from the Arabian Nights. Illustrated by Edmund Dulac. 1907. New York: Doran, n.d.


42. Housman, Laurence. Sindbad the Sailor and Other Stories from the Arabian Nights. Illustrated by Edmund Dulac. 1907. Weathervane Books. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1978.


Enno Littmann [6 vols: 1921-28] (German)


43. Littmann, Enno, trans. Die Erzählungen aus den Tausendundein Nächten: Vollständige deutsche Ausgabe in zwölf Teilbänden zum ersten mal nach dem arabischen Urtext der Calcuttaer Ausgabe aus dem Jahre 1839 übertragen von Enno Littmann. 1921-28. 2nd ed. 1953. 6 vols in 12. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1976.


44. Littmann, Enno, trans. Geschichten der Liebe aus den 1001 Nächten: Aus dem arabischen Urtext übertragen von Enno Littmann. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1973.


M. A. Salier [8 vols: 1929-36] (Russian)


45. Salier, M. A., trans. Тысяча и Одна Ночь. 1929-36. 6 vols. Санкт-Петербург: «Кристалл», 2000.


Francesco Gabrieli [4 vols: 1948] (Italian)


46. Gabrieli, Francesco, ed. Le mille e una notte: Prima versione integrale dall’arabo. Trans. Francesco Gabrieli, Antonio Cesaro, Constantino Pansera, Umberto Rizzitano and Virginia Vacca. 1948. Gli struzzi 35. 4 vols. Torino: Einaudi, 1972.


47. Faccioli, Emilio, ed. Le mille e una notte: Scelta di racconti. Dall’edizione integrale diretta da Francesco Gabrieli. Letture per la Scuola Media 56. Torino: Einaudi, 1980.


A. J. Arberry [1 vol: 1953] (English)


48. Arberry, A. J., trans. Scheherazade: Tales from the Thousand and One Nights. London: Allen and Unwin, 1953.


N. J. Dawood [2 vols: 1954-57] (English)


49. Dawood, N. J., trans. The Thousand and One Nights: The Hunchback, Sindbad, and Other Tales. Penguin 1001. 1954. Penguin Classics L64. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1955.


50. Dawood, N. J., trans. Aladdin and Other Tales from The Thousand and One Nights. Penguin Classics L71. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957.


51. Dawood, N. J., trans. Tales from the Thousand and One Nights. 1954-57. 2nd ed. 1973. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.


René R. Khawam [7 vols: 1965-67 & 1985-88] (French)


52. Khawam, René R., trans. Les Mille et une nuits. Traduction Nouvelle et Complète faite sur les Manuscrits par René R. Khawam. 4 Vols. Paris: Editions Albin Michel, 1965-67.


53. Khawam, René R., trans. Les Mille et une nuits. 4 vols. 1965-67. 2nd ed. 1986. Paris: Presses Pocket, 1989.


54. Khawam, René R., trans. Les Aventures de Sindbad le Marin. Paris: Phébus, 1985.


55. Khawam, René R., trans. Les Aventures de Sindbad le Terrien. Paris: Phébus, 1986.


56. Khawam, René R., trans. Le Roman d’Aladin. Paris: Phébus, 1988.


Felix Tauer [8 vols: 1928-34] (Czech & German)


57. Tauer, Felix, trans. Tisíc a Jedna Noc. 1928-34. 5 vols. 1973. Praha: Ikar, 2001.


58. Tauer, Felix, trans. Erotische Geschichten aus den tausendundein Nächten: Aus dem arabischen Urtext der Wortley Montague-Handschrift übertragen und herausgegeben von Felix Tauer. 1966. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1983.


59. Tauer, Felix, trans. Neue Erzählungen aus den Tausendundein Nächten: Die in anderen Versionen von »1001 Nacht« nicht enthaltenen Geschichten der Wortley-Montague-Handschrift der Oxforder Bodleian Library; Aus dem arabischen Urtext vollständig übertragen und erläutert von Felix Tauer. 2 vols. 1982. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1989.


Husain Haddawy [2 vols: 1990-95] (English)


60. Haddawy, Husain, trans. The Arabian Nights: Based on the Text of the Fourteenth-Century Syrian Manuscript edited by Muhsin Mahdi. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1990.


61. Haddawy, Husain, trans. The Arabian Nights II: Sindbad and Other Popular Stories. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995.


62. Heller-Roazen, Daniel, ed. The Arabian Nights. The Husain Haddaway Translation Based on the Text Edited by Muhsin Mahdi: Contexts, Criticism. 1990 & 1995. A Norton Critical Edition. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.


Jamel Eddine Bencheikh & André Miquel [7 vols: 1991-2001 & 2005-7] (French)


63. Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, and André Miquel, ed. Les Mille et Une Nuits: Contes choisis. Trans. Jamel Eddine Bencheikh, André Miquel & Touhami Bencheikh. 2 vols. Folio 2256-57. Paris: Gallimard, 1991.


64. Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, and André Miquel, ed & trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits: Contes choisis III. Folio 2775. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.


65. Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, and André Miquel, ed & trans. Sindbâd de la mer et autres contes des Mille et Une Nuits: Contes choisis IV. Folio 3581. Paris: Gallimard, 2001.


66. Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, and André Miquel, trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits. 3 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. Paris: Gallimard, 2005-7.


Malcolm & Ursula Lyons [3 vols: 2008] (English)


67. Lyons, Malcolm & Ursula, trans. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights. Introduction by Robert Irwin. 3 vols. Penguin Classics Hardback. London: Penguin, 2008.


68. Lyons, Malcolm & Ursula, trans. Three Tales from The Arabian Nights. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 2008.


69. Lyons, Malcolm & Ursula, trans. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights. Volume 1: Nights 1 to 294. Introduction by Robert Irwin. 3 vols. 2008. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2010.


70. Lyons, Malcolm & Ursula, trans. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights. Volume 2: Nights 295 to 719. Introduced & Annotated by Robert Irwin. 3 vols. 2008. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2010.


71. Lyons, Malcolm & Ursula, trans. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights. Volume 3: Nights 719 to 1001. Introduction by Robert Irwin. 3 vols. 2008. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2010.



Analogous Collections:


72. Benalmocaffa, Abdalá. Calila y Dimna. Introducción, traducción y notas de Marcelino Villegas. Libro de Bolsillo: Clásicos 1512. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1991.


73. Clerk, Mrs. Godfrey, trans. Ilâm-en-Nâs. Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Kalîfahs. London: Henry S. King, 1873.


74. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, M., trans. Les Cent et une Nuits. 1911. Bibliothèque Arabe. Paris: Sinbad, 1982.


75. Kalila and Dimna: Selected Fables of Bidpai. Retold by Ramsay Wood. Introduction by Doris Lessing. 1980. London: Granada, 1982.


76. Lewis, Geoffrey, trans. The Book of Dede Korkut. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1974.


77. Mas'ūdī. From The Meadows of Gold. Trans. Paul Lunde & Caroline Stone. Penguin Great Journeys, 2. London: Penguin, 2007.


78. Richmond, Diana. ’Antar and ’Abla, A Bedouin Romance: Rewritten and Arranged by Diana Richmond. London: Quartet Books, 1978.


79. Rosen, Georg, trans. Tutti-Nameh: Das Papageienbuch. Aus der türkischen Fassung übertragen von Georg Rosen. Stuttgart: Europäischer Buchklub, 1957.


80. Shah, Amina, trans. The Assemblies of Al-Hariri: Fifty Encounters with the Shaykh Abu Zayd of Seruj. London: The Octagon Press, 1980.



Imitations & Tributes:


81. Gueullette, Thomas. Les Mille et Un Quarts d’heure. 1785. Cabinet des Fées 4. 2 vols. Arles: Éditions Philippe Picquier, 1994.


82. Lemirre, Elisabeth, ed. La Bibliothèque des Génies et des Fées. 1785. Cabinet des Fées 3. 1988. Arles: Éditions Philippe Picquier, 1994.


83. Manuel, Don Juan. Count Lucanor, or The Fifty Pleasant Tales of Patronio. 1335. Trans James York. Broadway translations. London & New York: George Routledge & E. P. Dutton, n.d.



Anthologies & Secondary Literature:


84. Abou-Hussein, Hiam & Charles Pellat. Cheherazade: Personage Littéraire. Algiers: Société Nationale d’Édition et de Diffusion, 1976.


85. Ali, Muhsin Jassim. Scheherazade in England: A Study of Nineteenth-Century English Criticism of the Arabian Nights. Washington: Three Continents Press, 1981.


86. Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine. Les Mille et une Nuits ou la parole prisonnière. Bibliothèque des Idées. Paris: Gallimard, 1988.


87. Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, Claude Bremond and André Miquel. Mille et un Contes de la Nuit. Bibliothèque des Idées. Paris: Gallimard, 1991.


88. Campbell, Kay Hardy, Ferial J. Ghazoul, Andras Hamori, Muhsin Mahdi, Christopher M. Murphy, & Sandra Naddaff. The 1001 Nights: Critical Essays and Annotated Bibliography. Mundus Arabicus 3. Cambridge, Mass.: Dar Mahjar, 1983.


89. Caracciolo, Peter L., ed. The Arabian Nights in English Literature: Studies in the Reception of The Thousand and One Nights into British Culture. London: Macmillan, 1988.


90. Chauvin, Victor. La Récension Égyptienne des Mille et Une Nuits. Bruxelles: Office de Publicité / Société Belge de Librairie, 1899.


91. Chauvin, Victor. Bibliographie des ouvrages arabes ou relatifs aux arabes publiés dans l’Europe chrétienne de 1810 à 1885. 12 vols. Liège: H. Vaillant-Carmanne, Leipzig: O. Harrassowitz, 1892-1922.


92. Chebel, Malek. Psychanalyse des Mille et Une Nuits. 1996. Petite Bibliothèque Payot. Paris: Editions Payot & Rivages, 2002.


93. Eliséef, Nikita. Thèmes et motifs des Mille et Une Nuits: Essai de Classification. Beirut: Institut Français de Damas, 1949.


94. Gerhardt, Mia I. The Art of Story-Telling: A Literary Study of the Thousand and One Nights. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1963.


95. Ghazoul, Ferial Jabouri. The Arabian Nights: A Structural Analysis. Cairo: Cairo Associated Institution for the Study and Presentation of Arab Cultural Values, 1980.


96. Ghazoul, Ferial J. Nocturnal Poetics: The Arabian Nights in Comparative Context. Cairo : The American University in Cairo Press, 1996.


97. Glubb, John Bagot. Haroon al Rasheed and the Great Abbasids. London: Hodder, 1976.


98. Hamori, Andras. On the Art of Medieval Arabic Literature. 1974. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1975.


99. Irwin, Robert. The Arabian Nights: A Companion. London: Allen Lane, 1994.


100. Kilito, Abdelfattah. L’oeil et l’aiguille: Essai sur “les mille et une nuits.” Textes à l’appui: série islam et société. Paris: Editions la Découverte, 1992.


101. Kritzeck, James, ed. Anthology of Islamic Literature: From the Rise of Islam to Modern Times. Harmondsworth: Pelican Books, 1964


102. Lahy-Hollebecque, Marie. Schéhérazade ou L’éducation d’un Roi. 1927. Collection Destins de Femmes. Paris: Pardès, 1987.


103. Lane, E. W. Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. 1836. Ed. E. Stanley Poole. Everyman’s Library 315. London: Dent, New York: Dutton, 1963.


104. Larzul, Sylvette. Les Traductions Françaises des Mille et Une Nuits: Études des versions Galland, Trébutien et Mardrus. Précédée de “Traditions, traductions, trahisons,” par Claude Bremond. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1996.


105. Lichtenstadtler, Ilse. Introduction to Classical Arabic Literature, with Selections from representative Works in English Translation. 1974. New York: Schocken Books, 1976.


106. Lynch, Enrique. La Lección de Sheherazade. Barcelona: Editorial Anagrama, 1987.


107. Mahdi, Muhsin. The Thousand and One Nights. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995.


108. Marzolph, Ulrich, & Richard van Leeuwen, with the assistance of Hassan Wassouf, ed. The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia. 2 vols. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2004.


109. Marzolph, Ulrich, ed. The Arabian Nights Reader. Series in Fairy-Tale Studies. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 2006.


110. Mathers, Edward Powys, trans. The Anthology of Eastern Love. 12 vols in 4. London: John Rodker, 1927-30.


111. May, Georges. Les Mille et une nuits d’Antoine Galland, ou le chef d’oeuvre invisible. Paris: P.U.F., 1986.]


112. Naddaff, Sandra. Arabesque: Narrative Structure and the Aesthetics of Repetition in the 1001 Nights. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1991.


113. Nicholson, Reynold A. A Literary History of the Arabs. 1907. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1969.


114. Pinault, David. Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights. Studies in Arabic Literature 15. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992.


115. Ranelagh, E. J. The Past We Share: The Near Eastern Ancestry of Western Folk Literature. London: Quartet, 1979.


116. Shah, Idries, ed. World Tales: the Extraordinary Coincidence of Stories Told in All Times, in All Places. 1979. London: Octagon P, 1991.


117. Ullah, Najib. Islamic Literature: An Introductory History with Selections. New York: Washington Square P, 1963.


118. Weber, Edgard. Imaginaire Arabe et Contes Erotiques. Collection Comprendre le Moyen-Orient. Paris: Editions L’Harmattan, 1990.


119. Yohanna, John D., ed. A Treasury of Asian Literature. Readers Union. 1958. London: Phoenix House, 1960.

As you can see, I've been collecting books in this area for quite some time. The above list of major translations doesn't include all the retellings and abridgements I own (though if you'd like to check them out, they're all listed here. I think it includes all the major translations in most European languages - though with the notable exception of the various versions in Spanish: Vicente Blasco Ibañez's translation of Mardrus (1923), Rafael Cansinos-Assens (1960), Juan Vernet (1964-67) and Juan A. G. Larraya & Leonor Martínez Martín (1965).

The essential thing to note about them is that there are two major manuscript traditions: the Syrian (exemplified by Galland, and codified in Muhsin Mahdi's 1984 critical edition of the 14th century Ms. Galland). The best version of this in English is Husain Haddawy's 1990 translation of Mahdi. It's distinguished by intricacy and literary complexity, notably in such stories as "The Tale of the Hunchback" or "The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad."

The second major manuscript tradition, the Egyptian (generally known as ZER: for "Zotenberg's Egyptian Recension) is much later, reaching its final elaboration in the late eighteenth, early nineteenth century, before being fixed in its present form by the 1835 Bulaq edition of the Arabic text. This is much longer and more compendious than the Syrian tradition, but appears to have been created largely to meet European demands for a "complete" text of the 1001 Nights, already well known from Galland's translation. The most complete translation of this version is Burton's, but probably the most convenient to read is Malcolm and Ursula Lyon's 2008 Penguin Classics edition.

There are many excellent critical books on the Nights, as you can see from the list above. If I had to recommend just one, though, it would be Andras Hamori's 1974 On the Art of Medieval Arabic Literature, for its brilliantly innovative analysis of the narrative complexity of such stories as "The City of Brass" and (once again) "The Three Ladies of Baghdad." There's much useful information (and good bibliographies) in Peter L. Caracciolo's The Arabian Nights in English Literature: Studies in the Reception of The Thousand and One Nights into British Culture (1988), though.

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Peter L. Caracciolo: The Arabian Nights in English Literature (1988)