SUPPLEMENTAL NIGHTS To The Book Of The Thousand And One Nights With Notes Anthropological And Explanatory
By Richard F. Burton
VOLUME SIX Privately Printed By The Burton Club
I Inscribe This Final Volume to The Many Excellent Friends who lent me their valuable aid in copying and annotating The Thousand Nights and a Night
Contents of the Sixteenth Volume.
1. The Say of Haykar the Sage 2. The History of Al-Bundukani or, The Caliph Harun Al-Rashid and the Daughter of King Kisra 3. The Linguist-Dame, the Duenna and the King's Son 4. The Tale of the Warlock and the Young Cook of Baghdad 5. The Pleasant History of the Cock and the Fox 6. History of What Befel the Fowl-let with the Fowler 7. The Tale of Attaf The Tale of Attaf by Alexander J. Cotheal 8. History of Prince Habib and what Befel Him with the Lady Durrat Al-Ghawwas a. The History of Durrat Al-Ghawwas
Appendix
Notes on the Stories Contained in Volume XVI, by W. F. Kirby Index to the Tales and Proper Names Index to the Variants and Analogues Index to the Notes of W. A. Clouston and W. F. Kirby Alphabetical Table of Notes (Anthropological, &c.) Additional Notes on the Bibliography of the Thousand and One Nights, by W. F. Kirby The Biography of the Book and Its Reviewers Reviewed Opinions of the Press
The Translator's Foreword.
This volume has been entitled "THE NEW ARABIAN 1 NIGHTS," a name now hackneyed because applied to its contents as far back as 1819 in Henry Weber's "Tales of the East" (Edinburgh, Ballantyne).
The original MS. was brought to France by Al-Káhin Diyánisiás Sháwísh, a Syrian priest of the Congregation of St. Basil, whose name has been Frenchified to Dom Dennis (or Denys) Chavis. He was a student at the European College of Al-Kadís Ithanásiús (St. Athanasius) in Rúmiyah the Grand (Constantinople) and was summoned by the Minister of State, Baron de Breteuil, to Paris, where he presently became "Teacher of the Arabic Tongue at the College of the Sultán, King of Fransá in Bárís (Paris) the Great." He undertook (probably to supply the loss of Galland's ivth MS. volume) a continuation of The Nights (proper), and wrote with his own hand the last two leaves of the third tome, which ends with three instead of four couplets: thus he completed Kamar al-Zamán (Night cclxxxi.- cccxxix.) and the following tales:--
The History of the Sleeper and the Waker (Nights cccxxx.-ccclxxix.). The History of Warlock and the Cook (ccclxxx.-cd.). The History of the Prisoner in the Bímáristán or Madhouse (cd.-cdxxvii.). The History of Ghánim the Thrall o' Love (cdxxviii.-cdlxxiv.). The History of Zayn al-Asnám and the King of the Jánn (cdlxxv.-cdxci.). The History of Alaeddin (cdxcii.-dlxix.), and The History of Ten Wazirs (dlxx.).
The copy breaks off at folio 320, r in the middle of Night dcxxxi., and the date (given at the end of Night cdxxvii., folio 139) is Shubát (February), A.D. 1787. This is the MS. numbered Supplément Arabe, No. 1716.
In Paris, Dom Chavis forgathered with M. Cazotte, a littérateur of the category "light," an ingénieux écrivain, distinguished for "gaiety, delicacy, wit and Attic elegance," and favorably known for (inter alia) his poem "Olivier," his "Diable Amoureux," "The Lord Impromptu," and a travesty of The Nights called "The Thousand and One Fopperies." The two agreed to collaborate, the Syrian translating the Arabic into French, and the Parisian metamorphosing the manner and matter to "the style and taste of the day"; that is to say, working up an exaggerated imitation, a caricature, of Galland. The work appeared, according to Mr. A. G. Ellis, of the British Museum, who kindly sent me these notes, in Le Cabinet | des Fées, | ou | Collection choisie | des Contes des Fées, | et autres contes merveilleux, | ornés de figures. | Tome trente-huitiéme--(quarante-unième). | A Genève, | chez Bárde, Manget et Compagnie, | Imprimeurs-Libraires. | Et se trouve à Paris | Rue et Hôtel Serpente. | 1788-89, 8 [FN#1] . The half-title is Les Veilliées Persanes, and on the second title- page is Les Veilliées | du | Sultan Schahriar, avec | la Sultane Scheherazade; | Histoires incroyables, amusantes, et morales, | traduites de l'Arabe par M. Cazotte et | D. Chavis. Faisant suite aux mille et une Nuits. | Ornées de I2 belles gravures. | Tome premier (--quatrième) | à Genève, | chez Barde, Manget et Comp' | 1793. This 8vo[FN#2] bears the abridged title, La Suite des mille et une Nuits, Contes Arabes, traduits par Dom Chavis et M. Cazotte. The work was printed with illustrations at Geneva and in Paris, MDCCLXXXVIII., and formed the last four volumes (xxxviii.- xli.) of the great Recueil, the Cabinet des Fées, published at Geneva from A.D. 1788 to 1793.
The following is a complete list of the histories, as it appears in the English translation, lengthily entitled, "Arabian Tales; | or, | a Continuation | of the | Arabian Nights Entertainments. | Consisting of | Stories | Related by the | Sultana of the Indies | to divert her Husband from the Performance of a rash vow; | Exhibiting | A most interesting view of the Religion, Laws, | Manners, Customs, Arts, and Literature | of the | Nations of the East, | And | Affording a rich Fund of the most pleasing Amusement, | which fictitious writings can supply. | In Four Volumes | newly translated from the original Arabic into French | By Dom Chavis | a native Arab and M. Cazotte, Member | of the Academy of Dijon. | And translated from the French into English | By Robert Heron. | Edinburgh: | Printed for Bell and Bradfute, J. Dickson, E. Balfour, | and P. Hill, Edinburgh, | and G. G. J. and J. Robinson, London | MDCCXCIl."
1. The Robber-Caliph; or, adventures of Haroun-Alraschid, with the Princess of Persia and the fair Zutulbe.[FN#3] 2. The Power of Destiny, or, Story of the Journey of Giafar to Damascus comprehending the Adventures of Chebib (Habíb) and his family. 3. The Story of Halechalbé (Ali Chelebí) and the Unknown Lady; or, the Bimaristan. 4. The Idiot; or, Story of Xailoun.[FN#4] 5. The Adventures of Simustafa (="Sí" for Sídí "Mustafa") and the Princess Ilsatilsone (Lizzat al-Lusún = Delight of Tongues?). 6. Adventures of Alibengiad, Sultan of Herat, and of the False Birds of Paradise. 7. History of Sankarib and his two Viziers. 8. History of the Family of the Schebandad (Shah-bander = Consul) of Surat. 9. The Lover of the Stars: or, Abil Hasan's Story. 10. History of Captain Tranchemont and his Brave Companions: Debil Hasen's Story. 11. The Dream of Valid Hasan. 12-23. Story of Bohetzad and his Ten Viziers (with eleven subsidiary tales).[FN#5] 24. Story of Habib and Dorathal-Goase (=Durrat al-Ghawwás the Pearl of the Diver); or, the Arabian Knight. 25. Story of Illabousatrous (?) of Schal-Goase, and of Camarilzaman. 26. Story of the Lady of the Beautiful Tresses. 27. The History of Habib and Dorathal-Goase; or, the Arabian Knight continued. 28. History of Maugraby (Al Magnrabi=the Moor); or, the Magician. 29. History of Halaiaddin ('Alá al-Din, Alaeddin, Aladdin), Prince of Persia. 30. History of Yemaladdin (Jamál al-Dín), Prince of Great Katay. 31. History of Baha-Ildur, Prince of Cinigae. 32. History of Badrildinn (Badr al-Dín), Prince of Tartary. 33. History of the Amours of Maugraby with Auhata al-Kawakik ( = Ukht al-Kawákib, Sister of the Planets), daughter of the King of Egypt. 34. History of the Birth of Maugraby.
Of these thirty four only five (MS. iv., vi., vii., xxvii. and xxxii.) have not been found in the original Arabic.
Public opinion was highly favourable to the "Suite" when first issued. Orientalism was at that time new to Europe, and the general was startled by its novelties, e.g. by "Women wearing drawers and trousers like their husbands, and men arrayed in loose robes like their wives, yet at the same time cherishing, as so many goats, each a venerable length of beard." (Heron's Preface.) They found its "phænomena so remote from the customs and manners of Europe, that, when exhibited as entering into the ordinary system of human affairs, they could not fail to confer a considerable share of amusive novelty on the characters and events with which they were connected." (Ditto, Preface.) Jonathan Scott roundly pronounced the continuation a forgery. Dr. Patrick Russell (History of Aleppo, vol. i. 385) had no good opinion of it, and Caussin de Perceval (père, vol. viii., p. 40-46) declared the version éloignée du goût Orientale; yet he re-translated the tales from the original Arabic (Continués, Paris, 1806), and in this he was followed by Gauttier, while Southey borrowed the idea of his beautiful romance, "Thalaba the Destroyer," now in Lethe from the "History of Maughraby." Mr. A. G. Ellis considers these tales as good as the old "Arabian Nights," and my friend Mr. W. F. Kirby (Appendix to The Nights, vol. x. p. 418), quite agrees with him that Chavis and Cazotte's Continuation is well worthy of republication in its entirety. It remained for the Edinburgh Review, in one of those ignorant and scurrilous articles with which it periodically outrages truth and good taste (No. 535, July, 1886), to state, "Cazotte published his Suite des Mille et une Nuits, a barefaced forgery, in 1785." A barefaced forgery! when the original of twenty eight tales out of thirty four are perfectly well known, and when sundry of these appear in MSS. of "The Thousand Nights and a Night."