THE WINDERMERE SERIES
The Arabian Nights
Entertainments
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
MILO WINTER
RAND McNALLY & COMPANY
CHICAGONEW YORK
Copyright, 1914, by
Rand McNally & Company
THE INTRODUCTION
The Arabian Nights was introduced to Europe in a French translationby Antoine Galland in 1704, and rapidly attained a unique popularity.There are even accounts of the translator being roused from sleep bybands of young men under his windows in Paris, importuning him to tellthem another story.
The learned world at first refused to believe that M. Galland had notinvented the tales. But he had really discovered an Arabic manuscriptfrom sixteenth-century Egypt, and had consulted Orientalstory-tellers. In spite of inaccuracies and loss of color, his twelvevolumes long remained classic in France, and formed the basis of ourpopular translations.
A more accurate version, corrected from the Arabic, with a styleadmirably direct, easy, and simple, was published by Dr. JonathanScott in 1811. This is the text of the present edition.
The Moslems delight in stories, but are generally ashamed to show aliterary interest in fiction. Hence the world's most delightful storybook has come to us with but scant indications of its origin. Criticalscholarship, however, has been able to reach fairly definiteconclusions.
The reader will be interested to trace out for himself thesimilarities in the adventures of the two Persian queens,Schehera-zade, and Esther of Bible story, which M. de Goeje haspointed out as indicating their original identity (EncyclopædiaBritannica, "Thousand and One Nights"). There are two or threereferences in tenth-century Arabic literature to a Persian collectionof tales, called The Thousand Nights, by the fascination of whichthe lady Schehera-zade kept winning one more day's lease of life. Agood many of the tales as we have them contain elements clearlyindicating Persian or Hindu origin. But most of the stories, eventhose with scenes laid in Persia or India, are thoroughly Mohammedanin thought, feeling, situation, and action.[4]
The favorite scene is "the glorious city," ninth-century Bagdad, whosecaliph, Haroun al Raschid, though a great king, and heir of stillmightier me