The readers of my translation of the Book of the Thousand Nights and One
Night will remember that, in the terminal essay (1884) on the history
and character of the collection, I expressed my conviction that the
eleven (so-called) "interpolated" tales, [1] though, in my judgment,
genuine Oriental stories, had (with the exception of the Sleeper
Awakened and Aladdin) no connection with the original work, but had been
procured by Galland from various (as yet) unidentified sources, for the
purpose of supplying the deficiencies of the imperfect MS. of the Nights
from which he made his version. [2] My opinion as to these talcs has
now been completely confirmed by the recent discovery (by M. Zotenberg,
Keeper of Oriental MSS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris) of two
Arabic MSS. of the Nights, both containing three of the missing stories,
i.e. (1) Zeyn Alasnam, (3) The Sleeper Awakened and (4) Aladdin, and
by the publication (also by M. Zotenberg) of certain extracts from
Galland's diary, giving particulars of the circumstances under which
the "interpolated" tales were incorporated with his translation of the
Arabian Nights. The Arabic text of the Story of Aladdin, as given by the
completer and more authentic of the newly-discovered MSS., has recently
been made by M. Zotenberg the subject of a special publication, [3]
in the preface to which (an exhaustive bibliographical essay upon the
various Texts of the Thousand and One Nights, considered in relation to
Galland's translation) he gives, in addition to the extracts in question
from Galland's Diary, a detailed description of the two MSS. aforesaid,
the more interesting particulars of which I now proceed to abstract for
the benefit of my readers.