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."
The following is a list of the Tales (widely differing from those
of Chavis and Cazotte) which appeared in the version of Caussin
de Perceval.