This volume contains the last of my versions from the Wortley
Montague Codex, and this is the place to offer a short account of
that much bewritten MS.
In the "Annals of the Bodleian Library," etc., by the Reverend
William Dunn Macray, M.A. (London, Oxford and Cambridge, 1868:
8vo. p. 206), we find the following official notice:--
"A.D. 1803."
"An Arabic MS. in seven volumes, written in 1764-5, and
containing what is rarely met with, a complete collection of the
Thousand and one Tales (N.B. an error for "Nights") of the
Arabian Nights Entertainments, was bought from Captain Jonathan
Scott for �50. Mr. Scott published, in 1811, an edition of the
Tales in six volumes (N.B. He reprinted the wretched English
version of Prof. Galland's admirable French, and his "revisions"
and "occasional corrections" are purely imaginative), in which
this MS. is described (N.B. after the mos majorum). He obtained
it from Dr. (Joseph) White, the Professor of Hebrew and Arabic at
Oxford, who had bought it at the sale of the library of Edward
Wortley Montague, by whom it had been brought from the East.
(N.B. Dr. White at one time intended to translate it literally,
and thereby eclipse the Anglo French version.) It is noticed in
Ouseley's Oriental Collections (Cadell and Davies), vol. ii. p.
25."
The Jonathan Scott above alluded to appears under various titles
as Mr. Scott, Captain Scott and Doctor Scott. He was an officer
in the Bengal Army about the end of the last century, and was
made Persian Secretary by "Warren Hastings, Esq.," to whom he
dedicated his "Tales, Anecdotes and Letters, translated from the
Arabic and Persian" (Cadell and Davies, London, 1800), and he
englished the "Bah�r-i-D�nish" (A.D. 1799) and "Firishtah's
History of the Dakkhan (Deccan) and of the reigns of the later
Emperors of Hindostan." He became Dr. Scott because made an LL.D.
at Oxford as meet for a "Professor (of Oriental languages) at the
Royal Military and East India Colleges"; and finally he settled
at Netley, in Shropshire, where he died.
It is not the fault of English Orientalists if the MS. in
question is not thoroughly well known to the world of letters. In
1797 Sir Gore Ouseley's "Oriental Collections" (vol. ii. pp.
25-33) describes it, evidently with the aid of Scott, who is the
authority for stating that the tales generally appear like pearls
strung at random on the same thread; adding, "if they are truly
Oriental it is a matter of little importance to us Europeans
whether they are strung on this night or that night."[FN#1] This
first and somewhat imperfect catalogue of the contents was
followed in 1811 by a second, which concludes the six volume
edition of "The
ARABIAN NIGHTS
ENTERTAINMENTS,
Carefully revised and occasionally corrected
from the Arabic.
to which is added
A SELECTION OF NEW TALES,
Now first translated
from the Arabic Originals.
also,
AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES,
Illustrative of the
RELIGION, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE: MAHOMMEDANS."
The sixth volume, whose second title is "Tales | selected from
the Manuscript copy | of the | 1001 Nights | brought to Europe by
Edward Wortley Montague, Esq.," ends with a general Appendix, of
which ten pages are devoted to a description of the Codex and a
Catalogue of its contents. Scott's sixth volume, like the rest of
his version, is now becoming rare, and it is regretable that when
Messieurs Nimmo and Bain reprinted, in 1882, the bulk of the work
(4 vols. 8vo) they stopped short at volume five.
Lastly we find a third list dating from 1835 in the "Catalogi |
Codicum Manuscriptorum Orientalium | Bibliothec� Bodleian� | Pars
Secunda | Arabicos | complectens. | Confecit | Alexander Nicoll,
J.C.D. | Nuper Lingu� Heb. Professor Regius, necnon �dis Christi
Canonicus. | Editionem absolvit | et Catalogum urianum[FN#2]
aliquatenus emendavit | G. B. Pusey S.T.B. | Viri desideratissimi
Successor. | Oxonii, | E Typographio Academico | MDCCCXXXV." This
is introduced under the head, "Codicis Arabici Mahommedani
Narrationes Fict� sive Histori� Romanenses | in Quarto (pp .
145-150).
I am not aware that any attempt has been made to trace the
history of the Wortley Montague MS.; but its internal evidence
supplies a modicum of information.
By way of colophon to the seventh and last volume we have, "On
this wise end to us the Stories of the Kings and histories of
various folk as foregoing in the Thousand Nights and a Night,
perfected and completed, on the eighteenth day of Safar the
auspicious, which is of the months of (the year A.H.) one
thousand one hundred and seventy-eight" (= A.D. 1764-65).
"Copied by the humblest and neediest of the poor, Omar-al-Safat�,
to whose sins may Allah be Ruthful!
"An thou find in us fault deign default supply,
And hallow the Faultless and Glorify."
The term "Suftah" is now and has been applied for the last
century to the sons of Turkish fathers by Arab mothers, and many
of these Mulattos live by the pen. On the fly-leaf of vol. i. is
written in a fine and flowing Persian (?) hand, strongly
contrasting with the text of the tome, which is unusually
careless and bad, "This book | The Thousand Nights and a Night of
the Acts and deeds (S�rat) of the Kings | and what befel them
from sundry | women that were whorish | and witty | and various |
Tales | therein." Below it also is a Persian couplet written in
vulgar Iranian characters of the half-Shikastah type:
Chih goyam, o chih poyam? * Na m�-d�nam h�ch o p�ch.
(What shall I say or whither fly? * This stuff and this nonsense
know not I.)
Moreover, at the beginning of vol. i. is a list of fifteen tales
written in Europeo-Arabic characters, after schoolboy fashion,
and probably by Scott. In vol. ii. there is no initial list, but
by way of Foreword we read, "This is volume the second of the
Thousand Nights and a Night from the xciiid. Night, full and
complete." And the Colophon declares, "And this is what hath been
finished for us of the fourth (probably a clerical error for
"second") tome of the Thousand Nights and a Night to the
clxxviith. Night, written on the twentieth day of the month
Sha'b�n A.H., one thousand one hundred and seventy-seven" (=A.D.
1764). This date shows that the MS. was finished during the year
after incept.
The text from which our MS. was copied must have been valuable,
and we have reason to regret that so many passages both of poetry
and prose are almost hopelessly corrupt. Its tone and tenor are
distinctly Nilotic; and, as Mr. E. Wortley Montague lived for
some time in Egypt, he may have bought it at the Capital of the
Nile-land. The story of the Syrian (v. 468) and that of the Two
Lack-tacts (vi. 262), notably exalt Misr and Cairo at the expense
of Sh�m and Damascus; and there are many other instances of
preferring Kemi the Black Soil to the so called "Holy Land." The
general tone, as well as the special incidents of the book,
argues that the stories may have been ancient, but they certainly
have been modernised. Coffee is commonly used (passim) although
tobacco is still unknown; a youth learns archery and gunnery
(Zarb al-Ris�s, vol. vii. 440); casting of cannon occurs (vol. v.
186), and in one place (vol. vi. 134) we read of "Taban-jatayn,"
a pair of pistols; the word, which is still popular, being a
corruption of the Persian "Tab�ncheh" = a slap or blow, even as
the French call a derringer coup de poing. The characteristic of
this Recueil is its want of finish. The stories are told after
perfunctory fashion as though the writer had not taken the
trouble to work out the details. There are no names or titles to
the tales, so that every translator must give his own; and the
endings are equally unsatisfactory, they usually content
themselves, after "native" fashion, with "Intih�" = finis; and
the connection with the thread of the work must be supplied by
the story-teller or the translator. Headlines were not in use for
the MSS. of that day, and the catchwords are often irregular, a
new word taking the place of the initial in the following page.
The handwriting, save and except in the first volume, has the
merit of regularity, and appears the same throughout the
succeeding six, except in the rare places (e.g. vi. 92-93), where
the lazy copyist did not care to change a worn-out pen, and
continued to write with a double nib. On the other hand, it is
the character of a village-schoolmaster whose literary culture is
at its lowest. Hardly a sheet appears without some blunder which
only in rare places is erased or corrected, and a few lacun� are
supplied by several hands, Oriental and European, the latter
presumably Scott's. Not unfrequently the terminal word of a line
is divided, a sign of great incuria or ignorance, as "Sh�hr |
baz" (i. 4), "Shahr | z�d" (v. 309, vi. 106), and "Fawa |
jadtu-h" = so I found him (V. 104). Koranic quotations almost
always lack vowel points, and are introduced without the usual
ceremony. Poetry also, that crux of a skilful scribe, is
carelessly treated, and often enough two sets of verse are thrown
into one, the first rhyming in �r, and the second in �r (e.g.
vol. v. 256). The rhyme-words also are repeated within unlawful
limits (passim and vol. v. 308, ll. 6 and 11). Verse is thrust
into the body of the page (vii. 112) without signs of citation in
red ink or other (iii. 406); and rarely we find it, as it should
be, in distichs divided by the normal conventional marks,
asterisks and similar separations. Sometimes it appears in a
column of hemistichs after the fashion of Europe (iv. 111; iv.
232, etc.): here (v. 226) a quotation is huddled into a single
line; there (v. 242) four lines, written as monostichs, are
followed by two distichs in as many lines.
As regards the metrical part Dr. Steingass writes to me, "The
verses in Al-Hayf� and Y�suf, where not mere doggerel, are
spoiled by the spelling. I was rarely able to make out even the
metre and I think you have accomplished a feat by translating
them as you have done."
The language of the MS. is generally that of the Fell�h and
notably so in sundry of the tales, such as, "The Goodwife of
Cairo and her four Gallants" (v. 444). Of this a few verbal and
phrasal instances will suffice. Ad�n� = here am I (v. 198); Ahn�
(passim, for nahnu) nakh�f = we fear; 'Alayk� (for 'alayki) = on
thee; and generally the long vowel (-k�) for the short (-ki) in
the pronoun of the second person feminine; Antah (for ante) =
thou (vi. 96) and Ant� (for antum) = you (iii. 351); Ar�ha and
even ar�ha, r�hat and r�ha (for r�ha) = he went (vii. 74 and iv.
75) and Ar�h� (for r�h�) = go ye (iv. 179); Bakarah * * * allazi
(for allat�) = a cow (he) who, etc.; (see in this vol., p. 253)
and generally a fine and utter contempt for genders, e.g. Hum
(for hunna) masc. for fem. (iii. 91; iii. 146; and v. 233); T�
'�li (for ta'�l) fem. for masc. (vi. 96 et passim); B�h�m (for
bi-him) = with them (v. 367); Bi-k�m (for bi-kum) = with you
(iii. 142) are fair specimens of long broad vowels supplanting
the short, a peculiarity known in classical Arab., e.g. Mift�h
(for Miftah) = a key. Here, however, it is exaggerated, e.g.
B�'�d (for ba'�d) = far (iv. 167); K�m (for kam) = how many? K�m
(for kum) = you (v. 118); K�l-h� (for kul-ha) = tell it (iv. 58);
M�n (for man) = who? (iii. 89); Mirw�d (for Mirwad) = a branding
iron; Natan�shshad (for natanashshad) = we seek tidings (v. 211);
R�jal (pron. R�gil, for Rajul) = a man (iv. 118 and passim);
S�hal (for sahal) = easy, facile (iv. 71); S�r (for sir) = go, be
off! (v. 199); Sh�l (for shil) = carry away (i. 111); and Z�hab
(for zahab) = gold (v. 186). This broad Doric or Caledonian
articulation is not musical to unaccustomed organs. As in popular
parlance the D�l supplants the Z�l; e.g. Dahaba (for zahaba) = he
went (v. 277 and passim); also T takes the place of Th, as Tult
for thulth = one third (iii. 348) and Tamrat (for thamrat) =
fruit (v. 260), thus generally ignoring the sibilant Th after the
fashion of the modern Egyptians who say Tumm (for thumma) =
again; "Kattir (for kaththir) Khayrak" = God increase thy weal,
and Lattama (for laththama) = he veiled. Also a general ignoring
of the dual, e.g. H�z� 'usfurayn (for 'Usfur�ni) = these be birds
(vi. 121); Nazal� al-Wazirayn (do) = the two Wazirs went down
(vii. 123); and lastly Al-Wuzar� al-itnayn (for Al-Waz�r�ni) =
the two Wazirs (vii. 121). Again a fine contempt for numbers, as
Nanzur ana (for Anzur) = I (we) see (v. 198) and Inn� (for inn�)
nar�hu = indeed I (we) go (iii. 190). Also an equally
conscientious disregard for cases, as Min m�l ab�-h� (for ab�-h�)
= out of the moneys of her sire (iv. 190); and this is apparently
the rule of the writer.
Of Egyptianisms and vulgarisms we have Ant, m� ghibtshayy = thou,
hast thou not been absent at all? with the shayy (a thing)
subjoined to the verb in this and similar other phrases; Baks�sh
for Bakhshish (iv. 356); Al-Jaw�z (for al-z�w�j) = marriage (i.
14); Fak� or Fik� (for fakih) = a divine (vi. 207 and passim);
Finj�l (for finj�n) = a coffee-cup (v. 424, also a Najd� or
Central Arabian corruption); Kuwayyis = nice, pretty (iv. 179);
L�y�l� (for liall�) = lest that (v. 285); Luh�m�t (for luk�m) =
meats, a mere barbarism (v. 247); Matah (for Mat�) =when? (v.
464); Ma'�yah (for ma'�) =with me (vi. 13 et passim); Shuwayy (or
shuwayyah) Mayah, a double diminutive (for Muwayy or Muwayh) = a
small little water, intensely Nilotic (iv. 44); Mbarih or Emb�rah
(for Al-b�rihah) = yesterday (v. 449); Takkat (for Dakkat) = she
rapped (iv. 190); �zb�sh� and Uzb�sh� (for Y�zb�sh�) = a
centurion, a captain (v. 430 et passim); Z��djah for Z�ijah (vi.
329); Zar�gh�t (for Zagh�r�t) = lullilooing (iv. 12); Z�nah (for
Zin�) = adultery, and lastly Z�da (for Z�da) = increased (iv.
87). Here the reader will cry jam satis; while the student will
compare the list with that given in my Terminal Essay (vol. x.
168-9).
The two Appendices require no explanation. No. I. is a Catalogue
of the Tales in the Wortley Montague MS., and No. II. contains
Notes upon the Storiology of the Supplemental Volumes IV. and V.
by the practiced pen of Mr. W. F. Kirby. The sheets during my
absence from England have been passed through the press and
sundry additions and corrections have been made by Dr. Steingass.
In conclusion I would state that my hope was to see this Volume
(No. xv.) terminate my long task; but circumstance is stronger
than my will and I must ask leave to bring out one more--The New
Arabian Nights.