Origins of the Arabian Nights

The stories of the Arabian Nights were written by many people over the course of hundreds of years. The core of original stories came out of Persia and India in the early eighth century. They were translated into Arabic and given the name Alf Layla or The Thousand Nights. This set of stories was few in number and fell far short of living up to the number in its title.

In Iraq in the ninth or tenth century, a group of Arab stories were added. This new group probably contained the tales that refer to Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Also, in the period immediately after this, several tales that had previously existed outside of the Nights were incorporated into the main body of the tales.

Starting the 13th century, another group of tales was added, these of Syrian or Egyptian origin. In "modern" times, additional tales were added (by Galland, for example), and the total was brought up to the number given in the title.

Their Current Form

Several early manuscripts of the Nights survive. The oldest is a single page fragment that dates to the ninth century. The next oldest is a three-volume Syrian manuscript in the Paris Bibliotheque Nationale (MSS arabes 3609-11) that dates from the early 14th century (this article discusses the Galland's manuscript in detail). Galland used this manuscript for his groundbreaking translation in the early 1700's, which introduced the Nights to Europe (although he used other sources as well). The exact orgins of this manuscript are unknown.

Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774-1856) discovered another manuscript in Cairo and used it for his tranlation of the Nights into French in 1804-1806. This manuscript and his translation were subsequently lost, but a German translation of his work survives. This manuscript was the only one containing the end of the ending to the Nights, were Shahriyar finally decides to allow Sheherazade to live.

Four Arabic printed texts survive, known as Calcutta I (1814-1818), Breslau (1824-1843), Bulaq (1835) and Calcutta II (1839-1842). The origins and pedigrees of these texts are in dispute. In particular the Breslau text was probably pieced together by its creator, Maximilian Habicht, from various other texts. Modern scholars find the Bulaq text the most significant.

All of these texts have been the basis for various translations. After Galland, three translations stand out as the basis for Victorian-era works. Lane's translation, dating from 1839, was the definitive translation until Payne's translation, which started appearing in 1882. Lastly, Richard Burton published his translation in 1885.

Lane's translation is rather expurgated, suited for polite 19th century British society. Payne tried to include the questionable parts of the stories by rewording them, skirting the offensive parts of the stories. Both Lane and Payne avoided translating the verse and songs that were in the original manuscripts. Burton pulled out all the stops. Not only did he tackle odd sexual customs, scatological humor and scandalous behaviour, but he translated the verse and song as well. Many, however, feel that Burton's rather literal and curiously worded translation goes overboard, seeking out anything perverse or wierd (and his footnotes go into great detail about oriental customes - sexual practices in particular). There are also claims that Burton's translation is racist (and you could make similar claims about Payne and Lane), but it's probably more accurate to say that their work reflects the culture of their time.

Today, the translation by Husain Haddawy is considered by many to be the best English translation. His translation has been described as "direct, modern and thrilling".

Literary Style and Devices

The Nights have a distinctive style that seems to overcome even the poorest translation. One of the most striking devices used in the Nights is that of "framing tales" or stories within stories. While many other tales in history use this device (notably, the Illiad and The Canterbury Tales), the Nights take this device to extremes. At several points, the Nights nests a story in as many as three frames (if you count Scheherazade as the the outermost frame).

The frames serve many narrative purposes, but the primary one is to lend credence to the tales (a device still in use today). Each time a story is interrupted by a character who says, "Let me tell the tale of my brother and the Djinn of Sands...", the audience is being told that the tale is true, that it comes from an eye witness. While the stories probably weren't intended to be taken as truth, the framing helps the audience to immerse themselves in the tales.

Framing the stories also lends them a certain drammatic tension. The deeper the nesting, the more "state" the audience has to hold in their heads. There is clearly a tension (as with music) to return to the top or, as computer programmers would say it, "pop the stack".

A related literary device used quite often in the Nights is the story told to save a life. Starting with the outermost tale of Scheherazade's and continuing to countless examples in the various stories. This device adds further zest and wonderment to the stories. They must be pretty amazing, after all, if merely hearing them will cause the powerful to spare a life.

Whether it's a flying horse, a Djinn who grants wishes, a bird that can carry off elephants or doors in stone that open at the sound of a voice, magic and the fantastic are common motifs within the Nights. As today, magic and fantastic elements are used in the Nights to pull the audience from their mundane lives and immerse them in the stories.

Several other minor motifs bear mention. There are a large number of people with what would now be called disabilities in the stories. People with one eye, missing a hand, missing a foot or otherwise mutilated abound in the Nights. While this may represent, as some assert, a fascination with disfigurement, it may also be that these sorts of disabilities were much more common in the historical setting of the Nights. Flying, whether on a magical horse, a magical carpet or by assistance of a friendly Djinn is also a common theme. Underground spaces tend to represent either danger or sexual opportunity. The poor and wreched are often elevated to great heights of fortune, but, just about as often, they loose or squander their gains. Misfortune often comes in threes.

While the stories of the Nights do not revolve around moral lessons (as so many European tales of the time do), there are occasional lessons in the Nights. They don't, however. always follow conventional 21st century morality. The most obvious of these is the tale of Scheherazade herself. Victim of the cruely of a mad sultan, she contrives by wit, sagacity and brilliant story telling to soften the emotions of the sultan and turn him back into a wise ruler and good family man. The moral, that intelligence trumps madness, is hard to miss.

Along with the occasional lesson, the nights are full of random events that can spell either doom or fortune for the actors in the nights. Innocently tossing a date pit almost costs a merchant his life. Ali Baba was simply gathering wood in the forest when he accidentally overheard the word that opens the robbers' cave. The obvious message is that life is chaotic and random and anyone's fortunes can change at any time.

Lastly, but quite importantly, it is important to recognize the role of Islam in the Nights. Lane begins his translation with the following:

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to God, the Beneficent King, the Creator of the universe, who hath raised the heavens without pillars, and spread out the earth as a bed; and blessing and peace be on the lord of apostles, our lord and our master Mohammad, and his family; blessing and peace, enduring and constant unto the day of judgement.

In his "notes on the introduction", Lane comments on this introductory material:

It is a universal custom of the Muslims to write this phrase at the commencement of every book, whatever may be the subject, and to pronounce it on commencing every lawful act of any importance.

These show the importance of religion in the day to day lives of the people of the Nights. The characters pray, perform ablutions, follow ritual and profess their beliefs at every turn. Islam oozes out of every pore of the Nights. It's safe to say that the Nights would be an entirely different experience without Islam.

Influence of the Nights on Western Literature

The Arabian Nights stand near the top of the list of literary works that have influenced western literature. The first stories from the Nights to reach Europe did so around the 12th century. Chaucer's Horse, for example, is evidently The Enchanted Horse from the Arabian Nights. The real influence began, however, Galland's translation brought the full set of the tales to Europe in the early 1700's.

Galland was born Picardy in 1646. He studied at the College royal and the Sorbonne and was particularly adept at Latin and Greek. In 1670 he pursuaded the French Ambasador, the Marquis to Nointel, to take him along as part of a French diplomatic mission to the Ottoman Turkis Sultan. For five years, Galland studied Turkish, Greek, Arabic and Persian. On the side, Galland hunted out rarities, including manuscripts, for the ambassador.

In 1692, Galland got a job as an assistant to Barthelemy d'Herbelot preparing an enourmous encyclopaedia of Islam. d'Herbelot died in 1695 and Galland took over, publishing the work in 1697. Many western writers, such as William Beckford and Robert Southley, were introduced to Islamic studies via the encyclopaedia.

Galland first translated the Voyages of Sinbad (which probably were never part of the Arabic Nights) in 1701. When they were sucessful, he decided to translate the entire corpus of the Nights, publishing the first volumes in 1704 and finishing with the twelfth volume in 1717. Galland used a three-volume Syrian manuscript dating from the 14th century for his translation (it may have been a four volume manuscript of which one has been lost), along with various other sources. Along the way, Galland added several stories to the work, including "Aladdin", "Ali Baba" and "Prince Ahmed and his Two Sisters". These additions have never been found in any ancient manuscript. Many think that Galland invented these tales.

Galland expurgated the work as he went along. He removed or smoothed over anything he thought would alarm the French reading public. His efforts were extremely sucessful. The volumes were quite popular in France and were soon translated into English (without Galland's knowlege or permission) and published in London.

Generations of western readers became exposed to the Nights as children. The tales were unique at the time, set in exotic lands with romantic and outlandish events. Some of the first western writers to be influenced by the Nights were Swift, Addison and Pope. Next came Reynolds, Sterne, Blair, Warton, Hawkesworth and Beattie. In 1789, Walpole wrote to Mary Berry, "Read Sinbad the Sailor's voyages and you will be sick of Aeneas's."

Sir Walter Scott read the Nights as a child and they stayed with him for the rest of his life. Allusions to the Nights are peppered throughout Scott's novels, such as Waverly, The Antiquiary, Guy Mannering and, of course, The Talisman. The Nights helped to power Scott to new levels of storytelling, prompting Robert Louis Stevenson to write, "With Scott, the Romantic movement, the movement of an extended curiosity, and an enfranchised imagination has begun."

As a child, Samual Taylor Coleridge absorbed the Nights. In a letter to Thomas Poole, he said:

At six years old I remember to have read Belisarius, Robinson Crusoe, & Philip Quarle - and then I found the Arabian Nights' entertainments - one tale of which (the tale of a man who was compelled to seek for a pure virgin) made so deep an impression on me (I had read it in the evening while my mother was mending stockings) that I was haunted by spectres, whenever I was in the dark [...] My Father found the effect, which these books had produced - and burnt them. - So I became a dreamer - and acquired an indisposition to all bodily activity...

Many literary critics feel that The Ancient Mariner is Coleridge's Arabian Nights, due to the many themes and devices that they share.

Charles Dickens was a great fan of the Nights. His works are full of references to the places and characters of the Nights. K.J. Fielding wrote, in 1958, "Except for the plays of Shakespeare, no other work so stirred his imagination, or is so constantly referred to in his works." An example of Dickens' fondness for the Nights can be found in his essay, A Christmas Tree, which is about some of his childhood memories:

..it is the setting-in of the bright Arabian Nights.
Oh, now all common things become uncommon and enchanted to me. All lamps are wonderful; all rings are talismans. Common flower-pots are full of treasure, with a little earth scattered on top; trees are for Ali Baba to hide in; beef-steaks are to throw down into the Valley of Diamonds, that the precious stones may stick to them, and be carried by eagles to their nests, whence the traders, with loud cries, will scare them.

Robert Louis Stevenson pulled directly from the Arabian Nights in his New Arabian Nights (1882). This work is a collection of short stories (loosely linked and somewhat framed by the structure of the book), set in London and Paris. His character "Prince Florizel of Bohemia" plays the part of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, the caliph who goes in disguise amongst the commoners. Stevenson deliberately borrows the pacing and style of the Nights to give his tales a familiar, flowing style.

No modern author used the Nights more extensively than O. Henry (William Syndey Porter). O. Henry used the Nights as his own framework on which to hang his own stories. By deft reference to the familar tales, settings and characters of the Nights, he could draw a reader very quickly into a short story. For example, in A Bird of Bagdad, he starts out:

Without a doubt much of the spirit and genius of the Caliph Harun Al Rashid descended to the Margrave August Michael von Paulsen Quigg.

Thus one sentence into the story, the reader already knows a lot about Quigg. He's generous, he probably travels about the city incognito and enquires into the fate of the common man. The story further develops through reference to the Nights:

Of riches and power Margrave Quigg had none; but he had a Caliph's heart - it may be forgiven him if his head fell short of the measure of Harun Al Rashid's. Perhaps some of the gold pieces in Bagdad had put less warmth and hope into the complainants among the bazaars than had Quigg's beef stew among the fishermen and one-eyed calenders of Manhattan.

The Arabian Nights supported other O. Henry stories in a similar fashion. A Night in New Arabia, for example, begins, "The great city of Bagdad-on-the-subway is caliph-ridden." Even stories that aren't structured by the Nights are often full of references to characters and events from them.

Conclusion

The Arabian Night's Entertainments stand out as one of the stellar achievements in literature. Hundreds of people contributed to their form and substances over the hundreds of years of their development. The result has entertained and influenced readers for generations.