One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  Thee, O Eternal for this misery” (vol. v. 47).

  Khafíf, full or perfect form (sahíh), both in Zarb and ‘Arúz

  (Mac. N. ii. 356):

  - U - - | U - U - | - U - - |

  Yá li-man ashtakí ‘l-gharáma ‘llazí bi

  U U - - | U - U - | - U - - |

  Wa shujúní wa furkatí ‘an habíbí

  O to whom now of my desire complaining sore shall I * Bewail my

  parting from my fere compellèd thus to fly (vol. v. 44).

  Mujtass, the only ‘Arúz (majzúah sahíhah, i.e. shortened by one foot and perfect) with equal Zarb (Mac. N. ii. 367):

  - - U - | U U - - |

  Ruddú ‘alayya habíbí

  - - U - | - U - - |

  Lá hajatan lí bi-málin

  To me restore my dear * I want not wealth untold (vol. v. 55).

  As an instance of the Munsarih, I give the second occurring in The Nights, because it affords me an opportunity to show the student how useful a knowledge of the laws of Prosody frequently proves for ascertaining the correct reading of a text. Mac. N. i. 33 we find the line:

  - U U - | - U U - | - U U - |

  Arba’atun má ‘jtama’at kattu izá.

  This would be Rajaz with the licence Mufta’ilun for Mustaf’ilun. But the following lines of the fragment evince, that the metre is Munsarih; hence, a clerical error must lurk somewhere in the second foot. In fact, on page 833 of the same volume, we find the piece repeated, and here the first couplet reads

  - U U - | - U - U | - U U - |

  Arba’atun má ‘jtama’na kattu siwà

  U - U - | - U - U | - U U - |

  Alà azá mujhatí wa safki damí

  Four things which ne’er conjoin unless it be * To storm my vitals

  and to shed my blood (vol. iii. 237).

  The Mutákarib, the last of the metres employed in The Nights, has gained a truly historical importance by the part which it plays in Persian literature. In the form of trimetrical double-lines, with a several rhyme for each couplet, it has become the “Nibelungen”-stanza of the Persian epos: Firdausí’s immortal “Book of Kings” and Nizámi’s Iskander-námah are written in it, not to mention a host of Masnawis in which Sufic mysticism combats Mohammedan orthodoxy. On account of its warlike and heroical character, therefore, I choose for an example the knightly Jamrakán’s challenge to the single fight in which he conquers his scarcely less valiant adversary Kaurajan, Mac. N. iii. 296:

  U - - | U - U | U - - | U - - |

  Aná ‘l-Jamrakánu kawiyyn ‘l-janáni

  U - - | U - U | U - - | U - - |

  Jamí’u ‘l-fawárisi takhshà kitálí.

  Here the third syllable of the second foot in each line is shortened by licence, and the final Kasrah of the first line, standing in pause, is long, the metre being the full form of the Mutakárib as exhibited , iii. E. 1. If we suppress the Kasrah of al-Janáni, which is also allowable in pause, and make the second line to rhyme with the first, saying, for instance:

  U - - | U - U | U - - | U -

  Aná ‘l-Jamrakánu kawiyyu ‘l-janán

  U - - | U - - | U - - | U -

  La-yakshà kitálí shijá’u ‘l-zamán,

  we obtain the powerful and melodious metre in which the Sháhnámah sings of Rustam’s lofty deeds, of the tender love of Rúdabah and the tragic downfall of Siyawush

  Shall I confess that in writing the foregoing pages it has been my ambition to become a conqueror, in a modest way, myself: to conquer, I mean, the prejudice frequently entertained, and shared even by my accomplished countryman, Rückert, that Arabic Prosody is a clumsy and repulsive doctrine. I have tried to show that it springs naturally from the character of the language, and, intimately connected, as it is, with the grammatical system of the Arabs, it appears to me quite worthy of the acumen of a people, to whom, amongst other things, we owe the invention of Algebra, the stepping-stone of our whole modern system of Mathematics I cannot refrain, therefore, from concluding with a little anecdote anent al-Khalíl, which Ibn Khallikán tells in the following words. His son went one day into the room where his father was, and on finding him scanning a piece of poetry by the rules of Prosody he ran out and told the people that his father had lost his wits. They went in immediately and related to al-Khalíl what they had heard, on which he addressed his son in these terms:

  “Had you known what I was saying, you would have excused me, and had you known what you said, I should have blamed you But you did not understand me, so you blamed me, and I knew that you were ignorant, so I pardoned you.”

  L’Envoi.

  Here end, to my sorrow, the labours of a quarter-century, and here I must perforce say with the “poets’ Poet,”

  “Behold! I see the haven nigh at hand,

  To which I mean my wearie course to bend;

  Vere the main shete, and bear up with the land

  The which afore is fairly to be ken’d.”

  Nothing of importance now indeed remains for me but briefly to estimate the character of my work and to take cordial leave of my readers, thanking them for the interest they have accorded to these volumes and for enabling me thus successfully to complete the decade.

  Without pudor malus or over-diffidence I would claim to have fulfilled the promise contained in my Foreword. The anthropological notes and notelets, which not only illustrate and read between the lines of the text, but assist the student of Moslem life and of Arabo-Egyptian manners, customs and language in a multitude of matters shunned by books, form a repertory of Eastern knowledge in its esoteric phase, sexual as well as social.

  To assert that such lore is unnecessary is to state, as every traveller knows, an “absurdum.” Few phenomena are more startling than the vision of a venerable infant, who has lived half his long life in the midst of the wildest anthropological vagaries and monstrosities, and yet who absolutely ignores all that India or Burmah enacts under his very eyes. This is crass ignorance, not the naive innocence of Saint Francis who, seeing a man and a maid in a dark corner, raised his hands to Heaven and thanked the Lord that there was still in the world so much of Christian Charity.

  Against such lack of knowledge my notes are a protest; and I may claim success despite the difficulty of the task. A traveller familiar with Syria and Palestine, Herr Landberg, writes, “La plume refuserait son service, la langue serait insuffisante, si celui qui connait la vie de tous les jours des Orientaux, surtout des classes élévees, voulait la devoiler. L’Europe est bien loin d’en avoir la moindre idée.”

  In this matter I have done my best, at a time too when the hapless English traveller is expected to write like a young lady for young ladies, and never to notice what underlies the most superficial stratum. And I also maintain that the free treatment of topics usually taboo’d and held to be “alekta” — unknown and unfitted for publicity — will be a national benefit to an “Empire of Opinion,” whose very basis and buttresses are a thorough knowledge by the rulers of the ruled. Men have been crowned with gold in the Capitol for lesser services rendered to the Respublica.

  That the work contains errors, shortcomings and many a lapsus, I am the first and foremost to declare. Yet in justice to myself I must also notice that the maculæ are few and far between; even the most unfriendly and interested critics have failed to point out an abnormal number of slips. And before pronouncing the “Vos plaudite!” or, as Easterns more politely say, “I implore that my poor name may be raised aloft on the tongue of praise,” let me invoke the fair field and courteous favour which the Persian poet expected from his readers.

  (Veil it, an fault thou find, nor jibe nor jeer: —

  None may be found of faults and failings clear!)

  RICHARD F. BURTON.

  Athenæum Club, September 30, 86.

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  APPENDIX

  Memorandum

  I make no apology for the number and extent of bibliographical and othe
r lists given in this Appendix: they may cumber the book but they are necessary to complete my design. This has been to supply throughout the ten volumes the young Arabist and student of Orientalism and Anthropology with such assistance as I can render him; and it is my conviction that if with the aid of this version he will master the original text of the “Thousand Nights and a Night,” he will find himself at home amongst educated men in Egypt and Syria, Najd and Mesopotamia, and be able to converse with them like a gentleman; not, as too often happens in Anglo- India, like a “Ghoráwálá” (groom). With this object he will learn by heart what instinct and inclination suggest of the proverbs and instances, the verses, the jeux d’esprit and especially the Koranic citations scattered about the text; and my indices will enable him to hunt up the tale or the verses which he may require for quotation wven when writing an ordinary letter to a “native” correspondent. Thus he will be spared the wasted labour of wading through volumes in order to pick up a line.

  The following is the list of indices: —

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  Appendix I.

  I. Index to the Tales in the ten Volumes. II. Alphabetical Table of the Notes (Anthropological, etc.) prepared by F. Steingass, Ph.D. III. Alphabetical Table of First Lines (metrical portion) in English and Arabic, prepared by Dr. Steingass. IV. Tables of Contents of the various Arabic texts. A. The Unfinished Calcutta Edition (1814-18). B. The Breslau Text (1825-43) from Mr. Payne’s Version. C. The MacNaghten or Turner-Macan Text (A.D. 1839-42) and the Bulak Edition (A.H. 1251 = A.D. 1835-36), from Mr. Payne’s Version. D. The same with Mr. Lane’s and my Version.

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  Appendix II.

  Contributions to the Bibliography of the Thousand and One Nights, and their Imitations, with a Table shewing the contents of the principal editions and translations of The Nights. By W. F. Kirby, Author of “Ed-Dimiryaht, and Oriental Romance”; “The New Arabian Nights,” $c.

  Appendix I

  Index I

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  INDICES

  Index to the Tales and Proper Names.

  N.B. — The Roman numerals denote the volume {page numbers have been omitted}

  Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman, ix.

  Abdullah bin Fazl and his brothers, ix.

  Abdullah bin Ma’amar with the Man of Bassorah and his slave-girl,

  v.

  Abd al-Rahman the Moor’s story of the Rukh, v.

  Abu Hasan al-Ziyadi and the Khorasan Man, iv.

  Abu Hasan, how he brake Wind, v.

  Abu Isa and Kurrat al-Aye, The Loves of, v.

  Abu Ja’afar the Leper, Abu al-Hasan al-Durraj and, v.

  Abu Kir the Dyer and Abu Sir the Barber, ix.

  Abu al-Aswad and his squinting slave-girl, v.

  Abu al Husn and his slave-girl Tawaddud, v.

  Abu al Hasan al-Durraj and Abu Ja’afar the Leper, v.

  Abu al Hasan of Khorasan, ix.

  Abu Mohammed highs Lazybones, iv.

  Abu Nowas, Harun al-Rashid with the damsel and, iv.

  Abu Nowas and the Three Boys, v.

  Abu Sir the Barber, Abu Kir the Dyer and, ix.

  Abu Suwayd and the handsome old woman, v.

  Abu Yusuf with Harun al-Rashid and his Wazir Ja’afar, The Imam,

  iv.

  Abu Yusuf with Al-Rashid and Zubaydah, The Imam, iv.

  Adam, The Birds and Beasts and the Son of, iii.

  Adi bin Zayd and the Princess Hind, v.

  Ajib, The History of Gharib and his brother, vi.

  Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, iv.

  Alexandria (The Sharper of) and the Master of Police, iv.

  Ali bin Bakkar and Shams al-Nahar, iii.

  Ali of Cairo, The Adventures of Mercury, vii.

  Ali Nur al-Din and Miriam the Girdle-Girl, viii.

  Ali the Persian and the Kurd Sharper, iv.

  Ali Shar and Zumurrud, iv.

  Ali bin Tahir and the girl Muunis, v.

  Al Malik al-Nasir (Saladin) and the Three Chiefs of Police, iv.

  Almsgiving, The Woman whose hands were cut off for, iv.

  Amin (Al-) and his uncle Ibrahim bin al-Mahdi, v.

  Anushirwan, Kisra, and the village damsel, v.

  Anushirwan, The Righteousness of King, v.

  Angel of Death and the King of the Children of Israel, The, v

  Angel of Death with the Proud King and the Devout Man, The, v.

  Angel of Death and the Rich King, The, v.

  Anis al-Jalis, Nur al-Din Ali and the damsel, ii.

  Ape, The King’s daughter and the, iv.

  Apples, The Three, i.

  Arab Girl, Harun al-Rashid and the, vii.

  Arab Youth, The Caliph Hisham and the, iv.

  Ardashir and Hayat al-Nufus, vii.

  Asma’i (Al-) and the three girls of Bassorah, vii.

  Ass, The Ox and the, i.

  Ass, The Wild, The Fox and, ix.

  Ayishah, Musab bin al-Zubayr and his wife, v.

  Aziz and Azizah, Tale of, ii.

  Azizah, Aziz and. ii.

  Badawi, Ja’afar the Barmecide and the old, v.

  Badawi, Omar bin al-Khattab and the young, v.

  Badawi, and his Wife, The, vii.

  Badi’a al-Jamal, Sayf al-Muluk and, vii.

  Badr Basim of Persia, Julnar the Sea-born, and her Son King, vii.

  Badr al-Din Hasan, Nur al-Din Ali of Cairo and his son, i.

  Baghdad, The Haunted House in, v.

  Baghdad, Khalifah the Fisherman of, viii.

  Baghdad, The Porter and the Three Ladies of, i.

  Baghdad, (The ruined man of) and his slave-girl, ix.

  Baghdad, The Sweep and the noble Lady of, iv.

  Bakun’s Story of the Hashish-Eater, ii.

  Banu Tayy, The Lovers of the, v.

  Banu Ozrah, The Lovers of the, v.

  Barber’s Tale of himself, The, i.

  Barber’s First Brother, Story of the, i.

  Barber’s Second Brother, Story of the, i

  Barber’s Third Brother, Story of the, i.

  Barber’s Fourth Brother, Story of the, i.

  Barber’s Fifth Brother, Story of the, i.

  Barber’s Sixth Brother, Story of the, i.

  Barber, Abu Kir the Dyer and Abu Sir the, ix.

  Barber-Surgeon, Ibrahim bin al-Mahdi and the, iv.

  Barmecide. Ja’afar the, and the old Badawi, v

  Bassorah (the man of ) and his slave-girl, Abdullah bin Ma’amar

  with, v.

  Bassorah, Al-Asma’i and the three girls of, vii.

  Bassorah, (Hasan of) and the King’s daughter of the Jinn, viii.

  Bassorah, The Lovers of, vii.

  Bath, Harun al-Rashid and Zubaydah in the, v.

  Bathkeeper’s Wife, The Wazir’s Son and the, vi.

  Beanselller, Ja’afar the Barmecide and the, iv.

  Bear, Wardan the Butcher’s adventure with the Lady and the, iv.

  Beasts and the Son of Adam, The Birds and, iii.

  Behram, Prince of Persia, and the Princess Al-Datma, vi.

  Belvedere, The House with the, vi.

  Birds and Beasts and the Carpenter, The, iii.

  Birds, The Falcon and the, iii.

  Birds (the Speech of), The page who feigned to know, vi.

  Black Slave, The pious, v.

  Blacksmith who could handle fire without hurt, The, v.

  Blind Man and the Cripple, The, ix.

  Boys, Abu Nowas and the Three, v.

  Boy and Girl at School, The Loves of the, v.

  Boy and the Thieves, The, ix.

  Boy (The woman who had to lover a) and the other who had to lover

  a man, v.

  Brass, The City of, vi.

  Broker’s Story, The Christian, i.

  Budur and Jubayr bin Umayr, The Lo
ves of, iv.

  Budur, Kamar al-Zaman and, iii.

  Bukhayt, Story of the Eunuch, ii.

  Bulak Police, Story of the Chief of the, iv.

  Bull and the Ass (Story of), i.

  Bulukiya, Adventures of, v.

  Butcher’s adventure with the Lady and the Bear, Wardan the, iv.

  Butter, The Fakir and his pot of, ix.

  Cairo (New) Police, Story of the Chief of the, iv.

  Cairo (Old) Police, Story of the Chief of the, iv.

  Cairo, The Adventures of Mercury Ali of, vii.

  Caliph Al-Maamun and the Strange Doctor, iv.

  Caliph, The mock, iv.

  Cashmere Singing-girl, The Goldsmith and the, vi.

  Cat and the Crow, The, iii.

  Cat and the Mouse, The, ix.

  Champion (The Moslem) and the Christian Lady, v.

  Chaste Wife, The Rake’s Trick against the, vi.

  Christian Broker’s Story, The, i.

  City of Labtayt, The, vi.

  Cloud (The saint to whom Allah gave a) to serve him, v.

  Cobbler (Ma’aruf the) and his wife Fatimah, x.

  Confectioner, his Wife and the Parrot, The, vi.

  Crab, The Fishes and the, ix.

  Craft and Malice of Women, The, vi.

  Cripple, The Blind Man and the, ix.

  Crow, The Fox and the, iii.

  Crow and the Serpent, The, ix.

  Crow, The Cat and the, iii.

  Crows and the Hawk, The, ix.

  Dalilah the Crafty and her daughter Zaynab the Coney-catcher, The

  Rogueries of, vii.

  Datma (The Princess Al-), Prince Behram of Persia and, vi.

  Death (The Angel of) and the King of the Children of Israel, v.

  Death (The Angel of) with the Proud King and the Devout Man, v.

  Death (The Angel of) and the Rich King, v.

  Debauchee and the Three-year-old Child, The, vi.

  Desert (The old woman who dwelt in the) and the pilgrim, v.

  Device (The Wife’s) to cheat her husband, vi.

  Devil, Ibrahim of Mosul and the, vii.

  Devil, Isaac of Mosul and his mistress and the, vii.

  Devout Israelite, The, iv.

  Devout Tray-maker and his wife, The, v.

  Devout Prince, The, v.

  Devout woman and the two wicked elders, The, v.

  Dibil al-Khazai and Muslim bin al-Walid, v.