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The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Template:Lang-ar Kitāb 'Alf Layla wa-Layla, Template:Lang-fa Hazār-o Yak Šab; also known as The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night, One Thousand and One Nights, 1001 Arabian Nights, Arabian Nights, The Nightly Entertainments or simply The Nights) is a medieval collection of stories compiled over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. Though an original manuscript has never been found several versions date the collection's genesis to somewhere between 800-900 AD.
Scholars suggest that the collection was greatly influenced by Arabic, Persian, Indian, ancient Greek and even Chinese folktales though starting in the 18th century translators began incorporating tales that were not in the original.
The unclear history of the Nights makes it one of world literature's most debated over and puzzling pieces.
What is common throughout all of the editions of the Nights is the initial frame story of Shahryar and Scheherazade and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves. This frame tale is also believed to be first found in the ancient Persian story collection Hazār Afsānah. No physical evidence of Hazar Afsanah exists, however, nor is there a contemporary version of it though the collection is mentioned several times in historical documents.
The main frame story concerns a king and his new bride. The king, Shahryar, upon discovering his ex-wife's infidelity executes her and then declares all women to be unfaithful. He begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning.
Scheherazade agrees to marry him and each night, beginning on the night of their marriage, she tells the king a tale but does not end it so that the king keeps her alive in order to hear the next tale.
The stories proceed from this original tale and fold in among themselves, some are frames within other frames while others begin and end on their own accord. Some versions, including early ones, contain only a few hundred tales while others include either 1001 or more stories and "nights."
Well known stories from the Nights include Aladdin, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.
History
The nucleus of the stories is formed by a Pahlavi Sassanid Persian book called Hazār Afsānah("Thousand Myths", in Template:Lang-fa), a collection of ancient Indian and Persian folk tales.
During the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the 8th century, Baghdad had become an important cosmopolitan city. Merchants from Persia, China, India, Africa, and Europe were all found in Baghdad. It was during this time that many of the stories, which were originally folk stories, are thought to have been collected orally over many years and later then compiled into a single book.
The later compiler and translator into Arabic is reputedly storyteller Abu abd-Allah Muhammed el-Gahshigar in the 9th century.
Timeline
Compiled from:
Dwight Reynolds. "The Thousand and One Nights: A History of the Text and its Reception." The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: Arabic Literature in the Post-Classical Period. Cambridge UP, 2006.
Robert Irwin. The Arabian Nights: A Companion. Tauris Parke, 2004.
- Oldest Arabic manuscript (a few handwritten pages) from Syria dating to the early 800s discovered by scholar Nabia Abbott in 1948.
- 900s AD - Mention of the 1001 Nights in Ibn Al-Nadim's "Fihrist" (Catalogue of books) in Baghdad. He mentions the Nights' history and its Persian origins.
- 900s - Second oldest reference to the 1001 Nights in Muruj Al-Dhahab (Meadows of Gold) by Al-Masudi.
- 1300's - Existing Syrian Manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris (contains about 300 tales).
- 1704 - Galland – Antoine Galland's French translation is the first European version of the Nights. It was later discovered by scholars that Galland fabricated most of the tales himself. He included Ali Baba and Sindbad which he claims came from other sources. Later volumes were introduced using Galland's name though the stories were written by unknown persons at the behest of the publisher wanting to capitalize on the popularity of the collection.
- 1708 - An anonymously translated version in English appears in Europe dubbed the "Grub Street" version.
- 1775 - Egyptian version of the Nights called "ZER" (Zotenberg's Egyptian Rescension) with 200 tales (no surviving edition exists).
- 1814 - Calcutta I – the earliest existing Arabic printed version - published by the British East India Company. A second volume was released in 1818. Both had 100 tales each.
- 1825-1838 Breslau/Habicht edition in Arabic (8 volumes) – Christian Maxmilian Habicht (born in Breslau, Germany, 1775) collaborated with the Tunisian Murad Al-Najjar and created this edition containing 1001 stories. Using versions of the Nights, tales from Al-Najjar, and other stories from unknown origins Habicht published his version in Arabic and German.
- 1842-1843 (4 volumes) - Four additional volumes by Habicht.
- 1835 Bulaq version - Two volumes - Printed by the Egyptian government this version is the oldest printed (by a publishing house) version of the 1001 Nights in Arabic by a non-European. It is primarily a reprinting of the ZER text.
- 1839-1842 Calcutta II - 4 volumes - Claims to be based on an older Egyptian manuscript (which was never found). This version contains many elements and stories from the Habicht edition.
- 1838 - Torrens version in English.
- 1838-1840 – Edward William Lane - Publishes English translation. Notable for its exclusion of content Lane found "immoral" and for its anthropological notes on Arab customs by Lane.
- 1882-1884 –John Payne - Publishes an English version translated entirely from Calcutta II, adding some tales from Calcutta I and Breslau in 1884-5.
- 1885-1888 – Sir Richard Francis Burton - Publishes an English translation from several sources. His translation accentuated the sexuality of the Nights, versus Lane's translation. In order to avoid obscenity charges his version was only available through a private subscription service in a group he called the Kama Shastra Society.
- 1889-1904 - J. C. Mardrus - Publishes French version using Bulaq and Calcutta II editions.
- 1984 – Muhsin Mahdi - Publishes Arabic translation he says is faithful to the oldest Arabic versions surviving.
- 1990s – Husain Haddawy - Publishes English translation of Mahdi.
Synopsis
See also: List of stories within The Book of One Thousand and One Nights
The story takes place in the Sassanid era and begins with the Persian king Shahryar. The king rules an unnamed island "between India and China" (in modern editions based on Arab transcripts he is king of India and China). When Shahryar discovers his wife plotting with a lover to kill him, he has the pair executed. Believing all women to be likewise unfaithful, he gives his vizier an order to get him a new wife every night (in some versions, every third night). After spending one night with his bride, the king has her executed at dawn. This practice continues for some time, until the vizier's clever daughter Sheherazade ("Scheherazade" in English, or "Shahr-Zaad", a Persian name) forms a plan and volunteers to become Shahrayar's next wife. With the help of her sister Dunyazad, every night after their marriage she spends hours telling him stories, each time stopping at dawn with a cliffhanger, so the king will postpone the execution out of a desire to hear the rest of the tale. In the end, she has given birth to three sons, and the king has been convinced of her faithfulness and revoked his decree.
The tales vary widely; they include historical tales, love stories, tragedies, comedies, poems, burlesques and Muslim religious legends. Some of the famous stories Shahrazad spins in many western translations are Aladdin's Lamp, the Persian Sindbad the Sailor, and the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves; however Aladdin and Ali Baba were in fact inserted only in the 18th century by Antoine Galland, a French orientalist, who claimed to have heard them in oral form from a Maronite story-teller from Aleppo in Syria. Numerous stories depict djinn, magicians, and legendary places, which are often intermingled with real people and geography; the historical caliph Harun al-Rashid is a common protagonist, as are his alleged court poet Abu Nuwas and his vizier, Ja'far al-Barmaki. Sometimes a character in Scheherazade's tale will begin telling other characters a story of his own, and that story may have another one told within it, resulting in a richly layered narrative texture.
On the final (one thousand and first) night Sheherazade presents the King with their three sons and she asks him for a complete pardon. He grants her this and they live in relative satisfaction.
The narrator's standards for what constitutes a cliffhanger seem broader than in modern literature. While in many cases a story is cut off with the hero in life danger or another kind of deep trouble, in some parts of the full text Scheherazade stops her narration in the middle of an exposition of abstract philosophical principles or complex points of Islamic philosophy, and in one case during a detailed description of human anatomy according to Galen - and in all these cases turns out to be justified in her belief that the king's curiosity about the sequel would buy her another day of life.
Editions
The work is made up of a collection of stories thought to be from traditional Persian, Arabic, and Indian stories. The core stories probably originated in an Iranic Empire and were brought together in a Persian work called Hazar Afsanah ("A Thousand Legends"). The Arabic compilation Alf Layla (A Thousand Nights), originating about 850 AD, was in turn probably an abridged translation of Hezar Afsaneh. Some of its elements appear in the Odyssey. The present name Alf Layla wa-Layla (literally a "A Thousand Nights and a Night", i.e. "1001 Nights") seems to have appeared at an unknown time in the Middle Ages.
The first European version (and first printed edition) was a translation into French (1704 - 1717) by Antoine Galland from an earlier compilation that was written in Arabic. This 12 volume book, Les Mille et une nuits, contes arabes traduits en français ("Thousand and one nights, Arab stories translated into French") probably included Arabic stories known to the translator but not included in the Arabic compilation. Aladdin's Lamp and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves appeared first in Galland's translation and cannot be found in the original writings. He wrote that he heard them from a Syrian Christian storyteller from Aleppo, a Maronite scholar, Youhenna Diab, whom he called 'Hanna'.
John Payne, Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp and Other Stories, (London 1901) gives details of Galland's encounter with 'Hanna' in 1709 and of the discovery in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris of two Arabic manuscripts containing Aladdin and two more of the 'interpolated' tales. He instances Galland's own experience to demonstrate the lack of regard for such entertainments in the mainstream of Islamic scholarship, with the result that
…complete copies of the genuine work were rarely to be met with, collections… and the fragmentary copies which existed were mostly in the hands of professional story-tellers, who were extremely unwilling to part with them, looking upon them as their stock in trade, and were in the habit of incorporating with the genuine text all kinds of stories and anecdotes from other sources, to fill the place of the missing portions of the original work. This process of addition and incorporation, which has been in progress ever since the first collection of the Nights into one distinct work and is doubtless still going on in Oriental countries, (especially such as are least in contact with European influence,) may account for the heterogeneous character of the various modern manuscripts of the Nights and for the immense difference which exists between the several texts, as well in actual contents as in the details and diction of such stories as are common to all.
Perhaps the best-known translation to English speakers is that by Sir Richard Francis Burton, entitled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1885). Unlike previous editions, his ten volume translation was not bowdlerized. Though printed in the Victorian era, it contained all the erotic nuances of the source material, replete with sexual imagery and pederastic allusions added as appendices to the main stories by Burton. Burton circumvented strict Victorian laws on obscene material by printing an edition for subscribers only rather than formally publishing the book. The original ten volumes were followed by a further six entitled The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night which were printed between 1886 and 1888.
More recent versions are that of the French doctor J. C. Mardrus, translated into English by Powys Mathers, and, notably, a critical edition based on the 14th century Syrian manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale, compiled in Arabic by Muhsin Mahdi and rendered into English by Husain Haddawy, the most accurate and elegant of all to this date.
In 2005, Brazilian scholar Mamede Mustafa Jarouche started publishing a thorough Portuguese translation of the work, based on the comparative analysis of a series of different Arabic manuscripts. The first two volumes of a planned five or six volume set have already been released, making up for the complete Syrian branch of the book. The remaining volumes will be a translation of the later Egyptian branch.
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights has an estranged cousin: The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, by Jan Potocki. A Polish noble of the late 18th century, he traveled the Orient looking for an original edition of The Book... but never found it. Upon returning to Europe, he wrote his masterpiece, a multi-leveled frame tale.
Adaptations
Literature
Edgar Allan Poe wrote a "Thousand and Second Night" as a separate tale, called "The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade". It depicts the 8th and final voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, along with the various mysteries Sinbad and his crew encounter; the anomalies are then described as footnotes to the story. While the king is uncertain--except in the case of the elephants carrying the world on the back of the turtle--these mysteries are actual modern events that occurred in various places during, or before, Poe's lifetime. The story ends with the king in such disgust at the tale Scheherazade has just woven, that he has her executed the very next day.
Bill Willingham, creator of the comic book series Fables, used the story of 1001 Nights as the basis of his Fables prequel, Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall. In the book, Snow White tells the tales of the Fables, magical literary characters, to the Sultan in order to avoid her impending death.
Two notable novels loosely based on the 1001 Nights are Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mahfouz and When Dreams Travel by Githa Hariharan. One children's book loosley based on the events in Arabian Nights is The Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey.
The Arabian Nights has also inspired poetry in English. Two examples are Alfred Tennyson's poem, Recollections of the Arabian Nights (1830), and William Wordsworth's The Prelude, Book V (1805).
Film and Television
There have been many adaptations of the Nights, for both television and the big screen, with varying degrees of faithfulness to the original stories.
The atmosphere of the Nights influenced such films as Fritz Lang's 1921 Der müde Tod, the 1924 Hollywood film The Thief of Bagdad starring Douglas Fairbanks, and its 1940 British remake. Several stories served as source material for The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), the first surviving feature-length animated film.
One of Hollywood's first feature films to be based on the Nights was in 1942, with the movie named Arabian Nights. It starred Maria Montez as Scheherazade, Sabu Dastagir as Ali Ben Ali and Jon Hall as Harun al-Rashid. The storyline bears virtually no resemblance to the traditional version of the Nights. In the film Scheherazade is a dancer who attempts to overthrow Caliph Harun al-Rashid and marry his brother. After Scheherazade’s initial coup attempt fails and she is sold into slavery, many adventures then ensue. Maria Montez and Jon Hall also starred in the 1944 film Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
The 1982 film 1001 Erotic Nights, starring Annette Haven as Scheherazade and John Leslie as Shahryar, was supposedly the first X-rated movie with a million-dollar budget.
Osamu Tezuka worked on two (very loose) feature film adaptations - the rather average children's film Sinbad no Bōken in 1962 and then Senya Ichiya Monogatari in 1969, the world's first erotic animated feature film (predating Fritz the Cat by a good 3 years).
The most commercially successful movie based on the Nights was Aladdin, the 1992 animated movie by the Walt Disney Company, which starred the voices of Scott Weinger and Robin Williams. The film led to several sequels and a television series of the same name.
The Voyages of Sinbad have been adapted for television and film several times, most recently in the 2003 animated feature Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, featuring the voices of Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Perhaps the most famous Sinbad film was the 1958 movie The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, produced by the stop-motion animation pioneer Ray Harryhausen.
A recent well-received television adaptation was the Emmy award-winning miniseries Arabian Nights, directed by Steve Barron and starring Mili Avital as Scheherazade and Dougray Scott as Shahryar. It was originally shown over two nights on April 30, and May 1, 2000 on ABC in the United States and BBC One in the United Kingdom.
Other notable versions of the Nights include the famous 1974 Italian movie Il fiore delle mille e una notte by Pier Paolo Pasolini and the 1990 French movie Les 1001 nuits, in which Catherine Zeta-Jones made her debut as Scheherazade. There are also numerous Bollywood movies inspired by the Nights, one example being Aladdin and Sinbad. In this version the two heroes meet and share in each other's adventures, the djin of the lamp is female and Aladdin marries her rather than the princess.
Music
In 1888, Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov completed his Op. 35 Scheherazade, in four movements, based upon four of the tales from the Arabian Nights; The Sea and Sinbad's Ship, The Kalendar Prince, The Young Prince and The Young Princess, and Festival At Baghdad.
There have been several Arabian Nights musicals and operettas, either based on particular tales or drawing on the general atmosphere of the Book. Most notable are Chu Chin Chow (1916) and Kismet (1953), not to mention several musicals and innumerable pantomimes on the story of Aladdin.
In 1975, the band Renaissance released an album called Scheherazade and Other Stories. The second half of this album consists entirely of the "Song of Scheherazade", an orchestral-rock composition based on the Arabian Nights stories.
In 2003, Nordic experimental indie pop group When released an album called Pearl Harvest with lyrics from Arabian Nights.
In 1999, Power metal band Kamelot included a song on their 1999 album The Fourth Legacy called "Nights of Arabia".
La Noche de las Noches (1989), a work for string quartet and electronics by Ezequiel Viñao (based on the Arabian Nights' account of the Night of Power)
In 2007, Japanese pop duo BENNIE K released a single titled "1001 Nights", also releasing a music video with strongly based around the "The Book of One Thousand and One Nights"
Trivia
- The book One Thousand and One Nights is the basis for the story of the video game Sonic and the Secret Rings.
- The first expansion set for Magic: The Gathering was "Arabian Nights", containing cards based on and inspired by One Thousand and One Nights.
Notes
- Encyclopaedia Iranica
- Abdol Hossein Saeedian, "Land and People of Iran" p. 447
- Sigfrid Henry Steinberg "Cassell's Encyclopedia of World Literature", p.26
- Template:Pt icon Cristiane Capuchinho, Lançada a primeira tradução do árabe d'As Mil e Uma Noites, USP Online, Universidade de São Paulo, 6 May 2005. Accessed online 12 November 2006.
See also
External links
References
- The Thousand Nights and a Night in several classic translations, including unexpurgated version by Sir Richard Francis Burton, and John Payne translation, with additional material.
- Stories From One Thousand and One Nights, (Lane and Poole translation): Project Bartleby edition
- The Arabian Nights (includes Lang and (expurgated) Burton translations): Electronic Literature Foundation editions
- Jonathan Scott translation of Arabian Nights
- Notes on the influences and context of the Thousand and One Nights
- The Book of the Thousand and One Nights by John Crocker
- (expurgated) Sir Burton's ~1885 translation, annotated for English study.
- The Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang at Project Gutenberg
- "The Thousand-And-Second Tale of Scheherazade" by Edgar Allan Poe (Wikisource)
- Arabian Nights Six full-color plates of illustrations from the 1001 Nights which are in the public domain
- Template:Ar icon The Tales in Arabic on Wikisource
Film and television links
- Arabian Nights (1942) IMDb
- Arabian Nights (Miniseries) Official website
- Il Fiore delle mille e una notte (1974) IMDb
- Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas Official website