Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp | Page 5

translator by a friend
of his, by name Mukhlis, (Cazotte styles him "the celebrated Dervish
Mocles, chief of the Soufis of Ispahan") during his sojourn in the

Persian capital. The preface goes on to state that Mukhlis had, in his
youth, translated into Persian certain Indian plays, which had been
translated into all the Oriental languages and of which a Turkish
version existed in the Bibliotheque Royale, under the title of Alfaraga
Badal-Schidda (i.e. El Ferej bad esh Shiddeh), which signified "Joy
after Affliction"; but that, wishing to give his work an original air, he
converted the aforesaid plays into tales. Cazotte's story of the Indian
plays savours somewhat of the cock and the bull and it is probable that
the Hezar o Yek Roz (which is not, to my knowledge, extant) was not
derived from so recondite a source, but was itself either the original of
the well-known Turkish collection or (perhaps) a translation of the
latter. At all events, Zeyn Alasnam, Codadad and the Princess of
Deryabar occur in a copy (cited by M. Zotenberg), belonging to the
Bibliotheque Nationale, of El Ferej bad esh Shidded (of which they
form the eighth, ninth and sixth stories respectively) and in a practically
identical form, except that in Galland's vol. viii. the two latter stories
are fused into one. Sir William Ouseley is said to have brought from
Persia a MS. copy of a portion of the Hezar o Yek Roz which he
describes as agreeing with the French version, but, in the absence of
documentary proof and in view of the fact that, notwithstanding the
unauthorized incorporation of three of the tales of his original with
Galland's Vol. viii, the published version of the Thousand and One
Days is apparently complete and shows no trace of the omission, I am
inclined to suspect Petis de la Croix of having invented the division
into Days, in order to imitate (and profit by the popularity of) his fellow
savant's version of the Thousand and One Nights. Galland's publisher
was doubtless also that of Petis de la Croix and in the latter capacity
had in hand a portion of the MS. of the 1001 Days, from which, no
doubt weary of waiting till Galland (who was now come to the end of
his genuine Arabic MS. of the 1001 Nights and was accordingly at a
standstill, till he met with Hanna,) should have procured fresh material
to complete the copy for his eighth volume, of which Ganem only was
then ready for publication, he seems to have selected (apparently on his
own responsibility, but, it must be admitted, with considerable taste and
judgment,) the three tales in question from the MS. of the 1001 Days,
to fill up the lacune. It does not appear whether he found Codadad and
the Princess of Deryabar arranged as one story ready to his hand or

himself performed (or procured to be performed) the process of fusion,
which, in any case, was executed by no unskilful hand. Be this as it
may, Galland was naturally excessively annoyed at the publisher's
unceremonious proceeding, so much so indeed as for a time to
contemplate renouncing the publication of the rest of the work, to spare
himself (as he says in his Diary, under date of Dec. 12, 1709) similar
annoyances (mortifications) to that which the printing of the eighth
volume had caused him. Indeed, the effect of this incident was to
induce him, not only to change his publisher, but to delay the
publication of the next volume (which, as we learn from the Diary, was
ready for the press at the end of November or the beginning of
December, 1709) for a whole year, at the end of which time (Diary,
November 21, 1710) he made arrangements with a new (and
presumably more trustworthy) publisher, M. Florentin de Laune, for the
printing of Vol. ix.

IV.

Notwithstanding the discovery, as above set out, of three of the
doubtful tales, Zeyn Alasnam, Aladdin and The Sleeper Awakened, in
two MSS. (one at least undoubtedly authentic) of the Thousand Nights
and One Night, I am more than ever of opinion that none of the eleven
"interpolated" stories properly belongs to the original work, that is to
say, to the collection as first put into definite form somewhere about
the fourteenth century. [FN#19] "The Sleeper Awakened" was
identified by the late Mr. Lane as a historical anecdote given by the
historian El Ishaki, who wrote in the first quarter of the seventeenth
century, and the frequent mention of coffee in both MSS. of Aladdin
justifies us in attributing the composition of the story to (at earliest) the
sixteenth century, whilst the modern vulgarisms in which they abound
point to a still later date. Zeyn Alasnam (in the Sebbagh MS. at