The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XIII Part 20

The Tale of Prince Ahmad.

Though my paper on this tale is of considerable length, it would perhaps have been deemed intolerably long had I cited all the versions of the first part-- the quest of the most wonderful thing--which are current in Europe, for it is found everywhere, though with few variations of importance. There are two, however, of which I may furnish the outlines in this place.

In the "Pentamerone" of Basile,[FN#444], a man sends his five sons into the world to learn something. The eldest becomes a master-thief; the second has learned the trade of shipwright; the third has become a skilful archer; the fourth has found an herb which brings the dead to life, and the youngest has learned the speech of birds. Soon after they have returned home, they set out with their father to liberate a princess who had been stolen by a wild man, and by the exercise of their several arts succeed in their adventure. While they quarrel as to which of them had by his efforts done most to deserve the princess for wife, the king gives her to the father, as the stock of all those branches.

In the 45th of Laura Gonzenbach's "Sicilianische Mrchen," the king's daughter is stolen by a giant and recovered by the seven sons of a poor woman. The eldest can run like the wind, the second can hear, when he puts his ear to the ground, all that goes on in the world; the third can with a blow of his fist break through seven iron doors; the fourth is a thief; the fifth can build an iron tower with a blow of his fist; the sixth is an unfailing shot, the seventh has a guitar which can awaken the dead. Youths thus wonderfully endowed figure in many tales, but generally as the servants of the hero.

By comparing the different European versions it will be found that some are similar to the first part of the tale of Prince Ahmad, insomuch as the brothers become possessed of certain wonderful things which are each instrumental in saving the damsel's life; while others more closely approach the oldest known form of the story, in representing the heroes as being endowed with some extraordinary kind of power, by means of which they rescue the damsel from a giant who had carried her off. It is curious to observe that in the "Sindibd Nma" version the damsel is both carried off by a demon and at death's door, which is not the case of any other Asiatic form of the story.

Arabian Nights, Volume 13 Footnotes

[FN#1] M. Zotenberg empowered me to offer his "Aladdin" to an "Oriental" publishing-house well-known in London, and the result was the "no-public" reply. The mortifying fact is that Oriental studies are now at their nadir in Great Britain, which is beginning to show so small in the Eastern World.

[FN#2] P.N. of a Jinni who rules the insect-kingdom and who is invoked by scribes to protect their labours from the worm.

[FN#3] Both name and number suggest the "Calc. Edit." of 1814.

See "Translator's Foreword" vol. i., x)x.-xx. There is another version of the first two hundred Nights, from the "Calc. Edit."

into Urdu by one Haydar Ali 1 vol. roy. 8vo lithog. Calc. 1263 (1846).-- R.F.B.

[FN#4] "Alf Leilah" in Hindostani 4 vols. in 2, royal 8vo, lithographed, Lakhnau, 1263 (1846).--R. F. B.

[FN#5] This is the "Alif" (!) Leila, Tarjuma-i Alif (!) Laila ba-Zuban-i-Urdu (Do Jild, baharft-i-Yurop), an Urdu translation of the Arabian Nights, printed entirely in the Roman character, etc., etc.--R.F.B.

[FN#6] i.e., The Thousand Tales.

[FN#7] From the MS, in the Bibliochque Nationale (Supplement Arab. No. 2523) vol. ii., p. 82, verso to p. 94, verso. The Sisters are called Dnrzd and Shahrzd, a style which I have not adopted.

[FN#8] THe old versions read "Ornament (Adornment?) of the Statues," Zierde der Pildsulen (Weil). I hold the name to be elliptical, Zayn (al-Din = Adornment of The Faith and owner of) al-Asnm = the Images. The omission of Al-Din in proper names is very common; e.g., Fakhr (Al-Din) Al-Iftakhri (Iftikhr-al-Din) and many others given by De Sacy (Chrest.i. 30, and in the Treatise on Coffee by Abdal-Kdir). So Al-Kaml, Al-Imd, Al-Baha are = Kamal al-Dn, etc. in Jbn Khallikan, iii 493. Sanam properly = an idol is popularly applied to all artificial figures of man and beast. I may note that we must not call the hero, after Galland's fashion, unhappily adopted by Weil, tout bonnement "Zayn."

[FN#9] Galland persistently writes "Balsorah," a European corruption common in his day, the childhood of Orientalism in Europe. The Hindostani versions have "Bansr," which is worse.

[FN#10] For notes on Geomancy (Zarb Raml) see vol. iii. 269.

[FN#11] THe Hindostani Version enlarges upon this:--"Besides this, kings cannot escape perils and mishaps which serve as warnings and examples to them when dealing their decrees."

[FN#12] In the XIXth century we should say "All the--ologies."

[FN#13] In the Hindostani Version he begins by "breaking the seal which had been set upon the royal treasury."

[FN#14] "Three things" (says Sa'di in the Gulistan) "lack permanency, Wealth without trading, Learning without disputation, Government without justice." (chap. viii. max. 8). The Bakhtiyr-nmeh adds that "Government is a tree whose root is legal punishment (Siysat); its root-end is justice; its bough, mercy; its flower, wisdom; its leaf, liberality; and its fruit, kindness and benevolence. The foliage of every tree whose root waxeth dry (lacketh sap) taketh a yellow tint and beareth no fruit."

[FN#15] For this word, see vol. ix. 108. It is the origin of the Fr. "Douane" and the Italian "Dogana" through the Spanish Aduana (Ad-Dwn) and the Provencal "Doana." Mnage derives it from the Gr. {Greek} =a place where goods are received, and others from "Doge" (Dux) for whom a tax on merchandise was levied at Venice.

Littr (s.v.) will not decide, but rightly inclines to the Oriental origin.

[FN#16] A Hadis says, "The dream is the inspiration of the True Believer;" but also here, as the sequel shows, the Prince believed the Shaykh to be the Prophet, concerning whom a second Hadis declares, "Whoso seeth me in his sleep seeth me truly, for Satan may not a.s.sume my semblance." See vol. iv. 287. The dream as an inspiration shows early in literature, e.g.

--{Greek} (Il. i. 63).

and --{Greek} (Il. ii 55).

in which the Dream is {Greek}.

[FN#17] In the Hindostani Version he becomes a Pr = saint, spiritual guide.

[FN#18] A favourite sentiment. In Sir Charles Murray's excellent novel, "Ha.s.san: or, the Child of the Pyramid," it takes the form, "what's past is past and what is written is written and shall come to pa.s.s."

[FN#19] In the H. V. the Prince digs a vat or cistern-shaped hole a yard deep. Under the ringed slab he also finds a door whose lock he breaks with his pickaxe and seeing a staircase of white marble lights a candle and reaches a room whose walls are of porcelain and its floor and ceiling are of crystal.

[FN#20] Arab. Khawbi (plur. of Khbiyah) large jars usually of pottery. In the H. V. four shelves of mother o' pearl support ten jars of porphyry rangeed in rows and the Prince supposes (with Galland) that the contents are good old wine.

[FN#21] Arab. "'Atk": the superficial similiarity of the words have produced a new noun in Arabic, e.g. Ab Antk = father of antiquities, a vendor of such articles mostly modern, "brand-new and intensely old."

[FN#22] In the text "Ashkhs" (plural of Shakhs) vulgarly used, throughout India, Persia and other Moslem realms, in the sense of persons or individuals. For its lit. sig. see vols. iii. 26; and viii. 159. The H. V. follows Galland in changing to pedestals the Arab thrones, and makes the silken hanging a "piece of white satin" which covers the unoccupied base.

[FN#23] The blessed or well-omened: in these days it is mostly a servile name, e.g. Sidi Mubrak Bombay. See vol. ix. 58,330.

[FN#24] In the test "Mn" for "Man," a Syro-Egyptian form common throughout this MS.

[FN#25] "Ay Ni'am," an emphatic and now vulgar expression.

[FN#26] The MS. here has "'Imrah" = a building, probably a clerical error for Maghrah," a cave, a souterrain.

[FN#27] Arab, "Zahab-raml," explained in "Alaeddin." So Al-Mutanabbi sang:--

"I become not of them because homed in their ground: * Sandy earth is the gangue wherein gold is found."

[FN#28] Walmah prop. = a marriage-feast. For the different kinds of entertainments see vols. vi. 74; viii. 231.

[FN#29] Arab. Mukatta al-Yadayn, a servile posture: see vols.

iii. 218; ix. 320.

[FN#30] Here the Arabic has the advantage of the English; "Shakhs" meaning either a person or an image. See supra, p. 11.

[FN#31] Arab. "Kawrij = one who uses the paddle, a paddler, a rower.

[FN#32] In the Third Kalandar's Tale (vol. i. 143) Prince 'Ajb is forbidden to call upon the name of Allah, under pain of upsetting the skiff paddled by the man of bra.s.s. Here the detail is omitted.

[FN#33] Arab. "Wahsh," which Galland translates "Tiger," and is followed by his Hind. translator.

[FN#34] Arab. "Laffa 'l-isnayn bi-zulmati-h," the latter word = Khurtm, the trunk of an elephant, from Zalm = the dewlap of sheep or goat.