The Arabian Nights' Entertainments

Numerous as are the editions of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, and frequently as they have received the embellishments of the artist, yet an Edition was still wanting, more easily accessible to the general reader, and which, while it combined economy, should not be deficient in elegance or illustration. To supply this chasm in the Literature of Romance, is the object of the Edition now offered to the public; and it can scarcely be necessary to observe, that although the Engravings are more numerous than in any preceding Edition, the vigour and spirit with which they are executed, will recommend them even to the admirers of the arts. These Engravings, the whole of which are from original designs, made expressly for this work, are nearly one hundred in number. The subjects have been very happily selected, and it will be seen with how much skill the Artist has embodied the humour and spirit of the Author. Under these circumstances, the Publisher has no doubt but that he will enjoy the double gratification of giving to the public the cheapest Edition of the Thousand and One Tales of the inimitable Oriental Story Teller, and of supplying a work, which, in point of embellishment, may be found worthy of a place in the best libraries.

Of the merits of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, their popularity would be sufficient evidence alone, had not the language of praise both in poetry and prose, long been exhausted on them. They are still the admiration of every person who can appreciate curious and useful information conveyed through the medium of fiction. “They are,” says Colonel Capper, in his Observations on the Passage to India, “by many people erroneously supposed to be a spurious production, and are therefore slighted in a manner they do not deserve. They were written by an Arabian, and are universally read and admired throughout Asia by all ranks of men, both old and young: considered, therefore, as an original work, descriptive as they are of the manners and customs of the East in general, and also of the Arabians in particular, they surely must be thought to merit the attention of the curious; nor are they, in my opinion, destitute of merit in other respects: for, although the extravagance of some of the stories is carried too far, yet, on the whole, one cannot help admiring the fancy and invention of the author, in striking out such a variety of pleasing incidents; pleasing I will call them, because they have frequently afforded me much amusement; nor do I envy any man his feelings, who is above being pleased with them. But before any person decides upon the merit of these books, he should be eye-witness of the effect they produce on those who best understand them. I have more than once seen the Arabians in the desert sitting round a fire listening to these stories with such attention and pleasure, as totally to forget the fatigue and hardship with which an instant before they were entirely overcome. In short, not to dwell any longer on this subject, they are in the same estimation all over Asia, that the adventures of Don Quixote are in Spain; and it is presumed, no man of genius or taste would think of making the tour of that country without previously reading the work of Cervantes.”

Nor is the picture of Oriental manners and customs, as exhibited in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, that of a remote age; on the contrary, Mr. Dallaway, one of the recent travellers in the East, in his “Constantinople Ancient and Modern,” says, “Much of the romantic air which pervades the domestic habits of the persons described in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, particularly in inferior life, will be observed in passing through the streets of that city. And we receive with additional pleasure a remembrance of the delight with which we at first perused them, in finding them authentic portraits of every Oriental nation.”

Mr. Hole, in his remarks on these Tales, considers the Sindbad as the Arabian Odyssey, and as descriptive of real places and manners; and he takes no small pains to ascertain the precise local situations of the islands which Sindbad is supposed to visit; but the beauties of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments have never been better described than in the following Sonnet to the Author, by Mr. Thomas Russell, Fellow of New College, Oxford:

“Blessed child of Genius, whose fantastic sprite

Rides on the vivid lightning’s flash, or roves

Through flowery valleys and elysian groves;

Or, borne on vent’rous pinions, takes its flight

To those dread realms, where, hid from mortal sight,

Fierce Genii roam, or where in bright alcoves

Mild Fairies reign, and woo their secret loves:

Whate’er thy theme, whether the magic might

Of the stern kings that dwell ’mid Ocean’s roar,

Or Sindbad’s perils, or the cruel wiles

Of Afric’s curst enchanters, charm us more,

Or aught more wond’rous still our ear beguiles;

Well pleased we listen to thy fabling lore,

And Truth itself with less attraction smiles.”

The present translation is from the Contes Arabes of M. Galland, who appears to have imbibed no inconsiderable portion of the spirit of the Oriental writer; and the utmost care has been taken to render it as correct as possible, consistent with the simplicity of the narration, and the luxuriance of its descriptions.

Although it cannot now be necessary to enter into a critical examination of a work which is equally admired by the learned and the unlearned, the young and the old, yet as the Genii and Fairies form so considerable a part of the machinery of these Tales, it may not be improper to say something respecting them.

The Genn or Ginn of the Arabians, is the same with the Div or Ganman of the Persians, the Deuta of the Indians, and the Turks’ Ginler, and signifies a genie or demon, who has a body formed of a more subtle matter than those of men, and like elementary fire. They are supposed to have been created and to have governed the world before Adam, and are divided into good and evil angels, and even giants, who, in the early times, made war against men, but have since been confined to one region, denominated from them Gimristan, the fairy land of our old romances. Gian ben Gian was the sovereign of these creatures, or of the Peris or fairies, who governed the world two thousand years; after which Eblis was sent by God to drive them into a distant part of the world, and there confine them, because of their rebellion. The shield of this prince is as famous as that of Achilles among the Greeks, and, like it, seven-fold and destructive of all enchantments, and was possessed by three successive Solomons, who performed with it marvellous but fabulous exploits, and fell at last into the hands of a hero named Tahmurath, surnamed Divbend, or the Conqueror of Giants.

Solomon, the son of David, is said by the eastern historians to have had not only men, but good and evil spirits, the birds and the winds, subjected to him by God; and to have been possessed of a ring of wonderful virtues, which seems to be nothing more than the extraordinary wisdom with which he was divinely endowed. All that we find in these writers about the marvellous actions and unrivalled empire of Solomon over men and devils, is drawn from the Scripture account of the extraordinary wisdom, and virtues, and throne of this monarch.

Peri are those beautiful creatures, which are neither men, angels, nor devils. Some have supposed them the female genies, but the Peris are of both sexes, and are good beings; on whom the Div or genies frequently make war, and shut up their prisoners in cages suspended on the highest trees, where their companions come and feed them with the finest odours, which are their common food, and defend them from the Div, who feel a sudden change to melancholy as soon as they approach them.

Benon, or Beni al Giam, is another name for these good spirits, who separated from the rebellious ones headed by Eblis or Lucifer. —D’Herbelot, voc. Genn, Gian, Peri. Solomon.

Clyx.com

NEARLY ONE HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS.

PHILADELPHIA:

PUBLISHED BY THOMAS WARDLE,

1835.

CONTENTS

PREFACE.