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The Arabian Nights #11 of 16
Supplemental Nights to the book of The Thousand Nights and a Night
Supplemental Nights--to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights, With Notes Anthropological and Volume One (1)
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1950
About the author
Richard Francis Burton
1,936 books253 followersCaptain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS was a British geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia, Africa and the Americas as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian, and African languages.
Burton's best-known achievements include travelling in disguise to Mecca, an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (also commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after Andrew Lang's adaptation), bringing the Kama Sutra to publication in English, and journeying with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans led by Africa's greatest explorer guide, Sidi Mubarak Bombay, utilizing route information by Indian and Omani merchants who traded in the region, to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. Burton extensively criticized colonial policies (to the detriment of his career) in his works and letters. He was a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. A unique feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and unexpurgated information.
He was a captain in the army of the East India Company serving in India (and later, briefly, in the Crimean War). Following this he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa and led an expedition guided by the locals and was the first European to see Lake Tanganyika. In later life he served as British consul in Fernando Po, Santos, Damascus and, finally, Trieste. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood (KCMG) in 1886.
Burton's best-known achievements include travelling in disguise to Mecca, an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (also commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after Andrew Lang's adaptation), bringing the Kama Sutra to publication in English, and journeying with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans led by Africa's greatest explorer guide, Sidi Mubarak Bombay, utilizing route information by Indian and Omani merchants who traded in the region, to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. Burton extensively criticized colonial policies (to the detriment of his career) in his works and letters. He was a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. A unique feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and unexpurgated information.
He was a captain in the army of the East India Company serving in India (and later, briefly, in the Crimean War). Following this he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa and led an expedition guided by the locals and was the first European to see Lake Tanganyika. In later life he served as British consul in Fernando Po, Santos, Damascus and, finally, Trieste. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood (KCMG) in 1886.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 6, 2021
The first of six supplemental volumes containing material which is not in the Bulaq edition Burton translated in the ten volumes of the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (which I have just finished reading); some may be included in various MSS of the Nights and some represent the kind of independent story which the Nights were formed from.
According to Burton's Foreword, the first two volumes of the supplement are actually a revision of the three volumes of John Payne's Tales from the Arabic, which contain stories from the printed Breslau edition and the Calcutta edition which are not in the Bulaq edition.
The first tale, "The Sleeper and the Waker", in which a poor man called Abu Hassan is fooled into thinking he is the Caliph (and which may be the source for Shakespeare's Christopher Sly at the beginning of The Taming of the Shrew), is one of the eleven stories added by Galland in his translation to the core stories (the only one for which an Arab source had been found when Burton wrote his notes; I don't know whether others have been found since.) Several of the shorter tales which follow were translated in the continuation of Galland by Dom Chavis and M. Cazotte.
The two longest parts of the book are "The Ten Wazirs, or the History of King Azadbakht and his Son" (derived from the Persian Bakhtyar Nameh) and "King Shah Bakht and his Wazir Al-Rahwan", both collections of tales with frame stories obviously derived from Persian originals. Some of the tales in these collections seem to be abridged or truncated versions of tales which were included at greater length in the Bulaq edition; there are obvious non sequiturs and one tale, "The Tale of the Falcon and the Locust", makes no sense whatever.
According to Burton's Foreword, the first two volumes of the supplement are actually a revision of the three volumes of John Payne's Tales from the Arabic, which contain stories from the printed Breslau edition and the Calcutta edition which are not in the Bulaq edition.
The first tale, "The Sleeper and the Waker", in which a poor man called Abu Hassan is fooled into thinking he is the Caliph (and which may be the source for Shakespeare's Christopher Sly at the beginning of The Taming of the Shrew), is one of the eleven stories added by Galland in his translation to the core stories (the only one for which an Arab source had been found when Burton wrote his notes; I don't know whether others have been found since.) Several of the shorter tales which follow were translated in the continuation of Galland by Dom Chavis and M. Cazotte.
The two longest parts of the book are "The Ten Wazirs, or the History of King Azadbakht and his Son" (derived from the Persian Bakhtyar Nameh) and "King Shah Bakht and his Wazir Al-Rahwan", both collections of tales with frame stories obviously derived from Persian originals. Some of the tales in these collections seem to be abridged or truncated versions of tales which were included at greater length in the Bulaq edition; there are obvious non sequiturs and one tale, "The Tale of the Falcon and the Locust", makes no sense whatever.
April 25, 2024
Mostly two sets of ransom stories with extensive footnotes. Burton being Burton the footnotes include a long and eye-watering one about castration that I would rather forget.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews