and the Turks, and these two more knowledgeably of their own than do the Arabs, in no other way could he more surely arrive at the truth of their history and the indubitable knowledge that he sought of everything that concerned them.
By this exhausting but agreeable effort, Monsieur d’Herbelot learned what had previously been hidden from Europeans.
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Those who have made a particular study of History will observe that general history, such as we possess it, combining sacred with profane history, has, till now, been defective, in as much as that history of which we now speak, which is a constituent part thereof, was lacking.
In relation to Sacred History, will they not be grateful to Monsieur d’Herbelot for having granted them knowledge of what Mohametans believe on this subject? For whether their traditions are false or true, it is always extremely agreeable to acquaint oneself with them, and they serve this further purpose, that one can debate their Religion with them, an encounter for which it is necessary to know the strengths and weaknesses of one’s adversary.
In relation to profane history, one can agree with those who, having once reflected on the subject, deem the history of the most ancient kings of Persia, the Pishdadians, to be full of fable. But when one considers the earliest times of any history – I do not here speak of that which lies within the covers of the Holy Books – can any be cited that is not fabulous in its origins?
The history of the Caianians, which includes those that the Greeks have given us of Cambyses, Xerxes, and their successors up to Darius, will also seem very obscure and imperfect. But can we say that it is clearer in the Greek Authors or indeed in better faith? The same applies to the history of the Ashkanians or that of the Sasanians or the Khosroes … What remains of the life and actions of these Monarchs in the works of Mohometan historians is quite sufficient to demonstrate that the loss is no less considerable than that of the several histories of the Greeks and Romans whose destruction we regret….
History scholars who have taken note of the Roman Emperors’ contentions with the Khosroes will here recognize those same kings of Persia by their own names and discover finer details of their actions and conduct than they have read in Greek or Latin authors, and by this means will have as complete a history as they could desire.
Our authors are unanimous that the Northern peoples are the descendants of Japheth and the Holy Books confirm this. But that the Tartars, Mongols, Turks and Chinese also derive themselves from him in the manner reported by the Oriental historians, and by the uninterrupted succession that they mention, is something that many will find difficult to believe.
It is no easy matter to pronounce on the truth of so important a fact. But, without taking sides in the matter, the reasonable will at least keep an open mind on this subject, if they are willing to consider the fact that Oriental historians assure us of the great exactitude shown by these peoples – who, we might add, neglected the sciences and the arts – in conserving the memory of their Genealogies. To which it should be added that these authors were not only the neighbours of the Tartars, Mongols and Turks but lived among them; many of them were their subjects; it can therefore be believed that they had all the time and opportunity required to find out what these peoples argued and that they were convinced by them.
As to the Customs of these nations, they will be found no different from those described by Quintus Curtius when he wrote about the Scythians, who were the same peoples. The same way of life, the same simplicity, the same candour, the same sentiments and more or less the same contempt for all sorts of ambition can be observed among them, to such a degree that the delights of Asia were unable to corrupt them. […]
But, since, after the monarchs and other sovereigns, the Oriental historians were not content to record for eternity the Memory of the greatest Captains and the most able Ministers, but also took pains to celebrate that of persons illustrious either for their virtue or their piety or their excellence in the sciences and in the arts … the judicious Monsieur d’Herbelot also found room in his work for many Sheikhs and persons renowned among the Muslims as saints, many doctors of their religion and their laws, many philosophers, mathematicians, doctors of medicine, historians, poets and so many other Authors in all kinds of science, art and profession, whose praise he drew from the historians and the other, very numerous Oriental authors who wrote individual works about their lives and their actions. Of them, he recounts a vast number of deeds and curious and erudite observations, by means of which the reader will be enabled to judge whether the Orientals are indeed as barbarian and ignorant as they have been given out to be.
IIA2 Anon. from The Arabian Nights Entertainments
No book has done more to establish the Western stereotype of the East than the Arabian Nights. Yet the text has no single acknowledged source, no definite number of stories, no set length and no individual author. In its most extensive versions, such as the nineteenth‐century English translation by Richard Burton, or the slightly later French version by Joseph Charles Mardrus, the Nights is longer than Proust. Yet in its most authentic modern version, published in Arabic by Muhsin Mahdi in 1984 and translated into English by Hussain Haddawy in 1990, the book is less than a fifth of that length and contains only 35 stories, not including such staples of the Arabian Nights as Aladdin and Ali Baba. But that text is a translation of the oldest surviving manuscript of the stories, and it is this manuscript that was the source of the bulk of the tales contained in the original European translation. This was published by Antoine Galland (cf. IIA1) in Paris at the turn of the eighteenth century. The first two volumes of Les mille et une nuits appeared in 1704, with 10 more between then and 1717. Robert Irwin, the Orientalist scholar and author of The Arabian Nights: A Companion, is dismissive of the first English translations which rapidly followed. Yet these anonymous ‘Grub Street’ versions, bowdlerized as they were, were the motors of the stories’ first popularity in England, and it was they that had an impact on generations of eighteenth‐century English artists and writers, as Galland’s translation did on the French. The first of the English translations appeared as early as 1706, and the source of the present extracts, published in London in 1713, was already calling itself the Fourth Edition. In order to give a flavour of the tales, we have chosen two fragments. The first is from the scene‐setting ‘frame story’ in which the deceived Sultan Schahriar, having had his unfaithful wife executed, resolves to take a new wife each night, and to preclude future infidelity have her killed the following morning. The frame story also introduces the Vizier’s daughter Scheherazade and her plan to end the sultan’s depredations. The second extract overlaps the twentieth and twenty‐first nights, to give a sense of Scheherazade’s strategy for delaying her own death by promising to continue her story the next night. It also conveys a hint of the exotic setting of the tales, with a description of opulent interiors, exquisite decoration, precious stones and, of course, a garden. It was this combination of sex, violence and exoticism, allied with the frisson of ‘Oriental despotism’ which laid the foundation of the Arabian Nights’ success with a European readership, a promise clearly flagged in the extended title page to the book, which we have also included. The extracts are from the anonymous Arabian Nights Entertainments, 4th edn, vol. 1, London 1713, frontispiece and pp. 16–19, 92 and 94–8.
Arabian Nights Entertainments: consisting of One Thousand and One Stories, told by The Sultaness of the Indies, to divert the Sultan from the Execution of a Bloody Vow he had made to Marry a Lady every day, and have her cut off next morning, to avenge himself for the disloyalty of his first Sultaness etc., containing a better Account of the Customs, Manners, and Religion of the Eastern Nations, viz. Tartars, Persians and Indians, than is to be met with in any Author hitherto publish’d. Translated into French from the Arabian MSS. by M. Galland of the Royal Academy; and now done into English.
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Well Brother … don’t you agree
