A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume 5 of 16

The Arabian Nights #5 of 16

by Anonymous, Richard Francis Burton (Translator)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Poetry, Short Stories, Mythology

442 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 800

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing reading the complete set. Very good stories, but some repetitive themes and some so entangled they are difficult to keep separate.
Looking forward to finally getting to the Sinbad stories in the next volume and soon Ali Baba.

[Jerry Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing my quest to read the entire Arabian Nights saga. Definitely not easy reading as many of the words and expressions are archaic. The names of the characters in the various stories are also difficult. The shorter stories are easier to keep straight. I found myself lost with some of the longer tales. While reading this edition, Burton said in a footnote (of which there are many) that certain stories have been left out of other translations because they were boring. I tend to agree, but I wanted to read the entire thing, and Burton's is the definitive translation. I compare reading this to those who are asked why they climb a mountain and answer "Because it's there."

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on Project Gutenberg. The translation of Richard Francis Burton is the result of the use of his talent in the Arabic language and culture to "produce a full, complete, unvarnished and uncastrated copy of the original Arabic texts." There are 16 volumes. Volume 5 starts with night 357, then ends during night 536. This is not a version for children because of the adult themes and literal translations. Sometimes reading this version is challenging because it was translated in the 1800's and by an Englishman, so the language and vocabulary he uses is dated. It could be improved with a more modern literal translation. It's a valuable historic record and I found it worth the read. The stories in this volume first include about 12 stories with various themes of love, romance, and worship. Examples of titles are: The Ebony Horse, Abunowas with the Three Boys, Abdallah Bin Ma'Amar with the Man of Bassorah and his Slave Girl Bassorah, Wazir of Al-Yaman and his Young Brother, etc. Then there about 20 very short stories of humor and "dirty Jokes." Then there is a return to about about 45 stories of varying topics of wisdom, humor, cautionary tales, love/sexual relationships, crime, religion and religious conversion, fantasy travel, and trickery. Examples of some titles are: The King and the Virtuous Wife, Isaac of Mosul and the Merchant, How Abu Hasan Brake Wind, The Mad Lover, The Emir Ali Bin Tahir and Girl Muunis, The Angel of Death and the King of the Children of Israel, The Pious Black Slave, The Moslem Champion and the Christian Damsel, etc. One of the most interesting stories I found was titled: The Man Dispute with the Learned Woman concerning the Relative Excellence of Male and Female. In the stories about family, it was very desirous of the fathers in well-to-do families to provide their daughters with an excellent education in many subjects.
These appeared to me to be the kind of stories that are told during the many social interactions in the culture of everyday life and among family members.
Some Locations/settings: (nights 357-536) [Persia; Greece; Egypt: Pyramids, Cairo (Mukattam Mountain), Nile River; Iraq: Mosul, Bosra, Baghdad, Mespotamia; Syria: Aleppo, Damascas; Turkey: Diyarbakir; India: Calicut; Israel, Jerusalem; Saudi Arabia: Mecca, Mount Arafat, Medina; Iran: Khorasan]

[Per · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54257

[Hazel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume is full of a lot of shorter tales, which makes it a bit easier to read than some other volumes. There are two longer tales in the book. The first is quite boring, but does give you an interesting insight into the religion and culture of the period. The second is fantastic. Definitely up there with Sinbad. For the most part the stories are interesting, but sometimes the brevity of the stories is so severe that they don't really feel like stories.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume consists of many very short stories (several taking less than one night), with much repetition of their themes. A couple longer stories were not engaging, containing in one case a long inventory of wonders seen in traveling, and in another a discourse of all that a very learned person (of that age and place) should know.

[John Watt · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories are all pretty much the same so please see earlier volumes for a review.

[Winterdragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

500+ nights into the relentless storytelling. More lessons learned:

- If you follow through on your curiosity against your better judgement, don't fret too much about it. You were probably destined to act in such a way, anyway.
- The full moon is the yardstick for beauty. Anyone beautiful is to be compared to it.
- There is a lot of excessive weeping, buffeting of faces, strewing dust upon one's head, tearing of one's raiments, fainting, excessive rejoicing and whatnot. Apparently people were a lot more expressive in those time and at those places (at least compared to Sweden of today).
- Always be polite and eloquent, and kings may reward you generously merely for happening upon you.