One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, Volume 5 of 16

The Arabian Nights #5 of 16

by Anonymous, Richard Francis Burton (Translator)

One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars in various countries. These collections of tales trace their roots back to ancient Arabia and Yemen, ancient India, ancient Asia Minor, ancient Persia, ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamian Mythology, ancient Syria, and medieval Arabic folk stories from the Caliphate era. Though an original manuscript has never been found, several versions date the collection's genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900.

What is common throughout all the editions of The Nights is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahryar and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves. The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1001 or more "nights."

The collection, or at least certain stories drawn from it (or purporting to be drawn from it) became widely known in the West during the nineteenth century, after it was translated - first into French and then English and other European languages. At this time it acquired the English name The Arabian Nights Entertainment or simply Arabian Nights. The best known stories from The Nights include "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp," "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor." Ironically these particular stories, while they are genuine Middle Eastern folk tales, were not part of the "Nights" in its Arabic versions, but were interpolated into the collection by its early European translators. (Quote from wikipedia.org)

About the Author

Richard Francis Burton (1821 - 1890)
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG

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

411 pages, Paperback

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.