Thousand and One Nights
Preface
Almost two and a half centuries have passed since Europe first became acquainted with the Arabian tales of the Arabian Nights in Galland's free and far from complete French translation, but even now they enjoy the constant love of readers. The passage of time did not affect the popularity of Shahrazad's stories; Along with countless reprints and secondary translations from Galland’s publication, publications of “Nights” appear again and again in many languages of the world, translated directly from the original, to this day. The influence of “The Arabian Nights” on the work of various writers was great - Montesquieu, Wieland, Hauff, Tennyson, Dickens. Pushkin also admired Arabic tales. Having first become acquainted with some of them in Senkovsky’s free adaptation, he became so interested in them that he purchased one of the editions of Galland’s translation, which was preserved in his library.
It’s hard to say what attracts more in the tales of “The Arabian Nights” - the entertaining plot, the bizarre interweaving of the fantastic and the real, vivid pictures of city life in the medieval Arab East, fascinating descriptions amazing countries or the liveliness and depth of experiences of the heroes of fairy tales, the psychological justification of situations, a clear, definite morality. The language of many of the stories is magnificent - lively, imaginative, rich, devoid of circumlocutions and omissions. Speech of heroes best fairy tales“Nights” is clearly individual, each of them has their own style and vocabulary, characteristic of the social environment from which they came.
What is “The Book of a Thousand and One Nights”, how and when was it created, where were Shahrazad’s tales born?
"A Thousand and One Nights" is not the work of an individual author or compiler - the whole Arab people. In the form in which we now know it, “A Thousand and One Nights” is a collection of fairy tales based on Arabic, united by a framing story about the cruel king Shahriyar, who every evening took for himself new wife and in the morning he killed her. The history of the Arabian Nights is still far from clear; its origins are lost in the depths of centuries.
The first written information about the Arabic collection of fairy tales, framed by the story of Shahryar and Shahrazad and called “A Thousand Nights” or “One Thousand and One Nights,” we find in the works of Baghdad writers of the 10th century - the historian al-Masudi and the bibliographer ai-Nadim, who talk about it how long ago and good famous work. Already at that time, information about the origin of this book was quite vague and it was considered a translation of the Persian collection of fairy tales “Khezar-Efsane” (“A Thousand Tales”), allegedly compiled for Humai, the daughter of the Iranian king Ardeshir (IV century BC). The content and nature of the Arabic collection mentioned by Masudi and anNadim are unknown to us, since it has not survived to this day.
The evidence of the named writers about the existence in their time of the Arabic book of fairy tales “One Thousand and One Nights” is confirmed by the presence of an excerpt from this book dating back to the 9th century. Subsequently, the literary evolution of the collection continued until the XIV-XV centuries. More and more fairy tales of different genres and different social origins were included in the convenient frame of the collection. We can judge the process of creating such fabulous collections from the message of the same anNadim, who says that his elder contemporary, a certain Abd-Allah al-Jahshiyari - a personality, by the way, is quite real - decided to compile a book of thousands of tales of “Arabs, Persians, Greeks and other peoples,” one per night, each containing fifty sheets, but he died having only managed to type four hundred and eighty stories. He took material mainly from professional storytellers, whom he called from all over the caliphate, as well as from written sources.
Al-Jahshiyari’s collection has not reached us, and other fairy-tale collections called “One Thousand and One Nights,” which were sparingly mentioned by medieval Arab writers, have also not survived. The composition of these collections of fairy tales apparently differed from each other; they only had in common the title and the frame of the tale.
In the course of creating such collections, several successive stages can be outlined.
The first suppliers of material for them were professional folk storytellers, whose stories were initially recorded from dictation with almost stenographic accuracy, without any literary processing. A large number of such stories in Arabic, written in Hebrew letters, are stored in the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library in Leningrad; ancient lists belong to the XI-XII centuries. Subsequently, these records went to booksellers, who subjected the text of the tale to some literary processing. Each tale was considered at this stage not as an integral part of the collection, but as a completely independent work; therefore, in the original versions of the tales that have reached us, later included in the “Book of One Thousand and One Nights,” there is still no division into nights. The text of fairy tales was divided into last stage their processing when they fell into the hands of the compiler who compiled the next collection of “A Thousand and One Nights”. In the absence of material for the required number of “nights,” the compiler replenished it from written sources, borrowing from there not only short stories and anecdotes, but also long knightly romances.
The last such compiler was that unknown-named learned sheikh, who compiled the most recent collection of tales of the Arabian Nights in Egypt in the 18th century. Fairy tales also received the most significant literary treatment in Egypt, two or three centuries earlier. This 14th-16th century edition of The Book of the Thousand and One Nights, usually called “Egyptian,” is the only one that has survived to this day and is represented in most printed publications, as well as in almost all the Nights manuscripts known to us and serves as specific material for the study of Shahrazad’s tales.
From the previous, perhaps earlier, collections of “The Book of One Thousand and One Nights,” only single tales have survived, not included in the “Egyptian” edition and presented in a few manuscripts of individual volumes of “Nights” or existing in the form of independent stories, which, however, have a division at night. These stories include the most popular fairy tales among European readers: “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp”, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” and some others; The Arabic original of these tales was at the disposal of the first translator of the Arabian Nights, Galland, through whose translation they became known in Europe.
When studying The Arabian Nights, each tale should be considered separately, since there is no organic connection between them, and they existed independently for a long time before being included in the collection. Attempts to group some of them into groups based on their supposed origin - India, Iran or Baghdad - are not well founded. The plots of Shahrazad's stories were formed from individual elements that could penetrate Arab soil from Iran or India independently of one another; in their new homeland they were overgrown with purely native layers and from ancient times became the property of Arab folklore. This, for example, happened with the framing tale: having come to the Arabs from India through Iran, it lost many of its original features in the mouths of the storytellers.
More appropriate than an attempt to group, say, according to a geographical principle, should be considered the principle of uniting them, at least conditionally, into groups according to the time of creation or according to their belonging to the social environment where they existed. To the oldest, most enduring tales of the collection,
Glory to Allah, Lord of the worlds! Greetings and blessings to the lord of the messengers, our lord and ruler Muhammad! May Allah bless him and greet him with eternal blessings and greetings, lasting until the Day of Judgment!
And after that, truly, the legends about the first generations became an edification for the subsequent ones, so that a person could see what events happened to others and learn, and so that, delving into the legends about past peoples and what happened to them, he would abstain from sin Praise be to him who made the tales of the ancients a lesson for subsequent nations.
Know, O my daughter, - said the vizier, - that one merchant had wealth and herds of cattle, and he had a wife and children, and Allah the Great granted him knowledge of the language and dialects of animals and birds. And this merchant lived in a village, and in his house he had a bull and a donkey. And one day the bull entered the donkey's stall and saw that it had been swept and sprinkled, and in the donkey's feeding trough there was sifted barley and sifted straw, and he himself lay and rested, and only sometimes the owner rode him, if some business happened, and returns immediately.
First night.
Shahrazad said: “They say, O happy king, that there was one merchant among merchants, and he was very rich and did great business in different lands. One day he went to some country to collect debts, and the heat overcame him, and then he sat down under a tree and, putting his hand into his saddlebag, took out a piece of bread and dates and began to eat dates with bread. And, having eaten a date, he threw the stone - and suddenly he sees: in front of him is a tall ifrit, and in his hands is a naked sword.
Know, O ifrit,” the elder said then, “that this gazelle is the daughter of my uncle and, as it were, my flesh and blood.” I married her when she was very young, and lived with her for about thirty years, but did not have a child with her; and then I took a concubine, and she gave me a son like the moon at full moon, and his eyes and eyebrows were perfect in beauty! He grew up and became big, and reached the age of fifteen;
Know, O lord of the kings of the jinn,” the elder began, “that these two dogs are my brothers, and I am the third brother.” My father died and left us three thousand dinars, and I opened a shop to trade, and my brothers also opened a shop. But I did not stay in the shop for long, since my elder brother, one of these dogs, sold everything he had for a thousand dinars and, having bought goods and all sorts of goods, left to travel. He was absent for a whole year, and suddenly, when I was in the shop one day, a beggar stopped next to me. I told him: “Allah will help!” But the beggar exclaimed, crying: “You don’t recognize me anymore!” - and then I looked at him and suddenly I saw - this is my brother!
“Oh, Sultan and head of all genies,” the old man began, “Know that this mule was my wife.” I went on a trip and was away for a whole year, and then I finished the trip and returned to my wife at night. And I saw a black slave who was lying in bed with her, and they were talking, playing, laughing, kissing and fussing. And seeing me, my wife hurriedly rose with a jug of water, said something over it and splashed it on me and said: “Change your image and take the form of a dog!” And I immediately became a dog, and my wife kicked me out of the house; and I left the gate and walked until I came to the butcher's shop.
It came to me, O happy king,” said Shahrazad, “that there was one fisherman, far advanced in years, and he had a wife and three children, and he lived in poverty. And it was his custom to cast his net four times every day, no less; and then one day he went out at midday, and came to the seashore, and put down his basket, and, picking up the floors, entered the sea and cast the net. He waited until the net was established in the water, and gathered the ropes, and when he felt that the net was heavy, he tried to pull it out, but could not;
Know, O ifrit,” the fisherman began, “that in ancient times and past centuries and for centuries there was a king named Yunan in the city of the Persians and in the land of Ruman. And he was rich and great and commanded an army and bodyguards of all kinds, but there was leprosy on his body, and doctors and healers were powerless against it. And the king drank medicines and powders and smeared himself with ointments, but nothing helped him, and not a single doctor could heal him. And a great doctor, far advanced in years, came to the city of King Yunan, whose name was doctor Duban. He read Greek, Persian, Byzantine, Arabic and Syrian books, knew healing and astronomy and learned their rules and foundations; benefits and harms, and he also knew all the plants and herbs, fresh and dry, beneficial and harmful, and studied philosophy, and comprehended all the sciences, etc.
And when this doctor came to the city and spent a few days there, he heard about the king and the leprosy that had affected his body, with which Allah tested him, and that scientists and doctors could not cure it.
They say, and Allah knows best,” the king began, “that there was one king from the kings of the Persians who loved fun, walking, hunting and fishing. And he raised the falcon and did not part with it day or night, and all night he held it in his hand, and when he went hunting, he took the falcon with him. The king made a golden cup for the falcon, which hung on his neck, and gave him water from this cup. And then one day the king was sitting, and suddenly the chief falconer came to him and said: “Oh, king of time, the time has come to go hunting.” And the king ordered to leave and took the falcon in his hand; and the hunters rode until they reached one valley, there they stretched out a net for catching, and suddenly a gazelle was caught in this net, and then the king exclaimed: “I will kill anyone whose head the gazelle jumps over.”
Among Arabic tales, the most famous is a collection of tales called “ Thousand and One Nights».
More than two and a half centuries have passed since the whole world first became acquainted with Arabian tales "One Thousand and One Nights", but even now they use strong love readers. The passage of time had no effect on the popularity of Scheherazade's stories. The influence was enormous fairy tales 1001 nights on the work of many writers.
It's difficult to say what attracts more fairy tales 1001 nights- fascinating plot, interesting interweaving of the incredible and the real, rich pictures of life in the Arab East, entertaining descriptions extraordinary countries or the vividness of the experiences of fairy tale characters.
Fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights" are not the work of a single writer - the collective author is the entire Arab people. In the form in which we now know it, " 1001 and one night" - a collection of fairy tales in the Arabic language, united by a common story about the bloodthirsty king Shahriyar, who took a new wife every night and killed her the next day. History of " Thousand and One Nights» has not been clarified to date; its origins are lost in the depths of centuries. On our website you can look list of Arabian Nights tales.
Thousand and One Nights
"One Thousand and One Nights": Goslitizdat; 1959
annotation
Among the magnificent monuments of oral folk art"Fairy tales
Shahrazad" are the most monumental monument. These tales with amazing perfection express the desire of the working people to surrender
"the charm of sweet inventions", free play with words, express violent power
flowery fantasy of the peoples of the East - Arabs, Persians, Hindus. This verbal weaving was born in ancient times; its multi-colored silk threads intertwined all over the earth, covering it with a verbal carpet of amazing beauty.
THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS
Preface
Almost two and a half centuries have passed since Europe
I first became acquainted with the Arabic tales of “The Arabian Nights” in Galland’s free and far from complete French translation, but even now they enjoy the constant love of readers. The passage of time did not affect the popularity of Shahrazad's stories; Along with countless reprints and secondary translations from Galland’s publication, publications of “Nights” appear again and again in many languages of the world, translated directly from the original, to this day.
The influence of "The Thousand and One Nights" on the work of various writers - Montesquieu, Wieland, Hauff, Tennyson, Dickens - was great. Pushkin also admired Arabic tales. Having first become acquainted with some of them in Senkovsky’s free adaptation, he became so interested in them that he purchased one of the editions of Galland’s translation, which was preserved in his library.
It is difficult to say what attracts more in the tales of "One Thousand and One Nights" - the entertaining plot, the bizarre interweaving of the fantastic and the real, vivid pictures of urban life in the medieval Arab East, fascinating descriptions of amazing countries or the liveliness and depth of experiences of the heroes of fairy tales, the psychological justification of situations, clear, a certain morality. The language of many of the stories is magnificent - lively, imaginative, rich, devoid of circumlocutions and omissions. The speech of the heroes of the best fairy tales of the Nights is clearly individual; each of them has their own style and vocabulary, characteristic of the social environment from which they came.
What is “The Book of One Thousand and One Nights”, how and when was it created, where were Shahrazad’s tales born?
"A Thousand and One Nights" is not the work of a single author or
compiler - the collective creator is the entire Arab people. In
form in which we now know it, "A Thousand and One Nights" is a collection of tales in Arabic, united by a framing story about a cruel king
Shahriyar, who took a new wife every evening and killed her in the morning.
The history of the Arabian Nights is still far from clear;
its origins are lost in the depths of centuries.
The first written information about the Arabic collection of fairy tales, framed
the story of Shahryar and Shahrazad and called “A Thousand Nights” or “A Thousand
one night", we find in the writings of Baghdad writers of the 10th century - the historian al-Masudi and the bibliographer ai-Nadim, who speak of it as a long-standing and well-known work. Even in those days, information about the origin of this book was quite vague and its was considered a translation of the Persian collection of fairy tales "Khezar-Efsane" ("A Thousand Tales"), supposedly compiled for Khumai, the daughter of the Iranian king Ardeshir (IV century BC). unknown, since it has not survived to this day.
Testimony of the named writers about the existence of Arabic in their time
the book of fairy tales "One Thousand and One Nights" is confirmed by the presence of an excerpt from this book dating back to the 9th century. Subsequently, the literary evolution of the collection continued until the XIV-XV centuries. More and more fairy tales of different genres and different social origins were included in the convenient frame of the collection.
We can judge the process of creating such fabulous vaults from the message
the same Annadim, who says that his elder contemporary, a certain Abd-Allah al-Jahshiyari - a personality, by the way, is quite real - decided to compile a book of thousands of fairy tales of "Arabs, Persians, Greeks and other peoples", one for each night, each volume was fifty sheets, but he died having only managed to type four hundred and eighty stories. He took material mainly from professional storytellers, whom he called from all over the caliphate, as well as from written sources.
The collection of al-Jahshiyari has not reached us, and others have not survived either.
fabulous vaults called "A Thousand and One Nights", which are sparingly mentioned
mentioned by medieval Arab writers. The composition of these collections of fairy tales apparently differed from each other; they only had in common the title and the frame of the tale.
.
In the course of creating such collections, several
successive stages.
The first suppliers of material for them were professional folk
storytellers whose stories were initially recorded from dictation with almost stenographic accuracy, without any literary processing. A large number of such stories in Arabic, written in Hebrew letters, are stored in the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library in Leningrad; the oldest lists date back to the 11th-12th centuries. Subsequently, these records went to booksellers, who subjected the text of the tale to some literary processing. Each tale was considered at this stage not as an integral part of a collection, but as a completely independent work; therefore, in the original versions of the tales that have come down to us, later included in the Book of One Thousand and One Nights, there is still no division into nights. The breakdown of the text of the fairy tales took place at the last stage of their processing, when they fell into the hands of the compiler who compiled the next collection of “A Thousand and One Nights”. In the absence of material for the required number of “nights,” the compiler replenished it from written sources, borrowing from there not only short stories and anecdotes, but also long knightly romances.
The last such compiler was that unknown scientist
sheikh, who formed the most recent in the 18th century in Egypt
collection of fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights". The most significant literary
fairy tales were also processed in Egypt, two or three centuries ago
earlier. This edition of the XIV - XVI centuries "The Book of the Thousand and One Nights", usually
called "Egyptian" - the only one that has survived to this day -
presented in most print publications, as well as in almost all
manuscripts of the “Nights” known to us and serves as specific material for the study of Shahrazad’s tales.
From the previous, perhaps earlier, collections of the Book of the Thousand and One Nights, only single tales have been preserved, not including the “Egyptian” one.
edition and presented in a few manuscripts of individual volumes of “Nights” or existing in the form of independent stories, which, however, have -
division into nights. These stories include the most popular fairy tales among European readers: “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp”, “Ali Baba and
forty thieves" and some others; the Arabic original of these tales was at the disposal of the first translator of "A Thousand and One Nights" Galland, through whose translation they became known in Europe.
When studying the Arabian Nights, each tale should be
be considered especially, since there is no organic connection between them, and they are up to
inclusions in the collection existed independently for a long time. Attempts
combine some of them into groups according to the place of their intended
origin - from India, Iran or Baghdad - are not sufficiently substantiated.
The plots of Shahrazad's stories were formed from individual elements that could penetrate Arab soil from Iran or India independently of one another;
in their new homeland they were overgrown with purely native layers and from ancient times
became the property of Arab folklore. This, for example, happened with
framing tale: having come to the Arabs from India through Iran, she lost
in the mouths of storytellers, many original features.
More useful than trying to group, say, by
geographical principle, one should consider the principle of combining them, at least
conditionally, into groups according to the time of creation or according to belonging to the social environment where they existed. The oldest, most enduring tales in the collection, which may have existed in one form or another already in the first editions in the 9th-10th centuries, include those stories in which the element of fantasy is most strongly manifested and acts supernatural beings actively interfering in people's affairs. Such are the tales “About the Fisherman and the Spirit”, “About the Ebony Horse” and a number of others. For my long literary life they, apparently, were repeatedly subjected to literary processing; This is evidenced by their language, which claims to have a certain sophistication, and by the abundance of poetic passages, undoubtedly interspersed into the text by editors or copyists.
A group of tales of later origin reflecting life and everyday life
medieval Arab trading city. As can be seen from some
topographical details, the action in them takes place mainly in the capital of Egypt - Cairo. These short stories are usually based on some touching love story, complicated by various adventures;
the persons acting in it belong, as a rule, to the trade and craft industry
nobility In style and language, fairy tales of this kind are somewhat simpler than fantastic ones,
but they also contain a lot of poetic quotes, mostly erotic
content. It is interesting that in urban novels the most vivid and powerful
personality is often a woman who boldly breaks barriers that
Harem life poses a challenge to her. The man, exhausted by debauchery and idleness,
invariably brought out as a simpleton and doomed to second roles.
Other characteristic this group of fairy tales - sharply expressed
antagonism between the townspeople and the Bedouin nomads who usually
are the subject of the most caustic ridicule in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.
Among the best examples of urban short stories are "The Tale of a Loving and
beloved", "The Tale of Three Apples" (including "The Tale of the Vizier Nur-ad-din and his brother"), "The Tale of Kamar-az-Zaman and the Jeweler's Wife", as well as
most of the stories united by "The Tale of the Hunchback".
Finally, the most recent in time of creation are fairy tales
picaresque genre, apparently included in the collection in Egypt, during his
last processing. These stories also took shape in an urban environment, but
already reflect the lives of small artisans, day laborers and the poor,
doing odd jobs. These tales most vividly reflected the protest of the oppressed layers of the medieval population eastern city. The curious forms in which this protest was sometimes expressed can be seen, for example, from “The Story of Ghanim ibn Ayyub” (see this edition, vol. II, p.
15), where the slave, whom his master wants to set free, proves
referring to the books of lawyers that he does not have the right to do this, since
did not teach his slave any trade and dooms the latter by liberation
to starvation.
Pictorial fairy tales are characterized by caustic irony of depiction.
representatives of secular power and the clergy in the most unsightly form.
The plot of many of these stories is a complex fraud, the purpose of which is not so much to rob as to fool some simpleton. Brilliant examples of picaresque stories - "The Tale of Delilah the Cunning and Ali-Zeybak of Cairo", replete with the most incredible adventures, "The Tale of Ala-ad-din Abu-sh-Shamat", "The Tale of Maruf the Shoemaker".
Stories of this type came into the collection directly from the mouths of the storytellers and were subjected to only minor literary processing. This is indicated first of all by their language, not alien to dialectisms and colloquial turns of speech, the saturation of the text with dialogues, lively and dynamic, as if directly overheard in the city square, as well as the complete absence of love poems - the listeners of such tales, apparently, were not hunters
sentimental poetic outpourings. Both in content and form,
picaresque stories represent one of the most valuable parts of the collection.
In addition to the tales of the three categories mentioned, in the "Book of One Thousand and One Nights"
includes a number of large works and a significant number of small ones
volume of anecdotes, undoubtedly borrowed by the compilers from various
literary sources. These are the huge knightly novels: “The Tale of King Omar ibn al-Numan”, “The Tale of Adjib and Gharib”, “The Tale of the Prince and the Seven Viziers”, “The Tale of Sinbad the Sailor” and some others. In the same way, edifying parables and stories, imbued with the idea of the frailty of earthly life ("The Tale of the Copper City"), edifying stories, questionnaires like "Mirrors" (the story of the wise girl Tawaddud), anecdotes about famous Muslim mystics-Sufis, etc. got there. . The small stories, as already mentioned, were apparently added by the compilers to fill the required number of nights.
Fairy tales of a particular group, born in a certain social environment, naturally had the greatest distribution in this environment. The compilers and editors of the collection themselves were well aware of this, as evidenced by the following note, rewritten in one of the later manuscripts of “Nights” from an older original: “The storyteller should tell in accordance with those who listen to him. If these are common people, let him tell stories from the Arabian Nights about ordinary people- these are the stories at the beginning of the book (obviously meaning fairy tales of the picaresque genre - M.S.), and if these people belong to the rulers, then they should be told stories about kings and battles between knights, and these stories - at the end books."
We find the same indication in the text of the “Book” itself - in the “Tale of
Seif al-Muluk", which appeared in the collection, apparently quite late
stage of its evolution. It says that a certain storyteller, who alone knew this fairy tale, yielding to persistent requests, agrees to give it
rewrite, but puts the following condition on the scribe: “Don’t tell this
tales at a crossroads or in the presence of women, slaves, slaves,
fools and children. Read it from emirs1, kings, viziers and people of knowledge from
interpreters of the Koran and others."
In their homeland, the tales of Scheherazade in different social layers since ancient times
met with different attitudes. If among the broad masses fairy tales are always
enjoyed enormous popularity, then representatives of the Muslim
scholastic science and the clergy, guardians of the "purity" of the classical
Arabic speakers invariably spoke of them with undisguised contempt. Even in the 10th century, an-Nadim, speaking about “A Thousand and One Nights,” disdainfully noted that it was written “fluidly and tediously.” A thousand years later, he also had followers who declared this collection an empty and harmful book and prophesied all sorts of troubles to its readers. Representatives of the progressive Arab intelligentsia look at Shahrazad's tales differently. Fully recognizing the great artistic, historical and literary value of this monument, literary scholars of the United Arab Republic and other Arab countries are studying it in depth and comprehensively.
The negative attitude towards “A Thousand and One Nights” by reactionary Arab philologists of the 19th century had a sad effect on the fate of its printed editions. A scholarly critical text of the Nights does not yet exist; the first complete edition of the collection, published in Bulaq, near Cairo, in 1835 and reprinted several times subsequently, reproduces the so-called “Egyptian” edition. In the Bulak text, the language of fairy tales underwent significant processing under the pen of an anonymous “scientific” theologian; the editor sought to bring the text closer to classical norms literary speech. To a somewhat lesser extent, the work of the processor is noticeable in the Calcutta edition, published by the English scientist Macnaghten in 1839-1842, although the Egyptian edition of “Nights” is also presented there.
The Bulak and Calcutta editions form the basis of the existing
translations of "The Book of a Thousand and One Nights". The only exception is
the above-mentioned incomplete French translation of Galland, carried out in
XVIII century according to handwritten sources. As we have already said, Galland's translation
served as the original for numerous translations into other languages and more
for a hundred years remained the only source of acquaintance with Arabic tales
"A Thousand and One Nights" in Europe.
Among other translations of the "Book" on European languages should be mentioned
English translation parts of the collection, made directly from Arabic
original by a famous expert on the language and ethnography of medieval Egypt -
William Lane. Len's translation, despite its incompleteness, can be considered
the best existing English translation in terms of accuracy and integrity,
although his language is somewhat difficult and pompous.
Another English translation, completed in the late 1980s
famous traveler and ethnographer Richard Burton, pursued
completely definite goals, far from science. In his translation Burton
in every possible way emphasizes all the somewhat obscene passages of the original,
choosing the harshest word, the most rude option, inventing and in the field
language extraordinary combinations of archaic and ultra-modern words.
Burton's tendencies are most clearly reflected in his notes. Along with
they contain valuable observations from the life of the Middle Eastern peoples
the number of "anthropological" comments, verbosely explaining
every obscene hint that comes across in the collection. Piling up dirty
anecdotes and details characteristic of the jaded morals of his time
and European residents bored with idleness in Arab countries, Burton
seeks to slander the entire Arab people and uses this to protect
the whip and rifle policy he advocates.
The tendency to emphasize all the more or less frivolous features of Arabic
original is also characteristic of the French sixteen-volume translation of the “Book
One Thousand and One Nights", completed in the first years of the 20th century by J. Mardrus.
From German translations"Books" the newest and greatest is the six-volume
translation by the famous semitologist E. Liggman, first published in the late 20s
years of our century.
The history of studying translations of "The Book of a Thousand and One Nights" in Russia can
be stated very briefly.
Before the Great October revolution Russian translations directly from
there was no Arabic, although translations from Galland began to appear already in the 60s
years of the 18th century. The best of them is the translation by Yu. Doppelmayer, published at the end
XIX century.
Somewhat later, a translation by L. Shelgunova was published, made with
abbreviations from Len's English edition, and six years after that
An anonymous translation from Mardrus's edition appeared - the most complete of
the then existing collections of "The Thousand and One Nights" in Russian.
In 1929-1938, an eight-volume Russian translation of “The Book
One thousand and one nights" directly from Arabic, made by M. Salye under
edited by academician I. Yu. Krachkovsky based on the Calcutta edition.
The translator and editor tried to preserve as best they could in the translation
closeness to the Arabic original both in content and style.
Only in cases where the exact transmission of the original was incompatible with
norms of Russian literary speech, this principle had to be deviated from.
So, when translating poetry, it is impossible to preserve the obligatory according to the rules
Arabic versification rhyme, which should be uniform throughout
poem, conveyed only external structure verse and rhythm.
Intending these tales exclusively for adults, the translator remained
faithful to the desire to show the Russian reader "The Book of One Thousand and One Nights"
such as it is, and when transmitting obscene parts of the original. In Arabic
in fairy tales, as in the folklore of other peoples, things are naively called their own
names, and most of the obscene, from our point of view, details are not
has a pornographic meaning, all these details are
more of a crude joke than deliberate obscenity.
This edition contains a translation edited by I. Yu. Krachkovsky
is printed without significant changes, maintaining the basic setting on
as close as possible to the original. Multiple translation languages
facilitated - excessive literalisms are softened, in some places they are not immediately deciphered
understandable idiomatic expressions.
M. Salye
The story of King Shahryar and his brother
Glory to Allah, Lord of the worlds! Hello and blessings sir
sent to our lord and ruler Muhammad! Allah bless him and
May he greet you with eternal blessings and greetings, lasting until the day of judgment!
And after that, truly, the legends about the first generations became an edification
for subsequent ones, so that a person can see what events happened to others, and
learned, and that, delving into the legends about past peoples and what
happened to them, he abstained from sin. Praise be to the one who did
tales of the ancients are a lesson for subsequent peoples.
Such legends also include stories called “A Thousand and One
night", and the sublime stories and parables contained in them.
They tell in the legends of peoples about what happened, passed and has long passed
(and Allah is more knowledgeable in the unknown and wise and glorious, and most generous,
and most favorable and merciful), that in ancient times and past centuries and
centuries there was a king from the kings of the family of Sasana2 on the islands of India and China,
lord of troops, guards, servants and servants. And he had two sons - one
an adult, the other young, and both were brave knights, but the older one was superior
junior valor. And he reigned over his country and ruled justly
subjects, and the inhabitants of his lands and kingdom loved him, and his name was king
Shahryar; and his younger brother was called King Shahzeman, and he reigned in
Samarkand Persian. Both of them stayed in their own lands, and each of them
kingdom was a fair judge of his subjects for twenty years and
lived in complete contentment and joy. This continued until
the elder king did not want to see his younger brother and did not command his
the vizier3 should go and bring him. The vizier carried out his orders and
set off and drove until he safely arrived in Samarkand. He
went in to Shahzeman, said hello to him and said that he was his brother after him
he yearns and wishes that he would visit him; and Shakhzeman agreed and
got ready to go. He ordered to take out his tents, equip camels, mules,
servants and bodyguards and made his vizier the ruler of the country, and he himself
headed to the lands of his brother. But when midnight came, he remembered
one thing that he forgot in the palace, and returned and, entering the palace, saw
that his wife was lying in bed, hugging a black slave from among his slaves.
And when Shahzeman saw this, everything turned black before his eyes, and he
said to himself: “If this happened when I had not yet left the city, then what
What will happen to this damned woman if I go away to my brother for a long time!" And he
pulled out a sword and struck them both and killed them in bed, and then, at the same hour,
minute, returned and ordered to drive away - and drove until he reached the city
own brother. And approaching the city, he sent messengers to his brother with news of
his arrival, and Shahriyar came out to meet him and greeted him, until
overjoyed. He decorated the city in honor of his brother and sat with him,
talking and having fun, but King Shahzeman remembered what happened to his wife, and
felt great sadness, and his face became yellow and his body weakened. AND
when his brother saw him in such a state, he thought that the reason for this
separation from his country and kingdom, and left him like that, without asking questions about anything.
But then, one day, he said to him: “O my brother, I see that your
your body has weakened and your face has turned yellow." And Shahzeman answered him: "My brother,
there is an ulcer inside me,” and did not tell what he experienced from his wife. “I want,” he said
then Shahriyar, - so that you go hunting and catching with me: maybe yours
the heart will be merry." But Shahzeman refused this, and his brother went hunting
one.
In the royal palace there were windows overlooking the garden, and Shahzeman looked and
suddenly he sees: the doors of the palace open, and twenty slaves come out
and twenty slaves, and his brother's wife walks among them, standing out as a rare
beauty and charm. They went to the fountain, took off their clothes, and sat down together
with slaves, and suddenly the king’s wife shouted: “O Masoud!” And the black slave came up to her
and hugged her, and she hugged him too. He lay down with her, and the other slaves did the same, and
they kissed and hugged, caressed and had fun until the day turned
at sunset. And when the king's brother saw this, he said to himself: “By Allah,
my trouble is lighter than this calamity!” and his jealousy and sadness dissipated.
"This is more than what happened to me!" - he exclaimed and stopped
refuse to drink and eat. And then his brother returned from hunting, and they
greeted each other, and King Shahriyar looked at his brother, King
Shahzeman, and saw that his former colors had returned to him and his face
he turned red and that he was eating without taking a breath, although he had eaten little before. Then brother
him, the eldest king, said to Shahzeman: “O my brother, I saw you with
yellowed face, and now your blush has returned. So tell me
what's wrong with you." - "As for the change in my appearance, I'll tell you about it, but
spare me the story of why my blush returned,” answered
Shahzeman. And Shahriyar said: “Tell me first why you changed your home and
weakened, and I will listen."
“Know, oh my brother,” said Shahzeman, “that when you sent me
vizier with the demand to appear to you, I got ready and already went out of the city, but
then I remembered that there was a pearl left in the palace that I wanted for you
give. I returned to the palace and found my wife with a black slave sleeping in
my bed, and killed them and came to you, thinking about your mouth. That's the reason
changes in my appearance and my weakness; as for how he came back to me
blush, “let me not tell you about this.”
But, hearing the words of his brother, Shahriyar exclaimed: “I conjure you
By Allah, tell me why your blush has returned!" And Shahzeman
told him about everything I saw. Then Shahriyar told his brother
Shahzeman: “I want to see it with my own eyes!” And Shahzeman advised:
“Pretend that you are going hunting and catching, and hide with me, then
you will see it and see it with your own eyes."
The king immediately ordered the cry to leave, and the troops with tents
They marched out of the city, and the king also came out; but then he sat down in the tent and said
to his servants: “Let no one come near me!” After that he changed
disguise and stealthily went into the palace where his brother was, and sat for a while
time at the window that overlooked the garden - and suddenly the slaves and their mistress
entered there together with slaves and acted as Shahzeman said, until
call to afternoon prayer. When King Shahriyar saw this, his mind flew away
out of his head, and he said to his brother Shahzeman: “Get up, let’s leave
immediately, we don’t need royal power until we see someone with whom
the same thing happened to us! Otherwise, death is better for us than life!”
They went out through a secret door and wandered days and nights until they
approached a tree growing in the middle of the lawn, where a stream flowed near
salty sea. They drank from this stream and sat down to rest. And when it passed
hour of daylight, the sea suddenly became agitated, and a black
the pillar rose to the sky and headed towards their lawn. Seeing this, both
They got scared of their brother and climbed to the top of the tree (and it was tall) and
began to wait to see what would happen next. And suddenly they see: in front of them is a tall genie
tall, with a large head and broad chest, and on his head he has a chest. He
went out onto land and approached the tree where the brothers were, and, sitting down under it,
opened the chest, and took out a casket from it, and opened it, and a young woman came out
a woman with a slender figure, shining like the bright sun, as he said,
and the poet Atgiya said it well:
She shone in the darkness - the day shines.
And the tops of the trunks sparkle with its light.
She sparkles like many suns at sunrise.
Having removed her veils, she will confuse the stars of the night.
All creations fall on their faces before her,
Once she appears, she will tear off their covers.
If in anger she flashes with the heat of lightning,
Tears of rain then flow uncontrollably5.
The genie looked at this woman and said: “O mistress of the noble ones, O you,
whom I stole on the wedding night, I want to get some sleep!" - and he put
head on the woman's lap and fell asleep; she raised her head and saw both
kings sitting on a tree. Then she took the genie's head from her lap and
she laid it on the ground and, standing under a tree, said to her brothers with signs:
"Get off, don't be afraid of the ifrit." And they answered her: “We adjure you by Allah,
deliver us from this." But the woman said: "If you don't come down, I'll wake you up.
Ifrit, and he will kill you with an evil death." And they were afraid and went down to
woman, and she lay down in front of them and said: “Stick it in hard, or I’ll
I will wake up the ifrit." Out of fear, King Shahriyar told his brother, the king
To Shahzeman: “Oh my brother, do what she told you!” But Shahzeman
replied: “I won’t! Do it before me!” And they started making signs
egg each other on, but the woman exclaimed: “What is this? I see you
wink! If you don't come and do it, I'll wake you up
ifrit!" And out of fear of the genie, both brothers carried out the order, and when
they finished, she said: “Wake up!” - and, taking out his wallet from his bosom,
from there she took out a necklace of five hundred and seventy rings. "Do you know that
“Is this for the rings?” she asked; and the brothers answered: “We don’t know!” Then
the woman said: "The owners of all these rings had an affair with me on the horns
this ifrit. Give me a ring too." And the brothers gave the woman two
ring from her hands, and she said: “This ifrit kidnapped me on my night
wedding and put me in a casket, and the casket in a chest. He hung it on the chest
seven shining castles and dropped me to the bottom of the roaring sea, where they fight
waves, but he didn’t know that if a woman wanted something, she wouldn’t
no one will prevail, as one of the poets said:
Don't be trusting of women
Do not believe their vows and oaths;
Their forgiveness, as well as their malice
Associated with lust alone.
Love is feigned
Deception is hidden in their clothes.
Learn from the life of Joseph6, -
And there you will find their deceptions.
After all, you know: your father is Adam
I also had to leave because of them.
And another said:
O unfortunate one, beloved one, stronger from the abuse!
My offense is not as great as you want.
Having fallen in love, I accomplished only the same thing,
What men have done before for a long time.
He is worthy of great surprise,
Who remained unharmed from women's spells..."
Hearing such words from her, both kings were extremely surprised and said
one to the other: “Here is an ifrit, and something worse happened to him than to us!
never happened to anyone else!"
And they immediately left her and returned to the city of King Shahryar, and he entered
into the palace and cut off the head of his wife, and slaves, and slaves.
And King Shahriyar began to take the innocent girl every night, I took possession of her, and
then he killed her, and this continued for three years.
And the people cried out and fled with their daughters, and there was not one left in the city.
one girl suitable for marriage.
And then the king ordered his vizier to bring him, according to custom,
the girl, and the vizier went out and began to look, but did not find the girl and went to
his home, oppressed and depressed, fearing harm from the king. And
The royal vizier had two daughters: the eldest - named Shahrazad, and the younger -
named Dunyazada. The eldest read books, chronicles and lives of ancient kings and
legends about past peoples, and she, they say, collected a thousand chronicles
books relating to ancient peoples, former kings and poets. And she said
to his father: “Why is it that you, I see, are sad and depressed and burdened with care and
sorrows? After all, someone said about this:
Who is overwhelmed by worries,
To those say: “Woe does not last forever!
How the fun ends
This is how worries pass away."
And having heard such words from his daughter, the vizier told her from the beginning
to the end, what happened to him with the king. And Shahrazad exclaimed: “I conjure
by Allah, oh father, marry me to this king, and then I will either remain
live, or I will be a ransom for the daughters of Muslims and save them from the king." -
“I adjure you by Allah,” exclaimed the vizier, “do not subject yourself to such
danger!" But Shahrazad said: "This must inevitably happen!" And the vizier
said: “I am afraid that the same thing will happen to you that happened to the ox and the donkey.”
a farmer.” “What happened to them?” asked Shahrazad.
The story of the bull and the donkey
Know, O my daughter, - said the vizier, - that one merchant had wealth
and herds of cattle, and he had a wife and children, and Allah the Great gave him
knowledge of the language and dialects of animals and birds. And this merchant lived in a village, and
In his house there was a bull and a donkey. And one day the bull entered the donkey's stall and
I saw that it had been swept and sprinkled, and in the donkey's feeder there was sifted
barley and sifted straw, and he himself lies and rests, and only sometimes
the owner drives it if any business happens, and immediately
returns. And one day the merchant heard the bull saying to the donkey: “Na
health to you! I get tired, and you rest, and eat sifted barley, and follow you
look after you, and only sometimes the owner rides you and comes back, and I have to
forever plowing and turning the millstone." And the donkey answered: "When you go out into the field and
they will put a yoke around your neck, lie down and don’t get up, even if they beat you,
or get up and lie down again. And when they bring you back and give you beans,
do not eat them as if you were sick, and do not touch food or drink for a day or two or
three, - then you will rest from labors and hardships." And the merchant heard their conversation. And
when the driver brought the bull his evening feed, he ate very little, and
the next morning, the driver who came to take the bull to the arable land found him sick,
and he was saddened and said: “That’s why the bull couldn’t work yesterday!” And then he
went to the merchant and said to him: “O my lord, the bull is not fit for work: he is not
ate food last night and didn’t take anything into his mouth.” And the merchant already knew what
business, and said: “Go take a donkey and plow on it, instead of an ox, all day long.”
When the donkey returned at the end of the day, after plowing all day, the bull
thanked him for his mercy in sparing him from labor for that day, but
the donkey did not answer him and was very repentant. And the next day
the farmer came and took the donkey and plowed on it until evening, and the donkey returned with
skinned neck, dead from fatigue. And the bull, looking at the donkey, thanked
and praised him, and the donkey exclaimed: “I was lying lounging, but talkativeness
hurt me! Know,” he added, “that I am your sincere adviser; I
heard our owner say: "If the bull does not get up, give him back
to the butcher, let him slaughter him and cut his skin into pieces." And I am afraid for
I warn you too. That's all!"
The bull, hearing the donkey's words, thanked him and said: "Tomorrow I will go with
work with them!" - and then he ate all his food and even licked it with his tongue
nursery And the owner heard this whole conversation. And when the day came, the merchant and his
the wife went out to the cowshed and sat down, and the driver came, took the bull and led him out; And
At the sight of his master, the bull raised his tail, let out the winds and galloped, and
The merchant laughed so hard that he fell backward. "Why are you laughing?" - asked him
wife, and he answered: “I have seen and heard the secret, but I cannot reveal it - I
then I will die." - "You must definitely tell me about her and the reason
your laughter, even if you die!" his wife objected. But the merchant replied: "I
I cannot reveal this secret, because I am afraid of death." And she exclaimed: "You,
You’re probably laughing at me!” - and until then she pestered and bored him,
fate he did not submit to her and was not upset; and then he called his children and
sent for the judge and witnesses, wanting to draw up a will and then open
secret to his wife and die, for he loved his wife great love, because she is
was the daughter of his uncle7 and the mother of his children, and he had already lived one hundred and twenty
years of life. Then the merchant ordered to call all relatives and everyone living on
his street and told them this story, adding that when he told his
secret, he will die. And everyone who was present said to his wife: “We conjure
Allah, give up this matter so that your husband and the father of your children do not die."
But Oka exclaimed: “I will not leave him until he says! Let him
is dying!" And everyone fell silent. And then the merchant got up and went to the stall to
perform ablution and, returning, tell them and die. And the merchant had
a rooster and fifty chickens with him, and he also had a dog. And then he heard
like a dog screams and scolds a rooster, saying to him: “You are rejoicing, but our master
going to die." - "How is that? - asked the rooster; and the dog repeated everything to him
story, and then the rooster exclaimed: “I swear by Allah, we have little intelligence
sir! I have fifty wives - I’ll make peace with one, then with another
I'll get along; and the owner has one wife, and he does not know how to treat her.
He should take some mulberry twigs, go into the closet and beat his wife until she dies
or he won’t resolve not to ask him anything in the future.”
And the merchant heard the words of the rooster addressed to the dog, he said
vizier to his daughter Shahrazade, - and I will do to you the same as he did to
his wife."
"What did he do?" - asked Shahrazad.
And the vizier continued: “Having broken the mulberry twigs, he hid them in the closet and
brought his wife there, saying: “Come here, I’ll tell you everything in the closet and
I’ll die and no one will look at me.” And she went into the closet with him, and
then the merchant locked the door and began to beat his wife so much that she almost
fainted and screamed: “I repent!” And then she kissed her husband
arms and legs, and repented, and went out with him, and her family and everyone
those gathered rejoiced, and they continued to live a most pleasant life until
of death".
And hearing the words of her father, the vizier's daughter said: "What I want,
inevitably!"
And then the vizier equipped her and took her to King Shahryar. And Shahrazad
taught her younger sister and told her: “When I come to the king, I will send
behind you, and you, when you come and see that the king has satisfied his need
in me, say: "Oh sister, talk to us and tell us something,
to shorten the sleepless night" - and I will tell you something that will contain, with
by the will of Allah, our liberation."
And so the vizier, Shahrazad's father, brought her to the king, and the king, seeing him,
was delighted and asked: “Have you delivered what I need?”
And the vizier said: “Yes!”
And Shahriyar wanted to take Shahrazade, but she began to cry; and then he asked
her: “What’s wrong with you?”
Shahrazad said: "O king, I have a little sister, and I want to
say goodbye to her."
And the king then sent for Dunyazada, and she came to her sister, hugged her and
sat down on the floor near the bed. And then Shahryar took possession of Shahrazade, and then they
began to talk; and the younger sister said to Shahrazad: “I conjure you
By Allah, sister, tell us something to reduce sleepless hours
nights."
“With love and desire, if the impeccable king allows me,” she answered
Scheherazade.
And, hearing these words, the king, who was suffering from insomnia, was glad that
listened to the story, and allowed it.
The Tale of the Merchant and the Spirit (nights 1-2)
First night
Shahrazad said: "They say, O happy king, that there was a merchant
among merchants, and he was very rich and did great business in different lands.
One day he went to some country to collect debts, and the heat overcame
him, and then he sat down under a tree and, putting his hand into the saddle bag, took out
a piece of bread and dates and began to eat dates with bread. And, having eaten the date, he threw
bone - and suddenly he sees: in front of him is a tall ifrit, and in his hands
naked sword. Ifrit approached the merchant and told him: “Get up, I’ll kill you.”
you, how did you kill my son!” - “How did I kill your son?” asked
merchant. And the ifrit replied: “When you ate a date and threw the stone, it hit
into my son's chest, and he died at that very moment." - "Truly, we belong
To Allah and to Him we return! - exclaimed the merchant. - No power or strength
Who else but Allah, the high, the great! If I killed your son, then I killed
accidentally. I want you to forgive me!" - "I definitely owe you
kill,” said the genie and pulled the merchant and, throwing him to the ground, raised his sword,
to hit him. And the merchant began to cry and exclaimed: “I entrust my business to Allah!
- and said:
Fate has two days: one is danger, the other is peace;
And in life there are two parts: that is clarity, and that is sadness.
Tell the one who reproaches the evil fate:
“Fate is always hostile only to those who have rank.
Don't you see how a whirlwind bends to the ground,
When it blows, only a strong tree bends down?
Don't you see - in the sea a corpse floats on the surface,
Are there pearls hidden in the distant depths of the bottom?
And if fate's hand played tricks on me
And her long-lasting anger struck me as a disaster,
Know this: there are so many lights in the heavens that it is impossible to count them,
But the sun and the month are eclipsed only because of them.
And how many plants there are, green and dried,
We throw stones only at those that bear fruit.
You were happy with the days while life was good,
And you were not afraid of the evil brought by fate.
And when the merchant finished these verses, the genie said to him: “Shorten your speeches!
I swear by Allah, I will certainly kill you!" And the merchant said: "Know, O ifrit,
that I have a debt, and I have a lot of money, and children, and a wife, and strangers
pledges. Let me go home, I'll pay whoever I owe
and I will return to you at the beginning of the year. I promise you and I swear by Allah that
I'll come back and you can do whatever you want with me. And Allah tells you that
I say guarantor."
And the genie secured his oath and released him, and the merchant returned to his
land and finished all his affairs, giving credit where credit was due. He informed
about everything about his wife and children, and made a will, and lived with them to the end
years, and then performed ablution, took his shroud under his arm and, saying goodbye
with his family, neighbors and all his relatives, he went out in defiance of himself; and they
they raised howls and shouts about him. And the merchant walked until he reached that grove (and in
that day was the beginning of a new year), and when he sat and cried about what happened to him
it happened to him, suddenly an elderly old man came up to him, and with him, on a chain,
gazelle. And he greeted the merchant and wished him a long life and asked:
“Why are you sitting alone in this place when this is the abode of the genies?” AND
the merchant told him what happened to the ifrit, and the old man, the owner
gazelle, was amazed and exclaimed: “I swear by Allah, O my brother, your honesty
truly great, and your story is amazing, and even if it were written with needles in
corners of the eye, it would serve as an edification for students!
Then the old man sat down next to the merchant and said: “I swear by Allah, O my brother, I
I won’t leave you until I see what happens to you with this ifrit!” And he
sat down next to him, and both were talking, and the merchant was seized with fear and horror, and strong
grief, and great thought, and the owner of the gazelle was next to him. And suddenly
another old man came up to them, and two dogs with him, and greeted them (and the dogs
were black, from hunting), and after the greeting he inquired: “Why are you
sit in this place when this is the abode of the jinn?" And they told him everything with
start to finish; and before he had time to sit down properly, he suddenly approached
with him is a third old man, and with him a piebald mule. And the elder greeted them and asked,
why are they here, and they told him the whole matter from beginning to end, - and in
repetition is of no use, oh my lords,” and he sat down with them. And suddenly came from
desert a huge spinning column of dust, and when the dust cleared, it turned out
that this is the same genie, and in his hands he has a naked sword, and his eyes are darting
sparks. And, approaching them, the genie pulled the merchant by the hand and exclaimed:
"Get up, I will kill you, like you killed my child, the last breath of my heart!"
And the merchant began to weep and weep, and the three elders also began to weep, sob and
screams.
And the first elder, the owner of the gazelle, separated from the others and, kissing
ifrit's hand, said: "O genie, crown for the king"! genies! If I tell you
what happened to me with this gazelle, and you will find my story amazing,
will you give me one third of this merchant’s blood?” “Yes, old man,” answered
ifrit, - if you tell me a story and it seems amazing to me, I
I will give you a third of his blood."
The First Elder's Tale (Night 1)
Know, O ifrit,” the elder said then, “that this gazelle is the daughter of my
uncles and, as it were, my flesh and blood. I married her when she was quite
young, and lived with her for about thirty years, but did not have a child from her; and then
I took a concubine, and she gave me a son like the moon at full moon, and
his eyes and eyebrows were perfect in beauty! He grew up and became big and
reached fifteen years of age; and then I had to go to some city, and I
went with different goods. And my uncle's daughter, this gazelle, from an early age
learned witchcraft and sorcery, and she turned the boy into a calf, and
that slave girl, his mother, became a cow and gave them to the shepherd.
I arrived after a long time from traveling and asked about my child and
his mother, and my uncle's daughter said to me: "Your wife is dead, and your son
ran away, and I don’t know where he went.” And I sat for a year with a sad heart and
with crying eyes, until the great holiday of Allah came8, and then I
sent for the shepherd and told him to bring a fat cow. And the shepherd brought
a fat cow (and this was my slave, who was bewitched by this gazelle),
and I picked up the floors and took a knife in my hands, wanting to kill her, but the cow began
roar, moan and cry; and I was surprised by this, and I was overcome with pity. And I
left her and said to the shepherd: “Bring me another cow.” But my daughter
Uncle shouted: “Kill this one! My chum is better and fatter than her!” And I approached
cow to slaughter it, but it began to bray, and then I stood up and ordered
that shepherd should slaughter it and rip it off. And the shepherd slaughtered and skinned the cow, but
I found no meat, no fat - nothing but skin and bones. And I repented that
slaughtered a cow, but my repentance was of no use, and gave it to the shepherd and
said to him: “Bring me a fat calf!” And the shepherd brought me my son;
and when the calf saw me, he broke the rope and ran up to me and stood up
rubbing me, crying and moaning. Then I was overcome with pity, and I said
to the shepherd: “Bring me the cow, but leave him.” But my uncle's daughter, this
gazelle, screamed at me and said: “We must definitely kill this
calf today: after all, today is a holy and blessed day when they slaughter
only the best animal, and among our calves there are none fatter or better
this!"
"Look at the cow that I slaughtered at your command,
- I told her. - You see, she and I were deceived and had nothing from her.
good, and I strongly regret that I stabbed her, and now, this time, I don't
I want to hear nothing about slaughtering this calf." - "I swear
By Allah, the great, the merciful, the merciful, you will certainly kill him on this
sacred day, and if not, then you are not my husband and I am not your wife!" -
exclaimed my uncle's daughter. And, having heard these painful words from her and not
Knowing her intentions, I approached the calf and picked up a knife..."
And her sister exclaimed: “Oh sister, how beautiful your story is,
good, and pleasant, and sweet!"
But Shahrazad said: “What does it matter what I tell you about in
next night, if I live and the king spares me!”
And the king then thought to himself: “I swear by Allah, I will not kill her until
I’ll hear the end of her story!”
Then they spent that night hugging each other until the morning, and the king went to commit
court, and the vizier came to him with a shroud under his arm. And after this the king judged,
appointed and dismissed until the end of the day and did not order anything to the vizier, and the vizier until
I was extremely amazed.
And then the presence ended, and King Shahriyar retired to his chambers.
Second night
When the second night came, Dunyazade said to her sister Shahrazade:
"Oh sister, finish your story about the merchant and the spirit."
And Shahrazad answered: "With love and pleasure, if I may
tsar!"
And the king said: “Tell me!”
And Shahrazad continued: “It has reached me, O happy king and
fair lord, that when the old man wanted to slaughter a calf, he
his heart was agitated, and he said to the shepherd: “Leave this calf among
cattle." (And the old man told all this to the genie, and the genie listened and was amazed
his amazing speeches.) “And it was so, O lord of the kings of the jinn,” continued
the owner of the gazelle, my uncle's daughter, this gazelle, looked and saw and
told me: “Kill the calf, it’s fat!” But it wasn't easy for me
slaughter, and I told the shepherd to take the calf, and the shepherd took it and went away with it.
And the next day I was sitting, and suddenly a shepherd came to me and said:
“My lord, I’ll tell you something that will make you happy, and I’ll
good news deserves a gift." “Okay,” I answered; and the shepherd
said: “O merchant, I have a daughter who from an early age learned
witchcraft from an old woman who lived with us. And yesterday, when you gave me
calf, I came to my daughter, and she looked at the calf and closed her
face and cried, and then laughed and said: “Oh, father, I’m not enough for
I mean you if you bring strange men to me!” - “Where are the strange men,
- I asked, “and why do you cry and laugh?” - “This calf, which
“you, the son of our master,” answered my daughter. - He's bewitched, and
He and his mother were bewitched by his father's wife. That's why I
laughed; and I cried for his mother, who was stabbed by his father." And I
I was extremely surprised, and as soon as I saw that the sun had risen, I came to you
report it."
Hearing these words from the shepherd, oh genie, I went with him, drunk without wine.
from the joy and joy that overwhelmed me, and I came to his house, and the shepherd’s daughter
greeted me and kissed my hand, and the calf came up to me and began
rub against me. And I said to the shepherd's daughter: "Is what you say true?
about this calf?" And she answered: "Yes, my lord, this is your son and the best
part of your heart." - “Oh girl,” I said then, “if you free
him, I will give you all my cattle, and all my property, and everything that is now in my hands
your father." But the girl smiled and said: "Oh my lord, I am not greedy
for money and I will do it only under two conditions: first, marry me to him
get married, and secondly, let me bewitch the one who bewitched him, and
imprison her, otherwise I am threatened by her machinations."
Hearing these words from the shepherd’s daughter, O genie, I said: “And moreover,
whatever you demand, you will get all the livestock and property in your hands
your father. As for my uncle's daughter, her blood is for you
not forbidden."
When the shepherd's daughter heard this, she took a cup and filled it with water,
and then she cast a spell over the water and sprinkled it on the calf, saying:
"If you are a calf according to the creation of Allah the Great, remain in this form and do not
change, and if you are bewitched, take your former image with permission
great Allah!" Suddenly the calf shook itself and became a man, and I rushed
to him and exclaimed: “I conjure you by Allah, tell me what you did with
you and your mother, my uncle’s daughter!” And he told me what happened to them
happened, and I said: “O my child, Allah has sent you the one who freed
you and restored your right."
After this, O genie, I gave the shepherd’s daughter in marriage to him, and she
enchanted my uncle's daughter, this gazelle, and said: "This is a beautiful image,
not wild, and his appearance does not inspire disgust." And the shepherd's daughter lived with us for days
and nights and nights and days, until Allah took her to himself, and after her death my
the son went to the countries of India, that is, to the lands of this merchant, with whom he had
you were what was; and then I took this gazelle, my uncle's daughter, and went
with her from country to country, looking out what happened to my son - and fate
brought me to this place, and I saw a merchant sitting and crying. Here is my
story".
"This amazing story, - said the genie, - and I give you a third of the blood
merchant."
And then the second elder came forward, the one who was with the hunting dogs, and
said to the genie: "If I tell you what happened to my two
brothers, these dogs, and you will find my story even more amazing and
outlandish, will you also give me one third of this merchant’s misdeed?” - “If
your story will be more surprising and outlandish - it is yours,” answered the genie.
The Second Elder's Tale (Night 2)
Know, O lord of the kings of the jinn, - the elder began, - that these two dogs -
my brothers, and I am the third brother. My father died and left us three thousand
dinars, and I opened a shop to trade, and my brothers also opened
shop. But I didn’t stay in the shop for long, since my older brother, one of
these dogs, sold everything he had for a thousand dinars and, having bought
goods and all sorts of goods, went to travel. He was away for a whole year and
suddenly, when I was in a shop one day, a beggar stopped next to me. I said
to him: “Allah will help!” But the beggar exclaimed, crying: “You don’t recognize me anymore!”
- and then I looked at him and suddenly I saw - this is my brother! And I got up and
greeted him and, taking him to the shop, asked what was wrong with him. But he replied:
“Don’t ask! The money is gone and happiness has changed.” And then I took him to the bathhouse,
and dressed him in a dress from my clothes, and brought him to me, and then I counted
turnover of the shop, and it turned out that I had made a thousand dinars and that my capital was
two thousand. I divided this money with my brother and told him: “Consider that you are not
traveled and did not go to a foreign land"; and my brother took the money, joyful, and
opened a shop.
And nights and days passed, and my second brother - and this is another dog - sold
his property and everything he had, and wanted to travel. We
held him, but did not keep him, and, having bought some goods, he left with
travelers. He wasn't with us for a whole year, and then he came to me
the same as his elder brother, and I told him: “O my brother, I did not advise
Should I not go to you?" And he began to cry and exclaimed: "Oh my brother, so it was
destined, and now I am a poor man: I do not have a single dirham9, and I am naked,
without a shirt." And I took him, oh genie, and took him to the bathhouse and dressed him in a new dress
out of his clothes, and then went with him to the shop, and we ate and drank, and after
So I told him: “O my brother, I settle the accounts of my shop once every
new year, and all the income that will be will go to me and you." And I calculated, oh
ifrit, the turnover of his shop, and I ended up with two thousand dinars, and I
praised the creator, may he be exalted and glorified! And then I gave it to my brother
a thousand dinars, and I had a thousand left, and my brother opened a shop, and we
lived many days.
And after a while my brothers approached me, wanting me to
went with them, but I didn’t do it. And I said to them: “What have you gained in this
journey, what could I gain?" and did not listen to them. And we remained in
our shops, selling and buying, and every year my brothers offered me
travel, but I didn’t agree until six years had passed. And then I
allowed them to go and said: “O brothers, I will also go with you, but
let’s see how much money you have,” and I didn’t find anything with them;
on the contrary, they squandered everything, indulging in gluttony, drunkenness and pleasure.
But I did not speak to them and, without saying a word, I settled my accounts.
shops and turned into money all the goods and property I had, and I
It turned out to be six thousand dinars. And I rejoiced, and divided them in half, and
said to the brothers: “Here are three thousand dinars, for me and for you, and with them we
we will trade." And I buried the other three thousand dinars, assuming that
the same thing can happen to me as to them, and when I arrive, I will have
There will be three thousand dinars left, with which we will open our shops again. My
the brothers agreed, and I gave them a thousand dinars each, and I also had some left
thousand, and we purchased the necessary goods, and equipped ourselves for the journey, and hired
ship, and moved their belongings there.
We traveled the first day, and the second day, and traveled for a whole month, until
did not arrive with their goods in one city. We got for every dinar
ten and were about to leave, when they saw a girl dressed in
tattered rags, who kissed my hand and said: “Oh my lord,
Are you capable of mercy and good deeds, for which I will thank you?"
“Yes,” I answered her, “I love good deeds and mercies and will help you, even
if you do not thank me." And then the girl said: "O lord,
marry me and take me to your lands. I give myself to you, come to me
merciful, for I am one of those to whom goodness and benefits are shown, and I will repay
you. And let my position not deceive you." And when I heard the words
girls, my heart went to her, to fulfill anything
Allah, the great, the glorious, and I took the girl and dressed her and laid it on her
ship a good bed, and took care of it, and honored it. And then or
let's move on, and a great love for a girl was born in my heart, and not
I parted with her neither day nor night. I neglected my brothers because of her,
and they were jealous of me and envied my wealth and my abundance
goods, and their eyes did not know sleep, greedy for our money. And brothers
started talking about how to kill me and take my money, and said: “We’ll kill
brother, and all the money will be ours."
And the devil adorned this matter in their thoughts. And they came to me when I
I slept next to my wife, and they picked me up along with her and threw me into the sea water; and here's mine
the wife woke up, shook herself and became an ifrit and carried me - and carried me out
to the island. Then she disappeared for a while and, returning to me a year in the morning,
said: “I am your wife, and I carried you and saved you from death by will
Allah is great. Know that I am your betrothed, and when I saw you, my heart
I will love you for the sake of Allah - and I believe in Allah and his Messenger, yes
Allah bless him and greet him! And I came to you like you
saw me, and you took me as your wife, and so I saved you from drowning. By
I was angry with your brothers, and I definitely need to kill them." Having heard
her words, I was amazed and thanked her for her action and told her: “Well
concerns the murder of my brothers, know!" - and I told her everything that was going on with me.
they were, from beginning to end.
And, having learned this, she said: “Tonight I will fly to them and drown them
ship and destroy them." - “I call you by Allah,” I said, “do not do
this! After all, the saying says: “O benefactor of the evil, it is enough with
the villain and what he did. “Be that as it may, they are my brothers.” - "I
“I must definitely kill them,” objected the ginnia. And I began to beg her,
and then she carried me to the roof of my house. And I unlocked the doors and took out what
that he hid underground, and opened his shop, wishing peace to the people and buying
goods. When evening came, I returned home and found these two dogs,
tied in the yard - and when they saw me, they stood up and cried and clung to
for me.
And before I had time to look back, my wife said to me:
"These are your brothers." - “Who did this to them?” - I asked. AND
she replied: "I sent for my sister, and she did this to them, and they
will not be released before ten years." And so I came here, going to
her to free my brothers after they spent ten
years in this condition, and I saw this merchant, and he told me that
happened to me, and I wanted not to leave here and see what you have
will be with him. Here's my story."
"This amazing story, and I give you a third of the blood of the merchant and his
misdeed," said the genie.
And then the third elder, the owner of the mule, said: “I’ll tell you a story
stranger than these two, and you, O genie, give me the rest of his blood and
crime." “Okay,” answered the genie.
The Third Elder's Tale (Night 2)
“Oh, Sultan and head of all genies,” the old man began, “Know that this mule
was my wife. I went on a trip and was away for a whole year, and
then I finished the trip and returned to my wife at night. And I saw a black slave
who lay in bed with her, and they talked, played, laughed,
kissed and messed around. And, seeing me, my wife hastily rose from her
a jug of water, said something over it and splashed it on me and said:
"Change your image and take on the image of a dog!" And I immediately became a dog, and my
my wife kicked me out of the house; and I left the gate and walked until
came to the butcher's shop. And I came up and began to eat the bones, and when the owner of the shop
noticed me, he took me and brought me into his house. And seeing me, daughter
the butcher covered her face from me and exclaimed: “You bring a man and enter
come with him to us!" “Where is the man?” asked her father. And she said: “This
the dog is a man who has been bewitched by his wife, and I can free him." And,
Hearing the girl’s words, her father exclaimed: “I conjure you by Allah, daughter
mine, set him free." And she took the jug of water and said something over it
and lightly sprayed me, and said: “Change this image to your previous one.”
look!" And I took on my original form and kissed the girl’s hand and
told her: “I want you to bewitch my wife, as she bewitched
me." And the girl gave me some water and said: "When you see your wife
sleeping, sprinkle this water on her and say what you want, and she will become the one
whatever you wish." And I took the water and went in to my wife, and finding her sleeping,
splashed water on her and said: “Leave this image and take the form of a mule!” AND
she immediately became a mule, the one you see with your own eyes, oh
sultan and chief of the jinn."
And the genie asked the mule: “Is that right?” And the mule shook his head and spoke
signs denoting: “Yes, I swear by Allah, this is my story and what
happened to me!"
And when the third elder finished his story, the genie shook with delight and
gave him a third of the merchant's blood..."
But then morning overtook Shahrazad, and she stopped her permissible speeches.
And her sister said: “Oh sister, how sweet and good your story is,
both sweet and gentle."
And Shahrazad replied: “What does it matter what I tell you about in
next night, if I live and the king leaves me."
“I swear by Allah,” the king exclaimed, “I will not kill her until I hear all
her story, because it is amazing!
And then they spent that night hugging each other until the morning, and the king went
to administer justice, and the troops and the vizier came, and the divan10 was filled with people. AND
the king judged, appointed, dismissed, and forbade, and ordered until the end of the day.
And then the sofa parted, and King Shahriyar retired to his chambers. And with
As night approached, he satisfied his need with the vizier's daughter.
Third night
And when the third night came, her sister Dunyazada said to her: “Oh
sister, finish your story."
And Shahrazad answered: “With love and desire! It has reached me, O happy one.”
king, what thirds!! the old man told the genie a story stranger than the other two,
and the genie was extremely amazed and shook with delight and said: “I give you
the remainder of the merchant's offense and I release him." And the merchant turned to the elders and
thanked them and they congratulated him on his salvation, and each of them
returned to his country. But this is no more surprising than the tale of the fisherman."
"How was it?" - asked the king.
The Fisherman's Tale (nights 3-4)
It dawned on me, O happy king, said Shahrazad, that there was one
a fisherman, well advanced in age, and he had a wife and three children, and he lived in
poverty. And it was his custom to cast his net every day four
times, not otherwise; and then one day he went out at midday and came to the shore
sea, and set down his basket, and, picking up the floors, entered the sea and threw
net. He waited until the net was set in the water and gathered the ropes, and when
felt that the net became heavy, tried to pull it out, but could not; And
then he went ashore with the end of the net, drove in a peg, tied the net and,
having undressed, he began to poke around her, and tried until he pulled out
her. And he rejoiced and went out and, putting on his clothes, went to the net, but found
there is a dead donkey in it, which tore the net. Seeing this, the fisherman became sad and
exclaimed:
“There is no power and strength except with Allah, the high, the great! Verily, this
amazing food! - he said then and said:
O you, plunged into the darkness of night and death,
Moderate your efforts: work does not give you an allotment.
Don't you see the sea, and the fisherman is going to the sea,
Gathering to fish under the shadow of the night lights?
He entered the abyss of water, and a wave lashed him,
And he does not take his eyes off his swollen nets.
But having slept peacefully the night, satisfied with that fish,
Whose throat has already been pierced with a murderous iron,
He will sell the catch to the one who slept peacefully at night,
Sheltered from the cold in goodness and mercy.
Praise be to the creator! He will give to some and not to others;
Some are destined to catch, others are destined to eat the catch."
Then he said: “Live! Mercy will certainly come if Allah wants
great! - and said:
If you are struck by trouble, then put on
In the patience of the glorious; truly, it is more reasonable;
Do not complain to slaves: you will complain about a good man
Before those who will never be kind to you."
Then he threw the donkey out of the net and wrung it out, and when he had finished wrung out the net, he
straightened it out and entered the sea and, saying: “In the name of Allah!”, threw it again. He
waited until the network was established; and it became heavy and clung tighter than
before, and the fisherman thought it was a fish, and, having tied the net, undressed, entered
water and dived until he released it. He worked on it until
did not lift it to land, but found in it a large jug full of sand and silt. AND,
Seeing this, the fisherman became sad and said:
"O fury of fate - enough!
And it’s not enough for you - be softer!
I went out for food
But I see that it has died.
How many fools are there in the Pleiades
And how many wise men are there in the dust!”
Then he threw the jug and wrung out the net and cleaned it and, asking for forgiveness
from Allah the Great, returned to the sea for the third time and again cast the net. AND,
After waiting until it was established, he pulled out the net, but found shards in it,
shards of glass and bones. And then he became very angry and cried and
said:
“This is your share: you have no power to manage affairs;
Neither knowledge nor power will give you a spell;
And happiness and share are distributed to everyone in advance,
And there is little in one land, and much in another land.
The vicissitudes of fate oppress and tilt the educated,
And he lifts up the vile ones, those worthy of contempt,
O death, visit me! Truly, life is bad,
When the falcon descends, the geese fly up.
It’s no wonder that you see something worthy in poverty,
And the bad one rages, having power over everyone:
And the bird circles alone from the east and west
Above the world, the other has everything without moving."
Then he raised his head to the sky and said: "God, you know that I
I cast my net only four times a day, but I have already cast it three times,
and nothing came to me. Send me, oh God, this time it's mine
food!"
Then the fisherman said the name of Allah and threw the net into the sea and waited until
it will install, I pulled it, but could not pull it out, and it turned out that it
got tangled up at the bottom.
“There is no power and strength except with Allah!” exclaimed the fisherman and said:
Fie all life, if such is the case, -
I recognized only grief and misfortune in her!
If the husband's life is cloudless at dawn,
He must drink the cup of death by nightfall.
But before I was the one about whom the answer
To the question: who is the happiest? - was: here he is!
He undressed and dived for the net, and worked on it until he lifted it to the ground.
land, and, stretching out the net, he found in it a jug made of yellow copper, something
filled, and its neck was sealed with lead, on which was an imprint
the ring of our master Suleiman ibn Daoud11 - peace be with them both! AND,
Seeing the jug, the fisherman was delighted and exclaimed: “I will sell it at the market
coppersmiths, it is worth ten dinars in gold! " Then he moved the jug, and
found it heavy, and saw that it was tightly closed, and said to himself: “I’ll take a look-
ka, what's in this jug! I'll open it and see what's in it, and then
I’ll sell!” And he took out a knife and tried to work on the lead until he tore it off
jug, and put the jug sideways on the ground and shook it so that what was in
it poured out, but nothing poured out from there, and the fisherman was extremely
surprised. And then smoke came out of the jug and rose to the clouds
heavenly and crawled across the face of the earth, and when the smoke came out completely, it gathered and
shrank and trembled, and became an efreet with his head in the clouds and his feet on
earth. And his head was like a dome, his hands were like pitchforks, his legs were like masts, his mouth
like a cave, teeth like stones, nostrils like pipes, and eyes like two
lamp, and it was gloomy and disgusting.
And when the fisherman saw this ifrit, his veins trembled and
His teeth chattered and his saliva dried up, and he couldn’t see the road in front of him. And ifrit,
seeing him, he exclaimed: “There is no god but Allah, Suleiman is the prophet of Allah!”
Then he cried out: “O Prophet of Allah, do not kill me! I will not
resist your word and will not disobey your command!" And the fisherman said
to him: “O Marid, you say: “Suleiman is the prophet of Allah,” but Suleiman is already
one thousand eight hundred years since he died, and we live in last times before the end
peace. What is your story and what happened to you and why did you enter
this jug?
And, hearing the words of the fisherman, the Marid exclaimed: “There is no god but Allah!
Rejoice, O fisherman!" - “What will you please me with?” asked the fisherman. And the ifrit
replied: “Because I will kill you this very minute with the most evil death.” - "For such
news, O chief of the Ifrits, you are worthy of losing the protection of Allah! - cried
fisherman. - Oh, damned one, why are you killing me and why do you need my life?
when did I free you from the jug and save you from the bottom of the sea and raise you to land?"
“Wish what death you want to die and what kind of execution you will be executed with!” - said
ifrit. And the fisherman exclaimed: “What is my sin and why are you doing this to me?”
reward?" - “Listen to my story, O fisherman,” said the ifrit, and the fisherman
said: “Speak and be brief, otherwise my soul has already come to my nose!”
“Know, O fisherman,” said the ifrit, “that I am one of the genies-
apostates, and we disobeyed Suleiman, son of Daud - peace be with them
both! - me and Sahr, the genie. And Suleiman sent his vizier, Asaf ibn
Barakhiya, and he brought me to Suleiman by force, in humiliation, against my
will. He placed me in front of Suleiman, and Suleiman, seeing me, called
against me to the help of Allah and invited me to accept the true faith and enter
under his authority, but I refused. And then he ordered this jug to be brought and
imprisoned me in it and sealed the jug with lead, imprinting on it the greatest
from the names of Allah, and then he gave an order to the jinn, and they carried me and
thrown in the middle of the sea. And I spent a hundred years at sea and said in my heart:
I will enrich everyone who frees me forever. But another hundred years passed, and
no one freed me. And another hundred passed by, and I said: everyone who
will free me, I will open the treasures of the earth. But no one freed me. AND
Another four hundred years passed over me, and I said: everyone who frees
me, I will grant three wishes. But no one set me free and then I
became angry with great anger and said in his soul: whoever frees
I will kill me now and offer him to choose which death to die! And here you are
freed me, and I offer you to choose what kind of death you want
die".
Hearing the words of the ifrit, the fisherman exclaimed: “Oh, the wonder of Allah! And I came
release you only now! Deliver me from death - Allah will deliver you,
- he said to the ifrit. - Do not destroy me - Allah will give power over you to the one who
will destroy you." - "Your death is inevitable, wish what kind of death you
die," said the Marid.
And when the fisherman was convinced of this, he again turned to the ifrit and said:
"Have mercy on me as a reward for freeing you." - “But I kill
you only because you freed me!" - exclaimed the ifrit. And the fisherman
said: “O Sheikh of the 12 Ifrits, I treat you well, and you reward me
nasty. The saying in these verses does not lie:
We did good to them, and they repaid us in return;
Behold, I swear on my life, vicious deeds!
Whoever acts commendably with unworthy people -
Those will be rewarded as if they gave shelter to a hyena."
Hearing the words of the fisherman, the ifrit exclaimed: “Don’t delay, your death
inevitable!" And the fisherman thought: "This is a genie, and I am a man, and Allah has given me
perfect mind. So I'll figure out how to destroy him with cunning and intelligence while he
He is plotting how to destroy me with deceit and abomination."
Then he said to the ifrit: “Is my death inevitable?” And the ifrit answered: “Yes.”
And then the fisherman exclaimed: “I conjure you with the greatest name carved on
the ring of Suleiman ibn Daoud - peace be with them both! - I'll ask you about one thing
things, tell me the truth." - "Okay," said the ifrit, "ask and be
brief!" - and he trembled and shook when he heard the mention of the greatest name.
And the fisherman said: “You were in this jug, and the jug won’t even hold your hand.”
or legs. So how did he accommodate all of you?" - "So you don’t believe that I was
in it?" - cried the ifrit. "I will never believe you until I see you there
with my own eyes," answered the fisherman..."
And the morning overtook Shahrazad, and she stopped her permitted speech.
Almost two and a half centuries have passed since Europe first became acquainted with the Arabian tales of the Arabian Nights in Galland's free and far from complete French translation, but even now they enjoy the constant love of readers. The passage of time did not affect the popularity of Shahrazad's stories; Along with countless reprints and secondary translations from Galland’s publication, publications of “Nights” appear again and again in many languages of the world, translated directly from the original, to this day. The influence of “The Arabian Nights” on the work of various writers was great - Montesquieu, Wieland, Hauff, Tennyson, Dickens. Pushkin also admired Arabic tales. Having first become acquainted with some of them in Senkovsky’s free adaptation, he became so interested in them that he purchased one of the editions of Galland’s translation, which was preserved in his library.
It’s hard to say what attracts more in the tales of “One Thousand and One Nights” - the entertaining plot, the bizarre interweaving of the fantastic and the real, vivid pictures of urban life in the medieval Arab East, fascinating descriptions of amazing countries, or the liveliness and depth of experiences of the heroes of fairy tales, the psychological justification of situations, clear, a certain morality. The language of many of the stories is magnificent - lively, imaginative, rich, devoid of circumlocutions and omissions. The speech of the heroes of the best fairy tales of the Nights is clearly individual; each of them has their own style and vocabulary, characteristic of the social environment from which they came.
What is “The Book of a Thousand and One Nights”, how and when was it created, where were Shahrazad’s tales born?
"A Thousand and One Nights" is not the work of an individual author or compiler - the entire Arab people is a collective creator. As we now know it, “A Thousand and One Nights” is a collection of tales in Arabic, united by a framing story about the cruel king Shahriyar, who took a new wife every evening and killed her in the morning. The history of the Arabian Nights is still far from clear; its origins are lost in the depths of centuries.
The first written information about the Arabic collection of fairy tales, framed by the story of Shahriyar and Shahrazad and called “A Thousand Nights” or “One Thousand and One Nights,” we find in the works of Baghdad writers of the 10th century - the historian al-Masudi and the bibliographer an-Nadim, who talk about it , as about a long and well-known work. Already at that time, information about the origin of this book was quite vague and it was considered a translation of the Persian collection of fairy tales “Khezar-Efsane” (“A Thousand Tales”), allegedly compiled for Humai, the daughter of the Iranian king Ardeshir (IV century BC). The content and nature of the Arabic collection mentioned by Masudi and an-Nadim are unknown to us, since it has not survived to this day.
The evidence of the named writers about the existence in their time of the Arabic book of fairy tales “One Thousand and One Nights” is confirmed by the presence of an excerpt from this book dating back to the 9th century.
Subsequently, the literary evolution of the collection continued until the 14th–15th centuries. More and more fairy tales of different genres and different social origins were included in the convenient frame of the collection. We can judge the process of creating such fabulous collections from the message of the same an-Nadim, who says that his elder contemporary, a certain Abd-Allah al-Jahshiyari - a personality, by the way, is quite real - decided to compile a book of thousands of tales of the “Arabs, Persians, Greeks and other peoples,” one for the night, each containing fifty sheets, but he died having only managed to type four hundred and eighty stories. He took material mainly from professional storytellers, whom he called from all over the caliphate, as well as from written sources.
Al-Jahshiyari’s collection has not reached us, and other fairy-tale collections called “One Thousand and One Nights,” which were sparingly mentioned by medieval Arab writers, have also not survived. These collections of fairy tales apparently differed from each other in composition; they only had in common the title and the frame fairy tale.
In the course of creating such collections, several successive stages can be outlined.
The first suppliers of material for them were professional folk storytellers, whose stories were initially recorded from dictation with almost stenographic accuracy, without any literary processing. A large number of such stories in Arabic, written in Hebrew letters, are stored in the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library in Leningrad; the oldest lists date back to the 11th–12th centuries. Subsequently, these records went to booksellers, who subjected the text of the tale to some literary processing. Each tale was considered at this stage not as an integral part of a collection, but as a completely independent work; therefore, in the original versions of the tales that have reached us, later included in the “Book of One Thousand and One Nights,” there is still no division into nights. The breakdown of the text of the fairy tales took place at the last stage of their processing, when they fell into the hands of the compiler who compiled the next collection of “A Thousand and One Nights.” In the absence of material for the required number of “nights,” the compiler replenished it from written sources, borrowing from there not only short stories and anecdotes, but also long knightly romances.
The last such compiler was that unknown-named learned sheikh, who compiled the most recent collection of tales of the Arabian Nights in Egypt in the 18th century. Fairy tales also received the most significant literary treatment in Egypt, two or three centuries earlier. This 14th–16th century edition of The Book of the Thousand and One Nights, usually called “Egyptian,” is the only one that has survived to this day, is presented in most printed editions, as well as in almost all manuscripts of the Nights known to us, and serves as specific material for studying the tales of Shahrazad.
From the previous, perhaps earlier, collections of “The Book of One Thousand and One Nights,” only single tales have survived, not included in the “Egyptian” edition and presented in a few manuscripts of individual volumes of “Nights” or existing in the form of independent stories, which, however, have a division at night. These stories include the most popular fairy tales among European readers: “Alad Din and the Magic Lamp”, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” and some others; The Arabic original of these tales was at the disposal of the first translator of the Arabian Nights, Galland, through whose translation they became known in Europe.
When studying The Arabian Nights, each tale should be considered separately, since there is no organic connection between them, and they existed independently for a long time before being included in the collection. Attempts to group some of them into groups based on their supposed origin - India, Iran or Baghdad - are not well founded. The plots of Shahrazad's stories were formed from individual elements that could penetrate Arab soil from Iran or India independently of one another; in their new homeland they were overgrown with purely native layers and from ancient times became the property of Arab folklore. This, for example, happened with the framing tale: having come to the Arabs from India through Iran, it lost many of its original features in the mouths of the storytellers.
More appropriate than an attempt to group, say, according to a geographical principle, should be considered the principle of uniting them, at least conditionally, into groups according to the time of creation or according to their belonging to the social environment where they existed. The oldest, most enduring fairy tales in the collection, which may have existed in one form or another already in the first editions in the 9th-10th centuries, include those stories in which the element of fantasy is most strongly manifested and supernatural beings act, actively interfering in the affairs of people. These are the tales “About the Fisherman and the Spirit”, “About the Ebony Horse” and a number of others. During their long literary life, they apparently were subjected to literary adaptation many times; This is evidenced by their language, which claims to have a certain sophistication, and by the abundance of poetic passages, undoubtedly interspersed into the text by editors or copyists.
Of more recent origin is a group of tales reflecting the life and everyday life of a medieval Arab trading city. As can be seen from some topographical details, the action takes place mainly in the capital of Egypt - Cairo. These short stories are usually based on some touching love story, complicated by various adventures; the persons acting in it belong, as a rule, to the trade and craft nobility. In style and language, fairy tales of this kind are somewhat simpler than fantastic ones, but they also contain many poetic quotations of predominantly erotic content. It is interesting that in urban novels, the brightest and strongest personality is often a woman who boldly breaks the barriers that harem life poses for her. A man, weakened by debauchery and idleness, is invariably rendered a simpleton and doomed to second roles.
Another characteristic feature of this group of tales is the sharply expressed antagonism between the townspeople and the Bedouin nomads, who are usually the subject of the most caustic ridicule in The Book of the Thousand and One Nights.
The best examples of urban short stories include “The Tale of the Lover and the Beloved”, “The Tale of Three Apples” (including “The Tale of the Vizier Nur-ad-din and his brother”), “The Tale of Kamar-az-Zaman and the Jeweler’s Wife” , as well as most of the stories united by The Tale of the Hunchback.
Finally, the most recent in time of creation are tales of the picaresque genre, apparently included in the collection in Egypt, during its last processing. These stories also developed in an urban environment, but they reflect the life of small artisans, day laborers and poor people doing odd jobs. These tales most vividly reflected the protest of the oppressed sections of the population of the medieval eastern city. The curious forms in which this protest was sometimes expressed can be seen, for example, from the “Tale of Ghanim ibn Ayyub” (see this edition, vol. II, p. 15), where a slave, whom his master wants to set free, argues that referring to the books of lawyers that he does not have the right to do this, since he did not teach his slave any craft and by freeing him he condemns the latter to starvation.
Pictorial tales are characterized by the caustic irony of depicting representatives of secular power and the clergy in the most unsightly form. The plot of many of these stories is a complex fraud, the purpose of which is not so much to rob as to fool some simpleton. Brilliant examples of picaresque stories are “The Tale of Delilah the Cunning Man and Ali-Zeybak of Cairo,” replete with the most incredible adventures, “The Tale of Ala-ad-din Abu-sh-Shamat,” “The Tale of Maruf the Shoemaker.”
Stories of this type came into the collection directly from the mouths of the storytellers and were subjected to only minor literary processing. This is indicated first of all by their language, not alien to dialectisms and colloquial turns of speech, the saturation of the text with dialogues, lively and dynamic, as if directly overheard in the city square, as well as the complete absence of love poems - the listeners of such fairy tales, apparently, were not hunters of sentimental poetic outpourings. Both in content and form, the picaresque stories represent one of the most valuable parts of the collection.
In addition to the tales of the three categories mentioned, the Book of the Thousand and One Nights includes a number of large works and a significant number of small anecdotes, undoubtedly borrowed by the compilers from various literary sources. These are the huge knightly novels: “The Tale of King Omar ibn al-Numan”, “The Tale of Adjib and Gharib”, “The Tale of the Prince and the Seven Viziers”, “The Tale of Sinbad the Sailor” and some others. In the same way, edifying parables and stories, imbued with the idea of the frailty of earthly life (“The Tale of the Copper City”), edifying stories-questionnaires such as “Mirror” (the story of the wise girl Tawaddud), anecdotes about famous Muslim mystics-Sufis, etc. . n. Small stories, as already mentioned, were apparently added by the compilers to fill the required number of nights.
Fairy tales of a particular group, born in a certain social environment, naturally had the greatest distribution in this environment. The compilers and editors of the collection themselves were well aware of this, as evidenced by the following note, rewritten into one of the later manuscripts of “Nights” from an older original: “The narrator should tell in accordance with those who listen to him. If these are common people, let him tell stories from The Arabian Nights about ordinary people - these are the stories at the beginning of the book (obviously meaning fairy tales of the picaresque genre - M.S.), and if these people belong to the rulers, then you should tell them stories about kings and battles between knights, and these stories should be at the end of the book.”
We find the same indication in the text of the “Book” itself - in “The Tale of Seif-al-Muluk”, which appeared in the collection, apparently, at a rather late stage of its evolution. It says that a certain storyteller, who alone knew this tale, yielding to persistent requests, agrees to let it be rewritten, but sets the following condition for the scribe: “Do not tell this tale at a crossroads or in the presence of women, slaves, slaves, fools and children. Read it from the emirs 1
Emir - military leader, commander.
Kings, viziers and men of knowledge from the interpreters of the Koran and others."
In their homeland, Shahrazad's tales have been met with different attitudes in different social strata since ancient times. If fairy tales have always enjoyed enormous popularity among the general public, representatives of Muslim scholastic science and the clergy, guardians of the “purity” of the classical Arabic language, invariably spoke of them with undisguised contempt. Even in the 10th century, an-Nadim, speaking about “A Thousand and One Nights,” disdainfully noted that it was written “thinly and tediously.” A thousand years later, he also had followers who declared this collection an empty and harmful book and prophesied all sorts of troubles to its readers. Representatives of the progressive Arab intelligentsia look at Shahrazad's tales differently. Fully recognizing the great artistic, historical and literary value of this monument, literary scholars of the United Arab Republic and other Arab countries are studying it in depth and comprehensively.
The negative attitude towards “A Thousand and One Nights” by reactionary Arab philologists of the 19th century had a sad effect on the fate of its printed editions. A scholarly critical text of The Nights does not yet exist; The first complete edition of the collection, published in Bulaq, near Cairo, in 1835 and reprinted several times subsequently, reproduces the so-called “Egyptian” edition. In the Bulak text, the language of fairy tales underwent significant processing under the pen of an anonymous “scientific” theologian; the editor sought to bring the text closer to the classical norms of literary speech. To a somewhat lesser extent, the activity of the processor is noticeable in the Calcutta edition, published by the English scientist Macnaghten in 1839–1842, although the Egyptian edition of “Nights” is also presented there.
The Bulak and Calcutta editions are the basis for the existing translations of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. The only exception is the above-mentioned incomplete French translation of Galland, carried out in the 18th century from handwritten sources. As we have already said, Galland’s translation served as the original for numerous translations into other languages and for more than a hundred years remained the only source of acquaintance with the Arabian tales of the Arabian Nights in Europe.
Among other translations of the “Book” into European languages, mention should be made of the English translation of part of the collection, made directly from the Arabic original by the famous expert on the language and ethnography of medieval Egypt, William Lane. Len's translation, in spite of its incompleteness, can be considered the best existing English translation in accuracy and conscientiousness, although its language is somewhat difficult and stilted.
Another English translation, completed in the late 80s of the last century by the famous traveler and ethnographer Richard Burton, pursued very specific goals, far from science. In his translation, Burton in every possible way emphasizes all the somewhat obscene passages of the original, choosing the harshest word, the most rude option, and in the field of language, inventing extraordinary combinations of archaic and ultra-modern words.
Burton's tendencies are most clearly reflected in his notes. Along with valuable observations from the life of the Middle Eastern peoples, they contain great amount“anthropological” comments, verbosely explaining every obscene allusion that comes across in the collection. By piling up dirty anecdotes and details characteristic of the contemporary morals of the jaded and idle European residents in Arab countries, Burton seeks to slander the entire Arab people and uses this to defend the policy of the whip and rifle he propagates.
The tendency to emphasize all the more or less frivolous features of the Arabic original is also characteristic of the sixteen-volume French translation of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, completed in the first years of the 20th century by J. Mardrus.
Of the German translations of the Book, the newest and best is the six-volume translation by the famous Semitic scholar E. Liggmann, first published in the late 20s of our century.
The history of studying translations of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights in Russia can be outlined very briefly.
Before the Great October Revolution, there were no Russian translations directly from Arabic, although translations from Galland began to appear already in the 60s of the 18th century. The best of them is the translation by Yu. Doppelmayer, published in late XIX century.
Somewhat later, a translation by L. Shelgunova was published, made with abbreviations from the English edition of Len, and six years after that an anonymous translation from the edition of Mardrus appeared - the most complete collection of “The Thousand and One Nights” that existed at that time in Russian.
The translator and editor sought, to the best of their ability, to maintain in the translation closeness to the Arabic original, both in terms of content and style. Only in those cases where the accurate rendering of the original was incompatible with the norms of Russian literary speech, did this principle have to be deviated from. Thus, when translating poetry, it is impossible to preserve the obligatory rhyme according to the rules of Arabic versification, which must be uniform throughout the entire poem; only the external structure of the verse and rhythm are conveyed.
Intending these tales exclusively for adults, the translator remained faithful to the desire to show the Russian reader “The Book of One Thousand and One Nights” as it is, even while conveying the obscene parts of the original. In Arab fairy tales, as in the folklore of other peoples, things are naively called by their proper names, and most of the obscene, from our point of view, details do not have a pornographic meaning; all these details are more in the nature of a crude joke than deliberate obscenity.
In this edition, the translation edited by I. Yu. Krachkovsky is printed without significant changes, while maintaining the main goal of being as close as possible to the original. The translation language has been somewhat simplified - excessive literalism has been softened, and in some places idiomatic expressions that are not immediately understandable have been deciphered.
M. Salye
The story of King Shahryar and his brother
Glory to Allah, Lord of the worlds! Greetings and blessings to the lord of the messengers, our lord and ruler Muhammad! May Allah bless him and greet him with eternal blessings and greetings, lasting until the Day of Judgment!
And after that, truly, the legends about the first generations became an edification for the subsequent ones, so that a person could see what events happened to others and learn, and so that, delving into the legends about past peoples and what happened to them, he would abstain from sin Praise be to him who made the tales of the ancients a lesson for subsequent nations.
Such legends include stories called “A Thousand and One Nights”, and the sublime stories and parables contained in them.
They tell in the traditions of peoples about what was, has passed and has long passed (and Allah is more knowledgeable in the unknown and is wise and glorious, and is most generous, and most favorable, and merciful), that in ancient times and past centuries and centuries was on the islands India and China king from the kings of the Sasana family 2
The descendants of the semi-mythical king Sasan, or Sassanids, ruled Persia in the 3rd–7th centuries. The inclusion of King Shahriyar among them is a poetic anachronism, of which there are many in “1001 Nights.”
Master of troops, guards, servants and servants. And he had two sons - one adult, the other young, and both were brave knights, but the elder surpassed the younger in valor. And he reigned in his country and ruled his subjects fairly, and the inhabitants of his lands and kingdom loved him, and his name was King Shahriyar; and his younger brother’s name was King Shahzeman, and he reigned in Persian Samarkand. Both of them stayed in their lands, and each of them in the kingdom was a fair judge of his subjects for twenty years and lived in complete contentment and joy. This continued until the elder king wanted to see his younger brother and ordered his vizier 3
The vizier is the first minister in the Arab caliphate.
Go and bring him. The vizier carried out his order and set off and rode until he safely arrived in Samarkand. He went in to Shahzeman, said hello to him and said that his brother missed him and wanted him to visit him; and Shahzeman agreed and got ready to go. He ordered to take out his tents, equip camels, mules, servants and bodyguards and installed his vizier as ruler of the country, while he himself headed to the lands of his brother. But when midnight came, he remembered one thing that he had forgotten in the palace, and he returned and, entering the palace, saw that his wife was lying in bed, hugging a black slave from among his slaves.
Thousand and One Nights
Preface
Almost two and a half centuries have passed since Europe first became acquainted with the Arabian tales of the Arabian Nights in Galland's free and far from complete French translation, but even now they enjoy the constant love of readers. The passage of time did not affect the popularity of Shahrazad's stories; Along with countless reprints and secondary translations from Galland’s publication, publications of “Nights” appear again and again in many languages of the world, translated directly from the original, to this day. The influence of “The Arabian Nights” on the work of various writers was great - Montesquieu, Wieland, Hauff, Tennyson, Dickens. Pushkin also admired Arabic tales. Having first become acquainted with some of them in Senkovsky’s free adaptation, he became so interested in them that he purchased one of the editions of Galland’s translation, which was preserved in his library.
It’s hard to say what attracts more in the tales of “One Thousand and One Nights” - the entertaining plot, the bizarre interweaving of the fantastic and the real, vivid pictures of urban life in the medieval Arab East, fascinating descriptions of amazing countries, or the liveliness and depth of experiences of the heroes of fairy tales, the psychological justification of situations, clear, a certain morality. The language of many of the stories is magnificent - lively, imaginative, rich, devoid of circumlocutions and omissions. The speech of the heroes of the best fairy tales of the Nights is clearly individual; each of them has their own style and vocabulary, characteristic of the social environment from which they came.
What is “The Book of a Thousand and One Nights”, how and when was it created, where were Shahrazad’s tales born?
"A Thousand and One Nights" is not the work of an individual author or compiler - the entire Arab people is a collective creator. As we now know it, “A Thousand and One Nights” is a collection of tales in Arabic, united by a framing story about the cruel king Shahriyar, who took a new wife every evening and killed her in the morning. The history of the Arabian Nights is still far from clear; its origins are lost in the depths of centuries.
The first written information about the Arabic collection of fairy tales, framed by the story of Shahryar and Shahrazad and called “A Thousand Nights” or “One Thousand and One Nights,” we find in the works of Baghdad writers of the 10th century - the historian al-Masudi and the bibliographer ai-Nadim, who talk about it , as about a long and well-known work. Already at that time, information about the origin of this book was quite vague and it was considered a translation of the Persian collection of fairy tales “Khezar-Efsane” (“A Thousand Tales”), allegedly compiled for Humai, the daughter of the Iranian king Ardeshir (IV century BC). The content and nature of the Arabic collection mentioned by Masudi and anNadim are unknown to us, since it has not survived to this day.
The evidence of the named writers about the existence in their time of the Arabic book of fairy tales “One Thousand and One Nights” is confirmed by the presence of an excerpt from this book dating back to the 9th century. Subsequently, the literary evolution of the collection continued until the XIV-XV centuries. More and more fairy tales of different genres and different social origins were included in the convenient frame of the collection. We can judge the process of creating such fabulous collections from the message of the same anNadim, who says that his elder contemporary, a certain Abd-Allah al-Jahshiyari - a personality, by the way, is quite real - decided to compile a book of thousands of tales of “Arabs, Persians, Greeks and other peoples,” one per night, each containing fifty sheets, but he died having only managed to type four hundred and eighty stories. He took material mainly from professional storytellers, whom he called from all over the caliphate, as well as from written sources.
Al-Jahshiyari’s collection has not reached us, and other fairy-tale collections called “One Thousand and One Nights,” which were sparingly mentioned by medieval Arab writers, have also not survived. The composition of these collections of fairy tales apparently differed from each other; they only had in common the title and the frame of the tale.
In the course of creating such collections, several successive stages can be outlined.
The first suppliers of material for them were professional folk storytellers, whose stories were initially recorded from dictation with almost stenographic accuracy, without any literary processing. A large number of such stories in Arabic, written in Hebrew letters, are stored in the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library in Leningrad; the oldest lists date back to the 11th-12th centuries. Subsequently, these records went to booksellers, who subjected the text of the tale to some literary processing. Each tale was considered at this stage not as an integral part of a collection, but as a completely independent work; therefore, in the original versions of the tales that have reached us, later included in the “Book of One Thousand and One Nights,” there is still no division into nights. The breakdown of the text of the fairy tales took place at the last stage of their processing, when they fell into the hands of the compiler who compiled the next collection of “A Thousand and One Nights.” In the absence of material for the required number of “nights,” the compiler replenished it from written sources, borrowing from there not only short stories and anecdotes, but also long knightly romances.
The last such compiler was that unknown-named learned sheikh, who compiled the most recent collection of tales of the Arabian Nights in Egypt in the 18th century. Fairy tales also received the most significant literary treatment in Egypt, two or three centuries earlier. This edition of the XIV-XVI centuries of “The Book of the Thousand and One Nights”, usually called “Egyptian”, is the only one that has survived to this day - is presented in most printed editions, as well as in almost all manuscripts of the “Nights” known to us and serves as specific material for studying the tales of Shahrazad.