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APPENDIX II
Cairo was the Real Scene of the ** Arabian Nights "
LANE,
in his translation of the Arabia7i Nights (at the
end of Vol. Ill in the Standard Library Edition, pub-
" Another question may
lished by Chatto & Windus), wrote :
here be considered, before I attempt to show in how great a
degree the Thousand and Otte Nights consists of Arab talcs.
With respect to the country in which it was composed, I
have before stated my opinion that it was Egypt, and I still
hold that opinion. All the complete copies (printed and
manuscript) of which I have any knowledge describe Cairo far
more minutely and accurately than any other place ; and the
language, manners, customs, etc. which they exhibit agree
most closely with those of Egypt. This is also evidently the
case with Galland's very imperfect MS., which existed A.D.
I ; 548 and we have no reason to refer the date of any other
copy to so early a period. Here, moreover, I may adduce,
as confirming my own views, the opinion of Von Hammer,
who thus writes :
' Si, done, on ne saurait determiner que d'une
maniere vague la date de la redaction arabe dcs Mille et Une
Nuits, on peut indiquer avec bien plus de precision I'Egypte
comme la patrie de cette edition augmcntec et retouchee, car
les moeurs, les usages, les circonstances locales, la langue, tout,
en un mot, d'un bout a I'autre do I'ouvrage porte I'empreintedc
ce pays.' ' The frequent mention of Haroon Er-Rasheed might
seem to render probable the idea that the tales in which he
figures were composed by a native of Baghdad, and a subject
' Quoted by De Sacy, in his Dissertation prefixed to a late edition of Galland's
version of the Thousand and One Nights.
354