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Appendix II 3SS
of the xA.bbasees. But the fame of the Kaleefeh, as stated in
one of my notes, has occasioned a proverb still current in
and I see nothing unreasonable in the opinion that
Egypt ;
a late Egyptian writer of tales should have made him the
performer of extraordinary actions, and his celebrated capital
the scene of wonders and magnificence. Von Hammer,
speaking of the tales which he regards as the most recent,
and of purely Egyptian origin, says, ' La scene de ces contes
est placee ordinairement au temps du khalife Haroun-al-
Raschid.'
" It is not easy to point out all the stories in the TJwusand
and One Nights which are Arab compositions ; but, as
I have before observed, that such stories constitute the
chief portion of the work, I believe all critics have admitted.
According to Von Hammer, as De Sacy states, * the groundwork
of the Thousand and One Nights if found to have
become, by the addition of tales of Arab origin, the least
portion of the collection, old Persian or Indian tales have
also been introduced, but the materials of later dates and
of purely Arab origin form incomparably the greater portion.
If so, the chief part of the looo Nights must have been excluded
from the looi ; and the latter is far more an Arab
than a Persian composition. I do not, however, consider
all the tales of Arab composition as of purely Arab origin.
All the stories of which the scenes are laid in Persia or
India may be more or less founded on tales formerly
current in those countries ; but I think that there are few
of these which are not Arab compositions.'
" In my endeavours to ascertain the period and the country
in which this work was composed, I have not merely considered
its internal evidences of the time and place. The
earliest period at which any portion of it has been incontest-
ably proved to have existed is the year 955 of the Flight
(a.d. 1 548). This date appears in a marginal note written
by a Christian reader of Tripoli in Syria, expressing a prayer
for the long life of the owner of the book (li-malikihi), in
a volume of the incomplete MS. which Galland procured
from Syria ; and in another volume of the same is a similar