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A Historical Timeline of the 1001 Nights
Historical Timeline of The 1001 Nights
Compiled by me from information in the following:
Dwight Reynolds. "The Thousand and One Nights: A History of the Text and its Reception." The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: Arabic Literature in the Post-Classical Period. Cambridge UP, 2006.
Robert Irwin. The Arabian Nights: A Companion. Tauris Parke, 2004.
* Oldest Arabic manuscript (a
few handwritten pages) from Syria dating to the early 800s discovered
by scholar Nabia Abbott in 1948.
* 900s AD - Mention of the 1001
Nights in Ibn Al-Nadim's "Fihrist" (Catalogue of books) in
Baghdad. He mentions the Nights' history and its Persian origins.
* 900s - Second oldest reference to the 1001 Nights in Muruj Al-Dhahab (Meadows of Gold) by Al-Masudi.
* 1300's - Existing Syrian Manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris (contains about 300 tales).
* 1704 - Galland – Antoine
Galland's French translation is the first European version of the
Nights. It was later discovered by scholars that Galland
fabricated most of the tales himself. He included Ali Baba and
Sindbad which he claims came from other sources. Later volumes
were introduced using Galland's name though the stories were written by
unknown persons at the behest of the publisher wanting to capitalize on
the popularity of the collection.
* 1708 - An anonymously translated version in English appears in Europe dubbed the "Grub Street" version.
* 1775 - Egyptian version of the
Nights called "ZER" (Zotenberg's Egyptian Rescension) with 200 tales
(no surviving edition exists).
* 1814 - Calcutta I – the
earliest existing Arabic printed version - published by the British
East India Company. A second volume was released in 1818.
Both had 100 tales each.
* 1825-1838 Breslau/Habicht
edition in Arabic (8 volumes) – Christian Maxmilian Habicht (born
in Breslau, Germany, 1775) collaborated with the Tunisian Murad
Al-Najjar and created this edition containing 1001 stories. Using
versions of the Nights, tales from Al-Najjar, and other stories from
unknown origins Habicht published his version in Arabic and German.
* 1842-1843 (4 volumes) - Four additional volumes by Habicht.
* 1835 Bulaq version - Two
volumes - Printed by the Egyptian government this version is the oldest
printed (by a publishing house) version of the 1001 Nights in Arabic by
a non-European. It is primarily a reprinting of the ZER text.
* 1839-1842 Calcutta II - 4
volumes - Claims to be based on an older Egyptian manuscript (which was
never found). This version contains many elements and stories
from the Habicht edition.
* 1838 - Torrens version in English.
* 1838-1840 – Edward Lane
- Publishes English translation. Notable for its exclusion of
content Lane found "immoral" and for its anthropological notes on Arab
customs by Lane.
* 1882-1884 – John Payne -
Publishes an English version translated entirely from Calcutta II,
adding some tales from Calcutta I and Breslau in 1884-5.
* 1885-1888 – Sir Richard
Francis Burton - Publishes an English translation from several
sources. His translation accentuated the sexuality of the Nights,
versus Lane's translation. In order to avoid obscenity charges
his version was only available through a private subscription service
in a group he called the Kama Shastra Society.
* 1889-1904 - J.C. Madrus - Publishes French version using Bulaq and Calcutta II editions.
* 1984 – Muhsin Mahdi - Publishes Arabic translation he says is faithful to the oldest Arabic versions surviving.
* 1990s – Husain Haddawy - Publishes English translation of Mahdi.
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