Arabian Nights Entertainment Vols II, III & IV; Consisting Of One Thousand And One Stories

Published by Printed for T. Longman, London, 1792

About this Item

Description: Three of the four volumes bound in full calf leather with red leather titles plates and lettering to spine. Language: English. Book Condition> Fair: Heavy wear to corners, edges and spine ends. Spine edges cracked but all board remain firmly attached. Repair to spine edges of Vol II. Heavily rubbed boards. All volumes remain tightly bound with lightly tanned pages. DJ Condition> No DJ. Pages 301, 314, 312. Size: 16mo 18cm by 10.5cm. Book Resume: One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age Known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English-language edition (c 1706-1721), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment Collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central and South Asia, and North Africa Some tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Egyptian, Indian, Persian, and Mesopotamian folklore and literature In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Abbasid and Mamluk eras, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hez_r Afs_n which in turn relied partly on Indian elements Common to all editions is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahry_r and his wife Scheherazade and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while others are self-contained Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more Some of the stories commonly associated with the Arabian Nights, particularly "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp" and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" were not part of the collection in its original Arabic versions but were added to the collection by Antoine Galland after he heard them from the Syrian Maronite Christian storyteller Hanna Diab on Diab's visit to Paris Other stories, such as "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor", had an independent existence before being added to the collection Publication history of The Nights: One of the oldest Arabic manuscript fragments from Syria bears the title Kitab Hadith Alf Layla ("The Book of the Tale of the Thousand Nights") 10th century: Reference to The Thousand Nights, an Arabic translation of the Persian Hez_r Afs_n ("Thousand Stories") 12th century: A document from Cairo refers to a Jewish bookseller lending a copy of The Thousand and One Nights being the first appearance of the final form of the title 1704: Antoine Galland's French translation is the first European version of The Nights c1706 - c1721: Anonymously translated version in English appears in Europe dubbed the 12-volume "Grub Street" version This is entitled Arabian Nights' Entertainments the first known use of the common English title of the work. PLEASE ASK for additional photographs if required. Seller Inventory # 7642

Bibliographic Details

Title: Arabian Nights Entertainment Vols II, III & ...

Publisher: Printed for T. Longman, London

Publication Date: 1792

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fair

Dust Jacket Condition: No DJ

Edition: 1st Edition