The Bakhtyār Nāma: A Persian Romance

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THE BAKHTYĀR NĀMA:

A Persian Romance.

Translated from a Manuscript Text,

by

SIR WILLIAM OUSELEY.

Edited, with Introduction and Notes,

by

W. A. CLOUSTON,

Editor of “Arabian Poetry for English Readers.”

Each order given by a reigning King Should after long reflection be expressed; For it may be that endless woe will spring From a command he paused not to digest.

_Anvār-i Suhailī._

Privately Printed. MDCCCLXXXIII.

Edition: 330 Copies, of which 30 are printed on hand-made paper, and numbered.

William Burns, Printer, Larkhall, Lanarkshire.

TO

GENERAL JAMES ABBOTT, C.B.,

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND,

A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT

FROM

THE EDITOR.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

PREFACE.

The Romance which forms the staple of this little volume is generally considered as belonging to the _Sindibād_ cycle of tales. It has for ages been popular in the East, though to the average English reader the very name of Prince Bakhtyār is unknown. Many years ago the learned Orientalist Sir W. Ouseley presented his countrymen with an English translation of this romance, but copies of his work have now become extremely scarce. Dr Johnson’s dictum, that the scarcity of a book is evidence of its worthlessness, otherwise copies of it would have been multiplied, is (like not a few of his other tea-table sayings) more specious than true. Many causes, besides that of uselessness, may render a book scarce. A book may be a very good book yet lack interest, excepting for only a few readers; and such was doubtless the case of Sir W. Ouseley’s translation; for, strange to say, considering our vast Asiatic possessions, the cultivation of Oriental literature in this country has hitherto met with little or no encouragement from the English people generally.

But among the more intelligent class of readers there has lately sprung up considerable interest in the curious migrations and transformations of popular tales, the tracing of which from country to country, and from modern to remote times, is not only a fascinating, but a highly instructive pursuit; and the idea occurred to me that a reprint of Sir W. Ouseley’s translation of the Romance of Prince Bakhtyār, together with explanatory and illustrative notes, and—by way of introduction—such particulars as could be ascertained regarding its origin and that of similar Oriental fictions, might now find “readers fit, though few.” My little project has been supported by members of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Folk-Lore Society. I have, moreover, been materially assisted by several eminent scholars: amongst others, by Mr William Platt, to whom I am indebted for the substance of many of the Notes; and by Dr R. Rost, who not only very kindly supplied me with scarce and valuable books and manuscripts from the India Office Library, but also furnished me with much useful information on Eastern Fiction—a subject upon which he is one of the highest authorities in this country.

Of the present collection of Tales it is remarked by a learned and acute writer that they are, for the most part, well wrought-out, probable, and without anything magical or supernatural. And those readers who do _not_ delight in the extravagant creations of Oriental fancy—enchanted groves and fairy palaces beneath lakes, where carbuncles of immense size supply the place of the sun—will find little in this romance to shock their “common sense.” Nor are there—except one or two expressions in the opening passages—any of those hyperbolical descriptions of female beauty and the puissance of monarchs which are so characteristic of most of the fictions of the East. These Tales are, indeed, singularly free from such extravagancies, and may be considered as well adapted to check the often fatal impetuosity of Eastern monarchs, which was doubtless the purpose of the original author.

The Notes and Illustrations may seem disproportionate in bulk to that of the text. They are, however, designed, not only to explain and illustrate allusions to Oriental manners and customs, but also to supply deficiencies of Sir W. Ouseley’s translation, from a comparison of other Persian texts, and furnish variants of the several tales as they are found in other versions of the Romance. And while it is not impossible that critics whose absurd shibboleth is “originality” may be disposed to consider my little book as “a thing of mere industry, without wit or invention—a very toy,” yet I venture to think that these Notes will prove to most readers not the least interesting part of the work. In the Introduction will be found some curious matter regarding this romance and its congeners which has not before been presented to English readers, the result of much research; for, however defective my share of the work may be, I have spared no pains to render it as complete and accurate as I could: in short, I would fain hope that, as a whole, the volume will be accepted as a humble contribution to the still unwritten History of Fiction; for even Dunlop’s meritorious work can now only be regarded as a large contribution to this “research of olde antiquitie.”

W. A. CLOUSTON.

GLASGOW, _December, 1882_.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION. _Page_

I—Oriental Fictions—The Arabian Nights—The Book of Sindibād xiii

II—The Bakhtyār Nāma and its Versions xxxi

THE BAKHTYĀR NĀMA.

CHAPTER I.

History of King Āzādbakht and the Vizier’s Daughter 3

CHAPTER II.

Story of the Ill-Fated Merchant and his Adventures 22

CHAPTER III.

Story of the Impatient Prince of Aleppo 33

CHAPTER IV.

Story of Abū Saber; or, The Patient Man 45

CHAPTER V.

Story of the King of Yemen and his Slave Abraha 55

CHAPTER VI.

Story of King Dādīn and his Two Viziers 62

CHAPTER VII.

Story of the King of Abyssinia; showing the Artifice of Women 73

CHAPTER VIII.

Story of the Jewel-Merchant 86

CHAPTER IX.

Story of Abū Temām 97

CHAPTER X.

Story of the King of Persia 107

Conclusion 115

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

PREFATORY 121

Chapter I—King Āzādbakht 123

Chapter II—Ill-Fated Merchant 146

Chapter III—Prince of Aleppo 156

Chapter IV—Abū Saber 163

Chapter V—King of Yemen 173

Chapter VI—King Dādīn 181

Chapter VII—King of Abyssinia 195

Chapter VIII—Jewel Merchant 201

Chapter IX—Abū Temām 209

Chapter X—King of Persia 216

Conclusion 227

Additional Notes 228

INTRODUCTION.

IF THOU PERCEIVEST ERRORS, SUPPLY THE DEFECTS—GLORIOUS IS HE IN WHOM IS NEITHER FAULT NOR BLEMISH.

INTRODUCTION.

I—ORIENTAL FICTIONS—THE ARABIAN NIGHTS—THE BOOK OF SINDIBĀD.

The Persians, like all Eastern nations, remarks Sir John Malcolm, “delight in Tales, Fables, and Apothegms; the reason of which appears obvious: for where liberty is unknown, and where power in all its shapes is despotic, knowledge must be veiled to be useful.” The ancient Persians also had their Tales and Romances, the substance of many of which is probably embodied in the celebrated _Shāh Nāma_, or Book of Kings, of Firdausī. And the fondness of the old pagan Arabs for the same class of compositions seems to have threatened the success of Muhammad’s great mission, to win them back from their vain idolatry to the worship of the ONE God. For an Arabian merchant having brought from Persia the marvellous stories of Rustam, Isfendiar, Feridūn, Zohāk, and other famous heroes, which he recited to the tribe of Kuraysh, they were so delighted with them, that they plainly told Muhammad that they much preferred hearing such stories to his legends and moral exhortations; upon which the Prophet promulgated some new passages of the Kur`ān (chapter xxx), in which the merchant who had brought the idle tales and all who listened to them were consigned to perdition. This had the desired effect: the converts to Islām rejected Tales and Poetry; and it was not until the brilliant series of Muslim conquests in all parts of the then known world were almost completed that the Arabs began to turn their attention to literature and science, and thus preserved to the world the remains of the learning and philosophy of antiquity, during the long period of intellectual darkness in Europe. And it is remarkable that to a people distinguished for nearly two centuries by their religious bigotry and intolerance, and contempt for every species of literature outside the Kur`ān, Commentaries, and Traditions—that to the descendants of the fanatical destroyers of the library at Alexandria and of the literary treasures of ancient Persia are we indebted for many of the pleasing fictions which have long been popular in Europe. For, while India seems to have been the cradle-land of those folk-tales, yet they came to us chiefly through an Arabian medium: brought to Europe, among other ways by the Saracens who settled in Spain in the eighth century, by crusaders and pilgrims returning from the Holy Land, and also, perhaps, by Venetian merchants trading in the Levant and the Muslim provinces of Northern Africa. However this may be, there can be no doubt that, as Isaac D’Israeli remarks, “tales have wings, whether they come from the East or the North, and they soon become denizens wherever they alight. Thus it has happened, that the tale which charmed the wandering Arab in his tent, or cheered the northern peasant by his winter’s fireside, alike held on its journey towards England and Scotland.”

Many of the Fabliaux of the Trouvères of northern France are evidently of Oriental origin; and their prose imitators, the early Italian Novelists, also drew much of their material—of course indirectly—from similar sources. German folk-tales comprise variants of the ever-charming Arabian story of `Alī Bābā and the Forty Robbers, as in the tale of “The Dumberg,”[1] and of Aladdin (`Alā-`u-`d-Dīn) and the Wonderful Lamp, as in the tale of “The Blue Light.”[2] Norse Tales, too, abound in parallels to stories common to Arabia, Persia, and India. And some of the incidents in one of them, “Big Peter and Little Peter,”[3] apparently find their origin in the Hebrew Talmud. A very considerable proportion of old European humorous stories ascribed to Arlotto, Tyl Eulenspiegel, Rabelais, Scogin (Andrew Borde), Skelton, Mother Bunch, George Peele, Dick Tarlton, etc., have somehow, and at some time or another, winged their way from the Far East; since they are found, with little modification save local colouring, in very old Indian works. Galland, well-nigh two hundred years ago, pointed out that the story of the fellow in a tavern (according to our version, a blundering Irishman in a coffee-house), who impudently looked over a gentleman’s shoulder while he was writing a letter, came from the East; and a version of it is given in Gladwin’s _Persian Moonshee_. The prototype of the popular Scottish song, “The Barrin’ o’ the Door,” is an Arabian anecdote. The jest of the Irishman who dreamt that he was invited to drink punch, but awoke before it was prepared, is identical with a Chinese anecdote translated by M. Stanislas Julien in vol. iv of the _Journal Asiatique_, and bears a close resemblance to one of the Turkish jests ascribed to Khōja Nasru-`d-Dīn Efendī.[4] Of stories of simpletons, such as the one last cited, perhaps the largest and oldest collection extant is contained in a section of that vast storehouse of tales and apologues, aptly entitled, _Kathá Sarit Ságara_, Ocean of the Rivers of Story, where may be found parallels to the famous—the truly admirable!—exploits of the _Wise_ Men of Gotham, and to a similar class of stories of fools and their follies referred to in Mr Ralston’s _Russian Folk-Tales_. The story of “The Elves and the Envious Neighbour,” in Mr Mitford’s _Tales of Old Japan_, is practically identical with a fairy tale of a hunchbacked minstrel in Mr Thoms’ _Lays and Legends of France_. In the _Arabian Nights_ (Story of Abou Neeut and Abou Neeuteen, vol. vi of Jonathan Scott’s edition) and in the Persian romance of the Seven Faces (_Heft Paykar_), by Nizāmī, the reader will find parallels to the “Three Crows” in Grimm’s German popular tales. Our favourite nursery story of Whittington and his Cat (also common to the folk-tales of Scandinavia and Russia, Italy and Spain) is related by the Persian historian Wasāf in his “Events of Ages and Fates of Cities,” written A.H. 699 (A.D. 1299). The original of the Goose that laid Eggs of Gold is a legend in the great Indian epic, _Mahábharata_, and variants exist in other Hindū works; but _this_ may be a “primitive myth,” common to the whole Aryan race. Largely, indeed, are popular European tales indebted to Eastern sources.

For several centuries previous to the publication of the first professed translation of a work of Eastern fiction into a European language, there existed two celebrated collections of Tales, written in Latin, mainly derived from Oriental sources, to which may be traced many of the popular fictions of Europe; these are, the _Clericali Disciplina_ of Peter Alfonsus, a Spanish Jew, who was baptized in the twelfth century; and the _Gesta Romanorum_, the authorship of which is doubtful, but it is believed to have been composed in the 14th century. The latter work greatly influenced the compositions of the early Italian Novelists, and its effect on English Poetry is at least equally marked. It furnished to Gower and Chaucer their history of _Constance_; to Shakspeare his _King Lear_, and his _Merchant of Venice_, which is an Eastern story; to Parnell the subject of his _Hermit_—primarily a Talmudic legend, afterwards adopted in the Kur’ān. The _Clericali Disciplina_, professedly a compilation from Eastern sources, contains a number of stories of undoubted Indian origin, which Alfonsus must have obtained through an Arabian medium in Spain, however they may have come thither. These fictions of Oriental birth were, of course, filtered through the clerical mind of mediæval Europe, and in the process they lost all their native flavour. But on the publication of Galland’s _Les Mille et Une Nuits_, the Thousand and One Nights, in the beginning of last century, garbled and Frenchified as was his translation, the richness of the Eastern fancy, as exhibited in these pleasing fictions, was at once recognised, and, as the learned Baron de Sacy has remarked, in the course of a few years this work filled Europe with its fame. And its success has continued to increase, so that there is perhaps no work of fiction, whether native or exotic, which is at the present day so universally popular throughout Europe: it is at once the delight of the school-boy and the recreation of the sage. Shortly after its appearance in a French dress, Addison introduced it to English readers in the _Spectator_, where he presented a translation—or adaptation—of the now famous story of Alnaschar (according to Galland’s French transliteration of the name) and his basket of brittle wares: a story which is not only calculated to please the “rising generation,” but may also instruct “children of larger growth.”

When this work was first published in England it seems to have made its way very rapidly into public favour; and Weber, in his Introduction to the _Tales of the East_, relates, as follows, a singular instance of the effects they produced soon after their first appearance: “Sir James Stewart, Lord Advocate for Scotland, having one Saturday evening found his daughters employed in reading the volumes, he seized them, with a rebuke for spending the evening before the Sabbath in such worldly amusements; but the grave advocate himself became a prey to the fascination of these tales, being found on the morning of the Sabbath itself employed upon their perusal, from which he had not risen during the whole night!” The popularity of the _Arabian Nights_ is due, no doubt, to the peculiar charm of its descriptions of scenes and incidents which the reader is well aware could only exist and occur in the imagination; but we like to be taken away from our hard, matter-of-fact surroundings—away into a world where, if we cannot ourselves become endowed with supernatural powers, at least we may summon mighty spirits to do our will, to transport us whither we please, to bring us in an instant the choicest fruits from the most distant regions, to construct for us palaces of gold and silver, and precious gems, to supply us with dainties in dishes made of single diamonds and rubies. In this very outraging of probability, and even possibility, lies the strange fascination which some of these Tales exercise over the reader’s mind. He surrenders his judgment to the author, and such is the force of the spell, that even when it has been partly removed by closing the book, he will gravely ask himself: “And why may not such things be?” It has been justly observed by Lord Bacon, that, “as the active world is inferior to the rational soul, so Fiction gives to mankind what History denies, and in some measure satisfies the mind with shadows when it cannot enjoy the substance.”

This famous work is, of course, a compilation, and not by a single hand and at one time, or from a particular source, but from a variety of sources. Many of the Tales are found in the oldest Indian collections; probably the witty and humorous are purely Arabian, while the tender and sentimental love-tales are derived from the Persian. The origin of the Arabian Tales has long been (and perhaps needlessly) a vexed question among the learned. Baron De Sacy has stoutly contended with M. Langles and M. Von Hammer, on the questions of whether the work was a mere translation or adaptation of an old Persian collection, entitled the “Thousand Days,” and when and where it was composed. But the general opinion of scholars at the present day is that the work was probably compiled by different hands, in Egypt, about the 15th or 16th centuries, though it is very probable that many additions were made at a later date, by the insertion of romances, which formed no part of the original collection, as we shall presently see.[5]