The Bakhtyār Nāma: A Persian Romance

The Bakhtyār Nāma: A Persian Romance

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 Shh Nma, or Book of Kings, of Firdaus. And the fondness of the old pagan Arabs for the same class of compositions seems to have threatened the success of Muhammads 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, Feridn, Zohk, 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 xivsuch stories to his legends and moral exhortations; upon which the Prophet promulgated some new passages of the Kur`n (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 Islm 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`n, Commentaries, and Traditionsthat 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 xvNorthern Africa. However this may be, there can be no doubt that, as Isaac DIsraeli 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 winters fireside, alike held on its journey towards England and Scotland. Many of the Fabliaux of the Trouvres of northern France are evidently of Oriental origin; and their prose imitators, the early Italian Novelists, also drew much of their materialof course indirectlyfrom similar sources. German folk-tales comprise variants of the ever-charming Arabian story of `Al Bb and the Forty Robbers, as in the tale of The Dumberg,[1] and of Aladdin (`Al-`u-`d-Dn) 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, xviTyl 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 gentlemans shoulder while he was writing a letter, came from the East; and a version of it is given in Gladwins 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 Khja Nasru-`d-Dn Efend.[4] xviiOf 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, Kath Sarit Sgara, Ocean of the Rivers of Story, where may be found parallels to the famousthe 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 Ralstons Russian Folk-Tales. The story of The Elves and the Envious Neighbour, in Mr Mitfords 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 Scotts edition) and in the Persian romance of the Seven Faces (Heft Paykar), by xviiiNizm, the reader will find parallels to the Three Crows in Grimms 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 Wasf 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, Mahbharata, and variants exist in other Hind 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 xixEastern story; to Parnell the subject of his Hermitprimarily a Talmudic legend, afterwards adopted in the Kurn. 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 medival Europe, and in the process they lost all their native flavour. But on the publication of Gallands 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 translationor adaptationof the now famous story of Alnaschar (according to Gallands French transliteration of the name) and his basket of brittle wares: a story which is not only calculated to xxplease the rising generation, but may also instruct children of larger growth. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 60316
Author: Clouston, W. A. (William Alexander)
Release Date: Sep 17, 2019
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Clouston, W. A. (William Alexander), 1843-1896

Translator: Ouseley, William, 1767-1842