The Bakhtyār Nāma: A Persian Romance

Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (italics).

THE BAKHTYĀR NĀMA:

A Persian Romance.

Translated from a Manuscript Text,

SIR WILLIAM OUSELEY.

Edited, with Introduction and Notes,

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.

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. 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."