IX. “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” in Arabic from a Bodleian MS

Duncan B. Macdonald

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00039575

IX. “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” in Arabic from a Bodleian MS

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

Duncan B. Macdonald

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IF anything could make Sir Richard Burton turn in his grave, it would be to know that all the time he was having his unpleasantness with the authorities of the Bodleian, there reposed in that library an Arabic MS. containing the “Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”. Ever since Professor Ethé made his catalogue of the additional Arabic MSS. in the Bodleian, the treasure was waiting to be lifted by anyone who should take the trouble to run over that catalogue in its still manuscript form. But it is plain that no student of the Arabian Nights had done so, until, in September of 1908, Professor Ethé's catalogue was most courteously put into my hands, and I discovered that the one of Galland's stories of which absolutely no Oriental trace had ever been found, and the possibility, even, of the existence of which, as an Oriental story, had been denied, had been lying in the Bodleian in Arabic since 1860. I had just returned from a vain search for MSS. of the Nights in Cairo, Syria, and Constantinople to make this find in Oxford.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , April 1910 , pp. 327 - 386

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00039575 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1910

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^{page 330 note 1} I may leave in the hazard of a conjectural foot-note my guess that this Turkish-Slavonic-German Märchen extended only to the death of the envious brother. The story of the attempted revenge of the robbers and of their destruction is of other origin, and its analogues are South European. For it see Clouston's notes on the story in vol. iii of Burton's Additional Nights. Did the two stories meet in Syria?

^{page 333 note 1} So in MS. Is the prefixed a the Syrian colloquialism (Oestrup, , Contes de Damas, pp. 130 fGoogle Scholar.) or simply a transcriptional error?

^{page 333 note 2} These verses are given exactly as in the MS., except that there the at the end of lines 1–3 is dotted. Line 4b is evidently corrupt. Cf. its different readings in the first Bulaq edition of the Nights, i, 51, Bulaq II, i, 71, Calcutta II, i, 141, and Salḥānī's Beyrout edition, i, 118. None of these versions is convincing. The lines do not occur in Calcutta I, Breslau, or the Galland MS.

^{page 336 note 1} Apparently a Syrian colloquialism for . Cf. Oestrup, , Contes de Damas, pp. 130, 147Google Scholar, and Hartmann, in Meyer's, Arabischer Sprachführer, p. 27Google Scholar.

^{page 336 note 2} MS. according to the usage of the MS. this might mean either or as I have printed above.

^{page 337 note 1} in this MS. is used in three ways: classically with ; in sense “as for” but without colloquially in sense “but”. According to Hartmann, in Meyer's, Arabischer Sprachführer (pp. 150, 289)Google Scholar, this would be a sign of Syrian origin, but Spiro (Arabic-English Vocabulary of the Colloquial Arabic of Egypt) gives amma as in use with that sense.

^{page 337 note 2} So for throughout.

^{page 340 note 1} So in MS. for .

^{page 340 note 2} MS. ; but evidently a slip of the scribe, of no significance.

^{page 341 note 1} MS. .

^{page 342 note 1} So in MS.; a colloquialism for . Cf. Willmore's, Spoken Arabic of Egypt ², p. 103, minninaGoogle Scholar.

^{page 343 note 1} So in MS. for .

^{page 346 note 1} MS. ; I think he means as I have printed, but the writing of hemza is very irregular in this MS.

^{page 346 note 2} Has this been influenced by the French “de peur que … ne”? It occurs again on f. 63b and f. 83a. and . also occur. would be good classical usage, but I do not think it occurs in this story.

^{page 346 note 3} MS. .

^{page 347 note 1} So in MS. Is it for or for There is a tendency to write the hemza after the alif.

^{page 347 note 2} So in MS. for .

^{page 348 note 1} So in MS. for

^{page 349 note 1} Is this “What has hidden thee, detained thee?” or “What is behind thee, what dost thou bring?”

^{page 349 note 2} MS. .

^{page 351 note 1} MS. .

^{page 351 note 2} Evidently means “to prepare, or provide one's self with”; but I can find that meaning in Spiro only, p. 139, “to bring, prepare, procure.” The word occurs elsewhere in this story, ff. 62b, 70a, 86a, and 1036. On ff. 62a and 86a it is used in the sense “prepare one's self for ”, like the 5th stem in Dozy.

^{page 352 note 1} This extraordinary form occurs twice, here and on f. 76b; I have therefore felt compelled to retain it. Is it influenced by abadan?

^{page 354 note 1} I cannot find this form anywhere, but it apparently has the meaning of in Lane, p. 2414a, 11. 18 ff.

^{page 355 note 1} Cf. la budd ma yiktib in Spiro, p. 34.

^{page 356 note 1} So in MS. for , which occurs also on ff. 88b and 93b.

^{page 357 note 1} MS. .

^{page 357 note 2} See note 1 on p. 352. occurs a few lines above.

^{page 358 note 1} Means apparently “a road of only a few paces length running through a khuṭṭ”. On darb, khuṭṭ, etc., see de Sacy, , Abd-allatif, pp. 384 fGoogle Scholar.

^{page 359 note 1} So in MS. for .

^{page 359 note 2} MS. .

^{page 359 note 3} MS. and

^{page 361 note 1} MS. .

^{page 361 note 2} So in MS. Is it for yunāllak or must we read tanāllak?

^{page 361 note 3} So in MS.

^{page 362 note 1} In Spiro, p. 181, ahla sabyloh = “he set him free, he discharged him”. Dozy has phrases somewhat similar, but not the same, using the second stem.

^{page 362 note 2} MS. .

^{page 362 note 3} Cf. n. 2 on p. 346.

^{page 363 note 1} Apparently to be read as passive; see Lane, p. 1851a, sub . We would say “he was knocked out”.

^{page 364 note 1} Semi-colloquial for .

^{page 364 note 2} So in MS. = .

^{page 366 note 1} So in MS. for ; for and prefixed Syrian a.

^{page 367 note 1} So in MS. for .

^{page 367 note 2} So in MS. for .

^{page 367 note 3} “For a moment”?

^{page 368 note 1} So vocalized in the MS.; the first vowel is colloquial; see Spiro, ghala.

^{page 368 note 2} MS. .

^{page 369 note 1} So in the MS., but I cannot find this form anywhere.

^{page 370 note 1} “They remained silent.” For in Arabic, Syrian, see Oestrup, p. 156Google Scholar, and Hartmann, under bleiben. Hartmann gives tamm and damm as Syrian forms, but dann as Egyptian. For Egyptian see Spiro, under ; Willmore, §§ 218 ff.; Spitta, , Grammatik, pp. 328 ffGoogle Scholar. But in Egyptian the construction is different, the subject being expressed by a suffix. For Algeria, Beaussier, Dictionnaire arabe-français (Alger, 1887), p. 68, gives , ‘de la ils s'en furent.” But the original form was . This was apparently recognized first by Stumme, who has a short note on an occurrence in his Tunisische Märchen, i, 25. See also Landberg's, Hadramout, pp. 276 fGoogle Scholar. and index, p. 537, under , and , The form occurs several times in the Galland MS. of the Arabian Nights; see, for example, in my print of the “Story of the Fisherman and the Jinni”, p. 16, last line, occurs also in Brelau; see Dozy, Supplément, , but Dozy does not seem to have quite grasped its meaning.