And here I must quote the bibliographical notices concerning the
sundry versions into Urdu or Hindustani which have been drawn up
with great diligence by Mr. Blumhardt.

"The earliest attempt to translate the Arabian Nights was made by Munshi Shams
al-Din Ahmad Shirwani. A prose version of the first two hundred Nights made by
him 'for the use of the College at Fort St. George' was lithographed at Madras
in the year A.H. 1252 (A.D. 1836) and published in 8vo volumes (pp. 517, 426)
under the title 'Hikayat ool jaleeah'[FN#3] (Hikayat al-jalilah). The
translation was made from an Arabic original but it does not appear what
edition was made use of. The translator had intended to bring out a version of
the entire work, but states in his preface that, being unable to procure the
Arabic of the other Nights, he could not proceed with the translation, and had
to be content to publish only two hundred Nights. This version does not appear
to have become popular, for no other edition seems to have been published. And
the author must not be confounded with Shaykh Ahmad Shirwani, who, in A.D.
1814, printed an Arabic edition of the Arabian Nights Entertainments
(Calcutta, Pereira) which also stopped at No. CC.

"The next translation was made by Munshi al-Karim, likewise in prose. From the
preface and colophon to this work it appears that 'Abd al-Karim obtained a
copy of Edward Foster's English version of the Arabian Nights, and after two
years' labour completed a translation of the whole work in A.H. 1258 (A.D.
1842). It was lithographed at the Mustafai Press at Kanpur (Cawnpore) in the
year A.H. 1263 (A.D. 1847) and published in four vols., in two royal 8vos,
lithographed; each containing two Jilds (or parts, pp. 276, 274; 214 and 195).

"A second edition appeared from the same press in A.H. 1270 (A.D. 1853) also
in two vols. 8vo of two Jilds each (pp. 249, 245; 192, 176). Since then
several other editions have been published at Cawnpore, at Lakhnau[FN#4] and