The Translator's Foreword.



This volume has been entitled "THE NEW ARABIAN 1 NIGHTS," a name
now hackneyed because applied to its contents as far back as 1819
in Henry Weber's "Tales of the East" (Edinburgh, Ballantyne).

The original MS. was brought to France by Al-Kahin Diyanisias
Shawish, a Syrian priest of the Congregation of St. Basil, whose
name has been Frenchified to Dom Dennis (or Denys) Chavis. He was
a student at the European College of Al-Kadis Ithanasius (St.
Athanasius) in Rumiyah the Grand (Constantinople) and was
summoned by the Minister of State, Baron de Breteuil, to Paris,
where he presently became "Teacher of the Arabic Tongue at the
College of the Sultan, King of Fransa in Baris (Paris) the
Great." He undertook (probably to supply the loss of Galland's
ivth MS. volume) a continuation of The Nights (proper), and wrote
with his own hand the last two leaves of the third tome, which
ends with three instead of four couplets: thus he completed Kamar
al-Zaman (Night cclxxxi.- cccxxix.) and the following tales:--

The History of the Sleeper and the Waker (Nights
cccxxx.-ccclxxix.).
The History of Warlock and the Cook (ccclxxx.-cd.).
The History of the Prisoner in the Bimaristan or Madhouse
(cd.-cdxxvii.).
The History of Ghanim the Thrall o' Love (cdxxviii.-cdlxxiv.).