Notwithstanding the discovery, as above set out, of three of the
doubtful tales, Zeyn Alasnam, Aladdin and The Sleeper Awakened,
in two MSS. (one at least undoubtedly authentic) of the Thousand
Nights and One Night, I am more than ever of opinion that none of
the eleven "interpolated" stories properly belongs to the
original work, that is to say, to the collection as first put
into definite form somewhere about the fourteenth century. [FN#19]
"The Sleeper Awakened" was identified by the late Mr. Lane as a
historical anecdote given by the historian El Ishaki, who wrote
in the first quarter of the seventeenth century, and the frequent
mention of coffee in both MSS. of Aladdin justifies us in
attributing the composition of the story to (at earliest) the
sixteenth century, whilst the modern vulgarisms in which they
abound point to a still later date. Zeyn Alasnam (in the Sebbagh
MS. at least) is written in a much purer and more scholarly style
than Aladdin, but its pre-existence in El Ferej bad esh Shiddeh
(even if we treat as apocryphal Petis de la Croix's account of
the Hezar o Yek Roz) is sufficient, in the absence of contrary
evidence, to justify us in refusing to consider it as belonging
to the Thousand Nights and One Night proper. As shown by
Galland's own experience, complete copies of the genuine work
were rarely to be met with, collections of "silly stories" (as
the Oriental savant, who inclines to regard nothing in the way of
literature save theology, grammar and poetry, would style them),
being generally considered by the Arab bibliographer undeserving
of record or preservation, and the fragmentary copies which
existed were mostly in the hands of professional story-tellers,