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A Critical Study of Sir Richard F. Burton's Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights

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A Critical Study of Sir Richard F. Burton's Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights A CRITICAL STUDY OF SIR RICHARD F. BURTON'S TALES FROM 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF Bottor of $l)ilo£(Qp)ip I ^i£, IN - '-"* ^ ENGLISH^ ^ BY MAL A. I. MQHD. H%.^^^ Under the Supervision of PROF. A. R. KIDWAI DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 1999 p. I 2> 5 W T } 3HT 5 >M T5521 ^crfificufc This is to certify that Mr. Jamal A.I. Mohd did his Ph.D. on the topic ".A Critical Study of Sir Richard F. Burton's Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights", under my supervision. To the best of my knowledge, it is Mr. Jamal's original work which is suitable for submission for the award of Ph.D degree. Professor A.R. Kidwai ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I owe a deep debt of gratitude to my teacher, Prof. Abdur Raheem Kidwai, without whose supervision this work would not have seen the Ught of the day. I am indebted to him not only for being my vigilant supervisor of this thesis, but also owing to the fact that whenever I encroached upon his valuable time, he helped me with his scholarly criticism and constructive suggestions. Despite his engagements, he was kind enough to scrutinize the entire work. For an Arab student like me, who came from a place where English is used only as a foreign lagugage, it was quite a task for me to embark upon a doctoral research. 1 am fortunate enough to have completed my Ph.D. under his superb supervision. I express my gratitude to all my teachers in the Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, and to the staff of the Maulana Azad Library for their cooperation and invaluable help. I am thankful to the staff of the libraries of the following Universities for the supply of material I needed : Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh; Delhi University, Delhi ; Jawahar Nehru University, Delhi; Jadavpur University, Calcutta. My thanks are also due to the National Library and the Asiatic Society, Calcutta; American Library Centre and British Library, Delhi. I must thank my friends and colleagues, especially Moh'd I'ssa Ayaydeh and Moayad Flaifel who helped me in every way in my work. The support of my father, Mr. Ahmad, and my mother, Mrs. Jamilah, always kept me going. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. Introduction: 1-5 Methodology: 6-10 Chapter 1 : Arabian Nights in English Literature - A Historical Survey. 11-46 Chapter 2 : A Critical Study of Earlier English Translations of Arabian Nights. 47-88 Chapter 3 : An Estimate of Burton's Translation of the Arabian Nights . 89-149 Chapter 4 : Burton's use of Arabic Words in his Translation. 150-166 Chapter 5 : Burton's Annotations - An Evaluation. 167-220 Chapter 6 : Conclusion 221-226 Bibliography: 227-235 INTRODUCTION Few works have had such a profound and lasting influence on English literature, in particular, and on European literary tradition in general, as the Thousand and One Nights. It is also known as the Arabian Nights or the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. The book in its translation form reached Europe in the seventeenth century, and it was published in England and France more than thirty times in the eighteenth century^ It is the treasure which many English writers used as the basis for their writings. The renowned French author Voltaire, 1694- 1778, is reported to have said that he "had gone through the book as many as fourteen times before he started writing his stories and novels" 2. The works of almost all the major European writers such as Addison, Beckford, Wordsworth, Southey, Moore, Byron, Keats, Dickens and many others bear clear marks of the style or contents of the AN. In the words of Massignon, the AN "quickened the mentality of Europe which the Greek and Roman fables had made dull and languid"^ Many Western scholars ascribe the great success enjoyed by the AN in the West to Galland's translation to which he lent a touch of his own story-telling ability, modifying the work to some extent in order to adapt it to the European taste of the [1] day/ The AN continued to be translated from Galland's version, until the British Orientalists became active in the field^. The first person to translate it was Jonathan Scott, 1818. After him came Henry Torrens whose translation appeared in 1838, which was followed by Lane's version between 1830-1840. After Lane came John Payne, whose translation is described by M.I. Gerhardt as "complete, faithful, hardly expurgated" and "sparingly annotated"^. Next comes Richard F. Burton who had been engaged on the translation for many years on and off. He dates his first attempt as early as 1852.^ He describes his translation as "full, completCjUnvarnished, uncastrated copy of the great original..."® Burton's version has no doubt become the most famous English translation"^. Burton is also remembered for the abundant annotations provided by him at the foot of each page. In these notes, he comments on various aspects of Oriental and especially Muslim life: religion, sex life, customs, superstitions, and geographical and historical events^". He could gain such information out of his extensive travelling and familiarity with many peoples of the East. The present study deals with the English translations of the AN. It is primarily concerned with Burton's translation and his annotations. This study is preceded by a discussion on the [2] European translators of the AN. Mia I. Gerhardt in his book, The Art of Story- Telling (1963) deals primarily with the art of story-telling in the Arabic AN, from the viewpoint of the modern European reader. Gerhardt observes: "This raises the question as to whether one can legitimately attempt the literary study of a book without knowing the language in which it is written."" More often than not, he selects some passages translated by the European translators of the AN and compares them with one another, without using the original Arabic version from which they are translated. For instance, he chooses a passage translated by Burton and Payne and concludes that Burton is very much dependent upon Payne in his translation^^. Likewise, Wazzan's article, "The Arabian Nights in Western Literature: A Discourse Analysis^^'' presents a textual analysis of the story of king Shahriyar and his brother, Shahzaman of the AN in the English version of Burton and the French version of Galland as compgired with the Arabic text. In his article Wazzan discusses, though briefly, the history of the European translations of the AN. In addition to these, a few studies on the subject, of which details appear in the bibliography, do not evaluate comparatively the English translations of the AN. These studies are done mostly by those who are not acquainted with Arabic. For, "no proper estimate can, be made of the fidelity of the translation, except by those who are intimately acquainted with [3] the whole of these Arabic editions"''' In this study we attempt to discuss the English translations of the AN, comparing them with the Arabic original, with special emphasis on Burton's version. It is limited to the English translators who "have attained international standing and influence"'^ The present study is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the impact of the AN on English literature, with reference to major. English writers such as Daniel Defoe, Alexander Pope, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Dickens, W.B. Yeats and others. The important point here is that the AN have had a profound and lasting influence on English literature. Chapter 2 reviews the translations done before Richard F. Burton. It discusses Jonathan Scott's, Henry Torrens's, Edward William Lane's and John Payne's translations with greater emphasis on the translations of Lane and Payne. While discussing these translators, we provide our translation from the original Arabic version of Calcutta Second'^, in order to demonstrate how they fall short of presenting the sense and spirit of the original. Chapter 3 deals with Burton's translation, at length and with suitable illustrations to bring home certain points. Again, at many places, we provide bur translation to form a better estimate of Burton's translation which is regarded by many as the most authentic version. Chapter 4 discusses the use of [4] Arabic words in Burton's translation. More important is the discussion on Burton's annotations which follows in Chapter 5. His annotations, notwithstanding their value, often betray misconceptions regarding Islam, its teachings, Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and errors relating to the Arabic language and its grammar. Chapter 6 contains the concluding observations. [5] METHODOLOGY The main objective of this thesis is two-fold: first, it studies Burton's translation of the AN, comparing his translation with its original Arabic version of Calcutta Second, his main source. Secondly it attempts to evaluate his copious annotations, specially those related to Islam, its teachings, Prophet Mohammed (SAAW) and Muslims, their customs and manners. It is generally agreed that, "in recent years the number of theories on translating almost rival the translations actually made".^^ Never the less, Burton says in the preface to his translation that his primary concern is to preserve the "manner" as well as the "matter" of the great original. By manner he means writing as an Arab would have written in English. While dealing with his translation, the following points are worth-considering: 1. The first criteria for achieving a good translation is that the translator should fully understand the text in the source language. He must have a thorough knowledge of the grammar of the source language, including its vocabulary. He must also have a sufficient understanding of the subject of the text.
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