1002867.jpg Actually, you probably have – but you haven’t. The One Thousand and One Nights is, perhaps, the most famous book ever to come out of the Arab literary tradition. The reason you haven’t read it is that the translations of the work available are generally highly abridged and heavily bowdlerized.

Now, thanks to the magic of ebooks, the full version of this classic from the Caliphate era is available again.

Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 – 1890) was one of the most fascinating personalities of the Victorian era. Without going into detail about his incredible life and exploits, Burton was an Arabist par excellence. His knowledge of colloquial arabic was so good that it actually enabled him to dress up in arab garb and sneak into the holy cities of Mecca and Medina (which he then proceeded to write about in an absolutely compelling narrative). His works have been long out of print, except for some volumes still published by that wonderful house Dover Publications.

Using his incredible knowledge of Arabic, Burton published a translation of the full version of Nights. I am lucky enough to have it in hard copy, in an edition privately printed by the now defunct Burton Society, and it runs to 16 volumes. The little “abridgments” most people have read don’t even begin to scratch the surface of this phenomenal work. The Nights is actually quite racy and is full of sexual and pederastic passages. Burton managed to publish it only by bringing it out in a private edition, or it would have otherwise violated the obscenity laws of the time.

The full translation of Nights is available from Gutenberg, and I have also downloaded it from ManyBooks, where it is available in Sony Reader format, among others. I notice that Fictionwise is also selling the volumes, but I don’t know if they have done anything to the original text that makes paying for an otherwise free book worthwhile.

While you are at it, download Burton’s Narrative of a Pilgramage to Al-Medinah and Meccah for one of the great explorer stories of all time.

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