Galland's "Ali Baba" and Other Arabic Versions

Abstract

The text of reference in which the tale of appears for the first time goes back, theoretically, to the ninth century. It was around this period that a Persian book called Hazâr Afsânag (A Thousand Tales) was translated into Arabic, taking the new name of Alf laylah wa-laylah (The Thousand and One Nights). Since this mythical period, the Thousand and One Nights (henceforth: Nights) have not ceased changing. The manner in which the famous collection of tales was perceived by its various contributors over the centuries is undoubtedly the prime cause for its numerous metamorphoses. The Nights of the ninth century are not identical to those of fifteenth century, and those of the fifteenth century are quite different from those of the eighteenth century. Similarly, the French translation by Antoine Galland, published 1704-12, differs from its Arabic source text, and the translation by Joseph Charles Mardrus, published 1899-1904, differs both from the Arabic text and from Gallands translation. In terms of modern criticism, the Nights were never considered as a specific book compiled by an individual author. On the contrary, they were regarded, to put it in simple terms, as a work in progress that acquired its content and character in the process of an open development where different authors could contribute and introduce their own variations. The result, in modern terms, is a complex literary creation. It is precisely in this category of literary creation that we have to understand Gallands work in respect to the Nights. This evaluation applies both to the collection as we know it today in general and more particularly to the tale of Ali and the Forty Thieves, a tale that was, from a certain point of view, created by Galland. As is well known, there is no reliable Arabic text of Ali Baba prior to the eighteenth century. In other words, no Arabic text older than that Galland's French version exists. The handwritten version preserved at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and published by Duncan B. Macdonald (Ali Baba) dates from the nineteenth century. As the wording shows, this manuscript constitutes an Arabic translation prepared from Galland's text, a fact Macdonald himself recognized a few years later (Further Notes). The safest information at hand about the ultimate origin of Ali Baba is contained in Galland's Journal, which is preserved at the National Library of France in Paris (see Galland, Journal May 27, 1709; Macdonald, Further Notes 41-47). Here, Galland gives the summary of a story entitled Les finesses de Morgicme ou Les quarante voleurs extermines par l'adresse d'une esclave (Morgiane's Tricks or The Forty Robbers Exterminated by the Skill of a Female Slave). The story was narrated to Galland on the same day as the tale of The Ten Viziers. Both these tales, and several others, were told by Hanna, a Maronite monk originating from Aleppo in Syria, with whom Galland had become acquainted through his friend, the traveller Paul Lucas. The text Galland presents in his diary is rather short, hardly comprising six pages. is here called Hogia Baba. The descriptive passages later elaborated are here very condensed and barely visible, and the text focuses on the articulations of the intrigue. Some years later, Galland reworked the original notes and created a beautiful story, now comprising more than thirty-six pages, that he included in-and, in fact, introduced into-his edition of Les MiHe et une Nuits together with other tales supplied to him by Hanna. Subsequently, this story became part of the standard repertoire of the European notion of the Thousand and One Nights, although its author clearly is Galland himself. On the other hand, the story originates from the narrative tradition of Syria, Hanna's native country, and contains specific native components. In this essay, I propose to analyze the tale of Ali Baba from various angles. I will start by studying its variations in sources originating from or close to Arab narrative tradition. …