Given the historical irony contained in the book’s title, can there ever be a final, definitive version of The Thousand and One Nights? With its fantastically intricate history, is it possible to present readers of any place with a fixed, distinct edition that they can hold in their hands and tell them, “Here, this is the Nights”?
A provisional “Yes” must take into account two factors. The first is the recognition that for all its multinational contributions and contributors, The Thousand and One Nights is first and foremost an Arabic-language literary work, so any conclusive version should remain so. With the Persian Hazar Afsanah now lost, Arabic is, and for all time will remain, the original language of the Nights.
The second factor touches on matters both historical and practical—areas where a tentative solution may be offered. Barring the ninth-century Alf Laila Fragment, the Antoine Galland Manuscript remains the oldest surviving Arabic text of the Nights. Muhsin Mahdi’s heroic efforts at fashioning a critical edition of this manuscript have made concrete the gossamer idea of an archetypal early text. For historical purposes, Mahdi’s Arabic text may be designated as the “close historical” Thousand and One Nights of the Syrian branch of the tales.
However, for more than three centuries, the West, as well as parts of the East, have yearned for a text of the Nights that is as literal as its title, containing an actual 1001 evenings of storytelling, and giving Scheherazade’s own tale a distinct beginning and end. For this reason, and taking into account the insertions and enigmatic orphan stories to focus on its existence as a storybook, the Macnaghten text, or Calcutta II, may be seen as the closest ultimate version of the work, just as the Mahdi text is the closest to a standard early version.
Certainly, Calcutta II isn’t perfect. It includes the Sindbad voyages, which were not part of original versions of the collection, and incorporates material from sources whose background is unknown, unproven or under suspicion, or that just doesn’t belong. A measure of historical doubt is always required when reading Calcutta II or any of its translations.
Yet, in however cursory a manner, Calcutta II is formed from actual Arabic compilations of the Nights, the main source of which did undergo a form of examination by a committee composed of interested members of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Insofar as it was possible under the circumstances, Calcutta II’s text was checked and collated with other sources to produce a printed Arabic work of 1001 Nights bracketed by a complete rendition of Scheherazade’s story. Through beloved desire, the fanciful had become literal at last.
Together, the Muhsin Mahdi and William Hay Macnaghten texts of Alf Laila wa Laila may be seen as the historical alpha and omega of The Thousand and One Nights—the tangible first and last literary developments in the progression of this enchanting and, in our dreams, enchanted book.