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the Shafiy by sect and the Mosuli by birth and the Baghdadi by sojourn, and indeed he wrote it for himself and set upon it his seal, and God bless and keep our lord Mohammed and his companions! Kebikej[1] (ter).”
This MS. contains the three “interpolated” tales aforesaid, i.e. the Sleeper Awakened (Nights CCCXXXVII–LXXXVI), Zeyn Alasnam (Nights CCCCXCVII–DXIII) and Aladdin (Nights DXIV–XCI), the last two bearing traces of a Syrian origin, especially Aladdin, which is written in a much commoner and looser style than Zeyn Alasnam. The two tales are evidently the work of different authors, Zeyn Alasnam being incomparably superior in style and correctness to Aladdin, which is defaced by all kinds of vulgarisms and solecisms and seems, moreover, to have been less correctly copied than the other. Nevertheless, the Sebbagh text is in every respect preferable to that of Shawish (which appears to abound in faults and errors of every kind, general and particular,) and M. Zotenberg has, therefore, exercised a wise discretion in selecting the former for publication.
- ↑ Kebikej is the name of the genie set over the insect kingdom. Scribes occasionally invoke him to preserve their manuscripts from worms.—Note by M. Zotenberg.
