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afforded by the old Arabic version of the Hezar Efsan, Von Hammer was of opinion that the Arabs added the anecdotes of the Ommiade and Abbaside Khalifs, of such frequent occurrence in the collection, as well as certain tales of evidently later origin, and that the work grew by additon after addition till it assumed its present dimensions; that it was finally rearranged and (so to speak) edited by a native of Egypt and that its definitive production in its present form cannot be referred to an earlier period than the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century, since one of the tales mentions the Egyptian Khalif Hakim bi-amrillah, A.D. 1261.[1] Unfortunately both prose and rhymed versions of the Hezar Efsan appear to be irrecoverably lost and we have no traces of them save what may exist in the Thousand and One Nights, wherein it is at least a singular fact that not a single reference to the ancient romantic heroes of Persia (Sam Neriman, Feridoun, Rustem, Zal Zer, Isfendiyar, etc.) nor to such fabulous monsters of Iranian romance as the Simurgh (griffin), Anca (phœnix), etc., occurs, as would certainly not have
- ↑ In this latter part of his theory, Von Hammer was right in the conclusion to which he came, but mistaken in the premisses on which he based it. The Hakim bi-amrillah, who is twice mentioned in the 1001 Nights (see Vol. IV. pp. 140 and 226), is, as is manifest from internal evidence, not the fainéant Abbaside who held the spiritual headship or Imamate (the only relic of the once proud empire of the Khalifs left him), from A.D. 1261 to A.D. 1301, but the celebrated Fatimite of the same name (A.D. 995–1021), the founder of the Druse religion. No reference of any kind to any of the Abbaside Khalifs of Egypt is to be found in the work.
