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coffee[1] is introduced, whilst the mention[2] of tobacco (which was introduced into Europe by Jean Nicot in 1560 and the use of which did not probably become common in the East until (at earliest) the next century), stamps the (Egyptian) story of Aboukir and Abousir as the most modern of the whole collection. Zein el Mewasif is also an undoubtedly Egyptian and modern story, as well as the story of the Two Abdallahs, though the former appears to be somewhat less recent than the latter in date, whilst the Merchant of Oman, Ibrahim and Jemileh[3] and Aboulhusn of Khorassan, all three of which are free from the gross anachronisms and historical and topographical errors that characterize so many of the stories whose scene is laid in Baghdad in the reign of Er Reshid and his immediate successors, may therefore, in the absence of any distinctive sign of foreign origin, be supposed to have been written by a native of one of the metropolitan provinces of the Khalifate, soon after the composition of the original work.
Many of the short stories and anecdotes of historical places and persons, Khalifs, Sultans, princes, princesses
- ↑ I may as well mention here that the word cahweh (coffee) occurs in several other places in the Nights, of which I have taken no notice, as it is evident, from the context, that the word is either a copyist’s interpolation or is to be taken in the old Arabic sense of “wine.” The word (cahweh) appears to have been one of the most ancient of the Arabic names of wine and is found, in that sense, in many early poets, such as Abou Nuwas and others; taken literally, it means “an excitant” or “appetizer,” and in this sense the name was, on the introduction of coffee, transferred from wine to the new stimulant.
- ↑ The only one in the Nights.
- ↑ These first two stories appear to be the composition of the same author.
