Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - The Original Classic Edition

This is a new and freshly published edition of this culturally important work by Richard F. Burton, which is now, at last, again available to you.

Enjoy this classic work today. These selected paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night:

Nur Al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis Al-Jalis

Quoth Shahrazad [FN#1]:-It hath reached me, O auspicious King of intelligence penetrating, that there was, amongst the Kings of Bassorah[FN#2], a King who loved the poor and needy and cherished his lieges, and gave of his wealth to all who believed in Mohammed (whom Allah bless and assain!), and he was even as one of th

e poets described him, A King who when hosts of the foe invade, * Receives them with lance-lunge and sabre-sway; Writes his name on bosoms in thin red lines, * And scatters the horsemen in wild dismay.[FN#3] His name was King Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, and he had two Wazirs, one called Al-Muín, son of Sáwí and the other Al-Fazl son of Khákán. Now Al-Fazl was the most generous of the people of his age, upright of life, so that all hearts united in loving him and the wise flocked to him for counsel; whilst the subjects used to pray for his long life, because he was a compendium of the best qualities, encouraging the good and lief, and preventing evil and mischief. But the Wazir Muín bin Sáwí on the contrary hated folk [FN#4] and loved not the good and was a mere compound of ill; even as was said of him,

Hold to nobles, sons of nobles! tis ever Natures test * That nobles born of nobles shall excel in noble deed: And shun the mean of soul, meanly bred, for tis the law, * Mean deeds come of men who are mean of blood and breed. And as much as the people loved and fondly loved Al-Fazl bin Khákán, so they hated and thoroughly hated the mean and miserly Muín bin Sáwí. It befel one day by the decree of the Decreer, that King Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, being seated on his throne with his officers of state about him, summoned his Wazir Al-Fazl and said to him, I wish to have a slave-girl of passing beauty, perfect in loveliness, exquisite in symmetry and endowed with all praiseworthy gifts. Said the courtiers, Such a girl is not to be bought for less than ten thousand gold pieces: whereupon the Sultan called out to his treasurer and said, Carry ten thousand dinars to the house of Al-Fazl bin Khákán. The treasurer did the Kings bidding; and the Minister went away, after receiving the royal charge to repair to the slave-bazar every day, and entrust to brokers the matter aforesaid. Moreover the King issued orders that girls worth above a thousand gold pieces should not be bought or sold without being first displayed to the Wazir. Accordingly no broker purchased a slave-girl ere she had been paraded before the minister; but none pleased him, till one day a dealer came to the house and found him taking horse and intending for the palace. So he caught hold of his stirrup saying,