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The Thousand and One Nights Vol. I. by Lane Poole Poole Harvey and Lane

577 pages

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the
Merciful.1
Praise be to God, the Beneficent King, the
Creator of the universe, who hath raised the
heavens without pillars, and spread out the
earth as a bed;2 and blessing and peace be on
the lord of apostles, our lord and our master
Moḥammad, and his Family; blessing and
peace, enduring and constant, unto the day of
judgment.
To proceed:—The lives of former generations are a lesson to posterity; that a man may
review the remarkable events which have happened to others, and be admonished; and
may consider the history of people of preceding ages, and of all that hath befallen them, and
be restrained. Extolled be the perfection of Him who hath thus ordained the history of
former generations to be a lesson to those which follow. Such are the Tales of a Thousand
and One Nights, with their romantic stories and their fables.
It is related (but God alone is all-knowing,3 as well as all-wise, and almighty, and all-
bountiful,) that there was, in ancient times, a King4 of the countries of India and China,
possessing numerous troops, and guards, and servants, and domestic dependents: and he
had two sons; one of whom was a man of mature age; and the other, a youth. Both of these
princes were brave horsemen; but especially the elder, who inherited the kingdom of his
father; and governed his subjects with such justice that the inhabitants of his country and
whole empire loved him. He was called King Shahriyár:5 his younger brother was named
Sháh-Zemán,6 and was King of Samarḳand.7 The administration of their governments was
conducted with rectitude, each of them ruling over his subjects with justice during a period
of twenty years with the utmost enjoyment and happiness. After this period, the elder King
felt a strong desire to see his brother, and ordered his Wezeer8 to repair to him and bring
him.