But it seems equally certain that the ‘Nights’ did not originate altogether in the land of the Nile.  The figure of Harun al-Rashid, the many doings in the “City of Peace” (Bagdad), lead us irresistibly over to the Eastern capital of the Muhammadan Empire.  The genii and Afrits and much of the gorgeous picturing remind one of Persia, or at least of Persian influence.  The Arabs were largely indebted to Persia for literature of a kind like this; and we know that during the ninth and tenth centuries many books were translated from the Pahlavi and Syriac.  Thus Ibn al-Mukaffah (760) gave the Arabs the ‘Kholanamah,’ the ‘Amirnamah’ (Mirror of Princes), ‘Kalilah,’ and ‘Dimnan.’ etc.  The historian Masudi (943) expressly refers the story of the ’Thousand and One Nights’ to a Persian original.  “The first who composed such tales and made use of them were the ancient Persians.  The Arabs translated them, and made others like them.”  He then continues (’Prairies d’Or,’ ed.  De Meynard) and mentions the book ‘Hezar Afsane,’ which means “a thousand tales,” a book popularly called the ‘Thousand and One Nights,’ and containing the story of the king and his vizier, and of his daughter Shirazaad and her slave-girl Dinazad.  Other books of the same kind are the book of Simas, containing stories of Indian kings and viziers, the book of Sindibad, etc. (See also ‘Hanzae Ispahanensis Annalium,’ ed.  Gottwaldt, 1844, page 41.) A similar statement is made by Abu Yakub al-Nadim (987) in the ‘Fihrist’ (ed.  Fluegel, page 304):—­“This book, ‘Hezar Afsane,’ is said to have been written by the Princess Homai (or Homain), daughter of Bahman.  It comprises a Thousand Nights, but less than two hundred stories; for a night story often was related in a number of nights.  I have seen it many times complete; but it is in truth a meagre and uninteresting publication.”  A translation of the ’Hezar Afsane’ was made into Arabic, and it is again mentioned in the middle of the twelfth century by Abdulhec al-Hazraji; but neither it nor the original Pahlavi has yet been found.  It thus remains a matter of speculation as to how much of the ‘Hezar Afsane’ has found its way into the ‘Nights.’  It is evident that to it they are indebted for the whole general idea, for many of the principal names, and probably for the groundwork of a great many of the stories.  The change of the title from ‘The Thousand’ to ‘The Thousand and One’ is due to the fact that the Arabs often expressed “a large number” by this second cipher.  But the ‘Nights’ cannot be a translation from the Persian; for the other two books mentioned by Masudi are in the Arabic collection.  Lane supposes the relationship to be that of the ‘AEneid’ to the ‘Odyssey.’  But it is probably closer:  one fifth of the collection which, according to Payne, is common to all manuscripts, will doubtless be found to be based on the Pahlavi original.  That the dependence is not greater is evident from the absence of the great heroes of the Persian Epos—­Feridun, Zer, Isfandyar, etc.  The heroes are all Arabs; the life depicted is wholly Arabic.