Evidently Lohenstein had read Arrian’s description of the burning of Kalanos (Arrian vii. 2, 3).  The Asiatische Banise of Heinrich Anselm von Ziegler-Kliphausen, perhaps the most popular German novel of the seventeenth century, was based directly on the accounts of travellers to Farther India, not on Greek or Latin writings.[66] Other authors who indulged their predilection for Oriental scenery were Buchholtz in his Herkules und Valisca (1659), Happel in Der Asiatische Onogambo (Hamb. 1673), Bohse (Talander) in Die durchlauchtigste Alcestis aus Persien (Leipz. 1689) and others.[67]

The most striking instance of the Oriental tendency is furnished by Grimmelshausen’s Joseph, first published probably in 1667.[68] Here we meet the famous story of Yusuf and Zalicha as it is given in the Quran or in the poems of Firdausi and Jami.  The well-known episode of the ladies cutting their hands instead of the lemons in consequence of their confusion at the sight of Joseph’s beauty is here narrated at length.[69] In the preface the author states explicitly that he has drawn, not only from the Bible, but from Hebrew, Arabic and Persian writings as well.[70] That he should have made use of Arabic material is credible enough, for Dutch Orientalists like Golius and Erpenius had made this accessible.[71] That he had some idea of Persian poetry is shown by his allusions to the fondness of Orientals for handsome boys.[72] On the other hand, what he says of Zoroaster in the Musai can all be found in Latin and Greek writers.[73] Here we get the biography of Joseph’s chief servant in the form of an appendix to the novel, and the author displays all the learning which fortunately his good taste had excluded from the story itself.  Of the Iranian tradition concerning Zoroaster’s death as given in the Pahlavi writings or the Shah Namah[74] Grimmelshausen knew absolutely nothing; nor can we find the slightest evidence to substantiate his assertion that for the work in question he drew from Persian or Arabic sources.

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In the eighteenth century the Oriental tale was extremely popular in France, and thence it spread to other countries.  The translation of the Thousand and One Nights by Galland (Paris, 1704-1712) and of the Persian Tales by Petis de La Croix called into being a host of similar French productions, which in turn found their way into German literature.  The most fruitful writer in this genre was Simon Gueulette, the author of Soirees Bretonnes (1712) and Mille et un quart d’heures (1715).  The latter contains the story of a prince who is punished for his presumption by having two snakes grow from his shoulders.  To appease them they are fed on fresh human brain.[75] Of course, we recognize at once the story of the tyrant Zahhak familiar from Firdausi.  The material for the Soirees was drawn largely from Armeno’s Peregrinaggio,