[Section ii.]—­At the beginning of the 17th century, only two MSS. of the Nights existed m the libraries of Paris, one in Arabic, and the other in Turkish.  The Arabic Ms. contains 870 Nights, and is arbitrarily divided into 29 sections.  M. Zotenberg considers that it was to this Ms. that Galland referred, when he said that the complete work was in 36 parts The tales follow the order of our Table as far as No. 7 (Nos. 2ab, 2ac and 3ba are wanting), the remainder are irregular, and run as follows:  153, 154, 154a, 20; story of Khailedjan ibn Haman, the Persian; Story of the Two Old Men, and of Baz al-Aschbab Abou Lahab; 9, apparently including as episodes 9a, 9aa, 21, 8, 9b, 170, 181r to 181bb 137, 154 (commencement repeated), 181u to 181bb (repeated), 135a, Adventures of a traveller who entered a pond (etang) and underwent metamorphoses:[FN#433] anecdotes and apothegms; a portion of the Kalila and Dimna ?

The Turkish Ms. (in 11 vols.) is made up of several imperfect copies, which have been improperly put together.  The bulk is formed by vols. 2-10 which are written in three different hands, and some of which bear date 1046 A.H.  The contents of these nine vols. are as follows:  Introduction and 1-3 (wanting 2ab), Story of ’Abdallah of Basra, 5; Story of ’Attaf ibn Isma’il al-Schoqlani of Damascus and the schaikh Abou-’l-Baraka al-Nawwam, 6; Story told by the Christian Merchant (relating to Qamar al-Zaman during the reign of Sultan Mahmoud, and different from the story known under this title); Story of Ahmad al- Saghir (the tattle) and Schams al-Qosour; Story of the Young Man of Baghdad and the Bathman (Baigneur, attendant in a Hammam), 7; 153; 21; Story of Khaledjan ibn Mahani; Story of Nour al-Din ’All and of Dounya (or Dinar) of Damascus, 133, Story of Prince Qamar-Khan and of the schaikh ’Ate, of the Sultan Mahmoud-Khan, of Bahram-Schah, of ’Abdallah ibn Hilal, of Harout and Marout, &c.; Story of Qowwat al-Qoloub; 9, including as episodes 9a; 8; Story of Moubaref who slept in the bath; ( ? = 96); and 170; Fables.

The other volumes (1 and 11 of the Ms.) both contain the beginning of the Ms. Vol.  I was written towards the end of the 17th century, and extends about as far as Night 55, concluding with No. 7, which follows No. 3.  Vol. 11., which once belonged to Galland, includes only a portion of the Introduction.  The text of these two fragments is similar, but differs considerably from that of vol. 2 of the Ms.; and specimens of the commencement of vols. 1 and 2 are given to show this.  Yet it is singular that Galland does not seem to have used these Turkish volumes; and the second Ms. which he actually used, like the 4th vol. of the copy preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, appears to be missing.

M. Zotenberg then remarks on the missing vol. 4 of Galland, and quotes extracts from Galland’s Diary, strewing that Nos. 191, 192 and 192a, which were surreptitiously introduced into his work without his knowledge, and greatly to his annoyance, were translated by Petis de la Croix, and were probably intended to be included in the Thousand and One Days, which was published in 1710.