Iranian Literature and its impact on Europe....(II)

Also among those Iranian fairy tales that have found their way to foreign lands one can mention the tale of "the Fox and the Stork", "Aladdin and His Magic Lamp", "Cinderella and his Magic Shoe", as also the "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves".

Kalilah and Demna was translated into Spanish for Alfonso the Wise (1252-84 A.D.) but the rest of Europe knew it only through a Latin translation made by a converted Jew, John of Capua, in the same century. He entitled this book Directorium Humanae Vitae.

Several other Latin translations appeared and finally in 1552 it was translated into the vernacular by Doni. In 1570 the first English version by Thomas North appeared. It was entitled the "Moral Philosophy of Doni". The Latin and vernacular translations were used by writers of novella and even dramatists (for example by Massinger in the third act of the Guardian).

Then appeared the French translation of the same book from a Farsi (Persian) version known as "The Lights of Canopus" or (Anvar-e-Soheili). Professor Henri Masse states that this book appeared in Paris in 1644 in a short abridged version. He believes that this must have been an adaptation from Anvar-e-Soheili by Hossein Va’ez, the Iranian.

This was one of the sources of La Fontaine, the forerunner of all the fabulists of the West. According to Professor Henri Masse, La Fontaine was in some cases directly inspired as for example in the case of "Le Renard et le Tambur",  "Le Faucon Royal et le Corbeau sans ailes ni plumes" and "Les Pigeons."

In other cases he took only the idea from it, as in "L’Epitre a Huet", and "Les Poissons et le Cormoran". Still in some cases he developed the text that served as his model, for example in "Le Loup et le Chasseur". Professor H. Masse admits that La Fontaine has taken some stories from other Farsi (Persian) books such as Marzuban-Nameh as in the case of "Le Coq et le Renard".

Furthermore, Gulistan was first translated into French in 1634 and therefore was available to La Fontaine. We are told by Charles de Fermerie and Chauvin that the fable "Le Songe d’un Habitant du Mogol" is taken from the second Chapter of Gulistan of Sa’adi which runs as follows:

A man saw in a dream a king in paradise and a pious man in hell, when asked the reason he was told that the king for the love he showed the Sufis is in paradise and the pious man for associating with kings is in hell.

The same can be said about "Le Depositaire infidele". When La Fontaine says that "La mer promets monts et merveilles" we are reminded of Sa’adi’s statement:

The service of kings is like a sea voyage both dangerous and profitable so that you will either obtain a treasure or die in its search.

La Fontaine’s Fable about "L’Astrologue qui se laisse tomber dans un puit," is similar to the story told by Sa’adi about the Astrologer who fell into the well, as also the Astrologer who came home to find a stranger in bed with his wife. Garson de Tassi also gives another case of resemblance and borrowing of La Fontaine from Sa’adi who tells us that:

The wise enemy is better than an ignorant friend...

and La Fontaine states: "Rien n’est si dangereux qu’un ignorant ami, mieux vaudrait un sage ennemi". According to George B. Walker:

The greatest part of Issop’s and La Fontaine’s fables are derived from Indo-Iranian origins. (George B. Walker, opt. cit.)

Another book that has influenced Europe to a great extent is the Book of "A Thousand and one Nights" known better in English language as "The Arabian Nights." The westerners loved these tales not only on account of their literary merits but also on account of being full of sweet thoughts and strange and mysterious tales.

Early in the 18th century Antoine Galand published a series of translations of this book. These translations could be considered as a landmark in the literature of the West, because they brought to the forefront the romanticism which undermined the long rule of classicism. Of course like Arabian culture and civilization,  the term "Arabian Nights" is an inaccurate one tending to give the impression that the tales were Arabic, whereas the vast majority of these tales were, in fact, Persian.

As we have already seen the origin of this book goes back to a Persian book called "Hizar Afsaneh" or "A thousand Tales" and the framework of the book shows the origin very distinctly. Concerning the origin and background of the Arabian Nights or "A Thousand and one Nights" we have two old statements. The first is by Mas’udi in "Muruj-al-Zahab" written in the year 955 A.D. He says:

And indeed, many men well-acquainted with the history of the ancients, believe that the stories above mentioned and other trifles were woven together by men who commended themselves to the kings by relating them and who found favor with their contemporaries by committing them to memory and by reciting them.

Such is the book entitled Hizar Afsaneh or the Thousand Tales, which word in Arabic signifies Khurafeh: it is known to the public under the name of the Book of "A Thousand Nights and one Nights". This is a story of a king and his Wazir, the minister’s daughter and a slave-girl who are named Shahrzad and Dunya-zad. (Mas'udi, Muruj-al-Zahab)

The second is by Ibn-ol-Nadim in his famous "Kitab al-Fihrist," written half a century after Mas’udi’s Book. It runs as follows:

The first who composed themes of imagination and made books of them, consigning these works to the libraries, and who ordered some of them as though related by the tongues of brute beasts, were the Persians of the first dynasty. The Ashkanian of the Third Dynasty appended others to them and they were augmented and amplified in the days of the Sassanids (the Fourth and last Royal House).

The Arabs translated them into Arabic, published and embellished them and wrote others resembling them. The first work of such kind was entitled the Book of Hizar Afsaneh signifying a thousand tales, the argument whereof was as follows. A king of their kings was wont when he wedded a woman and had lain one night with her, to slay her on the morrow. Then he married a princess, called Shahrzad who was endowed with intellect and erudition and as she lay with him, she fell to telling him tales of fancy and thereby postponing the fatal night etc...

The first who solaced himself with hearing night-tales was Iskandar (Alexander) of Macedonia and he had a number of men who used to relate to him imaginary stories and provoke him to laughter. He, however, designed not therein merely to please himself, but that he might thereby become the more cautious and alert. After him the kings in like fashion made use of the book entitled Hizar Afsaneh. It contained a thousand nights, but less than two hundred night stories, for a single story often occupied several nights. (Ibn-ol-Nadim, Kitab al-Fihrist)

Of course after the translation of this book into Arabic a thousand years ago, it by and by assumed an Arabic form and color. Words, names and dates were changed gradually and even the atmosphere of the well-known Abbassid Caliph Harun-al-Rashid’s court replaced the atmosphere of Pre-Islamic Iranian Kings’ court life.

Zoroastrian beliefs were replaced by Islamic tenets and many stories were added to the original version. However, one thing was not changed and that was the framework and the corpus. The Iranian names of the main Heroes and Heroines of the book and the "mise en scene" of the main story still remains untouched and speaks for itself.

Several editions of these tales appeared in French and other European languages. Interest in things Eastern was now sufficiently stimulated in France. Montesquieu took advantage of this interest to write his "Lettres Persanes" in which he used imaginary Iranian Personages to satirize the French society. Voltaire wrote "Zadiq" in the same vain. In England before the end of the 18th century Beckford’s "Vathek" appeared and it caught the popular imagination when the reaction from classicism was growing.

As Professor Gibb remarks:

The length to which the vogue for Oriental tales was carried in the 18th century and the influence which they exerted are matters generally disregarded by our literary histories. The explanation of this neglect is doubtless to be sought in the poor literary quality of the direct imitations in both France and England. (Professor Gibb, The Legacy of Islam)

For two centuries this book was a favorite for both the learned and the simple.