Abstract
The number alf (1,000) in the Arabic title has been a permanent challenge for copyists and compilators committed to the transmission of texts of the Arabian Nights. “Complete” sets of the work seem to have survived in their entirety only a short time. So copyists must have felt invited to (re)create a complete Nights. This paper presents the different solutions applied by copyists and compilators in order to achieve their ambitious goals, the honest and deceitful methods and the tricks displayed in the Arabic texts as well as in the European translations of the Nights.
Recommended Citation
Grotzfeld, Heinz. "Creativity, Random Selection, and pia fraus: Observations on Compilation and Transmission of the Arabian Nights." Marvels & Tales 18.2 (2004). Web. <https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/marvels/vol18/iss2/5>.
