[Sca-cooks] looking for middle eastern

[Daniel Phelps]

Regards my reference to 1001 Nights was written:
>
> Alas, one must be cautious with translations.
>
> In "Medieval Arab Cookery" Charles Perry has an essay devoted to the
> ways food was described inaccurately in translations of "A Thousand
> Nights and a Night". So i would not recommend using any translation
> of fiction unless you can verify that the translation is accurate
> rather than the fancy of the translator.
>
Hmmm... I've three translations that I've used over the years.

(1) Tales From the Thousand and One Nights.  Translated by N.J. Dawood.
Penguin Classics Cox and Wyman Ltd.  London, England 1973

(2) The Book of The Thousand Nights and One Night.  Rendered into English
from the French translation by Dr. J.C. Mardus by Powys Mathers.  St.
Martins Press, N.Y. N.Y. 1972.

This work is in 4 volumes and while not as complete as Burton's it is in my
opinion the most enjoyable of the current "complete" translations available.

(3) The Book of The Thousand Nights and A Night.  Translated and Annotated
by Sir Richard Burton.  Privately Printed by the Burton Club.  Printed in
the USA

While not the most readable, at 16 volumes this is the most exhaustive
translation of the collected tales.

It is my understanding that the original collection of these tales has been
reliably date to before 956 A.D.

That being said and as I (1) do not have access to an orginal and (2) don't
in any case read ancient arabic or even modern arabic which translation does
Perry recommend?  As a side note I suppose that one could compare the text
of the three translations I know of but if the version used as a source is
common to all and corrupt in and of itself any errors in the source would be
perpetuated in all three, yes?  That being said I didn't intend to suggest
using the story as a source for recipes so much as an aid to the theme of
the event.

Daniel