Talk:Antoine Galland

Which scholars?
"Mystery still surrounds the origins of some of the most famous tales. For instance, there are no Arabic manuscripts of Aladdin and Ali Baba which pre-date Galland's translation, leading some scholars to conclude that Galland invented them himself and the Arabic versions are merely later renderings of his original French."

The other wiki entry on Aladdin explains this quite well:

"No medieval Arabic source has been traced for the tale, which was incorporated into the book One Thousand and One Nights by its French translator, Antoine Galland, who heard it from an Arab Syrian storyteller from Aleppo. Galland's diary (March 25, 1709) records that he met the Maronite scholar, by name Youhenna Diab ("Hanna"), who had been brought from Aleppo to Paris by Paul Lucas, a celebrated French traveller. Galland's diary also tells that his translation of "Aladdin" was made in the winter of 1709–10. It was included in his volumes ix and x of the Nights, published in 1710.

John Payne, Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp and Other Stories, (London 1901) gives details of Galland's encounter with the man he referred to as "Hanna" and the discovery in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris of two Arabic manuscripts containing Aladdin (with two more of the "interpolated" tales). One is a jumbled late 18th century Syrian version. The more interesting one, in a manuscript that belonged to the scholar M. Caussin de Perceval, is a copy of a manuscript made in Baghdad in 1703. It was purchased by the Bibliothèque Nationale at the end of the nineteenth century." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.249.60.132 (talk) 22:36, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

208.81.12.35 (talk) 13:41, 1 November 2016 (UTC) It seems to me unlikely that Gallard himself wrote the story, as it seems to contain very Mideastern elements referenced into a plot taking place in China. A scholarly European probably wouldn't have propagated that misconception. It seems also unlikely that the man Hanna fabricated it, if in fact he was a Maronite, as the story contains primarily Islamic cultural elements. So I imagine that it was written by a muslim, and set in China in keeping with the Shahrazad main theme. Some very unknown storyteller of ancient Persian or Arab origin made up this story, but much later than the original book 1001 Nights was compiled in antiquity. Thus it never made it in. Perhaps it simply floated around orally until Gallard heard it. 208.81.12.35 (talk) 13:41, 1 November 2016 (UTC) Tezcore here 11/1/16