SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This unique anthology draws on the best of English translations, from the earliest to the most recent. Pride of place goes to nineteenth-century Orientalists Richard Burton, Edward W. Lane and John Payne, who combined meticulous scholarship with imaginative enterprise and stylistic artistry, to create works which are classics in their own right. These in turn were translated into many languages, thus bringing The Arabian Nights to the centre of world literature.