The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Vol. 6 (1888) - Page 19

The manuscript consists of several sections; it is written on 48 sets of 4 double leaves This refers to the "quires" or groupings of pages used in bookbinding.. The text is written in a clear Syrian handwriting, though it is not as fluid as that of manuscript No. 1716, which was written by Shawish himself. The well-known Arabic scholar, Baron de Slane, described that script as "Good oriental handwriting from the end of the 18th century" original: Bonne écriture orientale de la fin du XVIIIᵉ Siècle. The colophon An inscription at the end of a manuscript containing facts about its production. hides or omits the name of the scribe, but it records the dates: the work began in Kanun II (the Syrian winter month of January) 1772 AD and was completed in Naysan (April) of the same year. It features headings placed on the front and back of the pages, for example:

Haykar ———— The Sage (Al-Hakim),

The manuscript also uses parentheses within the text in the European style and includes an incomplete list of stories at the beginning. A full index is provided at the end. The following is the order and page numbers of the fourteen stories:

No.	Story Title	Page(s)
1.	The King of Persia and his Ten Viziers term: Wazīrs; high-ranking political advisors or ministers.	pp. 1 to 62
2.	The Story of the Sage Haykar original: "Say of the Sage Haykár"	140
3.	History of King Sabur and the Three Wise Men	183
4.	The Daughter of Kisra the King (The Crossbowman) original: Al Bundukâni, a nickname for Caliph Harun al-Rashid.	217
5.	The Caliph and the Three Kalandars term: Kalandars; wandering ascetic dervishes.	266
6.	Julnar the Sea-born	396
7.	The Governess, the Linguist-lady, and the King's Son	476
8.	The Tale of the Sorcerer and the Young Cook of Baghdad	505
9.	The Man in the Hospital original: Bímáristán or Madhouse	538
10.	The Tale of Attaf the Syrian	588
11.	The History of Sultan Habib and the Pearl of the Diver original: Durrat al-Ghawwás	628
12.	The Caliph and the Fisherman	686
13.	The Cock and the Fox	718
14.	The Little Bird and the Bird-catcher original: "The Fowl-let and the Fowler"	725 to 739 (End)

I would like to offer a few observations regarding these tales. Story No. 1 begins with a Christian opening formula: "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" original: Rúhu'l-Kudus. I have not translated this specific version because it is a mere duplicate of the "Ten...