Arabic Tales

These are stories contained in some Arabic manuscripts not included in The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night. Originally published in 1884, this edition was published in 1901 in London. John Payne is now best known for his translations of The Arabian Nights and the Diwan Hafez. After completing his translation of Omar Khayyam, Payne returned to the rendition of Hafiz eventually published in 3 volumes in 1901. Payne argues that Hafiz takes the “whole sweep of human experience and irradia tes all things with his sun-gold and his wisdom”. Payne once said that Hafez, Dante and Shakespeare were the three greatest poets of the world.