"The first who composed such tales
and made use of them were the ancient Persians. The Arabs translated
them, and made others like them." He then continues ('Prairies d'Or,'
ed. De Meynard) and mentions the book 'Hezar Afsane,' which means "a
thousand tales," a book popularly called the 'Thousand and One Nights,'
and containing the story of the king and his vizier, and of his daughter
Shirazaad and her slave-girl Dinazad. Other books of the same kind are
the book of Simas, containing stories of Indian kings and viziers, the
book of Sindibad, etc. (See also 'Hanzae Ispahanensis Annalium,' ed.
Gottwaldt, 1844, page 41.) A similar statement is made by Abu Yakub
al-Nadim (987) in the 'Fihrist' (ed. Fluegel, page 304):--"This book,
'Hezar Afsane,' is said to have been written by the Princess Homai (or
Homain), daughter of Bahman. It comprises a Thousand Nights, but less
than two hundred stories; for a night story often was related in a
number of nights. I have seen it many times complete; but it is in truth
a meagre and uninteresting publication." A translation of the 'Hezar
Afsane' was made into Arabic, and it is again mentioned in the middle of
the twelfth century by Abdulhec al-Hazraji; but neither it nor the
original Pahlavi has yet been found. It thus remains a matter of
speculation as to how much of the 'Hezar Afsane' has found its way into
the 'Nights.' It is evident that to it they are indebted for the whole
general idea, for many of the principal names, and probably for the
groundwork of a great many of the stories. The change of the title from
'The Thousand' to 'The Thousand and One' is due to the fact that the
Arabs often expressed "a large number" by this second cipher. But the
'Nights' cannot be a translation from the Persian; for the other two
books mentioned by Masudi are in the Arabic collection. Lane supposes
the relationship to be that of the 'AEneid' to the 'Odyssey.' But it is
probably closer: one fifth of the collection which, according to Payne,
is common to all manuscripts, will doubtless be found to be based on the
Pahlavi original. That the dependence is not greater is evident from the
absence of the great heroes of the Persian Epos--Feridun, Zer,
Isfandyar, etc. The heroes are all Arabs; the life depicted is
wholly Arabic.

The original Persian 'Nights' must be quite old. Homai, the Persian
Semiramis, is mentioned in the 'Avesta'; and in Firdausi she is the
daughter and the wife of Artaxerxes Longi