Thanks, AZ, your comments were most helpful. But I didn't mean to spark a feud on the provenance of the "Arabian Nights." Of course, unlike, say, Chaucer or Boccaccio, or even the Brothers Grimm, where there is an established core text even though many of the stories can be tracesd to other sources, there is no established core text for the Arabian Nights, and in all likelihood some of the best known tales aren't "Arabian" at all. Many, e.g., were introduced by Galland, including Ala al-Din ["our" Aladdin and his magic lamp] and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, which he may or may not have gotten from the Syrian Hanna Diyab; no precedent Arabic text has ever been discovered. And since many of the tales come from folk tradition and many retellings, various versions exist. I suppose that makes them fair game for a range of "translations" and adaptations.
One of the intriguing things about the Sphere, of course, is that one never knows where any post, any topic, may lead.
Cheers, Jan
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