Note 55 — KING JALI’AD OF HIND AND HIS WAZIR SHIMAS; FOLLOWED BY THE HISTORY OF KING WIRD KHAN, SON OF KING JALI’AD, WITH HIS WOMEN AND WAZIRS.[55]

Lane omits because it is “extremely puerile” this most characteristic tale, one of the two oldest in The Nights which Al-Mas’udi mentions as belonging to the Hazár Afsáneh (See Terminal Essay). Von Hammer (Preface in Trébutien’s translation p. xxv.) refers the fables to an Indian (Egyptian?) origin and remarks, “sous le rapport de leur antiquité et de la morale qu’ils renferment, elles méritent la plus grande attention, mais d’un autre côté elles ne sont rien moins qu’ amusantes.”