Antoine Galland

Antoine Galland was a French Orientalist, writer, and translator. He was born in Picardy in 1646, and died in Paris in 1715. Galland is famous as the first European translator of “One Thousand and One Nights.” He named his translation “Les mille et une units,” and it was the first European version of the Nights translated from Arabic text.

Galland pursued his linguistics studies in Paris and was an orientalist. During the 1670s, he travelled to some countries in Middle Eastern such as Syria and Levant to copy many inscriptions and sketched. His experience abroad had given a profound knowledge in Arabic language and literatures. He started translating the Nights from original manuscripts. This piece of literature then became popular throughout Europe. Galland’s version of the Nights was not verbally accurate. In addition, the stories were also changed to suit European taste. Most of the erotica from the original works were remved. However, Galland’s translation could still render the narrative of the original stories. Some tales such as “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” and “Aladdin ‘s Lamp” appeared in Galland’s translation, but could not be found in the original manuscripts. It is said that Galland created these tales himself after he heard from Hanna Diab – a Syrian Christian storyteller from Aleppo.

Sources:

http://www.theodora.com/encyclopedia/g/antoine_galland.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights