Introducing Anglophone readers to the young Syrian responsible for some of the most beloved stories from the Thousand and One Nights, The Book of Travels is Ḥannā Diyāb’s remarkable first-person account of his travels as a young man from his hometown of Aleppo to the court of Versailles and back again and we are thrilled to partner with Library of Arabic Literature and NYU Press to present an excerpt of its debut in English today. Diyāb, a Maronite Christian, served as a guide and interpreter for the French naturalist and antiquarian Paul Lucas. Between 1706 and 1716, Diyāb and Lucas traveled through Syria, Cyprus, Egypt, Tripolitania, Tunis, Italy, and France. In Paris, Ḥannā Diyāb met Antoine Galland, who added to his wildly popular translation of the Thousand and One Nights several tales related by Diyāb, including “Aladdin” and “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.” When Lucas failed to make good on his promise of a position for Diyāb at Louis XIV’s Royal Library, Diyāb returned to Aleppo. In his old age, he wrote this engaging account of his youthful adventures, from capture by pirates in the Mediterranean to quack medicine and near-death experiences. In the following excerpt, Diyāb recounts what happened when he arrived at the court of Versailles and met King Louis XIV for the first time.
As we approached the king’s palace, I could see that there was a vast open space before it, surrounded by an iron fence as tall as a man with his arm outstretched, and topped with points as sharp as spears. At the center was a gate that opened onto the space, flanked by tall soldiers carrying battle-axes and spears, and snarling like panthers. They allowed no one to pass except those they recognized to be known at court. When we approached the gate, the soldiers tried to turn us away, but my master gave them a password and they let us through.
We entered the square and walked across it to the gates of the king’s palace. There were soldiers there just like the ones we’d seen earlier, along with a seated chamberlain wearing an ornate uniform. He was a handsome man of dignified bearing, attended by a group of servants. When my master stepped forward and introduced himself, the man welcomed him in most cordially. We climbed a grand set of stone stairs, then headed to the pavilion of the minister known as Pontchartrain, who was minister for the Orient. We received permission to enter, and presented ourselves before His Excellency the minister, accompanied by the chamberlain.
My master bowed ceremoniously and announced that he’d returned safely to Paris from his voyage. He presented the minister with an inventory of the seven trunks’ worth of goods he had purchased for His Majesty the king during his travels. The minister read the inventory and repeated his greetings, congratulating my master on returning home safely despite all the frightful things he’d surely encountered during his voyage. I stood at some distance from the two men, holding the cage with the animals inside. The minister spotted me.
“Who’s that, and what’s he carrying?” he asked my master.
“This young man served as my dragoman during the voyage,” he replied. “When we were in Upper Egypt, I discovered some peculiar animals, which I’d never seen in all the lands I’d visited. I managed to procure seven of them, despite the fact that it’s very difficult to catch them. I put them in a cage to transport them home, but five perished along the way and only two survived. If Your Excellency would like to see them, they’re in this cage.”
The minister gave an order to have me brought before him, and the cage was taken from me and presented to His Excellency.
“I’m going to show these animals to the king tomorrow,” he said when he saw the curious creatures. “It’s too late to go now, since he’s already left for the hunt.” The minister then ordered some lodgings to be prepared for us at the palace. We were taken to a furnished residence, and offered food and drink of the finest kind.
We remained in that residence until the next day. Two hours before noon, the minister summoned us, and took us to the king’s council room. The minister entered first. We remained outside and waited for the king to emerge from his pavilion and enter the council room. Once he had, the minister informed him of my master’s arrival and asked permission for us to enter. We were brought into the room, and I saw the king standing there, with the notables of his realm lined up to his right and left looking extremely prim and proper.
The king was tall and splendid to behold. His presence inspired such awe that it was impossible to fix one’s gaze upon him for long. My master presented himself before the king and saluted him with due reverence, praying that his reign would endure, and expressing all the formulas appropriate for the greeting of kings. I heard the king address my master tenderly and affectionately, thanking him for the effort he’d expended in his service.
The minister then stepped forward and asked if the king would like to see the animals, and the king ordered them to be brought forward. They took the cage from me and set it before him. When he saw the creatures, he was astonished by their appearance and asked my master where he’d found them.
“In Upper Egypt,” he replied.
“Is there one female and one male?”
“Sire, there were originally seven, both male and female,” my master explained. “At present, however, I no longer know whether they’re female or male.”
“What are the animals called in their country?” the king asked.
My master, who didn’t know the name, or perhaps had forgotten it, looked embarrassed, and turned to me.
“Your Majesty, the young man who accompanied me knows what they’re called.”
The king and all his nobles turned to face me. Someone asked me what the animals were called. I replied that, in the lands where it is found, the animal is called a jarbūʿ. Then the king ordered his attendants to give me a pen and paper so that I could write the name down in my language. I took the paper and wrote the name in Arabic as well as French, for I knew how to read and write in French. After I’d written the words and they’d showed them to His Majesty the king, he studied me carefully.
“Who is this young man?” he asked my master. “What country is he from?”
“My lord, this young man is from Syria, in the Holy Land,” my master said, looking down. “He belongs to the Maronite sect, which has been part of the Church of Saint Peter since the time of the apostles, from which it has never diverged, even to the present day.”
At that moment, Monseigneur the Dauphin, the king’s son, entered the room. He was of medium height and quite rotund. People liked to point out that although both his father and firstborn son were kings—the latter being the king of Spain—the dauphin was not a king himself. He came forward to examine the animals and was amazed. He had an enormous drawing in which all the animals in the world were represented, with the exception of these particular ones. He summoned the king’s physician, Monsieur Fagon, a learned man whose knowledge of medicine, natural science, and other such disciplines was unrivaled in all the world.
Monsieur Fagon appeared and looked at the animals, and the king’s son asked him if he knew anything about them.
“Are they mentioned in any books of natural science?” he asked, and the physician replied that he’d never heard of such creatures, nor seen a drawing of them. Monseigneur the Dauphin called for an artist to add them to his illustration of wild beasts, and the king ordered the minister to hold the animals and their keeper in a place where they wouldn’t be seen, until such time as Madame de Bourgogne returned from the hunt. She was the king’s daughter-in-law—the wife of his son, the Duke of Bourgogne—and the king loved her like a daughter.
That was the first time I had the great honor of seeing King Louis XIV, the sultan of France, in his council room, and I’ve faithfully recounted everything that took place, without any additions or omissions. But I’ve also been brief about it, so the reader won’t suspect that I dreamt all of this up.
Translated from the Arabic by Elias Muhanna
The Book of Travels is out with NYU Press this month. Click here for more information about the book.
Ḥannā Diyāb (b. ca. 1687) was a Syrian traveler originally from Aleppo. He is best known for his contributions to Antoine Galland’s translation of the Thousand and One Nights.
Elias Muhanna is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown University. He is the author of The World in a Book: al-Nuwayri and the Islamic Encyclopedic Tradition and translator of Shihāb al-Dīn al-Nuwayrī’s fourteenth-century Arabic compendium The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition, which was chosen as a “Best Book of 2016” by NPR and The Guardian, and editor of The Digital Humanities and Islamic & Middle East Studies.
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