The present translation being intended as a purely literary work produced with the sole object of supplying the general body of cultivated readers with a fairly representative and characteristic version of the most famous work of narrative fiction in existenceI have deemed it advisable to departin several particularsfrom the various systems of transliteration of Oriental proper names followed by modern scholarsas，although doubtless admirably adapted to works having a scientific or non-literary objectthey rest mainly upon devices （such as the use of apostrophesaccentsdiacritical points and the employment of both vowels and consonants in unusual groups and senses） foreign to the genius of the English language and calculated only to annoy the reader of a work of imagination. Of these points of departure from established usage I need only particularize some of the more important；the others willin generalbe found to speak for themselves. One of the most salient is the case of the short vowel fet-hehwhich is usually written[a breve]but which I have thought it better to renderas a ruleby [e breve]as in 'bed'（a sound practically equivalent to that of aas in 'beggar，'adopted by the late Mr. Lane to represent this vowel）reserving the English aas in 'father，'to represent the alif of prolongation or long Arabic asince I should else have no means of differentiating the latter from the formersave by the use of accents or other clumsy expedientsat onceto my mindforeign to the purpose and vexatious to the reader of a work of pure literature. In like mannerI have eschewed the use of the letter qas an equivalent for the dotted or guttural kaf （choosing to run the risk of occasionally misleading the reader as to the original Arabic form of a word by leaving him in ignorance whether the k used is the dotted or undotted one，--a point of no importance whatever to the non-scientific public，--rather than employ an English letter in a manner completely unwarranted by the construction of our languagein which q has no power as a terminal or as moved by any vowel other than ufollowed by one of the four others） and have supplied its placewhere the dotted kaf occurs as a terminal or as preceding a hard vowelby the hard cleaving k to represent it （in common with the undotted kaf generally） in those instances where it is followed by a soft vowel. For similar reasonsI have not attempted to render the Arabic quasi-consonant a？nsave by the English vowel corresponding to that by which it is movedpreferring to leave the guttural element of its sound （for which we have no approach to an equivalent in English） unrepresentedrather than resort to the barbarous and meaningless device of the apostrophe. Againthe principlein accordance with which I have rendered the proper names of the originalis briefly （and subject to certain variations on the ground of convenience and literary fitness） to preserve unaltered such names as TigrisBassoraCairoAleppo，Damascusetc.which are familiar to us otherwise than by the Arabian Nights and to alter whichfor the sake of mere literalitywere as gratuitous a piece of pedantry as to insist upon writing Copenhagen Kjobenhavnor Canton Kouang-tongand to transliterate the rest as nearly as may consist with a due regard to artistic considerations. The use of untranslated Arabic words，other than proper namesI haveas far as possibleavoided，rendering themwith very few exceptionsby the best English equivalents in my powercareful rather to give the general sensewhere capable of being conveyed by reasonable substitution of idiom or otherwisethan to retain the strict letter at the expense of the spirit；noron the other handhave I thought it necessary to alter the traditional manner of spelling certain words which have become incorporated with our languagewhere（as in the case of the words geniehouriroekhalifvizier，cadiBedouinetc. etc.） the English equivalent is fairly representative of the original Arabic.
I have to return my cordial thanks to Captain Richard F. Burton，the well-known traveller and authorwho has most kindly undertaken to give me the benefit of his great practical knowledge of the language and customs of the Arabs in revising the manu of my translation for the press.
