by Sven » March 3rd, 2007, 6:14 pm
From that entry, I don't consider it reliable
Lewis never went to the Ottoman Empire (which ceased to exist when he was 24).
'Aslan' is a slightly archaic version of the modern Turkish word for lion, which transliterates into English as
arslan. When I say slightly archaic, I'm told it sounds, in Turkish, somewhat the way the King James Bible sounds in English. Lewis found the word in a footnote in Edward Lane's translation of, and commentary on,
The Thousand and One Nights: Commonly Called, in England, The Arabian Nights' Entertainments. This book is available currently in an two volume abridged edition. The edition Lewis read it in was volume 16 of the series Harvard Classics (1909).
Rat! he found breath to whisper, shaking. Are you afraid?
Afraid? murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love.
Afraid! Of Him? O, never, never! And yet -- and yet -- O, Mole, I am afraid!
Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.