Against the methodological backdrop of historical and comparative folk narrative research, 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition surveys the history, dissemination, and characteristics of over one hundred narratives transmitted to Western tradition from or by the Middle Eastern Muslim literatures (i.e., authored written works in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish). For a tale to be included, Ulrich Marzolph considered two criteria: that the tale originates from or at least was transmitted by a Middle Eastern source, and that it was recorded from a Western narrator's oral performance in the course of the nineteenth or twentieth century. The rationale behind these restrictive definitions is predicated on Marzolph's main concern with the long-lasting effect that some of the "Oriental" narratives exercised in Western popular tradition - those tales that have withstood the test of time, Marzolph focuses on the originally "Oriental" tales that became part and parcel of modern Western oral tradition. Since antiquity, the "Orient" constitutes the quintessential Other vis-a-vis the European cultures. While delineation against this Other served to define and reassure the Self, the "Orient" also constituted a constant source of fascination, attraction, and inspiration. Through oral retellings, numerous tales from Muslim tradition became an integral part of European oral and written tradition in the form of learned treatises, medieval sermons, late medieval fabliaux, early modern chapbooks, contemporary magazines, and more. In present times, when national narcissisms often acquire the status of strongholds delineating the Us against the Other, it is imperative to distinguish, document, visualize, and discuss the extent to which the West is not only indebted to the Muslim world but also shares common features with Muslim narrative tradition. 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition is an important contribution to this debate and a vital work for scholars, students, and readers of folklore and fairy tales.

Contributes to the history of Middle Eastern narrative lore and its impact on Western tradition.

The Arabian Nights commands a place in world literature unrivaled by any other fictional work of ""Oriental"" provenance. Bringing together Indian, Iranian, and Arabic tradition, this collection of tales became popular in the Western world during the eighteenth century and has since exerted a profound influence on theater, opera, music, painting, architecture, and literature. ""The Arabian Nights Reader"" offers an authoritative guide to the research inspired by this rich and intricate work. Through a selection of sixteen influential and currently relevant essays, culled from decades of scholarship, this volume encompasses the most salient research topics to date, from the ""Nights'"" early history to interpretations of such famous characters as Sheherazade. While serious research on the ""Nights"" began early in the nineteenth century, some of the most puzzling aspects of the collection's complex history and character were solved only quite recently. This volume's topics reflect the makings of a transnational narrative: evidence of a ninth-century version of the ""Nights"", the work's circulation among booksellers in twelfth-century Cairo, the establishment of a ""canonical"" text, the sources used by the French translator who introduced the ""Nights"" to the West and the dating of this French translation, the influence of Greek literature on the ""Nights"", the genre of romance, the relationship between narration and survival within the plots, reception of the ""Nights"" from the nineteenth century onward, interpretations of single stories from the collection, the universal nature of the sexual politics surrounding Sheherazade, and the repercussion of the ""Nights"" in modern Arabic literature. As this collection demonstrates, the ""Arabian Nights"" helped shape Western perceptions of the ""Orient"" as the quintessential ""Other"" while serving to inspire Western creativity. The research presented here not only deepens our insight into this great work, but also heightens our awareness of the powerful communal forces of transnational narrative.

Against the methodological backdrop of historical and comparative folk narrative research, 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition surveys the history, dissemination, and characteristics of over one hundred narratives transmitted to Western tradition from or by the Middle Eastern Muslim literatures (i.e., authored written works in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish). For a tale to be included, Ulrich Marzolph considered two criteria: that the tale originates from or at least was transmitted by a Middle Eastern source, and that it was recorded from a Western narrator's oral performance in the course of the nineteenth or twentieth century. The rationale behind these restrictive definitions is predicated on Marzolph's main concern with the long-lasting effect that some of the "Oriental" narratives exercised in Western popular tradition-those tales that have withstood the test of time. Marzolph focuses on the originally "Oriental" tales that became part and parcel of modern Western oral tradition. Since antiquity, the "Orient" constitutes the quintessential Other vis-a-vis the European cultures. While delineation against this Other served to define and reassure the Self, the "Orient" also constituted a constant source of fascination, attraction, and inspiration. Through oral retellings, numerous tales from Muslim tradition became an integral part of European oral and written tradition in the form of learned treatises, medieval sermons, late medieval fabliaux, early modern chapbooks, contemporary magazines, and more. In present times, when national narcissisms often acquire the status of strongholds delineating the Us against the Other, it is imperative to distinguish, document, visualize, and discuss the extent to which the West is not only indebted to the Muslim world but also shares common features with Muslim narrative tradition. 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition is an important contribution to this debate and a vital work for scholars, students, and readers of folklore and fairy tales.

The essays in "Ruse and Wit" examine in detail a wide range of texts (from nonsensical prose, to ribald poetry, titillating anecdotes, edifying plays, and journalistic satire) that span the best part of a millennium of humorous and satirical writing in the Islamic world, from classical Arabic to medieval and modern Persian, and Ottoman Turkish (and by extension Modern Greek). While acknowledging significant elements of continuity in the humorous across distinct languages, divergent time periods, and disparate geographical regions, the authors have not shied away from the particular and the specific. When viewed collectively, the findings presented in the essays collected here underscore the belief that humor as evidenced in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish narrative is a culturally modulated phenomenon, one that demands to be examined with reference to its historical framework and one that, in turn, communicates as much about those who produced humor as it does about those who enjoyed it.

At a meeting sponsored by UNESCO at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbuttel, Germany, nineteen international scholars presented their work on the transnational aspects of the ""Arabian Nights"". This volume collects their papers, whose topics range from the history of the ""Arabian Nights"" manuscripts, to positioning the Nights in modern and postmodern discourse, to the international reception of the Nights in written and oral tradition.Essays are arranged in five sections. The first section contains essays on Galland's translation and its ""continuation"" by Jacques Cazotte. The second section treats specific characteristics of the ""Nights"", including manuscript tradition, the transformations of a specific narrative pattern occurring in the ""Nights"" and other works of medieval Arabic literature, the topic of siblings in the ""Nights"", and the political thought mirrored in the ""Nights"". The essays in the third section deal with framing in relation to the classical Indian collection Panchatantra and as a general cultural technique, with particular attention to story-telling in the oral tradition of the Indian Ocean islands off the African coast. The two concluding and largest sections focus on various aspects of the transnational reception of the ""Nights"".While the essays of the fourth section predominantly discuss written or learned tradition in Hawai'i, Swahili-speaking East Africa, Turkey, Iran, German cinema, and modern Arabic literature, the fifth section encompasses essays on the reception and role of the ""Nights"" in the oral tradition of areas as wide apart as Sicily, Greece, Afganistan, and Balochistan. A preface by Ulrich Marzolph unifies this volume.In view of the tremendous impact of the ""Arabian Nights"" on Western creative imagination, this collection will appeal to literary scholars of many backgrounds.

This volume consists of 24 folk tales told by two native speakers and tape-recorded by British Iranist, Lawrence P. Elwell-Sutton in Iran in August, 1958. Vafsi is an Iranian language spoken in four villages in central Iran: Vafs, Fark, Chehreqan and Gurchan, their population ranging from about 400 to 4500 inhabitants. Although the geographic extension of Vafsi thus can be defined quite clearly, its exact linguistic affiliation is still under question. While it has been classified as belonging to the Tatic group, particularly closely related to the Southern Tatic Dialects, other researchers see Vafsi possibly as a Central Plateau dialect. Furthermore, there are features that are typical of Kurdish, but the presence of these features has yet to be assessed or explained. Elwell-Sutton not only recorded the tales but also made a transcription, which, however, he never published. On the basis of the records and with the help of native speakers Sutton's work was revised and is now presented refined and corrected. Additionally, the author gives an insight into the grammatical structures of this otherwise rarely studied Iranic language and supplies the reader with an extensive glossary as well as an English translation of each tale. Those who are especially interested in folclorist aspects may find the annotations to each story helpful. They inform about paralels in Persian and Arabic folk tale traditions but also comment on specific sentences as to syntax and semantics. The accompanying CDs contain all 24 tales as they were told by two male speakers aged 16 and about 60. Together this amounts to nearly four hours of spoken Vafsi.