The Man Who Made the Nights Immortal: The Tales of the Syrian Maronite Storyteller Ḥannā Diyāb

Hannā Diyāb is the internationally most influential early modern storyteller known by name. Originating from the Syrian town of Aleppo and born to a Christian Maronite family, he narrated the tales of “Aladdin” and “Ali Baba” (and others) to Antoine Galland, who included them in his enlarged version of The Thousand and One Nights. The present contribution introduces the storyteller and his tales, accompanying the first complete English translation of the summaries Galland took down in his diary from the storyteller’s performance

A treasury of formulaic narrative : the Persian popular romance Hosein-e Kord

It is the aim of the present essay to contribute a sample from the Persian tradition area illustrating the techniques of oral composition and some of its implications. In order to achieve this, I present a detailed documentation and analysis of the formulaic inventory in one specific representative of Persian oral narrative tradition of the early nineteenth century.Not

Ḥannā Diyāb’s Tales, Part I

Introduced by the essay on Hannā Diyāb in this issue, our translation from the French presents six of the tales this storyteller performed for Antoine Galland, between May 6 and May 23, 1709. The remaining tales, performed between May 25 and June 2, 1709, will be published in the next issue of Marvels & Tales

Ḥannā Diyāb’s Tales, Part II

Introduced by the essay on Ḥannā Diyāb in vol. 32, no. 1, we present the second part of our translation from Antoine Galland’s journal entries, between May 25 and June 2, 1709

Books in Arabic Script

The chapter approaches the book in Arabic script as the indispensable means for the transmission of knowledge across Eurasia and Africa, within cultures and across cultural boundaries, since the seventh century ad. The state of research can be divided into manuscript and print studies, but there is not yet a history of the book in Arabic script that captures its plurilinear development for over fourteen hundred years. The chapter explores the conceptual and practical challenges that impede the integration of the book in Arabic script into book history at large and includes an extensive reference list that reflects its diversity. The final published version was slightly updated, and includes seven illustrations of six Qurans from the holdings of Columbia University Libraries, four manuscripts and two printed versions. Moreover, the illustrations are images of historical artifacts which are in the public domain - despite Wiley's copyright claim

Grimm Nights: Reflections on the Connections Between the Grimms’ \u27Household Tales\u27 and the \u271001 Nights\u27

Discussing relevant passages in both the Grimms’ original appendix to their collection and Bernhard Heller’s essay contribution to Bolte and Polívka’s “Notes” to the Grimms’ tales, in the present essay I explore the connections between the Grimms’ Household Tales and the 1001 Nights. Because the number of direct connections is limited, I turn to the reasons for this apparent lack by discussing the Grimms’ assumptions as collectors, adaptors, and editors. This approach reminds us of the necessity to assess previous scholarship in light of its sociocultural, historical, and political contexts

Crescentia’s Oriental Relatives: The “Tale of the Pious Man and His Chaste Wife” in the \u3ci\u3eArabian Nights\u3c/i\u3e and the Sources of Crescentia in Near Eastern Narrative Tradition

The “Tale of the Pious Man and His Chaste Wife” is both ancient and widespread in international tradition. So far, the oldest version of the tale that has been found is documented in the German Kaiserchronik, dating from the twelfth century. Consequently, previous scholarship has tended to argue for the tale’s Western origin. By drawing on a variety of Arabic and Persian sources, this essay proves to the contrary that the tale originated from Near Eastern literatures and probably goes back ultimately to a Jewish source

What is folklore good for? On dealing with undesirable cultural expression

Donated by Klaus Kreise