What do you think?
Rate this book
The Arabian Nights
No library's complete without the classics! This new, enhanced leather-bound edition collects the beloved tales of Arabian Nights, translated by Sir Richard Burton.
They are ancient stories, but they still enchant our imaginations today. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Sinbad the Sailor. Aladdin. These and the other Middle Eastern stories collected in Arabian Nights are delightful, fascinating, and fun for fans and first-time readers alike.
This beautiful, leather-bound edition collects the classic tales of Arabian Nights in a new, redesigned format. Specially designed end papers, gilded edges, a ribbon bookmark, and other decorative elements enhance the reading experience, while an expert introduction provides new information and context for these well-known stories.
Arabian Nights is a compelling look at a long-gone culture--and the perfect addition to any home library.
They are ancient stories, but they still enchant our imaginations today. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Sinbad the Sailor. Aladdin. These and the other Middle Eastern stories collected in Arabian Nights are delightful, fascinating, and fun for fans and first-time readers alike.
This beautiful, leather-bound edition collects the classic tales of Arabian Nights in a new, redesigned format. Specially designed end papers, gilded edges, a ribbon bookmark, and other decorative elements enhance the reading experience, while an expert introduction provides new information and context for these well-known stories.
Arabian Nights is a compelling look at a long-gone culture--and the perfect addition to any home library.
672 pages, Leather Bound
First published January 1, 800
About the author
Richard Francis Burton
1,294 books225 followersCaptain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS was a British geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia, Africa and the Americas as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian, and African languages.
Burton's best-known achievements include travelling in disguise to Mecca, an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (also commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after Andrew Lang's adaptation), bringing the Kama Sutra to publication in English, and journeying with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans led by Africa's greatest explorer guide, Sidi Mubarak Bombay, utilizing route information by Indian and Omani merchants who traded in the region, to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. Burton extensively criticized colonial policies (to the detriment of his career) in his works and letters. He was a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. A unique feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and unexpurgated information.
He was a captain in the army of the East India Company serving in India (and later, briefly, in the Crimean War). Following this he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa and led an expedition guided by the locals and was the first European to see Lake Tanganyika. In later life he served as British consul in Fernando Po, Santos, Damascus and, finally, Trieste. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood (KCMG) in 1886.
Burton's best-known achievements include travelling in disguise to Mecca, an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (also commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after Andrew Lang's adaptation), bringing the Kama Sutra to publication in English, and journeying with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans led by Africa's greatest explorer guide, Sidi Mubarak Bombay, utilizing route information by Indian and Omani merchants who traded in the region, to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. Burton extensively criticized colonial policies (to the detriment of his career) in his works and letters. He was a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. A unique feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and unexpurgated information.
He was a captain in the army of the East India Company serving in India (and later, briefly, in the Crimean War). Following this he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa and led an expedition guided by the locals and was the first European to see Lake Tanganyika. In later life he served as British consul in Fernando Po, Santos, Damascus and, finally, Trieste. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood (KCMG) in 1886.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,325 reviews
June 24, 2021
When I was a little girl my grandmother gave me a big, blue, cloth bound edition of this book. It had the most exquisite coloured plates protected by tissue paper interleaved with the printed sheets. It was the perfect storybook for a bookish, fanciful child living in an abusive home. I spent a year reading this book. Every night I would read it and disappear from all the fear and unpleasantness around me into this realm of people in exotic clothes who could do magic. I cherished the book. I took it everywhere. It was never on display but always kept in the airing cupboard where it would be warm and dry.
One year I rented my London flat to a thieving pig. He looked very nice, tall, handsome, very well-spoken and lived with his girlfriend and their baby. Her father would phone me from time to time as he was worried that the man was not a good person for his daughter. He was right, but she was his match, just as dishonest and also lazy. He would write cheques with the sixes and nines reversed (in his favour), ones he'd 'forgotten' to sign.
I phoned his father. He was all shock/horror on the phone. But when he came round he threatened me. If I took it further he and his sons would make me very sorry. I phoned her father, he came round in his taxi (he was a taxi driver), paid me the owed rent. I gave the man notice. He had the cheek to ask me for a reference so he could get another place. When I refused and eventually got possession of the place, he superglued the bedroom doors locks, ripped the panelling off the bathtub, and threw black paint on the mattresses. And stole all my rare books. One was an amazing underground banned book on Turkey, a sort of guide book to what they don't want you to see, went missing and another one was this one.
I kind of wish I had a book like this again. One with the capability of taking me far away into another realm where the troubles of the day just don't intrude. But I'm grown up now and books no longer have that amazing, all-encompassing, lost for hours effect.
Rewritten June 2021
One year I rented my London flat to a thieving pig. He looked very nice, tall, handsome, very well-spoken and lived with his girlfriend and their baby. Her father would phone me from time to time as he was worried that the man was not a good person for his daughter. He was right, but she was his match, just as dishonest and also lazy. He would write cheques with the sixes and nines reversed (in his favour), ones he'd 'forgotten' to sign.
I phoned his father. He was all shock/horror on the phone. But when he came round he threatened me. If I took it further he and his sons would make me very sorry. I phoned her father, he came round in his taxi (he was a taxi driver), paid me the owed rent. I gave the man notice. He had the cheek to ask me for a reference so he could get another place. When I refused and eventually got possession of the place, he superglued the bedroom doors locks, ripped the panelling off the bathtub, and threw black paint on the mattresses. And stole all my rare books. One was an amazing underground banned book on Turkey, a sort of guide book to what they don't want you to see, went missing and another one was this one.
I kind of wish I had a book like this again. One with the capability of taking me far away into another realm where the troubles of the day just don't intrude. But I'm grown up now and books no longer have that amazing, all-encompassing, lost for hours effect.
Rewritten June 2021
August 25, 2021
(Book 996 From 1001 Books) - Hezār Afsān = The Thousand and One Nights = The Arabian Nights, Anonymous
The work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, and South Asia and North Africa.
The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Greek, Indian, Jewish, Persian and Turkish folklore and literature.
In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Abbasid era, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hezār Afsān (A Thousand Tales), which in turn relied partly on Indian elements.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال 1981میلادی و سپس بارها نسخه های دیگر را نیز خوانده ام
هزار و یک شب؛ همیشه ماندنی، همیشه یادگار قصه ها و غصه های روزهای دور، همیشه دوست دوست
در باره ی اصل و نسب «هزار و یک شب»؛ که از شناخته ترین کتابهای جهان است، و به همگی زبانهای زنده ی این دنیا برگردان شده، سخنان بسیار گفته اند، و از معتبرترین نوشتارها در این باب، یکی مطلبی است که روانشاد «مسعودی (متوفی به سال 346هجری قمری)» در «مروج الذهب» آورده، و دیگری قول روانشاد «ابن ندیم (متوفی به سال 385هجری قمری)» در کتاب «الفهرست» است؛ از سخنان این دو چنین برمیآید، که کتاب ایرانی «هزار افسانه»، بی تردید مرجع اصلی «الف لیلة ولیله»، بوده است؛ اما ممکن است، و گمان میرود، که خود هزار افسانه ی «پهلوی» و یا چارچوبه ی «داستان شهرزاد و شهریار»، و برخی از داستانهای آن، از منابع «هندی» برگرفته شده، و از روی سرمشق و الگویی «هندی» در «ایران» پدید آمده باشد، و «الف لیل» میراث «هند» و «فرس» شاید باشد؛ چون علاوه بر مشابهت های دقیقی، که میان برخی داستانهای کهن «هزارویک شب»، و داستانهای «هندی» کهن میتوان یافت؛ که در تقدم تاریخی کتابهای «هندی» بر «هزار افسان» پارسی، حرفی و سخنی نیست، شیوه ی نقل و روایت داستانهای پیاپی و تودرتو، و درج قصه در قصه، برای مانع شدن از انجام یافتن کاری شتابزده، و نسنجیده، و به دست کردن مهلت، نظیر کتاب «طوطینامه» نیز، شگرد ویژه ی «هندیان» بوده است، و در ادبیات دیگر ملل جهان بیمانند است، و یا کمتر همانند دارد؛ به هر حال چه «هزارافسانه» از کتاب «هندی» اقتباس شده باشد، و چه زاده ی طبع «ایرانیان» باشد، تردیدی نیست که همین هزار افسانه ی «پهلوی»، در دوران «خلفای عباسی»، به «عربی» ترجمه شده، و «الف لیلة ولیله» یا همان «هزارویک شب» نام گرفته است؛ البته «هزار افسانه»ی اصلی نیز بخش کوتاهی از «هزارویک شب» کنونی را، که پر حجم است، تشکیل میداده، و میدهد، چون «هزارویک شب» امروزین، به مرور فراهم آمده، و بدین حجم رسیده است، و در روزگاران دیرین، داستانهای گوناکون، از منابع «ایرانی»، «هندی»، «یونانی»، «یهود»، «عربی»، و «اسلامی» بر آن افزوده اند؛ بنابراین کتاب، همچون مجموعه ای، که پیوسته آن را تکمیل کرده اند، به دست امروزیان رسیده است، اما این جمله در مدت زمانی دراز، رنگ و بوی اسلامی نیز، یافته است، یعنی راویان و ناقلان گوناگون، قصه های غیراسلامی را، تا آنجا که توانسته اند، به رنگ و نگار اسلام درآورده اند، و بدین برهان در حال کنونی کتاب، که قسمت عمده ی آن، رنگ «اسلامی» و «عربی» دارد، گنجینه و جـُنگی از ادبیات عامیانه ی مشرق زمین، در سده های میانه است، و نقش و تصویری از کلیت تمدن، و فرهنگ دنیای اسلام را، در سده های میانی میلادی عرضه میدارد
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 04/08/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 02/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
The work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, and South Asia and North Africa.
The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Greek, Indian, Jewish, Persian and Turkish folklore and literature.
In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Abbasid era, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hezār Afsān (A Thousand Tales), which in turn relied partly on Indian elements.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال 1981میلادی و سپس بارها نسخه های دیگر را نیز خوانده ام
هزار و یک شب؛ همیشه ماندنی، همیشه یادگار قصه ها و غصه های روزهای دور، همیشه دوست دوست
در باره ی اصل و نسب «هزار و یک شب»؛ که از شناخته ترین کتابهای جهان است، و به همگی زبانهای زنده ی این دنیا برگردان شده، سخنان بسیار گفته اند، و از معتبرترین نوشتارها در این باب، یکی مطلبی است که روانشاد «مسعودی (متوفی به سال 346هجری قمری)» در «مروج الذهب» آورده، و دیگری قول روانشاد «ابن ندیم (متوفی به سال 385هجری قمری)» در کتاب «الفهرست» است؛ از سخنان این دو چنین برمیآید، که کتاب ایرانی «هزار افسانه»، بی تردید مرجع اصلی «الف لیلة ولیله»، بوده است؛ اما ممکن است، و گمان میرود، که خود هزار افسانه ی «پهلوی» و یا چارچوبه ی «داستان شهرزاد و شهریار»، و برخی از داستانهای آن، از منابع «هندی» برگرفته شده، و از روی سرمشق و الگویی «هندی» در «ایران» پدید آمده باشد، و «الف لیل» میراث «هند» و «فرس» شاید باشد؛ چون علاوه بر مشابهت های دقیقی، که میان برخی داستانهای کهن «هزارویک شب»، و داستانهای «هندی» کهن میتوان یافت؛ که در تقدم تاریخی کتابهای «هندی» بر «هزار افسان» پارسی، حرفی و سخنی نیست، شیوه ی نقل و روایت داستانهای پیاپی و تودرتو، و درج قصه در قصه، برای مانع شدن از انجام یافتن کاری شتابزده، و نسنجیده، و به دست کردن مهلت، نظیر کتاب «طوطینامه» نیز، شگرد ویژه ی «هندیان» بوده است، و در ادبیات دیگر ملل جهان بیمانند است، و یا کمتر همانند دارد؛ به هر حال چه «هزارافسانه» از کتاب «هندی» اقتباس شده باشد، و چه زاده ی طبع «ایرانیان» باشد، تردیدی نیست که همین هزار افسانه ی «پهلوی»، در دوران «خلفای عباسی»، به «عربی» ترجمه شده، و «الف لیلة ولیله» یا همان «هزارویک شب» نام گرفته است؛ البته «هزار افسانه»ی اصلی نیز بخش کوتاهی از «هزارویک شب» کنونی را، که پر حجم است، تشکیل میداده، و میدهد، چون «هزارویک شب» امروزین، به مرور فراهم آمده، و بدین حجم رسیده است، و در روزگاران دیرین، داستانهای گوناکون، از منابع «ایرانی»، «هندی»، «یونانی»، «یهود»، «عربی»، و «اسلامی» بر آن افزوده اند؛ بنابراین کتاب، همچون مجموعه ای، که پیوسته آن را تکمیل کرده اند، به دست امروزیان رسیده است، اما این جمله در مدت زمانی دراز، رنگ و بوی اسلامی نیز، یافته است، یعنی راویان و ناقلان گوناگون، قصه های غیراسلامی را، تا آنجا که توانسته اند، به رنگ و نگار اسلام درآورده اند، و بدین برهان در حال کنونی کتاب، که قسمت عمده ی آن، رنگ «اسلامی» و «عربی» دارد، گنجینه و جـُنگی از ادبیات عامیانه ی مشرق زمین، در سده های میانه است، و نقش و تصویری از کلیت تمدن، و فرهنگ دنیای اسلام را، در سده های میانی میلادی عرضه میدارد
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 04/08/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 02/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
January 16, 2015
Ah, if only I could write like the late Sir Richard Burton! Normally I dislike translations, but to refuse to read The Arabian Nights on those grounds would be like refusing to read the Bible. I love parodying people's styles, and I have tried my utmost to parody Burton convincingly, but I can't do it. He's too clever. He has taken this unique book, a miraculous survival from the most ancient antiquity, and he has created a unique language to make it accessible to us: the backbone is a kind of Spenserian English, but he has modified it in subtle ways, adding some French roots here, some Nordic ones there, pinches of more obscure ingredients when he feels he needs them, creating alliterations and internal rhymes and odd sentence structures to echo the rhythms of the original, inserting endless footnotes to tell us poor people what we're missing through not knowing Arabic.
Burton is always present in the text, leading us by the hand through his favorite passages, flooring us with a jaw-droppingly inappropriate comment one moment (it isn't sexist or racist: it transcends sexism and racism) and then turning round a second later to hit us with a marvellous piece of poetry or romance or heroism, crowing over his rivals' mistakes, inserting irrelevant anecdotes or obscure pieces of etymology that he just couldn't resist, showing off his knowledge of the seventeen languages he speaks fluently and the others that he just has a passing acquaintance with. And all the time, often without us even realizing what he's doing, telling us about Islam, the religion so many of us Westerners fear without understanding it, showing us what it's like from the inside, from the perspective of an eighth century cobbler or Caliph or slave-girl, how, whatever else it may be, it is a great religion, one that hundreds of millions of people have gladly lived and died in, without ever questioning the will of Allah or his prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him.
I have never read anything like it.
Burton is always present in the text, leading us by the hand through his favorite passages, flooring us with a jaw-droppingly inappropriate comment one moment (it isn't sexist or racist: it transcends sexism and racism) and then turning round a second later to hit us with a marvellous piece of poetry or romance or heroism, crowing over his rivals' mistakes, inserting irrelevant anecdotes or obscure pieces of etymology that he just couldn't resist, showing off his knowledge of the seventeen languages he speaks fluently and the others that he just has a passing acquaintance with. And all the time, often without us even realizing what he's doing, telling us about Islam, the religion so many of us Westerners fear without understanding it, showing us what it's like from the inside, from the perspective of an eighth century cobbler or Caliph or slave-girl, how, whatever else it may be, it is a great religion, one that hundreds of millions of people have gladly lived and died in, without ever questioning the will of Allah or his prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him.
I have never read anything like it.
April 23, 2022
What the hell did I just read?!
These were some crazy stories that don't really resemble the shiny cleaned-up versions of the tales we hear today.
Loved it!
That's the best part of reading stuff like this - finding out how batshit things were back in the day.
So while the stories weren't particularly good, there were moments of pure hilarity that made it all worthwhile.
For example, Sinbad.
Really boring for an adventure story. Just sort of nonsensical that he keeps getting on a boat. Dude, really? How many times do you have to almost get eaten by a sea monster or a cannibal before you pack it in?
BUT.
There's this moment that stuck with me and still makes me giggle when I think about it.
So, let me set the scene a bit.
Sinbad has been on one of his wacky adventures and ends up in a faraway land, married to a chick that he likes quite a bit. Right up till she dies...and he finds out that his adopted people entomb the living spouses with the dead ones.
Yup.
They just drop the dead person down in this cave and send the living one down right behind them -with a few provisions to stave off their own death for a couple of days.
So, there sits Sinbad. Alone with a pile of dead bodies and a crust of bread or whatever.
Then all of a sudden a beautiful woman gets plopped down the hole with him.
What luck! <--I think.
I'll bet those two fall in love and escape together! <--I think.
Turns out I was a little off in my prediction.
What actually happens is Sinbad kills her and takes her shit.
Did not see that one coming.
To be honest, when he bludgeoned the pretty widow to death I laughed so hard that I honked.
You just don't get heroes like this anymore in stories.
Anyway. He continues to kill all the living spouses that get shoved down into the death cave, taking their goodies until he finally finds a back door out of that place.
Unexpectedly awesome problem-solving skills there, sir.
There were quite a few hilariously brutal twists like that, and they turned what might otherwise have been a dull bucket list read into a so-bad-it's-good book.
I'm recommending you read this for those hidden gems alone. Unless of course, that sort of thing bothers you. <--trigger warning?
Now, there are a lot of different translations and collections of these stories, and I definitely listened to one of the shorter ones.
Mine is was the abridged version from Naxos Audiobooks that clocked in at 3 hrs and 43 minutes & was read by Philip Madoc.
I say that because there were only a few stories in this one.
And while I don't feel the need to track down every story, I'll probably have to find a longer version if I want to feel like I've done my due diligence with this collection.
This one had (of course) the story of the Khalifa who found his ho-wife banging a black dude and lost his damn mind. Once he starts lopping off the heads of his brides after one night (of what I'm assuming is rather awkward passion) it leads to good old Sherezade stepping up to the plate and telling the stories of Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves, and The Barber of Baghdad.
WHERE WAS ALADDIN, ANNE?! <--I'm assuming you asked.
Not in this one, that's for damn sure.
I said that to say this:
Pick your version wisely, Random Goodreader.
These were some crazy stories that don't really resemble the shiny cleaned-up versions of the tales we hear today.
Loved it!
That's the best part of reading stuff like this - finding out how batshit things were back in the day.
So while the stories weren't particularly good, there were moments of pure hilarity that made it all worthwhile.
For example, Sinbad.
Really boring for an adventure story. Just sort of nonsensical that he keeps getting on a boat. Dude, really? How many times do you have to almost get eaten by a sea monster or a cannibal before you pack it in?
BUT.
There's this moment that stuck with me and still makes me giggle when I think about it.
So, let me set the scene a bit.
Sinbad has been on one of his wacky adventures and ends up in a faraway land, married to a chick that he likes quite a bit. Right up till she dies...and he finds out that his adopted people entomb the living spouses with the dead ones.
Yup.
They just drop the dead person down in this cave and send the living one down right behind them -with a few provisions to stave off their own death for a couple of days.
So, there sits Sinbad. Alone with a pile of dead bodies and a crust of bread or whatever.
Then all of a sudden a beautiful woman gets plopped down the hole with him.
What luck! <--I think.
I'll bet those two fall in love and escape together! <--I think.
Turns out I was a little off in my prediction.
What actually happens is Sinbad kills her and takes her shit.
Did not see that one coming.
To be honest, when he bludgeoned the pretty widow to death I laughed so hard that I honked.
You just don't get heroes like this anymore in stories.
Anyway. He continues to kill all the living spouses that get shoved down into the death cave, taking their goodies until he finally finds a back door out of that place.
Unexpectedly awesome problem-solving skills there, sir.
There were quite a few hilariously brutal twists like that, and they turned what might otherwise have been a dull bucket list read into a so-bad-it's-good book.
I'm recommending you read this for those hidden gems alone. Unless of course, that sort of thing bothers you. <--trigger warning?
Now, there are a lot of different translations and collections of these stories, and I definitely listened to one of the shorter ones.
Mine is was the abridged version from Naxos Audiobooks that clocked in at 3 hrs and 43 minutes & was read by Philip Madoc.
I say that because there were only a few stories in this one.
And while I don't feel the need to track down every story, I'll probably have to find a longer version if I want to feel like I've done my due diligence with this collection.
This one had (of course) the story of the Khalifa who found his ho-wife banging a black dude and lost his damn mind. Once he starts lopping off the heads of his brides after one night (of what I'm assuming is rather awkward passion) it leads to good old Sherezade stepping up to the plate and telling the stories of Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves, and The Barber of Baghdad.
WHERE WAS ALADDIN, ANNE?! <--I'm assuming you asked.
Not in this one, that's for damn sure.
I said that to say this:
Pick your version wisely, Random Goodreader.
April 21, 2008
For those 2 people who don't know, The Arabian Nights is sort of a collection of short stories told in the Arabian world, as I'm told it should be called, (which seems to include India and parts of China) waaaaaay back in the day. The framework of the story is about a sultan who caught his wife cheating on him. After he has her killed, he decides to take out his revenge on the entire sex, so he marries a different wife every day and has her killed the next morning. Scheherazade is the Grand Vizier's beautiful, intelligent daughter. She realizes that this can't go on, so she comes up with a plan. She asks to be the next wife of the sultan, and she starts telling him a story on their wedding night. But buried within that story is another story. The sultan is so intrigued by the story that he decides to let her live so he can find out how the story ends. She keeps stringing him along like this, theoretically for 1000 nights, until he relents and gives her a full pardon and takes her for his real wife. But that's only a very small part of the book. The biggest part of the book is the stories Scheherazade tells the sultan. Included are Aladdin, Ali Baba, Sinbad, and others that we've probably all heard in one form or another.
I just picked this up because I wanted to see what it was all about. This version was very readable. It was interesting to see a slice of Arabian life. I would catch myself thinking, "They treat women so badly over there" and then I would remember that when these stories were first told, women were treated badly pretty much everywhere. But then there would be some stories where the women had surprising freedom and I would catch myself wondering where things started going bad. I can't say that I know enough about the culture to comment on what's changed and what hasn't, but these stories do give you a little idea of what life is/was like in the Middle East and where they're coming from. And in these times, a little understanding can only be a good thing.
I just picked this up because I wanted to see what it was all about. This version was very readable. It was interesting to see a slice of Arabian life. I would catch myself thinking, "They treat women so badly over there" and then I would remember that when these stories were first told, women were treated badly pretty much everywhere. But then there would be some stories where the women had surprising freedom and I would catch myself wondering where things started going bad. I can't say that I know enough about the culture to comment on what's changed and what hasn't, but these stories do give you a little idea of what life is/was like in the Middle East and where they're coming from. And in these times, a little understanding can only be a good thing.
November 17, 2019
Arabian Nights is one of the great literary works of all time but precautions need to be made if you want to read it to your kids. First off, there is a LOT of violence in the stories and a TON of sex. Don't be an idiot like me and start reading an unabridged copy to your kids or you will have to be explaining very early on why so and so killed his wife and imprisoned another...
That being said, there are few works with as much imagination and wonder in them and taken in lighter doses, it is a beautiful way of expanding your children's imaginations.
For adults, one has to take a lot of this in its historical context and try hard to put aside the misogyny which is rampant in the text. Perhaps easier said than done. But there are so many eternal stories here - Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp - that they must be read at least once to get the non-Disney-died versions (like the Anderson and Grimm fairy tales that were similarly contorted to fit mass consumption and commercialisation by Walt&Co).
That being said, there are few works with as much imagination and wonder in them and taken in lighter doses, it is a beautiful way of expanding your children's imaginations.
For adults, one has to take a lot of this in its historical context and try hard to put aside the misogyny which is rampant in the text. Perhaps easier said than done. But there are so many eternal stories here - Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp - that they must be read at least once to get the non-Disney-died versions (like the Anderson and Grimm fairy tales that were similarly contorted to fit mass consumption and commercialisation by Walt&Co).
July 12, 2019
A review is pointless for this book. It’s a classic and everyone should read it. Those who are complaining about how women are treated in the stories should read it more carefully and should pay attention also when it was first written.
Reading this edition, two things amazed me: how well I remember all the stories, taking into consideration that last time I read them was more than 20 years ago and second, how accurate the Romanian translation I read is compared to this one.
As for this edition, it is simply superb. Starting with the translation, the beautiful artworks inside its pages, the cover, the paper… It is a feast for eyes, senses and soul.
Loved it.
-------------------
I read 1001 Nights several times in my childhood and adolescence and loved them to pieces. I still have it in Romanian translation, 4 volumes, edition from 1959 from my grandparents. But I couldn’t resist not to buy this exquisite edition – it is absolutely gorgeous!
For many months, from now on, it will be on my nightstand to savor now and then a story from it, the beautiful artwork of the pages and the stunning illustrations.
Have a look:
Reading this edition, two things amazed me: how well I remember all the stories, taking into consideration that last time I read them was more than 20 years ago and second, how accurate the Romanian translation I read is compared to this one.
As for this edition, it is simply superb. Starting with the translation, the beautiful artworks inside its pages, the cover, the paper… It is a feast for eyes, senses and soul.
Loved it.
-------------------
I read 1001 Nights several times in my childhood and adolescence and loved them to pieces. I still have it in Romanian translation, 4 volumes, edition from 1959 from my grandparents. But I couldn’t resist not to buy this exquisite edition – it is absolutely gorgeous!
For many months, from now on, it will be on my nightstand to savor now and then a story from it, the beautiful artwork of the pages and the stunning illustrations.
Have a look:
September 20, 2016
When I first read One Thousand and One Nights I was literally put under the book’s spell – charmed, enchanted and bewitched. It isn’t just magic of fairytales. It is first of all magic of the oriental world. And of course I was at once mesmerized with the incredible frame tale of Shahryar and Scheherazade.
Nowhere is so much magic as in Arabian Nights: magical word opening the cave door: “‘Open, Sesame!’ And forthwith appeared a wide doorway in the face of the rock. The robbers went in, and last of all their chief, and then the portal shut of itself,” powerful Jinni sealed in the magical lamp: “This is not he, O my mother. This who appeared before thee is the Slave of the Lamp!” and many, many others.
And of course my favourite tales are Voyages of Sindbad the Seaman… Stunning adventures in the distant lands full of fantastic beasts, evil creatures, monsters, wonders and miracles. And most of all I was stupefied and simultaneously disgusted with Old Man of the Sea:
“I told them all that had betided me, whereat they marveled with exceeding marvel and said: ‘He who rode on thy shoulder is called the Sheikh-al-Bahr or Old Man of the Sea, and none ever felt his legs on neck and came off alive but thou, and those who die under him he eateth. So praised be Allah for thy safety!’”
Even nowadays I gratefully remember this miraculous book, which practically was for me a door into the absolutely new world.
Nowhere is so much magic as in Arabian Nights: magical word opening the cave door: “‘Open, Sesame!’ And forthwith appeared a wide doorway in the face of the rock. The robbers went in, and last of all their chief, and then the portal shut of itself,” powerful Jinni sealed in the magical lamp: “This is not he, O my mother. This who appeared before thee is the Slave of the Lamp!” and many, many others.
And of course my favourite tales are Voyages of Sindbad the Seaman… Stunning adventures in the distant lands full of fantastic beasts, evil creatures, monsters, wonders and miracles. And most of all I was stupefied and simultaneously disgusted with Old Man of the Sea:
“I told them all that had betided me, whereat they marveled with exceeding marvel and said: ‘He who rode on thy shoulder is called the Sheikh-al-Bahr or Old Man of the Sea, and none ever felt his legs on neck and came off alive but thou, and those who die under him he eateth. So praised be Allah for thy safety!’”
Even nowadays I gratefully remember this miraculous book, which practically was for me a door into the absolutely new world.
April 19, 2024
〽️I need to read a full version of the Arabian Nights and do a proper review. Soon. At least I've slept in the Sinai and listened to the whisper of the shifting sands as they built dunes and told stories.
Read
May 22, 2018As a child I had a small selection of tales from the Arabian nights in a hardback volume with a few gorgeous full colour plates. From this a couple of stories stayed with me, a Sultan travelling in disguise meets a man who having learnt of the Sultan's weakness for baby cucumbers was intent on trying to fool him out of a fortune in exchange for them, the man although greedy is also garrulous, tells the Sultan in disguise his wicked plans enabling the Sultan to turn the tables on him and trick him and eat the cucumbers , then a story about the keys of Destiny - , and a story about a Sultan of Egypt who had a beautiful wife, excellent children, but none less had depression, then one day a mysterious old man who had spent so many years on mountain tops growing wise than he no longer needed to wear clothes ( ie his beard and hair had grown so long that it was wound about him to form a dense coat) wandered in to his palace and forced the Sultan to have an extremely unpleasant visionary experience which cures him of his depression .
So anyhow spotting a new translation in the Everyman series I determined to buy it - inevitably those stories were not in it. Apparently in the dim and distant past there were two story collections - the Arabian Nights and the 1000 and one nights which at one stage merged like a dream of Italo Calvino - indeed very much so as the stories became very popular in Europe through French translations, the translator spotting this, commissioned additional stories, or maybe just made up new ones to best match the taste of eighteenth century French readers.
This collection purports to get round this by drawing on medieval manuscripts, the translation preserves the frequent divisions into nights some of which are less than a page long. This breaks up the flow of the stories, but provides the reader with the sense of frustration which was meant to be experienced in the framing story.
As this version is truer to the manuscript tradition, some of the more familiar tales are missing however those given here have a certain power from their rhythm and the sense of the inevitable, that element and the attitude towards sexual adventure reminded me very strongly of Boccaccio's Decameron.
Another attraction is the sense of falling through from one story to next, as in the middle of one story a character will begin to tell a story to another character which the narrative then takes up. It is rather like If on a Winter's Night a Traveller and the effect is both disconcerting and exciting. A constant moving between narratives and framing stories all insanely nested within each other only missing an internal narrator to begin telling the story of Scheherazade to achieve a Möbius-strip narrative and for the reader to disappear without trace.
So anyhow spotting a new translation in the Everyman series I determined to buy it - inevitably those stories were not in it. Apparently in the dim and distant past there were two story collections - the Arabian Nights and the 1000 and one nights which at one stage merged like a dream of Italo Calvino - indeed very much so as the stories became very popular in Europe through French translations, the translator spotting this, commissioned additional stories, or maybe just made up new ones to best match the taste of eighteenth century French readers.
This collection purports to get round this by drawing on medieval manuscripts, the translation preserves the frequent divisions into nights some of which are less than a page long. This breaks up the flow of the stories, but provides the reader with the sense of frustration which was meant to be experienced in the framing story.
As this version is truer to the manuscript tradition, some of the more familiar tales are missing however those given here have a certain power from their rhythm and the sense of the inevitable, that element and the attitude towards sexual adventure reminded me very strongly of Boccaccio's Decameron.
Another attraction is the sense of falling through from one story to next, as in the middle of one story a character will begin to tell a story to another character which the narrative then takes up. It is rather like If on a Winter's Night a Traveller and the effect is both disconcerting and exciting. A constant moving between narratives and framing stories all insanely nested within each other only missing an internal narrator to begin telling the story of Scheherazade to achieve a Möbius-strip narrative and for the reader to disappear without trace.
January 15, 2018
Ultima trovata della serie Inc. cool 8 (made in Crozza)
Avete presente il Tim Cook, partorito da Crozza, proprietario della famosa multinazionale? Il fratello di Setigiritin Cook. Ecco, di sicuro il fratello lavora alla BUR.
Attenzione attenzione, ecco a voi la loro ultima trovata geniale. La suddetta casa editrice ha pensato bene di prenderci tutti allegramente per il culo, spacciando un libro per qualcosa che non è. Ora: io sono abbastanza delusa, per non dire di peggio. Questo volume (bello vero? Fa proprio un figurone sui propri scaffali, ed è anche illustrato!) viene venduto come un'edizione lussuosa de Le mille e una notte, comparendo in una nuova collana piuttosto curata dal punto di vista estetico. Peccato che queste non siano le mille e una notte, no, manco per il cazzo, e nemmeno cento. E nemmeno dieci. Quello che il consumatore paga - e intendiamoci: profumatamente - è una raccolta di CINQUE (CINQUE!!!! sì, cinque misere favole) racconti tratti da Le mille e una notte, e a me la differenza pare sostanziale.
Io non mi aspetto di trovare l'edizione del tutto integrale, ok, si può comprendere: le dimensioni dell'originale sono gigantesche, l'opera è stata arricchita nel corso della storia da più "filoni", è stata rimaneggiata, e per tanto definire un'edizione "completa" risulta anche difficile, oltre che poco maneggevole dal punto di vista pratico. Ma tu me lo devi scrivere che, per Dio, mi stai vendendo 5 fiabe. Non ci puoi appiccicare lì in bella mostra un titolo quando poi stai vendendo aria fritta, cara Bur. Questo rasenta la truffa.
Quindi mia madre, convinta di farmi un bellissimo regalo, non solo ha sganciato come minimo 20 euro (non so quanto sia di preciso, ma direi per fortuna, a questo punto), ma si è dovuta anche subire la mia delusione; è ovvio che un lettore attento avrebbe fiutato la trappola contando solo 500 pagine e poco più, d'accordo. Purtroppo non tutti sono lettori attenti, e magari qualcuno, come mia madre, appunto, vuol fare un regalo. Inoltre, siccome l'infamia non era abbastanza grande, l'editore si è fatto furbo, e ha pensato: "mmm...come faccio a fare abboccare gli scemi all'amo? questi mi sgamano subito...", ed ecco la genialità, signori: "mettiamo un formato pagina più scomodo di un A4, caratteri cubitali, così facciamo più pagine; queste ultime le facciamo spesse 5 centimetri. E poi riempiamo tutto di disegni! Sì sì, faremo proprio così."
Bravi, applausi!!!
La vostra collana mi sembrava bellissima, ma ve la potete ficcare dove potete immaginare da soli.
Quando leggerò le vere Arabian nights, o almeno quando ne leggerò degli estratti che per numero si possano per lo meno contare su due mani, mi potrò pronunciare sul contenuto; per ora, non posso dire niente. Manco la cornice narrativa ci hanno messo, sti disgraziati. Sharazad? E chi è, chissenefrega, proprio.
Fatevi un favore: NON LO COMPRATE.
Avete presente il Tim Cook, partorito da Crozza, proprietario della famosa multinazionale? Il fratello di Setigiritin Cook. Ecco, di sicuro il fratello lavora alla BUR.
Attenzione attenzione, ecco a voi la loro ultima trovata geniale. La suddetta casa editrice ha pensato bene di prenderci tutti allegramente per il culo, spacciando un libro per qualcosa che non è. Ora: io sono abbastanza delusa, per non dire di peggio. Questo volume (bello vero? Fa proprio un figurone sui propri scaffali, ed è anche illustrato!) viene venduto come un'edizione lussuosa de Le mille e una notte, comparendo in una nuova collana piuttosto curata dal punto di vista estetico. Peccato che queste non siano le mille e una notte, no, manco per il cazzo, e nemmeno cento. E nemmeno dieci. Quello che il consumatore paga - e intendiamoci: profumatamente - è una raccolta di CINQUE (CINQUE!!!! sì, cinque misere favole) racconti tratti da Le mille e una notte, e a me la differenza pare sostanziale.
Io non mi aspetto di trovare l'edizione del tutto integrale, ok, si può comprendere: le dimensioni dell'originale sono gigantesche, l'opera è stata arricchita nel corso della storia da più "filoni", è stata rimaneggiata, e per tanto definire un'edizione "completa" risulta anche difficile, oltre che poco maneggevole dal punto di vista pratico. Ma tu me lo devi scrivere che, per Dio, mi stai vendendo 5 fiabe. Non ci puoi appiccicare lì in bella mostra un titolo quando poi stai vendendo aria fritta, cara Bur. Questo rasenta la truffa.
Quindi mia madre, convinta di farmi un bellissimo regalo, non solo ha sganciato come minimo 20 euro (non so quanto sia di preciso, ma direi per fortuna, a questo punto), ma si è dovuta anche subire la mia delusione; è ovvio che un lettore attento avrebbe fiutato la trappola contando solo 500 pagine e poco più, d'accordo. Purtroppo non tutti sono lettori attenti, e magari qualcuno, come mia madre, appunto, vuol fare un regalo. Inoltre, siccome l'infamia non era abbastanza grande, l'editore si è fatto furbo, e ha pensato: "mmm...come faccio a fare abboccare gli scemi all'amo? questi mi sgamano subito...", ed ecco la genialità, signori: "mettiamo un formato pagina più scomodo di un A4, caratteri cubitali, così facciamo più pagine; queste ultime le facciamo spesse 5 centimetri. E poi riempiamo tutto di disegni! Sì sì, faremo proprio così."
Bravi, applausi!!!
La vostra collana mi sembrava bellissima, ma ve la potete ficcare dove potete immaginare da soli.
Quando leggerò le vere Arabian nights, o almeno quando ne leggerò degli estratti che per numero si possano per lo meno contare su due mani, mi potrò pronunciare sul contenuto; per ora, non posso dire niente. Manco la cornice narrativa ci hanno messo, sti disgraziati. Sharazad? E chi è, chissenefrega, proprio.
Fatevi un favore: NON LO COMPRATE.
January 16, 2015
As I say in my review, I wanted to write a parody of this wonderful book but was forced to admit defeat. Burton is too damn clever for a good parody to be possible. During my preliminary negotiations, I had however received a remarkable offer from Alfonso. A Burton parody without political incorrectness is unthinkable, and Alfonso bravely put himself forward to play the role of an evil blackamoor of hideous appearance.
It seems wrong that Alfonso's selfless devotion to literature should go unrewarded. I am therefore proud to present:
A Fragment of the Tale of Rashid al-Bhattan and al-Fonso the Maghrabi
Now there dwelt not far from the Caliph's court another foreigner, a Darwaysh from the Maghrib named al-Fonso, a powerful magician and geomancer; from his earliest age upwards he had been addicted to witchcraft and had studied and practiced every manner of occult science, for which unholy lore the city of Africa is notorious. And the Maghrabi possessed a seal ring, a signet that once had graced the hand of Solomon Davids-son; yet so woven about with secret spells and enchantments was it, that the Maghrabi could not avail himself of its familiar, for all his arts. But by his gramarye, the Maghrabi learned how it stood with Rashid, and he thought himself a scheme whereby he might bend the ring to his will. And one day, as Rashid left the Caliph's court, the Maghribi thrust himself in Rashid's way; and addressing him, he asked if he would learn the infallible method to win the favour of any woman, even the highest and most beautiful.
The Maghrabi was a hideous blackamoor, ill-favoured and foul with grease and grime, and Rashid laughed to hear his words, believing that he spoke in jest. But the Maghrabi spoke kindly to Rashid and flattered him and used all his charms to put him at his ease; and presently he took forth the ring and instructed him in its use, telling him that he had but to rub it to gain aught that he might want, but that only one of the Isles of the Setting Sun might thus constrain the Spirit of the Ring; and Rashid still doubting, the Maghrabi put the ring on Rashid's finger and told him to rub it. Rashid did as the Maghrabi bade; and instantly before him appeared a Marid. He trembled at the terrible sight; but, hearing the Slave of the Ring say, "Ask whatso thou wantest, verily, I am thy thrall, seeing that the signet of my lord be upon thy finger", he took courage. "Command the Marid," said the Maghrabi, "that he transport us to the Caliph's Harim." Rashid did as the Maghrabi said; "Hearing and obeying," replied the Marid, and smote the earth, so that it clave in two; and taking the Maghrabi under one arm and Rashid under the other, he bore them to the innermost sanctum of the Harim.
"Hide thyself in this closet," said the Maghrabi to Rashid, when they were arrived. "As soon as thou dost espy one of the Caliph's concubines, command the Marid to make me in all ways pleasing to her; then shalt thou see the true power of the Ring." Rashid did as the Maghrabi said; and no sooner had he concealed himself, than entered a girl high-bosomed and pleasing of face, slender-waisted and heavy of hip, of whom one might soothly say as the poet¹
Notes
¹ I use Lane's somewhat anaemic translation.
² The Breslau Edition adds some details concerning the excessive size of the Maghrabi's manhood; the wording leaves it unclear whether or not this can be ascribed to the influence of the Ring.
It seems wrong that Alfonso's selfless devotion to literature should go unrewarded. I am therefore proud to present:
A Fragment of the Tale of Rashid al-Bhattan and al-Fonso the Maghrabi
Now there dwelt not far from the Caliph's court another foreigner, a Darwaysh from the Maghrib named al-Fonso, a powerful magician and geomancer; from his earliest age upwards he had been addicted to witchcraft and had studied and practiced every manner of occult science, for which unholy lore the city of Africa is notorious. And the Maghrabi possessed a seal ring, a signet that once had graced the hand of Solomon Davids-son; yet so woven about with secret spells and enchantments was it, that the Maghrabi could not avail himself of its familiar, for all his arts. But by his gramarye, the Maghrabi learned how it stood with Rashid, and he thought himself a scheme whereby he might bend the ring to his will. And one day, as Rashid left the Caliph's court, the Maghribi thrust himself in Rashid's way; and addressing him, he asked if he would learn the infallible method to win the favour of any woman, even the highest and most beautiful.
The Maghrabi was a hideous blackamoor, ill-favoured and foul with grease and grime, and Rashid laughed to hear his words, believing that he spoke in jest. But the Maghrabi spoke kindly to Rashid and flattered him and used all his charms to put him at his ease; and presently he took forth the ring and instructed him in its use, telling him that he had but to rub it to gain aught that he might want, but that only one of the Isles of the Setting Sun might thus constrain the Spirit of the Ring; and Rashid still doubting, the Maghrabi put the ring on Rashid's finger and told him to rub it. Rashid did as the Maghrabi bade; and instantly before him appeared a Marid. He trembled at the terrible sight; but, hearing the Slave of the Ring say, "Ask whatso thou wantest, verily, I am thy thrall, seeing that the signet of my lord be upon thy finger", he took courage. "Command the Marid," said the Maghrabi, "that he transport us to the Caliph's Harim." Rashid did as the Maghrabi said; "Hearing and obeying," replied the Marid, and smote the earth, so that it clave in two; and taking the Maghrabi under one arm and Rashid under the other, he bore them to the innermost sanctum of the Harim.
"Hide thyself in this closet," said the Maghrabi to Rashid, when they were arrived. "As soon as thou dost espy one of the Caliph's concubines, command the Marid to make me in all ways pleasing to her; then shalt thou see the true power of the Ring." Rashid did as the Maghrabi said; and no sooner had he concealed himself, than entered a girl high-bosomed and pleasing of face, slender-waisted and heavy of hip, of whom one might soothly say as the poet¹
Eyes like two stars and hair as black as nightShe glanced with displeasure on the Maghrabi; but Rashid, heeding the magician's rede, rubbed the ring and commanded the Marid. The Maghrabi spake some words to the girl; and instantly her aspect changed, and she did with goodly gree suffer the Maghrabi, for all his hideousness, to kiss her and toy with her, and presently to disrobe her of her gold-purfled dress and even of her petticoat-trousers and know her carnally², whereby she joyed with great joyance. "Now command the Marid to take us hence," said the Maghrabi without even making the Ghusl-ablution, for he was a Kafir; and again Rashid commanded the Marid, and they made good their escape, leaving the Caliph's concubine swooned on the ground.
Lips ruby red caught in a winsome pucker
So fair a maid I ween ne'er crossed my sight
To look on her is aye to wish to embrace her.
Notes
¹ I use Lane's somewhat anaemic translation.
² The Breslau Edition adds some details concerning the excessive size of the Maghrabi's manhood; the wording leaves it unclear whether or not this can be ascribed to the influence of the Ring.
December 17, 2020
In Urdu,this is called Alif Laila.These are familiar stories which enthralled me in my childhood.Also adapted as countless TV episodes and movies.
Fondly recall Pakistan television's series Alif Laila from the 1980s,which though made on a shoestring budget was great fun.
King Sheharyar takes a new wife each day and executes her the next day.The beautiful Sheherzade agrees to be his wife to stop him.
She tells him a story,and then another and still another.The king is so engrossed that he does not kill her.
Who can forget Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,Aladin's Magic Lamp and Sindbad the Sailor.
Cruelty and violence is certainly a theme,but the entertainment value is very much there.
Fondly recall Pakistan television's series Alif Laila from the 1980s,which though made on a shoestring budget was great fun.
King Sheharyar takes a new wife each day and executes her the next day.The beautiful Sheherzade agrees to be his wife to stop him.
She tells him a story,and then another and still another.The king is so engrossed that he does not kill her.
Who can forget Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,Aladin's Magic Lamp and Sindbad the Sailor.
Cruelty and violence is certainly a theme,but the entertainment value is very much there.
December 16, 2021
- Hey, do you like The Arabian nights?
- Sure! Loved this book as a kid. My favourite story is Aladdin!
- Um, it’s not in the original text and was written by a Frenchman Antoine Galland and then it was translated into Arabic and attempted to pass as an original text.
- Hmm. Well, then Ali Baba and the forty thieves. Love it!
- Um, same thing as with Aladdin…
- Damn! Ok, I love Sinbad’s adventures! Ha!
- You see, it was a cycle of independent stories from 17-18th centuries. They are not in the original oldest Syrian manuscript we have now in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
- The hell?? What are these stories then??
- Glad you asked!
This is the world of jealous murderous husbands, horny duplicitous wives, demons and sex. the surprising amount of sex... The colorful world of magic. The world of uncountable kings. You thought romance genre’s England has too many Dukes? Ha!
I really loved the first half of the book but by the end stories became too samey. Still it’s a recommend and this book makes a very fun reading experience.
This version is by Muhsin Mahdi based on the fourteenth- or fifteenth-century Syrian manuscript that is currently in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Mahdi argued that this version is the earliest extant one (a view that is largely accepted today) and that it reflects most closely a "definitive" coherent text ancestral to all others that he believed to have existed during the Mamluk period (a view that remains contentious).
A few months later...
This book is quite extraordinary. While reading it, I am enjoying it, but I can never remember any further than the last two stories. And the spell is broken every time I close the book. They just refuse to stay in my head. I vaguely remember that there must be a prince, a sea voyage, betrayal/misfortune, some island in the middle of the sea with strange things happening on it, sometimes there's castle with virgins, and then return to Baghdad and becoming wealthy. And that's almost every story.
- Sure! Loved this book as a kid. My favourite story is Aladdin!
- Um, it’s not in the original text and was written by a Frenchman Antoine Galland and then it was translated into Arabic and attempted to pass as an original text.
- Hmm. Well, then Ali Baba and the forty thieves. Love it!
- Um, same thing as with Aladdin…
- Damn! Ok, I love Sinbad’s adventures! Ha!
- You see, it was a cycle of independent stories from 17-18th centuries. They are not in the original oldest Syrian manuscript we have now in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
- The hell?? What are these stories then??
- Glad you asked!
This is the world of jealous murderous husbands, horny duplicitous wives, demons and sex. the surprising amount of sex... The colorful world of magic. The world of uncountable kings. You thought romance genre’s England has too many Dukes? Ha!
I really loved the first half of the book but by the end stories became too samey. Still it’s a recommend and this book makes a very fun reading experience.
This version is by Muhsin Mahdi based on the fourteenth- or fifteenth-century Syrian manuscript that is currently in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Mahdi argued that this version is the earliest extant one (a view that is largely accepted today) and that it reflects most closely a "definitive" coherent text ancestral to all others that he believed to have existed during the Mamluk period (a view that remains contentious).
A few months later...
This book is quite extraordinary. While reading it, I am enjoying it, but I can never remember any further than the last two stories. And the spell is broken every time I close the book. They just refuse to stay in my head. I vaguely remember that there must be a prince, a sea voyage, betrayal/misfortune, some island in the middle of the sea with strange things happening on it, sometimes there's castle with virgins, and then return to Baghdad and becoming wealthy. And that's almost every story.
March 13, 2011
Oh, the wonders of literature! While reading this book I could not help but sing the songs or hum the tunes associated with the tales:
All of these 70+ (whew!) tales are framed into a story that Scheherazade is telling King Shahryar so that she will not be killed. The king and his brother have philandering wives who they have killed so the King does not want to have a wife anymore so he orders his vizier (assistant) to bring young pretty girls from the village and after one night of sex, the king orders his soldiers to kill the girl. To survive, the wise Scheherazade tells the 1001 tales, part-by-part. The king, so eager to know what comes next, decides not to kill her until all the tales are told.
I will not tell you if she gets eventually killed in the end.
♪♫♪ A whole new worldI grew up with mostly Filipino komiks around me. Only my father loved reading books and we had very few (compared to what I have now) classics and contemporary books at home. My parents did not read to me when I was young. Those are the reasons why I missed all those children's books. So, reading these Tales from 1001 Nights a.k.a., The Arabian Nights was like going back to the komiks time in the province. You see, the story of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, although I read it just now, is so popular that we must all have seen it in movies, read in local adaptations as individual children's books or comics or even seen in TV ads. However, if you compare the original story to the Disney-produced movie, the carpet in the book does not fly. Rather, it just covers the distance between the entrance of the King's palace and Alladin's pavilion so that the princess, Lady Badar Al-Budur (maybe the equivalent of Princess Jasmine) will not walk on mud. The story is fantastic. I admire how the magician thinks: cunning and devious. I hate Alladin before he got rich particularly on his laziness and how he treats his old mother.
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming ♪♫♪
♪♫♪ A-li-ba-ba... A-li-ba-ba... ♪♫♪I still remember the theme and my sister used to mimic it. Low key. She marches like a soldier and with eyes wide and scary. The other tale that I liked was Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves. Who would not remember ourselves shouting: Open Se-sa-me! when we saw a closed door when we were kids? Then expecting our mom or playmate to open it for us? Who says that this book treats women badly? In this tale, the maid Morgiana is so smart that she saves his master's (Ali Baba) life several times.
♪♫♪ Sinbad the SailorI tried looking this up for lyrics but I think that there is a popular Hindi rock song with the same title. I remember the tune and I thought that it is similar to "Popeye the Sailor Man" or maybe as catchy as that. Well, the tale of Sinbad the Sailor is a short one and it talks about is mistake of killing his falcon. It is one of those tales inside another tale.
Sailing through the seas... ♪♫♪
All of these 70+ (whew!) tales are framed into a story that Scheherazade is telling King Shahryar so that she will not be killed. The king and his brother have philandering wives who they have killed so the King does not want to have a wife anymore so he orders his vizier (assistant) to bring young pretty girls from the village and after one night of sex, the king orders his soldiers to kill the girl. To survive, the wise Scheherazade tells the 1001 tales, part-by-part. The king, so eager to know what comes next, decides not to kill her until all the tales are told.
I will not tell you if she gets eventually killed in the end.
November 5, 2016
A Story to Save a Live
The beauty of the stories and the poetry of the thought that most destructive demons can be tamed back with a few stories was fascinating to me even when I first saw the serialized version on tv. What I didn’t realized was that the stories Scheherazade, that great goddess of story tellers and inventor of cliff-hangings, told the king weren’t as random but had an order in themselves.
This book has made Scherzade my favorite superhero – superhero was the word we use for one who risk one’s life for others, don’t we? I mean we like Doctor Who for he won’t use weapons – and yet the enemies he fought weren’t in any way real. What Scherzade had to fight was real, and after centuries of her single victory continues unfortunately to remain real – lack of trust among sexes.
Sheriyar is misogyny humanized. There is another famous collection of stories called ‘Tota Maine ke kise’ from same regions (Iraq, Iran, India etc) which comprise of a parrot and she-parrot who are in love. The frame story is simple. The parrot would say mynah is sure to cheat him and would back that prediction with a story where a woman cheated on her lover. Mynah, in her turn, would say it is parrot who is sure to cheat her and will back that up with a story of how some man cheated on his lover. Then parrot would come back with another story – and this exchange of accusations will go on and on. A similar conversation takes place between Shylock’s daughter and her lover towards the end of ‘Merchant of Venice’.
Sheriyar is the result of this mistrust among sexes. In a short time, he comes across three cases of adulatory committed by three women, including one by his own wife, and generalizes to the whole of the fair sex. Remember how Hamlet concluded ‘Frailty thy…’ after seeing frailty of a single woman (his mother). A person who is suffering because he thinks he is cheated can be quite suggestible (Othello) . And a generalization can be temting.
The parrot and she-parrot were afraid of how vulnerable they are making themselves to other’s injuries. Sheriyar has developed this fear after being cheated his wife. His Black Widower’s wish, to kill his spouse the morning after marriage, is height of this mistrust.
And Sherzade is the beauty who tamed this beast. She did this – she fought away her death - the literal sword of her own father a few hours away from being forced to cut her head; with armor of a pleasant smile on her lips and the weapon of story on her tongue. And she does that. Repeatedly. For a thousand and one nights.
In the play I’ll teach the King
Not the play but through the stories (repetitive Shakespearean references are coincidental). A tyrant can’t be reasoned with directly. Same goes for a prejudiced person - prejudice is by very definition refusal to reconsider the already reached false conclusions. Now imagine prejudiced tyrants. Scherzade knew this well enough. Instead, she used her stories to make king see the truth. The change of heart, which the king admitted to on the thousand and the first night, wasn’t born all of sudden but came out of efforts of last thousand nights – over which she gradually changed the opinion of the king.
And it is the way she changed king’s opinion that I love so much. As good as the stories are in themselves, they carry a trend. One of the very first story, Scherzade told the king – was about a wicked woman, but a woman made wicked by jealousy against his husband’s new wife. May be the king understood her jealousy, maybe he didn’t.
Then you come across the story of a king, suffering from misfortune caused by an adulterous wife – a king not unlike Scheriyar, may be Scheherazade is simply saying what king would love to hear … but look carefully, and you will notice that the villain wife suddenly gets a voice. Even though she was beheaded, the wife in the story did get a say – love of an adultress woman is love still. You see what Scherzade did.
Move a little ahead and roles are reversed. Now we meet a woman who has to suffer on account of meaningless jealousy of her husband – a husband who doesn’t want her to show his face in public. Her husband is made to repent in the end. (There is a similar story towards the end, except there it is husband suffering of his wife’s jealousy.)
So now you see the trend. There is soon a story in which a king Haroon is at fault – making people suffer with his tyrannies … but he is quick to repent upon realizing the mistake – and even makes up for the loss of these people. Did you get you lesson, Sheriyar?
And so it goes on. One story actually involved a prince who has formed a bad opinion regarding all women kind from all the mischief caused by them that he read about in his books. His mother, the queen asked him to think about all the tyrant kings that the world has and what they have done to the women over centuries (I can imagine Scheherazade having her tongue in her cheek when she must have narrated the scene)
Later on, Scheherazade diverts to stories about how married women have fun at the expense of their wanna-be-lovers.
The last story is that of a woman – Ulysses and Penlope combined into one woman, who goes out on a difficult journey while maintaining her loyality to her husband against all the suitors.
Gradually, the stories change to afford a better position for women and while also reminding the king that even King can make mistakes – and how much more troublesome are their mistakes than that of an ordinary person. There are a few stories (e.g. Sindbad) where the issue of friction between sexes is not raised but the general trend is too good to miss. In fact, very first few pages you find a remark by a woman (other than Scherzade) about futility of keeping women under lock. In Aladin’s story, it is the princess who kills the bad guy (and her name is not Jasmine – Sherzade got that wrong, Disney knew better.) In Ali Baba’s story, it is a woman, avery, very clever woman who kills all the forty thieves.
While we are talking about fighting prejudice – a good reason for people to read it to observe how lightly the veil is used by women. Women, who wear vile while being out, are shown at liberty and often chose to show their face to whoever they wish to. (They often do it for the guy, even if he is a stranger, they found handsome who in turn is almost always ‘pierced’ by their beauty.) Not only that, there are a lot of night parties and extra-marital kissing. Yes, there are strict and overprotective fathers but I mean that goes everywhere. Then in at least one place, there is a remark on regarding how the judges are too strict regarding how women should behave. (It is surprising these same judges had nothing to say about drinking wine or when their king had more than four wives.) Moreover, there seems to be no way men can cheat their wives - men are permitted marry multiple times and can have sex with slaves under Islam (like other religions) but women are not - this means men can not cheat on their wives.
Celebrating the art of Storytelliing
There are a number of techniques used by the Scheherazade – cliff hangings, repetitive characters (king Haroon and his wife, Zobeida) story-within-story (at times story-within-story-within-story-within-story) etc. One time Scheherazade forgets a part of narrative and have to retreat to cover that part.
Cliff-hangings though were never that important and never that close to being figurative. Here they are saving lives – the stakes on which Scherzade bargains to get another day of life.
Regarding the story-within-story thing, you may claim that too many of the stories are told by characters trying to save lives. But look at Scheherazade, the original story teller. Isn’t she doing the same? Won’t her psychology affect her stories? And it is the most excellent part – that story-teller and the listener are both part of the story; you get most out of it when you think about how their minds are involved in and are affected by the stories. Just imagine the thoughts that Sheriyar would carry in his mind at the end of each story.
There is a criticism that some of stories are too similar – but you see it is because of the central theme. And I mean how much diversity you can wish for? There are love stories –both comedies and tragedies, stories of adventures, stories of genies, humorous stories (especially the one about tailor), criminal stories, stories of suddenly found treasures. There is one short story about the three brothers who can reason backwards – a little like Sherlock Holmes. Given its time, the stories show remarkable diversity.
In one weird story, a woman disguised as her own husband marries another woman. Latter this second woman marries husband of first. Weird enough? Wait till the two women find a crush for each other’s sons.
Antisemitism, Racism and Body Shaming
From beautiful to ugly ... There is a lot of (much more than you can imagine) antisemitism, racism and body shaming specially in first 200 or so pages, especially for a book trying to fight prejudice. All wicked wizards are African, Jew, Worshiper of fire or Hindu. All cheating merchants are Jews. It probably speaks as much about powerful men’s sexual jealousies as about slavery, that a lot of slaves were eunuchs. The filthy tradition of eunuchs was not limited to Arabia though.
Some female slaves do seem to gain independence and are lawfully married - but that is a fairy tale sort of thing. The terrible treatment of a hunch-back in particular made me stop reading it for a month.
I don’t believe in cultural, temporal or spatial relativism; so I won't defend the book. I just took away six stars from my rating. It was already twenty-nine stars.
Some advice if you chose to live in medieval Persia
The beauty of the stories and the poetry of the thought that most destructive demons can be tamed back with a few stories was fascinating to me even when I first saw the serialized version on tv. What I didn’t realized was that the stories Scheherazade, that great goddess of story tellers and inventor of cliff-hangings, told the king weren’t as random but had an order in themselves.
This book has made Scherzade my favorite superhero – superhero was the word we use for one who risk one’s life for others, don’t we? I mean we like Doctor Who for he won’t use weapons – and yet the enemies he fought weren’t in any way real. What Scherzade had to fight was real, and after centuries of her single victory continues unfortunately to remain real – lack of trust among sexes.
Sheriyar is misogyny humanized. There is another famous collection of stories called ‘Tota Maine ke kise’ from same regions (Iraq, Iran, India etc) which comprise of a parrot and she-parrot who are in love. The frame story is simple. The parrot would say mynah is sure to cheat him and would back that prediction with a story where a woman cheated on her lover. Mynah, in her turn, would say it is parrot who is sure to cheat her and will back that up with a story of how some man cheated on his lover. Then parrot would come back with another story – and this exchange of accusations will go on and on. A similar conversation takes place between Shylock’s daughter and her lover towards the end of ‘Merchant of Venice’.
Sheriyar is the result of this mistrust among sexes. In a short time, he comes across three cases of adulatory committed by three women, including one by his own wife, and generalizes to the whole of the fair sex. Remember how Hamlet concluded ‘Frailty thy…’ after seeing frailty of a single woman (his mother). A person who is suffering because he thinks he is cheated can be quite suggestible (Othello) . And a generalization can be temting.
The parrot and she-parrot were afraid of how vulnerable they are making themselves to other’s injuries. Sheriyar has developed this fear after being cheated his wife. His Black Widower’s wish, to kill his spouse the morning after marriage, is height of this mistrust.
And Sherzade is the beauty who tamed this beast. She did this – she fought away her death - the literal sword of her own father a few hours away from being forced to cut her head; with armor of a pleasant smile on her lips and the weapon of story on her tongue. And she does that. Repeatedly. For a thousand and one nights.
In the play I’ll teach the King
Not the play but through the stories (repetitive Shakespearean references are coincidental). A tyrant can’t be reasoned with directly. Same goes for a prejudiced person - prejudice is by very definition refusal to reconsider the already reached false conclusions. Now imagine prejudiced tyrants. Scherzade knew this well enough. Instead, she used her stories to make king see the truth. The change of heart, which the king admitted to on the thousand and the first night, wasn’t born all of sudden but came out of efforts of last thousand nights – over which she gradually changed the opinion of the king.
And it is the way she changed king’s opinion that I love so much. As good as the stories are in themselves, they carry a trend. One of the very first story, Scherzade told the king – was about a wicked woman, but a woman made wicked by jealousy against his husband’s new wife. May be the king understood her jealousy, maybe he didn’t.
Then you come across the story of a king, suffering from misfortune caused by an adulterous wife – a king not unlike Scheriyar, may be Scheherazade is simply saying what king would love to hear … but look carefully, and you will notice that the villain wife suddenly gets a voice. Even though she was beheaded, the wife in the story did get a say – love of an adultress woman is love still. You see what Scherzade did.
Move a little ahead and roles are reversed. Now we meet a woman who has to suffer on account of meaningless jealousy of her husband – a husband who doesn’t want her to show his face in public. Her husband is made to repent in the end. (There is a similar story towards the end, except there it is husband suffering of his wife’s jealousy.)
So now you see the trend. There is soon a story in which a king Haroon is at fault – making people suffer with his tyrannies … but he is quick to repent upon realizing the mistake – and even makes up for the loss of these people. Did you get you lesson, Sheriyar?
And so it goes on. One story actually involved a prince who has formed a bad opinion regarding all women kind from all the mischief caused by them that he read about in his books. His mother, the queen asked him to think about all the tyrant kings that the world has and what they have done to the women over centuries (I can imagine Scheherazade having her tongue in her cheek when she must have narrated the scene)
Later on, Scheherazade diverts to stories about how married women have fun at the expense of their wanna-be-lovers.
The last story is that of a woman – Ulysses and Penlope combined into one woman, who goes out on a difficult journey while maintaining her loyality to her husband against all the suitors.
Gradually, the stories change to afford a better position for women and while also reminding the king that even King can make mistakes – and how much more troublesome are their mistakes than that of an ordinary person. There are a few stories (e.g. Sindbad) where the issue of friction between sexes is not raised but the general trend is too good to miss. In fact, very first few pages you find a remark by a woman (other than Scherzade) about futility of keeping women under lock. In Aladin’s story, it is the princess who kills the bad guy (and her name is not Jasmine – Sherzade got that wrong, Disney knew better.) In Ali Baba’s story, it is a woman, avery, very clever woman who kills all the forty thieves.
While we are talking about fighting prejudice – a good reason for people to read it to observe how lightly the veil is used by women. Women, who wear vile while being out, are shown at liberty and often chose to show their face to whoever they wish to. (They often do it for the guy, even if he is a stranger, they found handsome who in turn is almost always ‘pierced’ by their beauty.) Not only that, there are a lot of night parties and extra-marital kissing. Yes, there are strict and overprotective fathers but I mean that goes everywhere. Then in at least one place, there is a remark on regarding how the judges are too strict regarding how women should behave. (It is surprising these same judges had nothing to say about drinking wine or when their king had more than four wives.) Moreover, there seems to be no way men can cheat their wives - men are permitted marry multiple times and can have sex with slaves under Islam (like other religions) but women are not - this means men can not cheat on their wives.
Celebrating the art of Storytelliing
There are a number of techniques used by the Scheherazade – cliff hangings, repetitive characters (king Haroon and his wife, Zobeida) story-within-story (at times story-within-story-within-story-within-story) etc. One time Scheherazade forgets a part of narrative and have to retreat to cover that part.
Cliff-hangings though were never that important and never that close to being figurative. Here they are saving lives – the stakes on which Scherzade bargains to get another day of life.
Regarding the story-within-story thing, you may claim that too many of the stories are told by characters trying to save lives. But look at Scheherazade, the original story teller. Isn’t she doing the same? Won’t her psychology affect her stories? And it is the most excellent part – that story-teller and the listener are both part of the story; you get most out of it when you think about how their minds are involved in and are affected by the stories. Just imagine the thoughts that Sheriyar would carry in his mind at the end of each story.
There is a criticism that some of stories are too similar – but you see it is because of the central theme. And I mean how much diversity you can wish for? There are love stories –both comedies and tragedies, stories of adventures, stories of genies, humorous stories (especially the one about tailor), criminal stories, stories of suddenly found treasures. There is one short story about the three brothers who can reason backwards – a little like Sherlock Holmes. Given its time, the stories show remarkable diversity.
In one weird story, a woman disguised as her own husband marries another woman. Latter this second woman marries husband of first. Weird enough? Wait till the two women find a crush for each other’s sons.
Antisemitism, Racism and Body Shaming
From beautiful to ugly ... There is a lot of (much more than you can imagine) antisemitism, racism and body shaming specially in first 200 or so pages, especially for a book trying to fight prejudice. All wicked wizards are African, Jew, Worshiper of fire or Hindu. All cheating merchants are Jews. It probably speaks as much about powerful men’s sexual jealousies as about slavery, that a lot of slaves were eunuchs. The filthy tradition of eunuchs was not limited to Arabia though.
Some female slaves do seem to gain independence and are lawfully married - but that is a fairy tale sort of thing. The terrible treatment of a hunch-back in particular made me stop reading it for a month.
I don’t believe in cultural, temporal or spatial relativism; so I won't defend the book. I just took away six stars from my rating. It was already twenty-nine stars.
Some advice if you chose to live in medieval Persia
October 28, 2022
TW//
A few years back, I signed up for a course that was going to study this book. I was really looking forward to the course, but I ended up having to drop it right before the term started because of my health issues. I hung onto The Arabian Nights all this time because I thought maybe it’d be interesting. I really regret hanging onto it for this long...
The Arabian Nights is about a king who decides that women aren’t trustworthy, so to cope with this, he sleeps with a different woman each night and then kills them in the morning. A girl decides to outsmart the king. Her plan is to tell the king a series of interesting stories that end on cliffhangers so that he will want to know what comes next and will choose not to kill her.
I appreciated the history behind this book and why The Arabian Nights is important to a lot of people, but I just couldn’t look past the problematic things in this book, especially the misogyny. This book is filled with nonstop misogyny. The whole premise of this story wouldn’t take place without misogyny and almost every individual tale in this story not only hates on women but also kills them and injures them in the most gruesome ways. The misogyny isn’t even dealt with in respectful ways. The men who harm the women and hate on the women are often viewed as the heroes of the story. It’s awful. I understand that times were different when these stories first started being told, but these stories really do not hold up well with the modern times.
Besides the misogyny, I also struggled will how boring and repetitive this book was. The stories weren’t very fast paced or interesting and I often found myself struggling to stay awake while I was reading them. The whole format of this book also involved a few lines of text being repeated every "night." My edition had only 271 nights, so I only had to read these repeating lines 271 times, but I can’t even begin to imagine how annoyed I’d get with reading the same lines of text 1,001 times.
One of the few praises that I can give this book is that it’s fairly understandable for a classic. This probably has a lot to do with the translator of my edition. I’m sure other editions might be a little more confusing. The only parts of this text that I found confusing were the poems, which was no surprise that I found them confusing since I don’t really get along well with poems.
I don’t really recommend reading this book unless you enjoy reading slow paced classics. I feel like learning about the history of this story is enough. There’s really no need to read over 500 pages of nonstop misogyny.
I have one final thought on this book but it’s one that mentions sexual content, so proceed at your own risk.
I hate how this book deals with the topic of virginity. This happens in our current times, too, but it’s a nonstop theme throughout this book. Men are having sex nonstop, but women are expected to remain a virgin until marriage and men view it as a treat when women save their virginity for them. It’s gross and I hated to constantly have to read about this in The Arabian Nights.
A few years back, I signed up for a course that was going to study this book. I was really looking forward to the course, but I ended up having to drop it right before the term started because of my health issues. I hung onto The Arabian Nights all this time because I thought maybe it’d be interesting. I really regret hanging onto it for this long...
The Arabian Nights is about a king who decides that women aren’t trustworthy, so to cope with this, he sleeps with a different woman each night and then kills them in the morning. A girl decides to outsmart the king. Her plan is to tell the king a series of interesting stories that end on cliffhangers so that he will want to know what comes next and will choose not to kill her.
I appreciated the history behind this book and why The Arabian Nights is important to a lot of people, but I just couldn’t look past the problematic things in this book, especially the misogyny. This book is filled with nonstop misogyny. The whole premise of this story wouldn’t take place without misogyny and almost every individual tale in this story not only hates on women but also kills them and injures them in the most gruesome ways. The misogyny isn’t even dealt with in respectful ways. The men who harm the women and hate on the women are often viewed as the heroes of the story. It’s awful. I understand that times were different when these stories first started being told, but these stories really do not hold up well with the modern times.
Besides the misogyny, I also struggled will how boring and repetitive this book was. The stories weren’t very fast paced or interesting and I often found myself struggling to stay awake while I was reading them. The whole format of this book also involved a few lines of text being repeated every "night." My edition had only 271 nights, so I only had to read these repeating lines 271 times, but I can’t even begin to imagine how annoyed I’d get with reading the same lines of text 1,001 times.
One of the few praises that I can give this book is that it’s fairly understandable for a classic. This probably has a lot to do with the translator of my edition. I’m sure other editions might be a little more confusing. The only parts of this text that I found confusing were the poems, which was no surprise that I found them confusing since I don’t really get along well with poems.
I don’t really recommend reading this book unless you enjoy reading slow paced classics. I feel like learning about the history of this story is enough. There’s really no need to read over 500 pages of nonstop misogyny.
I have one final thought on this book but it’s one that mentions sexual content, so proceed at your own risk.
I hate how this book deals with the topic of virginity. This happens in our current times, too, but it’s a nonstop theme throughout this book. Men are having sex nonstop, but women are expected to remain a virgin until marriage and men view it as a treat when women save their virginity for them. It’s gross and I hated to constantly have to read about this in The Arabian Nights.
October 24, 2007
This edition is a translation of the first 271 nights from the "1001 Nights" cycle.
One of my favorite aspects of this work is the role of Shahrazad. While many people discuss that she is telling the stories to save her own life, what people fail to recognize many times is that, really, she volunteers to be placed in the position in order to save her kingdom. She's a great literary heroine--saving the world through storytelling.
It also provides a great lens into a world that today is depicted in US media as a wartorn hotbed for terrorist activity. For me it was a reminder that Bagdhad used to be a beautiful, opulent city and cultural center.
Anyone with an interest in storytelling, folklore, or the culture of Persia and the Arabian world should check out this work. Although I have no other translations for comparison, I think that this one is excellent. I found it readable, but with important words and names left untranslated. Also, Haddawy isn't afraid to describe sexual situations plainly, without overly poetic euphamisms.
One of my favorite aspects of this work is the role of Shahrazad. While many people discuss that she is telling the stories to save her own life, what people fail to recognize many times is that, really, she volunteers to be placed in the position in order to save her kingdom. She's a great literary heroine--saving the world through storytelling.
It also provides a great lens into a world that today is depicted in US media as a wartorn hotbed for terrorist activity. For me it was a reminder that Bagdhad used to be a beautiful, opulent city and cultural center.
Anyone with an interest in storytelling, folklore, or the culture of Persia and the Arabian world should check out this work. Although I have no other translations for comparison, I think that this one is excellent. I found it readable, but with important words and names left untranslated. Also, Haddawy isn't afraid to describe sexual situations plainly, without overly poetic euphamisms.
February 1, 2016
I really need a 2.5 stars option, though I would end up using it on three-fourths of everything. As a generic, I can neither recommend nor disavow this book.
Okay so the beloved Arabian Nights, tales from a thousand and one nights. I should start with what this is NOT. This is not a linear story about a princess telling stories to a king. This is not a children's read involving genies, magic, and cyclopi (I refuse to spell this any other way, no matter the red line beneath it). This IS a collection of stories, probably oral traditions, dating back from ancient times.
Taken on their own, many of the stories are quite fascinating. Unfortunately, as a straight through read, I quickly became bored. The stories are, with some notable exceptions, more or less the same.
"There's a beautiful girl whose eyes were like moonbeams, her lips were the color of coral, and as fresh, and she astounded with amazing astoundness all who beheld her. But she had no interest in being married, and her father the king, though he doted on her, could not accept this and so he locked her up. But on the other side of the world, there's a handsome gent whose eyes burned like saucers of the sun, his lips were sweeter than the nectar that camels walked thousands of miles to obtain and carry back, and his hair floated like all the Towers of Babylon. He, also, had no interest in being married, truly he said to HIS father the other king, "I have no interest in being married," and though his father was wroth and consulted his Wazir extensively, no plan was made. Then deus-ex-machina style, there are two omnipotent Djinnis that decide to compare the two and yadda yadda yadda. They get married." But, says the meta-princess, who is meta-telling the meta-king these stories so she doesn't get mega-decapitated, this story is not more fascinating than the other girl and guy who get screwed over, but fall in love anyway, and so on.
Congrats, you have had the Arabian Nights experience!
In short, this book, quaint translation included (he joyed with exceeding joyness!), is something that you'd have to keep by your bedside for several years. Reading one story a week, lest you get tired of it. Unfortunately it's not good enough to keep by your bedside for several years, so where does that leave it? 2.5 stars, baby.
Get from library. Read a few so you can be edumacated. Write a witty review. Have ten times more fun watching Aladdin.
Oh and I found this particular footnote moderately hilarious: "Four wives are allowed by Moslem law and for this reason. If you marry one wife she holds herself your equal, answers you and "gives herself airs"; two are always quarreling and making a hell of the house; three are "no company" and two of them always combine against the nicest to make her hours bitter. Four are company; they can quarrel and "make it up" amongst themselves, and the husband enjoys comparative peace."
Okay so the beloved Arabian Nights, tales from a thousand and one nights. I should start with what this is NOT. This is not a linear story about a princess telling stories to a king. This is not a children's read involving genies, magic, and cyclopi (I refuse to spell this any other way, no matter the red line beneath it). This IS a collection of stories, probably oral traditions, dating back from ancient times.
Taken on their own, many of the stories are quite fascinating. Unfortunately, as a straight through read, I quickly became bored. The stories are, with some notable exceptions, more or less the same.
"There's a beautiful girl whose eyes were like moonbeams, her lips were the color of coral, and as fresh, and she astounded with amazing astoundness all who beheld her. But she had no interest in being married, and her father the king, though he doted on her, could not accept this and so he locked her up. But on the other side of the world, there's a handsome gent whose eyes burned like saucers of the sun, his lips were sweeter than the nectar that camels walked thousands of miles to obtain and carry back, and his hair floated like all the Towers of Babylon. He, also, had no interest in being married, truly he said to HIS father the other king, "I have no interest in being married," and though his father was wroth and consulted his Wazir extensively, no plan was made. Then deus-ex-machina style, there are two omnipotent Djinnis that decide to compare the two and yadda yadda yadda. They get married." But, says the meta-princess, who is meta-telling the meta-king these stories so she doesn't get mega-decapitated, this story is not more fascinating than the other girl and guy who get screwed over, but fall in love anyway, and so on.
Congrats, you have had the Arabian Nights experience!
In short, this book, quaint translation included (he joyed with exceeding joyness!), is something that you'd have to keep by your bedside for several years. Reading one story a week, lest you get tired of it. Unfortunately it's not good enough to keep by your bedside for several years, so where does that leave it? 2.5 stars, baby.
Get from library. Read a few so you can be edumacated. Write a witty review. Have ten times more fun watching Aladdin.
Oh and I found this particular footnote moderately hilarious: "Four wives are allowed by Moslem law and for this reason. If you marry one wife she holds herself your equal, answers you and "gives herself airs"; two are always quarreling and making a hell of the house; three are "no company" and two of them always combine against the nicest to make her hours bitter. Four are company; they can quarrel and "make it up" amongst themselves, and the husband enjoys comparative peace."
January 13, 2015
What you thought was the Arabian Nights was more likely Richard Burton's bastardized, inflated 19th-century adaptation, which was as much about Richard Burton (and his weird ideas about sex) as it was about Arabia.
Which is sortof neither here nor there; there is no canonical version of Arabian Nights anyway. It's just an umbrella term for, basically, all of the Middle East's favorite stories. And if the version that heavily influenced guys like Borges was Burton's, isn't Burton's version the one that's a cornerstone of Western fiction? Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves is not in the original, is what I'm saying, and this is a text where the quest for an official version is in some ways doomed and pointless.
But that doesn't stop me from being all twitchy about it, because I'm an obsessive dork; I wanted to get as close as I could to the original, canonical Arabian Nights. And here it is: Husain Haddawy has gone back to the oldest surviving version, from 14th-century Syria. It is filthy.
Lots of fucking, is what these stories have. It's all very Decameron. And they're great! Extremely convoluted: frequently Shahrazad will tell a story in which someone else tells a story about a third guy telling a story, so you're all wrapped up in multiple layers of story, which isn't really as confusing as it sounds. Well, sometimes it's a little confusing. But it's always, always entertaining. There are no misses in this book at all.
Haddawy's translation is good, except for his poetry, of which there's quite a bit; for all I know the original poetry was itself terrible, but it seems more likely that it's Haddawy's fault. I ended up skimming or outright skipping all the verse; it's usually not plot-related and it's never any good.
This is one of the most important books ever written, despite its not really being a book and also not exactly having been written, and it's incredibly fun stuff. Get psyched: this is the shit.
Which is sortof neither here nor there; there is no canonical version of Arabian Nights anyway. It's just an umbrella term for, basically, all of the Middle East's favorite stories. And if the version that heavily influenced guys like Borges was Burton's, isn't Burton's version the one that's a cornerstone of Western fiction? Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves is not in the original, is what I'm saying, and this is a text where the quest for an official version is in some ways doomed and pointless.
But that doesn't stop me from being all twitchy about it, because I'm an obsessive dork; I wanted to get as close as I could to the original, canonical Arabian Nights. And here it is: Husain Haddawy has gone back to the oldest surviving version, from 14th-century Syria. It is filthy.
Lots of fucking, is what these stories have. It's all very Decameron. And they're great! Extremely convoluted: frequently Shahrazad will tell a story in which someone else tells a story about a third guy telling a story, so you're all wrapped up in multiple layers of story, which isn't really as confusing as it sounds. Well, sometimes it's a little confusing. But it's always, always entertaining. There are no misses in this book at all.
Haddawy's translation is good, except for his poetry, of which there's quite a bit; for all I know the original poetry was itself terrible, but it seems more likely that it's Haddawy's fault. I ended up skimming or outright skipping all the verse; it's usually not plot-related and it's never any good.
This is one of the most important books ever written, despite its not really being a book and also not exactly having been written, and it's incredibly fun stuff. Get psyched: this is the shit.
April 6, 2012
The Arabian Nights / 0-486-22289-6
I'm a bit of an "Thousand Nights" enthusiast -- I enjoy the stories immensely and I have four separate translations in my personal library. Several friends have asked me to discuss the differences between the editions, so I thought I'd present a four-way comparison and then talk about which version is best for which audience.
For the purposes of the four-way comparison, I will draw text from the opening tale of the two kingly brothers in order to highlight how each popular version handles "adult" content and racial content.
-- The Tale of King Shahryar and of his Brother, King Shahzaman --
Now there were in the King's palace certain windows that looked on to the garden, and, as King Shahzaman leaned there and looked out, the door of the palace opened and twenty women slaves with twenty men slaves came from it; and the wife of the King, his brother, was among them and walked there in all her bright beauty. When they came to the pool of a fountain they all undressed and mingled one with another. Suddenly, on the King's wife crying: 'O Masud! Ya Masud!', a gigantic negro ran towards her, embraced her, and, turning her upon her back, enjoyed her. At this signal, all the other men slaves did the same with the women and they continued thus a long while, not ceasing their kisses and embraces and goings in and the like until the approach of dawn.
-- Madrus & Mathers edition
-- The Tale of King Shahriar and of his Brother, King Shahzenan --
One day, Shahriar had started on a great hunting match, about two days' journey from his capital; but Shahzenan, pleading ill health, was left behind. He shut himself up in his apartment, and sat down at a window that looked into the garden. Suddenly a secret gate of the palace opened, and there came out of it twenty women, in the midst of whom walked the Sultaness. The persons who accompanied the Sultaness threw off their veils and long robes, and Shahzenan was greatly surprised when he saw that ten of them were black slaves, each of whom chose a female companion. The Sultaness clapped her hands, and called: "Masoud, Masoud!" and immediately a black came running to her; and they all remained conversing familiarly together.
-- Muhsin al-Musawi edition
-- The Tale of King Schahriar and of his Brother, King Schahzeman --
Now the Sultan Schahriar had a wife whom he loved more than all the world, and his greatest happiness was to surround her with splendour, and to give her the finest dresses and the most beautiful jewels. It was therefore with the deepest shame and sorrow that he accidentally discovered, after several years, that she had deceived him completely, and her whole conduct turned out to have been so bad, that he felt himself obliged to carry out the law of the land, and order the grand-vizir to put her to death.
-- Lang edition
-- The Tale of King Shahryar and of his Brother, King Shah Zaman --
Thereupon Shah Zaman drew back from the window, but he kept the bevy in sight espying them from a place whence he could not be espied. They walked under the very lattice and advanced a little way into the garden till they came to a jetting fountain amiddlemost a great basin of water; then they stripped off their clothes and behold, ten of them were women, concubines of the King, and the other ten were white slaves. Then they all paired off, each with each: but the Queen, who was left alone, presently cried out in a loud voice, "Here to me, O my lord Saeed!" and then sprang with a drop leap from one of the trees a big slobbering blackamoor with rolling eyes which showed the whites, a truly hideous sight. He walked boldly up to her and threw his arms round her neck while she embraced him as warmly; then he bussed her and winding his legs round hers, as a button loop clasps a button, he threw her and enjoyed her.
-- Burton edition
-------
For my money, the superior volume by far is the Madrus & Mathers edition. The editor and translator have deliberately worked the translation to be as readable to the English eye as possible, even making judicious choices about where to refrain from using diacritical points (single quote sound points, as in 'ain) in order to ease the reading experience. They've made a concerted effort to retain the adult content without being lewd, the racial content without descending into offensive caricature, the poetic content without overwhelming the reader, and the entire content without condensing the text and losing material. The Madrus & Mathers editions comprise four giant volumes, but the casual enthusiast will be more than satisfied with just volume one, and with over 600 pages of stories in the electronic edition, the reader will have plenty of reading material available.
For children, however, the superior volume is probably the Muhsin al-Musawi edition. This edition is condensed, but the editing was done with great care to maintain story structure and content. The adult content has been toned down considerably, the racial content has been handled tactfully, the extra songs and poems have been almost entirely removed, and there are interesting and attractive pictures in the electronic edition. My biggest complain here is that the adult content has been excised to a degree that almost brings unfortunate implications: when adultery is characterized as "conversing", the angry and jilted husband seems to be seriously over-reacting. Still, if you want a sanitized version of the tales, the al-Musawi edition is almost certainly the way to go.
I do not recommend the Lang edition. Lang's fairy tale collections, such as the color fairy tale books, are usually a delight, but his Arabian Nights edition is thin on content and heavily paraphrased. The stories are gutted to remove the adult content and shorten the tale length for children, but in many cases the changes are not carefully glossed over, and huge plot holes and unresolved threads are left dangling. I've never met a Lang reader who didn't ask me what was going on in one tale or other because the translation is so poorly rendered.
Neither do I recommend the Burton version. If anything, the Burton version has the exact opposite problems as the Lang version: Burton's edition lengthens the stories with extensively lewd descriptions and offensive racial imagery. The edition was also rendered in the 1800s, and the language within has not aged well -- there are all lot of "forsooth"s and "verily"s that bog down the reading. If you're interested in a historical analysis of how these tales have been rendered over the years, by all means become familiar with the Burton version, but if you're just looking for light bedtime reading, give the Burton edition a pass.
I hope that this comparison will be helpful. This particular listing here is for the Lang edition which I really cannot recommend.
~ Ana Mardoll
I'm a bit of an "Thousand Nights" enthusiast -- I enjoy the stories immensely and I have four separate translations in my personal library. Several friends have asked me to discuss the differences between the editions, so I thought I'd present a four-way comparison and then talk about which version is best for which audience.
For the purposes of the four-way comparison, I will draw text from the opening tale of the two kingly brothers in order to highlight how each popular version handles "adult" content and racial content.
-- The Tale of King Shahryar and of his Brother, King Shahzaman --
Now there were in the King's palace certain windows that looked on to the garden, and, as King Shahzaman leaned there and looked out, the door of the palace opened and twenty women slaves with twenty men slaves came from it; and the wife of the King, his brother, was among them and walked there in all her bright beauty. When they came to the pool of a fountain they all undressed and mingled one with another. Suddenly, on the King's wife crying: 'O Masud! Ya Masud!', a gigantic negro ran towards her, embraced her, and, turning her upon her back, enjoyed her. At this signal, all the other men slaves did the same with the women and they continued thus a long while, not ceasing their kisses and embraces and goings in and the like until the approach of dawn.
-- Madrus & Mathers edition
-- The Tale of King Shahriar and of his Brother, King Shahzenan --
One day, Shahriar had started on a great hunting match, about two days' journey from his capital; but Shahzenan, pleading ill health, was left behind. He shut himself up in his apartment, and sat down at a window that looked into the garden. Suddenly a secret gate of the palace opened, and there came out of it twenty women, in the midst of whom walked the Sultaness. The persons who accompanied the Sultaness threw off their veils and long robes, and Shahzenan was greatly surprised when he saw that ten of them were black slaves, each of whom chose a female companion. The Sultaness clapped her hands, and called: "Masoud, Masoud!" and immediately a black came running to her; and they all remained conversing familiarly together.
-- Muhsin al-Musawi edition
-- The Tale of King Schahriar and of his Brother, King Schahzeman --
Now the Sultan Schahriar had a wife whom he loved more than all the world, and his greatest happiness was to surround her with splendour, and to give her the finest dresses and the most beautiful jewels. It was therefore with the deepest shame and sorrow that he accidentally discovered, after several years, that she had deceived him completely, and her whole conduct turned out to have been so bad, that he felt himself obliged to carry out the law of the land, and order the grand-vizir to put her to death.
-- Lang edition
-- The Tale of King Shahryar and of his Brother, King Shah Zaman --
Thereupon Shah Zaman drew back from the window, but he kept the bevy in sight espying them from a place whence he could not be espied. They walked under the very lattice and advanced a little way into the garden till they came to a jetting fountain amiddlemost a great basin of water; then they stripped off their clothes and behold, ten of them were women, concubines of the King, and the other ten were white slaves. Then they all paired off, each with each: but the Queen, who was left alone, presently cried out in a loud voice, "Here to me, O my lord Saeed!" and then sprang with a drop leap from one of the trees a big slobbering blackamoor with rolling eyes which showed the whites, a truly hideous sight. He walked boldly up to her and threw his arms round her neck while she embraced him as warmly; then he bussed her and winding his legs round hers, as a button loop clasps a button, he threw her and enjoyed her.
-- Burton edition
-------
For my money, the superior volume by far is the Madrus & Mathers edition. The editor and translator have deliberately worked the translation to be as readable to the English eye as possible, even making judicious choices about where to refrain from using diacritical points (single quote sound points, as in 'ain) in order to ease the reading experience. They've made a concerted effort to retain the adult content without being lewd, the racial content without descending into offensive caricature, the poetic content without overwhelming the reader, and the entire content without condensing the text and losing material. The Madrus & Mathers editions comprise four giant volumes, but the casual enthusiast will be more than satisfied with just volume one, and with over 600 pages of stories in the electronic edition, the reader will have plenty of reading material available.
For children, however, the superior volume is probably the Muhsin al-Musawi edition. This edition is condensed, but the editing was done with great care to maintain story structure and content. The adult content has been toned down considerably, the racial content has been handled tactfully, the extra songs and poems have been almost entirely removed, and there are interesting and attractive pictures in the electronic edition. My biggest complain here is that the adult content has been excised to a degree that almost brings unfortunate implications: when adultery is characterized as "conversing", the angry and jilted husband seems to be seriously over-reacting. Still, if you want a sanitized version of the tales, the al-Musawi edition is almost certainly the way to go.
I do not recommend the Lang edition. Lang's fairy tale collections, such as the color fairy tale books, are usually a delight, but his Arabian Nights edition is thin on content and heavily paraphrased. The stories are gutted to remove the adult content and shorten the tale length for children, but in many cases the changes are not carefully glossed over, and huge plot holes and unresolved threads are left dangling. I've never met a Lang reader who didn't ask me what was going on in one tale or other because the translation is so poorly rendered.
Neither do I recommend the Burton version. If anything, the Burton version has the exact opposite problems as the Lang version: Burton's edition lengthens the stories with extensively lewd descriptions and offensive racial imagery. The edition was also rendered in the 1800s, and the language within has not aged well -- there are all lot of "forsooth"s and "verily"s that bog down the reading. If you're interested in a historical analysis of how these tales have been rendered over the years, by all means become familiar with the Burton version, but if you're just looking for light bedtime reading, give the Burton edition a pass.
I hope that this comparison will be helpful. This particular listing here is for the Lang edition which I really cannot recommend.
~ Ana Mardoll
August 26, 2009
I am planning to read through this whole book someday, I swear. But it's going to be a slow process. Here, in list form, are the reasons I may or may not finish The Arabian Nights.
Reasons I May Finish This Ridiculously Long Book:
-Scheherazade (or whichever of the twenty ways to spell her name you prefer) is kind of a badass genius. Since her father is the king's vizier, she gets exempted from said batshit crazy king's plan to marry and then kill every single available virgin in the city. But she volunteers for the job anyway, based purely on her plan to keep telling the king stories until he decides she's much too interesting to kill.
-Her method of telling the stories is really complicated and interesting. She starts a story in which a man with some unsolvable problem attempts to solve it. He meets three other men. They then meet a djin. The men all tell stories to the djin. The djin tells stories. They tell a story in which a person meets another person, and tells them stories. The whole book is like some kind of reverse Jenga game: she keeps piling stories on top of stories and we can't help but be baffled that she even manages to keep them all straight in her head, much less prevent them from collapsing around her.
-It's pretty dirty. There's lots of orgies and naked slave girls running around, and since Scheherazade's sister sleeps in her bedroom and is there when the king visits her every night, I got the sense that there were some kinky three-ways going on before Story Time started.
Reasons I May Not Finish This Ridiculously Long Book:
-It's racist and misongynist to a level I have never experienced before (and I've read Stephenie Meyer and Ian Fleming, so I know misongyny when I see it). Here's an example: so, the king finds out that his wife has been cheating on him, and with a black slave, no less. Not only that, most of the cheating women (and it is always the women who sleep around) in the book are found ravenously sexing up black men. It's at this point that we break for a lovely footnote by the translator that explains how black men, owing to their insanely massive genitalia, are the paramour of choice for cheating wives. He adds that several men he knows will not allow their wives to visit Africa with them, since the danger of their being seduced by a well-hung Negro is just too high. I am not making any of this up.
-The book is ridiculously long. Did I mention that already?
Reasons I May Finish This Ridiculously Long Book:
-Scheherazade (or whichever of the twenty ways to spell her name you prefer) is kind of a badass genius. Since her father is the king's vizier, she gets exempted from said batshit crazy king's plan to marry and then kill every single available virgin in the city. But she volunteers for the job anyway, based purely on her plan to keep telling the king stories until he decides she's much too interesting to kill.
-Her method of telling the stories is really complicated and interesting. She starts a story in which a man with some unsolvable problem attempts to solve it. He meets three other men. They then meet a djin. The men all tell stories to the djin. The djin tells stories. They tell a story in which a person meets another person, and tells them stories. The whole book is like some kind of reverse Jenga game: she keeps piling stories on top of stories and we can't help but be baffled that she even manages to keep them all straight in her head, much less prevent them from collapsing around her.
-It's pretty dirty. There's lots of orgies and naked slave girls running around, and since Scheherazade's sister sleeps in her bedroom and is there when the king visits her every night, I got the sense that there were some kinky three-ways going on before Story Time started.
Reasons I May Not Finish This Ridiculously Long Book:
-It's racist and misongynist to a level I have never experienced before (and I've read Stephenie Meyer and Ian Fleming, so I know misongyny when I see it). Here's an example: so, the king finds out that his wife has been cheating on him, and with a black slave, no less. Not only that, most of the cheating women (and it is always the women who sleep around) in the book are found ravenously sexing up black men. It's at this point that we break for a lovely footnote by the translator that explains how black men, owing to their insanely massive genitalia, are the paramour of choice for cheating wives. He adds that several men he knows will not allow their wives to visit Africa with them, since the danger of their being seduced by a well-hung Negro is just too high. I am not making any of this up.
-The book is ridiculously long. Did I mention that already?
Currently reading
August 14, 2015و قبل أن تدلف إلى هذا العالم الساحر و الشائق .. عالم
(ألف ليلة و ليلة) ..
من فضلك ..
لا تنسى وضع عقلك خارجا على بوابته ! ،
***
أرح عقلك قليلا ، و الا فلن تشعر بالمتعة أبدا
:) !
**********
حكاية جوه حكاية من ورا حكاية
ايه دا بجد :) !! ؟
كأنك واقع في محيط .. بتسحبك فيه و برغم ارادتك .. دوامة لذيذة
...
بتسحبك من حكاية للتانية .. من عالم للتاني ... بتسحبك لتاريخ .. لحضارات .. لجزر و قصور .. لحضرة ملوك الجان وسلاطين الإنس ! ... بتسحبك .. بتسحبك .. بنعومة .. و انت مستسلم .. مستسلم .. لغاية ماتغرّق وعيك و تحتل حواسك
شئ كده زي السحر ! :)
ثم ..ماكل هذه الأنباء و الحكم و الأشعار و الآداب الرائعة التي حوتها تلك الألف ليلة و ليلة !؟
*****
على (ويكي مصدر ) كاملة على أربع اجزاء فرغت للآن من الجزء الثاني ،
اكتشفت ان معظم القصص اللي قرأتها للآن سبق لي قرائتها منفردة زمان ، و انا طفلة ،
معدة كقصص للأطفال
،
نصيب الأسد فيها كان لـ (كامل كيلاني) و من اعداده طبعا
:)
...
و عموما مازلت مستمتعه بقراءتها كأول مرة
:)
*****
الجزء الأول :
http://ar.wikisource.org/wiki/%D8%A3%...
*****
الجزء الثاني :
http://ar.wikisource.org/wiki/%D8%A3%...
*****
الجزء الثالث :
http://ar.wikisource.org/wiki/%D8%A3%...
*****
الجزء الرابع :
http://ar.wikisource.org/wiki/%D8%A3%...
(ألف ليلة و ليلة) ..
من فضلك ..
لا تنسى وضع عقلك خارجا على بوابته ! ،
***
أرح عقلك قليلا ، و الا فلن تشعر بالمتعة أبدا
:) !
**********
حكاية جوه حكاية من ورا حكاية
ايه دا بجد :) !! ؟
كأنك واقع في محيط .. بتسحبك فيه و برغم ارادتك .. دوامة لذيذة
...
بتسحبك من حكاية للتانية .. من عالم للتاني ... بتسحبك لتاريخ .. لحضارات .. لجزر و قصور .. لحضرة ملوك الجان وسلاطين الإنس ! ... بتسحبك .. بتسحبك .. بنعومة .. و انت مستسلم .. مستسلم .. لغاية ماتغرّق وعيك و تحتل حواسك
شئ كده زي السحر ! :)
ثم ..ماكل هذه الأنباء و الحكم و الأشعار و الآداب الرائعة التي حوتها تلك الألف ليلة و ليلة !؟
*****
على (ويكي مصدر ) كاملة على أربع اجزاء فرغت للآن من الجزء الثاني ،
اكتشفت ان معظم القصص اللي قرأتها للآن سبق لي قرائتها منفردة زمان ، و انا طفلة ،
معدة كقصص للأطفال
،
نصيب الأسد فيها كان لـ (كامل كيلاني) و من اعداده طبعا
:)
...
و عموما مازلت مستمتعه بقراءتها كأول مرة
:)
*****
الجزء الأول :
http://ar.wikisource.org/wiki/%D8%A3%...
*****
الجزء الثاني :
http://ar.wikisource.org/wiki/%D8%A3%...
*****
الجزء الثالث :
http://ar.wikisource.org/wiki/%D8%A3%...
*****
الجزء الرابع :
http://ar.wikisource.org/wiki/%D8%A3%...
August 20, 2022
Este es de esos libros que marcaron mi adolescencia, y en un buen sentido, es de aquellas historias que me hicieron amar los libros y disfrutar de la lectura.
La trama es archi-conocida, el rey Schariar tras sufrir el engaño de su esposa decide en venganza conseguir una joven virgen para casarse cada día para a la mañana siguiente ordenar matarla. Hasta que Scherezade, la hija del Visir, planea una manera con la cual detener este sinsentido, el qué consiste en contarle a Schariar una historia cada noche dejándola en su punto álgido para que de esta manera el sultán por interés a no quedarse sin el final vaya aplazando la ejecución qué termina por extenderse por más de mil noches...
Lo que nos lleva directo a un montón de cuentos, historias, poemas, leyendas, parodias, etc. Que nos hacen saltar la imaginación y nos transportan a mundos fantásticos de diversa índole. Todo, por supuesto, impregnado de la diferente e interesante cultura medieval de oriente medio. Acá, por supuesto, encontramos historias mundialmente famosas como Aladdin, Sinbad o Alí babá, entre otras menos conocidas, pero igual de imaginativas que me hacen imposible elegir una como favorita, cito algunas menos conocidas como cuando un par de personajes descienden a un mundo subterráneo reinado por mujeres con cola de serpiente, o la princesa que se disfraza de su amado y termina casándose con otra mujer, o el ilusionista que compraba carne con monedas supuestamente nuevas y relucientes, o el jorobado que supuestamente muere atragantado por una espina de pescado, pero al final nunca estuvo muerto, o el hombre que llega a un palacio de mil habitaciones dónde le entregan todo sin nada a cambio con la única condición de jámas entrar en una habitación en particular, o el par de viajeros que son forzados a volverse reyes de un pueblo de monos, o el hombre que se casó con una mujer que por las noches se escapaba al cementerio a comer carne de muerto... entre tantas otras que te hacen volar la imaginación como pocas historias pueden.
Cabe destacar que existen varias versiones de Las mil y una noches, algunas de ellas con historias recortadas, adaptadas o modificadas con la idea de evitar material que pudiese resultar ofensivo a lectores actuales, lo que a mí juicio es un error. Por lo personal tuve la suerte de leer la versión Integra ilustrada de tres tomos y la verdad es que no hay desperdicio. Varias de las historias dejan algún tipo de enseñanza o alguna parábola aunque también es verdad que hay historias bastante machistas, dado la cultura de oriente medio, o historias que entran en lo erótico con escenas lésbicas y hasta zoofilicas en parte. Más, cómo se advierte en el prólogo hay que comprender que eran otros tiempos, otra época, otra cultura... que a través de sus historias nos ayudan a entender cómo veían el mundo esta gente y cómo podemos aprender de ellos, que lecciones sacamos. "El que rehuye de su pasado está condenado a repetirlo" dicen y creo que saber apreciar este tipo de historias, algo arcaicas en algunos aspectos, desde una perspectiva moderna nos ayuda a mirar al pasado y entender cuánto hemos cambiado y avanzado como sociedad. Y que nos queda aún por mejorar.
¡De lo mejor que leído en toda mi vida! ¡Muy recomendado!
La trama es archi-conocida, el rey Schariar tras sufrir el engaño de su esposa decide en venganza conseguir una joven virgen para casarse cada día para a la mañana siguiente ordenar matarla. Hasta que Scherezade, la hija del Visir, planea una manera con la cual detener este sinsentido, el qué consiste en contarle a Schariar una historia cada noche dejándola en su punto álgido para que de esta manera el sultán por interés a no quedarse sin el final vaya aplazando la ejecución qué termina por extenderse por más de mil noches...
Lo que nos lleva directo a un montón de cuentos, historias, poemas, leyendas, parodias, etc. Que nos hacen saltar la imaginación y nos transportan a mundos fantásticos de diversa índole. Todo, por supuesto, impregnado de la diferente e interesante cultura medieval de oriente medio. Acá, por supuesto, encontramos historias mundialmente famosas como Aladdin, Sinbad o Alí babá, entre otras menos conocidas, pero igual de imaginativas que me hacen imposible elegir una como favorita, cito algunas menos conocidas como cuando un par de personajes descienden a un mundo subterráneo reinado por mujeres con cola de serpiente, o la princesa que se disfraza de su amado y termina casándose con otra mujer, o el ilusionista que compraba carne con monedas supuestamente nuevas y relucientes, o el jorobado que supuestamente muere atragantado por una espina de pescado, pero al final nunca estuvo muerto, o el hombre que llega a un palacio de mil habitaciones dónde le entregan todo sin nada a cambio con la única condición de jámas entrar en una habitación en particular, o el par de viajeros que son forzados a volverse reyes de un pueblo de monos, o el hombre que se casó con una mujer que por las noches se escapaba al cementerio a comer carne de muerto... entre tantas otras que te hacen volar la imaginación como pocas historias pueden.
Cabe destacar que existen varias versiones de Las mil y una noches, algunas de ellas con historias recortadas, adaptadas o modificadas con la idea de evitar material que pudiese resultar ofensivo a lectores actuales, lo que a mí juicio es un error. Por lo personal tuve la suerte de leer la versión Integra ilustrada de tres tomos y la verdad es que no hay desperdicio. Varias de las historias dejan algún tipo de enseñanza o alguna parábola aunque también es verdad que hay historias bastante machistas, dado la cultura de oriente medio, o historias que entran en lo erótico con escenas lésbicas y hasta zoofilicas en parte. Más, cómo se advierte en el prólogo hay que comprender que eran otros tiempos, otra época, otra cultura... que a través de sus historias nos ayudan a entender cómo veían el mundo esta gente y cómo podemos aprender de ellos, que lecciones sacamos. "El que rehuye de su pasado está condenado a repetirlo" dicen y creo que saber apreciar este tipo de historias, algo arcaicas en algunos aspectos, desde una perspectiva moderna nos ayuda a mirar al pasado y entender cuánto hemos cambiado y avanzado como sociedad. Y que nos queda aún por mejorar.
¡De lo mejor que leído en toda mi vida! ¡Muy recomendado!
August 25, 2022
Ottantatré
There was a young girl called Scheherazade
Whose husband was simply stark raving mad
He said: off with your head
If I don’t go to bed
With a tale either funny or sad
A sinistra... / A destra...
.
There was a young girl called Scheherazade
Whose husband was simply stark raving mad
He said: off with your head
If I don’t go to bed
With a tale either funny or sad
A sinistra... / A destra...
.
June 28, 2019
This book has stories with an amazing sense of wonder.
Read
October 31, 2020The fairy tales from the Arabian world go from Aladdin to Sinbad. It's unique to dive into such a world - where flying carpets and magic lamps make the present better.
February 27, 2024
An interesting read. Short stories, well fairy tales really from the Middle East and Asia.
I enjoyed them and they flow into one another. Some are quite short so it's easy to pick up and put down.
Three stars.
I enjoyed them and they flow into one another. Some are quite short so it's easy to pick up and put down.
Three stars.
November 30, 2011
Having just re-read this book i'm reminded how the flowery wording and a hint of "eastern promise" manages to white wash over the actual issues of the story. Sheharezade is actually technically being kept hostage with a death penalty hanging over her head, forced to spin yarns to save not only her skin but that of all the other virgins in the vicinty. Her tales touch on marital rape, mass murder, theft, deception, fratricide, regicide, racism and necromancy. And you all thought American Psycho was bad?? It's amazing what you can get past the critics when you flower it up a little and add a little middle eastern frou frou. Anyway, i digress...overall an epic book and easy to see why Burtons translation scandalised the purse-lipped puritans of 19th century England.
If anyone wants to read more about or by Burton then try his Narrative of pilgrimage to Mecca and Al-Medina (vols 1 and 2)or for a different perspective try the Wilder Shores of Love by Lesley Blanche which includes a short biography of Burtons wife, Isabel (man trap) Burton. Alternatively watch Rupert Everetts genius TV biography of Burton which was produced for the BBC. It's worth it just for the bit with nuns!
If anyone wants to read more about or by Burton then try his Narrative of pilgrimage to Mecca and Al-Medina (vols 1 and 2)or for a different perspective try the Wilder Shores of Love by Lesley Blanche which includes a short biography of Burtons wife, Isabel (man trap) Burton. Alternatively watch Rupert Everetts genius TV biography of Burton which was produced for the BBC. It's worth it just for the bit with nuns!
August 27, 2018
I have read this book a few times over the years and I believe I was about thirteen the first time I read this book. A wonderful classic tale. Pure nostalgia.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,325 reviews