A Literary Interlude

"The Arabian Nights, also known as Alf Layla wa-Layla, The Thousand and One Nights, and The Thousand Nights and One Night is one of the world's best-known collections of stories. Although the tales, which were orally transmitted and composed over the course of several centuries, are mainly of Asian and Arabic origin, they have become an inextricable part of the Western cultural heritage as well.

The original collection, comprised of legends, fairytales, romances, and anecdotes, stems from a number of folk traditions and contains motifs and fables from various geographical areas and historical periods. Since the eighteenth century, when it reached Western audiences, The Arabian Nights has been one of the most popular works of world literature, spawning numerous adaptations and tributes.

Although they are traditionally associated with medieval Arabic culture, the tales of The Arabian Nights are rooted in several oral traditions, containing motifs from a variety of geographic areas and historical periods, including ancient Mesopotamia, India, early medieval Persia and Iraq, and Egypt of the Middle Ages. Scholars agree that the frame story is most likely of Indian origin.

The first identifiable written version of The Arabian Nights is a book of Persian tales called Hazar Afsanah , written between 225 and 250, translated into Arabic around 850. The stories underwent considerable modification between the tenth and the sixteenth centuries, kept alive by professional storytellers, who would perform them in coffeehouses all over the Middle East. The title Thousand and One Nights was known in the twelfth century and likely originated from the Turkish expression bin-bir (“thousand and one”), which, like the Arabic alf, simply indicates a very large number. There is no definitive Arabic textual source of the work, but there are a number of surviving manuscripts containing many of the stories.

The first major European translation of The Arabian Nights was completed by the Frenchman Antoine Galland. The first part of his twelve-volume Les mille et une nuits appeared in 1704."

I know it’s a stretch. I wonder if it’s even politically correct? If not, I apologize in advance, BUT Disney’s new adaptation of Aladdin hits Broadway in February. Guess who already has tickets! I can’t wait to see if my experience here will deepen my appreciation of the story.

Source: Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, ©2004 Gale Cengage.