Muhsin MahdiCritiques

An interesting read as historical artifact. Full of romance and violence and sexism and sentiments like: A woman needs a husband or a grave. Pretty entertaining overall.

This is as good as it gets. I don't know Arabic so there's no way I can judge the accuracy of the translation -- all I know is how it reads, and it reads superbly. I'd rather not get into any "oh, but there's only 271 nights here, what the --" patter. I have the newer, bigger Penguin translation on my shelves too & it presumably uses the (much!) longer Egyptian 'version' (version is the wrong word but I can't think of the right one at the moment) ... but I doubt it could be, well, better than this. What's here is simply the rapture of tales, tales, tales ... and it's a volume that makes it eminently clear why people get obsessed with this thing. I'm a bit obsessed with it, right now.

The famous tale ("Open Sesame") is magical. The rest are barely mediocre aside from historical interest.

This edition is translated into the English from Arabic by Husain Haddawy. The Arabic source is a 14th century Syrian manuscript edited by Muhsin Mahdi.

Bulaq-udgavens nat 536-777. Abd al-Rahman al-Safti al-Sharqawi udgav Bulaq-udgaven, men historierne har mange forfattere og er samlet over lang tid.

Indeholder "Indholdsoversigt - Bind 4", "Indholdsoversigt - Bind 1-6", "Historien om Sindbad Søfareren", " Sindbad Søfarerens første rejse", " Sindbad Søfarerens anden rejse", " Sindbad Søfarerens tredje rejse", " Sindbad Søfarerens fjerde rejse", " Sindbad Søfarerens femte rejse", " Sindbad Søfarerens sjette rejse", " Sindbad Søfarerens syvende rejse", "Historien om kobberbyen", "Historien om kvindelist", " Historien om kongen og vesirens hustru", " Historien om købmanden og papegøjen", " Historien om valkeren og hans søn", " Historien om den forelskede og den ærbare kone", " Historien om den nærige købmand og de to brød", " Historien om kvinden og hendes to elskere", " Historien om kongesønnen og ghulaen", " Historien om en dråbe honning", " Historien om konen der fik sin mand til at sigte jord", " Historien om den forheksede kilde", " Historien om vesirens søn og bademesterens kone", " Historien om konen der ville bedrage sin mand", " Historien om guldsmeden og syngepigen", " Historien om manden der ikke lo nogensinde mere i sit liv", " Historien om kongesønnen og købmandskonen", " Historien om slavedrengen, der foregav at forstå fuglenes sprog", " Historien om kvinden og hendes fem beundrere", " Historien om de tre ønsker", " Historien om den stjålne halskæde", " Historien om de to duer", " Historien om kongesønnen Bahräm og kongedatteren al-Darma", " Historien om den gamle kone og købmandssønnen", " Historien om kongesønnen og ifrittens elskede", " Historien om sandeltræet og skurkene", " Historien om forføreren og den treårige dreng", " Historien om den stjålne pung", "Historien om Djawdar og hans brødre", "Historien om Adjīb og Gharīb", "Historien om Utba og Rayya", "Historien om Hind og al-Hadjadjādj", "Historien om Khuzayma ibn Bishr og Ikrima al-Fayyād", "Historien om Yūnus al-Kalīd ibn Sahl", "Historien om Harūn al-Rashīd og beduinpigen", "Historien om al-Asma'i og de tre piger fra Basra", "Historien om Ibrahīm al-Mawsili og Iblīs", "Historien om de to elskende fra stammen Banu Udhra", "Historien om beduinen og hans trofaste kone", "Historien om de to elskende fra Basra", "Historien om Ishāg al-Mawsili og Iblīs", "Historien om de to elskende fra Medina", "Historien om al-Malik al-Māsir og hans vesir", "Historien om den listige Dalīla", "Historien om Ali al-Zaybaq al-Misri", " Historien om Ardashīr og Hayāt al-Nufūs (Historien om Djullanār fra havet)", " Historien om kong Muhammad ibn Sabāik og købmanden Hasan", " Historien om Sayf al-Muluk og Badi' al-Djamal", "Ordliste", "Genrer", "Historiske skikkelser", "Stikordsregister".

"Indholdsoversigt - Bind 4" handler om ???
"Indholdsoversigt - Bind 1-6" handler om ???
"Historien om Sindbad Søfareren" handler om ???
" Sindbad Søfarerens første rejse" handler om ???
" Sindbad Søfarerens anden rejse" handler om ???
" Sindbad Søfarerens tredje rejse" handler om ???
" Sindbad Søfarerens fjerde rejse" handler om ???
" Sindbad Søfarerens femte rejse" handler om ???
" Sindbad Søfarerens sjette rejse" handler om ???
" Sindbad Søfarerens syvende rejse" handler om ???
"Historien om kobberbyen" handler om ???
"Historien om kvindelist" handler om ???
" Historien om kongen og vesirens hustru" handler om ???
" Historien om købmanden og papegøjen" handler om ???
" Historien om valkeren og hans søn" handler om ???
" Historien om den forelskede og den ærbare kone" handler om ???
" Historien om den nærige købmand og de to brød" handler om ???
" Historien om kvinden og hendes to elskere" handler om ???
" Historien om kongesønnen og ghulaen" handler om ???
" Historien om en dråbe honning" handler om ???
" Historien om konen der fik sin mand til at sigte jord" handler om ???
" Historien om den forheksede kilde" handler om ???
" Historien om vesirens søn og bademesterens kone" handler om ???
" Historien om konen der ville bedrage sin mand" handler om ???
" Historien om guldsmeden og syngepigen" handler om ???
" Historien om manden der ikke lo nogensinde mere i sit liv" handler om ???
" Historien om kongesønnen og købmandskonen" handler om ???
" Historien om slavedrengen, der foregav at forstå fuglenes sprog" handler om ???
" Historien om kvinden og hendes fem beundrere" handler om ???
" Historien om de tre ønsker" handler om ???
" Historien om den stjålne halskæde" handler om ???
" Historien om de to duer" handler om ???
" Historien om kongesønnen Bahräm og kongedatteren al-Darma" handler om ???
" Historien om den gamle kone og købmandssønnen" handler om ???
" Historien om kongesønnen og ifrittens elskede" handler om ???
" Historien om sandeltræet og skurkene" handler om ???
" Historien om forføreren og den treårige dreng" handler om ???
" Historien om den stjålne pung" handler om ???
"Historien om Djawdar og hans brødre" handler om ???
"Historien om Adjīb og Gharīb" handler om ???
"Historien om Utba og Rayya" handler om ???
"Historien om Hind og al-Hadjadjādj" handler om ???
"Historien om Khuzayma ibn Bishr og Ikrima al-Fayyād" handler om ???
"Historien om Yūnus al-Kalīd ibn Sahl" handler om ???
"Historien om Harūn al-Rashīd og beduinpigen" handler om ???
"Historien om al-Asma'i og de tre piger fra Basra" handler om ???
"Historien om Ibrahīm al-Mawsili og Iblīs" handler om ???
"Historien om de to elskende fra stammen Banu Udhra" handler om ???
"Historien om beduinen og hans trofaste kone" handler om ???
"Historien om de to elskende fra Basra" handler om ???
"Historien om Ishāg al-Mawsili og Iblīs" handler om ???
"Historien om de to elskende fra Medina" handler om ???
"Historien om al-Malik al-Māsir og hans vesir" handler om ???
"Historien om den listige Dalīla" handler om ???
"Historien om Ali al-Zaybaq al-Misri" handler om ???
" Historien om Ardashīr og Hayāt al-Nufūs (Historien om Djullanār fra havet)" handler om ???
" Historien om kong Muhammad ibn Sabāik og købmanden Hasan" handler om ???
" Historien om Sayf al-Muluk og Badi' al-Djamal" handler om ???
"Ordliste" handler om ???
"Genrer" handler om ???
"Historiske skikkelser" handler om ???
"Stikordsregister" handler om ???

Denne udgave er superflot. Og nogle af historierne er sjove. Det er en samlet udgave i seks bind af de arabiske fortællinger, hvori den smukke Shahrazād fortæller kong Shahriyār historier nat efter nat, for at han skal skåne hendes liv

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2548075.html

A translation of one of the classic Arabian Nights manuscripts, with some familiar stories absent (Aladdin, Sinbad, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves) but lots more, all giving a very vivid picture of a time and a number of places in a world stretching from Egypt to India as a single cultural unit, but centred on Baghdad and Persia. There's a lot of fairly intricate nesting of stories within stories - I think it was four layers deep at one point - but all rather entertaining, with of course some stories displaying the prejudices of the day, but others giving women agency - including the framing narrative. I actually started with the Burton translation, but found it unreadable; this is much better.½

Mahdi presents here a fascinating triptych of intellectual history, consisting of (1) a biography of the 14th c. Arab historian Ibn Khaldûn (who once had an interview with Tamerlane), (2) a discussion that situates Khaldûn in the evolution of Islamic philosophy and historiography, and (3) an interpretation of Khaldûn’s major work The Muqaddimah, or Principles…etc. etc. etc…

Mahdi’s methodological approach (influenced by Leo Strauss) proceeds from a recognition of the principles accepted by an author, then to an attempt to uncover the author’s motivations and intentions, and finally a venture into interpretation and judgment of the author’s work. First principles first, then (or, what Khaldûn “knew”): the Islamic community owed its origins, its Law, and its character to a revelation and a prophet. The Law provided final and definitive dogmas about the attributes of God, the creation of the world, and the world to come. It prescribed which acts were obligatory, recommended, permitted or forbidden, and described the rewards and punishments such acts entailed. The divine legislator was not bound by the limits of theoretical reason; what he announced must be accepted and never doubted, even when contradicting what had been known by human reason. Believers were urged not to waste their efforts exploring the rational truth behind the dogmas taught by the Prophet, as this inevitably leads to ‘a gorge in which the mind wanders to no avail.’

Khaldûn’s chief motivation, according to Mahdi, was a desire to understand the nature and causes of the conditions (general decline and disintegration) prevailing in the Islamic world during his lifetime, and to learn the lessons they could teach him on the nature of human history. Khaldûn proposed that particular traditions could be studied as expressions of an underlying universal order of things, an order that could be ascertained by observation and valid reasoning. Khaldûn thought that the attempt to study history in this manner was new and that he had originated it, but such novelty was not true of science or philosophy in general, writes Mahdi. Philosophy had come to the Arabs from the Greeks, but had been in decline since the time of Averroes (d. 1198). Khaldûn would revive it.

The discovery of Greek philosophy stimulated the development of Muslim philosophy, but in a context within which philosophy had to coexist with the divinely-inspired Law. The earliest Muslim thinkers started from religious dogma, then formulated a rational system based upon principles and methods of proof which led to conclusions identical with those dogmas. Later thinkers (Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, all inspired by the Greeks) produced a shift in Islamic philosophy, arguing that reasoning could be false without a corresponding falseness of nature/dogma. By Khaldûn’s time, the only philosophy in the Islamic community was a mishmash of speculative theology, mysticism, and the ideas of Farabi, et.al. Khaldûn had first to expose and refute this combination before redirecting philosophy to its proper end. His critique was not aimed at philosophy per se, then, but at the pretenders to philosophy, among whom Khaldûn counted Farabi and Avicenna. (Mahdi’s footnotes in this section are dense with explication and illustrations from the relevant works of various writers. Speed-readers beware.)

In Khaldûn’s view (as related by Mahdi), the philosopher, untangling himself from speculative theology and mysticism, should assert that much of what the Law brings forth cannot be known by reason—‘the universe is too wide to be embraced exhaustively in its totality.’ Khaldûn followed closely the Posterior Analytics of Aristotle to critique the school of Islamic dialectical theology (kalám) that had denied the existence of essential attributes and viewed universals as mere mental constructions with no counterparts outside the mind. He made a distinction between philosophic sciences (which man can know by the nature of his thought and human perception) and positive sciences (which are based upon the traditions communicated from the divine legislator). Khaldûn carefully omitted discussion of the history of practical sciences in Islamic philosophy so as to avoid having to commit himself to the opinions of other philosophers (Farabi’s Platonic position, for instance) or to impede in any way his relation to the community (by putting himself at odds with some faction or another). Nonetheless, Khaldûn’s acceptance of the principles of Islamic politics was implicit in his discussion of the most important issues that practical philosophy had to explore: the nature of prophecy, the nature of the social order, and the role of knowledge in society. Khaldûn’s purpose in the third, according to Mahdi, was “to protect the Law and philosophy, and the many and the few, against possible confusion between their functions and ends.”

The distinction between the many and the few was reintroduced into Islamic philosophy through the Aristotelian theory of the methods of demonstration, which Averroes integrated with the Platonic idea of the political significance of the few and the many as explained in The Republic. In propounding his theory of esoteric writing, Averroes argued that a philosopher should protect the many by supporting and praising the Law, and by refuting and silencing all who attempt to mislead them through questioning the Law or raising doubts about it. Khaldûn’s goal in his discussion of the various sciences, according to Mahdi, was to disentangle and expose the mixtures of positive and philosophic sciences—in refutation of dissenting sectarians, dialecticians and mystics who, being ignorant of the true purpose of the Law and the true nature of philosophy, had attempted in vain to reconcile them.

It was common in Islamic mystical and philosophic literature to deliberately exclude the undesirable reader with a style of writing that was difficult and ambiguous. In contrast, says Mahdi, Khaldûn chose to write for all people. History seemed to him the ideal subject through which ideas could be communicated both to the few and the many: Khaldûn’s exoteric-esoteric writing style enabled him to communicate the externals of history to the many, and the nature and cause of historical events to the few. Mahdi reviews the indirection, cryptic phrases, and obscure allusions that mark Khaldûn’s idiosyncratic style. Writing ‘history’ also gave Khaldûn additional intellectual and political cover: Mahdi notes that, in order to avoid being condemned as a philosopher, Khaldûn avoided mentioning the sources—philosophic tradition or particular authors— from which he derived key concepts.

Before discussing Khaldûn’s historical approach, Mahdi surveys the nature, purpose, and method of history in Islamic thought. Before the Umayyad Caliphate, historical reports were transmitted orally, and subsequent written reports were justified by the sciences of biography and authority-criticism in order to establish a chain of transmission back through time to past events. Various critiques of historians’ assumptions forced an historiographical shift in the 9th & 10th centuries toward a more systematic formulation and defense of the assumptions made in the collecting and arranging of information about the past. Because not all historical reports could be traced back to the time of their occurrence through a reliable chain of transmitters, Tabarî (d. 923) and others relied on the Prophet when necessary, but also had to resort to the Old and New Testaments, Jewish historians, and Persian chroniclers. The Mu’tazili school was first to question the traditional history represented by Tabarî and the prevailing principles of authority, insisting instead that historians’ convictions be based on rational grounds and not solely on tenuous chains to the past. Following Aristotle, the Muʿtazilah also denied that history was a science, since its subject matter is mutable and changing, and thus subject to interpretation.

Islamic historiography and philosophy developed in parallel, then, as dialectical philosophy (kalám) emerged to defend the traditional religious-bound approach against the charges of the Muʿtazilah and their philosophical progeny and to show that its own underlying assumptions were rationally tenable. The defense of kalám was based upon an ontology and a theory of knowledge according to which all objects exist as a result of continuous creation by God, and all perceptions and reasoning consist of separate accidents directly created by God in the substance that is the knower. For the dialectical theologians, a causal relation was merely the relation between accidents, and all explanations were at best probable. “History,” regarded as an extension of sense perceptions, was only what had been experienced directly. Kalám thus reaffirmed and defended the traditional reliance on a chain of authoritative transmitters, and excised all historical knowledge derived from reasoning.

Here is where Khaldûn’s science of culture comes in.

Khaldûn began The Muqaddimah with a discussion and critique of Islamic historiography that serves as preparation for the subsequent development of his new science of culture, through which Khaldûn intended to provide a systematic investigation of the problems of human association, with the ultimate aim, according to Mahdi, of rectifying previous historical reports. Khaldûn was careful to distinguish the new science of culture from history: the knowledge of particular events (concerns of the historian) are not an end but a beginning from which to discern and formulate universal judgments (the science of culture). The subject matter of the science of culture comes after history.

A science of culture, wrote Khaldûn, presupposes the existence of collective habits and actions, the results of relatively stable causes which in turn can be discerned under specific environmental and social conditions. (Culture can only come into being in certain geographical regions.) Khaldûn thought that cultural habits were the product of human desires and reason, so that the phenomenon of culture could be made the object of a rational science. On such a line of thinking rests Khaldûn’s reputation as one of the originators of social science (though, as Mahdi points out, the foundations of Khaldûn’s science of culture are different from those of modern social science). Primitive cultures satisfy basic human desires necessary for survival, wrote Khaldûn, but the human soul harbors latent desires, no less rational and necessary, which can only be satisfied in civilization (‘the city’). The characteristic attribute of civilized culture is a dynamic process of growth, the attainment of natural limits, and finally dissolution.

In The Muqaddimah, the evolution of culture coincides with the rise (and fall) of the state, the pursuit of political power, and the development (and decline) of communal solidarity and the idea of the common good—all of which Khaldûn saw through the lens of Islam. Because Islam legislated the institution of holy war in order to spread its message, the religious leader also had to concern himself with political power and the means of making war. Muslim philosophers, including Khaldûn, understood the regime of the Law, brought into existence by the Prophet, as essentially a political order. But, while acknowledging that a common system of laws and coercion exercised by an undisputed ruler was necessary to insure peace and order in society, Khaldun’s science of culture reached the limits of its usefulness upon asking the question of ultimate ends in human society. The new science was unable to provide a universally compelling formulation of the common good, or the proper amount of justice and moderation for the regime of reason. Khaldûn had to admit (to the few) that there were lessons that history could not teach. And so, the science of culture gave way in the end to political philosophy—a turn that would have been recognized only by those versed in (Greek) political philosophy.

In his assessment of The Muqaddimah and the tradition within which Khaldûn worked, Mahdi concludes that Islamic philosophy was capable of being more secular, political and realistic than usually assumed. The conventional contrast between the more Platonic character of Farabi and Averroes and the more Aristotelian approach of Ibn Khaldûn is overstated. According to Mahdi, we should read Khaldûn as a disciple of the Islamic Platonic tradition. His goal had been to resolve the confusion that undermined philosophy while defining the proper sphere and object of philosophy. With a writing style that concealed as much as it revealed, Khaldûn succeeded in producing a work that was a commentary on itself, an illustration of philosophy qua philosophy, a means to an end that was not the End.

I've recently read several interesting short story collections from antiquity, namely The Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights, and Ovid's Metamorphoses. Each of them has inspired enough academic articles to fill a library, so I'm not going to delve into their historical import or the ways each has influenced future literature, but I think its valuable to consider how they compare to each other in approach and how I saw them as stories.

First, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer's unfinished collection provides a great window into what life was like in the middle ages, more specifically England in the 1300s. By providing a diverse cast of story tellers as the vehicles for the stories themselves Chaucer is able to explore many professions and various points on the social hierarchy, satirizing and criticizing all the flaws he saw in his society. To an extent these are interesting, but social satire does not always age well. While it certainly gives you a sense of how England looked through Chaucer's eyes (a den of corruption and hypocrisy for the most part, especially when discussing the religious institutions), it can be hit or miss as to whether the critique has aged well. Critique on chivalry in The Knight's Tale? I'm in. Critique of alchemists wherein pages and pages of ingredients are listed? Yawn. Additionally, the majority of the tales aren't that deep, with many being raunchy stories of pure entertainment and others being morality tales with blatantly obvious messages (pride is bad and fortune is fickle, we get it). The message of one tale was flat out stated to be "beware of treachery." Was there someone at the time arguing that treachery wasn't that big a deal and we should just ignore it?

In reverse chronological order the next up is Arabian Nights. This collection is amorphous enough that many tales pop up in one edition and not another, which in my opinion weakens the arguments I see about the collection having a set of coherent themes or messages. The sole theme that I found to be consistent was the power of storytelling- it appears in the frame narrative, of course, but also the stories themselves often showcase the ability of stories to trick the powerful, and oftentimes stories lead to sub-stories and so on, like nesting dolls. Toward the end of the collection the descriptions began to get to me: if I never see someone described as being "as beautiful as the moon" with "lips like coral" and other features like various gems I'll be a happy reader. The Norton Critical addition showed its worth by providing many additional pieces inspired by the Arabian Nights, as well as critical analyses of the text (some of which I found less than convincing, but always interesting). More so than the other two collections Arabian Nights just struck me as a bunch of stories, many of which of course were intended to edify, but mostly its purpose was to entertain. It more or less accomplished this.

The earliest, and also the best, of the three collections was Ovid's Metamorphoses. Chaucer references the classic explicitly several times in his work, and it's no wonder: Ovid is the master that Chaucer tried and failed to match. What put this collection above the others for me was that Ovid not only had a consistent theme to the stories (transformations, as the title would suggest), but also stories flow from one to the next, mostly with an organic feeling that makes the work take on a grander scale. Ovid's not just telling stories, he's tracing the history of the world, explaining how the world became populated with the birds and plants and animals that fill it, and connecting the past all up to what was then the present day. It also serves as the source for much of what we know of Greek/Roman mythology, as Ovid was also setting down an account of the actions and behavior of the gods. Framing narratives can be used to great effect, just look at If On a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino for a phenomenal example, but Canterbury Tales creates such a framing narrative only to leave it incomplete, and Arabian Nights slowly siphons away the importance of the frame narrative until it is forgotten entirely. In comparison, Ovid's Metamorphoses connection of his tales makes his work stand on a grander scale, and makes it feel like a more coherent whole. A note on translations, I found Charles Martin's work to be very strong in general, although he makes a few bizarre choices. Translating a singing contest into a rap battle was a clear mistake. Overall, though, I feel confident recommending him so long as you want a more modern take on the text.

All three collections have stood the test of time, and each is an essential read to understand the ages and cultures they arose out of. Between the three of them, though, Ovid's Metamorphoses is the most worthy of your time in my opinion.

This is the best version out there and excellent on the history of the Nights and where previous translators were amiss.

There are many versions of The Arabian Nights that have floated about over the centuries; this one is a translation of the Mahdi edition, based on the oldest known copy from 14th century Syria. It has 271 “nights”, tales that were collected from Persia, Arabia, and India and containing stories within stories (and sometimes within stories, and so on). The collection was expanded over the centuries to reach the well-known 1,001 nights, including “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp", "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor", and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" – none of this later content is present in this version.

With that said, it’s an enjoyable read, and there is plenty of 700 year old sex and violence from the Middle East to hold one’s interest. :)

The stage is set in the prologue in a way that certainly opens the eyes. There are two kings, one named Shahrayar, the other Shahzaman, who are brothers. Shahzaman is sent for by his brother to visit, but before leaving, discovers his wife in the arms of one of the kitchen boys. Naturally, he strikes them with his sword, drags them by their heels, and throws them from the top of the palace to the trench below. He then arrives in Shahrayar’s domain in a dejected mood. As he’s agonizing over his sorrow, he finds himself a witness to an interracial orgy involving Shahrayar’s wife, ten white slave girls, ten black slaves who had been dressed as girls, and Mas’ud, another black slave who, upon being summoned, jumps out of a tree to have his way with the Queen. Yeah, wow.

Shahrayar can’t believe his ears when he hears of this, and so the two of them have to watch a repeat performance to convince him. They are so disheartened that they decide to take to the road and leave the palace. That night they see what seems to be a giant pillar, one that grows to touch the clouds, emerging from the sea. They flee in terror and hide in a tree, and when they look again discover that the pillar is actually a mighty demon, who approaches without seeing them, carrying a large glass chest with four locks. He sets it down in the meadow beneath them and unlocks it, and what emerges is a beautiful woman, with a face “like the full moon, and a lovely smile.” The demon then proceeds to fall asleep, whereupon the woman notices Shahrayar and Shahzaman in the tree, and asks them to come down and make love to her, otherwise she’ll wake her husband the demon and have him kill them. They comply, one after the other, and she then asks for a ring as a souvenir from each; she’s collected one from each of her lovers and has now reached a full hundred, despite the demon keeping her locked up. Again, yeah, wow.

The brothers decide to return to their kingdoms and never marry again. Shahrayar has his wife and all her slave girls killed, but then formulates a new plan, to marry a new woman each night and then kill her in the morning to prevent her from cheating on him. After he’s done this for so long that girls in the kingdom are becoming a little scarce, Shahrazad (sometimes spelled Scheherazade), the vizier’s daughter, volunteers to marry the king. She is smart and very well read, and her plan for survival is to tell the king a new story each night, but to not finish it, betting on his curiosity to postpone the execution from night to night.

And thus begin the stories, each ‘tale’ or night of which are generally just a couple pages each, but which are grouped into larger stories, such as The Fisherman and the Demon, The Porter and the Three Ladies, and The Hunchback. The prologue is so classic that frankly it’s a tough act to follow, and I have to say the tales tend to get a bit tedious. If you’re not a fan of misogyny or body parts getting lopped off you may not enjoy them, but they are certainly not dry, and there is something special about reading stories this old that provided entertainment for the medieval Islam world, similar to The Decameron or The Canterbury Tales. I prefer those other books to this one, but wonder if the inclusion of the other stories in the 1,001 Nights version would have upped my rating.½

The Haddawy translation of the Nights is by far my favorite. It doesn't have every possible story (although many more are covered in the second volume) and it's not a huge 19 volume set or anything but the translation is so readable and enjoyable. The poetry is translated well and in most cases actually is still quite poetic even in translation (and many times those kinds of things don't translate well). There are brief footnotes to explain things the translator doesn't think the reader will automatically know which is helpful in understanding the context of the story. This translation is also fairly concise and doesn't add any extra's to draw out the stories length. Overall it's a great introduction to Alf Layla we Layla for new readers of this fantastic set of stories within stories (probably why this and the 2nd volume tend to be so popular for college literature classes) and it's also a nice read for those already familiar with the Arabian Nights as translated by Lang, Lane, Burton, or any other translator. It does contain some scenes of sexual intercourse and such so it's still not a children's version but it's also not overly excessive graphic content either. If your only going to read one version of the Arabian Nights make it this one.

Note that this review is written specifically of the Norton Critical Edition, ISBN 978-0-393-92808-2.

I can't remember ever rating a Norton Critical Edition of any book this low, and I'm very much a reader of NCEs. It consists of somewhere more than two hundred "nights" of roughly 26 stories (but that story count could vary and perhaps be a bit higher, depending on how you define a "story" given the embedding of narratives in the "1001 Nights"). Additionally, the text includes the separate Story of Sindbad the Sailor (which, like Ali Baba and Aladdin, is not actually a part of "1001 Nights" tales narrated by Shahrazad).

Obviously Norton could not be expected to publish the full "1001 Nights" and some selection/abridgement was needed, but just why this particular selection was made is puzzling. Why the omission of Ali Baba and Aladdin, considering that the NCE includes Sinbad, which likewise is not a part of the "1001 Nights" proper? And why the choice of the particular stories (all of which compress into the first 270 or so of the "nights" and none later)? At the very least, the editor's Preface should have explained the basis for these selections.

The Preface should also have pointed out that Sinbad, Ali Baba, and Aladdin are none of them a part of the "1001 Nights" proper, rather being separate story lines. This eventually becomes clear if a reader works her way through certain of the supplementary critical materials, but it's not something that's readily apparent, especially as one begins reading the text proper.

The supplementary materials are poorly chosen, with most of them focusing on textual criticism or story-telling style and with little if any attention to the place of "1001 Nights" in world folklore. The textual criticism also tends to be more technical than one normally associates with NCEs, and some of the essays make references to "nights" or stories without giving clear indication of just where these texts appear in the actual "1001 Nights" selections in this NCE volume. One noteworthy exception is Jerome Clinton's quite interesting essay "Madness and Cure in the 1001 Nights," which presents the Nights as a work of, shall we call it, paleofeminism (my term, not Clinton's).

Overall, this was an unusually unsatisfactory experience for a Norton Critical Edition.

The ultimate "story within a story" - think How I Met Your Mother, only a few hundred years earlier, and a lot more gruesome. The episodic setup makes it easy to read this book in short bursts, and each little story is interesting in its own way.

While I can't comment on the quality of the translation, The Arabian Nights is a dizzying array of stories within stories within stories, playing with the idea that our narrative impulse is the connective tissue that makes civilization possible. The stories are at their best when they fully indulge in fantasy, recounting tales of demons, transformative magic, and epic romance.

As much as I liked the book, however, I had a few complaints, principally the lack of development in the frame story of Shahrazad and its disappointingly abrupt ending. While her story does exist primarily as a means of telling other stories, I really regretted that after her first night with the king, she becomes nothing more than a chapter break. If The Arabian Nights exists as a tribute to her bravery, skill, wit, and inventiveness as a storyteller, I would have appreciated the chance to see her put to use in other ways. The constant interpolations to remind us that she is narrating for her very survival only serve as a reminder that we're learning nothing else about her.

As with any compendium of stories, some are less interesting than others, and I enjoyed the earlier stories a great deal more than those which ended the book. The introduction made mention of the fact that the book was probably the result of a number of different writers, and reading the stories makes that more than plain. The interlocking stories and cliffhanger endings that I found so interesting disappear entirely as the book goes on, to its detriment.

In addition to the sheer pleasure of the book as an exploration of storytelling, I found it a work of great cultural interest as well. Many of the stories have a decidedly foreign flavor, not just in terms of locale but in what the narrator chooses to emphasize. I found myself thinking on many occasions that I wished the Qur'an had been more like this book, as it seems to provide a much greater insight into a culture about which I know depressingly little.

having been written by an unknown persian in the distant past, Sir Richard Burton, one of Britain's greatest explorers, sees a great opportunity to "translate".... under Queen Victoria's nose some of his most passionate perversions. a wide variety of tales, frequently demonizing the jinn, a series of resounding disappointments as princess jasmine is converted into the bland Badr al badur (or something), one of the few times Disney's liberties and editing have been for the best

Stories help make us who we are - it is that simple.

This is a very accessible translation, and a beautiful paperback, which delivers the stories in contemporary language. Not only does the work bring Shadrazad back to life for us but it gives us a glimpse into societies quite remote from our own. The stories show the triumph of humans over adversity, on occasion the succumbing of them to it, and generally the love of the tall tale that helps make us social beings.

Long live Shadrazad and all the storytellers...

I know the story "araddin".
But I don' t know that this story is one of the story in a story "ARABIAN NIGHTS".
"ARABIAN NIGHTS" has a lot of funny and mysterious storys.
And I think that the woman who is a hero in this book, is very clever.
It is good idea that eke out a life to tell storys.

This is supposed to be an accurate translation of the Arabian Nights, but having read no other version, I can't be the judge of that. I can say that these are very entertaining stories, though it would probably be better not to read them all at once. When you do, a certain sort of tedium sets in. Prepare to put yourself in a different mindset to enjoy these.½

The Arabian Nights tell plain crude stories that cater to the basest of instincts: sex, betrayal, alcohol, and thievery to name just a few. But beyond the magical elements and the crudity, the tales themselves claim a higher place as they emphasize the import of story-telling in general, as the tales themselves are tales within tales within tales.

These stories applaud and reverence stories themselves. The original, now anonymous, author of The Nights wrote something that championed a good story teller. And anyone who loves stories can appreciate that.

More detailed review on my blog

This edition of Arabian Nights is followed by a second edition that includes the better-known stories (including Aladdin). I didn't recognize any of the stories in this edition. Granted, I didn't read every story.

I think the trouble with getting together an "authoritative text" on the Arabian Nights is that the stories were never meant to be compiled into a book and read straight through. The stories are part of a rich oral culture that involved sitting around a fire with fine musical instruments, good food, great company and a storyteller who could draw in extra details and add in any embellishments that he thought the crowd would appreciate. Meaning- you never really heard the same story twice.

All of this is lost in a print copy. The stories begin to seem repetitive (which they wouldn't, if they were told over the course of a few years by a traveling storyteller) and the language becomes onerous to continue reading again and again.

However, the stories are a lot of fun :-) If you're interested in the Arabian Nights, I would certainly recommend this edition- Haddawy does well in his translation. But I'd also only read a story or two here and there, so that you don't become tired of it. And that way, the magic will still hit you. Or maybe, you can become the storyteller and read it aloud to someone else- it would probably be excellent in that form!

Why do the husbands always believe the other person when they say "hey your wife just gave birth to puppies! Better lock her in a tower!" I mean doesn't everyone love puppies?

A Superior work by a superior scholar, October 14, 2004

The radicalism and centrality of (philosophical) politics for the Muslim philosopher Farabi (around 900 CE) is the first thing that greets you, like the bristling edge of a row of thorn-bushes, in this amazing book; that uncomfortable impression never leaves you. Mahdi situates Farabi in the midst of neoplatonic philosophers intent upon harmonizing Plato and Aristotle. "Yet the complete absence from his [Farabi] authentic writings of the central Neoplatonic philosophic doctrines -of the One, Intellect, and Soul- should have been sufficient to suggest to students of Islamic philosophy who read him that they were in the presence of a philosopher who made use of certain elements drawn from the Neoplatonic philosophic tradition but whose Neoplatonism must remain suspect."

We are shown how Farabi denies(!) that revealed religion is in any real sense an innovation and we are also shown the underlying similarity between pagan and monotheistic religion. "Alfarabi's treatment of these subjects in his works on political philosophy and religion is not an innovation. It points to the similarity between the virtuous royal craft or art and the art of the lawgiver, between the virtuous city as envisioned by Plato and the religious community based on revelation." It seems that Mahdi is here indicating that Farabi said (of the Prophet) what Machiavelli said (of Moses in 'The Prince', chapter 6) many hundreds of years later. ...They were great political (and/or philosophical) innovators, nothing more. Now we find ourselves nervously wondering, has (political) philosophy then made everything?

But why does (political) philosophy make what it does? "The opinions expressed in these two works [Farabi's 'Virtuous City' and 'Political Regime'] not only originate in a political context (in that they are legislated) but are politically relevant, important, and even crucial. For they point to the ends (or the view of happiness) for which the actions are performed, a fundamental subject matter of political science." This suggests that happiness is the fundamental subject of political philosophy. But, as I hope we all know, philosophy itself aims to make men reasonable, not happy. These two views, it should be noted, may not be entirely compatible.

...But what of philosophy proper and its interest in the Cosmos? Is it too an artifact of political philosophy? "The question here is whether, and to what extent, the cosmos and the human body are already interpreted politically or certain conclusions of scientific inquiries are modified to make them more adequate opinions for the citizens and to present them as patterns for the construction of the city" One is tempted to say that if the founder of a religion (or political philosopher masquerading as founder) decides what can be said and not said about cosmos, body and soul then there is only political philosophy.

But the City (and its myths and opinions) cannot be entirely built on myth and opinion otherwise Science and Philosophy could not survive. ...Not any myth is good. "For it is precisely the relationship between science and the city that is at issue," Mahdi correctly reminds us. "Differently stated, the integrity of scientific knowledge should be maintained even when it is used to help form the opinions of the citizens." Can science and philosophy remain free of opinion and myth while spreading myths and opinion among the people? The problem, one suspects and fears, is that after a millennium or two, the differences between philosophy/science and opinion/myth tend to blur. ...Who, for instance, can dare say they see with utter clarity after 2000 years of the 'Platonism for the people'?

Or to perhaps state the same question in another manner: The City (opinion, myth) becomes more real the longer it survives. Its reality challenges the ancient 'realities' of Cosmos and Soul, or if you prefer, nature and individual psyche. The difficulty is twofold; nobody knows how to change nature or the human soul, or even if this can be done. But, and this is the second difficulty, we do know how to change the city, its opinions and myths. Changing religion or regime (these are both the city) is far easier than changing cosmos/nature or soul/psyche.

Thus political philosophy would seem to be doomed to only treat opinion and myth. How does philosophy, or if you prefer, political philosophy, maintain its status as science in such circumstances? Would a medical science that only treated symptoms, never causes - indeed; some of the symptoms were even caused by this so-called medical science - still be worthy of the title of Science?

We have only here scratched the surface of the issues dealt with in this book. I only give 4 stars because in the future I will want to give 5 stars to Farabi himself.

This review is of the Everyman's Library Haddawy translation.

This is the original "Arabian Nights", a collection of stories from Persia from the 7th century to the 13th century. Haddawy's translation is considered the modern definitive, going back to the original sources and removing the stories that are not original added in the 17th and later centuries (such as Ali Babba the thief and Sinbad the Sailor). There is a lot of sex and violence but also incredible stories of love, redemption and heroic quest. On par with the "Decameron", perhaps better. Very enjoyable, the world was a magical place where the supranatural and extraordinary affairs merge with every day life. Leaves a strong impression of place and time, it is easy to see how this has influenced generations and the strong cultural myths it created, truely one of the greats of World Literature.

I enjoyed this much more than I expected to. The stories are constantly fresh and interesting, and I also found it pretty remarkable how sophisticated the storytelling is. A lot of narrative trickery keeps the constant flow of plot entertaining and new; this is nothing like reading a stale collection of fairy tales. Note that this book doesn't contain the tales usually, and apparently spuriously, associated with Arabian Nights, such as Sinbad, Ali Baba, and Aladdin.

This is a fantastic new translation of the Arabian nights. As rich and wonderful as the Burton translation is, it can tend to be overwrought. These stories are from a facinating compliation project trying to determine the oldest tales in the collection, and the stories are cleanly told, well and entertaingly written.