Stories like Sindbad, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp and other popular stories are very common today in the western culture. Animated movies were also made for the entertainment of kids on these popular stories. One might wonder that where these stories originated and how it came down and made place in the western culture. Although these stories are very popular in both the western culture and the eastern culture but the original literary work is not so popular in common people. Theses stories are some of the stories from the Arabic work "The Thousand and One Nights." The work of "The Thousand and One Nights" represents basically a female that is a strong and clever idol and continuously imaginative and creative. It is an anonymous work which is widely known in the Arab world. It is an Arabic collection of a thousand tales, which is derived from the Persian version, telling of a King who was in the habit of killing his wives after the first night, and who was led to abandon this practise by the cleverness of the Wezir's daughter, who nightly told him a tale which she left unfinished at dawn, so that his curiosity led him to spare her till the tale should be completed. Many people have written about these stories, that where they originated, what time period was it originated, how they have been changed, and also literary criticism of the work. The question arises to many historians that when did this work originated. It has been said that it was originated in Persia in pre-Islamic time period and then later translated into Arabic. The Norton Anthology of World MasterPieces states: The history of The Thousand and One Nights is vague, and its shape as hard to pin down as colud's. The starting point of the work in Arabic wa... ... middle of paper ... ... Kirby, W.F. "The Forbidden Doors of the Thousand and One Nights." The Folk-Lore Journal 5 (1887):112-124. Lawwal, Mack, et al. The Northon Anthology of World MasterPieces. New York: Norton, 1998. Norris, H.T. "The Arabian Nights: A Companion." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 58 (1995):148-149. Parker, Margaret. The story of a story across cultures: the case of the doncella Teodor New York: Rochester, 1996. Pinault, David. "The Thousand and One Nights in Arabic Literature and Society." Journal of the American Oriental Society 119 (1999):536-537. Woollcott, Alexander, shouts and murmurs; echoes of a thousand and one first nights. New York: Century, 1922. Youssef, Magdi. "Scheherazade in England, a Study of Nineteenth-Century English Criticism of the Arabian Nights." International Journal of Middle East Studies 15 (1983):390-391.
the Accuracy of the Chronicle of Al-Jabarti." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. No. 2 (1970): 283-294. http://www.jstor.org/stable/613005 (accessed November 30, 2013).
Joyce, James. “Araby”. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Eds. R.V. Cassill and Richard Bausch. Shorter Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. 427 - 431.
Harris, Laurie Lanzen. Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Vol. 3 (Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism). Vol. 3. Belmont: Thomson Gale, 1983. Print.
Kitab alf laylah wa-laylah (One Thousand and One Nights) is a collection of West and South Asian stories and folk tales written in Arabic during the ‘Islamic Golden Age’ In English, the Tales are known as the ‘Arabian Nights’.
Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns features at the most basic level the compelling life story of a two women, Mariam and Laila, and their lives. However, the true heart of this work lies in a much broader issue through all of the characters and the events that took place in Afghanistan around the time of this novels story.Hosseini writes characters into his novel as characters in themselves on the surface, but can be seen as representations of a much larger population of Afghanistan. Hosseini uses individual characters as a window into the larger scene of the entire country of Afghanistan, and the many facets of its people, in order to illustrate the political issue in a new light so as to demonstrate to the audience Hosseini’s hope for the future of Afghanistan.
In The Arabian Nights, the curiosity of the characters, in many instances, changes the direction of their lives and causes them heartache. The actions of the characters in the stories can teach lessons to the readers to apply in their own lives. One can learn that curiosity should not be the driving force of his life. It sends a message to act cautiously when making choices instead of being driven by curiosity. Actions based on satisfying one's curiosity can cause an undesired outcome.
Moosa, Matti. The Early Novels of Naguib Mahfouz. Gainsville, Fla.: University Press of Florida, 1994. [+] These quotes are taken from an uncited handout given to me by Richard Sutliff that I believe to be from Moosa's book.
Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1991. Print.
Abbey, Cherie D., ed. Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Vol. 14. Kansas City, MO: Gale Research, 1987.
Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta, is well-known for being one of the greatest travelers of his time. Battuta’s descriptive account of his travels to East and West Africa in the fourteenth century provides important insight into African Islamic life at that point in time. Although Battuta and the peoples in black Africa shared the same religion, he comes to realize that sharing a religion is not enough to completely relate to a different group of people. The story of Ibn Battuta in Black Africa illustrates the difficulties he faced in relating to these peoples due to the non-traditional role of women, different religious customs, and frequent misinterpretation of situations.
Joyce, James. “Araby.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter Eighth Edition. Eds. Jerome Beaty, Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W.W.Norton.
McWilliams, Jr., John P. "Fictions of Merry Mount." American Quarterly, Vol. 29, No.1 (1977), pp. 3-30. JSTOR. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .
Khaled Hosseini was born in March 4th, 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan and he is an Afghan-American novelist. He debuted in the year 2003 and released his book called “The Kite Runner”. The book opened to widespread critical acclaim and strong commercial success worldwide. And for this kind of novel he received Alex Award, Boeke Prize, ALA Notable Book and a lot of other prestigious awards. He has then authored several other books in his career. There was no turning back for Khaled Hosseini after his first breakthrough because he yet again produced a masterpiece in 2007 with the book “A Thousand Splendid Suns”. The book has been his most decent and productive authorship for which he received plenty of awards and international popularity in the world. His third and final notable work is «And the Mountains Echoed», which has received generally positive reviews from critics and readers. Khaled Hosseini is regarded as the most important American author of this time. He has been praised for his excellent writing skills in writing novels. He is very good in writing women’s issues and rights in Afghanistan.
Rushdie, Salman. `Outside the Whale' Imaginary Homelands: Essays and criticisms 1981-1991 Penguin Books Ltd. (1992)
Greenblatt, Stephen. "Twelfth Night." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ninth ed. Vol. B. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 1189-250. Print. The Sixteenth Century & The Early Seventeenth Century.