After reading the first assigned chapter (7) in Irwin’s companion to the Arabian Nights, I am already having ideas for my paper run through my mind. I probably just missed the big picture, but when he mentions that many of the tales are not of Islamic origin, but are simply moved to places such as Cairo or Baghdad and characters are assigned Islamic names – I was kind of surprised. This doesn’t take anything away from the tales, in my opinion at least, but it is fascinating. Were these tales relocated and reassigned to another group of people based on the fact that Arabian women better fit the mold for many of the narratives (adultresses, witches, prostitutes are a few examples Irwin mentions)? Or is it just an unbiased authorial decision?
To get back to my inspiration for my paper, as rough of an idea […]
Original post by jendudley