Wayne State University Press 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition (Series in Fairy-Tale Studies)

Review Encompassing the results of several decades of painstaking study, and buildingon his numerous pertinent works in the past, Ulrich Marzolph's 101 MiddleEastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition is erudite, rigorouslyresearched, and reveals a wealth of intriguing and insightful information. Thisbook is a highly welcome contribution to the field of comparative folk narrativestudies....Ulrich Marzolph's 101 MiddleEastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition is as much a rigorously scholarly work for experts as it is an irresistible page turner for lay people.--Mostafa Abedinifard "Storytelling, Self, Society" (5/15/2021 12:00:00 AM)A bold contribution founded on intimate knowledge of European and Middle Eastern folk narrative scholarship.--Hasan El-Shamy "professor emeritus in the Departments of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Indiana University, Bloomington" (4/15/2020 12:00:00 AM)From Belling the Cat to A Pound of Flesh, an absolute master of comparative folklore identifies the Middle Eastern narratives that have entered the Western oral tradition in the past millennium. Ulrich Marzolph's mastery of classical Persian, Arabic, and Ottoman Turkish sources shines through this volume and will engage the expert and entertain the lay reader.--Mahmoud Omidsalar "consulting editor in folklore for the Encyclopaedia Iranica and resident scholar at Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies at the University of California, Irvine" (4/15/2020 12:00:00 AM)Marzolph is one of the leaders in this area of folklore studies and his vast knowledge and experience shows. Overall, this is highly recommended and filled a gap in my extensive folklore library.--Heidi Anne Heiner "SurLaLune Fairy Tales Blog" (8/5/2020 12:00:00 AM)The interpretive essays reveal both the depth and the breadth of Marzolph's scholarship. His unique ability to illuminate parallels as well as distinctions between the cultures of the Middle East and those of Europe as reflected in their oral traditions ensure this book's future as a standard reference tool.--D.L. Ashliman "Gramarye: The Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction" (6/1/2021 12:00:00 AM)This book is an endlessly fascinating 'story of our stories, ' tracing the resonant linkage between individual tales preserved in Middle Eastern literary traditions and their later lives, as they were transmitted to the West and then circulated orally across Europe and beyond. Marzolph's erudition and appetite for literary treasure hunts are unsurpassed.--Margaret Mills "author of Rhetorics and Politics in Afghan Traditional Storytelling" (4/15/2020 12:00:00 AM)This is a book of impeccable scholarship and vast learning and at the same time a wonderful treasure trove to dip into at random. It is also a useful reminder that it is misguided to believe that collecting popular tales in one language or country can serve to prove the existence of a national identity or nationhood.--Geert Jan Van Gelder "Times Literary Supplement" (3/1/2021 12:00:00 AM) Product Description Against the methodological backdrop of historical and comparative folk narrative research, 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition surveys the history, dissemination, and characteristics of over one hundred narratives transmitted to Western tradition from or by the Middle Eastern Muslim literatures (i.e., authored written works in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish). For a tale to be included, Ulrich Marzolph considered two criteria: that the tale originates from or at least was transmitted by a Middle Eastern source, and that it was recorded from a Western narrator's oral performance in the course of the nineteenth or twentieth century. The rationale behind these restrictive definitions is predicated on Marzolph's main concern with the long-lasting effect that some of the "Oriental" narratives exercised in Western popular tr