Saturday, August 15, 2026
Inside Miami's ABANDONED Arabian City: Opa Locka - What Happened?
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Las mil y una noches - (1958) (Mexico)
Cast
Germán Valdés - Ven Aquí
María Antonieta Pons - Ven Acá
Óscar Pulido - Sultán Ali Pus
Martha Valdés - Soberana Sobeyra
Mapita Cortés - Yamirka
Marcelo Chávez
Manuel Valdés
Miguel Arenas - Sultán de Basora
Elena Julián
Ramón Valdés
Silvia Carrillo - Odalisca
Roberto Y. Palacios
Leticia Julián
Antonio Valdés
A Thousand and One Nights
Directed by Fernando Cortés
Written by María Luisa Algarra (dialogue), Josefina Vicens
Produced by Fernando de Fuentes, Gonzalo Elvira, Ramón Pereda
Starring Germán Valdés, María Antonieta Pons, Mapita Cortés
Cinematography Jack Draper
Edited by Carlos Savage
Music by Manuel Esperón
Release date
17 September 1958 (Mexico)
Running time 90 min
Country Mexico
Language Spanish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxr3mb9BtMk
Thursday, January 20, 2022
Abbasid Caliphate Bibliography
*I was fortunate enough to teach a 1001 Nights film and literature course last Fall (2021). And I'm even more fortunate to have had such great students. They've let me share their work with you. Bibliography, Annotated Bibliography, and a further report on one article related to their topic (which in some cases is loosely Nights-related). I'll be posting them over the next few weeks.
**I messed up the formats with my copying and pasting but you know. - M
Here is Kenji's on The Abbasid Caliphate
Kenji Fukuda Professor Lundell English 260
8 December 2021
The Abbasid Caliphate Extended Bibliography
“Abbasid Caliphate.” Encyclopedia of Empire, 2016.
“Abbāsid Empire.” Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments, vol. 1, 2008.
"Abbasid Caliphate." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 1 Dec. 2021. Web. 9 Dec. 2021.
Amotz Asa-El. “Arabian Nights II: Daily Edition.” The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Post Ltd, 1998.
Bagdadi, Nadia. “Registers of Arabic Literary History.” New Literary History, vol. 39, no. 3, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, pp. 437–61, https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.0.0046.
Demiralp, Seda. “1001 Nights with Animus.” Arab Studies Quarterly, vol. 43, no. 3, Pluto Journals, 2021, pp. 213–29, https://doi.org/10.13169/arabstudquar.43.3.0213.
Doyle, Laura. “Shahrazad’s 1001 Mediations: Translation in the Inter-Imperial Economy.” Parergon, vol. 35, no. 2, Australian and New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Inc.), 2018, pp. 7–28, https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2018.0065.
FARAG, F. ROFAIL. “The Arabian Nights: A Mirror of Islamic Culture in The Middle Ages.” Arabica, vol. 23, no. 2, Brill, 1976, pp. 197–211.
Goodwin, Jason. “The Glory That Was Baghdad.” The Wilson Quarterly (Washington), vol. 27, no. 2, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2003, pp. 24–28.
Kennedy, Hugh. “The True Caliph of the Arabian Nights: Hugh Kennedy Examines the Life of One of the Most Powerful Men in the World in the Eighth Century.” History Today, vol. 54, no. 9, History Today Ltd, 2004, p. 31–.
Malti-Douglas, Fedwa. “Arabian Nights.” Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Culture Society History, vol. 1, 2007, pp. 80–82
Marozzi, Justin. “Stranger Than the nights.(Hugh Kennedy’s Nuanced Portrayal of Abbasid Caliph Harun Al Rashid).” History today 64.7 (2014): 72–. Print.
Tim Mackintosh-Smith, et al. Two Arabic Travel Books: Accounts of China and India and Mission to the Volga. Library of Arabic Literature, 2014.
Shureteh, Halla A. “The Contemporary Landscape of Arabic Translation: A Postcolonial Perspective.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 4, no. 7, Academy Publication Co., LTD, 2014, p. 1376–, https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.4.7.1376-1384.
Sprengling, M. “The Arabian Nights Stone of the Oriental Institute.” The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, vol. 51, no. 4, The University of Chicago Press, 1935, pp. 217–32, https://doi.org/10.1086/370459.
Yucesoy, Hayrettin. “Translation as Self-Consciousness: Ancient Sciences, Antediluvian Wisdom, and the ’Abbāsid Translation Movement.” Journal of world history 20.4 (2009): 523–557. Web.
Annotated Bibliography
Marozzi, Justin. “Stranger Than the nights.(Hugh Kennedy’s Nuanced Portrayal of Abbasid Caliph Harun Al Rashid).” History today 64.7 (2014): 72–. Print.
This is a peer reviewed article published in the fifty fourth volume of History Today by the author of the book Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood, Justin Marozzi. Justin Marozzi has six published books, several having to do with Islam and the middle east and has worked as a journalist for the BBC, the Financial Times and the Economist. In this article Marozzi praises Hugh Kennedy’s 2004 article that paints Harun al Rashid, the caliph of the Abbasid Empire in a more nuanced light than his portrayal in the One Thousand and One Nights. Marozzi also praises Kennedy for his inclusion of Harun al Rashid’s patronage to various types of disciplines, scholarship and most importantly translation of Greek, Hindu and Persian works. I will be referring to this source when I discuss important figures of the Abbasid Califate and the extent to which the dynasty championed academics from various sources.
Amotz Asa-El. “Arabian Nights II: Daily Edition.” The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Post Ltd, 1998.
This is a peer reviewed news article published in The Jerusalem Post by bestselling Israeli author and former executive editor of the same publication Amotz Asa-El. Amotz Asa-El is also known for being a fellow at the Hartman Institute and has been quoted or published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. In this news article Asa-El compares Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad as the opposite of Harun al-Rashid's Baghdad. He claims that during al-Rashid's reign, Baghdad was a cosmopolitan city like Manhattan, while Saddam’s was ideologically restrained. He also draws comparisons to the Chinese import, paper, and its impact on the Abbasid Empire to the impact that the Arab oil industry has had on the West. This article will be used to show the impact of paper production has had on the Abbasid Caliphate and to the spread of ideas across the EuroAsian subcontinent.
Goodwin, Jason. “The Glory That Was Baghdad.” The Wilson Quarterly (Washington), vol. 27, no. 2, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2003, pp. 24–28.
This article was published in the 27th volume of The Wilson Quarterly and was written by English writer and historian Jason Goodwin. Goodwin has written six books with various topics, and those of which have received a variety of awards including but not limited to, Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Library Dagger and the John Llewllyn Rhys Prize. This article is about the Baghdad of the Abbasid era and how it was a city of scholarship and philosophy. Goodwin describes the Baghdad of the Nights as a site of translation and transformation and the city had influences coming from India, Alexandria, and Persia. Baghdad was also a center for trade and the home of mythic trader Sinbad the sailor from the Arabian Nights. This article will be sited when talking about the original sources from around the Asian continent that went into the Nights and the great translation moment that took place during the Abbasid Caliphate.
Part 3: “The True Caliph of the Arabian Nights”
Author – Who is the author of this piece? What is their relevance to the topic? Where do they work? Do they seem like an expert in this field? Do they have contact information or a bio that you can find online? Did you contact them?
The author of this piece is Hugh N. Kennedy. He is a British Medieval historian and specializes in Islamic Middle East, Muslim Liberia and the Crusades. Kennedy from 1997 to 2007 worked as a professor of Middle eastern History at the University of St Andrew and from 2007 to the present he is a Professor of Arabic at SOAS, University of London. Kennedy is without a doubt an expert on the Abbasid Caliphate and its implications to the One Thousand and One Nights. He has published works such as The Early Abbasid Caliphate; a Political History, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, The Armies of the Caliphs: military and society in the early Islamic State, The Court of the Caliphs, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty and The Caliphate: A Pelican Introduction. There is a short Wikipedia page about him https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_N._Kennedy and his contact information can be found on the SOAS University of London website https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff36939.ph
Email address: hk1@soas.ac.uk Telephone: +44(0)20 7898 4251. I have not contacted Professor Kennedy because his article answered many of the questions I had regarding the caliphate and then some.
Thesis – What is the thesis of this text? How is it built? What evidence is used to make their argument? What is the question or problem that the author is responding to? This article is about Harun al-Rashid and comparing the real-life figure to how he is portrayed in the Arabian Nights. Kennedy also writes in detail about the history of the Abbasid Caliphate and how their society was structured. The article was built by first explaining how most of the information regarding other caliphs apart from al-Rashid, are unknown to the world besides specialists in Islamic history. Next, he explains how al-Rashid came to power and how with his and his son’s reign Baghdad became a center of learning and science. He also claims that it wasn’t real achievements that have kept his memory alive but his role in stories collected in Book of Songs and Arabian Nights. Kennedy also explains how this is where the legends of Abbasid historical figures come from, but we must read between the lines to get a more nuanced view of them. Kennedy supports his arguments by saying that the Harun of the Nights was a street wander and promiscuous while in reality was a shy but accomplished ruler. Much of the article is dictated to giving its readers real information about the Abbasid Caliphate, their customs and most of all Harun, without looking at them through the lenses of orientalism like the Arabian Nights.
Critique – What is good, specifically, about your text? What issues does it address and how? What is lacking in your text? What things would you like to see expanded on/written about instead?
What I thought was good about Kennedy’s article was how it gave its readers a lot of information about the Abbasid Caliphate, its social and political environment and how he compared it to the misrepresentations we have over in books like Arabian Knights. Kennedy does a fantastic job reading between the lines and with his expertise gives us insight into the Abbasid Caliphate with a more nuanced view. I think if Kennedy used quotes from the Nights and immediately afterward compared them to how things were in the Abbasid era, I think this would have made his arguments easier to digest. He seems to scatter his comparisons to the Nights and misrepresentations and go into long history lessons between points. I would have been interested in Kennedy discussing the different versions of the Nights and showing if the misrepresentations got worse or better with each new version. I would have also liked it if Kennedy expanded more on the customs of the time and used specific quotes from the Nights to prove or disprove its accuracy.
Timeliness – When was this written? Does the text include other, relevant scholarship? Why is timeliness important to investigate for this text’s focus? (Maybe it’s not, if not why not?)
This article was written in September of 2004. This text does include some photographs and maps that were relevant to this topic. From my other research it does not seem like any of the information that Kennedy put forth in this article has been proven to be false since its publishing. For these reasons I feel that timeliness in this case was not a big factor. Though I do feel that Kennedy was lax in his criticism of Haruns portrayal in the Nights and ever mentioned the word orientalism. I thought this might have been the case because of the time and environment in which the article was written.
Relevance – How relevant is your text to your topic? (IE: Does this article shed any new (revelatory) light on your topic? If so what is it?)
I felt that this article was relevant to the topic of the Abbasid Caliphate, Arabian Nights and Orientalism because Kennedy shares the history of the dynasty, wrongful portrayal of it most well-known ruler, and how this all relates to the Nights. This article gave me a deep dive into the Caliphate that most other videos and websites failed to provide. Kennedy was very thorough in explaining how Harun came to power, the circumstances in which it happened, and how the Nights mischaracterized him.
Future Ideas – How might a course on your topic incorporate this text? What might an essay assignment on this text look like?
If there was an entire course on the Abbasid Caliphate this article would be great for explaining how the dynasty exchanged hands and the customs of succession. It would also provide a great amount of information regarding its most well-known ruler. I think a great essay assignment based on this text would be to see if any of the historical facts have been disproven since the time it was written or if any new information has surfaced.
What I Learned – What new thing(s) did you learn about your topic? What might you do in the future with this information?
I learned from my research that this dynasty was crucial in not just the development of the Nights but to so many other aspects of modern life. Science, medicine, math and literature were all improved upon, and we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for the Abbasid
Caliphate. I think this period of history doesn’t get the credit it deserves because of things like orientalism. We choose to focus on things like flying carpets and genies because we don’t want to admit to ourselves that we all stand on the shoulders of the giants before us. So many of our modern accomplishments are in debt to the Abbasids but we choose to ignore these facts because of our fear of the “other”. I think still to this day it scares many people to think that a civilization so different from ours could be this accomplished so long ago.
Optional - An overview of your research methodologies – How did you find this source? What made you choose it?
My research started on YouTube and Wikipedia just a brief overview. Next, I went to the Palomar Library database and used the search term “Abbasid Caliphate Nights”. This resulted in over a thousand articles, so I narrowed my search results to just peer reviewed articles. I read all the short articles I found and for the longer articles I pressed Control+F on my keyboard and searched words like “Abbasid” or “Nights” to quickly find sections relevant to my topic. I chose this topic because I enjoy learning about cultures and have an interest in the sciences and arts. I have no interest in made up things like magic lamps or flying carpets, so I left those for someone else. I also felt that to understand the Nights you must know the environment in which it came from.
Sunday, January 16, 2022
1889 Exposition Universelle Bibliography
*I was fortunate enough to teach a 1001 Nights film and literature course last Fall (2021). And I'm even more fortunate to have had such great students. They've let me share their work with you. Bibliography, Annotated Bibliography, and a further report on one article related to their topic (which in some cases is loosely Nights-related). I'll be posting them over the next few weeks.
**I messed up the formats with my copying and pasting but you know. - M
Here is Shaanel's work on the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle -
Shaanel Saroch
Professor Michael Lundell
English 260
14 December 2021
Research Project
Part One: Extended Bibliography
“About Us about the Bie Who We Are How We Work Our History the 1928 Paris Convention FAQS about Expos What Is an Expo? How Is an Expo Organised? A Short History of Expos.” Official Site of the Bureau International Des Expositions, https://www.bie-paris.org/site/en/1889-paris.
Anido, Julien. “The Exposition Universelle of 1889: Un Jour De plus à Paris.” Un Jour De plus à Paris | L'incontournable Des Visites Culturelles Et Touristiques à Paris. Balades, Visites Guidées, Découvertes Insolites... Visitez Paris Autrement !, 29 July 2020, https://www.unjourdeplusaparis.com/en/paris-reportage/exposition-universelle-1889.
Bibesco, Georges. Exposition Universelle 1889. Impr. Typ. J. Kugelmann, 1890.
Catalogue général Officiel: Exposition rétrospective Du Travail Et Des Sciences Anthropologiques. Imprimerie L. Danel, 1889.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/International-Exposition-of-1889.
“Exposition Universelle (1889).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposition_Universelle_(1889).
Exposition Universelle De 1889, https://www.nga.gov/research/library/imagecollections/photographs-of-international-expositions/exposition-universelle-de-1889.html.
Jonnes, Jill. Eiffel's Tower and the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count. Viking, 2009.
"Mephisto", the Marvellous Automaton, Exhibited at the International Theatre, Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1889. T. Pettitt & Co, 1889.
“Paris 1889 Exposition: History, Images, Interpretation.” Ideas, http://www.arthurchandler.com/paris-1889-exposition.
“Paris Exposition of 1889.” Paris Exposition of 1889 (Prints and Photographs Reading Room, Library of Congress), https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/250_paris.html.
Paris-exposition... / Exposition universelle de 1889. A. Colin (Paris), 1889.
Paris: Capital of the 19th Century, https://library.brown.edu/cds/paris/worldfairs.html.
“The Rue Du Caire at the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1889): Patrimoines Partagés تراث مشترك.” The Rue Du Caire at the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1889) | Patrimoines Partagés تراث مشترك, https://heritage.bnf.fr/bibliothequesorient/en/street-of-cairo-art.
Sabry, Randa. “Le Témoignage d’Amīn Fikrī Sur l’Exposition Universelle de 1889 et La Rue Du Caire : Petite Polémique Avec Timothy Mitchell.” Arabica, vol. 2018, no. 3, Brill, 2018, pp. 368–91, https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-12341493.
Sayers, Isabelle S. Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill's Wild West. Dover, 1981.
“World's Fair - Official Eiffel Tower Website.” La Tour Eiffel, 8 Apr. 2020, https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/the-monument/universal-exhibition.
Part Two: Annotated Bibliography
Paris-exposition... / Exposition universelle de 1889. A. Colin (Paris), 1889.
The author created this book as a guide to visitors of the Exposition Universelle in 1889. The beginning of the book has maps of the exposition so that the reader can see where the different things to do and see are located. Further on there is a map of different areas in Paris associated with the exposition. The author details what he believes are the most interesting things to see at the exposition so that visitors need not waste time on less interesting displays. There is also a schedule of when certain events are happening and a description of the public transportation that could be used to get to the exposition. This guide is very useful in finding out what exactly went on at the exposition.
Jonnes, Jill. Eiffel's Tower and the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count. Viking, 2009.
This book provides the back story of why the Exposition Universelle was created. The book also details different major personalities that were present at the exposition such as Buffalo Bill, Gustave Eiffel and Thomas Edison. While these personalities are famous now and were well known at the time as well, the book also lists people that were relatively unknown at the time who are now famous. Some of these people were Van Gogh, Whistler and Gaugin. The book makes the reader feel as if they are personally experiencing the Exposition Universelle in 1889.
Sabry, Randa. “Le Témoignage d’Amīn Fikrī Sur l’Exposition Universelle de 1889 et La Rue Du Caire : Petite Polémique Avec Timothy Mitchell.” Arabica, vol. 2018, no. 3, Brill, 2018, pp. 368–91, https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-12341493.
This article discusses a man named Amin Fikri’s visit to the 1889 Exposition Universelle. He details the Rue du Caire which was a street, built for the exposition, meant to emulate a busy street in Cairo. Buildings on the street were made from demolished buildings from Egypt. The author also discusses how the previous expositions in Paris had different versions of the Rue du Caire. In the 1867 exposition there was a medieval Egyptian palace. This article is a good resource for visualizing the Egyptian displays at the various expositions.
Part Three
Paris: Capital of the 19th Century, https://library.brown.edu/cds/paris/worldfairs.html.
Author: The author of this piece is Pauline De Tholozany. This text was created as a collaboration between the departments of French Studies and Comparative Literature at Brown University. These departments relevance to the topic is that the Exposition Universelle in 1889 occurred in Paris, France and the authors use different sources of literature to detail the events. The author seems like an expert in this field because they comprehensively cover all the various expositions that occurred in France from 1855 to 1900. The French Studies department’s contact information is french_francophone_studies@brown.edu. Their online bio is located at https://www.brown.edu/academics/french-studies/. The Comparative Literature department’s contact information is Comp_lit@Brown.edu. Their online bio is located at https://complit.brown.edu/. I did not attempt to contact them.
Thesis: The thesis of this text is that the purpose of the Expositions Universelle in Paris was to showcase technology and art and to boost the economy. The thesis is built by highlighting the various events and displays that were held during the Expositions Universelle. The evidence the authors use to support their thesis are several primary and secondary sources from the Brown University library such as books with firsthand accounts of the expositions and different artwork that show scenes from the expositions. The question that the author is responding to is “why were the expositions in Paris held?”
Critique: Elements of this text that are good specifically is that the text covers the politic climate, attitudes towards the fairs, and the most interesting events at the fairs. This allows the reader to feel like they were present at the fairs and as if the reader has an eye into the inner working of the fair organizers. Another good element of this text is that the authors used excellent sources while writing the text so there is a lot of interesting and informative data. There were not really any issues to address on this topic in this text other than dispelling rumors of people feeling negatively towards the Eiffel tower and talk of wanting to prevent its construction. The issue is addressed by saying what the actual public sentiment around the Eiffel tower was. One thing that is lacking in my text is any talk of public figures that were present at the 1889 Exposition Universelle. Personalities such as Wild Bill Hickok, Thomas Edison, and Vincent Van Gogh were all present at this exposition and it would have been interesting to read more about their interaction with the exposition.
Timeliness: This text was written in 2011. The text utilized other relevant scholarship as resources for creating this piece. I don’t believe that timeliness is relevant or important to investigate for this text’s focus because the article is reporting on events that occurred a long time ago for historical purposes. This text does not really have any effect on current events, so timeliness is not an issue.
Relevance: This text is extremely relevant to the topic of Exposition Universelle 1889. The text not only details the Exposition Universelle that occurred in 1889 it also describes the other expositions that occurred in France and performs some comparison of the fairs in order to understand the different impacts of the fairs on the events of that time period. The only new information that this article gives on the topic is discussing the Exposition Universelle 1889 in relation to the other expositions. I did not find information like this in any of the other texts that I read.
Future Ideas: A course on the topic of the Exposition Universelle that occurred in 1889 could incorporate this text in the beginning of the course as a historical background to this particular exposition and its relation to the other expositions that occurred. An essay assignment on this text might pose questions like “which exposition had the greatest effect on French culture,” “What is the most significant technological advance that came from the Exposition Universelle that occurred in 1889,” or “What impact did the Exposition Universelle in 1889 have on the art world at that time.” All of these questions would make for essays that I would be interested in reading.
What I Learned: One new thing that I learned about my topic from this specific text is that the Exposition Universelle took some of the power away from the Salon. The Salon was the only way to get your art publicly exhibited in France around this time. It was very difficult to get one’s art in the Salon and the people who chose the art that would be displayed were very political and exclusionary. During the Exposition Universelle artists were able to display their art without the judgement and control of the Salon. This had a huge impact on the art world at that time. What I might do in the future with this information is to apply this knowledge to the art history class I will be taking next semester. Previously I took a class on art that discussed the Salon but did not go in depth about it. As I take various courses, I feel like I learn a little bit in each class that adds up like pieces of a puzzle and eventually I have a greater understanding of a bigger picture of what happened during certain times in history.
An Overview of Research Methodologies: I found this source by googling the Exposition Universelle in 1889. I chose this article because it came from a reputable source such as the French Studies and Comparative Literature departments at Brown University. I also chose this article because it discussed all the expositions instead of just mentioning the exposition that I was studying. I felt like learning about the other expositions gave context to the specific exposition that I was interested in.
Monday, November 29, 2021
The Arabian Nights in Translation: How the World of Scheherazade was Epitomized by the West
Here is a Bachelors Degree paper by Rachel Kurlander (Honors Wesleyan Class of 2016 - congrats Rachel!).
It's called "The Arabian Nights in Translation: How the World of Scheherazade was Epitomized by the West"
https://digitalcollections.wesleyan.edu/islandora/object/ir%3A456/datastream/PDF/view
Monday, November 1, 2021
1001 Recaps Blog
Here's a 1001 Nights blog I just discovered but can't figure out who the author is. Unfortunately they also seem to have stopped posting but what's up there is really nicely done -
Friday, March 5, 2021
Chateaubriand’s Travels in Greece, Palestine
“From a new work, ‘Chateaubriand’s Travels in Greece, Palestine, &c. in 1806 & 1807,’ we extract the following interesting passages, descriptive of various scenes”
It was midnight when we arrived at the kan of Menemen. I perceived at a distance a great number of scattered lights : it was a caravan making a halt. On a nearer approach I distinguished camels, some lying, others standing, some with their load others relieved from the burden. Horses and asses without bridles were eating barley out of leather buckets; some of the men were still on horseback, and the women, veiled, had not alighted from their dromedaries. Turkish merchants were seated cross-legged on carpets in groups round the fires, at which the slaves were busily employed in dressing pilau. Other travellers were smoking their pipes at the door of the kan, chewing opium, and listening to stories. Here were people burning coffee in iron pots ; the hucksters went about from fire to fire offering cakes, fruit and poultry for sale. Singers were amusing the crowd; imans were performing their ablutions, prostrating themselves, rising again and invoking the prophet; and the camel-drivers lay snoring on the ground. The place was strewed with packages, bags of cotton, and couffs of rice. All these objects, now distinct and reflecting a vivid light, now confused and enveloped in a half shade, exhibited a genuine scene of the Arabian Nights. It wanted nothing but the caliph Haroun al Raschid, the vizir Giaffar, and Mesrour, the chief of the black eunuchs."
"Travels in Greece, &c." National Intelligencer, 15 Apr. 1813. Accessed 4 Mar. 2021.
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
New Yorker Review of Disney's Live Action Aladdin
Here's a great and hilarious review of Disney's live action car wreck Aladdin (2019).
And some clips:
"The director of the latest “Aladdin” is a middle-aged white Brit, Guy Ritchie, but the diversity of his cast is quite in keeping with the tangled roots of the tale. We have an African-American, Will Smith, as the Genie, and a Cairo-born Coptic Canadian, Mena Massoud, as Aladdin. Princess Jasmine, whom he woos, is played by Naomi Scott, whose Ugandan mother is of Gujarati Indian descent. Marwan Kenzari, a Dutch-Tunisian actor, takes the part of the dastardly vizier, Jafar. The show is deftly stolen, like a bracelet slipped from a wrist, by the Iranian-American Nasim Pedrad, famed for her impersonations on “Saturday Night Live,” which run all the way—and it’s a hell of a way—from Kim Kardashian to Christiane Amanpour. Here, Pedrad plays Jasmine’s handmaiden, Dalia, who, in an unprecedented twist, has a crush on the Genie. Good luck with that."
"Yet Ritchie has made significant alterations. First, he has modified the law of sultanic succession by giving women the right to rule. Second, by some cunning spell, he has taken all the fun from the earlier Disney film and—abracadabra!—made it disappear. The big musical numbers strain for pizzazz. The action sequences are a confounding rush, which is a grave drawback amid the alleys of the bazaar. And Jafar is about as frightening as the rug, though the fault, I’d suggest, lies less with the actor than with Disney, which is busy rebooting its cartoons with human performers and hoping that we won’t notice the difference. But the Jafar of 1992 derived his power from the ease with which he swelled and stretched, like a sort of evil taffy. Animation, in other words, became him. Ritchie tries to repeat the trick with C.G.I., to graceless and cumbersome effect."
Saturday, October 31, 2020
Aladdin's Lamp is Real
From - https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/meerut-conmen-dupe-several-with-promise-of-riches-from-aladdins-lamp/article32983494.ece
Meerut conmen dupe several with promise of riches from Aladdin’s lamp
by Anuj Kumar
"In an incident that reminds how human greed is beyond reason, two persons have been arrested in Meerut for allegedly duping people with what they claimed is ‘Aladdin’s Chiragh’.
Meerut Police have arrested Ikramuddin and Anis on the complaint of one Laiq Khan for allegedly duping him of ₹2.5 crores after promising him that all his wishes would be fulfilled through the magical lamp.
“Laiq, who apparently specialises in Ayurveda and claims to be a doctor used to treat the mother of the accused Ikramuddin, himself a tantrik (occult practitioner). Ikramuddin promised the doctor that he had a lamp that would make him a billionaire,” said SHO, Brahmpuri Subhash Atri.
Anis and Ikramuddin have been booked under sections 386 (extortion after putting a person under fear of death or grievous hurt and 420 of IPC.
Mr Khan, who claims to have spent some time in London, told the police that Ikramuddin and his brother-in-law Anis would make a djinn appear in a dark room. “When Laiq would ask them to sell the lamp, they would scare him by saying that it would bring bad things to him. Ultimately, they agreed to sell [the lamp] him for ₹70 lakh but told him not to use it for six months otherwise the djinn would destroy his family,” said Mr Atri.
According to the SHO, however, Ikramuddin confessed to having duped Mr. Khan of only ₹40 lakhs. “He said the rest of the amount was paid back to the doctor to win his trust. We are investigating his account and would attach a house that he says he built from the amount received.”
Mr Atri said the modus operandi of the accused included winning the trust of the people by first showing them the results of the magical lamp. “For instance, they would ask people to give them ₹5 lakhs and give them ₹7 lakhs in return. In some cases, they would bury the money in some secluded place and ask the client to go there and dig it out. Such practices convinced people of their power.”
Mr Atri said Ikramuddin tried to convince the police too about the powers of the lamp.
He said Meerut police were tracking the duo for some time. “As they have no fixed place of residence, it was hard to fish them out. Such practices mostly work on word of mouth. Finally, after a tip-off from a mole, they were nabbed on October 25. When Mr. Khan realised that the police were after Ikramuddin, he became circumspect and approached us.”
Now, the artificial, gleaming ‘Aladdin ka Chiragh’ is a case property along with the stone that was used to rub it. “As long as man is driven by greed, such cases would keep on happening,” Mr Atri said.
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Monday, June 10, 2019
New Book by Dr. Ulrich Marzolph
I'm excited to announce a new book by the "Godfather" of 1001 Nights research, Professor Dr. Ulrich Marzolph (http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~umarzol/).
Dr. Marzolph's career has been instrumental in Nights research. He is the editor of the indispensible The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia, The Arabian Nights Reader, and The Arabian Nights in Transnational Perspective. He is also the author of several books and scores of articles on the Nights.
His latest book is Ex Oriente Fabula: Exploring the Narrative Culture of the Islamic Near and Middle East Part 3.
I've attached the table of contents below. Most all of the articles are Nights related.
You can order the book through the publisher, Verlag für Orientkunde, by emailing them – verlag.fuer.orientkunde@web.de
Here are the Table of Contents:
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Barnum & Bailey's Circus
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Aladdin Scentsy Bars - May 20
So, like, yeah. On May 20th you can buy Disney Aladdin based/themed Scentsy bars. It wasn't clear to me exactly what a scentsy bar was so I did some "research" and found out that they seem to be these wax scented thingys that you warm up in your house to make your house smell a certain way. Those plug-in scent blaster things that always give me allergic headaches. I think that's what they are.
Sunday, May 12, 2019
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp - Anne Anderson
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves - Felicitas Kuhn
Monday, February 11, 2019
Aladdin Trailer 3 - Will Smith as the Blue Genie
A new trailer from Disney was released which ends with a brief glimpse of the live action genie played by Will Smith. He's blue. And he's sort of animated and sort of live. This blend seems to do something weird. It's likely not to be the weirdest thing about this film though.
See it for yourself –
Friday, January 25, 2019
Galland’s Scheherazade and Mary Shelley’s 1831 Frankenstein
"'Have You Thought of a Story?': “Have You Thought of a Story?”Galland’s Scheherazade and Mary Shelley’s 1831 Frankenstein" is an interesting 2005 article by Rebecca Nesvet which explores Shelley's debt to the Nights in creating her novel.
Among the similarities are Shelley's use of the frame technique and also her inclusion of "Orientalist" motifs, including Safie the Turkish merchant's daughter and the female narrator in general. The article suggests in a sideways fashion, interestingly, that the novel could not have been written without Galland's Nights.
The article can be read here - https://www.academia.edu/28741925/_Have_you_thought_of_a_story_Gallands_Scheherazade_and_Mary_Shelleys_1831_frankenstein target="blank"
Article Abstract:
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Disney's Aladdin Teaser Trailer - In Theaters May 24th, 2019
Monday, November 26, 2018
The Wonderfully Bizarre History of The Magic Voyage of Sinbad
Monday, October 22, 2018
Long-Lost Watercolors Of '1001 Nights' Bring New Life To Age-Old Tales
Long-Lost Watercolors Of '1001 Nights' Bring New Life To Age-Old Tales
https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2018/10/22/653642391/long-lost-watercolors-of-1001-nights-bring-new-life-to-age-old-tales