iPlayer Radio What's New?
Speaker icon LISTEN
Show more Show less
ON NOW : Today
20/05/2013

Today Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.

Image for The Arabian Nights

Play now 45 mins

The Arabian Nights

Duration:
45 minutes
First broadcast:
Thursday 18 October 2007

Melvyn Bragg discusses the myths, tales and legends of the Arabian Nights.

Once upon a time a wealthy merchant grew hot in the sun and sat down under a tree. Having eaten a date, he threw aside the stone, and immediately there appeared before him a Genie of enormous height who, holding a drawn sword in his hand, approached him, and said, “rise that I may kill thee”.

This is from The Arabian Nights, a collection of miraculous tales including Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Sinbad the Sailor. Forged in the medieval Arab world, it became so popular in Europe that the 18th century Gothic writer Horace Walpole declared “Read Sinbad the Sailor’s Voyages and you will grow sick of Aeneas”.

Its origins are Indian and Persian but it was championed initially by an 18th century Frenchman, Antoine Galland. Celebrated for its fabulous stories, it is a patchwork of sex, violence, magic, adventure, and cruelty – a far cry from the children’s book that it has become.

With Robert Irwin, Senior Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Marina Warner, Professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex; Gerard van Gelder, Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford.

  • Further Reading

    Peter L. Caracciolo (ed.), The Arabian Nights in English Literature: Studies in the Reception of The Thousand and One Nights into British Culture, (Macmillan, London, 1988)

    John Clute and John Grant (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, (Orbit, London, 1997)

    Hasan M. El-Shamy, A Motif Index of The Thousand and One Nights, (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 2006)

    Husain Haddawy (tr.), The Arabian Nights, (Everyman’s Library Classics, London, 1992)

    Robert Irwin, The Arabian Nights: A Companion, 2nd edition (I.B. Tauris, London and New York, 2004)

    Robert Irwin, The Penguin Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature, (Penguin, London, 2006)

    Ulric Marzolph and Richard van Leeuwen (eds.), The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia, 2 vols. (ABC Clio, Santa Barbara, California, 2004)

    Mia I. Gerhardt, The Art of Story-Telling: A literary study of the Thousand and One Nights, (Leiden: Brill, 1963)

    David Pinault, Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights, (Leiden: Brill, 1992)

    Wen-chin Ouyang & Geert Jan van Gelder (eds), New Perspectives on Arabian Nights: Ideological Variations and Narrative Horizons, (London: Routledge, 2005)

    Ulrich Marzolph (ed.), The Arabian Nights in Transnational Perspective, (Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 2007)

    Ulrich Marzolph (ed.), The Arabian Nights Reader, (Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 2007)

  • .

    Eva Sallis, Sheherazade Through the Looking Glass: The Metamorphosis of the Thousand and One Nights, (Richmond: Curzon, 1999)

    Richard van Leeuwen, The Thousand and One Nights: Space, Travel and Transformation, (London: Routledge, 2007)

    Voltaire, Candide and Other Stories (1759-1777), ed. and trans. Roger Pearson (London: Penguin Classic, 2006)

    William Beckford, Vathek (1786), ed. Roger Lonsdale (Oxford: Oxford World's Classic, 1998)

    Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories (London: Puffin Books, 1990)

    And the first full length animated film:
    Lotte Reiniger, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), BFI DVD with booklet, 2001

Broadcasts

In Our Time Downloads

melvyn-bragg.jpg

Every episode of In Our Time - available to download to listen to when & where you want.

Free downloads

  1. Image for In Our Time Archive: Culture

    In Our Time Archive: Culture

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of ideas as it applies to culture - from literature...

  2. Image for In Our Time Archive: History

    In Our Time Archive: History

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the people, conflicts and events that have shaped the world.

  3. Image for In Our Time Archive: Philosophy

    In Our Time Archive: Philosophy

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of philosophy - from ancient Greek thinkers to the...

  4. Image for In Our Time Archive: Religion

    In Our Time Archive: Religion

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of religious ideas - from the faith systems of...

  5. Image for In Our Time Archive: Science

    In Our Time Archive: Science

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of ideas and the evolution of the sciences - from...

  6. Image for In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg

    In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of ideas - including topics drawn from philosophy,...

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.