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The Tale of al-Barrāq son of Rawḥān and Laylā the Chaste : a bilingual edition and study / [edited and translated by] Marlé Hammond.

Contributor(s): Series: British Academy monographPublisher: Oxford : published for The British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2020Copyright date: ©2020Edition: First editionDescription: xxv, 197, A100-A1 pages ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780197266687
  • 0197266681
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 892.731 23 T143
Summary: This book presents a bilingual edition and study of an anonymous work of early Arabic fiction set in pre-Islamic times: an Arab maiden called 'Layla the Chaste' is kidnapped and threatened with forced marriage to a Persian king. Ultimately, she is saved by her handsome and beloved cousin al-Barraq, and they marry and live happily ever after. This knight-in-shining-armour-rescues-damsel-in-distress narrative, which combines elements of the Arabic popular epic (sira) with others from the ?Udhri love story and the western fairy tale, was misinterpreted as history by scholars in the 19th century. In the two substantive chapters that frame her translation of the tale, Hammond discusses the text's evolution in the Arab Renaissance and its metamorphoses in 20th-century popular culture. She also analyses the structure of the tale to look for clues as to its real origins, shedding new light on theories of the development of the Arabic novel.
Item type: كتاب
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Item type Current library Call number Status Notes Date due Barcode
كتاب كتاب Central Library المكتبة المركزية 892.731 T143 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available قاعة الكتب 47797

Includes bibliographical references.

This book presents a bilingual edition and study of an anonymous work of early Arabic fiction set in pre-Islamic times: an Arab maiden called 'Layla the Chaste' is kidnapped and threatened with forced marriage to a Persian king. Ultimately, she is saved by her handsome and beloved cousin al-Barraq, and they marry and live happily ever after. This knight-in-shining-armour-rescues-damsel-in-distress narrative, which combines elements of the Arabic popular epic (sira) with others from the ?Udhri love story and the western fairy tale, was misinterpreted as history by scholars in the 19th century. In the two substantive chapters that frame her translation of the tale, Hammond discusses the text's evolution in the Arab Renaissance and its metamorphoses in 20th-century popular culture. She also analyses the structure of the tale to look for clues as to its real origins, shedding new light on theories of the development of the Arabic novel.

In English (pages xxv-197) and Arabic (in Appendix, pages A1-A100).