Alchemy (from al-kimya): to change a metal into another metal
Alcohol (from al-khol, al-khul): the black eye powder used by women, and thus a pure substance
Alcove (from al-qubbah): the arch
Algebra (from al-jabr): reunion of broken parts
Algorithm (from Al-Khwarizmi): the inventor of the concept
Alkali (from al-qili): ashes of the saltwort plant
Almanac (from al-manakh): almanac
Average (from awariya): damaged goods
Carafe (from gharrafah): a bottle
Cipher (from sifr): zero or empty
Garbled (from gharbala): sift or select
Ghoul (from al-ghul): demon
Jar (from jarrah): an earthen water vessel
Racket, as in tennis racket (from raha): the palm of the hand
Sofa (from suffah): a long bench
STARS WITH ARABIC NAMES
Aldebaran, Algol, Altair, Betelgeuse, Rigel, and Vega
FOOD WORDS
Coffee (from qahwah gahwah)
Julep, Marzipan, Sherbet, Sugar, and Syrup
Lemon (from Arabic laymun)
Mocha (from the Yemeni port city)
Spices: Caraway, Cumin, and Saffron
FABRICS
Damask (from Damascus)
Muslin (from Mosul, Iraq)
Sash (from shash): muslin
Sequin (from sikkah): a die for striking coins
Tabby (from al-Tabbiya, area of Baghdad): striped silk pattern or striped cat
COLORS
Azure, Carmine, Crimson, and Lilac
SEAFARING WORDS
Admiral (from amir-al): a shortened form of amir-al-bahr, prince of the sea
Arsenal (from dar as-sina’ah): workshop
Mizzen (from mazzan): mast
OTHER ARABIC WORDS
Adobe, Bedouin, Caliper, Caliph, Camphor, Crocus, Elixir, Genie, Minaret, Mosque, Nadir, Sheik, Sultan, Talisman, and Zenith
TALE NOTES
MOTIF AND TYPE SOURCES
Aarne, Antti, and Stith Thompson. The Types of the Folktale. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1973.
El-Shamy, Hasan M. Folk Traditions of the Arab World: A Guide to Motif Classification. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
MacDonald, Margaret Read. The Storyteller’s Sourcebook: A Subject, Title, and Motif Index to Folklore Collections for Children. 1st edition. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982.
MacDonald, Margaret Read, and Brian W. Sturm. The Storyteller’s Sourcebook: A Subject, Title, and Motif Index to Folklore Collections for Children: 1983–1999. Detroit: Gale Research, 2000.
Thompson, Stith. Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966.
LUQMAN THE WISE
Information about Luqman is taken from “Aesop of the Arabs” by Paul Lunde, Saudi Aramco World (March/April 1974), 2–3, and “Lukman and the Seven Falcons,” in Fabled Cities, Princes & Jinn from Arab Myths and Legends by Khairat Al-Saleh (New York: Schocken, 1985), 40–42. A useful article on Luqman is found on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luqman. The Koran, sura 31, reveals some of Luqman’s advice.
Motif: El-Shamy J191.3 Luqman as wise man. El-Shamy cites seven Arabic sources, including Palestinian.
THE DOVE, THE PARTRIDGE, AND THE CROW
This tale is retold by Nadia Jameel Taibah.
Motifs A2411.2.1.6 Color of crow; A2375.2 Nature of animal’s feet; A2332.5 Color of animal’s eyes; Q263 Lying punished.
THE LION, THE WOLF, AND THE FOX
This is an Aesop fable. A Russian version adds the “learned to divide from the wolf” motif.
Type 51 The Lion’s Share cites versions that are Greek, Argentinian, African American, African, Slovenian, Flemish, and French.
Motif J811.1 The Lion’s Share. Ass divides booty equally between himself, fox, and lion. Lion eats ass. Fox then divides: gives lion meat and he takes bones.
THE ANT AND THE LOUSE
This tale is a tradition from Nadia Jameel Taibah’s family.
Motif Z49.13 Chain of killings: bulbul destroys flower and is killed by cat, etc.
SIGNS
This tale is a tradition from Nadia Jameel Taibah’s family. MacDonald cites sources from Iran, Georgia (Caucasus), and Ireland. MacDonald and Sturm cite sources from England and Japan.
Type 924 Discussion by Sign Language cites variants from Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Scotland, Sweden, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, India, China, and Turkey, among others.
Motif H607.1.1 Discussion by symbols. Sign language.
JOUHA AND HIS DONKEYS
Nadia Jameel Taibah heard this tale from her aunt Salha. The Storyteller’s Sourcebook cites versions from Syria, Armenia, Turkey, and North Africa. Anntti Aarne’s Type Index cites variants from Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Iceland, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia, Russia, Greece, China, Turkey, and England. Also see the picture book How Many Donkeys?: An Arabic Counting Tale, retold by Margaret Read MacDonald and Nadia Jameel Taibah. Illus. Carol Liddiment (Chicago: Albert Whitman, 2009).
Type 1288A Numbskull cannot find ass he is sitting on.
Motifs J2022 Numbskull cannot find ass he is sitting on; J2031 Counting wrong by not counting oneself.
THE POOR LADY’S PLAN
This tale is a tradition from Nadia Jameel Taibah’s family.
Motifs: N611.4 Thief hears owner of house singing and thinks himself detected; N612 Numbskull talks to himself and frightens the robbers away.
THROW YOUR PUMPKIN AND PICK ME UP
This tale is a tradition from Nadia Jameel Taibah’s family.
Motif Q2 Kind and Unkind. Churlish person disregards requests of old person and is punished. Courteous person complies and is rewarded.
THE ANNOYING DOVE
This tale is a tradition from Nadia Jameel Taibah’s family. MacDonald’s Storyteller’s Sourcebook cites variants from India, Pakistan, Uganda, Thailand, the United States, and Spain.
Motif Z49.3 The bird indifferent to pain. A man catches a mango-bird . . . cooks it, eats it, the bird flies out of his nose.
THE SEVEN BUCKTHORN PICKERS
This tale is a tradition from Nadia Jameel Taibah’s family.
Motifs: G512.3 Ogre burned in his own oven; G526 Ogre deceived by feigned ignorance of hero. Hero must be shown how to get into oven (or the like).
A WISE YOUNG BOY
This tale is told of the Islamic legal scholar Abu Hanifah (699–767).
Motifs: H659.1.1 What is oldest? God; H561.4 King and clever youth. King asks questions: youth returns riddling answers. Type 921. The King and the Peasant’s Son.
THE KING, THE PRINCE, AND THE NAUGHTY SHEEP
A preschool version of this story was created by Nadia Taibah. The Koran (sura 21:76) refers to this event.
THE MIRACLE OF THE SPIDER’S WEB
This legend is known throughout the Islamic world. It also appears in the lore of several other cultures. Stith-Thompson cites variants of this motif from Turkey, Lapland, India, Japan, and Africa’s Fang people and in Jewish tradition. El-Shamy cites an Egyptian variant. MacDonald cites Indonesian and Jewish variants. MacDonald and Sturm cite an Arabian version and a variant in which the spider hides Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus.
Type 967 The Man Saved by a Spider Web includes variants from Catalonia, England, the Netherlands, and the United States.
Motif B523.1 Spider-web over hole saves fugitive.
‘UMAR IBN AL-KHATTAB COOKS FOOD FOR HUNGRY CHILDREN
In the legend of the second Caliph, ’Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, he is known for his charitable acts. He established a welfare system for the poor, orphans, widows, elderly, and disabled.
MAKKI AND KAKKI
This is a variant of Motif Q2. Kind and Unkind. Also motifs J2400 Foolish imitation; and J2415 Foolish imitation of lucky man. Because one man has good luck, a numskull imitates and thinks he will have equal luck. He is disappointed. Tales on this theme are p
opular throughout the world. Hassan El-Shamy cites Motif J2415 Tales from Yemen and Kuwait. Stith Thompson gives variants from India, China, the West Indies, Italy, England, and more and in Arab tradition. “Makki and Kakki” includes Motifs D1026 Magic dung of animal and B103.1 Treasure dropping animal. Hassan El-Shamy cites tales from Iraq (gold-dropping ass), along with Egypt and Sudan (gold-dropping cat). A Saudi version appears as “Makki’s Mother,” in Folktales from Saudi Arabia by Lamya’ Muhammad Salih Ba-ashin (Jiddah: Lamia Baeshen, 2002), 31–35.
THE MOUSE AND THE EGGSHELL BOAT
This tale is similar to J2199.5 (MacDonald) Fools (usually animals) invite all comers to join them in abode until house ruptures. The most well-known variant among U.S. schoolchildren is the Ukrainian tale of the mitten in which all animals squeeze until it breaks. This eggshell boat story also bears similarities to the Siberian tale “Tiny Mouse Goes Traveling,” in which a mouse paddles downriver in a nutshell and eats until he bursts. This tale is found in Look Back and See: Twenty Lively Tales for Gentle Tellers by Margaret Read Macdonald (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1991), 130–136. A Saudi version is “Passengers of the Eggshell,” in Folktales from Saudi Arabia by Lamya’ Muhammad Salih Ba-ashin (Jiddah: Lamia Baeshen, 2002), 15–18.
THE CAT COUNTRY
This is a variant of Motif Q.2.1 Kind and unkind girls. And Type 480 The Spinning-Woman by the Spring. The Kind and Unkind Girls. . It has similarities with the Italian tale Motif Q2.1.1CA (MacDonald) The House of Cats. The motif of the burp and the tattling cat are intriguing. Because she burps when she bends over, this is probably another rude noise in the original. There is a Saudi version titled “The Matron of Cats,” in Folktales from Saudi Arabia by Lamya’ Muhammad Salih Ba-ashin (Jiddah: Lamia Baeshen, 2002), 90–93.
THE LOST CITY OF UBAR
This story includes a variant of Motif B210.2.3 (MacDonald) Skull to man: “Talking brought me here.” Man claims skull talks. Skull is silent. Man is killed. Man’s skull: “Talking brought me here.” There are several African and African American variants of this. A version from Burma tells of a servant told by a beheaded head to go fetch the king. When they return, the head is silent. The servant is beheaded. In the version we give here, the man is imprisoned, rather than beheaded, probably an alteration from the original. Some scholars believe that Shisr (Wubar) might be the site of the lost city of Ubar, though others question that as a possibility. Stories from Oman on pages 47 and 49 are related by a present-day sheik of Shisr, Mahbrook Massan. The Saudi variant is retold from Nadia Taibah and from “The City under the Sands,” in Kuwait and Her Neighbors by H. R. P. Dickson (London: Routledge, 1956), 498–501. Dickson heard this on April 2, 1943, when Muhammad Ibn Malimm ibn Dráhim al Murri came from Saudi Arabia to visit Dickson in Kuwait.
AZIZ, SON OF HIS MATERNAL UNCLE
This tale is retold and modified slightly from “Aziz Son of His Maternal-Uncle,” in Tales Arab Women Tell by Hasan M. El-Shamy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), 349–355. It was collected by Hasan El-Shamy from Ayasha’Omm H. in the summer of 1986. The narrator was a 70-year-old grandmother who did not read or write. Abu-Zaid, the Hilalite, is a stock character whose epic is popular in the Middle East and in some areas of sub-Saharan Africa. El-Shamy cites versions of this story from Bahrain, Doha, and Qatar. A tale attributed to the Lord Buddha tells of a woman grieving for her lost son who is sent to find a mustard seed from a house that has not known sorrow.
El-Shamy Type 857 Nephew Wins a Bride for his Maternal-uncle: Abu-Zaid Gets Alya; Type844A Search for Household not Touched by Grief.
Motifs: H506.9.1 Test of resourcefulness: making coffee (tea) without water; K514 Disguise as girl to avoid execution; K1817.3 Disguise as harper (minstrel); K137.1.1.2 Lover’s foster brother (friend) steals bride from wedding with unwelcome suitor; H1394 Quest for person who has not known sorrow.
THE SPRINGS OF BAHRAIN
This story is developed from information at http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Afghanistan-to-Bosnia-Herzegovina/Bahrainis.html#ixzz3FCrUh1KA
You can see photos of these children playing in the springs of Bahrain at http://www.folkculturebh.org/en/index.php?issue=14&page=showarticle&id=18.
Motif A941 Origin of springs.
ANSWERING THE SCHOLAR
A version of this tale appears in Tales of Juha: Classic Arab Folk Humor, edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi (Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2007), 85.
Motif H881 Riddles with “none” as answer.
JOUHA SINGS FROM THE MINARET
El-Shamy cites a Turkish story for this. Another version appears in Tales of Juha: Classic Arab Folk Humor, edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi (Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2007), 89.
Motif J2237 The bathroom in the minaret. Fool can sing in the bathroom but cannot be heard from the minaret.
COUNTING THE DAYS OF RAMADAN
A version of this tale appears in Tales of Juha: Classic Arab Folk Humor, edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi (Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2007), 87.
Motif H1118 Task: counting.
CHOICES
This tale is retold from “Son, Husband or Brother?” in Tales Arab Women Tell by Hasan M. El-Shamy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), 316–317. It was collected in 1982. The informant was a 22-year-old university student from Yemen. She had read the story some months earlier in Al-Arabi, a magazine published in Kuwait. Ms. A. R al-Hamadan, a Kuwaiti folklorist, explained that the final phrase from this story is used as a dirge at the death of a brother in Kuwaiti funerals. The tyrant mentioned is al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (d. 714), a ruthless ruler of the Omayyad regime.
Type 985 Brother Chosen Rather than Husband or Son.
Motif P253.3 Brother chosen rather than husband or son. Only one can be saved; he alone is irreplaceable.
THE HELPFUL DOG
This tale is retold from “The Pot of Meat,” in Tales Arab Women Tell by Hasan M. El-Shamy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), 103–106. The story was told in August 1970 by Ruqayyah B., a 59-year-old former slave of African heritage living in Kuwait. Hasan M. El-Shamy cites one other Kuwaiti version of this tale.
Type 545 F The Monkey (Dog, Fox, Jackal, etc.) Tests the Fidelity (Gratitude) of its Master.
Motifs: B182.1.0.2 Magic dog transformed person; H1556.1.2 Monkey (fox, jackal, dog, etc.) feigns death (illness) to test master’s gratitude; D422.2.1 Transformation: dead dog to money (jewels).
THE BLACK PEARL AND THE WHITE PEARL
This tale is retold from “The Black Pearl and White Pearl,” in The Arab of the Desert: A Glimpse into Badawin Life in Kuwait and Sau’di Arabia by H. R. P. Dickson (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1949), 492–496. After discussing the pearl-fishing industry, he writes, “The following story is told by mothers to their children in Kuwait.” He follows this with a chapter about slavery in Kuwait at that time.
Motif H933 Princess assigns tasks.
KILL THE MAN WHO KILLED THE DOG
This tale is retold from “Kill the Man Who Slew the Dog,” in The Arab of the Desert: A Glimpse into Badawin Life in Kuwait and Sau’di Arabia by H. R. P. Dickson (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1949), 517–522. Dickson heard the story twice, once from K. B. Mulla Sáleh, wazir to four consecutive rulers of Kuwait, and once from Othmán ibn Humaid al ‘Utaibi, a leader among the ‘Utaiba tribe.
NESÓP AND THE SNAKE
This tale is told widely around the world. MacDonald and Sturm cite sources from Mexico, Tibet, and Italy and African American sources. Stith Thompson cites sources from Italy, Germany, Spain, India, China, Indonesia, and Africa as well as Jewish and African American sources and Aesop. This folktale is from Kuwait. It was told to H. R. Dickson while camped at Araifjan, on April 1, 1953, by Amsha, the wife of Salim al Muzaiyin. It is retold from Arab of the Desert: A Glimpse into Badawin Life in Kuwait and Sau’di Arabia by H. R. P. Dickson (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1949), 36–327.
Motif J1172.3 Ungrateful animal returned to captivity. A man rescues a serpent (bear) who in
return seeks to kill his rescuer. Fox as judge advises the man to put the serpent back into captivity. Type 155. The Ungrateful Serpent Returned to Captivity.
THE HATTÁB (WOODCUTTER) AND THE KHAZNAH (TREASURE)
This is based on a story told to H. R. Dickson by Háji ‘Abdullah al Fathil in camp on January 7, 1935. It is retold from Arab of the Desert: A Glimpse into Badawin Life in Kuwait and Sau’di Arabia by H. R. P. Dickson (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1949), 315–318. The first episode is from a much longer tale. It is similar to a Thai folktale: “If It Belongs to Us, It Will Come to Us,” in Thai Tales: Folktales of Thailand by Supaporn Vathanaprida (Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1994), 72–74. In the Thai tale, an old man refuses a pot of gold found in a field until robbers dig it up and dump it on his doorstep. The best-known version is retold by Chaucer in “The Pardoner’s Tale.” MacDonald cites sources from Liberia, the Congo (Luban), and Nigeria. MacDonald and Sturm cite a Chinese variant. Stith Thompson gives variants from Turkey, India, China, Korea, Italy, and others.
Folktales from the Arabian Peninsula Page 12
