On 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition by Ulrich Marzolph

Abstract

Storytelling, Self, Society, Vol. 17, No. 1 (2021), pp. 167–169. Copyright © 2022 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI 48201 B O O K R E V I E W On 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition by Ulrich Marzolph Mostafa Abedinifard 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition, by Ulrich Marzolph. Wayne State University Press, 2020. ISBN: 9780814347744. Hardback, Paperback, and ebook. Encompassing the results of several decades of painstaking study, and building on his numerous pertinent works in the past, Ulrich Marzolph’s 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition is erudite, rigorously researched, and reveals a wealth of intriguing and insightful information. This book is a highly welcome contribution to the field of comparative folk narrative studies. Using the category “Middle East” as a shorthand for Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Marzolph undertakes to show—primarily via exploring sources in Arabic, Persian, and the Ottoman Turkish—the significant narrative contributions of the “Muslim world” (4), as manifested in the cultures of the MENA region, to Western folk narrative traditions. While unmistakably providing a rich, encyclopedic source of information, Marzolph also puts forward an overarching argument: “The Middle Ages and early modernity were periods of intensive cultural exchange during which On 101 Middle Eastern Tales Abedinifard 168 n On 101 Middle Eastern Tales Western authors time and again had recourse to ‘Oriental’ narratives that they adopted to the specific requirements of their own culture” (10). The “Orient,” and here the “Muslim world” cultures—or “Islamicate,” as Marshall Hodgson calls it—in particular, not only comprised a significant “Other” vis-à-vis which European cultures often defined themselves, but they also served, as Marzolph shows throughout his book, as a “constant source of attraction, fascination, and inspiration” for the Europeans (1). Marzolph argues that “the West is not only indebted to the Muslim world, but rather shares common features with Muslim narrative tradition” (3). This argument comes at a timely moment. Due to the rise of political racism and nationalist politics globally, yet especially in Western Europe and the United States, we need, perhaps more than any time in modern history, arguments that work toward reconciliation. This yearning for reconciliation is seen in many of Marzolph’s comparisons and conclusions that feature shared commonalities based on interfaith relations (e.g., chapter 21), universal messages (e.g., chapter 20), or just “the unifying potential of humor” (see, e.g., chapters 45 and 46). The book contains a fairly detailed and documented introduction, followed by 101 chapters on the origins, circulation, and the contribution to Western folklore of the promised, titular “Middle Eastern tales.” While readers could start from anywhere they desire, I would recommend beginning with the introduction , where Marzolph touches on many important topics, including the extant literature, the gaps, the necessity of his own study, his methodology, and his primary resources, mainly constituting Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish— yet also in cases, Indian. I admit I initially approached the book with prejudice: that it would be a huge compilation of dry research on a set of tales. After starting to read, however , I could barely put it down. The chapters—despite being replete with references and new information for most if not all readers—are written lucidly, each resembling a tale itself, turning Marzolph’s book into an example of what Horace called dulce et utile. Given the immense amount of information contained in it, the book certainly yields itself to the extra pleasure of rereadings. What makes each chapter doubly rewarding are the masterfully written plot synopses, which, despite their terseness, do not fail to trigger one’s imagination . Further, in the concluding paragraphs of each chapter, Marzolph renders important insights on why we should care about his observations, including on how his debate helps advance pertinent disciplinary conversations. Most Abedinifard n 169 chapters also reveal Marzolph’s sharp comparisons and contrasts between various versions of a tale in diverse traditions, all of which convene to advance the chapter toward the overall argument of the book. The cross-references throughout (via bolded titles) and the separate reference lists at the end of each...