THE ARABIAN NIGHTS (RS 633) Yahya M. Michot Hartford Seminary, January 2018 Intersession This new course explores from several perspectives the world famous collection of Arabian tales developed within the Muslim Middle East since the ninth century and introduced into Europe in 1704 by the French Antoine Galland. The origins of the Nights corpus, the historical, cultural and interreligious contexts in which it evolved, its manuscripts and editions, the key figures of its passage to the West, its major English translations and their challenges, the literary, artistic and other socio-cultural developments it triggered, in Islam, in Europe and in the US, will be among the topics covered. Read in Arabic and/or English, a number of the core tales will be discussed. Great benefit will be drawn from the scholarship of Hartford Seminary’s former professor D. B. Macdonald (d. 1943) and from his Nights collection preserved in the Seminary’s library. While being accessible to the general public, the course should be of particular interest to students of Islamic studies (history, societies and, even, religion) as well as to professionals of pastoral care. Isn’t indeed the whole matter about healing a serial killer of women by telling him more and more amazing stories? Class will meet during 10 days: from Tuesday January 2, 2018 to Saturday 6, and from Monday January 8 to Friday 12, 6 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Each of these classes will have two parts: A) Lecture; B) Discussion of the required readings. The teacher can be contacted at [email protected]. Office hours TBA. Course Objectives 1) Students should be able to find their way around in the major reference works on, and versions of, the Arabian Nights. 2) In relation to selected stories read in the Arabic text and various English versions, students will be introduced to translation with its challenges: philological, socio-cultural, religious. 3) They are expected to gain an acquaintance with the ways the Arabian Nights corpus developed, the historical and cultural contexts in which it evolved, the key figures of its passage to the West, the literary, artistic and other socio-cultural phenomena it crystallized into, in Islam and in the West. 4) They should be able to benefit from the methodological approach adopted in these classes and apply it for their own studies and/or research projects. Seminary Learning Outcomes To demonstrate the ability to relate theory and practice in the social contexts in which a religion’s communities exist (MARS 5). Competence to teach this area in religious communities and academia (PhD 3). Course Requirements 1) It is recommended (but not pre-required) that the student arrive at the first class already able to read Arabic. A general knowledge about the religion of Islam, as well as about the history and geography of Muslim peoples would also be useful. They should already have read some of the Arabian Nights tales, especially those included in the required readings. They should also be able to find their way around in the major reference tools for Islamic Studies (Encyclopaedia of Islam, Index Islamicus…). 2) Daily preparations and readings (THE ASSIGNMENTS ARE ESSENTIAL), class participation, final presentation and paper. 3) Attendance in class is required. If you know that you will be unable to attend a class please inform the professor in advance. Missing two classes will result in an automatic lowering of your final grade by 30%. Missing three or more classes will result in automatic failure of the course. 4) PhD students are moreover expected to read a book concerning the Nights chosen in consultation with the professor from the general references listed in this syllabus and to use it in their final paper. The final grade will be based upon the following: 1) Active class participation (50%). 2) The presentations during Class X (January 12). Each student, or group of students, will be responsible for the oral presentation and discussion of a topic related to the Arabian Nights. This oral presentation (30%) will be based on an original written research paper (8 pages maximum, 20%. For PhD students, 15 pages), to be submitted to the teacher, and circulated on paper in the class, before the presentation. The topic should be chosen by the end of class V in consultation with the professor. * All written work is to conform to the seminary writing guidelines, which can be found online at: http://www.hartsem.edu/student/forms/researchpaperguide.pdf. It must use the transliteration system given in class I. It must be run through a grammar and spell-check program or read by the writing tutor if necessary before submission. The Hartford Seminary Grading Guidelines will be the standard of evaluation for work in the course. IMPORTANT: Plagiarism, the failure to give proper credit for the words and ideas of another person, whether published or unpublished, is strictly prohibited. All written material submitted by students must be their own original work; where the words and ideas of others are used they must be acknowledged. Credit will not be given for work containing plagiarism, and plagiarism will lead to failure of the course. Please see the Hartford Seminary Catalogue for the full plagiarism policy. General references ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM (EI2), INDEX ISLAMICUS… ENDRESS, Gerhard, Islam: An Historical Introduction. Translated by Carole HILLENBRAND (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002 – 2d ed.), viii & 301 p., ISBN 0-7486-1620-9. RUTHVEN, Malise, with Azim NANJI, Historical Atlas of the Islamic World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 208 p., 0-19-860997-3. HEWER, Christopher, Understanding Islam: The first ten steps (London: SCM Press, 2006), xi & 244 p. 0334-04032-9. MACDONALD, Duncan Black, Alf laila wa-laila, in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Supplement (Leiden: E. J. Brill - London: Luzac & Co, 1938), p. 17-21. LITTMANN, E., Alf layla wa-layla, in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Vol. I (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986), p. 358- 364. MARZOLPH, Ulrich (ed.), The Arabian Nights Reader (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2006), xvi & 373 p., 0-8143- 3259-5. —, Arabian Nights, in Encyclopaedia of Islam Three (Leiden - Boston: Brill, 2007-1), p. 137-145. —, (ed.), The Arabian Nights in Transnational Perspective (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007), xvi & 362 p., 978-0-8143-3287-0. MARZOLPH, Ulrich & VAN LEEUWEN, Richard, The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia. With the collaboration of Hassan WASSOUF. With fourteen introductory essays by internationally renowned specialists, 2 vols. (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004), xxvii & 921 p., 1-57607-204-5. IRWIN, Robert, The Arabian Nights: A Companion (London: Penguin Books, 1994), 344 p., 0-14-009863-1. —, Visions of the Jinn: Illustrations of the Arabian Nights (London: The Arcadian Library - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 256 p., 978-0-19-959035-3. MENGES, Jeff A. (ed.), Arabian Nights Illustrated. Art of Dulac, Folkard, Parrish and Others (Mineola: Dover Publications, 2008), xiv & 128 p., 978-0-486-46522-7. JOYARD, Élodie, & BOUFFARD, Anne-Alexandra (eds), Les mille et une nuits (Paris: Hazan - Institut du Monde Arabe, 2012), 400 p., 978-2-7541-0654-2. MAKDISI, Saree & NUSSBAUM, Felicity (eds), The Arabian Nights in Historical Context. Between East and West (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), xiii & 337 p., 978-0-19-955415-7. GERHARDT, Mia I., The Art of Story-telling. A Literary Study of the Thousand and One Nights (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1963), xi & 500 p. PJ7737.G4 1963 PINAULT, David, Story-telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992), xi & 262 p., 90-04-09530-6. WARNER, Marina, Stranger Magic. Charmed States & the Arabian Nights (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013), xx & 540 p., 978-0-674-75585-0. BEAUMONT, Daniel, Slave of Desire. Sex, Love, and Death in The 1001 Nights (Madison - Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press - London: Associated University Presses, 2002), 190 p., 0-8386-3874-0. BRASEY, Édouard, Les sept portes des Mille et Une Nuits (Paris: Éditions du Chêne - Hachette, 2003), 184 p., 2842774655. DEHOÏ, Enver F., L’érotisme des “Mille et Une Nuits” (Paris: Jean-Jacques Pauvert, « Bibliothèque internationale d’érotologie », 1961), 231 p. Web ressources http://expositions.bnf.fr/1001nuits/arret/papl.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~umarzol/arabiannights-a.html — An Arabian Nights Bibliography, by U. MARZSOLPH. http://journalofthenights.blogspot.com/2009/05/current-arabic-versions-of-nights.html CLASS SCHEDULE Class I. Tuesday January 2, 2018. INTRODUCTION General references: MACDONALD, Duncan B., A Bibliographical and Literary Study of the First Appearance of the Arabian Nights in Europe, in Library Quarterly 2 (1932), p. 387-420. ANONYMOUS, The Story of the Arabian Nights. How the Wonderful Tales were Told, Translated, and made Known to the Nations of the World, in The Mentor, 10/2 (Springfield, Ohio: Crowell Publishing Company, March 1922), p. 13-18 & 23-28. CHAUVIN, Victor, Bibliographie des ouvrages arabes ou relatifs aux Arabes publiés dans l’Europe chrétienne de 1810 à 1885, 12 vols (Liège: H. Vaillant-Carmanne, 1892-1922). Especially vol. IV-VII. Les Mille et une nuits (1900-1903), 228 p., XII & 297 p., 204 p., 192 p.; vol. VIII. Syntipas (1904), 219 p.; vol. IX (1905), Varia, 136 p. MAHDI, Muhsin, The Thousand and One Nights (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995), vii & 277 p., 90-0410204-3. — P. 11-86. MARZOLPH, U., Re-locating the Arabian Nights, in Orientalia Lovanensia Analecta 87 (1998), p. 155-163. ABDEL-HALIM, Mohamed, Antoine Galland, sa vie et son œuvre (Paris: A.G. Nizet, 1964). BAUDEN, Frédéric, Nouveaux Éclaircissements sur la vie et l’œuvre d’Antoine Galland (1646−1715), in Journal Asiatique, 289 (2001), p. 1-66. DOBIE, Madeleine, Translation in the Contact Zone: Antoine Galland’s Mille et une nuits: contes arabes, in Saree MAKDISI & Felicity NUSSBAUM (eds.), The Arabian Nights in Historical Context.