One Thousand and One Nights . . Heritage and a New Reading مقاله

خلاصه ماشینی:

This return to our heritage, with this creative and innovative spirit, does not mean destruction, rejection, or settling scores; rather, it means revealing the truth and its clarity, far from memorized sayings, cold reports, and official histories that were subjected to strict censorship in different eras to align with the views and goals of those in power—whether they were righteous and beneficial to the people and society, or vile tyrants for whom life meant wealth, splendor, and pleasure, even if surrounded by lakes of human blood day and night! Arab folk literature has not received the due artistic and formal value it deserves, and despite its long history, it has remained marginalized, outcast, and far from treatment, study, research, and investigation for many reasons, foremost of which are: the lack of interest from those in authority—governors, princes, kings, and men of letters—because they all considered it literature for the commoners, celebrating vagabonds, eccentrics, concubines, and singing girls, imaginary battles, rituals of magic and sorcery, arts of deception and maneuvering, false cleverness (from al-shatara), and tales whose myths do not qualify them to be written down and recorded on papers. The Arab reality at that time, during the era of al-Rashid, accepted the book and its contents of nocturnal tales, events, news, and stories; rather, it appealed to rulers and governors, so the memorizers, storytellers, and scribes imitated it, adding many stories, news, and wonders to it, such that (Hazar Afsaneh) became merely the nucleus for a vast, overflowing book named (One Thousand and One Nights).