Overview

"Western tales of the marvelous and the strange have dominated much of the narrative literatures of the premodern Muslim world. The quintessential collection, The Thousand and One Days, was first published in the early eighteenth century by French Orientalist scholar François Pétis de la Croix. Research has found that The Thousand and One Days actually had an earlier start, as it is an adapted translation of a fifteenth-century, anonymous, Ottoman Turkish collection titled Relief after Hardship, which is, in turn, the enlarged translation of an equally anonymous Persian collection of tales that likely dates back to as early as the thirteenth century. Ulrich Marzolph now provides a detailed assessment of the Ottoman Turkish compilation and its Persian precursor. Based upon Andreas Tietze’s unpublished German translation of the Ottoman Turkish Ferec ba'd es-sidde, it traces the origins of the collection’s various tales in premodern Persian and Arabic literatures and its impact on Middle Eastern and world tradition and folklore. As the concept of ""relief after hardship"" has the same basic structure as the European fairy tale, Marzolph contends that the early reception of these tales from Muslim narrative tradition might well have had an inspiring impact on the nascent genre of the European fairy tale as we know it today."

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9780814351154

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Reviews

"A fascinating glimpse into the trilingual literary field(s) of the Islamicate world centred in Istanbul in the seventeenth century . . . in many ways a liberating study.--Wen-Chin Ouyang ""The Times Literary Supplement"" (3/29/2019 12:00:00 AM) At last, a scientific tool of remarkable precision for researchers who work on French Eastern tales of the eighteenth century. [This monograph provides] access to an Eastern source analyzed and placed in the great Arab, Turkish, and Persian narrative tradition.--Raymonde Robert ""professor emerita at University of Lorraine"" (11/30/2016 12:00:00 AM) The book is competently constructed, well bound, and presents a smart appearance for a reasonable price. Relief after Hardship will make a fine addition to the library of anyone with an interest in Near Eastern literature and narrative and is an essential purchase for those whose research engages specifically with the three textual traditions it explores. In the book's preface, the author details how the project itself found its way to him from the late Hungarian scholar Györgi Hazai who took up the mantle from his late colleague, Austrian scholar Andreas Tietze. I can think of no more fitting eulogy to two distinguished scholars; there is no question that both men would be honored by the admirable manner in which Marzolph has treated the material.--Dorian Juric ""Western Folklore"" (9/1/2019 12:00:00 AM) This book, with its precious and detailed summaries of the Ferec's twisty tales, its indices helping readers to locate motifs and parallels in the summaries, and several lists and tables comparing the contents of the most relevant tale collections, will serve as an essential and generous reference for further scholarship on this and many related narrative traditions.--Zina Maleh ""Journal of the American Oriental Society"" (11/1/2019 12:00:00 AM) Relief after Hardship represents just the beginning of Marzolph's work on this important collection.--Andrew Teverson ""Gramarye: The Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction"" (11/1/2019 12:00:00 AM) Marzolph's new book very convincingly shows the importance of the Ferec ba'd es-sidde collection in its own right and offers at the same time a glimpse into some of the debates pertaining to the literature of Middle Eastern Muslim folktales in general. Relief after Hardship is indeed an entertaining, though demanding, read. The tales' summaries and comments constitute a lasting encyclopedia, which is a most welcome gift to the community of scholars, as well as the complete bibliography and indexes. This book, with a beautiful figurative illustration on the cover, is certainly destined to give an international audience a better understanding of the rich and varied folktale literature of the Muslim world.--Pierre-Emmanuel Moog ""Marvels & Tales"" (1/1/2018 12:00:00 AM) No western scholar has contributed more to the study of the folk narrative of the Muslim world in the past thirty years than Ulrich Marzolph. His Relief after Hardship is an example of good judgment, sensitivity, and scholarly thoroughness that entertains and edifies at the same time.--Mahmoud Omidsalar ""consulting editor in folklore for Encyclopaedia Iranica"" (11/30/2016 12:00:00 AM) The book is a breakthrough in research on the origin of one of the world's most influential collections of stories. At the same time, it is a concise but exhaustive encyclopedia on these stories, their predecessors, translations, and adaptations. Indispensable for everyone interested in narrative literature.--Johannes Thomann ""senior research associate, University of Zurich"" (11/30/2016 12:00:00 AM) Ulrich Marzolph offers an erudite study of the relationship between the Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and French versions of the classic story collection known as 1001 Days in the West. His research clearly demonstrates that the study of not easily accessible Middle Eastern folktales will continue to enrich and reformulate our knowledge about the European tale of magic.--Helga Anetshofer ""lecturer in Ottoman and Turkish, University of Chicago"" (11/30/2016 12:00:00 AM)"

Author Information

Ulrich Marzolph is a retired professor of Islamic studies at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen, Germany. His field of expertise is the narrative culture of the Muslim world. He is the author of 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition and the editor of The Arabian Nights Reader and The Arabian Nights in Transnational Perspective (all Wayne State University Press).

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