In the Arabian Nights, the kings Shahzaman & Shahrayar were cuckolded and raped. They resolved never again to marry. There’s more to learn from Shahrazad. … Read the post cuckolded and raped: forestalling the fate of Shahzaman & Shahrayar
Structural differences between the frame tales of the Decameron and 1001 Nights plausibly relate to differences between oral tales and written literature. … Read the post frame tales: comparison of Decameron and 1001 Nights
Recastings of the weeping-dog tale across western Eurasia for more than a millennium indicate popular belief in men’s foolishness and women’s guile. … Read the post weeping-dog tale from ancient India traverses western Eurasia
An early twelfth-century rosewater bottle from the Islamic world indicates rosewater’s sensual value. … Read the post rosewater for sensual revival in the ancient world
The story of Aziz and Aziza from the Arabian Nights outrageously re-arranges the romance of Daphnis and Chloe from an ancient Greek novel. … Read the post Aziz and Aziza in love with Daphnis and Chloe
Apollonius of Tyre, like Arabian Nights, is patterned text. A medical student’s affair with a girl’s corpse is an entertaining relational-textual feature. … Read the post Apollonius of Tyre through Arabian Nights
Al-Asma’i, an exemplar of adab in the early Abbasid caliphate, contrasted Bedouin love poetry, not with courtly poetry, but with sex. … Read the post courtly and Bedouin love poetry in the early Islamic world