Arabian Nights (RS-633)

Course Details:

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 University'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?

Course fulfills the following curricular requirements:
MAIRS - Islamic Studies: Beliefs and Practices
MAIRS - Interreligious Studies: Elective

Instructor(s):

• Yahya Michot