ARABIC LITERARY REFINEMENT AND THE "ARABIAN NIGHTS": THE SEVENTEENTH-

CENTURY NEGLECTED CASE OF AL-SHIRBĪNĪ'S "HAZZ AL-QUḤŪF"

Author(s): Amir Lerner
Source: Quaderni di Studi Arabi , 2015, NUOVA SERIE, Vol. 10, Islamic Sicily: Philological
and Literary Essays (2015), pp. 191-209
Published by: Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino

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 ARABIC LITERARY REFINEMENT AND THE ARABIAN NIGHTS:
THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY NEGLECTED CASE OF AL-SKRBĪNTS
hazzal-quhûf'

Amir Lerner

(TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY)

¿ft'****

Medieval Arabic literary criticism in general did not hold the Arabian Nights in a
very high esteem. Indeed, classical authors only very occasionally mention the
collection, and yet, when a reference is made, it is accompanied with a negative
tone. Furthermore, much, if not most, of the literary ingredients of this ever
changing corpus were not eventually considered to be of a refined taste. Unusual
in this respect and intriguing is the still un-dealt with full quotation of one of the
Nights most famous tales about "The Lame Young Man and the Barber" (known
also as "The Tale of the Tailor") made by the seventeenth-century Egyptian
author Yùsuf al-Shirblnl in his adab piece Hazz al-Quhüf bi-Sharh Qasid Abi
Shādūf.
The following's goal is to examine al-Shirbīnī's yet unexplored reference to the
Arabian Nights , and to inspect what seems to be an exceptional view in this case in
light of classical Arabic literary refinement and other popular literary materials
mentioned by him in his Hazz al-Quhüf.

Medieval scholars' attitude toward the Arabian Nights

Few would deny that the Arabian Nights occupy today a place of honor in the
heritage of classical literature, not only due to the pride of place it occupies in
world literature, but also to the considerable importance it has even in the native
lands of this complex in Arabic. While it is true that in the twentieth-century
this work still faced some opposition from certain circles in the Arab world, other
forces arose which insisted on its dissemination and acceptance.1 Muslim
readership or intelligence in Arabic had actually begun to show some interest in
the collection since the beginning of the nineteenth-century. According to the

I am grateful to The Irene Haimos Chair for Arabic Literature at Tel Aviv University -
incumbent Prof. Uri Rubin, whose support enabled the completion of this article.
1 See, e.g., the opinion of Suhayr al-Qalamāwī in an interview held by Rajā' ťAbd Allah,
"Suhayr al-Qalamāwī: Anā wa-l-Hijāb wa -Alf Layla wa-Layla" al-Musawwar 3166 (1985),
pp. 20-21; J. Sadan, Et il y eut d'autres nuits : Contes inédits des Mille et une nuits, Paris:
Entrelacs, 2004, pp. 16-17.

QSA n.s. 10 (2015), pp. 191-209

© Istituto per rOriente C.A. Nallino, Roma

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German voyager and explorer of the Levant Ulrich Jasper Seetzen (d. 1811), the
important Egyptian historian cAbd al-Rahmān al-Jabartī (d. 1822) was studying or
working on the Arabian Nights .2 He was probably cooperating with the orientalist,
collector of manuscripts and dragoman of the French consulate in Cairo Jean
Louis Asselin de Cherville (d. 1822), who was planning to prepare an essay on the
Nights composition.3 One should also mention the obvious, that in its native land
the Arabian Nights was first published in the Arabic original in the year 1835
CE/1251 AH by the government press in Bùlâq (today in Cairo). That is to be
explained - among other things - by readership demand, curiosity and interest
(there had been of course two previous editions of the Arabian Nights in Arabic
printed outside the Arab world, the first - and partial - Calcutta edition from
1814-1818, and the Breslau edition from 1825-1843).4
Yet, modern traces of opposition to the Nights do indeed reflect long-standing
doubts among Arab intellectualism toward this type of literary material, which
found its way relatively easily into Europe through translations since the
beginning of the eighteenth-century (initially by Antione Gallands - d. 1715 -
partial translation into French), but fared rather differently in the lands where it
took shape in Arabic: it is the accepted view that the Arabian Nights , most of the
materials that would eventually become part of it, as well as similar materials,
were rejected by Muslim scholars already nearly at the beginning of Arabic
medieval prose in the last centuries of the first millennium CE, down to the
beginning of modern times, and to a certain extent, as already noted, even into
modern times. The following is a demonstration of this negative attitude, but
only briefly and without going into details as to the question of circumstances in
which such attitude has evolved, since this issue has already been addressed in the
past,5 albeit from another perspective.

2 M. Mahdi, The Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla wa-Layla) from the Earliest Known
Sources, Leiden: E J. Brill, 1984-1994, vol. 3, p. 98.
3 Ibid., pp. 97-101.
4 Note as well that E.W. Lane, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern
Egyptians, London: John Murray, 1860, p. 414, attests (he visited Egypt in the 1820s and
1830s, and published his impressions in 1836) that "... those who listen to it are mostly
persons of some education," referring to the audiences of the Antariyya (or Anãtira, i.e.,
the reciters of Sirat Antar Ibn Shaddãd ), and by insinuation also to the audiences of The
Thousand and One Nights reciters.
5 In this connection, it is worth noting the important work that was done recently by A.
Chraïbi, Les Mille et une nuits: Histoire du texte et classification des contes , Paris:
L'Harmattan, 2008, esp. pp. 23-49. See also, e.g., E. Littmann, Die Erzählungen aus den
Tausendundein Nächten, Wiesbaden: Insel Verlag, 1953, vol. 6, pp. 660-665; N. Abbott, "A
Ninth-Century Fragment of the Thousand Nights': New Light on the Early History of
the Arabian Nights, " Journal of Near Eastern Studies 8 (1949), esp. pp. 149-158; R. Irwin,
The Arabian Nights: A Companion, London: The Penguin Press, 1994, pp. 48-50; M.
192

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 A quite well-known anecdote, related in the first person by the writer
Muhammad b. Yahyã Abū Bakr al-Sūlī (d. 947 CE)6 describes a surprise check of
the texts which prince al-Rādī, later the twentieth Abbasid caliph (r. 934-940),
was studying: servants were sent by his grandmother Shaghab (d. 933 CE), in
order to inquire into a suspicion that "the prince spends much time perusing
inappropriate things." They took away all the written materials that they found,
which however turned out to consist only of works on language, history and
poetry. Indeed, his teacher, the writer al-Sūlī himself, who was present when this
happened, remained quite unperturbed. To the contrary, they will see now, he
says, that the study materials contain nothing that is unseemly. After a few hours
the servants return the confiscated books and al-Rādī angrily tells them that he is
not one of those who reads only things like "the wonders of the sea, the story
about Sindbād and the one about the cat and the mouse." Indeed, he adds, the
texts that he peruses contain only useful matter about "tradition, religious law,
poetry, language, history and the books of the sages."
The sharp contrast reflected in al-Sùli s description cannot be ignored: on one
hand there are books that contain knowledge about a number of classical medieval
Muslim sciences, while on the other legends and proverbs, which at the very least
were absorbed in different times into the less official corpuses. On the one hand
there are the fields of higher wisdom, of the official accepted literature, and on
the other there are written materials whose nature was such that they were not
accepted by decent delicate taste. That is one reason why the latter evolved in
Arabic among the less high classes, which after all also thirsted for entertainment
and pleasure. Small wonder, then, that the Arabian Nights , that endlessly flexible
literary framework, that underwent constant change and whose history is so
involved that its students remain confused to this day, assimilated at least some of
these perhaps inferior materials at some time or another. After all, this corpus
does not lack such stories about sailors and adventures at sea,7 animal proverbs
and stories about cats and mice. One well-known story about a cat and a mouse
appears in the ancient Persian or Indian-Persian story cycle about "King Jalťad
and his Minister Shimās."8 This was an independent cycle that only later was

Zakeri, Persian Wisdom in Arabic Garb : Alt b. cUbayda al-Rayhãnl (D, 219/834) and His
Jatuãhir al-Kilam wa-Farã3id al-Hikamy Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 127-131.
6 Akhbār al-Rādī bi-Allāh wa-l-Muttaqī li-Allãhy ed. J. Heyworth-Dunne, London: Luzac,
1935, pp. 5-6. See also, e.g., A. Mez, Die Renaissance des Islâmsy Heidelberg: Carl Winters
Universitätsbuchhandlung, 1922, p. 8; Abbott, aA Ninth-Century Fragment", p. 155.
7 U. Marzolph & R. van Leeuwen, The Arabian Nights Encyclopediay Santa Barbara: ABC-
CLIO, 2004, vol. 2, pp. 697-698.
8 Alf Layla wa-Laylay Búlãq: Matba'at Bûlâq, 1251 AH (henceforth AlfLaylay Búlãq I), vol. 2,
pp. 462-463. On mice and cats in medieval Arabic literature, from Kalila wa-Dimna to later
oral folk literature, see J. Sadan, "Arabic Tom 'n Jerry Compositions: A Popular Composition
193

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inserted into the Arabian Nights . And of course there is the story of Sindbād and
the seven viziers (referred to by al-Rādī), and descriptions of the wiles of women,
that very widespread Indian-Persian framework that made its way into Arabic, at
first apparently as an independent composition, which later became an integral
part of the Arabian Nights ,9
Now this episode in al-Sùlfs book is not alone in its criticism toward these
very same materials. At about the same time The Book of Sindbād, as well as The
Book of JalVãd (or Firza) and Shimãs are mentioned by the well-known historian
cAll b. al-Husayn al-Mascúdl (d. 956 CE) in a literary context that reflects a clear
negative attitude of revulsion and dismissal.10
Somewhat later this attitude is summarized quite well in the following
comments attributed to the Shāficī jurist cAlI b. Muhammad al-Māwardī (d. 1058
CE), in which the author calls to keep rulers' children away from such materials:11

He must learn reports on raids [aTmaghāzī]y on the lives of personalities and the
biographies of the caliphs. But he should not learn about the lives of lovers and books
of legends [al-afiãnatãt] such as The Book of Sindbād and HazãrAfiãn [see below] and

on a War between Cats and Mice and a Maqarna on Negotiations and Concluding Peace
between a Cat and a Mouse," Israel Oriental Studies 19 (1999), pp. 173-205.
9 AlfLayla , Bùlâq I, vol. 2, pp. 52-86.
10 Murüj al-Dhahab wa-Ma'ãdin al-Jawhary ed. Ch. Pellai, Beirut: Manshūrāt al-Jānna 1-
Lubnãniyya, 1966, vol. 2, p. 406. Although explicit criticism is not directed at these two
books by the bibliographer Muhammad b. Ishaq b. al-Nadlm (d. 987 CE), he mentions
them in a chapter dealing with al-asmãr wa-l-khurãfit (see below), accompanied generally
with a negative tone. See his Kitãb al-Fihństy ed. G. Flügel, Leipzig: F.C.W. Vogel, 1871-
1872, vol. 1, pp. 304-306, vol. 2, p. 150, note 4 to p. 306. Although Hamza 1-Isbahānī (d.
after 961 CE), Ta'rīkh Sinī Mulük al-Ard wa-l-Anbiyā' Beirut: Manshūrāt Dār Maktabat
al-Hayāh, 1961, p. 40, restricts himself to the statement that such books are today found
"in the hands of the people," it may be interpreted that he actually intimates at least some
measure of criticism beyond the mere statement of fact. Furthermore, the relatively late
author Ahmad b. ťAbd al-Wahhāb al-Nuwayri, (d. 1332), Nihãyat al-Arab fi Funūn al-
Adaby Cairo: al-Mu'assasa 1-Misriyya l-'Āmma li-l-Ta'līf wal-Tarjama wa-l-Tibä'a wa-l-
Nashr, 1964, vol. 14, p. 322, mentions The Book of Sindbād. However, although this
mention is not attended by a critical tone, it should be noted that it is located next to the
description of another book, dealing with medicine and pharmacology, which earns much
praise. Al-Nuwayri's obvious enthusiasm for the book on medicine reflects rather
negatively on The Book of Sindbād. An exception may be found in cAll b. Mūsā Ibn Täwüs,
(d. 1266), Far aj aTMahmūm fi Ta3rīkh 'Ulama3 al- Nujümy Najaf: Manshūrāt al-Matba'a 1-
Haydariyya, 1368 AH, p. 105, in which uTa3rīkh al-SindābācT (sic!) is mentioned together
with such sciences as mathematics and astrology. One should take into account the fact
that Ibn Täwüs was a Shťl scholar, who therefore might had considered this Indian -
Persian work a store of wisdom which any cultured person should know.
11 Kitāb Nasīhat al-Mulüky Baghdad: Dār al-Shuun al-Thaqāfiyya l-'Amma, 1986, pp. 306-
307.

194

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 their like. Let him seek knowledge from those books [i.e., maghāzī , siyar , etc.] and all
the knowledge that they contain, and he will acquire more wisdom than he will from
them [i.e., al-afiãnatãt].12 In addition, this will grant him the status of a scholar, in
his faith he will take the place among the sages of religious law, he will have success
among the people of his kingdom and his community, and he will be outstanding in
the wisdom of statecraft. However, from all those [i.e., al-afiãnatãt , The Book of
Sindbãd and Hazãr Afiãn] he will obtain very little. If he will by chance think that
these books of legends contain truth and justice, that will be silly and foolish on his
part and he will remain ignorant of the roots of his faith and lacking knowledge in his
religion and its benefits. None of these books, or spending nights in hearing tales [al-
asmãr ] will help him in the wisdom of statecraft, nor will they give him any help in
his discussions on faith, his debates in gatherings, and his dealing with the complaints
of his flock [...].

As to the Hazãr afiãn (or Afiãnay Afiãnah) mentioned by al-Māwardī, this lost
Sassanid story collection is considered one of the early core sources of the Arabian
Nights. U And indeed, in medieval Arabic "high literature" one finds quite a few
uncomplimentary comments about this work.14 Thus, for example, it has been
attacked, in addition to the above-mentioned comments by al-Māwardī, also by
al-Mascūdī who associates it with silly fabrications,15 and the tenth-century
bibliographer Ibn al-Nadlm who writes that it is nothing but inferior and of poor
quality. Abū Hayyân al-Tawhidl (d. the first quarter of the eleventh-century)
implies that it is full with lies and nonsense, fitting for the taste of youths and
women.17

12 Despite the fact that the various editions of this book, including the present one (Baghdad,
1986), the Alexandria edition (Mu'assasat Shabāb al-Jāmi'a, 1988, pp. 215-216) and the
Kuwait edition (Maktabat al-Falāh, 1983, pp. 169-170) are all based on a single manuscript
from the end of the sixteenth-century, this difficult sentence appears in somewhat
different versions. It would appear though, that the meaning is as translated here.
13 See the summation of Abbott, "A Ninth-Century Fragment", p. 163.
14 An exemption can be mentioned: when Abd Allāh b. cAbd al- Azīz al-Baghdādī (fi. ninth
or tenth-century?), in his treatise to secretaries Kitãb al-Kuttãb wa-Sifat al-Dawãt wa-T
Qalam wa-Tasrifuhã , relates to Abd Allah b. al-Muqaffa's list of translations of Persian
compositions into Arabic, he includes Hazãr Afiãna in it (!). See D. Sourdel, "Le Livre des
secràaires de Abd Allāh al-Baghdādī," Bulletin d'Études Orientales 14 (1952-1954), p. 140.
Anyhow, he does not criticize it what so ever and locates it in a chapter dedicated to uAsmã}
al-Kuttãb al-Ladhīna Taqaddamü bi-TBalãgha wa-l-Llm bi-TKitãba.n Yet it might be
worthwhile suggesting that writing to secretaries was influenced clearly by Persian tradition
and thought and sometimes by shucübiyya considerations.
15 Murüj al-Dhahaby vol. 2, p. 406.
16 Al-Fihristy vol. 1, p. 304.
17 Al-Imtã( wa-TMu'änasüy Cairo: Matba'at Lajnat al-Ta'līf wal-Taijama wal-Nashr, 1939,
vol. 1, p. 23.
195

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 Furthermore, this ancient Persian composition is also attacked by the language
expert and adīb Muhammad b. al-Husayn b. cUmar al-Yamanl (d. 1009 CE). He
devoted his Mudãhãt Amthãl Kitãb Kalila wa-Dimna to criticism of cAbd Allah b.
al-Muqaffac and the status which his book Kalila wa-Dimna with its ancient
proverbs came to enjoy.19 In his introduction al-Yamanl bemoans the fact that
Kalila wa-Dimna became so popular among the readers of his times that they
learn it by heart and teach it to their children, while ignoring the poetry and
wisdom literature of the Arabs.20 Taking a clear anti -shu'ūbī stand, he rejects the
claim that the book is of Indian-Persian origin and denies as false the convention
that Ibn al-Muqaffac translated it from Persian into Arabic. He clearly intends to
demonstrate to his readers that the wisdom incorporated in Kalila wa-Dimna was
in its entirety taken from ancient Arab wisdom, from pre-Islamic and early
Islamic poetry. The book has nothing to do with Indian-Persian wisdom, and Ibn
al-Muqaffac did not translate it from Persian; rather, his composition consists of
materials stolen from the Arab legacy in order to aggrandize the Persian at the
expense of the Arab heritage. In order to prove his thesis he quotes one maxim of
Kalila wa-Dimna after another and compares each of them with equivalent words
of wisdom as reflected in his interpretation of ancient Arabic verses.
Now, leaving aside the doubts that have been cast by some scholars on the
authenticity of the verses quoted by al-Yamanl,21 the author does not restrict
himself to a criticism of Ibn al-Muqaffa and a reexamination of the sources and
history of Kalila wa-Dimna . Further into his introduction he also makes the
following ostensibly minor comment on HazārAfiān :22

18 About whom little is known, except that he had for some time lived in Egypt and learned
in al-Shām, and that he had composed also Akhbār al-Nahwiyyin (or Akhbãr al-Nuhãt wa-
Tabaqãtihim). See the summation in C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litter atury
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1937-1949, Sl, p. 202; Muhammad b. al-Husayn Abú ťAbd Allah al-
Yamanl, Kitãb Mudãhãt Amthãl Kitãb Kalila wa-Dimna , Beirut: Dār al-Thaqàfa, 1961, p. V.
19 He was not the first to do so. Much earlier, the great humanist and anti -shu(übiyya writer
'Amr b. Bahr Abú cUthmān al-Jāhiz (d. 869) made a well-known comment about Kalila
wa-Dimna in his epistle against clerks (the clerical profession was well-established in
Persian culture, and was constantly attacked by al-Jāhiz), Dhamm Akhlãq al-Kuttãby in
RasãHl al-Jãhiz, ed. 'Abd al-Salām Hârún, Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1991, vol. 2, pp. 191-192, in
which he accuses the bureaucracy of shallowness and excessive pride. He argues by
ridiculing that by making the "Daftar Kalila wa-Dimna the treasury of their wisdom (in
addition to other types of Persian gnomic literature) these clerks considered themselves no
less illustrious men of thought and action than some of the most prominent Muslims.
20 Al-Yamanl, Mudãhãty pp. 2, 7.
21 Muhammad Yúsuf Najm, the editor of the current edition of the Mudãhãty suspects that
all the verses were invented by al-Yamanl. See ibid.y pp. vii-viii.
22 Ibid.y pp. 3, 8.
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 I would like to draw the attention of wise people to the similarity between the maxims
of this book [Kalila wa-Dimna] and the treasures of this kind in the poems of the
ancients from the jãhiliyya and the [early] Muslims, who did not have an opportunity to
translate the wisdom of their [cultured] predecessors, since they did not leave their
deserts for settled lands, nor did they read books of statecraft and biographies [kutub al-
siyãsa wa-l-ńyar ] . I managed to pick out the sayings in Kalila wa-Dimna out of [Ibn al-
Muqafïa s] verbiage and his stories, based on these sayings. What was left of it was a
mere ten pages, and all the rest was, to use Allàhs words, "As for the scum, it vanishes
as jetsam, and what profits men abides in the earth."23 Next to each maxim I placed a
similar pre-Islamic or Arab Muslim verse, with the poet's name and ancestry, so that no
one ignorant about poetry or poets could suspect that I ascribed to anyone something
that was not his out of a desire to champion something or to provide evidence for a
refutation. I restricted myself to the first instance I found in every case, without going

into the entire selection and without any attempt at exhaustiveness. So I skipped over all
the prose and proverbs of the Arab sages, for Abü cUbayd al-Qāsim b. Sallām saved me
the effort thanks to the book that he composed for cAbd Allāh b. Tāhir,25 in which he
included a thousand-and-one maxims, also as a comparison [mudãhãt] with those found
in the book Hazãr Afiãn. However, if one happens to come upon an excellent maxim
which the reader will not easily find in that book, I shall quote it in order to arrive at a
more complete usefulness, God willing.

Al-YamanI thus claims that just as his book strives to discover the sources of
Kalila wa-Dimna in ancient Arab wisdom rather than in Persia or India, as Ibn al-
Muqaffac does, so also al-Qāsim b. Sallām's book, which deals with Arabic
maxims, tries to show that the sources of Hazãr Afiãn are not Persian at all, but
Arab. Whether this is true or not, al-Yamanī here is clearly critical of this
composition, which puts it in the same category as Kalila wa-Dimnay which, as he
claims, are filled with plagiarisms and falsifications, for their authors do not give
credit where credit is due, and ignore the Arabian legacy in order to aggrandize
and glorify Persian culture.
Hazãr Afiãn , which is, as mentioned above, considered one of the early core
sources of the Arabian Nights , seems also to have contained some early version of
the familiar framework story of the Arabian Nightsy about King Shahriyar and
Shahrzād, the viziers daughter. Classical writers such as al-Mascûdï and Ibn al-
Nadlm did not refrain from attacking this story (which was apparently taken from

23 Q 13:17. The translation is of A.J. Arberry, The Koran Interpretedy London: George Allen
& Unwin, 1955, vol. 1, p. 269.
24 A philologist, lexicographer, collector of sayings, Qur an and hadith exegist and expert on
Islamic jurisprudence, d. 838 CE.
25 Ibn Sallām's patron and a well-known learned man in his own right. Served as the
governor of Khurāsān under the seventh Abbasid caliph al-Mamùn (r. 813-833). He was
the son of the founder of the Tahiri dynasty. Died c. 845 CE.
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ancient Indian sources in Sanskrit)26 on the same occasion they attacked the
Hazãr Afiãn itself (see above). In some cases writers even attacked the title Alf
Layla wa-Layla or Kitãb Alf Layla wa-Layla : thus al-Mascùdl associates the title
Alf Layla wa-Layla (the people call by this name Hazãr Afiãnah, he notes) with
poor or kitsch made-up stories;27 the late Egyptian writer Ahmad Shihāb al-Dīn
al-Qalyùbï (d. 1659), who was the teacher of al-Shirblnl (!), probably at al-
Azhar,28 states while giving in brief the Nights framework story, that he cannot
find in the "Kitãb Alf Layla wa-Layla" anything but fabricated lies ("wa-kulluhu
kidhb mukhtalaq").29
Finally, as to other literary materials that were absorbed into the Arabian
Nights, one may add for instance, that the historian Ismācīl b. cUmar b. Kathīr (d.
1373) criticizes vigorously sīrat al-Danaf 30 Stories about the semi-historical rogue
Ahmad al-Danaf circulated as a kind of independent romance in Muslim societies
no later than the fourteenth-century CE, and were later taken in one form or
another into the Arabian Nights.31

26 E. Cosquin, aLe prologue cadre des Mille et une nuits, les légendes perses et le livre
d'Esther," Revue Biblique 6 (1909), pp. 13-15.
27 Al-Mascùdl, Murüj al-Dhahab , vol. 2, p. 406 and note 3.
28 Yùsuf b. Muhammad al-Shirblnl, Kitãb Hazz al-Quhüf bi-Sharh Qasïd Abi Shädüf ed.
Humphrey Davies, Leuven: Peeters, 2005-2007, vol. 2, p. XVI.
29 Nawãdir , Cairo: al-Matbaa l-'Āmira 1-Sharafìyya bi-Misr, 1323 AH, p. 56. At times a
criticism is less explicit, yet a negative tone is recognized, where the Arabian Nights is
mentioned as belonging to popular oral genres: Ahmad b. cAlI al-Maqrīzī (d. 1442), al-
MawãHz wa-l-Iftbãr bi-Dhikr al-Khitat wa-l-Āthāry Cairo: Maktabat Madbūlī, 1998, vol. 2,
pp. 335-338, 796-799 (and Ahmad b. Muhammad Abū l-'Abbās al-Maqqari [d. 1631],
Najh al-Tìb min Ghusn al-Andalus al-Ratìb, Beirut: Dār Sādir, 1968, voi. 2, pp. 290-292,
who is quoting this section from al-MaqrïzI. See ibid.y p. 294), for example, tells of a
vacation spot named Bustān al-Hawdaj, located on the island of al-Rawda in the Nile by
Cairo. It was built by the tenth Fatimid caliph al-Āmir bi-Ahkām Allah (r. 1101-1130) for
a beautiful Bedouin girl he loved. This affair gave rise to a tale interspersed with verses, in
which the Bedouin girl complains to her cousin and lover Ihn Mayyâh that she misses her
former life in the desert, now that she has been married off to the caliph al-Āmir and
brought into the city. The story was constantly retold by the people until it became as
common as uahādīth al-Battãl [see below] wa-Alf Layla wa-Layla wa-mã ashbaha dhãlika.n
Al-MaqrizI quotes these details (including the last statement) from 'All b. Mūsā Ihn Sard's
(al- Andalusi, - d. 1286 CE) al-Muhalla bi-l-Ash(ãr (apparently lost), which in turn were
taken, so al-Maqrizī says, from al-Ta}rīkh of al-Qurtubl. Yet he was probably meaning
Muhammad b. Sacd al-Qurtl, (d. 1172), author of Kitãb Ta'rīkh Misr (lost as well). See,
e.g., Ihsān 'Abbāss opinion in al-Maqqari, Najh al-Tib, vol. 2, p. 290, note 2.
30 Al-Bidãya wa-l-Nihãyay Beirut: Maktabat al-Macārif, 1966, vol. 9, p. 334.
31 See the tales about Dalila al-Muhtāla and her daughter Zaynab (Alf Layla, Bùlâq I, vol. 2, pp.
187-199), Mercury cAll of Cairo ( ibid., pp. 199-215), and cAlā5 al-Dïn Abú 1-Shāmāt (ibid., vol.
1, pp. 416-444). See B. Shoshan, Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo, Cambridge: Cambridge
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 Hence, the contempt at these materials, which had become quite popular
among the lower classes of society, was not limited to the scholars of the ninth
and tenth-centuries CE. This tradition of literary criticism became entrenched
among intellectuals in later times, as well as in the case of other literary materials
that were circulating among the lower classes.32

Yüsuf al-Shirbīnī, Hazz al-Quhüf and the Arabian Nights

An exception concerning scholars' attitude toward the Arabian Nights is the

late composition Hazz al-Quhüf bi-Sharh QasïdAbî Shādūf of the Egyptian author
Yüsuf b. Muhammad b. cAbd al-Jawad b. Khidr al-Shirbīnī (d. toward the end of
the seventeenth-century), about whom very little is known.33 This very special
adab book, composed nearly at the dawn of the modern age, focuses mainly on
deriding the Egyptian peasants of the countryside ( aryãfi for the amusement of
his intellectual readership.34 It is to some extent not surprising to find the large
measure of interest shown by al-Shirbīnī toward countryside and low social
classes. Interested in popular atmosphere, he walks in a traditional literary path
paved by the classical udabã' 35

University Press, 1993, p. 96, note 4; Id., "Comedy, Pornography, and Social Critique in the
Romance of Ahmad Danif ? Journal of Arabic Literature 27 (1996), pp. 216-218.
32 See below, esp. note 54.
33 Al-Shirbīnī, Hazz al-Quhüf vol. 2, pp. XV-XX.
34 See, e.g., M. Peled, "Nodding the Neckes: A Literary Study of Shirbīnī's Hazz al-Quhüfn
Die Welt des Islams 26 (1986), pp. 57-75.
35 He sounds authentic enough (Shirbīn, his native village or hometown, was a significant
rural center. See al-Shirbīnī, Hazz al-Quhüf vol. 2, p. XVl), when he quotes humor (jokes
that revolved within countryside circles, or more likely, such that reflected what the
urbanités thought of them), sometimes in such a rough manner, that one edition of Hazz
al-Quhüf from the days of Jamal cAbd al-Nāsir ( Qaryatunã l-Misńyya ąahla l-Thawra ,
Cairo: Dār al-Nahda l-'Arabiyya, 1963) had actually censored for being obscene. Much has
been written on the interest shown by classical udahã 3 toward low social classes and its
place in Arabic literature. See in general, e.g., C.E. Bosworth, The Mediaeval Islamic
Underworld - the Banū Sāsān in Arabic Society and Literature, Leiden: Brill, 1976, vol. 1,
pp. 30-47, 96-131; J. Sadan, "Kings and Craftsmen - a Pattern of Contrasts: On the
History of a Medieval Arabic Humoristic Form" (part I), Studia Islamica 56 (1982), pp. 5-
49; (part II) 62 (1985), pp. 89-120; Id., al-Adah al-cArabī al-Hãzil wa-Nawãdir al-Thuqalã3:
Al-Ãhãt wal-Masãwi3 al-Insãniyya wa-Makãnatuhã fi al-Adah al-Rãqi , Köln: Manshūrāt al-
Jamal, 2007, esp. pp. 42-45, note 45; 'Abd al-Muīn al-Mallūhī, , Asb'ār al-Lusüs wa-
Akhbãruhum , Beirut: Dār al-Hadāra 1-Jadīda, 1993, vol. 3, pp. 297-700; Ahmad al-Husayn,
Adab al-Kudya fi al-Asr al-(Abbãsi : Dirãsa fi Adab al-Shahhādhīn wal-Mutasawwilîn ,
Damascus: Dār al-Hisād li-l-Nashr wa-1-Tawzť, 2001, pp. 249-260; Muhammad Rajah al-
Najjār, Hikãyãt al-Shuttãr wa-TAyyãrin , Kuwait: al-Hay a l-cĀmma li-Qusür al-Thaqāfa,
2002, pp. 44-59; ťAbd al-Hādī Harb, MawsücatAdab al-Muhtālīn , Damascus: al-Takwīn li-
l-Talïf wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Nashr, 2008.
199

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 One may assume that al-Shirbīnl was a member of the Egyptian intelligence
{'ãlim, pl. 'ulama), that possessed religious and literary education,36 and that as
such he would have been expected to have had religious opinions and literary
taste conformed to traditional parameters. It is interesting, though, to see how al-
Shirbīnī - unlike classical udabã3 - shows some openness in the question of the
Arabian Nights , that arose in slightly lower social strata (e.g., storytellers circles),
and that he could have encountered orally in the streets and markets of Cairo, but
also in a written form through manuscripts, as he was apparently a book trader
(see below). His attitude toward the collection becomes even more interesting
when compared with his clear negative approach toward other known popular
literary pieces, this time actually in line with classical literary criticism.
In this respect, al-Shirblnl names some literary materials that were at the time
current among less well-educated consumers, in order to stress their poor literary
taste and lack of sense. This is quite as opposed to his attitude toward the Arabian
Nights , evidenced from a relatively very long quotation made by him from this
very piece. This quotation will be discussed below, right after the following short
survey which demonstrates the authors contrasting negative view on different
other popular literary materials.
Al-Shirbīnī quotes, for example, a rhymed letter interspersed with verses,
ostensibly sent to him by a rural cleric. In this case al-Shirbīnī's derision is aimed
at the man's faulty language, simplicity and poor literary taste. The rhymed letter
is written in colloquial Egyptian Arabic. In it, the fiql (a colloquial form of the
word faqih) asks al-Shirblnl, who at the time was - as it appears here - in the
book trade,37 to send him "The Story of the City of Brass" (fQissat Madinat al -
Nuhãs "):38

[...] examples of such letters are legion. Here, one of the village legists (fuqahã) sent
me a letter in the year 1077 [AH/1666/7 CE] in which he said:

Greetings from the fiqi Abū cAlī whose name is Muhammad, to our revered friend,
who reads the Qur an [as quickly] as the seed sprouts in the field, speaks with wisdom
and is so honest and polite to us. It is he who sells rhymed books such as "The Story
of the Slave Girl Tawaddud" and ["The Story of Uns al-Wujùd and] al- Ward fi 1-
Akmām," he who frequently writes within the lines and knows the book The Snare
and the Sparrow [al-Fakhkh wa-l-'Usfiir ]. I have such yearning [for you] that neither
male camel nor female camel, neither ass nor two asses, neither one nor two mules,
can bear. A poem:

36 G. Baer, Fellah and Townsman in the Middle East : Studies in Social History , London: Frank
Cass, 1982, p. 4; al-Shirblnl, Hazz al-Quhüf, vol. 2, pp. XVI, XVIII-XIX.
37 Ibid., vol. 2, pp. XVII, XIX.
38 The translation here is based on al-Shirblnl, Hazz al-Quhüf (ed. Davies), vol. 1, pp. 89-91
(and cf. vol. 2, pp. 92-93), which is established upon several manuscripts (ibid., vol. 1, pp.
XVI-XVIIl) and the book first edition (Bùlàq 1858).
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 Peace upon you, my sir, and mercy
Greetings from him who will not eat even one bite after he [sees] you
But fasts from all food, as a blind man
Wanting to see you even in darkness

I wished to come to you, and I swear by your head that nothing stopped me except for
my worn shoe. I say to you, find me a book that I saw long ago and about which I
heard warm words, and was told about so much, namely "The Story of the City of
Brass" and all the wonders and marvels in it. Yesterday I intended to send you things
that I thought, but I forgot, may God forgive me and you, Allah, Allah, there is no
victor but Allah. Peace on you and on all your neighbors to the right and to the left.
This letter was written by Abū 'All, whose name is Muhammad.
He then wrote his address:

This piece of paper should arrive with Abū 'Ammār, who sells green fava beans,
fermented cheese [mishsh] and flax oil in our village. He will bring it to Bûlâq and
someone will take it to the book bazaar in which they shout "For auction! For
auction!"

See how bad the ignorance is, and the words that resemble filth. Such ignorant people
are many [...]

In this passage the names of four familiar stories are mentioned, three of which
appear in the early printed editions of the Arabian Nights: "The Story of the
Female Slave Tawaddud,"39 "The Story of Uns al-Wujùd and al- Ward fi 1-
Akmām,"40 and "The Story of the City of Brass."41 The one story that is not part
of the these editions of the Arabian Nights 42 is "The Story of the Snare and the
Sparrow," which according to Pierre Cachia43 was quite commonly known in the
east, as also demonstrated by the fact that several manuscripts contain versions of
the story, some in prose and some in verse.44

39 AlfLayla , Bûlâq I, vol. 1, pp. 614-636; The Alif Laila; or Book of the Thousand Nights and
One Night : Commonly Known as u The Arabian Nights 9 Entertainments," ed. W.H.
Macnaghten, Calcutta: W. Thacker and Co., 1839-1842 (henceforth Alif Laila, Calcutta
II), vol. 2, pp. 489-537.
40 Tausend und eine Nacht, Arabisch : Nach einer Handschrift aus Tunis , eds. M. Habicht and
H.L. Fleischer, Breslau: J. Max & Comp., 1825-1843 (henceforth Breslau edition), vol. 5,
pp. 34-95; AlfLayla , Bûlâq I, vol. 1, pp. 546-562; Alif Laila, Calcutta II, vol. 2, pp. 345-
376.

41 Breslau edition, vol. 6, pp. 343-401; Alf Layla, Bûlâq I, vol. 2, pp. 37-52; Alif Laila,
Calcutta II, vol. 3, pp. 83-115.
42 But see below in note 44.

43 Popular Narrative Ballads of Modern Egypt , Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, p. 121.
44 These manuscripts are pretty late, apparently not older than the seventeenth or eighteenth
centuries, and see Le Baron de Slane, Catalogue des manuscrits arabes de la Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1883-1895, e.g., pp. 621 (regarding BNF, ms.
arabe, 3637), 626 (regarding BNF, ms. arabe, 3667). As to the general narrative lines of this
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 The textual context in which these four stories are mentioned clearly does not
imply any praise for them. The very fact that they are put in the mouth of an
ignorant rural faqlh , his common language, his crude behavior, the way he
presents himself (certainly with the aid of the author's creative skills) as a
consumer of literature, and the overall tongue-in-cheek manner in which he and
what he says are presented by al-Shirblnl, leave no room for doubt as to the
authors scornful opinion of the literary materials in question: if the faqlti s
utterances are non-other than nonsense, and if he himself is nothing but a silly
and ridiculous figure, certainly the "spiritual contents" of his deficient mind are
not any better, no more than wretched and inferior, capable of entertaining the
ignorant rural masses, but not people of culture and discernment.
It is important to point out that, since al-Shirblnl was apparently a book
trader in seventeenth-century Egypt, and also based on his own statements (see
below), it is quite obvious that he was acquainted with collections, or parts of
collections, of the Arabian Nights that were current at that relatively late time in
the land of the Nile. However, the stories mentioned above (with the exception
of Ual-Fakhkh wa-l-cUsfur"), which are identified so closely with the Arabian
Nights , were absorbed into that collection only after al-Shirblnl's times, so his
criticism in this regard does not aim at the Arabian Nights what so ever. It is
clearly proven by the fact that these stories do not appear in manuscripts of the
Arabian Nights dating from his times or earlier;45 moreover, at this stage, "The
Story of the Female Slave Tawaddud" and "The Story of Uns al-Wujūd and al-

story see, e.g., the thirteenth-century RasãHl Falsafryya li-l-Kindī wal-Fãrãbi wa-Ibn Bãjja
wa-Ibn Adi , ed. cAbd al-Rahmān Badawl, Beirut: Dar al-Andalus li-l-Tibā'a wa-l-Nashr,
1980, pp. 257-259; cAbd Allah b. Muhammad al-Shubrāwī (d. 1758), cUnwãn al-Bayãn wa-
Bustãn al-Adhhãriy Cairo: al-Matba'a al-Kāstilliyya, 1282 AH, pp. 39-40; Ahmad b.
Muhammad al-Shirwânî (d. 1837), Nafhat al-Yaman fimã Yazülu bi-Dhikrihi l-Shajan ,
Cairo: Matbaat al-Taqaddum al-cIlmiyya, 1324 AH, pp. 194-195; Alf Layla wa-Layla ,
Beirut: al-Matbaťa 1-Käthüllkiyya li-l-Ābā5 al-Yasùciyyîn, 1888-1890, vol. 5, pp. 91-97 (the
version of the story here, with its interspersed verses, is given in a kind of appendix,
consisting of four stories entitled " TarãHf wa-Fukãhãt fì Arba c Hikãyãtf but the editor of
this edition, "a Jesuit father" according to the title page, whose name was Father Antūn
Sālihānī, does not reveal what his sources were); R. Basset, Mille et un contes, récits &
légendes arabes , Paris: Maisonneuve Frères, 1924-1926, vol. 2, pp. 269-277, who gives a
French translation of the story out of yet another manuscript, in addition to those
mentioned above, also from the Bibliothèque Nationale (ms. arabe, 3664, see De Slane,
Catalogue , pp. 625-626), and compares it with versions in other manuscripts from that
library; see his summation in pp. 267-277, note 16; and, as mentioned, see also the version
given by Cachia, Popular Narrative Ballads , pp. 121-138.
45 See, e.g., H. Zotenberg, Histoire d'Alâ al-Dîn ; ou, La Lampe merveilleuse , Paris: Impri-
merie Nationale, 1888, pp. 3-52. And indeed those stories are not included in Muhsin
Mahdis manuscripts based critical edition, The Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla wa-
Layla) from the Earliest Known Sources , Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1984-1994.
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Ward fî l-Akmärn," for example, were to be found independently of the Nights
manuscripts, sometimes as parts of other collections and compositions.46 And
certainly there is no need to elaborate on "The Story of the City of Brass," which
was adapted and popularized in various versions, and at a later time was also
absorbed into the Arabian Nights 47 from a nearly one-thousand-year-old written
Arabic literary tradition.48 It is clear, by the way, that al-Shirbīnfs criticism of
this story is consistent with a venerable tradition of literary criticism that
expresses reservation at the fantastic elements in the story as it was known at the
time, and doubts its authenticity.49 However, it would seem that the underlying

46 It has often been noted that "The Story of the Female Slave Tawaddud" did not fit the
mold of the usual stories of the Arabian Nights and that at its core lies the " adabf idea of
improving one's mind and general education (here in the form of a quiz or contest of
knowledge between Tawaddud the female slave and a number of prominent Muslim
experts in several different disciplines). See Marzolph & van Leeuwen, The Arabian Nights
Encyclopedia , vol. 1, p. 409. Furthermore, the story is set within the fabric of a plot that
has some core ideas that are well-known in official literature. See, e.g., J. Sadan, " Hārūn
aTRashid and the Brewer: Preliminary Remarks on the Adah of the Elite Versus Hikãyãt:
The Continuation of Some of the Traditional Literary Models, from the Classical* Arabic
Heritage, up to the Emergence of Modern Forms," Studies in Canonical and Popular Arabic
Literature , Toronto: York Press, 1998, pp. 17-21.
47 And only later, so it would seem, into The One-Hundred-and-One Nights. Similarly, the
"Story of the Female Slave Tawaddud" and "The Story of Uns al-Wujūd" were not
originally part of the latter collection but were added by copyists who took them out of the
Arabian Nights. See, e.g., Mahmûd Tarshùna, MV at Layla wa-Laylay Köln: Manshūrāt al-
Jamal, 2005, pp. 7-16. But cf. D. Pinault, Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights,
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992, pp. 154-157, who tends to be more cautious in this regard.
48 See, e.g., M. Gaudefřoy-Demombynes, Les Cent et Une Nuitsy Paris: Sindbad, 1982, pp. 261-
270; M.I. Gerhardt, The Art of Story-Telling: A Literary Study of the Thousand and One Nightsy
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1963, pp. 210-230; Pinault, Story-Telling Techniquesy pp. 150-151.
49 See the clear rejecting attitude reflected in Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Bïrùnl (d. the middle
of the eleventh-century), Kitãb al-Jamãhir fi Macńfat al-Jawãhiry Hyderabad: Matbacat
Jam£iyyat Dā'irat al-Maārif al-'Uthmaniyya, 1936, pp. 101-102; Yâqút b. 'Abd Allah al-
Hamawl (d. 1229), Mu'jam al-Buldãny Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ìlmiyya, 1990, vol. 5, p. 95;
Zakariyya b. Muhammad al-QazwInl (d. 1283), Āthār al-Bilãd wa-Akhbãr al-'Ibād, Beirut:
Dār Sādir, 1969, p. 558; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidãya wa-TNihãyay vol. 9, p. 173; cAbd al-Rashīd
al-Bākuwī, (d. 1403), Kitãb Talkhīs al-Ãthãr wa-AjãHb al-Malik al-Qahhãry Moscow: Dār
al-Nashr "AJ-ìlm," 1971, p. 136; ťAbd al-Rahmān Ibn Khaldūn (d. 1406), Ta'rìkh al-
Allãma Ibn Khaldūn, Beirut: Maktabat al-Madrasa wa-Dār al-Kitāb al-Lubnānī li-l-Tibā'a
wa-l-Nashr, 1961, vol. 1, pp. 60-61. In all these sources the reservations are quite clear and
sharp. In other early sources the story or comments on it are not presented in a clearly
critical tone, but from a nearly neutral perspective with respect to whether it is to be
treated as real or fictional; yet the presentation at times remains somewhat tentative, or
even skeptical, perhaps because the context is that of cajā}ib or a(jãb, that is, strange or
wondrous things. See Ahmad b. Muhammad Ibn al-Faqlh, (fl. the beginning of the tenth-
century), Kitãb al-Buldãn, Beirut: 'Ālam al-Kutub, 1996, pp. 139-142, as well as the
203

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motivation for al-Shirbīnīs criticism differs from that of classical medieval
criticism. He clearly aims his comments not against the story as it is documented
in ancient writings, but rather against the popular versions which were current in
Egypt in his days. After all, he is not entangled in the same doubts that beset the
intellectuals of the ninth and tenth centuries CE and thereabouts. His
entanglement differs somewhat; the story is rejected, so it would appear, not by
an early evolving literary taste due to the fact that it is the product of popular
culture, but rather in the context of the broad campaign of rejecting what is
foreign (in this case ancient Indian)50 and smacks of the fantastic. At the root of
al-Shirbīnī's criticism, on the other hand, is his conception of the story as
entertainment for the lower classes. One cannot of course rule out the possibility
that al-Shirbīnī was rooted within a literary taste that evolved in the course of the
centuries that preceded him (after all, he did not float about without roots), but
in this case it is not inconsistent with the fact that in his days the story was
current among the lower classes, and it is in this context that his criticism should
in the main be understood.
Furthermore, al-Shirbīnī in his book frequently ridicules other literary
materials that were in common use among the lower classes of society. Thus, for
example, he heaps scorn on the above-mentioned51 popular epic al-Dalhama wa-
l-Battãl : a scholarly person enters a village and sees a man teaching in the
mosque. He hears him transmitting a false hadīth . When the scholar asks him
where he found this hadīth he replies: "In a book I possess, entitled al-Dalhama
wa-1-Battãir The scholar admonishes him, interrupts his lesson, and goes on his
way.52 In the urjüza that ends the first part of the book, al-Shirbīnī mockingly
refers to the words of a rural faqih who, he implies, was nothing more than a
storyteller, with very little education or intellectual abilities, possessing knowledge

context in which these things occur in al-Mas udī, Murüj al-Dhahah , vol. 2, p. 409; and
cAbd al-Rahīm b. Sulaymän Abü Hamid al- Andalusi (d. 1169), Tuhfat al-Albãb wa-
Nukhbat al-Acjãb , Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1993, pp. 59-63, who devotes the second chapter of his
book (in which the story appears) to a description of such wonders; see also his al-Mu'rib
(an Balà Ajāīb al- Maghrib , Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1991,
p. 13, in which Abü Hamid concludes his account of the story (which he relates in a brief
version) with the words wa-Allãhu aìam. The early historian cAbd al-Malik Ibn Habīb (d.
853), Kitāb al-Ta'rīkh, Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1991, pp.
143-145, is an exemption in this regard: he does not refer to the story negatively nor does
he set it in a special section on cajãHb (though uses words like (ajā3ib or a'ājīb when giving
the narrative details).

50 See the suggestion of Gustav Roth, "The City of Iron in Ancient Indian Literature and in
the Arabian Nights," Journal of the Bihar Research Society 45 (1959), pp. 53-76.
51 See above, note 29, and also below, note 54.
52 Al-Shirbīnī, Hazz al-Quhüf, vol. 1, p. 78; vol. 2, pp. 81-82.
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limited, e.g., to the popular epics Sirat al-Zãhir Baybars , Sīrat 'Antara Ihn Shad-
dãdy al-Dalhama wa-l-Battãl and Sirat Bani Hilãl.53
Al-Shirbīnī thus utilizes these literary materials in order to slander the
peasants, their teachers and their clerics: this is their "literature," and it reflects
on the poverty of their culture and spiritual life.
Now in view of his scornful attitude toward these materials - an attitude that
is consistent with the tradition of literary criticism in this case54 - as befitting the
taste of the less educated, one would have expected the Arabian Nights to have
met with the same kind of derision and criticism, in a similar manner to the
above described case of al-Shirbīnfs teacher Ahmad Shihāb ai-Din al-Qalyùbl.
But this is not the case at all. In his only explicit - still un-dealt with - mention
of this work55 al-Shirblnl goes into great detail, without the slightest hint of

53 Ibid ., vol. 1, p. 206; vol. 2, p.215. As to Taghribat Bani Hilāl, see also what seems to be a
negative comment in vol. 1, p. 405; vol. 2, p. 447.
54 Ibn Katblr, al-Bidãya wa-l-Nihãya , vol. 9, p. 334, for instance, heaped great scorn upon
folk epics such as Sirat al-Amira Dhãt al-Himma (and the stories about al-Battāl and £Abd
al-Wahhãb; the epic is sometimes also called Sirat Dalhama, al-Dalhama wa-1-Battãl or
Sirat al-Mujāhidin) and the famous Sirat Antara Ibn Shaddãd, both as well ridiculed by al-
Shirbīnī (see above). Ahmad b. Yahya al-Wansharīsī, (d. 1508), al-Mťyar al-Mu(rib wa-l-
Jamť al-Mughrib (an c Ulama1 Ifriqiya wa-l-Andalus wa-l- Maghrib, Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-
Islāmī, 1981-1983, vol. 6, p. 70; vol. 11, p. 172, relates that several Muslim legal rulings
forbid the sale or reading of Sirat Antar and Dalhama , because they contain fabrications.
See also above, note 29.

55 One has to take into consideration that other stories occurring in Hazz al-Quhüf might be
related to as Arabian Nights-like stories (on this term, see J. Sadan, "Examen de données
extra-textuelles en arrière-plan de certains contes des Mille et une nuits," Les Mille et une
nuits et le récit oriental .è En Espagne et en Occident , Paris: L'Harmattan, 2009, pp. 75-92; Id.,
"Imaginary Beloved Women and Arabic Empfindsamkeit: On Some Romantic Narratives
Following Love Verses," The Branches of the Goodly Tree : Studies in Honor of George Kanazi ,
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2013, pp. 50, 60-61, 63, note 43; and compare for
instance with A. Chraïbi, Contes nouveaux des 1001 Nuits: Étude du manuscrit Reinhardt ,
Paris: Maisonneuve, 1996; H. Grotzfeld, "Creativity, Random Selection, and pia fraus :
Observations on Compilation and Transmission of the Arabian Nights," The Arabian Nights
in Transnational Perspective , Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007, pp. 51-63). Yet,
these are of course not mentioned by al-Shirbīnī explicitly with connection to this book,
and are not to be found in any of its known editions or manuscripts. See, e.g., "The Story
of the Three Whores of Cairo" (al-Shirbīnī, Hazz al-Quhüf, vol. 1, pp. 46-52; vol. 2, pp.
52-57, and note 2, p. 52), and "The Story of the Hypocritical Wife" (ibid. vol. 1, pp. 185-
192; vol. 2, pp. 197-202). Gabriel Baer, who noticed (without providing any elaboration
what so ever) this mention of AlfLayla wa-Layla by al-Shirbīnī (Fellah and Townsman, p.
23), adds (ibid.) that another tale is apparently also inserted by al-Shirbīnī from the Arabian
Nights , "The Champion of the Tedious" (al-Shirbīnī, Hazz al-Quhüf, vol. 1, pp. 59-60; vol.
2, pp. 62-63). Yet it appears that this tale is not to be found in the Arabian Nights corpus.
Anyhow, al-Shirbīnī does not mention here the title Alf Layla wa-Layla, nor does he
criticize the collection or this specific tale what so ever.
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mockery or criticism. To the contrary, he quotes an entire quite lengthy story
from the Arabian Nights in order to demonstrate the nagging wordiness ( thaqãlat
al-dam wa-kathrat al-kalãm)> 56 an inferior quality which serves in this story as the
narrative main theme. In light of this and based on his clear negative attitude
toward the above surveyed popular literary materials, one cannot escape the
impression that the long exceptional quotation in itself actually reflects different
attitude, though not expressed explicitly.
"The famous story in the book57 Alf Layla wa-Layla" (these are al-Shirbīnī's
words) is no other than "The Lame Young Man and the Barber" (known also as
"The Tale of the Tailor"),58 about which it is said that it "belongs to the core
corpus of the Arabian Nights,"59 which indeed, as it turns out here, was an integral
part of that collection in al-Shirbīnī's time. By the way, the story as quoted by al-
Shirblnl is apparently the earliest written evidence for the story as it appears in
the Egyptian branch of manuscripts of the Arabian Nights. The story can be found
in the earliest manuscripts of the Shāmī branch (for example, the fourteenth or
fifteenth-century manuscript on which Galland based himself),60 but is absent
from the earliest extant Egyptian manuscript, BNF, ms. arabe, 3612 (1491A in
old catalogue), from the middle of the seventeenth-century, which is the time of
al-Shirblnl himself.61

56 A theme dealt with to some extent by medieval Arabic literature. See Sadān, al-Adab al-
Arabï l-Hãzil.

57 The word "book" is found only in the Bûlâq first edition (1274 AH/1858 C.E.) of Hazz al-
QuhüfdSiá probably also in its reprints and subsequent editions. See al-Shirbïnî, Hazz al-
Quhüf vol. 1, p. 414, note 13; vol. 2, pp. XVII-XVIII.
58 And here, in Hazz al-Quhüf, according to two different manuscripts (ibid., vol. 1, p. 414,
note 14), called "Hikäyat al-Muzayyin" ("The Tale about the Barber"). For the story, see
ibid., vol. 1, pp. 414-426; vol. 2, pp. 457-467; see the story also in Alf Layla, Bûlâq I, vol.
1, pp. 88-105; and in Mahdi, The Thousand and One Nights , vol. 1, pp. 327-346.
59 See, e.g., Marzolph & van Leeuwen, The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia, vol. 1, p. 405.
60 No autograph by al-Shirblnl is known to exist, but at least some of the manuscripts, which
Humphrey Davies used for his critical edition used here, were produced quite soon after al-
Shirbīnī's time. The earliest of those which have been dated, CUL Or. 1420/1421 was
prepared in the months of July and August of 1733 CE, that is, only a few decades after his
death. See al-Shirblnl, Hazz al-Quhüf, vol. 1, pp. XVI-XXX. Furthermore, the story appears
in all extant copies of the composition.
61 Ibid., pp. 16-21; Mahdi, The Thousand and One Nights, vol. 2, pp. 132-137, 290-293. In
this regard, the story as found in the Breslau edition, vol. 2, pp. 210-253, was derived,
according to D.B. MacDonald, "Maximilian Habicht and His Recension of the Thousand
and One Nights," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 41 (1909), e.g., pp. 688, 691, 703, from
a manuscript volume (transcribed for Habicht by the Jew Mordecai Ihn al-Najjär) - an
immediate or a near descendant of the Galland manuscript. I.e., not belonging at all to the
Egyptian branch of manuscripts of the Nights , but to the Shāmī one! Moreover, an alleged
version of this tale found in the "Montague manuscript" (Bodl. Or. 554, fols. 215a-222a),
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 This is not the place to present a precise analysis of just how near or far is the
distance between al-Shirblnfs version of the story and its other versions as they
appear in the various witnesses of the Arabian Nights.62 However, it is quite clear
that the story was not written from memory or from hearing, but rather was
taken from an actual written text of the Arabian Nights , perhaps with some very
minor adaptations.63
Here are the main outlines of the story as it appears in al-Shirblnfs work:

An important man in Damascus held a party and went out to seek guests. He
saw a handsome but lame youth and invited him to come in. The youth agreed to
come, but when he entered he saw a barber among the guests and immediately
wanted to leave the party. The host stopped him and asked him why he refused to
sit with the other guests. That barber is the reason, replied the young man. The
invited guests wanted to hear the reason for this, and so the youth related the
story of what took place between him and the barber in the city of Baghdad, in
the wake of which his leg broke and he became lame, so that he swore that he
would never reside in the same city as the barber, and as a result he left Baghdad
and went to Damascus.64

"The Cairene Youth, the Barber and the Captain" (see R.F. Burton, Supplemental Nights to
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Nighty n.p.: Burton Club, 1886-1888, vol. 5, pp.
243-250; Marzolph & van Leeuwen, The Arabian Nights Encyclopediaf vol. 1, pp. 133-134),
should not be taken in current context into consideration, since major differences in
narrative lines exist. Anyhow, it should not be regarded as the oldest attestation (if at
all...), as the "Montague manuscript" was scribed in Egypt in the year 1764. See A. Lerner,
The Ju'aydiyya Cycle : Witty Beggars' Stories from the * Montague Manuscript - a Late
Augmented Arabian Nights: A Study and Critical Edition y Dortmund: Verlag fur
Orientkunde, 2014, pp. 82-90. That is to say, more than half a century after al-Shirbīnīs
death, and around thirty years after the oldest manuscript available of Hazz al-Quhüfw&s
transcribed (see above, note 60).

62 The author of the present article is at the moment working on this and other issues
relating to the story.
63 See also below, note 64.
64 This account, including the story itself, are related in the Arabian Nights by the tailor, as
part of a framework story entitled "The Hunchbacks Tale" (see Marzolph & van Leeuwen,
The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia , vol. 1, pp. 224-225). Al-Shirblnl of course detaches this
specific story from the framework story, as well as from all the other plots, and therefore
makes no mention of the tailor and all the other details. Al-Shirblnl in his account serves
as the initial missing narrator, replacing the tailor in this respect. Later, as in the Arabian
NightSy the lame youth is the one who speaks about his experiences. Note, too, that in both
sources, Hazz al-Quhüf and the Arabian NightSy the place where the story takes place is
Baghdad. However, in the version of the Arabian Nights the tailor and the others who
partake of the framework story (a Christian, a Jew,...) sit together with the king of China,
while for al-Shirblnl the events take place in Damascus, not in China. Al-Shirbīnī may
have been influenced in this, and perhaps become confused, by the events in the preceding
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 He was the only son of a rich Baghdadi man, who died and bequeathed him
great wealth and numerous servants. One day he saw a beautiftd girl watering a
plant in the window of a house in one of Baghdad's side streets. She smiled at
him and he immediately fell in love with her. However, she drew back, shut the
window and disappeared. The young man fell ill due to his unrequited love for
the girl. One day an old woman came to him and he told her his story. She
immediately realized that the girl's father was the judge of the city, whom she
knew very well. She also fřequendy visited the daughter and knew that her
parents cast a prohibition on her to leave home or to meet boys. The old woman
promised to arrange a meeting with her. When he heard this, the youth
recuperated and was filled with hope. However, when the old woman came to the
girl the latter was incensed with her. The young man once more became
despondent, until finally the girl gave in and agreed to a clandestine meeting
between the two. The youth immediately recovered again. As the time of the
meeting approached, he went to the public bath in order to make himself
presentable, and sent his servant to bring him a barber. The servant returned with
the barber of the story, a man both annoying and a chatterbox. He was such a nag
that the youth did not succeed in extricating himself from his company and
nearly missed his meeting with his beloved. Finally, after some begging and
trickery, he managed to get away and hurried to the girl's home. But the barber
did not give up and followed him without his knowledge. When the youth
entered her home it was already late, because of the barber's nagging, and the
girl's father, the judge, had come home. The barber also entered the house
secretly. He heard the judge striking one of his female slaves, and mistakenly
thought that he had killed the youth. He raised a hue and cry and accused the
judge of murder, and because he was a chatterbox he also revealed that the youth
had gone to the judge's house because of his love for his daughter. The judge,
completely nonplussed, told the barber to enter and search for the young man,
who hid inside a box. The barber carried the box on his head, and the youth
jumped out of the box and broke his leg. The youth then wandered through the
streets of Baghdad, with the barber close behind, as if to protect him,
admonishing him about the harm in love. The youth entered a caravanserai and
manages to escape from the barber. He fled the city and swore that he would
never stay in the same town as that barber. He arrived in Damascus and entered
the party were the barber was among the guests. The people asked the barber if
the youth's account was correct and he replied that it was, but that his sole
intention had been to save him from all the troubles that had beset him. The
guests then banished the barber from their midst and honored the youth.

sub-plot, "The Tale of the Jewish Doctor" (ibid., vol. 1, p. 242), in which the Jewish
doctor lived in Damascus.
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Summary

Al-Shirbīnī quotes "Hikãyat al-Muzayyin (i.e., "The Lame Young Man and
the Barber" known also as "The Tale of the Tailor") from the Arabian Nights at
full length and almost verbatim, with not a hint of criticism. To the contrary, it
serves him well in helping him to demonstrate a certain issue as part of his
commentary on a verse in "the poem of Abū Shādūf," to the explanation of which
al-Shirbīnī's composition is ostensibly dedicated. This is very different from the
way he treats other literary materials that did not yet belong to the Arabian
Nights , and would only later be absorbed into the well-known version of the
collection ("The Story of the City of Brass," "The Story of the Female Slave
Tawaddud," "The Story of Uns al-Wujùd and al-Ward fi 1-Akmām"), or other
popular literary materials that were current among the lower classes in
seventeenth-century Egypt ("The Story of the Snare and the Sparrow," popular
epics such as Sirat al-Dalhama wa-1-Battãl , Slrat al-Zahir Baybars , Sirat Antara
Ihn Shaddãd as well as Sirat Bani Hilãl). This may show that for al-Shirblnl the
Arabian Nights possessed quite a different status than the other types of non-
official literature which he mentions with such scorn in his composition. It seems
he does not consider all the different materials that came into being in popular
culture as an undifferentiated whole. Rather, some, all those epics and the other
stories, deserved scorn, and others, namely the Arabian Nights , are free from
criticism. Hence, in light of medieval scholars' clear negative attitude toward the
Arabian Nights , may one not consider al-Shirbïnl in this case to be a unique voice
or even a sort of a harbinger as to the local literary sphere and Muslim
intellectualism in Arabic, which had begun to show some interest in the
collection only since the beginning of the nineteenth-century?

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