The Arabian Nights in Contemporary World Cultures

The stories in the Thousand and One Nights or the Arabian Nights are familiar to many of us: from the tales of Aladdin Sinbad the Sailor Ali Baba and his forty thieves to the framing story of Scheherazade telling these stories to her homicidal husband Shahrayar. This book offers a rich and wide-ranging analysis of the power of this collection of tales that penetrates so many cultures and appeals to such a variety of predilections and tastes. It also explores areas that were left untouched like the decolonization of the Arabian Nights and its archaeologies. Unique in its excavation into inroads of perception and reception Muhsin J. al-Musawi''s book unearths means of connection with common publics and learned societies. Al-Musawi shows as never before how the Arabian Nights has been translated appropriated and authenticated or abused over time and how its reach is so expansive as to draw the attention of poets painters illustrators translators editors musicians political scientists like Leo Strauss and novelists like Michel Butor James Joyce and Marcel Proust amongst others. Making use of documentaries films paintings novels and novellas poetry digital forums and political jargon this book offers nuanced understanding of the perennial charm and power of this collection.