ألف ليلة وليلة مقابل الأدب الراقي والأدب الشعبي: فحص تغييرات ممكنة في المكانة الأدبية

The topic of Amir Lerner’s article is “The Arabian Nights versus Classical and Popular Literature: An Examination of Possible Changes in Literary Status”. Medieval Arabic literary criticism did not hold The Arabian Nights in very high esteem. Classical authors only rarely mention the collection and then when a reference is made, it is done so in a negative tone. Many of the literary ingredients of this corpus were not considered to be of a refined taste. Unusual in this respect is the full quotation from one of The Nights’ most famous tales about “The Lame Young Man and the Barber” made by the seventeenth century Egyptian author, Yūsuf b. Muḥammad al-Shirbīnī, in his adab piece Hazz al-quḥūf bi-sharḥ qaṣīd Abī Shādūf. The aim of the article is to examine al-Shirbīnī’s reference to The Arabian Nights, and to look into what seems to be an exceptional view in light of classical Arabic literary refinement and other popular literary materials mentioned by him in Hazz al-quḥūf.