Arab folktales / translated and edited by Inea Bushnaq. [print]

Beasts that roam the Earth and birds that fly with wings : animal tales. The cat who went to Mecca (Syria) -- The woodcutter without a brain (Morocco) -- Who lied? (Saudi Arabia) -- The hospitality of Abu l'Hssein (Egypt) -- The monkey learns to weave (Syria) -- How the fox got back his tail (Palestine) -- The pious cat (Oman) -- Who has the sweetest flesh on earth? (Palestine) -- The scarab beetle's daughter (Iraq) -- How the monkey got his shape (Palestine) -- King of birds (Tunisia) -- The duty of the host (Saudi Arabia) -- The tortoise and his frog wife (Algeria) -- Little mangy one (Lebanon) -- The knotter of tails (Jordan) -- How the ewe outwitted the jackal (Algeria) -- Two close calls (Morocco) -- Father of a hundred tricks (Algeria) -- Division of the prey (Morocco) -- How the animals kept the lions away (Algeria) -- Suleyman and the little owl (Morocco) -- The angel wedding (Morocco) -- The treachery of man (Tunisia).

Djinn, ghouls, and afreets : tales of magic and the supernatural. The girl who spoke jasmines and lilies (Iraq) -- The bird of the golden feather (Syria) -- The nightingale that shrieked (Egypt) -- A tale within a tale (Iraq) -- Flowers that vanished in the night (Syria) -- The maiden of the tree of Raranj and Taranj (Iraq) -- Seven magic hairs (Palestine) -- The girl who banished seven youths (Morocco) -- The bald man at the funeral (Morocco) -- The good apprentice and the bad (Syria) -- A lost shoe of gold (Saudi Arabia) -- The woodcutter's wealthy sister (Syria) -- The ring of the king of the djinn (Egypt) -- What God wrote cannot be unwritten (Iraq) -- The green bird (Egypt).

Famous fools and rascals : stories of Djuha and his kind. Djuha and the donkey (Jordan) -- Djuha borrows a pot (Syria) -- Djuha's meat disappears (Egypt) -- Djuha and the tough chicken (Egypt) -- Djuha fries quails (Egypt) -- Djuha's sleeve (Syria) -- Djuha and the hunter's gift (Morocco) -- Djuha and the basket of figs (Iraq) -- Djuha in his old age (Egypt) -- Si' Djeha cheats the robbers (Algeria) -- How Si' Djeha staved off hunger (Algeria) -- Si' Djeha and the qadi's coat (Tunisia) -- Si' Djeha's miracles (Libya) -- Ben Sikran improves the couscous (Algeria) -- When Ben Sikran owed money (Algeria) -- Ben Sikran's hunger (Algeria) -- Abu Nuwas and the fur cloak (Tunisia) -- Abu Nuwas and the caliph's queen (Syria) -- Abu Nuwas travels with the caliph (Iraq) -- Abu Nuwas and the hundred eggs (Syria) -- Bahlul and the sweetmeats (Iraq) -- The wise man and Bahlul (Palestine) -- Bahlul and the owl (Morocco).

Good men and golden words : religious tales and moral instructions. If God wills (Palestine) -- Don't count your chickens (Egypt) -- God disposes (Iraq) -- The truth (Syria) -- A father's advice (Iraq) -- The protection of the prophet Hanun (Palestine) -- Lot and the devil (Palestine) -- Justice (Syria) -- We two against fortune (Saudi Arabia) -- The king who changed his ways (Syria) -- The Virgin Mary and the goats (Palestine) -- The Virgin Mary and the plowmen (Palestine) -- Tests of friendship (Syria) -- The bones of Father Adam (Palestine) -- How Moses died (Syria) -- Four men and one miracle (Saudi Arabia) -- God will provide (Libya).

Magical marriages and mismatches : more tales of the supernatural. The iron pestle and the girl with the donkey's head (Libya) -- The boy magician (Morocco) -- One-Tooth and Two-Teeth (Syria) -- What is inscribed on the brow the eye will see (Iraq) -- The fair foster child of the ghoul (Tunisia) -- The little red fish and the clog of gold (Iraq) -- The camel husband (Palestine) -- The princess in the suit of leather (Egypt) -- Sheikh of the lamps (Syria) -- Jubeinah and the slave (Palestine).

Tales told in houses made of hair : Beduin [Bedouin] tales. The last camel of Emir Hamid (Saudi Arabia) -- Atiyah, the gift of God (Syria) -- The price of pride (Saudi Arabia) -- The foreign wife (Morocco) -- Two mothers mourning (Algeria) -- Successor to the sheikh (Morocco) -- The good neighbors (Iraq) -- The guest who ran away (Tunisia) -- The boy in girl's dress (Syria) -- The Beduin's gazelle (Saudi Arabia) -- The prince in the pit (Syria) -- Father of seven sons (Syria) -- A trip to paradise (Saudi Arabia) -- Full-moon-of-the-night (Egypt) -- The jewel in the sand (Iraq).

Wily women and clever men : tales of wit and wisdom. A tall tale (Palestine) -- Seven cauldrons bubbling (Lebanon) -- Women's wiles (Syria) -- The judgments of the qadi (Egypt) -- The talking turkeys (Syria) -- The weaver's dream (Iraq) -- The cure (Syria) -- When twice as many is half the trouble (Palestine) -- The gown in the bathhouse (Egypt) -- A lion the color of yellow silk (Iraq) -- The sultan's camp follower (Iraq) -- The woman whose husband went to Mecca (Palestine) -- The three Mohammads (Tunisia) -- The chain of truth (Iraq) -- Idle Ahmad (Iraq) -- The clever minister's daughter (Syria) -- The rose in the chest (Iraq) -- The old woman and the devil (Palestine) -- The girl outwits three men (Palestine) -- The boy who heard the dew when it fell (Morocco) -- When one man has two wives (Syria) -- Just deserts (Tunisia) -- The simple wife (Palestine) -- The woman called Rice Pudding (Palestine) -- She who understood best (Palestine).

Because this collection of folktales covers the entire Arab world from Morocco to Iraq, no other contemporary collection fills the niche it does. It is divided into six sections in categories such as animal tales or adventure tales. Sectional introductions provide the cultural background useful for interpreting the tales. Out of alleys of Cairo and Bedouin tents, from the Moroccan laborers and Syrian peasants, the approximately 130 tales vary considerably in length and portray heroes and villains, corruption and nobility equally. The tales were selected from a broad array of previously published sources and transcripts of the editor's field work.

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