The Arabian Nights

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2007

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg discusses the myths, tales and legends of the Arabian Nights.Once upon a time a wealthy merchant grew hot in the sun and sat down under a tree. Having eaten a date, he threw aside the stone, and immediately there appeared before him a Genie of enormous height who, holding a drawn sword in his hand, approached him, and said, “rise that I may kill thee”. This is from The Arabian Nights, a collection of miraculous tales including Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Sinbad the Sailor. Forged in the medieval Arab world, it became so popular in Europe that the 18th century Gothic writer Horace Walpole declared “Read Sinbad the Sailor’s Voyages and you will grow sick of Aeneas”.Its origins are Indian and Persian but it was championed initially by an 18th century Frenchman, Antoine Galland. Celebrated for its fabulous stories, it is a patchwork of sex, violence, magic, adventure, and cruelty – a far cry from the children’s book that it has become. With Robert Irwin, Senior Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Marina Warner, Professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex; Gerard van Gelder, Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You don't need us to tell you there's a general election coming.
0:04.6	So what does it mean for you?
0:06.4	Every day on newscast we dissect the big talking points,
0:10.1	the ones that you want to know more about.
0:12.3	With our book of contacts, we talk directly to the people you want to hear from.
0:16.8	And with help from some of the best BBC journalists,
0:19.4	we'll untangle the stories that matter to you.
0:23.0	Join me, Laura Kunsberg, Adam Fleming, Chris Mason and Patty O'Connell for our daily
0:28.3	podcast.
0:29.3	Newscast, listen on BBC Science.
0:35.0	Thanks for downloading the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use,
0:39.0	please go to BBC.co. UK.
0:41.0	UK forward slash Radio4. I hope you enjoy the program
0:45.1	Hello once upon a time a wealthy merchant grew hot in the sun and sat down under a tree
0:50.3	Having eaten a date he threw aside the stone and immediately there appeared before him a genie of enormous height who holding a drawn sword in his hand approached him and said rise that I may kill thee.
1:02.0	This is from the Arabian Nights, a collection of wonderful tales
1:05.0	including Alibaba and the 40 thieves, Aladdin, and Sinbad the sailor.
1:09.0	Forged in the medieval Arab world,
1:11.0	it became so popular in Europe that the 18th century Gothic writer
1:14.4	Horace Walpole declared,
1:15.8	Reed Sinbad the Sailors's voyages and you will grow sick of anise.
1:19.9	With me to unpick the complex and ancient tapestry of stories,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.