A book containing six stories from the famous title ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ have been published in Spanish by the ‘El Fargo’ group under the same name.
Written by Husain Fattahi and illustrated by Farhad Yamshidi, the titles include, ‘The Fisherman and the Monster’, ‘The Physician and Embryo’, ‘The Hawk and the King’, ‘The Cub and the Man’, ‘The Francolin and Turtles’, and ‘The Five-Year-Old Judge’.
Previously published in Persian by Ghadyani Publishing House, the new book with 100 pages is to be distributed in the Latin American countries.
In the near future the stories will also be published in six separate volumes as well, Tasnim news agency reported.
About a month ago, ‘El Faro’ group published ‘In the Embrace of God’, written and illustrated by Afarin Mirshahi, specifically for disabled children in Latin America. The book was an emotional dialogue between the blind, deaf, mute, and disabled children with the Almighty.
Less than a year ago, ‘Andishe Shargh’ Art and Cultural Institute, involved with cultural activities in Latin America, established its Spanish-language department of children and adolescents, ‘El Faro’. Since then, it has released over 50 works of children’s literature in Spanish and Portuguese from Iranian authors such as Seyed Mehdi Shojaie, Mostafa Rahmandoost, Fariba Kalhor, etc.
Folk Tales
‘One Thousand and One Nights’ is a collection of Persian, Arabic and Indian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic more than a thousand years ago. It is often known in English as the ‘Arabian Nights’, from the first English edition (1706), which rendered the title as ‘The Arabian Nights’ Entertainment’.
The work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across Asia and North Africa. The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature. In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Caliphate era. The tales vary widely; they include historical tales, love stories, tragedies, comedies, poems, and burlesques. The book was translated into Persian about 200 years ago.
Commonality
What is common throughout all the editions of the book is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahryar (meaning king or sovereign) and his wife Scheherazade and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves. The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. The bulk of the text is in prose, although verse is occasionally used to express heightened emotion, and for songs and riddles.
Some of the stories of the book, particularly ‘Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp’, ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’, and ‘The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor’, genuinely Middle Eastern folk tales, have been depicted in a number of films and animations across the globe.
