Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewBedouin Folktales from the North of Israel is a unique and outstanding publication. Actually it includes much more than an anthology of 'folktales.' It provides the reader with almost everything needed to understand life, culture, history, and language of the Bedouin women, men, family, and tribe in Northern Israel of the last century. Folklorists used to emphasize the importance of the context. This book is, ostensibly, an exemplary contextual publication and study of a given body of folktales: the history and geography (including maps), the language – including the original Arabic texts (in transcription), their folkloristic comparative study and interpretation, as well as an array of indexes and bibliography. It puts in our hands a rare and important tool for understanding the importance not only of Bedouin folklore but also of folklore at large. In addition to its scholarly importance, this is also a collection of narratives that will be an exciting read for every person who still loves a good story.
-- Eli Yassif, Emeritus in Department of Literature, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Bedouin Folktales from the North of Israel is an outstanding contribution to the presently scarce fresh folktale collections from the field. Perez and Rosenhouse present a well-crafted balance between tale texts and theories advanced by scholars concerning these international tale-types. Indiana University Press is to be complimented for reviving the authentic field collection tradition.
-- Hasan M. El-Shamy, Professor Emeritus, Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University
This splendid collection of Bedouin folk tales combines three elements: scientific transcriptions of audio recordings of the colloquial Arabic texts; accurate translations; and an extensive discussion, with rich comparative material, of each tale. These elements fit together in the most natural fashion—all, in fact, are essential to a serious study of the subject—and yet this is, to the best of my knowledge, the very first work on Arab folklore that actually combines them. The authors are to be congratulated on a fine achievement.
-- Frank H. Stewart, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
William Blake's metaphor 'to see the world in a grain of sand' acquires a new meaning in the study of Judith Rosenhouse, a linguist, and Yoel Shalom Perez, a comparative folklorist, who present with meticulous precision the performance of universally traditional tales as told by Galilean Bedouins. As two Israelis, they reveal in them the cultural bonding between Israelite and Arab traditions that go back to antiquity.
-- Dan Ben-Amos, author of Folklore Concepts
When linguistic, dialectological and folkloristic approaches meet: 57 traditional stories recorded from Bedouins in Northern Israel (13 of them translated from Hebrew) provided in linguistic transcription, English translation, and commentaries to place the folktales within their social and historical context. This ideal interdisciplinary approach has hitherto been only rarely applied.
-- Veronika Ritt-Benmimoun, University of Vienna
Table of ContentsForeword
Transcription and Abbreviations
Part I—Stories of love, loyalty, and devotion
1. Between the Sun and the Moon
2. The Princess on the Island
3. The Girl who Fell into a Well
4. The ā's Daughter and the Orator
5. A Woman's Loyalty
6. The King's Wife and the Poor Man
7. uā and the Queen
8. The Doe
9. The Woman from the Sea
10. The Raindrop Bubbles Will Testify
a. The Man and his Neighbor
b. āeq Anāf (Tasting Justice)
11. The Coffee Server
12. The Old Man and the Girl, the Old Woman and the Young Man
13. The Girl and her Brother who Became a Deer
14. Do Good and Throw it to the Sea
15. The Transposed Heads
16. The Son Who Obeyed his Mother
17. The Silent Princess and Smart Muammad
18. The Two Notes (Smart Hassan)
19. The Kidnapped Bride
20. The Prince and his Two Wives
21. In the Family
a. Between a Brother and his Sister
b. Between a Bride and her Mother-in-law
22. The Replaced Bride
23. The Dangerous Night-Watch
a. Šāer asan and his Nine Brothers
b. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
24. My Mother Slew Me; My Father Ate Me
a. The Green Bird
b. The Yellow Cow
25. The Boy, the Uncle and the Lover
26. The Inheritance Case
Part II—Stories about Ġouls and Demons
27. The Giant
28. Frē Rummān (Snow White)
29. The Man Who Delivered a Daughter
30. The Girl and her Seven Brothers
31. The Sickle Hand
32. Bells Sound
a. bēna and the Jujube Tree
b. The inn and the Girl in Dog Clothes
33. The Golden Palm Tree
34. The Children and the Ogre
a. The Girls and the Ġūla
b. Grē'a, mēda and daydūn
c. Nu-Nē
35. The Emīr's Daughter who Flew to Switzerland
36. The Golden Children
a. The Three Siblings and the Talking Birds
b. The Wicked Old Woman
c. The Emīr and the Slave
37. The Ġūla, the Mallow Gatherer and his daughter
38. The Two Brothers and the Ġūla
39. Personal Narratives about Meetings with Ġūls
a. The Young Man and the Ġūla
b. The Ġūla Who Posed as a Tribe Member
c. The Groom and the Ġūla
d. The Ġūla in the Waterhole
e. Abu Xier and the Ġūla
40. The Old Woman and the ūt
Part III—Animal stories
41. The Man and the Wounded Snake
a. The Snake Story
b. The Shepherd and the Snake
42. The Goat, the Kid and the Ġūla
43. The Lion Who Wanted to Know Man's Nature
44. The Two Hunters
Epilogue
Bedouin Dialects in the North of Israel / Judith Rosenhouse
Bedouin Tribes in the Galilee—Historical and Settlement Background / Arnon Medzini
Maps
Index of Tale Types
Index of Motifs
Narrators List
Subject Index
Bibliography
