Arab Society in the Time of The Thousand and One Nights

by Edward William Lane, Stanley Lane-Poole (Editor)

Elaborate, explanatory notes from the author's 1859 translation of the Arabian Nights comprise a virtual encyclopedia of Middle Eastern life. Intriguing account of Islamic society as it existed during the Middle Ages considers importance of religion, literature, festivals, education, slavery, role of women in society, and rituals observed for the dead.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Classics

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1987

About the author

Edward William Lane was a British Orientalist, translator and lexicographer.

Reviews

[Haythem Bastawy · Rating 3 out of 5]

According to Lane everything 'Mohammadan' is also Arabian. Lane lived in Egypt for several years, intermittently in the twenties and thirties of the nineteenth century. Even in Egypt he limited himself to certain Islamic quarters in Cairo and consciously avoided the other cultures and multiple heritages of one of the world's oldest civilisations. He based his excessive annotations of A Thousand and One Nights on his culturally-limited experience in Cairo and applied them to all Islamic cultures which he described as Arabian. These notes have been put together in a separate book as a collection of essays titled Arabian Society in the Middle Ages. The notes are not helpful as descriptions of nineteenth century Eastern Mediterranean cultures (which Lane and his editor perceived as still medieval in essence), but are rather more useful in terms of understanding the picture Lane depicted to his Victorian audience of a backward and superstitious 'Orient'.

[Wissam Asaad · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8

[Brian Bigelow · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was some good information in this book. I also felt it diverged more than was necessary in many places. It wasn't as sentiently put together as I would have liked.