Hikâjat 'Omar al No'mân waweledaihi Sarkân wa Dau al Makân

by Anonymous

500 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1640

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

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The only illustrated arabian nights

Codex ‘TÜ M.A. VI 32’ [ c. 1640 ] University Library of Tübingen: Sīrat‘Umar http://idb.ub.uni-tuebingen.de/opendi...
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“ 3.1 From Epic to Romance: Sirat Umar and the Impact of the Arabian Nights:

the title of an extensive Arabian Nights tale; more precisely the Sirat Umar first and more concise part of the Epic of the Holy Warriors (the 'Syrio-Umayyad Cycle') after having undergone a literary metamorphosis, at the end of which it became part of the Arabian Nights or Thousand and One Nights. Three steps led to the adaptation of the epic into the Arabian Nights, two of which are quite technical: the insertion of the 'nights formula' (often with the function of a cliffhanger),76 and the incorporation of independent story- in-the-stories." But the most important change affects the general style and attitude of the epic. The epic was transformed into a more refined, more fab ulous, and more romantic text, in other words a shift from epic to romance While the Epic of the Holy Warriors intends to relate to real history with it many references to the 7th- 9th centuries and a well-defined geographical set ting, the Sirat Umar relates to matters of love, family saga and fairy tale, almos entirely free from historical and geographical reference. This is evident from the text's opening episodes. "Once upon a time." Sophia, a daughter of the Byzantine emperor, came to the court of an imaginary king Umar al-Nu'mār of Baghdad as a gift from Hardüb, a local king of Caesarea, who had captured her on the seashore. As King 'Umar's slave, she bears a boy and a girl. The "two born" heroes are the protagonists of the Sirat Umar, a motif that comes quite close to the Digenis Akritis. In the course of the story, whereas the relationship between the two Arabie texts becomes closer, and verbatim quotations of whole episodes and passage predominant, almost all the historical proper names a-historical fantasy names. For example, the historical Maslama, son of the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Malik and hero of the 'Syrio-Umayyad Cycle' of the Epic of the Holy Warriors, appears as Daw' al-Makān (“Light of the Place") in the Sīrat Umar. His comrade Şahşāh gets the fantastical name Kāna mā kār ("There was there was not"). The Byzantine emperor Leo III, in the Epic of th Holy Warrors called Lāwün, gets the name Lāwī in the Tübingen Manuscript o the Sirat Umar, but in the Calcutta edition, which resembles the more widespread Egyptian Recension of the Arabian Nights (ZER), his name is Afrīdūn, a modification of the Persian name Ferīdūn. Persian names fit the frame story of Shahrazād, which is set in pre-Islamic Iran. They are also substituted for the military leader Ațțāf in the Epic of the Holy Warriors, who becomes first Rustam and later Säsän, both Persian names. The following instance of this name substitution seems to be particularly elevant here. The two Arabic tribes whose rivalry opens the Epic of the Holy Warriors, namely the Banū Kilāb and the Banū Sulaym, become "Turks and Daylamites" in the Sirat Umar. Two examples for this may also illustrate how similar the wording of the two versions still is: In the Epic of the Holy Warriors, a dead Byzantine patrikios is described with the words: "This bațrīq was a true giant; a man of the Banü Kilāb had killed him."78 The corresponding passage of the Sīrat Umar has: “This bațrīq was a giant of the giants; a man of the Turks had killed him."79 At another place in the Epic of the Holy Warriors, the amīr selects sol- diers for a raid: "Then he chose one hundred horsemen amongst the heroes of the Banū Kilāb and the Banū Sulaym"80 The text of Sirat 'Umar is as follows: "Then he let the Turks and Daylamites come before him and chose amongst the heroes one hun- dreds horsemen."81 nterestingly enough, “Turks and Dilamites" are mentioned in the Grottaferrata ersion of the Digenis too, as part of the Islamic troops.82 How, then, can we explain all these allusions? Surely not by simply suppos- ng that the author of the Digenis Akritis had read or heard either the Epic of the Holy Warriors or the Sirat Umar. The composition of Sirat Umar was, in any case, too late and too far away from the formative period and region of the Digenis. But at the time of the composition of the Digenis, Northern Syria was a platform for cultural, political and economic relations with Byzantium. It may well be the case that Byzantines came into contact with the emerging Epic of the Holy Warriors here, even if not in its final form. Where, when and under which circumstances the metamorphosis from epic to romance took place is still, and most probably will remain, speculative. The oldest testimony of the Sirat Umar is a manuscript preserved in the University Library of Tübingen. The manuscript has no colophon, but can most probably be dated in the 17th century. It is a 'second book' of the Thousand and One Nights, containing Nights 281 to 542 and covering exactly the com- plete story of 'Umar an-Nu'mān. The Tübingen 'Umar' is the only illuminated Arabian Nights manuscript n existence, apart froma copy of it which is preserved in the John Rylands Librar in Manchester. The miniatures of the Tübingen Umar show scenes from th Sirat Umar using simplified schematic imagery. Knights on horseback, hunt ing and adventure scenes, as well as meetings and conversations between the characters involved, are illustrated. While the open air scenes are provide with no background, the scenes indoors are always framed by architectura elements. Their formatting is usually slightly broader than that of width of the text (Figure 11.4). As Muhsin Mahdi has correctly assumed, the "Tübingen Umar' is a forma attempt to continue the tradition of the Arabian Nights broken off in Nigh 282.83 It was in fact quite a successful attempt. The so-called 'Egyptian recen sion' incorporated the Srat Umar into the canonical Arabian Nights text, and so, all the printed versions we know include that story. Panagiotis Agapitos states that the Srat Umar "does not include the type o authentication device we observe in the Digenis, possibly because the tale' presence in the Thousand and One Nights excluded any notion of being 'tru history",84 Despite this observation, the spirit of the Digenis seems to b somewhat similar to that of the Sirat Umar. Both share an ahistoric ane romantic spirit, at least in comparison with the Arabian epic, by which bot texts are inspired. And we can go a bit further; is there not, between the line of Sirat Umar as well as the Digenis Akritis, a kind of humor, even irony, toward the severeness, the religious enthusiasm, and the endless slaughters of the Holy Warriors? Could this possibly be the reason why Digenis, althougl an Akritis, totally refrains from the bloody, brutal and humorless way of life of the Islamic Holy Warriors, and only confronts robbers and wild animals Furthermore, could this humor possibly give us at least a small glimpse of hop in today's times of war in Syria and across its borders? Exactly the same region many centuries ago, where the cross-border warriors of the Arabian epic emerged.”