Anonymous story collections usually offer particularly complex text-historical problems. Their handwritten transmission is often more fluid than that of works by known authors. This is true, for example, of the Persian Jāmiʿ al-ḥikāyāt and the Arabic Alf layla wa-layla (The Thousand and One Nights). Early Turkish translations exist for both. In the first case, the Ferec baʿd eş-şidde (8th/14th century: “Relief after Hardship”), the Turkish manuscript tradition is absolutely stable in terms of content, while the Persian manuscripts differ significantly in the selection and order of the stories. As for the second case, the Turkish rendering of the Nights, Elif leyle ve leyle (9th/15th century), an analysis has led to a similar result. For the most part, the various fragments show almost verbatim agreement in the overlapping parts of the text. Only occasionally has the text been modernized linguistically, while the content remained unchanged. Taken together, the fragments comprise the entire work and represent a snapshot of the history of The Thousand and One Nights in the 9th/15th century.

In the case of Kalīla wa-Dimna, two Anatolian Turkish translations were made, one by Ḳul Mesʿūd, written around 730/1330, and another one by an anonymous author during the reign of Ḫayr ed-Dīn (1368-1386 CE. C.E.), the vizier of Sultan Murād I. Both translations are based on the Persian translation of Abū Maʿālī Naṣr Allāh al-Munshī (6th/12th century). It remains to be investigated what they can contribute to the textual history of Kalila wa-Dimna. At the very least, their translation history, which is much better documented than that of The Thousand and One Nights, can serve as a test case for the assumptions made concerning Ferec baʿd eş-şidde and Elif leyle ve leyle.

References:

Marzolph, Ulrich: Relief After Hardship: The Ottoman Turkish Model for the Thousand and One Days. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 2017.
Thomann, Johannes “Die frühesten türkischen Übersetzungen von Tausendundeiner Nacht und deren Bedeutung für die arabische Textgeschichte.” Asiatische Studien 70, 1 (2016), 171–219.
Thomann, Johannes “‘Oh Leader of Women in the World, oh Shahrazad!’ The Ending of the One Thousand and One Nights in the Earliest Turkish Translation and its Relationship to the Arabic Versions.” In: Elmaz, Orhan (ed.). Endless Inspiration: One Thousand and One Nights in Comparative Perspective. Piscataway, NJ: De Gruyter, 137-168.

Bio:

Johannes Thomann is a visiting scholar at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies (IAOS) at the University of Zurich. He received his PhD from the University of Zurich (1992). Between 1992 and 2020, he was a research associate at the Oriental Seminar of the University of Zurich and later at IAOS. His main research interests are the sciences in the pre-modern Islamic world, especially astronomy and astrology, and the textual history of the Thousand and One Nights.

The AnonymClassic research colloquium promotes a number of international guest speakers in alternation with close reading sessions on manuscript editing and presentations of the team’s research topics. Discussion of methodological approaches and digital humanities issues are key interests of the AnonymClassic research colloquium.

Until further notice, sessions are scheduled as remotely accessible; team, students and guests meet virtually every Thursday from 12:15 to 1:45 pm (CET). Colleagues, visiting scholars, and students (Arabic studies or related disciplines) are cordially invited to participate. We especially welcome researchers based elsewhere than Freie Universität Berlin to join us for any one (or more) sessions.

For registration, please mail to: oualid.el.khattabi@fu-berlin.de

N.B: Presentations may be recorded, please notify our technical host ahead of sessions in case you object to your image and/or contributions to be archived.