Hasan M. El–shamy – författare

In this book Hasan M. El-Shamy has gathered the first authentic new collection of modern Egyptian folk narratives to appear in nearly a century. El-Shamy's English translations of these orally presented stories not only preserve their spirit, but give Middle Eastern lore the scholarly attention it has long deserved."This collection of seventy recently collected Egyptian tales is a major contribution to African studies and to international distribution studies of folktales. In the face of the recent anthropological trend to use folkloric materials for extra-folkloric purposes, the preeminence of the text must be asserted once more, and these are obviously authentic, straightforwardly translated, fully documented as to date of collection and social category of informant, and for all that . . . readable."—Daniel J. Crowley, Research in African Literatures"Western knowledge of virtually all facets of contemporary Egyptian culture, much less the roots of that culture, is woefully inadequate. By providing an interesting, varied, and readable collection of Egyptian folktales and offering clear and sensible accounts of their background and meaning, this book renders a valuable service indeed."—Kenneth J. Perkins, International Journal of Oral History

". . . a cross-cultural consideration of kinship and family relations as captured in traditional folktales and other lore genres. . . . This valuable contribution in the areas of anthropology and folk literature will be a treasured acquisition . . . " —Library Journal" . . . rare, intriguing, and highly readable . . . presents tales from the Arab world in a fluent and attractive way." —Ulrich MarzolphThis cross-cultural examination of kinship and affinal relations as expressed in traditional folktales is based on field data compiled by the author. The gender factor and its impact on the form, structure, and contents of each item are explored in conjunction with the concepts of multiple role-playing, role transition, and role-strain.

In 1704 the French Orientalist Antoin Galland introduced to the Western world a translation of The Thousand and One Nights. Over the course of two subsequent centuries, numerous editions followed. Many of these, like Galland's, included texts of stories not found in the indigenous manuscripts of the Nights but selected by the European editors from other literary and oral collections of ordinary folktales and legends. Thus, the original work acquired a Western designation as The Arabian Nights, a title unknown among the masses in Arab lands. Now, three centuries later, original publication of The Thousand and One Nights is being celebrated with widespread, renewed interest in the work. Hasan El-Shamy's motif-index, based on an authentic folk edition of Alf laylah wa laylah, provides scholars of various fields accurate information about the content of this classic piece of Arabic folk tradition.

Religion among the Folk in Egypt seeks to structure the entire field of supernatural beliefs and related practices in the folk communities of Egypt. These beliefs constitute a cognitive system on the one hand and represent behavioral experiences felt, thought, and lived by individuals and social groups on the other. The systemic qualities of the beliefs involved are represented by the fact that the components are interconnected; even a peripheral belief is connected to others and, ultimately, attributed to a central component. The individual 'believer' is aware of the system's components and of the interrelationships among these components. Individuals and social groups manifest the behavioristic nature of a belief or a piece of knowledge within the system through actions. These actions, or rituals are motivated by these beliefs and are made in response to, and within the confines of, the beliefs.A major component of a belief is its affective quality. From the viewpoint of the believer, a religious belief is associated with a certain type of sentiment: awe, reverence, fear, love, hate, and so forth. Such feelings are learned and lead the individual to act in a certain manner and direction congruent with his feelings. In the present inquiry the sentiments involved are predominantly of a religious nature. The folk system only partially overlaps with the formal religion. Folk beliefs and practices, however, represent real behavioral patterns which influence the thoughts, feelings, and actions of individuals and tradition bound groups in daily living; in many respects it is the real religious culture, while formal religion represents the ideal or the supposed form of that culture.