Books
Folktales from Iraq
De C.G. Campbell, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005
It was a long time ago, in winter 1942, that the English near-east historian Charles Grimshaw Campbell (1912-1953) first came upon the great Shiite tribes of Southern Iraq –Muntafiq, Beni Huchaim, al-Fetla. From these encounters arose a collection of folk tales illustrated with xylographs by John Buckland Wright (1897-1954) and initially published in London in 1945 under the title “Tales of Arab Tribes”
This work rests upon an English tradition which successfully copies the evocative force of Arab syntax and reveals the storytelling abilities of the author himself, especially in the preface, a real appetizer for the adventures to follow. In his lively reconstruction, Campbell evokes rumours, odours and colours linked to the tribes he has had the chance to visit, and to their way of life: “many of these stories were told in a large guesthouse or tent pitched among the houses, with a background of sound varying from that of the cooking of a meal of several roast sheep, to the powerful thump, thump, thump of the great pumps”. Through the captivating narration of the vicissitudes, the great acts and the military honour of the Mustafiq- siding during the resistance with the Turks on one side, with the Persians on the other, all during the 18h and 19th century- the author gives us references to understand the tribe’s historical and political role, as well s their alliances in Iraq’s social fabric till the 1940’s. A role which once again is in the heart of current events, marked by the weakness of democratic institutions and generalised violence.
Little by little, the reader is lead by the hand into a “Cavern of Ali Baba”, populated by determined princes, courageous young people, virtuous girls, greedy men, cunning women, wise men...; the main actors of 16 exemplary stories where honour, shame, shrewdness, jealousy, desire and love determine the acts and gests of the human being.
All these stories begin with a presentation by the author, or by the context which gave birth to the story – an invitation to leave the everyday behind and step with heart and feelings into a mythical universe, of an Iraq likewise proud and luxurious, and soft like the dates of Basra or the honey of Mosul....
Chiara Sulmoni
Translated by Ines Ward- research assistant trainee
Permanent link to this entry (permalink)
- Origin CERMAM
- http://www.cermam.org/en/logs/book/folktales_from_iraq_1/
- Publié le 5 September 2007