Naguib Mahfouz: The Arabian Nights

Burton’s version had credibility for his audience because he was a renown English explorer, linguist, diplomat, translator, and Orientalist. He was famous for his expeditions and his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. His version of the tales offered more than a mere translation, but a vast explanation about the Oriental lifestyle for his European audience. He divided the tales per day according to the frame tale and how the original storyteller Shahrazad told the stories to the King Shahriyar. Burton includes many footnotes that explained the cultural aspects of the Arabs. As Edward Said exposes, Western scholars study the Eastern cultures thinking that the Eastern world needed civilizing. In Burton’s case, he had a fascination …show more content…
Nevertheless, his version has different nuances from the ones created by Western writers. Mahfouz is the only Arab ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Egyptian Revolution of 1919, the tyranny of dictators, and religious climate affected Mahfouz’s life. During his childhood, he witnessed the abuse of the British soldiers and how they killed children, men, and women (Smith). Mahfouz’s novel confronts his contemporary reality and explores the madness of the corrupt system of his society. His account omitted the romanticism and fairy tale characteristics of the previous ones and focused on the raw reality of the Arab world. As an Arab, Mahfouz lived and suffered the critical situation in his country; therefore, his novel, Arabian Nights and Days published in 1979, is a representation of his society that at the same time is very similar to any nation in the world. Similarly, Said asserts that Orientalism derives from the experience that Britain and France had in the Orient, but their interaction was always patronizing. Based on that, Said believed these biased perceptions hindered an accurate understanding of Middle Eastern and East Asian making their Arabian versions