فصلنامه نقد ادبی (Oct 2023)
Finding the roots of the story of the Jewish tailor and the hunchback in the stories of One Thousand and One Nights
Abstract
One of the parts of the stories of One Thousand and One Nights is the story of the "Jewish tailor and the hunchback". In this section, it is mentioned that a Jewish person was worried about unintentionally causing the death of a hunchback and was afraid that if the Muslims found out about his work, they would "remove the Jewish generation from the earth". "Violence" can be observed in this passage. In a comparative approach, in order to find the roots of this phrase, this article has gone through several versions and translations of the stories of the Thousand and One Nights and has come to the conclusion that the sentence in question did not exist in its Persian root before it was translated into Arabic, and when it was translated again from Arabic to Farsi has been added to it. When the version of One Thousand and One Nights was under Arab control and Harun al-Rashid took possession of it, this sentence was also added to it sooner or later; That is, there was no such sentence in its original version. Extended abstract One Thousand and One Nights is one of the important sources, it is a long story, rich in history, mysterious and wonderful, which contains various roots of Iranian, Indian and Arab literature and culture. Due to the vastness and complex nature of this collection of stories, a specific author cannot be defined for it, and the correct theory is that the Thousand and One Nights, whenever it was under the domination and rule of a government throughout history, was changed by that government and It has increased and decreased. Perhaps, not assigning it to a specific author and a specific culture and civilization is one of the most important reasons for this chaos and the ease of changing the content of One Thousand and One Nights. Fortunately, one of the things that can be seen in this collection of stories, and the following article was written with this in mind, is a sentence that can be seen in the story of the hunchbacked man and the Jewish tailor. The story is that when the Jewish tailor and his wife put food in the hunchback's mouth as a joke and he chokes because of the large bite, they say out of fear and worry that if the Muslims find out about this, they will wipe out the Jewish generation. This passage contained a type of anti-Semitism and it seemed that this passage was added to it in one of the manipulations that have been carried out throughout history in One Thousand and One Nights. After adapting the Persian versions and proving that this sentence did not exist in the Persian original, which was the traditional version before it was translated into Arabic, but today there are few traces of it, and after the thousand and one nights went into Arabic and From there it was translated into Farsi, and this sentence also appeared in it, it is concluded that this anti-Semitic passage of one thousand and one nights did not exist in its Persian original and after being translated from Arabic, it has this passage.
