1. Arabian Nights “No one can deny the persisting continuities of long traditions, sustained habitations, national languages, and cultural geographies [such as Indian or American], but there seems no reason except fear and prejudice to keep insisting on their separation and distinctiveness, as if that was all human life was about. Survival in fact is about the connections between things [...]. It is more rewarding—and more difficult—to think concretely and sympathetically, contrapuntally, about others than only about ‘us.’ —Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism, 1993, p. 336

2. Sukasaptati

5. Tripi ṭ aka

7. Jātaka

9. Panchatantra

10. Greek

12. The Tale of Bulukiya

13. The Orient

16. Berlin Hipsters

17. Bavarian (sporting lederhosen)

18. Izmir Hipsters

19. Taşkent

20. Moving beyond Us vs. Them to Common Connections

21. Frame Story

23. Then they sat down, took off their clothes, and suddenly there were ten slave- girls and ten black slaves dressed in the same clothes as the girls. Then the ten black slaves mounted the ten girls, while the lady called, “Mas’ud, Mas’ud!” and a black slave jumped from the tree to the ground, rushed to her, and, raising her legs, went between her thighs and made love to her. Mas’ud topped the lady, while the ten slaves topped the ten girls, and they carried on till noon. When they were done with their business, they got up and washed themselves. Then the ten slaves put on the same clothes again, mingled with the girls, and once more there appeared to be twenty slave-girls. Mas’ud himself jumped over the garden wall and disappeared, while the slave-girls and the lady sauntered to the private gate, went in and, locking the gate behind them, went their way. (from Husain Haddawy’s translation of Arabian Nights)

24. Frame Story

25. Ibn Khaldun on Africans In Southern Africa, reports Khaldun, there is a race of Africans who “dwell in caves and thickets, eat herbs, live in savage isolation and do not congregate, and eat each other. [...] The reason for this is that their remoteness from being temperate produces in them a disposition and character similar to those of the dumb animals, and they become correspondingly remote from humanity” (168); this “Negro nation,” according to Khaldun, is, “as a rule,” “submissive to slavery, because (Negroes [Zanj]) have little (that is essentially) human and have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals, as we have stated” ( Muqaddimah, trans. by Rosenthal)

26. Yes, we evolved from monkeys. Get used to it.

27. Frans de Waal If high-ranking males catch another male mating, they intervene by attacking either him or his mate. The females are also clearly aware of this risk. Sometimes a female consistently refuses to accept invitations to mate from certain males, as if she is just not interested in them. Then, when the colony goes indoors in the evening, opportunities suddenly present themselves for undisturbed mating, and it turns out that the female is perfectly willing to mate with males she has cold-shouldered [that is, ostensibly ignored] during the day. We have even seen females rush to the cages of males to copulate [engage in sexual activity] quickly through the bars. This only happens, of course, when the alpha male is still outside or separated from them in another part of the system of passages. If the alpha male happens to spot what is going on, he immediately reacts by hooting and bluffing, but he is powerless to intervene. What is the reason for this intolerance? Why are the males unable to leave each other alone? Jealousy is once again only half the story. The problem of its function remains. Jealousy would have disappeared from the earth a long time ago if the tensions and risks involved did not have some positive [biological] function.” (my italics and inserts, de Waal, Frans, Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes)

33. Do not put your trust in women Or believe their covenants. Their satisfaction and their anger Both depend on their private parts. They make a false display of love, But their clothes are stuffed with treachery. Take a lesson from the tale of Joseph, And you will find some of their tricks. Do you not see that your father, Adam, Was driven out from Eden thanks to them?

34. Blame must be matched to what is blamed; I have grown big, but my offence has not. I am a lover, but what I have done Is only what men did before me in old days. What is a cause for wonder is a man Whom women have not trapped by their allure.

35. Review 1)There are various originating sources of the Arabian Nights narratives, ranging from India to ancient Mesopotamia, from the Sukasaptati to Gilgamesh.

36. Review 1)There are various originating sources of the Arabian Nights narratives, ranging from India to ancient Mesopotamia, from the Sukasaptati to Gilgamesh. 2)The are various conceptions of the Orient and Orientalism; it’s important to recognize our unique cultural identities and geographies, here and in the Arabian Nights; yet it’s also important to appreciate the stories with a mind to common humanity. Echoing Said’s argument in the first slide, I argued that the only way out of cultural provincialism (our local sense of identity, as important as that is) is to look for connections between cultures and to acknowledge the importance of humanistic values.

37. Review 3)Next, I proposed a reading of the Nights’ Frame Story by acknowledging what’s “human.” a.I talked about our evolutionary roots, as glimpsed through our closest primate ancestors, chimpanzees (for much of their biology is constitutive of our humanity). b.I then considered how we’re both similar and different than our primate ancestors. c.From this premise, I proposed two possible interpretations of the Frame Story, one cynical and one trusting. d.And last, I argued that the men in the frame story were cynical while we readers can learn to be trusting.

38. The End