Arabian Nights....?

[futureKC123]

+JMJ
This might be in the wrong section so if the moderators feel it should be elsewhere than I would appreciate if they moved it to their discresion. Does Arabian Nights have any Eastern Christian elements in it or any Islamic influence in it? Should I be worried about reading it if it does have elements of Islam in it?
Thanks for your help!
FKC :byzsoc:

 

[midori]

Ovid’s Metamorphoses has more religious elements to it. Are you worried about reading that?

The biggest element that jumps to mind is the concept of Djinn (Jinn, Genies)— Islamic fire-spirits, who along with angels and humans make up the three sentient creations of Allah. According to The Internet, it seems the belief is that Djinn and humans both have free will (and angels do not) and that Djinn can be “good, evil, or neutrally benevolent.” Good things to keep in mind while reading.

It’s been years since I last read it (a nice copy from the Illustrated Junior Library put out by Grosset & Dunlap) but I don’t recall anything untoward about it. All of the stories have a definite Islamic/Arabian feel to them, even the ones supposedly set in China. You just accept that it’s the cultural filter through which the stories are told, and leave it at that. It’s definitely a book I’d expect anyone with a love of folklore, classic literature, or fairy tales to have read at some point in their lives.

Give a few stories a try, and come back and let us know if there was anything that made you twitch an eyebrow.

 

[juliamajor]

As someone who reads folklore all the times -I have’nt grown horns yet or gained cloven hoofs, God nor the Church wants us to be ignorant of our fellow human beings or the ways they dffer from us.

 

[Bwtby]

Ignorance is not bliss.