Title: Stranger magic : charmed states & the Arabian nights /
Authors: Warner, Marina, 1946-
Publisher: Chatto & Windus,
Year: 2011
Subjects: Arabian nights.; Magic in literature.; Arabic poetry.; Orientalism in literature.
Abstract: Magic is not simply a matter of the occult arts, but a whole way of thinking, of dreaming the impossible. As such it has tremendous force in opening the mind to new realms of achievement: imagination precedes the fact. It used to be associated with wisdom, understanding the powers of nature, and with technical ingenuity that could let men do things they had never dreamed of before. The supreme fiction of this magical thinking is the Arabian Nights, with its flying carpets, hidden treasure and sudden revelations.
Contents: Solomon the wise king. The fisherman and the genie ; Master of jinn ; The city of brass ; Riding the wind : the flying carpet I ; Prince Ahmed and Fairy Peri Banou ; A tapestry of great price : the flying carpet II -- Dark arts, strange Gods. The prince of the Black Islands ; The worst witch ; Egyptian attitudes ; Hasan of Basra ; Magians and dervishes ; A fortune regained ; Dream knowledge -- Active goods. 'Everything you desire to know about the East ... ' ; The Greek king and Doctor Douban ; The thing-world of the Arabian Nights ; Abu Mohammed the Lazy ; The world of the talisman ; Marouf the cobbler ; The voice of the toy ; Money talks -- Oriental masquerades. Magnificent moustaches : Hamilton's fooling, Voltaire's impersonations ; Rosebud and Uns al-Wujud the darling boy ; The jinniya and the Egyptian prince ; 'Symbols of wonder' : William Beckford's arabesque ; Oriental masquerade ; Goethe's West-Eastern Divan -- Flights of reason. Camar al-Zaman and Princess Badoura ; Thought experiments : flight before flight ; Why Aladdin? ; Machine dreams ; The ebony horse ; The shadows of Lotte Reiniger ; Aladdin of the beautiful moles ; The couch : a case history ; Prince Ardashir and Hayat al-Nufus -- 'All the story of the night told over.