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- Herausgeber: BookRix
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
The culture of the Middle East contains a vast repository of stories. Circulating for hundreds of years in oral form, and often told by professional storytellers in the marketplace, the West became aware of them initially through Bible stories, and later through versions of the Arabian Tales in The One Thousand and One Nights.
Complex and often multilayered, connected to Sufist thought, these stories can reveal deep psychological understanding of human behaviour, as well as humour and life guidance to the reader.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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The Hall of Wisdom
and other tales
Dedicated to Idries Shah and his son Tahir Shah for their unstinting work in bringing Middle Eastern stories into the conciousness of the West and their support of the continued art of oral storytelling. And to Scheherezade early heroine of storytellers. Dedicated also to story tellers of the West keeping the art alive particularly Marita Luck, storyteller, for her insight, and to David Heathfield, story teller, for his version of the Iranian story, The Three Dolls.BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 MunichThe Hall of the Wise Ones
There was a young caliph Harun, who ascended to the throne in Bagdad. His father had him educated by scribes and priests and left to him a library.
Harun had been instructed by learned men in calligraphy and reading and he began to believe the maxim that “if it is not written down it does not exist.” He began to revere ancient texts and ordered his messengers to scour his Caliphate and beyond for papyri and ancient manuscripts.
He ordered his father’s library to be expanded into a hall where documents could be ordered and stored. In time it came to be called the Hall of Wisdom.
He took a daily interest in his collection. Whenever a new document arrived he was ecstatic and immediately left off his duties to pore over it and discuss it with the learned men of the court.
But at night he was troubled by a recurring dream, that despite all his papyri and tablets he was missing something, a body of knowledge.
It was close. In his dream he was reaching out for it but it eluded him.
His mother worried about the fact that he made no moves to take a wife, in fact all princesses presented were rejected.
“Harun you must ensure the succession. You must choose a wife.
She began to bring girls before him yet there was no response.
At last an ancient adviser, Al Qurashi, said to Haroun’s mother,
“I think I know what the problem is.”
“Well, tell me then o wise one.”
“He despises the girls you present because they are not literate - our culture does not encourage girls to be literate.
He needs to understand that oral knowledge is important, such as mothers transmit to their babes and couples transmit to each other.”
“Love?”
“Love is part of it but in the interaction of people there is much more.”
“But," said the mother, “this knowledge is not bald facts and it is complex; how to relate it?”
The mother called for her son.
“Al Qurashi has uncovered a new store of knowledge.”
“Where is it? Who brought it? Whose hand is it written in?
His mother replied;
“In times past the Koran was not written down but spoken.”
Her son looked puzzled.
“People memorised knowledge and recited it; poems, stories, advice about life.”
“But knowledge must be written for it to exist,” replied Haroun.
His mother said,
“The birds do not read, neither do camels yet they find their way over the desert. Also, the dream interpreter listens and interprets the meaning of your dream.”
“This is true,” said Haroun.
“Send me the dream interpreter,” said her son with a suddenness that surprised her.
