| I first heard some Arabic folk tales when I went | | | | The stories I heard were really good tales. By |
| to work in Kuwait in the late 1980s and was | | | | that I mean they had great plots. The seed of a |
| invited to visit diwaniyahs. A diwaniyah is the | | | | crisis was always sown early on and there were |
| parlour found in every Kuwaiti home where the | | | | seldom any long windy descriptions. The crisis |
| men of the house entertain their friends. There | | | | would grow, seem to resolve, only to get worse, |
| we used to sit around, playing cards, chatting and | | | | several times over. Finally there was usually a |
| joking, snacking and drinking. Late at night, if we | | | | very satisfactory ending. |
| were lucky, story-telling would begin. | | | | Though the stories were plot-driven, the |
| Fabulous stories they were too and the more so | | | | characters were always plausible. With just a few |
| because of the style of the telling. Even though | | | | deft words, the story-teller would sketch a |
| there was always a TV in the corner, it was | | | | fully-rounded personality you could easily believe |
| turned off as soon as some-one, sitting | | | | in, even if they were jinn, ifreet, or other |
| cross-legged on a pile of cushions, began telling a | | | | super-natural beings. When reading one of my |
| tale. My Arabic was very poor in those days (and | | | | favourite tales, The Ox and the Donkey, I find |
| isn't much better today) but there was always a | | | | the talking animals entirely realistic, perhaps |
| kind soul around who would whisper a translation. I | | | | because their thoughts and actions mirror the |
| followed the stories as best I could, watching the | | | | wiliness of humans. |
| rapt faces staring at the speaker and his gestures | | | | Though Arabic folk tales reflect local culture and |
| as his voice rose and fell. Traditional story telling is | | | | especially the Bedouin mind-set, their themes are |
| still alive and well in the Arabian Gulf. | | | | universal -- the fight for justice, that might does |
| I used to write these stories down, when I could | | | | not make right, that the bad man always gets his |
| remember them, in the morning. Later, as the | | | | just deserts, the struggles of the under-dog, and |
| founding editor of Kuwait this month, I polished | | | | so on. They nearly always have morally satisfying |
| them up and published them and they went down | | | | outcomes with which we can all identify. |
| very well with English readers in the Gulf. I found | | | | If you are, like me, the sort of person who |
| out later that various versions of these stories | | | | enjoys a good story for its own sake, you should |
| had been written down hundreds of years ago | | | | delve into the rich store of folk tales that have |
| but most of them, with a few exceptions, were | | | | been told for hundreds, perhaps thousands of |
| virtually unknown in the West or have been | | | | years, in Arabia, and are still being told today. |
| forgotten about. | | | | |