In this book Hasan M. El-Shamy has gathered the first authentic new collection of modern Egyptian folk narratives to appear in nearly a century. El-Shamy's English translations of these orally presented stories not only preserve their spirit, but give Middle Eastern lore the scholarly attention it has long deserved. "This collection of seventy recently collected Egyptian tales is a major contribution to African studies and to international distribution studies of folktales. In the face of the recent anthropological trend to use folkloric materials for extra-folkloric purposes, the preeminence of the text must be asserted once more, and these are obviously authentic, straightforwardly translated, fully documented as to date of collection and social category of informant, and for all that . . . readable."—Daniel J. Crowley, Research in African Literatures "Western knowledge of virtually all facets of contemporary Egyptian culture, much less the roots of that culture, is woefully inadequate. By providing an interesting, varied, and readable collection of Egyptian folktales and offering clear and sensible accounts of their background and meaning, this book renders a valuable service indeed."—Kenneth J. Perkins, International Journal of Oral History

Read Along or Enhanced eBook: When Goat, Rooster, and Donkey decide to try their hand at farming, Donkey learns the price of being greedy and discovers that the truth will always come out in the end.

Originally published: London: Bodley Head, 1967.

A retelling of traditional tales from the Sudan and Egypt.

Sadiki fears the worst when he is tossed from his ship in a storm. But a chance encounter with a serpent changes his life and that of the Pharoah.