Boccaccio – Decameron – Medieval literature
Florence, Italy Who was Boccaccio? Most of the people who knew how to write in the early Middle Ages were monks. So most of them wrote about serious things like God and [...]
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08, 2017
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07, 2017
Sinbad the Sailor – Arabian Nights
An island turned out to be a whale Sinbad was (as Sheherazade told the story) a trader from Baghdad. He sailed his trading ships all around the Persian Gulf and [...]
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07, 2017
Noureddin and the Persian Woman
A pile of gold coins Here's another of the stories Sheherazade told the king: Once the sultan had two viziers, a good one (Khacan) and a bad one (Saouy). Naturally Saouy hated [...]
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07, 2017
Arabic language and literature
Arabic language: Sabataean writing Where did Arabic come from? Arabic is in the Semitic language group. Semitic languages seem to have gotten started before the beginning of writing. That would be before [...]
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07, 2017
Arabian Nights – Medieval Islamic Literature
Princess (ca. 1540 AD) How old are the Arabian Nights stories? People in India and Iran have been telling these stories for a long time - nobody knows how long. Around 850 AD, an Iranian [...]
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07, 2017
Aladdin and the Lamp – Arabian Nights
An Islamic oil lamp like Aladdin's lamp, from the University of Michigan Scheherazade tells Aladdin's story This is one of the stories Scheherazade told the king. Scheherazade's Arabian Nights Sinbad [...]
