Chapter 2 of this study is dedicated to the interpretation of a typescript entitled “1001 Nights.” The transcript contains detailed notes on many of the stories included in the Calcutta II version of the Arabian Nights. For several generations, scholars of the Arabian Nights have directed their attention mainly toward questions regarding the sources and origins of the stories included in the Arabian Nights, as well as the study of their strictly formal characteristics. When not engaged exclusively with the literary study of the Arabian Nights, most scholars tend to read this remarkable document of Arabic thought to obtain information about the common mentalities and beliefs of the medieval and early modern Islamic societies. Unlike many of these studies, Strauss has offered a remarkable theologico-political interpretation of this famous Arabic text. In his notes, composed sometime after 1959, Strauss concentrates exclusively on the teachings of the stories included in the Arabian Nights, and reads the text as a coherent, carefully crafted whole rather than as an anthology of unconnected tales.

The Mamluks’ patronage of literary and scholastic arts inspired written products remarkable for theirdiversity. During the era of Mamluk rule, bureaucrats, jurists, essayists, poets, scholars, and theologians generated legal compendia, religious commentaries, political treatises, trust documents, literary anthologies, historical chronicles, manuals of diplomatic and statecraft, and handbooks of urban/rural topography. These works have enabled contemporary researchers to revise long-standing interpretations of traditional disciplines, and to reconsider subjects previously regarded as inaccessible due to a presumed lack of sources. Topics addressed: literary theory, popular culture, historical method, rural life, gender relations, and religious diversity. Since the Sultanate presided over the central Islamic lands during their transition from the medieval to early modern periods (7th/13th-10th/16th centuries), the insights provided by these sources, and their revisionists, are reshaping the field of Islamic History. The chapter analyzes the context of patronage of literary products by the Mamluk ruling class, and other social groups with the means and inclination to do so. It considers the audiences reflected in their contents, the evolution of languages in which they were written (primarily Arabic, but representation of Persian and Turkish as well), their principal genres (poetry/prose), and the development of Historiography.

The reign of the caliph Harun al-Rashid is entwined with history and legend. This chapter disentangles the influences of the Arabian Nights and Orientalism on this caliph's biography, and explores his pursuit of a centralizing policy that culminated with the overthrow of the Barmakid ministers and the establishment of his base in Raqqa. The caliphate of al-Rashid evokes a wide range of themes dealing with international trade, Byzantine war, foreign embassies to Charlemagne, and a contentious plan for caliphal succession between his sons, al-Amin and al-Ma'mun.In spite of a civil war, the caliphate recovers under al-Ma'mun and goes on to experience an age of scientific englightenment sparked by the famous Greek to Arabic translation movement centered on classical texts. Al-Ma'mun's interest in philosophy, and his support for the rationalizing sect of the Mu'tazila, however, culminates with a backlash from traditionalist scholars and a standoff in the episode known as the Mihna.