Provides background on Arab culture; discusses and presents examples of Arab verbal, musical, and material arts as well as customs and traditions; presents approaches to Arab folklore scholarship; and includes several further reading lists.

Providing insight into Arab culture, Patai offers extensive notes and commentary on particular Arabic phrases and images, as well as the ways of speaking and thinking found among the Arab population, especially the Bedouins, in Palestine and Israel. Patai also places the stories in the context of global folktales, and traces the transformations in the art of storytelling.

The only demographically oriented tale-type index for folktales of the Arab world

Grade level: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, e, i, s.

A collection of Palestinian Arab folktales which reflect the culture and highlights the role of women in the society.