[Linganth] Q: Quessa/Cuentos

[Maggie Ronkin]

In response to my query below, I received the following from Dwight 
Reynolds, Director, Centro de Estudios de la Universidad de California, 
Colegio Mayor Isabel la Católica Universidad de Granada ... Just in case 
anyone else is interested in re-told works of Arabic origin influencing 
story foms in European contexts:
--Maggie

... there is no connection whatsoever between the words <cuento> and 
<qissa>.  The first is Indo-European and ... is  cognate to many words -- 
count, account, recount, etc. -- in English.  The  second is from the 
Semitic root that gives both the sense of "to cut" and "to narrate."  But 
Arabic, via Spain, did indeed influence the FORM of the European  story and 
we have dozens of examples of Arabic tales being translated into Spanish and 
Latin in the late Middle Ages especially in the period of Alfonso  X "the 
Wise."  These tales then recur in many Spanish works of the period  
including the Stories of Count Lucano, the Book of Good Love, Don Quijote 
(the conceit of the Quijote is that it is a translation of an Arabic 
manuscript and Cervantes himself was a prisoner in Algeria for several years 
before writing it), as well as in European works such as Dante´s Divine 
Comedy, Bocaccio´s Decameron, Chaucer´s Canterbury Tales and elsewhere.

There is quite a large bibliography on this topic--one work that should be 
easily available for your Spanish student(s) would be Juan Vernet´s <Lo que 
debe Europa al Islam Español>.  It has a full coverage of the flow of the 
sciences and mathematics through Spain to Europe as well as a good section 
on the translations from Arabic and where "retold" versions of these works 
appear
in late medieval European literature. They can also consult Maria Rosa 
Menocal´s work on the Arabic literary influence on medieval Europe or almost 
any of the basic references on Islamic Spain (such as Salma Jayyusi´s volume 
on the Legacy of Islamic Spain).

----------
>From: "Maggie Ronkin" <ronkinm at hotmail.com>
>To: linganth at cc.rochester.edu
>Subject: Re: [Linganth] Q: Quessa/Cuentos
>Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2004 21:54:15 +0000
>
>CORRECTION: Below I meant "throughout the Muslim world". Sorry for the 
>typo.
>
>From: "Maggie Ronkin" <ronkinm at hotmail.com>
>To: linganth at cc.rochester.edu
>Subject: [Linganth] Q: Quessa/Cuentos
>Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2004 20:30:33 +0000
>
>My students have asked if there's any connection (e.g. one that's 
>etymological and traceable to culture contact) between "quessa", used in 
>literature on the Middle East to designate folktales, fairy tales, 
>romances, legends, and gossip throught the Muslim world, and "cuentos" in 
>Spanish. Can someone help us out?
>
>--Maggie
>________________________________________________________________

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