El refranero de Al-Šayj al-Ṭanṭāwi, maestro de orientalistas en San Petersburgo, y sus apuntes folclóricos

Abstract

Al-Shayj Muḥammad ‘Ayyād al-Ṭanṭāwī (1810-1861), migrated to St. Petersburg in 1840 to teach to the future Russian Orientalists the Arabic language in its two reg- isters, the classical and the Cairene varieties. Among his legacy, there is a handwritten notebook containing short stories. By editing and studying this notebook, one concludes that nine of these short stories were created by the author to explain seven proverbs and two groups of popular verses. These sayings and verses with the accompanying short stories are analyzed, as well as the author’s contribution in linguistics and folklore studies.