Al-Ṭanṭāwī´s notebook: examples for teaching Egyptian and Arabic folklore

Abstract

This paper analyses the notebook written by hand by al-Šayj Muḥammad 'Ayyād al-Ṭanṭāwī when he emigrated to Saint Petersburg in 1840 to teach classical and dialectal Arabic to the future Russian Orientalists. He would die there in 1861. The notebook, part of the collection held by Saint Petersburg University, is being edited and published for the first time. It consists of a series of anecdotes that can be divided into five cat egories: linguistic anecdotes (4), anecdotes about cadis, arbiters and governors (4), anecdotes with linguistic riddles (3), anecdotes about magic events (2), anecdotes written by the author about popular sayings and verses (10). The paper summarizes each anecdote and highlights its linguistic and folkloric content as part of the Arabic literary legacy. It concludes that the notebook forms part of Arabic and Egyptian popular cultural heritage and contains excellent material to be taught in universities and studied by researchers who wish to learn more about Egyptian linguistic variety in the nineteenth century.