The folk literature of the Kurdistan Jews: an anthology

Auteur :

Éditeur : Yale University Press	Date & Lieu : 1982, New Haven & London
Préface :	Pages : 250
Traduction :	ISBN : 0-300-02698-6
Langue : Anglais	Format : 140x210 mm
Code FIKP : Liv. Ang. 3648	Thème : Littérature

Présentation	Table des Matières	Introduction	Identité	PDF
The folk literature of the Kurdistan Jews: an anthology Yona Sabar Yale University The Aramaic-speaking Kurdistani Jews are members of an ancient Jewish community which, until its emigration to Israel, was one of the most isolated in the world. Throughout their long and turbulent history, these Jews maintained in oral form a wealth of Jewish literary traditions embellished with local folk-lore. This volume is the first translation and anthology of their richly imaginative literature. Yona Sabar, himself a Kurdistani Jew, offers representative selections from the types of Kurdistani literature: epic re-creations of biblical stories, midrashic legends, folktales about local rabbis, moralistic anecdotes, folk songs, nursery rhymes, sayings, and proverbs. Sabar's introduction and notes are a storehouse of information on the history and spiritual life of the Kurdistani Jews and on their relationship to the Land of Israel. Because almost all the Kurdistani Jews now live in Israel and speak Hebrew, there is very little new literary activity in their Neo-Aramaic dialects. This delightful anthology captures the essence of Kurdistani Jewish literature, presenting it for public enjoyment and preserving it for the future. Yona Sabar is associate professor of Hebrew at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Identité

Yona Sabar

The folk literature of the Kurdistan Jews: an anthology

Yale University

Yale University Press
The folk literature of the Kurdistan Jews: an anthology
Translated with introduction and notes by Yona Sabar

Volume XXIII

Yale Judaica Series

Editor
Leon Nemoy
Associate Editors
Judah Goldin
Saul Lieberman

Yona Sabar
Associate Professor of Hebrew
University of California, Los Angeles

Jacket photo: Yona Gabbay, a well-known storyteller from Zakho.
Photograph by Stephanie Sabar (Jerusalem, 1967).

Yale University press
New Haven and London

ISBN: 0-300-02698-6

This is one of a series of volumes that will
be published with the support of the Judaica
Series Fund established by the William P.
Goldman and Brothers Foundation, Inc.

The preparation of this volume was aided by a
grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities. The findings, conclusions, etc.
do not necessarily represent the view of the
Endowment.

Published with assistance from the foundation
established in memory of Philip Hamilton McMillan
of the Class of 1894, Yale College.

Copyright © 1982 by Yale University.

All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in
part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted
by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright
Law and except by reviewers for the public press),
without written permission from the publishers.

Illustrations

Frontispiece

Map of the major Jewish communities of Kurdistan.

following page 100

Yona Gabbay, a well-known storyteller from Zakho. As a merchant who traveled throughout Kurdistan, he heard and told many folktales. He died in Jerusalem in 1972, when he was more than one hundred years old. Photograph by Stephanie Sabar (Jerusalem, 1967).

The author reading a Neo-Aramaic manuscript with hakam 'Alwān Avidani. Photograph by Stephanie Sabar (Jerusalem, 1969).

Sandor, a Jewish village in Iraqi Kurdistan, ca. 1934. Courtesy Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.

Girl wearing case amulet with pendants. Courtesy Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.

Sandor village schoolchildren, ca. 1934. Courtesy Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.

Man watching teapot. Courtesy Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.

Woman at a nomadic-style loom. Courtesy Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.

Page from a Neo-Aramaic manuscript; the last page of a Midrash on Běšallah (Exodus), with a colophon, copied in Nerwa in 1669 C. E. Courtesy Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem.