“Sheer Erudition”

As my IU folklore colleague Hasan El-Shamy continues publishing a steady stream of major works in international folkloristics, a steady stream of favorable reviews are flowing back to him from the field. His book Types of the Folktale in the Arab World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004) has recently been reviewed in the journal Marvels and Tales (available in Project MUSE) by Roger Allen of the University of Pennsylvania. (see volume 21, number 2, 2007, pp. 288-291). Of this work, Allen writes:

Once in a blue moon, a reviewer is privileged to recieve for evaluation a work that in its sheer erudition and comprehensiveness is clearly destined immediately to become the major source text in its field. The name of Hasan El-Shamy is, of course, already known in the field of folklore studies, but with this particular tome (and with its 1,255 pages and tiny print, it deserves that designation)–coupled with his previous and already much utilized two-volume study Folk Traditions of the Arab World: A Guide to Motif Classification (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995)–he has now presented the field of Arabic studies in general and folklore studies in particular with a major source that will remain the primary resort of scholars for years to come (288-289).

Congratulations to Professor El-Shamy for this continued success and for such well-deserved accolades. Find the book here. Find the review here. (The journal is not open access, thus not everyone will have access to the review, unfortunately.)