A Tale of Four Dervishes (Penguin Classics) [Mass Market Paperback]

Mir Amman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: August 28, 2007

A dazzling Urdu epic that evokes a magical Indo-Muslim world

Originally composed in the fourteenth century and made popular in 1803 by Mir Amman's colloquial retelling, this wonderfully entertaining story paints a portrait of a distant and colorful time and place. In despair at having no son to succeed him, the king of Turkey leaves his palace to live in seclusion. Soon afterward, however, he encounters four wandering dervishes-three princes and a rich merchant-who have been guided to Turkey by a supernatural force that prophesied their meeting. As the five men sit together in the dead of night sharing their tales of lost love, a magnificent landscape reveals courtly intrigue and romance, fairies and djinn, oriental gardens and lavish feasts.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mir Amman translated Bagh-o-Bahar in 1803 and Husain Waiz Kashifi 's celebrated book on good manners, Akhalq-e-Muhsini, which was published much later under the title Ganj-e-Khoobi (Treasure House of Virtue).
Mohammedzakir is working on a book for English readers on N. M. Rashed, a major Urdu poet. He lives in Delhi, where he has been teaching Urdu language and literature at the Jamia Millia Islamia for over three decades.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (August 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140455183
• ISBN-13: 978-0140455182
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.4 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,385,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Nonfiction > More Languages > Urdu

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, disappointing treatment, November 25, 2009

By 

Slade Allenbury (Placerville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Tale of Four Dervishes (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

The stories in A Tale of Four Dervishes are endlessly fascinating and thrilling, involving the kind of derring-do usually associated with Indiana Jones movies. The characters are larger than life and interact with various genies and fairies and witches and wizards. Most of the stories involve beautiful girls who are desired by numerous men, both good and bad. The cast includes traveling merchants, dethroned kings, princes and princesses, evildoers, and of course dervishes (Muslim monks). The only problem here is that this classic work of literature is given a surprisingly shoddy treatment by Penguin. Mohammed Zakir's translation is serviceable at best. He may be be fluent in Urdu but his English is often wooden or murky. The volume is full of typographical errors. Other than a brief glossary there are no end notes to explain the many unfamiliar terms such as solomon-collyrium (a drug that allows humans to see fairies, apparently) or to explain whether or not any of the many names that are mentioned in passing are real historical figures or fictional characters. The introduction by the translator is slight and not terribly informative. This book screams out for a new translation with greater endnotes and annotation, as well as a more detailed introduction, explaining the book's origins (apparently Mir Amman, listed as the author, is no more the author of these stories than Antoine Galland was the author of The Arabian Nights; he merely put together his own edition of stories that had been around for centuries). For all the faults of this Penguin edition, this is still a very readable and enjoyable work of fiction. It is exciting, fast paced and endlessly inventive. It reminded me of some of Isak Dinesen's Oriental tales, although, thanks to the translator, the prose here is not nearly as graceful or poetic as Dinesen's.