The hero cycles of Arabic belong to the literary tradition of The Arabian Nights and can be seen as the popular epics of their civilisation. The Arabian epic covers ten of the main representatives of this genre. Each of these has been developed through the processes of accretive oral story-telling by means of an accumulation of narrative and folklore motifs, many of which belong to what can be seen as a universal tradition. The work is published in three volumes. The first volume introduces the background and the dimensions in which the cycles are set, while the second volume analyses their contents and the literary formulae used in their construction, as well as listing analogues found in other literatures. The epitomes surveyed in the final volume provide non-Arabists with a more immediate insight into the contents of the cycles, drawing attention to their narrative colouring and texture.

The hero cycles of Arabic belong to the literary tradition of The Arabian Nights and can be seen as the popular epics of their civilisation. The second volume analyses their contents and literary formulae.
Reviews
"..offers a comparative narrative analysis and tabulation...." Stephen Belcher, Religious Studies Review



Book Information
ISBN 9780521017398
Author M. C. Lyons
Format Paperback
Page Count 504
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 785g
Dimensions(mm) 243mm * 170mm * 26mm