The Hilali saga in the Tunisian South [Ressource électronique] / Cathryn Anita Baker

Doctor of philosophy : Near Eastern languages and literatures : Indiana University : 1978

Bibliogr. p. 663-673

At the heart of this study are 66 storytellers, 60 men and six women of the Tunisian South who shared their Hilali stories with a girl from Chicago. To these creators of new old tales I offer the. fruits of the experience they made possible. This dissertation came into being under the guidance of Dr. Wadie Jwaideh, who has patiently invested much of himself in my development since more than ten years ago, when I took my first steps in Arabic language and the wonderful world of the literary and cultural heritage associated with it. There is no adequate way to thank him, as well as each end every one of my professors in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures at Indiana University. I owe to my teachers at the Institut d'Etudes Islamiques of the Sorbonne an active interest in North Africa, and the classical discipline of the academic "methode" to which I was exposed under their tutelage. Professor Muhammad al-Marzuql, former Dean of the Folk Arts Institute in Tunis, was an abiding source of wisdom and encouragement throughout my stay in his country. Sidi Muhammad is a true son of the South, whose knowledge of Tunisian popular tales and poetry is matched by his compassionate understanding of the cultural context in which they are generated. He is the one who opened the gates of the desert. The Tunisian Ministry of Culture accorded permission to carry rout this project. Many individual officials were helpful and constructive. I am glad in particular to thank the Secretaries-General of the four Regional Cultural Committees, and their local representatives, without all of whose sustained interest the research process would have been impossible. I thank also Messieurs the Mu'tamids, Shaykhs, 'Umdas, and -iother members of the Administration at various levels who lent their cooperation and practical aid. I benefitted in addition from encouragement by many individuals associated with the University of Tunis, the National Library, Fikr Magazine, the White Fathers, and the Sunday Morning Literary Club at the bookstore of Sidi 'Abd al-Qadir at-Trabulsi. I wish to express my particular appreciation for the warm hospitality and friendship extended to me by countless Tunisian families, in the finest sense of Arab tradition. No one exemplified this more than my Gabes neighbors, 'Umar and Mabruka al-Marzuqi. The Ted Tanen family, Harold and Betty Jane Gray, Amer and Rebecca Salti, Madame Glaudine Barbizet, and Tod M. Hunt, Jr. have my special gratitude for their steadfastness in difficult times. I appreciated the financial support of the Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Program in 19?l-?2, which made it possible for me to undertake the field research in Tunisia, and the grant from The William F. Hazen Foundation which enabled me to complete it. The staff of the American Cultural Center in Tunis provided invaluable courtesies and encouragement throughout my stay. I will not forget the friendship of Mr. and Mrs. Russell I. May and their daughter Nancy Ann, who have provided my Bloomington home since 1966. Also, many thanks to Joan M. Kerrigan and 'Abd al-'AzIz Labib for constructive criticism and careful technical help with texts. In more ways than one, my sister, Mary Caroline Baker Hunt, merits a degree of her own for her long hours of intelligent typing. I am grateful to the parents of my cousin William Lee Owen, Jr., whose Arabian childhood first inspired me to dream the dreams; and to my own parents, who taught me by their example that dreams are to be followed,