Claudia Ott: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{Blockquote|text=Shahrazad, the narrator of the overarching tale, is depicted as a woman who knows exactly what she is doing and who faces a life-threatening situation with shrewd intelligence and careful consideration. The real significance of the frame tale lay thus in her act of disrupting the spiral of violence, achieved not through conventional feminine traits like charm, attractiveness, and beauty, but rather through knowledge, education, and the power of literature.|author=Claudia Ott, Arabic scholar and translator}}

In 2012, Ott published the first ever translation of an even older manuscript, titled the ''[[One Hundred and One Nights (book)|One Hundred and One Nights]]''. She had discovered a manuscript of this work, dated from 1234 or 1235, in the temporary exhibition “Treasures of the [[Aga Khan Museum|Agha Khan Museum]]" in the [[Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin|Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin]]. This collection includes not more than 85 nights, with only two tales shared with the much later Galland manuscript of ''The Nights'', and was written during Muslim-rule in [[Middle Ages|medieval]] [[al-Andalus]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Elwakil |first=Mai |date=2013-02-28 |title='Arabian Nights' has a smaller sibling |url=https://egyptindependent.com/arabian-nights-has-smaller-sibling/ |access-date=2024-08-11 |website=Egypt Independent |language=en-US}}</ref>[[File:Scheherazade's_Tales_or_one_thousand_and_one_nights,_Mährchen_der_Shehesarade_oder_Tausend_und_Eins_Nacht,_by_Karl_Pfaff,_1838_CE,_with_six_copperplate_prints_by_Johann_Voltz,_Stuttgart.jpg|thumb|Scheherazade's Tales or One Thousand and One Nights, German translation by Karl Pfaff, 1838, with [[Copperplate etching|copperplate]] prints by Johann Voltz, Stuttgart]]Following several reprints after the first edition of ''The Nights'', Ott published more stories in separate volumes. The first of these were ''The Nights'' 283 up to 542 that she had discovered and translated from a separate Arabic manuscript. This [[sequel]] is titled ''Tausendundeine Nacht. Das glückliche Ende''. (''1001 Night. The Happy Ending'') and was published in 2016.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mangold |first=Ijoma |date=2010-06-10 |title=Immer neue Nächte |trans-title=More and more new Nights |url=https://www.zeit.de/2010/24/Handschrift-Tausendundeine-Nacht |access-date=2024-08-15 |work=Die Zeit |language=de-DE |issn=0044-2070}}</ref> In 2018, she published only the [[Frame story|narrative frame]] of ''The Nights'' as ''Tausendundeine Nacht. Der Anfang und das glückliche Ende.'' This volume contains the beginning of the cycle with the story of Shahrazad and King [[List of One Thousand and One Nights characters#Shahryar|Shahryar]], followed by the "happy ending" in a single volume. The 2022 volume ''Tausendundeine Nacht – Das Buch der Liebe (1001 Nights – The Book of Love)'' contains four long love stories about King Kamarassaman and other characters of ''The Nights''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bilbao |first=Valeria Bajaña |date=2022-07-10 |title=Orientalistin über arabische Literatur: „Mehr als nur Liebesgeschichten“ |url=https://taz.de/Orientalistin-ueber-arabische-Literatur/!5862729/ |access-date=2024-08-15 |work=Die Tageszeitung: taz |language=de |issn=0931-9085}}</ref>

Following several reprints after the first edition of ''The Nights'', Ott published more stories in separate volumes. The first of these were ''The Nights'' 283 up to 542 that she had discovered and translated from a separate Arabic manuscript. This [[sequel]] is titled ''Tausendundeine Nacht. Das glückliche Ende''. (''1001 Night. The Happy Ending'') and was published in 2016.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mangold |first=Ijoma |date=2010-06-10 |title=Immer neue Nächte |trans-title=More and more new Nights |url=https://www.zeit.de/2010/24/Handschrift-Tausendundeine-Nacht |access-date=2024-08-15 |work=Die Zeit |language=de-DE |issn=0044-2070}}</ref> In 2018, she published only the [[Frame story|narrative frame]] of ''The Nights'' as ''Tausendundeine Nacht. Der Anfang und das glückliche Ende.'' This volume contains the beginning of the cycle with the story of Shahrazad and King [[List of One Thousand and One Nights characters#Shahryar|Shahryar]], followed by the "happy ending" in a single volume. The 2022 volume ''Tausendundeine Nacht – Das Buch der Liebe (1001 Nights – The Book of Love)'' contains four long love stories about King Kamarassaman and other characters of ''The Nights''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bilbao |first=Valeria Bajaña |date=2022-07-10 |title=Orientalistin über arabische Literatur: „Mehr als nur Liebesgeschichten“ |url=https://taz.de/Orientalistin-ueber-arabische-Literatur/!5862729/ |access-date=2024-08-15 |work=Die Tageszeitung: taz |language=de |issn=0931-9085}}</ref>

The title of Ott's 2008 [[anthology]] of Oriental love poems ''Gold auf Lapislazuli'' (''Gold on [[Lapis lazuli|Lapiz Lazuli]])'' goes back to a poem from al-Andalus about the "twinkling of stars in a dark blue sky." This collection of 100 translated poems from seven different languages presents works written in different historical periods and features the most important themes of this sub-genre.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-04-30 |title=Interview with Claudia Ott: "Love is the Language of the Orient" {{!}} Qantara.de |url=https://qantara.de/en/article/interview-claudia-ott-love-language-orient |access-date=2024-08-12 |website=qantara.de |language=en}}</ref>

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== Reception ==

[[File:Scheherazade's_Tales_or_one_thousand_and_one_nights,_Mährchen_der_Shehesarade_oder_Tausend_und_Eins_Nacht,_by_Karl_Pfaff,_1838_CE,_with_six_copperplate_prints_by_Johann_Voltz,_Stuttgart.jpg|thumb|Scheherazade's Tales or One Thousand and One Nights, German translation by Karl Pfaff, 1838, with [[Copperplate etching|copperplate]] prints by Johann Voltz, Stuttgart]]

Based on her translations of the ''One Thousand and One Nights'' and other works of medieval Arabic literature, Ott has been called one of the "foremost translators from Arabic to German" and is considered an important mediator of Arabic culture in German-speaking countries.<ref name=":1" />