this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
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Alibaba in some ways.
Nasreddin Hoca is the most popular Turkish folk hero
Anansi the Spider is a great trickster folklore character from the Akan in Ghana. I loved these stories as a kid and had a great book on tape.
Can't go wrong with this list:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_folk_heroes
It looks like autocorrect attacked KinNectar. In case anyone wants to read further, the spider's name is Anansi.
Ugh, yeah, I fought aurocorrect over it and lost in the end it looks like. Got it fixed up now.
My understanding of Alibaba (and the 1001 Arabian Nights) is that they're closer to Arabic "Duck Tales". Fantastical stories more designed to woo children with crazy powers and nearly illogical plot structures. However, 1001 Arabian Nights became absurdly popular in Europe, far more popular than well-respected Arabic Heroes. (Much like how Duck Tales is a children's story in American culture, but way more popular in Europe for some reason). Or for the American equivalent: us importing young-adult shows from Japan (lots of anime) and the American adults consuming it.
For someone "like King Arthur", an adventuring Hero that's well respected in the culture that they're from (ex: English respect King Arthur and see him as high-culture), Arabic Heroes are closer to Sinbad the Sailor instead, rather than Alibaba, Aladdin, or Scheherazade.
Unfortunately, if an Arabic tale came to Europe in the 1500s to 1800s, it would be called "Arabic Nights", because the original 1001 Arabian Nights was just so popular, every translator in Europe would basically add it as one of Scheherazade's sub-stories. So its difficult from a Western / English-speaking lens to see what is, or isn't, respected high-culture stories.
I'm looking through Wikipedia and have come across Antarah ibn Shaddad, a Guardian of the Nativity (Yes, "that" Nativity, Jesus's birthplace). Such a hero sounds far more similar to King Arthur as a heroic figure to look up towards. (A lot of 1001 Arabian Nights are filled with rather disgusting and backstabby characters and aren't really "Heroes").