482 Reviews

M. C. LYONS, The Arabian Epic: Heroic and Oral Story-Telling, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1995). Pp. 1,289.

REVIEWED BY DWIGHT F. REYNOLDS, Department of Religious Studies, University of California-

Santa Barbara

M. C. Lyons's massive three-volume survey, The Arabian Epic, is impressive in both breadth
and detail. The author defines his work as a study of the popular printed ("chapbook") edi-
tions of ten Arabic epics: cAntar, cAli al-Zaibaq, Bani Hilal, Baibars, Dhat al-Himma, Firuz
Shah, Hamza, Saif ibn Dhi Yazan, Saif al-Tijan, and al-Zir Salim. He does not treat the his-
torical development of these epics or the oral traditions upon which the written texts are pre-
sumably based. In this regard, the work's subtitle is misleading, for the study never addresses
oral storytelling other than to assume, somewhat naively, that the structures of oral and printed
versions of the epics are the same (an idea already disproved in several studies).
The basic argument underlying this gargantuan effort is that the Arabic epics emerged out
of "an accumulation of narrative folklore motifs many of which belong to what can be seen
as a universal tradition" (flap cover). Lyons explores the epics from the atomistic perspective
of the motif and generally avoids analysis of larger structures and meanings. Strangely, he also
eschews accepted literary terms such as motif, topos, and scene ("motif" is used only on the
flap cover, as cited earlier). Instead, he refers to "currents," "channels," and "themes" (vol. I,
p. 80), or "simple particles," "compound particles," and "waves" (vol. II, p. 2), or merely "in-
gredients." This avoidance of standard terminology is echoed in the lack of reference to lit-
erary and oral theory, save a single declaration that the Parry-Lord theory of oral-formulaic
composition is "limited" (vol. II, p. 1) and an offhand mention of Shklovsky (vol. I, p. 73),
whom one assumes is Viktor Shklovsky, though his name and work do not appear in the brief
bibliography.
Taken as a whole, this 1,289-page work hovers somewhere between reference tool and lit-
erary study. The sections are divided into autonomous entities, which accomplish their tasks
with varying degrees of success. Volume I (140 pages) contains the Introduction, which is
quite spare in terms of analysis but rich as a comparative listing of features. Discrete elements
(time, space, racial groups, and so forth) are catalogued and dealt with by citing examples
from each of the ten epics in turn. The usefulness of this discussion, however, is somewhat
compromised by the fact that while there are indices to proper names and places at the end of
the volume, there is no index to subject or content.
Volume II (489 pages) provides a synopsis of the ten epics broken into paragraphs which
represent from three to twenty-five printed pages in the original text, each of which is fol-
lowed by a listing of motif numbers. Volume III (660 pages) also provides synopses of each
of the ten epics, but in greater detail and without the motif numbers. In this day and age, when
publishers wrangle over commas to save ink, it is nothing short of remarkable to find a good
portion of Volume II reprinted nearly verbatim in Volume III. The plot summaries in Volume HI
will, for many, be the most useful and appreciated section of the whole work. The tale sum-
maries are dense, making for slow reading, but they provide an indispensable guide to the
lengthy, and in nearly all cases untranslated, narratives of the Arabic epics.
Volume II, which is essentially a motif index, though the term is nowhere mentioned, pro-
vides scholars with a valuable though not unproblematical reference tool. In each story syn-
opsis, every motif is meticulously listed, allowing cross-referencing—first through the Narrative
Index to occurrences of that motif in the other Arabic epics, and then through the Comparative
Index and Source References to other occurrences in world literature. Some of the difficulties
I encountered while testing several dozen cases include:
 Reviews 483

First, there is no introduction to the cross-referencing system, so the reader has to discover
its intricacies by hit or miss. For example, the motifs in the story summaries are listed directly
in bracketed text or notes marked by asterisks; however, the explanation for this system is
found 270 pages later, in the Narrative Index. (The cross-references indicate whether the mo-
tif is found in the Arabic text but not the English summaries, and whether it occurs in one or
both of the twin English plot summaries of volumes II and III.)
Second, the Source References are listed by country of origin, and then only alphabetically.
When the Comparative Index refers us to Les Narbonnais and The Romance of Horn, we
might well guess (correctly) that Les Narbonnais is from France (due to the language of the
title) and look for it in that section. It is far less obvious that The Romance of Horn—which
is not English, German, or Dutch—will also be listed under France, and alphabetized under
the letter "T," for "The"! So while the country-by-country organization of the Source Refer-
ences provides ample evidence of the geographical spread of this survey, it may considerably
frustrate those who actually attempt to use it.
Third, this work is designed primarily for the reader working from the tale summaries and
seeking cross-references; however, motif indices are also commonly used by scholars seeking
comparative information about a particular motif and who will not choose to read the complete
tale summaries. The cross-referencing system is far less effective when used in this manner.
The Narrative Index, which lists the motifs alphabetically, is highly idiosyncratic and includes
neither an overview of the general layout nor sufficient internal cross-referencing to aid the
reader. Many topics can be found only by carefully searching the entire Index ("Rescues," for
example, are primarily glossed under "N" for "nick of time"). Uneven coverage is a feature
of all indices but seems particularly evident in some cases: for "Companions" we find but a
single category (remains outside) and for "Battle" only three (between giants and ghouls; by
bridge; triangular), while the "Man of Wiles" is accorded 135 categories, most with multiple
entries, and "Disguise" includes 68.
It must be said, however, that all such indices are cumbersome at first and grow easier to
use with familiarity. The cross-referencing of so much information is an astonishing accom-
plishment, one for which scholars will be grateful to Lyons for years to come. And for a body
of scholars who have mastered the foibles of Brockelmann's impenetrable Geschichte, adapt-
ing to Lyons's system should prove not only feasible but, in the end, quite rewarding.

ERRATUM

JOHN W. LIVINGSTON, "Western Science and Educational Reform in the Thought of Shaykh
Rifaca al-Tahtawi," IJMES 28, 4 (November 1996).

Due to a printing error on page 559, in the third line of the poem written by Tahtawi in Paris
the word "light" should read "night."