What did Hanna Diyab see at Versailles?
Hanna Diyab was taken to Versailles by the collector Paul Lucas, dressed in “Oriental” costume and carrying a cage of jerboas from Tunis. He was presented to Louis XIV and then questioned and handled by the princesses of the court. He also recorded the dazzling palace, its gardens and fountains, and the story of its building. In Marvellous Thieves (2017) Paulo Lemos Horta read these scenes against the palaces and princesses of “Aladdin” and “Prince Ahmad.”
“Diyab’s descriptions of the radiant beauty and luxurious attire of the ladies of Versailles are reminiscent of the princesses in the tales like “Aladdin” and “Prince Ahmad and the Fairy Peri-Banu,” which he related to Galland in 1709.”
Marvellous Thieves (2017), p. 46
“In “Marvellous Thieves,” a nimble 2017 study of the “Arabian Nights” and its provenance, Paulo Lemos Horta notes that Diyab, prior to recounting “Aladdin” to Galland, had attended the royal court, in Versailles, with Lucas (who made him robe up in mock-Oriental garb), and admired the bejewelled splendor of the women—a Western detail that gleams in the Eastern princess of “Aladdin.” Thus do cultures feast upon one another.”
More in Horta’s words (2)
“As impressed as Diyab was by the magnificently dressed inhabitants of Versailles, he seems to have been even more struck by the palace. Diyab claims that as he approached the palace, he was dazzled by the light emanating from it, which could be seen a half-hour’s travel away.”
quoted in The Guardian, 2 November 2018
“Lucas insisted that Diyab dress in stereotypically Oriental fashion — a long tunic, baggy pantaloons, a headscarf of Damascene fabric, a precious belt, a silver dagger and a fur cap from Cairo.”
quoted in Time, 23 May 2019
More from critics and scholars (5)
“So, twist three [of Horta’s book], and purl one: when Diyab is writing about French princesses and Corpus Christi processions, his language is so similar to the stories eventually moralised and sentimentalised by Galland, it’s astonishing.”
“For Paulo Lemos Horta, whose study Marvellous Thieves examines the cross-cultural encounters that shaped One Thousand and One Nights, Diyab’s contribution reflects not only his Syrian heritage but also his vivid impressions of the French court.”
“[In Horta’s account,] Diyab’s travels in France, specifically the decadence of Versailles, heavily influenced his telling of the tale of Aladdin to Galland.”
“While in France, Diyab was presented to Louis XIV and was enormously impressed by the palace and gardens at Versailles, as well as by the pompous ceremonial of a Corpus Christi procession. Horta makes a good case for the Frenchification of ‘Aladdin’ resulting from Diyab’s storytelling embroidery, rather than from the contribution of Galland (who was a scholarly dry old stick).”
“Il cite notamment en exemple la description de la fontaine dans le conte du prince Ahmed, qui correspondrait non pas à un modèle oriental, mais à ce que Hanna avait pu voir à Versailles et aussi dans les décors de théâtre de Paris.”
[Horta] cites as an example the description of the fountain in the tale of Prince Ahmed, which on his reading corresponds not to an Eastern model but to what Hanna had seen at Versailles and in the theatre sets of Paris.
Academic priority
- January 2017Horta, Marvellous Thieves (Harvard University Press)
- 2018Xavier Luffin, Recherche littéraire / Literary Research
- 2019Melinda Cohoon, Review of Middle East Studies 53.2
Global mainstream impact
- 1 January 2017Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday
- February 2017Robert Irwin, Literary Review
- 2 November 2018Horta quoted in The Guardian
- 2 November 2018Richard Lea, The Guardian
- 23 May 2019Horta quoted in Time
- 24 May 2019Anthony Lane, The New Yorker
- 20 May 2023ARTE broadcasts Thomas Staehler’s documentary Aladin und Ali Baba, filmed with Horta at Versailles (IMDb, Letterboxd)