Subject: (urth) 7AN: The Adventures of Hajji Baba

From: Dave Tallman <davetallman at msn.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 22:55:56 +0000

James Morier's Hajji Baba of Ispahan, The Adventures of Hajji
Baba<http://hajji.netfirms.com/index.html>is a famous book that may be
a source Wolfe drew on for ideas and character
names in "Seven American Nights". This book was written in the 1800's and
details the picaresque adventures of Hajji Baba, a barber. It features
characters named the Mollah Nadan, Mirza Amak, and Osman Aga. Credit for
this find goes to JazzCat, a poster on http;//usefulphrases.yuku.com (It's
interesting that in this work the name Nadan is given to a religious leader,
a mullah).

According to Robert Borski's posting on urth.net:

    While seeming a plausible Arab name, "Nadan," in fact, is something you
    would be ill-mannered in calling anyone. In Farsi it means "stupid,
idiot;"
    therefore, by extension, the same thing that 'cretin' does.

With the discovery of "The Adventures of Hajji Baba" that claim about
Nadan's name is partially invalidated. In translation, "Hadjji Baba" is a
well-known work of Persian literature, and any name drawn from it would be a
reasonable name for a child. In the printed text of the English version of
the book (available online through Google books), the name shows up as
"Molah Nad&acirc;n". According to
http://www.khamush.com/persian/rubaie236.htm, "Nad&acirc;n-&aacute;m" means
"I cannot."

I'm becoming convinced that Wolfe read this book as part of his background
research for the story and picked that name deliberately. Molah Nadan
changes clothing with the narrator and ends up being punished for a crime in
his place. A Christ figure, perhaps?
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From: stoneox17 at aol.com <stoneox17 at aol.com>
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 19:46:03 +0000

Dave Tallman <davetallman at msn.com> writes:

>James Morier's Hajji Baba of Ispahan, The Adventures of Hajji Baba is a
>famous book that may be a source Wolfe drew on for ideas and character
>names in "Seven American Nights". This book was written in the 1800's
>and details the picaresque adventures of Hajji Baba, a barber. It 
features
>characters named the Mollah Nadan, Mirza Amak, and Osman Aga. Credit
>for this find goes to JazzCat, a poster on 
http;//usefulphrases.yuku.com
>(It's interesting that in this work the name Nadan is given to a 
religious leader,

idiot;"

>well-known work of Persian literature, and any name drawn from it 
would
>be a reasonable name for a child. In the printed text of the English 
version
>of the book (available online through Google books), the name shows
>up as "Molah Nad&acirc;n". According to 
http://www.khamush.com/persian/rubaie236.htm, >"Nad&acirc;n-&aacute;m" 
means "I cannot."

>changes clothing with the narrator and ends up being punished for a 
crime
>in his place. A Christ figure, perhaps?

Googling a while ago, I came across another instance of the name Nadan.
It comes from the story of Nadan and Ahikar (or Ahiqar), which is a 
story
from the Middle East from Biblical times, and which Wolfe also may have
been familiar with.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia summarizes it as follows:

"Ahikar ... adopts as heir his nephew Nadan. The unappreciative youth
falsely accuses his benefactor of treason, whereupon Ahikar escapes
death only through the intervention of an executioner whom he himself
had once spared,"

Eventually Ahikar is restored to his position, and Nadan is punished.

Peter S

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From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:20:49 +0000

I love this sort of post.

That he is punished in the place of another, Molah Nadan is a Christ figure.

On 10/22/2010 5:55 PM, Dave Tallman wrote:
> James Morier's Hajji Baba of Ispahan, The Adventures of Hajji Baba 
> <http://hajji.netfirms.com/index.html> is a famous book that may be a 
> source Wolfe drew on for ideas and character names in "Seven American 
> Nights". This book was written in the 1800's and details the 
> picaresque adventures of Hajji Baba, a barber. It features characters 
> named the Mollah Nadan, Mirza Amak, and Osman Aga. Credit for this 
> find goes to JazzCat, a poster on http;//usefulphrases.yuku.com 
> <http://usefulphrases.yuku.com> (It's interesting that in this work 
> the name Nadan is given to a religious leader, a mullah).
>
> According to Robert Borski's posting on urth.net <http://urth.net>:
>
>     would be ill-mannered in calling anyone. In Farsi it means 
> "stupid, idiot;"
> Nadan's name is partially invalidated. In translation, "Hadjji Baba" 
> is a well-known work of Persian literature, and any name drawn from it 
> would be a reasonable name for a child. In the printed text of the 
> English version of the book (available online through Google books), 
> the name shows up as "Molah Nad&acirc;n". According to 
> http://www.khamush.com/persian/rubaie236.htm, "Nad&acirc;n-&aacute;m" 
> means "I cannot."
>
> I'm becoming convinced that Wolfe read this book as part of his 
> background research for the story and picked that name deliberately. 
> Molah Nadan changes clothing with the narrator and ends up being 
> punished for a crime in his place. A Christ figure, perhaps?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Urth Mailing List
> To post, write urth at urth.net
> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net

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