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7AN: The Adventures of Hajji Baba

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Dave Tallman22 Oct 2010, 22:55as archived

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 Nadân". According to http://www.khamush.com/persian/rubaie236.htm, "Nadân-ám" 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?

stoneox17 at aol.com24 Oct 2010, 19:46as archived

↳ in reply to Dave Tallman

7AN and Nadan (was 7AN: The Adventures of Hajji Baba)

Dave Tallman <davetallman at msn.com> writes:

6 quoted lines

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, 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

1 quoted line

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 Nadân". According to

http://www.khamush.com/persian/rubaie236.htm, >"Nadân-ám" means "I cannot."

1 quoted line

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?

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

James Wynn26 Oct 2010, 15:20as archived

↳ in reply to Dave Tallman

I love this sort of post. That he is punished in the place of another, Molah Nadan is a Christ figure.

14 quoted lines

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>: 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 Nadân". According to http://www.khamush.com/persian/rubaie236.htm, "Nadân-ám" 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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