‘Like The Wick Of The Lamp, Like The Silkworm They Are’: Stupid Schoolteachers In Classical Arabic Literary Sources1

Antonella Ghersetti
UNIVERSITہ CA’ FOSCARI, VENICE
Official URL: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/jais/

Abstract : he alleged stupidity of schoolteachers was a common topos in adab literature of the Abbasid period as well as in later sources. Indeed, the 'stupid schoolteacher' was a stereotype much like 'the dull person', 'the smart sponger' and 'the ridiculous bedouin'. Frequent references to such images indicate that the intended audience clearly revelled in this kind of literary device. This article examines diverse ways of reading and interpreting the adab sources where we find ourselves in the realm of fantasy as much as reality. Indeed, while the standard steroetypes of schoolteachers are varied, amusing and predominantly negative, they are not all as obvious as they at first appear.