Oman’s Folklore, Popular Beliefs, and Women’s Oral Storytelling

Offers a detailed analysis of more than sixty Omani folktales and unique insights into the lives of Omani women through the oral tales they narrate.

Systematically documenting and analyzing women's folktales in the Sultanate of Oman, this research study analyzes old and contemporary Omani popular beliefs and folktales. Ahmed Al-Rawi offers an understanding of the oral tradition in Oman and the Arab Gulf in general by investigating the available books and articles on Omani folklore. He also provides readers and researchers with an analysis of previously published Omani folktales by referring to their motifs, tale-types, and occurrences.

Omani women play a greater role than men in transmitting cultural norms and folktales from one generation to another. More than sixty folktales narrated by Omani women are included, with a detailed analysis of each tale. These tales were collected from the seven different parts of Oman, especially from elderly women. Oman's Folklore, Popular Beliefs, and Women's Oral Storytelling offers a cultural analysis of Omani folktales and popular beliefs based on an investigation of almost all the available literature inside and outside Oman as well as on forty interviews with Omani women.