An Arab can be defined as a person
of the Islamic religion living in the Middle East or Northern
Africa. This was the short definition that was largely applied to
Arabic speaking persons half a century ago when Carl Barks made
his stories. But much has happened in the world since then. At
the time an Arab was typically - and rather stereotypically! -
thought of as wearing a wide robe and riding a camel. This is
still true if you think of Bedouin tribes, but in daily terms we
tend to think of Arabs somewhat prone to the Western way of
living; wearing a suit and driving a car.
This page will present bits and pieces from Arabian folklore and
daily life as seen through Barks' stories. You should notice how
aptly and accurately he usually rendered his panels containing
Arabs or Arab subjects.
| FOLKLORE | |||||||||
In U$37 Cave of Ali Baba
Barks presented a series of examples of Arab folklore.
Scrooge travels with Donald and the nephews to inspect
his oil wells, but before long they find themselves in
the cave of some giant birds from the old Arabian tales -
Rocs! The birds are of a size enabling them to carry full
grown donkeys (and Ducks!) off into the air. |
| LANGUAGE | |||||||||
The Mesopotamian language was one of the first Semitic languages, which also includes Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic. In U$37 Cave of Ali Baba Professor Dustdiver speaks in the Mesopotamian tongue (allegedly), but in U$19 The Mines of King Solomon Barks introduced us to a more modern Arabic. Perhaps some of the readers can judge if Barks really used genuine Arabic letters in the rightmost panel, and, if he did, what are the characters actually saying??? |
| LOCATIONS | |||||||||
When we think of common topographical locations in the Arab nations we probably tend to, first of all, recall scenes as illustrated in the three examples above. If so, the common denominator would be endless deserts with endless stretches of hot sand. The examples show a precious well, a restful oasis, and a busy oilfield. |
| TRANSPORT | |||||||||
Nowadays most Arabs drive cars as their natural mean of transport, but this was not necessarily so when Barks wrote his stories. Camels made out the bulk of the means of transport in those days, and this is also reflected in Barks' Arabian stories. In U$55 McDuck of Arabia we get a lecture in a camel's true value when it strides along in the whirling sand blizzards, although it is a little doubtful that small companies provided the kind of service that is suggested in the second panel! Still, yet another Rent-A-Camel service popped up in Duckburg in WDCS245 Sitting High, so one cannot be too certain... |
| CLOTHING | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
An Arab's traditional clothing, whether it be headgear, garment, or footwear, is a massive subject and Barks managed to show a rich variety of clothing in his stories. In this section you are shown a fraction of the 'dress code' possibilities he presented with one name for the piece in question. It must be underlined that many of the garments have different names due to small differences in the look (a man's robe can be called cheche, jellaba, kaftan, burnous, thawb, thobe, dishdasha, kandura, khameez, suriyah, and much more) and sometimes different dialects can widen the possibilities even further. So, if you are interested in additional information about the individual pieces of clothing presented here you shall have to look them up in a dictionary. |
| EXTRA | |||||||||
The duck family members visited
different Arab countries in numerous stories some of
which are mentioned in the sections above. The story in
which Barks presented the most Arabian details was U$55
McDuck of Arabia, where he even equipped the
ducks with Keffiyeh and Agal. This proved to be a good
thing throughout the story as this simple gear helped
them fight the blazing sun. |
|
| http://www.cbarks.dk/THEARABS.htm | Date 2009-01-02 |
