حكاية الجارية تودد من كتاب الف ليلة وليلة: (قراءة نصية)

This study attempts to investigate the tale of (Tawaddod, the Maid), one of the tales of Thousand and One Nights. It is an educational tale that is different in style from the tales of the entire collection, such an educational ballad and a variety of knowledge embedded in a book of poetry of a good quality. The study is twofold: the historic part that highlights the tales of Thousand and One Nights, as of the name, history and origin, the views of Arab historians and orientalists, and the impact of the Persian, Greek and Arabic on these tales. The second one is the applied part that introduces Tawaddod, the maid, as a model. The researcher presents a summary of the tale, its history, objectives, narrative structure, language, and technical means used in it. The study also reports that the main objective of the tale is to present collection of deep and rich knowledge within an exciting narrative framework. The narrator employs a set of technical means to convey such knowledge to the recipient as assonant language, riddles and puzzles, poetry, the philosophy of questioning and answering, to catch the recipient and attract his/her attention (a thrilling factor). In addition, the study reveals the dramatic style of the tale mixing seriousness with humor easily. It also presents a model of the feminine that reflects the unique culture of the woman, which exceeds the man’s with her acuity, intelligence, courtesy, and insight, unlike the stereotype of women introduced in the rest of Thousand and One Nights tales.