Tehran: Kavir, 1996 - 232 p.
Hikāyāt-i-latīf (Pleasant stories). Translated into English by F. Gladwin; edited by S.K. Haj Seyyed Javadi. На персидском и английском языках.No survey of Persian humor in the international context would be complete without taking into account Persian humor in South Asia, particularly in India. Most notably, Persian language chapbooks such as Hikāyāt-i-latīf played an important role in the diffusion of Persian humor.
The Hikāyāt-i-latīf, a small collection of some 75 jocular tales, was originally compiled as a reading exercise and appended to Francis Gladwin’s grammar of the Persian language, "The Persian Moonshe", first published in 1795. The collection’s compiler, apparently a Persian-speaking Indian secretary (munshī), drew the tales from a variety of sources, including classical Persian, (contemporary?) Indian, and traditional European literature. Following an enthusiastic reception, the appendix was eventually turned into an independent collection, translated into various Indian and other South Asian vernacular languages, and finally, its tales influenced South Asian oral tradition to a certain extent. Strangely enough, the Hikāyāt-i-latīf was only introduced to Iranian readers some two hundred years after its compilation. (from: Ulrich Marzolph - Persian Humor in the International Context)
