This satisfying group of tales was collected by Nuweihed, a novelist, and edited by her niece, Salma Jayyusi, who directs a translation center for works in Arabic in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The tales are introduced by Remke Druk (Arabic, U. of Leiden, The Netherlands) who compares them to folk stories in Europe and elsewhere. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)