Some tales can cross cultures, continents, and even centuries to arrive in our own era with their timeless truths pretty much intact. That’s particularly so for the immortal story of \u201can appointment in Samarra.\u201d It first appeared in the fifth century in the Babylonian Talmud, that ancient repository of Jewish rabbinical wisdom. Then it crossed over into Islamic literature for reiterations in a thirteenth-century Persian version and a fifteenth-century Egyptian text, before popping up on the London stage in Act III of William Somerset Maugham\u2019s 1933 play Sheppy. In Maugham\u2019s retelling, the tale is rich in irony. Once long ago, he wrote, there was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to shop in the market. But the servant… Read more<\/a><\/p>\n Source: America’s Date With Destiny<\/a> appeared first on TomDispatch.com<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n
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