The Qiṣṣat al-Ḥağğāğ from the University Library in Bratislava

This article provides a description, scholarly edition, and translation of an interesting variant of a well-known folk narrative entitled Qiṣṣat al-Ḥağğāğ about the famous Umayyad governor al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf and a young man. The story also appears in various other manuscripts but has rarely been studied. In this case, it is preserved in Ms. TF 136 No. 387 from the Bašagić’s Collection of Islamic Manuscripts, which is housed at the University Library in Bratislava, Slovakia. The variation of the story was also integrated into the Arabian Nights, being a part of the well-known Wortley-Montague manuscript stored in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. To preserve the authentic scribal practices, the presented edition offers the text with all its orthographic and linguistic peculiarities, regardless of how insignificant or incomprehensible they might seem. The edition is accompanied by a translation and explanatory notes. This is probably the first time that a complete text from the Bašagić’s Collection has been thoroughly studied.