Told in the Coffee House: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Told in the Coffee House, credited to Cyrus Adler; Allan Ramsay, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Told in the Coffee House by Cyrus Adler; Allan Ramsay. Read in English by Crln Yldz Ksr. In the course of a number of visits to Constantinople, I became much interested in the tales that are told in the coffee houses. These are usually little more than rooms, with walls made of small panes of glass. The furniture consists of a tripod with a contrivance for holding the kettle, and a fire to keep the coffee boiling. A carpeted bench traverses the entire length of the room. This is occupied by turbaned Turks, their legs folded under them, smoking nargilehs or chibooks or cigarettes, and sipping coffee. A few will be engaged in a game of backgammon, but the majority enter into conversation, at first only in syllables, which gradually gives rise to a general discussion. Finally, some sage of the neighborhood comes in, and the company appeals to him to settle the point at issue. This he usually does by telling a story to illustrate his opinion. Some of the stories told on these occasions are adaptations of those already known in Arabic and Persian literature, but the Turkish mind gives them a new setting and a peculiar philosophy. They are characteristic of the habits, customs, and methods of thought of the people, and for this reason seem worthy of preservation. - Summary from the Preface

Recording facts

• Recording title: Told in the Coffee House
• Author credits: Cyrus Adler; Allan Ramsay
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 30
• Listed recording duration: 3:47:47

Catalogue topics

• Turkey
• sultan
• constantinople
• yldz
• Istanbul
• dervish
• stamboul
• balata

Opening tracks: first 24 of 30

1. 00 - Preface — 3:17
2. 01 - How the Hodja Saved Allah — 17:04
3. 02 - Better is the Folly of Woman than the Wisdom of Man — 12:31
4. 03 - The Hanoum and the Unjust Cadi — 7:01
5. 04 - What Happened to Hadji, a Merchant of the Bezestan — 7:26
6. 05 - How the Junkman Travelled to Find Treasure in his own Yard — 10:41
7. 06 - How Chapkin Halid Became Chief Detective — 11:50
8. 07 - How Cobbler Ahmet Became the Chief Astrologer — 17:19
9. 08 - The Wise Son of Ali Pasha — 9:52
10. 09 - The Merciful Khan — 4:38
11. 10 - King Kara-Kush of Bithynia — 3:56
12. 11 - The Prayer-Rug and the Dishonest Steward — 4:30
13. 12 - The Goose, the Eye, the Daughter, and the Arm — 6:25
14. 13 - The Forty Wise Men — 19:55
15. 14 - How the Priest Knew that it Would Snow — 5:09
16. 15 - Who was the Thirteenth Son? — 17:43
17. 16 - Paradise Sold by the Yard — 7:29
18. 17 - Jew Turned Turk — 5:23
19. 18 - The Metamorphosis — 10:33
20. 19 - The Calif Omar — 2:34
21. 20 - Kalaidji Avram of Balata — 4:50
22. 21 - How Mehmet Ali Pasha of Egypt Administered Justice — 4:52
23. 22 - How the Farmer Learned to Cure his Wife — 5:51
24. 23 - The Language of Birds — 3:09

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.