So I picked up One Thousand and One Tales of Arabian Nights, or whatever its called. I don’t get much time to read so I’ve slowly been reading through it. The first few stories where great but I’ve been struggling to get through The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad.
So who has read it and what is your overall thoughts of that particular tale and the book in general?
I read most of it, although it was quite a few years ago and the stories tend to mesh together in my mind. I’ve always been a fan of the genre, and something of a ‘genre-purist’, so for me the greatest joy in the stories was seeing how different they were than our ‘standard’ western perception of them. I remember finding them fascinating, but not all of them would I qualify as a ‘good read’.
There’s some really out-of-the-blue antisemitism (in the middle of a story, someone will go on an anti-Jew rant). The books are a product of their time as is Burton and I understand that, but I remember being outright shocked at the level of anti-Jewish vitriol back that kept cropping up. (I liked most of 'em overall, but it really came as a surprise to me).
There are also stories that are anti-Jew: there’s one about a doctor who poisons people because he’s Jewish*. I like the lyrical nature of Burton’s prose, but I kept blinking at the bile-levels.
*or something like that.
Which one, do you know? The only one I can think of with a Jewish doctor is the hunchback’s tale. A tailor invites a hunchback in for dinner, and the hunchback chokes on a fishbone. So the tailor, not wanting to be blamed for his death, puts him outside the door of a Jewish doctor. The Jewish doctor trips over him going outside, and thinks he killed him. So he won’t be blamed, he puts him in an official’s kitchen. The official sees the body and thinks the corpse is a thief. So he beats him, and then finds out he’s dead. So he won’t be blamed, he props the body against a wall in an alley. A drunk Christian who’s urinating in the alley sees the body, and thinks he’s going to be mugged, so he hits the corpse. At that point, he’s arrested and charged with murder. So, when he’s about to be hanged, the other three tell their story. Then they end up saving the hunchback, who was never dead after all.
The aforementioned Jewish doctor also narrates another story, but he’s not a participant.
There are some negative stereotypes of Jews in the stories, sometimes very negative ones. But there are also stories where Jews are portrayed positively (The Jewish Qadi and his Pious Wife, The Island King and the Pious Israelite, the Traymaker and his Wife)
I have a complete translation by Sir Richard Burton that I still haven’t worked my way through . It’s 20 volumes long. The Arabian Nights is a MUCH longer book than most people realize. I like Burton’s odd translation, and his incredible footnotes, which are frequently much longer than the clear text on the page, and convey much background info.
I have other translations, including notably the Penguin collection of “Tales from the…” Penguiin doesn’t like Burton’s translation, and theirs is arguably more readable. I also have theiors on audio, which is really interesting – it’s like Shahrzahd herself is telling you the stories.
What do I think? Incredible, multi-leveled story telling with an immense imagination. And definitely not for kids. If you’re reading the Porter and the Three Ladies, though, you already know that.
We had to read it in my World Lit course this semester; or, more accurately, we had to read only about 50 pages, most of which were about the Porter and the Three Young Girls. One question I have, for anyone who has read it, is this: the reason the girl was telling the story to the king was to keep him interested, intriguing him to the point that he wouldn’t kill her because he wanted to know the end of the story. But does she eventually explain why some of the bizarre things happened? For instance, the three girls who are hosting the porter and the other people beat a couple dogs; does the narrator – the girl – eventually explain why they were doing things like that? It seems like the technique that the girl was using is similar to how the TV show “Lost” is written, in that it raised a bunch of strange questions that, we hope, will eventually be answered (TooSchoolforCool, in this week’s Lost thread, claims that the only reason he hasn’t killed himself yet is he wants to know how it will end).
If there is a “payoff” to the questions that she raises in her story, I will be interested in reading the entire thing. Anyone know?
Yes, you’ll find out the answer to that after the guests of the women tell their tales. The whole work is a series of nested tales.
What amazes me is that, at the conclusion of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Sharzahd (Scheherazade to those who get the translation by way of the German) has her children come in to the bedchamber, and she asks her husband if he really wants to leave their children motherless. Shahrzahd, therefore, not only conceived the children, but bore them during that 1001 night period. Either the two of them were busy during the day, or there are things that Shahrzahd was leaving out of the telling (and with her sister there, too.)
It’s not really left out of the telling. The premise for the stories is that the sheik (sultan?) has been betrayed by an unfaithful wife, and takes his revenge on womankind by sleeping with one virgin every night and having her executed in the morning. Sharzahd’s plan is to tell a story each night, which doesn’t quite conclude before her sister has to go to bed. After that she still sleeps with the sheik. She just avoids the execution part so that she can continue her story the next night. Sex - death = pregnancy.
I’ve only read the “Best of Burton” type volume. I’d like to get the complete set.
Does the Penguin collection retain the lyrical storytelling? “Hear now, o my King…etc”–I read a modern version about 15 years back that lost all that and I’m not willing to trade readability for quality.
That makes a really lousy bumper sticker…
[quote=“Captain_Amazing, post:4, topic:494738”]
Which one, do you know? The only one I can think of with a Jewish doctor is the hunchback’s tale. A tailor invites a hunchback in for dinner, and the hunchback chokes on a fishbone. So the tailor, not wanting to be blamed for his death, puts him outside the door of a Jewish doctor.
< snip >/QUOTE]
It’s been too long, but it’s likely I’m remembering the hunchback’s tale. If the phrase “treacherous Jew” is used constantly (maybe in the footnotes) that’s the one.
Yes, it is. I’m aware of the framing story. But somehow or other (with her sister there) she managed to get pregnant and have three kids. That’s not told about in the book.
Shahrzad evidently had the ability to multitask.
Must be some great sex. The guys banging away while she yawns and proceeds to tell the story 
On another note, there’s a Magic: The Gathering card named Shahrazad which makes people play subgames everytime the card is played.
There was an annotated version I once read in high school. It came with an index summary of tales. My favorite tale was “Hasan’s Fart”.
I actually can’t find the term “treacherous Jew” anywhere in Burton’s translation, either in the text or the footnotes.
The part of the hunchback’s tale where the Jewish doctor appears is here:
And footnote 4 says:
I prefer Burton to the translator Penguin uses (can’t recall who it was and my copy is in storage while my Burton is on the shelf). The Penguin version just felt like retelling folktales while Burton’s prose was much more interesting. Of course if you don’t like pre-twentieth century novels then Burton’s style is going to make someone stumble…
The other thing I noticed is that in just about every story, there have been Muslims drinking wine. Am I missing something here? I was under the assumption that they can’t drink alcoholic beverages.
Drinking alcohol is against Islamic law. Drinking wine and arak (a kind of aniseed flavored brandy) was, however, fairly common in the medieval Muslim world, especially in a cosmopolitan city like Baghdad.
If you’re looking for poetry about wine in the Muslim world, here’s Ibn al-Farid:
And Rumi comparing the love of God to drunkeness: