![]() The princess is supposed to have total privacy, but her lover/stalker sneaks in, and reveals himself to her. In both stories, the climactic scene takes place in a private, walled garden. The Ardashir story has a better dénouement, that is far more poetic than the Taj version. The close similarity between the stories of Taj al-Majuk and Ardashir is excusable because of the manner of their eventual divergence. The tales presented here have been appropriated and improved upon by generations of authors (this is the focus of Robert Irwin’s introduction to Volume III of the Penguin Classics edition) and throughout this reading, I’ve noted recurring themes as they appear. First of all: anything to prolong her execution, right? But more pertinently, this kind of remix is inherent to The Arabian Nights as a body of stories. Of all the things to be annoyed about in this story, I surprise myself by being completely unbothered by the fact that Shahrazad is repeating herself. Hayat, like Dunya before her, threatens her suitor with death if he persists with the correspondence, but he keeps writing anyway. Ardashir sets himself up as a merchant in the city and uses an old nurse as a courier in an exchange of letters between him and the princess. At this point, it becomes apparent that the story is exactly the same as that of Taj al-Majuk and Princess Danya ( Nights 107 to 137). Although Ardashir’s obsession with Hayat is ridiculous, his diplomatic approach to foreign policy is completely believable.Īrdashir instead makes his way to Iraq and the kingdom of King ‘Abd al-Qadir, in the hope of wooing Hayat directly. Not only does it signal that we are not about to read a story about conquest, but it also signals the ascendance of a more empathetic and pragmatic generation. That comment feels subversive and transformational. After kissing the ground before him, he said: ‘Great king, do not put yourself to any trouble over this…’ When Ardashir came to hear of this, he rose from his bed and went to his father. However, Ardashir persuades him otherwise: When her father refuses the match, the king prepares for war. His father the king sends a marriage proposal on his behalf, requesting the hand of princess Hayat al-Nufus. The first of the three stories centres around Prince Ardashir, and there is something amusing in the way it begins. The wonderful, exotic moments in all three tales-mer-folk, jewels, jinni-are all for naught. When the reader has little belief in or respect for the motivations of the main characters, it makes it all the harder to care about the tribulations that they undergo on the way to their goal. And since that feels creepy and false, then the rest of each story is undermined. This matters, because in all three stories the entire narrative is in service to this so-called love. They excuse forced marriages, and the use of marital unions to forge political ones. These tales are not recounting or heightening some actual human experience, but instead a justification for stalking. Some, like Romeo & Juliet, are even done well, and I’ve enjoyed many of the stories in The Arabian Nights that follow that formula. Lightning Bolt love stories I can handle. We have also had a generous ration of Love At First Sight. Over the course of The Arabian Nights, we’ve been treated to many stories where love is allowed to flourish through courtship, and a few where some form of gallantry or heroism at the root of the relationship. The women are a means to satisfy male lusts and ambitions, and none of them is loved as the person they are. In the first two stories, the princes fall in love with a princess on the basis of reputation alone in the final story, it takes only an embroidered representation of the woman to capture the man’s heart.Īll three princes profess overwhelming love for the princesses they desire, but let us make no mistake-they see these women as trophies to which they are entitled. Each of the three main protagonists we meet-Ardashir, Badr Basim and Saif al-Maluk-all manage to fall in love with someone without having met her. There is a strange theme common to the stories in this section. 758-778 The story of Saif al-Muluk and Badi al-Jamal.756-778 King Muhammad ibn Saba’ik and Hasan the merchant.738-756 Julnar of the sea and her son, Badr Basim.Julnar the Sea-Born and her Son King Badr Basim of Persia.
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