Reading Notes: Arabian Nights, Part A

 The story from Part A of this unit that I chose to focus my reading notes on is "The Merchant and the Genius."

This story is being told by Scheherazade to her husband. She is telling this story because she is to die at the orders of her husband, the Sultan. He plans to give the order of her death after she finishes her story. But instead, she slyly makes the story continue by adding new characters.

The story itself begins by describing a wealthy merchant who went on a journey. After continuing on with his normal activities, a big genie called a genius in this telling, comes out accusing him of killing his son, which was completely by accident on the part of the merchant. The genie wishes to kill the merchant and says he will take no mercy on him. The merchant cries to the genie, telling him that his wife and children. 

The story abruptly stops and we are brought back to the POV of Scheherazade, whose husband is to raise for council. He allows her to live for the day in order to continue her story for the next night. This happened every morning. He continuously allowed her to live so she could finish her story. 

Back to the story itself. At this point, the story begins to mirror the current situation. The merchant asks for a delay to go back and bid his family farewell, asking for a year. 

His year came and went, and he went to the place where he first met the genie. There, he encountered an old man, one of the surplus characters added in by Scheherazade to continue the story. 

The old man asks the genie to let him tell his story before he kills him. He allows this and this story comes to an end. 

I liked this story because of the fact that Scheherazade just continues on with her story in order to preserve her life, and this begins to make its way into the story she's telling. 

(Arabian Nights - Letchford, Source: Wikimedia)

Bibliography:

The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).