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The Arabian Nights #4 of 12
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume 4 of 12
First published in 1986. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
544 pages, Paperback
Published September 4, 1986
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* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author
Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.
See also: Anonymous
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 28, 2017
The final volume of The Thousand Nights and One Night follows the basic pattern of the first three volumes, and I will not tread over the same ground in this review. My reviews of the earlier volumes are available if anyone is curious.
Enjoyment of The Thousand Nights and One Night ultimately depends on the reader’s tolerance for stories that are often repetitive, vulgar and crude, and which are marked by absurd plot contrivances such as princes falling in love with princesses that they have never met, and agreeing to answer a riddle which will win the princess’s hand in marriage if he is correct, but will mean death for the prince if he is wrong.
However the stories are undeniably entertaining. This final volume is notable for three distinct elements not found in the first three instalments – the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the execution of Jafar, and the final winding up of Shahrazad’s tales.
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is one of the more accessible tales in The Thousand Nights and One Night, and it has often been turned into a pantomime. There are some elements of the story that need cleaning up to make it fit for children, and the status of Marjanah (the real heroine of the story) as a slave is something that needs to be glossed over. However the basic story is a delight, and even the violent deaths might appeal to children too.
The story of Jafar’s execution is one of the saddest moments in the book. We have followed Jafar, the long-suffering wazir to Harun-al-Rashid through all four volumes, watching anxiously as he frequently escapes being executed at the whim of his arbitrary king. However his luck finally runs out in Volume 4.
Based on a genuine historical figure, Jafar is among the more likeable figures here. Indeed the fantasy tales briefly stop to provide us with a historical account of the possible reasons why the wazir’s master suddenly turned against him. The main reason offered is similar to the reason most often given by historians, but it is naturally romanticised.
In this version of events, Jafar is married off to al-Rashid’s sister but with the instruction that he should not consummate the union. However Abbasa finds a means of hoodwinking Jafar into having sex with her, and when al-Rashid finds out, this proves to be the reason for Jafar’s downfall. It is a sad conclusion to the adventures of a character that we have grown used to over the thousand and one nights of Shahrazad’s stories.
Speaking of Shahrazad, her story too is resolved at the end of 1,001 nights of storytelling. There are a few signs earlier in the volume that King Shahryar is beginning to melt from his original intention of executing his wife. This is finally accomplished when Shahrazad finishes her last story and unexpectedly produces several children that she has had by the surprisingly inobservant king.
As Shahrazad explains, this is the reason why she was absent through sickness for twenty days between the 679th night and the 700th. (I’m impressed that the young Queen has been keeping such accurate count.) The children help to win over the already quiescent King, and he agrees to spare Shahrazad.
For good measure his brother (also cuckolded in the first volume) agrees to marry her sister, Dunyazad, though rather unflatteringly he cannot remember her name. Dunyazad has been her sister’s cheerleader throughout the thousand and one nights, praising the sweetness and delicacy of Shahrazad’s stories, even when they have been anything but sweet and delicate, and patiently waiting until her brother-in-law and sister have finished having sex before begging Shahrazad to continue with her tales.
We may well wonder whether it is really worth living with a king who has such a tyrannical attitude towards his wives, but the stories here belong to a very different world from our own. They belong to fantasy, but also to a different time and place from that of many of the readers.
If you have a stereotypical image of Middle Eastern people as being prone to Islamic bigotry, barbaric violence, cruel and unusual punishments, mistreatment of women and a willingness to marry pre-pubescent girls, then I’m afraid that this book will not challenge those stereotypes. There are examples of all these in the stories.
Often the book praises itself for qualities it does not have. The stories are not as sweet as Dunyazad tells us. Wise characters and tales of wisdom are often rather foolish and narrow. Wise and just rulers are often tyrants, and so on.
Yet at its best The Thousand Nights and One Night can seem surprisingly liberated in its attitudes. Its crudeness and lack of subtlety is offset by stories of some imagination. There is also a genuine love of the art of storytelling in these volumes, and a generous spirit of seeking to entertain and amuse the reader or listener, rather than seeking to browbeat them with evidence of the author’s smartness.
Enjoyment of The Thousand Nights and One Night ultimately depends on the reader’s tolerance for stories that are often repetitive, vulgar and crude, and which are marked by absurd plot contrivances such as princes falling in love with princesses that they have never met, and agreeing to answer a riddle which will win the princess’s hand in marriage if he is correct, but will mean death for the prince if he is wrong.
However the stories are undeniably entertaining. This final volume is notable for three distinct elements not found in the first three instalments – the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the execution of Jafar, and the final winding up of Shahrazad’s tales.
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is one of the more accessible tales in The Thousand Nights and One Night, and it has often been turned into a pantomime. There are some elements of the story that need cleaning up to make it fit for children, and the status of Marjanah (the real heroine of the story) as a slave is something that needs to be glossed over. However the basic story is a delight, and even the violent deaths might appeal to children too.
The story of Jafar’s execution is one of the saddest moments in the book. We have followed Jafar, the long-suffering wazir to Harun-al-Rashid through all four volumes, watching anxiously as he frequently escapes being executed at the whim of his arbitrary king. However his luck finally runs out in Volume 4.
Based on a genuine historical figure, Jafar is among the more likeable figures here. Indeed the fantasy tales briefly stop to provide us with a historical account of the possible reasons why the wazir’s master suddenly turned against him. The main reason offered is similar to the reason most often given by historians, but it is naturally romanticised.
In this version of events, Jafar is married off to al-Rashid’s sister but with the instruction that he should not consummate the union. However Abbasa finds a means of hoodwinking Jafar into having sex with her, and when al-Rashid finds out, this proves to be the reason for Jafar’s downfall. It is a sad conclusion to the adventures of a character that we have grown used to over the thousand and one nights of Shahrazad’s stories.
Speaking of Shahrazad, her story too is resolved at the end of 1,001 nights of storytelling. There are a few signs earlier in the volume that King Shahryar is beginning to melt from his original intention of executing his wife. This is finally accomplished when Shahrazad finishes her last story and unexpectedly produces several children that she has had by the surprisingly inobservant king.
As Shahrazad explains, this is the reason why she was absent through sickness for twenty days between the 679th night and the 700th. (I’m impressed that the young Queen has been keeping such accurate count.) The children help to win over the already quiescent King, and he agrees to spare Shahrazad.
For good measure his brother (also cuckolded in the first volume) agrees to marry her sister, Dunyazad, though rather unflatteringly he cannot remember her name. Dunyazad has been her sister’s cheerleader throughout the thousand and one nights, praising the sweetness and delicacy of Shahrazad’s stories, even when they have been anything but sweet and delicate, and patiently waiting until her brother-in-law and sister have finished having sex before begging Shahrazad to continue with her tales.
We may well wonder whether it is really worth living with a king who has such a tyrannical attitude towards his wives, but the stories here belong to a very different world from our own. They belong to fantasy, but also to a different time and place from that of many of the readers.
If you have a stereotypical image of Middle Eastern people as being prone to Islamic bigotry, barbaric violence, cruel and unusual punishments, mistreatment of women and a willingness to marry pre-pubescent girls, then I’m afraid that this book will not challenge those stereotypes. There are examples of all these in the stories.
Often the book praises itself for qualities it does not have. The stories are not as sweet as Dunyazad tells us. Wise characters and tales of wisdom are often rather foolish and narrow. Wise and just rulers are often tyrants, and so on.
Yet at its best The Thousand Nights and One Night can seem surprisingly liberated in its attitudes. Its crudeness and lack of subtlety is offset by stories of some imagination. There is also a genuine love of the art of storytelling in these volumes, and a generous spirit of seeking to entertain and amuse the reader or listener, rather than seeking to browbeat them with evidence of the author’s smartness.
November 1, 2020
THESE BOOKS ARE ABSOLUTELY NOT SUITABLE FOR KIDS (I don't think that can be stated enough!). The tales you get to read as kids are a miniscule portion of the work which can get extremely pornographic in places.
Well I finally finished vol 4 of 4 (I don't know why it says vol 4 of 12 there, I don't know how one gets that corrected).
I will point out as in earlier reviews, these stories were collected some 1200 years ago so there is no point throwing a modern gloss on some of the racism, sexism and so forth that we consider unacceptable today.
I found this last volume tough going, mainly because I was a bit bored of exotic jewels, sumptuous palaces, erotic sex in many combinations (man/woman, man/man, woman/woman, man/beast). One part in particular disgusted me, amongst the tales of Goha - supposedly 'the wise fool' - after some thought I've decided not to repeat it here, lets just say, an extreme example of child abuse.
Fortunes gained and lost at a whim.
My challenge this year was to read the entire 4 volume set - said to be one of the best translations (a literal translation from arabic to french, and then a translation of the french to english). It helped that I know some arabic because there were some words not translated in there and a few of the colloquialisms I recognized.
I also got a bit fed up with people falling passionately in love with people they had never met, just heard about, pining away, declaring each other as 'slaves'. Also there was some interchangeable use of the words 'slave' and 'wife' (though it has to be said some of the lovesick men also declared themselves as 'slaves' to those with whom they had fallen in love).
Some of the traditional stories we found as children appear in this volume - there is, for example, a story that is definitely a very early version of Cinderella.
The way I got through it was to read it in alternate months and endeavour to read 20-40 pages per day (whole set was around 2300 pages). It did cramp my style with other books I want to read. But hey, it's done and dusted now.
Well I finally finished vol 4 of 4 (I don't know why it says vol 4 of 12 there, I don't know how one gets that corrected).
I will point out as in earlier reviews, these stories were collected some 1200 years ago so there is no point throwing a modern gloss on some of the racism, sexism and so forth that we consider unacceptable today.
I found this last volume tough going, mainly because I was a bit bored of exotic jewels, sumptuous palaces, erotic sex in many combinations (man/woman, man/man, woman/woman, man/beast). One part in particular disgusted me, amongst the tales of Goha - supposedly 'the wise fool' - after some thought I've decided not to repeat it here, lets just say, an extreme example of child abuse.
Fortunes gained and lost at a whim.
My challenge this year was to read the entire 4 volume set - said to be one of the best translations (a literal translation from arabic to french, and then a translation of the french to english). It helped that I know some arabic because there were some words not translated in there and a few of the colloquialisms I recognized.
I also got a bit fed up with people falling passionately in love with people they had never met, just heard about, pining away, declaring each other as 'slaves'. Also there was some interchangeable use of the words 'slave' and 'wife' (though it has to be said some of the lovesick men also declared themselves as 'slaves' to those with whom they had fallen in love).
Some of the traditional stories we found as children appear in this volume - there is, for example, a story that is definitely a very early version of Cinderella.
The way I got through it was to read it in alternate months and endeavour to read 20-40 pages per day (whole set was around 2300 pages). It did cramp my style with other books I want to read. But hey, it's done and dusted now.
September 24, 2022
(First, a minimal beef with this Goodreads entry's description of this book: it's the last of four volumes, not the fourth of 12! Also, the title on the cover reads 'The Book of The Thousand Nights...' but this entry has claimed the ISBN, so away we go...)
It's only taken me about 20 years of on-and-off reading of this epic collection of classic stories, but I've finally reached that 1001st night. Unfortunately, the last leg of this journey proved the hardest.
While volume 4 contained the usual assortment of fun, gory and often saucy tales associated with this collection (best known in this volume undoubtedly being 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'), the latter half got considerably drier than any other part of the series. This was, in large part, due to the interminable-feeling 50-odd pages dedicated to the 'instructional' (read 'boring as hell') series called 'Windows on the Garden of History.' Though this uses a now-familiar framework of one character telling several stories, the stories themselves are dull and poorly executed and the framing of a boorish, educated prince regaling his dinner guests in hope of enlightening them after having read a lot of books is less believable than even the most fantastical tales in the previous books.
It was a little emotional reaching the climax of the ultimate framing story of Shahrazad telling all these stories in an effort to save her and her sister's lives (spoiler: it's a happy ending), but after the absolute slog that was the second half of this volume I was actually glad to be seeing the back cover.
If you're a fan of truer tellings of well-known tales, I can't recommend this series enough. It is a commitment, and it is more enjoyable at some times than at others, but overall I'm glad I read the entire thing in this frank-if-stilted translation. It has opened my imagination just that bit more, and readers of fiction should always hope for at least that.
It's only taken me about 20 years of on-and-off reading of this epic collection of classic stories, but I've finally reached that 1001st night. Unfortunately, the last leg of this journey proved the hardest.
While volume 4 contained the usual assortment of fun, gory and often saucy tales associated with this collection (best known in this volume undoubtedly being 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'), the latter half got considerably drier than any other part of the series. This was, in large part, due to the interminable-feeling 50-odd pages dedicated to the 'instructional' (read 'boring as hell') series called 'Windows on the Garden of History.' Though this uses a now-familiar framework of one character telling several stories, the stories themselves are dull and poorly executed and the framing of a boorish, educated prince regaling his dinner guests in hope of enlightening them after having read a lot of books is less believable than even the most fantastical tales in the previous books.
It was a little emotional reaching the climax of the ultimate framing story of Shahrazad telling all these stories in an effort to save her and her sister's lives (spoiler: it's a happy ending), but after the absolute slog that was the second half of this volume I was actually glad to be seeing the back cover.
If you're a fan of truer tellings of well-known tales, I can't recommend this series enough. It is a commitment, and it is more enjoyable at some times than at others, but overall I'm glad I read the entire thing in this frank-if-stilted translation. It has opened my imagination just that bit more, and readers of fiction should always hope for at least that.
August 17, 2024
There's little that I can add to the thorough and excellent reviews already written about this book.
Like them, I will note that this is the fourth and final volume in the set and not 4 of 12.
As I have mentioned in my reviews of previous volumes, this is not a watered-down children's version of these tales, but the full and unexpurgated stories with all of the bigotry, sexism, and violence of the Middle Ages.
Anyone interested in reading these books has probably heard the more popular tales, and the over-arching story of Scheherazade postponing her execution by keeping the King caught up in her tales.
Getting through the poetry is sometimes a struggle, and tends to slow down the stories. But I suppose the translators wanted to keep things as true to the originals as possible.
After getting through the first three volumes pretty quickly, I read this final one on and off for the last year and a half with lots of other books in between. Something that is easy to do as there are so many convenient places to stop, and it's easy enough to pick up the thread again.
A wonderful set that gives the reader insight into the culture and mythos of the early Islamic world.
Like them, I will note that this is the fourth and final volume in the set and not 4 of 12.
As I have mentioned in my reviews of previous volumes, this is not a watered-down children's version of these tales, but the full and unexpurgated stories with all of the bigotry, sexism, and violence of the Middle Ages.
Anyone interested in reading these books has probably heard the more popular tales, and the over-arching story of Scheherazade postponing her execution by keeping the King caught up in her tales.
Getting through the poetry is sometimes a struggle, and tends to slow down the stories. But I suppose the translators wanted to keep things as true to the originals as possible.
After getting through the first three volumes pretty quickly, I read this final one on and off for the last year and a half with lots of other books in between. Something that is easy to do as there are so many convenient places to stop, and it's easy enough to pick up the thread again.
A wonderful set that gives the reader insight into the culture and mythos of the early Islamic world.
October 26, 2024
I would encourage anyone to read these.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews