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The Arabian Nights by H Haddawy
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December 19, 2023
Diverse Enchantments: ‘The Arabian Nights’
Translated by Husain Haddawy
‘Her father went back to the privy and there he found the hunchback standing upside down, with his head stuck in the toilet and his feet in the air. The vizier was taken aback and called out, “You hunchback!” The hunchback replied, “Yeah, yeah.” The vizier asked, “Why are you in this position, and who did this to you?” The hunchback replied, “Couldn’t you people have found anyone for me to marry except a girl who consorts with buffaloes and takes demons for lovers?”’
The translation of literary works from past eras has often been sabotaged by the moral and aesthetic prejudices of their successors. And because of this, it’s rather common for later generations to view their ancestors through a falsely sanitized lens that, beyond just obscuring the truth of particular texts, furthermore ruins the perception of history itself. With this edition of the ‘Arabian Nights’ though, otherwise known as ‘The Thousand and One Nights’ (Which in fact only goes to 271 in this edition) Haddawy seems to provide an utterly candid English rendition of the source material. Of course the prevalent violence is unsurprising but the amount of explicit sexual content is interesting too if only because of how this conflicts with the dominant narratives about Islam in the English speaking world; likewise the liberal consumption of alcohol present in the stories given the assorted prohibitions against such in many contemporary Muslim countries. And the end result of it all is that the fantastical conceits of the tales themselves turn out to be far less strange than the uncanny suggestion arising from these that our world is much greater in its dishonesty than generally supposed.
But that’s basically a rite of passage for the reader of classical literature. Reading the ancient Greeks for example can be quite a shocking experience for those raised in a repressive milieu; so too, the unflinching portrayal of humanity in the sidelined details of the Bible tends to be at odds with the religious promotion of the text. And this despite the common claim that every word in it is divinely inspired. Again though, any awakening to the discrepancy of how the past is portrayed and its prior reality is only possible where translators uphold authenticity against competing interests. And there are an abundance of said interests because the present always has numerous incentives to distort the past in ways that are more immediately advantageous; forgoing the greater social advantage of disseminating historical accuracy. The mutilation of history however is essentially as old as history itself, ancient peoples for example practiced censorship and erasure in multiple ways, so it shouldn’t be surprising that an esoteric tradition emerged in literature which took measures to preserve the truth indirectly. Of course there are layers of conflict here as complex as humanity’s general inclination to misrepresent things and one should be wary of any work presented as a definitive revelation; but some, as in this case, provide an unusual degree of insight in their bypassing of manufactured orthodoxy.
Setting that aside for the moment though, it should be acknowledged first that the Arabian Nights succeed, above all, in virtue of their exoteric merits; the elaborate use of nested stories for instance, tales told within tales, is not just monotonously repeated but done with considerable invention and skill. Although straying outside the boundaries of strict magical realism on several occasions, the stories here were clearly a major influence on that South American tradition and the book in fact out Marquezes Marquez and Borgeses as well as Borges (On a side note, this link raises the question of a prevailing Islamic influence on Spanish culture and its subsidiaries; but I’m not informed enough in said literature to speak to that unfortunately) It’s also worth a mention that there are multiple striking passages of sumptuous visualization that mirror the arabesque art which the Islamic world is justly admired for. Add to this a substantial amount of bawdy gusto interjected with large doses of intrigue and adventure and the reader can expect a truly unique experience. Even at the surface level, the stories here are immensely rewarding.
Behind its entertaining façade though, there’s the suggestion of something more profound going on here. As I was reading it, and before I learned that anyone else had made the same claim (Of course it’s not that extraordinary a conclusion) I was sure I was reading a work written in the Sufi tradition. There was enough of a hint in the first reading that the stories were tightly correlated with some kind of numerological system; likewise the story featuring a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim strongly implied that a religious or historical commentary had been embedded symbolically in their respective undertakings. What I think this establishes is that, while the Arabian Nights can be read purely for enjoyment, they are well worth a serious and systematic study within the framework of esoterically conscientious hermeneutics. Meaning, they were written with that in mind.
Esotericism is a marginalized aspect of literature, esoteric reading and writing are rarely promoted in public literary discourse, but this is clearly a recent prejudice; the result merely of an anti-spiritual zeitgeist. Because the inhuman deformity of our age, dominated as it is by soulless profit structures creeping ever deeper into the determinations of culture, offers us an essentially spiritual predicament. Though materialism has existed since at least the emergence of cities, it was only in the 20th century that a mytholess and fundamentally unmystical paradigm, the paradigm of capitalism, became the avant-garde force in society; even science itself, as agnostic as it is on a basic level, has its origins in a self-surrendering commitment to radical truth which is incompatible with the inherently destructive self-gratifications that capitalism promotes.
What happened though was that modernism and postmodernism together opened a hole of values and, with the confusion and fragmentation this left behind, capitalism inserted itself into that central vacancy. At least, in the West. But Islam, and other older forms of culture (Other world religions for example, or even secular ideologies like classical republicanism) still exist in various degrees of strength as resistance centres against capitalism’s cancerous trend towards pure hegemony. Unfortunately, the most powerful weapons of today, the instruments of technology and media, mostly belong to the arsenals of capitalism and major online platforms tend to be engineered in the direction of a dystopian extinguishing of human freedom and meaning; but always doing so, carefully, under the mask of voluntary consumption. Major online social media platforms however are in fact social engineering machines, bent towards not just the “manufacturing of consent” but to any expedient contrivance; including too the pluralization of dissent, to prevent solidarity movements, and the instigation of utilitarian chaos. The goal of course always being to prevent revolutionary potential and counteraction.
When we find ourselves surrounded by turmoil, we will of course look for anything solid to support ourselves. Here the usefulness of classical and canonical literature announces itself. Through the great works of the past we reconnect to the deepest expressions of the spirit of the world; the same spirit we today entirely depend on for our own vitality. Just as earth deprived of water will become a cracked and dusty desert, so too human beings deprived of meaning will become brittle and lifeless versions of their proper selves, existing perhaps only as a sort hapless robotic instrument for a remorseless ruling class (While led on by vacuous consumerist ambitions) The art of writing then is not a decadent trivial thing. Along with other art forms that address humanity in any profound way, it has a vital role to play in the continuation of our species and civilization. In fact, each age and generation must be re-civilized from the roots up and literature has always been foremost in serving this purpose. Works like ‘The Arabian Nights’ are exceptional in their capacity to expand our powers of feeling and perception; a single turn of phrase can occasionally be enough to produce a moment lasting self-transformation. So long as we’re willing to listen.
Translated by Husain Haddawy
‘Her father went back to the privy and there he found the hunchback standing upside down, with his head stuck in the toilet and his feet in the air. The vizier was taken aback and called out, “You hunchback!” The hunchback replied, “Yeah, yeah.” The vizier asked, “Why are you in this position, and who did this to you?” The hunchback replied, “Couldn’t you people have found anyone for me to marry except a girl who consorts with buffaloes and takes demons for lovers?”’
The translation of literary works from past eras has often been sabotaged by the moral and aesthetic prejudices of their successors. And because of this, it’s rather common for later generations to view their ancestors through a falsely sanitized lens that, beyond just obscuring the truth of particular texts, furthermore ruins the perception of history itself. With this edition of the ‘Arabian Nights’ though, otherwise known as ‘The Thousand and One Nights’ (Which in fact only goes to 271 in this edition) Haddawy seems to provide an utterly candid English rendition of the source material. Of course the prevalent violence is unsurprising but the amount of explicit sexual content is interesting too if only because of how this conflicts with the dominant narratives about Islam in the English speaking world; likewise the liberal consumption of alcohol present in the stories given the assorted prohibitions against such in many contemporary Muslim countries. And the end result of it all is that the fantastical conceits of the tales themselves turn out to be far less strange than the uncanny suggestion arising from these that our world is much greater in its dishonesty than generally supposed.
But that’s basically a rite of passage for the reader of classical literature. Reading the ancient Greeks for example can be quite a shocking experience for those raised in a repressive milieu; so too, the unflinching portrayal of humanity in the sidelined details of the Bible tends to be at odds with the religious promotion of the text. And this despite the common claim that every word in it is divinely inspired. Again though, any awakening to the discrepancy of how the past is portrayed and its prior reality is only possible where translators uphold authenticity against competing interests. And there are an abundance of said interests because the present always has numerous incentives to distort the past in ways that are more immediately advantageous; forgoing the greater social advantage of disseminating historical accuracy. The mutilation of history however is essentially as old as history itself, ancient peoples for example practiced censorship and erasure in multiple ways, so it shouldn’t be surprising that an esoteric tradition emerged in literature which took measures to preserve the truth indirectly. Of course there are layers of conflict here as complex as humanity’s general inclination to misrepresent things and one should be wary of any work presented as a definitive revelation; but some, as in this case, provide an unusual degree of insight in their bypassing of manufactured orthodoxy.
Setting that aside for the moment though, it should be acknowledged first that the Arabian Nights succeed, above all, in virtue of their exoteric merits; the elaborate use of nested stories for instance, tales told within tales, is not just monotonously repeated but done with considerable invention and skill. Although straying outside the boundaries of strict magical realism on several occasions, the stories here were clearly a major influence on that South American tradition and the book in fact out Marquezes Marquez and Borgeses as well as Borges (On a side note, this link raises the question of a prevailing Islamic influence on Spanish culture and its subsidiaries; but I’m not informed enough in said literature to speak to that unfortunately) It’s also worth a mention that there are multiple striking passages of sumptuous visualization that mirror the arabesque art which the Islamic world is justly admired for. Add to this a substantial amount of bawdy gusto interjected with large doses of intrigue and adventure and the reader can expect a truly unique experience. Even at the surface level, the stories here are immensely rewarding.
Behind its entertaining façade though, there’s the suggestion of something more profound going on here. As I was reading it, and before I learned that anyone else had made the same claim (Of course it’s not that extraordinary a conclusion) I was sure I was reading a work written in the Sufi tradition. There was enough of a hint in the first reading that the stories were tightly correlated with some kind of numerological system; likewise the story featuring a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim strongly implied that a religious or historical commentary had been embedded symbolically in their respective undertakings. What I think this establishes is that, while the Arabian Nights can be read purely for enjoyment, they are well worth a serious and systematic study within the framework of esoterically conscientious hermeneutics. Meaning, they were written with that in mind.
Esotericism is a marginalized aspect of literature, esoteric reading and writing are rarely promoted in public literary discourse, but this is clearly a recent prejudice; the result merely of an anti-spiritual zeitgeist. Because the inhuman deformity of our age, dominated as it is by soulless profit structures creeping ever deeper into the determinations of culture, offers us an essentially spiritual predicament. Though materialism has existed since at least the emergence of cities, it was only in the 20th century that a mytholess and fundamentally unmystical paradigm, the paradigm of capitalism, became the avant-garde force in society; even science itself, as agnostic as it is on a basic level, has its origins in a self-surrendering commitment to radical truth which is incompatible with the inherently destructive self-gratifications that capitalism promotes.
What happened though was that modernism and postmodernism together opened a hole of values and, with the confusion and fragmentation this left behind, capitalism inserted itself into that central vacancy. At least, in the West. But Islam, and other older forms of culture (Other world religions for example, or even secular ideologies like classical republicanism) still exist in various degrees of strength as resistance centres against capitalism’s cancerous trend towards pure hegemony. Unfortunately, the most powerful weapons of today, the instruments of technology and media, mostly belong to the arsenals of capitalism and major online platforms tend to be engineered in the direction of a dystopian extinguishing of human freedom and meaning; but always doing so, carefully, under the mask of voluntary consumption. Major online social media platforms however are in fact social engineering machines, bent towards not just the “manufacturing of consent” but to any expedient contrivance; including too the pluralization of dissent, to prevent solidarity movements, and the instigation of utilitarian chaos. The goal of course always being to prevent revolutionary potential and counteraction.
When we find ourselves surrounded by turmoil, we will of course look for anything solid to support ourselves. Here the usefulness of classical and canonical literature announces itself. Through the great works of the past we reconnect to the deepest expressions of the spirit of the world; the same spirit we today entirely depend on for our own vitality. Just as earth deprived of water will become a cracked and dusty desert, so too human beings deprived of meaning will become brittle and lifeless versions of their proper selves, existing perhaps only as a sort hapless robotic instrument for a remorseless ruling class (While led on by vacuous consumerist ambitions) The art of writing then is not a decadent trivial thing. Along with other art forms that address humanity in any profound way, it has a vital role to play in the continuation of our species and civilization. In fact, each age and generation must be re-civilized from the roots up and literature has always been foremost in serving this purpose. Works like ‘The Arabian Nights’ are exceptional in their capacity to expand our powers of feeling and perception; a single turn of phrase can occasionally be enough to produce a moment lasting self-transformation. So long as we’re willing to listen.
October 2, 2025
Read it for class. It was pretty good, nice to know but I didnt necessarily falll in live with the writing style.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews