In the Great Khan’s Tent

In this episode, we continue our exciting exploration of the One Thousand and One Nights, with the story of “The Story of Ghanim the son of Ayyub, the Distracted Slave of Love” with Nights 40 and 41.

We are first told the story of the first slave, Buhkait, and how he eventually found himself castrated. We then listen to the story of the second slave, Kafur, and the mischief he inflicted on his master and the city before getting his supposed comeuppance.

We finally then return back to our main character, Ghanim the son of Ayyub, and what he found in the chest that the three slaves had carried and had attempted to bury in the graveyard.

As you listen to this episode, consider why Ghanim could have gotten the title of the “Distracted Slave of Love” by considering what he went to Baghdad to do and what he was actually doing.

This episode is important as it highlights one of the great divergences that begins to take place within the One Thousand and One Nights translations that we will have to deal with as we continue our explorations with this work. The story of the first slave, Buhkait, was excluded from the translation of Edward William Lane, on account of its content, but was included in the translation of John Payne and of Richard Burton. Payne's version of this tale, by my estimation, was significantly toned down due to English sensibilities in contrast to Burton's version which ramped up the obscenity.

If you need a refresher on Obscenity and Bowdlerization within the One Thousand and One Nights, then refer back to our One Year Special Episode 1 where we dealt with the groundwork on this issue.

Welcome to In The Great Khan’s Tent Presents: Ramadan or Ramzan, if you prefer, Special Episode Part 2!

In our final special episode for this holy month of Ramadan, we delve into two tales of lesser known and uniquely Arab, Prophets, Salih (A.S.) who was sent to the people of Thamud, located in what we would know as present day Saudi Arabia, and Shu’ayb (A.S.) who was sent to two groups of people, the people of Midian and the people of the Thicket, both of whom are also located in the present day region of Saudi Arabia.

The tale of Salih (A.S.) is an interesting one and delves into the problems of asking a prophet for a sign of his prophethood. In Salih (A.S.) case, he had given the people of Thamud a she-camel which provided them with endless milk but their hatred and jealousy against him caused them to strike out against the camel and invite their own destruction. Of interesting note here is that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), does interact with the legacy of Salih (A.S.) and the remains left after Allah destroyed them. He warns his companions, as he travels through this region, to not drink the water or even enter the town. Furthermore, the Prophet (PBUH) warns of people of asking for signs of prophethood since it is tantamount that people are really asking for the destruction of themselves and their people.

The tale of Shu’ayb (A.S.) is unique from the tale of Hud (A.S.) and that of Salih (A.S.) in that while Shu’ayb (A.S.) did ask people to come to righteousness, he also especially targeted the people of Midian and the people of the Thicket to stop exploiting people through devious means particularly through modified and erroneous use of weights and measures as well as to stop them from highway robbery.

In the next episode we will continue our retelling of the One Thousand and One Nights with the continuation of “The Story of Ghanim the son of Ayyub, the Distracted Slave of Love”.

Welcome to In The Great Khan’s Tent Presents: Ramadan or Ramzan, if you prefer, Special Episode Part 1!

In this special episode we will examine the oral and written narratives pertaining to Islam, in particular focusing on some of the lesser known Prophets mentioned in the Qur’an including the related topics to them.

The purpose of these episodes is to tell the tales and stories told about these unique Prophets that are mentioned in the Qur’an and that do not relate to either the Jewish or Christian tradition and hence are purely Arabic ones. This unique group includes of course the final seal of the Prophets, Muhammad (PBUH), but also includes the three we will be focusing on, Hud (A.S.), Salih (A.S.) and Shuaib (A.S.).

The structure of this episode is uniquely different because we are dealing with religious narratives. The first section of the episode recounts the Qur’anic verses dealing with the topic that we will be discussing before moving on to the narratives themselves.

Listeners will encounter a list of names ranging from one to many before a narrative has begun. This is called a isnad or the “chain of transmission”. The function of an isnad is to be a reliable guide to note which oral narratives have good standings and can be understood or agreed upon. The people in these isnad are often vetted through certain processes, such as not being prone to carelessness, and are understood as truthful people in good standing. Since these are religious oral tales, essentially, they use the isnad method.

In this specific episode, we deal with the narratives of Hud (A.S.) and the people he was sent to. His tale is a purely Yemeni one, as the people he was sent to were the ‘Ad, located within the present day regions of Oman and Yemen. His story is primarily known only through the Qur’an and there is an entire chapter that is named after him. The rest of his tale and the people he was sent to is transmitted through a select few oral tales.

Since we have no records of his life, the oral tales revolve around his warning to the people of ‘Ad, their ignorance or outright violence in their attempt to drive him away, and their eventual destruction by Allah for ignoring the call to return to righteousness.

After encountering the narrative of Hud (A.S.) we then move to tell the tale of the lost city called Iram of the Pillars, a city build by the king of ‘Ad, Shaddad ibn ‘Ad, and his attempt at recreating Heaven on the Earth.

The last narrative that is told, is the journey undertaken to Shaddad’s tomb and their adventures within it.

These two last narratives, certainly fitting within the folk tale genre, resemble the tales we will encounter further on in the One Thousand and One Nights.

In the next special episode of this holy month of Ramazan, we will be looking at the Prophets Salih (A.S.) and Shuaib (A.S.).

In this episode, we continue with our exploration of the One Thousand and One Nights, with the exciting conclusion of the story of “The Story of Nur-ud-din and Anis al-Jalis” with Night 38 and begin a new story, “The Story of Ghanim the son of Ayyub, the Distracted Slave of Love” with Night 39.

The role played by Harun al-Rashid in the story of Nur-ud-din and Anis al-Jalis clearly is another, more calmer and rational, aspect of his personality than what we saw in the “The Story of the Humpback”. While he does continue to threat Ja’far al-Barmaki with death if he does not do exactly as he says, his sense of justice is clearly more sharpened in this story than the previous one, especially in regards to the vizir al-Mo’in the son of Sawi and the Sultan, Muhammad the son of Suleyman al-Zeyni, who is his cousin.

This story also shows how the power base of the Abbasid Khalifate was built around with vital posts, such as the Sultan of Basra, being given to his family members rather than anyone from outside the immediate tribal connection.

The new story of Ghanim, returns us to the root of who these stories were really meant for with the main character being the son of the merchant who also becomes a merchant selling his wares in the city of Baghdad having traveled from his home in Damascus. We are not told yet as to why he has the appellation of “The Distracted Slave of Love” though hopefully the story will tell us. This story is once again set in the time of Harun al-Rashid, once again indicating that this story maybe one of the core stories of the One Thousand and One Nights.

In this episode, we continue with our on-going series titled “Tales from Central Asia” by looking at four different tales from four different ethnic groups.

The first story that is told is from the Turkmen ethnic group titled “A Mountain of Gems”. The second story that is told is from the Uzbek ethnic group titled “The Clever Brothers”. The third story that is told is from the Tajik ethnic group titled “The Greedy Qazi”.

What is interesting about these three stories is that they all bear a resemblance to similar tales that we have encountered and have yet to encounter in the One Thousand and One Nights. Although there is no indication of the provenance of these stories it can be conjectured that they were inspired by the One Thousand and One Nights and subsequently were modified to fit in their local storytelling environments. Another theory that can be examined is that these stories were developed in parallel to one another, in an isolated environment.

As we encounter these stories in the One Thousand and One Nights, there will be future special episodes comparing and contrasting them.

The last story that is told is from the Altai ethnic group called “Boroldoi-Mergen and his Brave Son”. This story is similar in its structure to the Bashkir story we encountered, Altyn-Saka the Golden Knucklebone, as well as the story of Tsarkin Khan and the Archer, the Kalmyk story. The main characters in all three of these stories are uniquely different from the environment that they find themselves in as the rest of the characters, or the village in the case of Boroldoi-Mergen, are cowardly and not brave and it is solely up to them to stand up to the unrighteous.

In the next episode, we will once again resume our exploration of the One Thousand and One Nights.

In this episode, we continue “The Story of Nur-ud-din and Anis al-Jalis” with Night 37.

As mentioned before, we again encounter the three historical characters of Harun al-Rashid, Jafar al-Barmaki, and Mansur. There is a marked difference in how the relationship between Harun al-Rashid and Jafar al-Barmaki is portrayed. Unlike the previous encounters, however, these new  threats are now tempered with joviality and humor. This may lead one to  believe that these threats were often used as playful banter between the two or at the very least by Harun al-Rashid. The reaction that Jafar has when faced with these threats, however, does not make it seem like he knew they were simply how Harun al-Rashid joked with him. This continues to deepen the mystery of both their portrayal within the One Thousand and One Nights and what exactly is the storyteller attempting to show.

We once again encounter the character of the fisherman, someone who was first encountered when we first began this series. Although the role Karim the fisherman plays is small, the presence of this character including the depiction of his poverty may have been an effort to show that not all characters are from similar social situations and classes.

In the next episode, we will return once again to another episode of the “Tales from Central Asia”.

In this episode, we continue “The Story of Nur-ud-din and Anis al-Jalis” with Night 36.

Once again, this is another sort of morality tale warning about the wasteful spending with unreliable people or hangers on who are just there for spending a persons wealth, as in the case of Nur-ud-din, but once the wealth has run dry and the person needs help, they disperse and claim to not to know you. As Nur-ud-din finds out, these sorts of “friends” do not help and will only hinder a person in the long run.

We get a small glimpse of the slave markets that were present in Basra during the Abbasid Caliphate with a number of ethnicities present in this tale. There is a marked difference between this sort of slave trade and the transatlantic slave trade which most readers are familiar with. This difference will be explored in an upcoming special episode later this year.

As we go further in the tale, once again we encounter the Khalifa Harun al-Rashid in passing, referencing the garden that Nur-ud-din and Anis al-Jalis find themselves in after they had run to protect themselves from al-Mo’in ibn Sawi. The presence of Harun al-Rashid in this tale further strengthens the concept that this is one of the core stories of the One Thousand and One Nights, as the earlier tales prior to this one featured Khalifas that were successors of Harun al-Rashid.

In this episode, we continue our One Thousand and One Nights narration, with the finale of “The Case of the Tailor, The Hunchback or Humpback, the Jew, the Inspector, and the Christian” or known as “The story of the Humpback” with Night 34. This has been a long tale first begun during Night 25 and reaches a satisfying conclusion for all parties involved in this tale. We begin a new tale, that of “The Story of Nur-ud-din and Anis al-Jalis” with Night 35.

The story of Nur-ud-din and Anis al-Jalis is one of the core stories known in the One Thousand and One Nights, with it being present in one of the oldest manuscripts extant of this work. The story is similarly framed to the earlier story we encountered, “Nur-ud-din and his Son and Shams-ud-din Mohammad and his Daughter”, in that the two central characters in this plot are vizers of a singular Sultan. However, unlike the earlier story they are both polar opposites of one another.

As we continue to explore the central core stories found in manuscripts of the One Thousand and One Nights, it might behoove us if we pay attention to how these core stories may have influenced other stories, some found earlier and some we will encounter later, and how similar characters can be found in them.

As we reach the end of the Gregorian calendar for 2023, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our listeners for sticking with us and hopefully you continue to support us in the New Year. May Allah bless you all and have a happy holiday whatever you are celebrating.

In this episode, we continue with the story of “Tsarkin Khan and the Archer”, the Kalmyk Mongol tale.

In our last episode, we met the anonymous Archer who spotted three Gold Cranes who turned into beautiful ladies. He hid the feathers of one and gave them back to her. As a result, they married but his wife drew the attention of his Khan, Tsarkin Khan. Wanting the Archer’s wife for himself, he sent the Archer to get the milk of the Tigeress, feigning to be sick, in the hopes that he would be killed and be able to take his wife. He survived, however, and Tsarkin Khan then decided to sent him to search out No-One-Knows-What in No-One-Knows-Where, once again feigning to be sick.

As we continue this story, take notice of the various magical items that are being used to accomplish his goals. The string used to meet his wife’s sisters, Murza the mystical item that provides and entire meal, the khadak which creates a palace, and the golden stick which summons an army of mounted warriors or archers depending on which end is hit on the ground. All of which he uses to accomplish his goal of getting No-One-Knows-What and returning home to his beautiful wife.

This is clearly a tale with a message on morality, lying, and what happens when a Khan does not act like a Khan.

In the next episode we will continue with the One Thousand and One Nights.

In this episode, we continue the story of “The Story of the Tailor” with Night 32 and the story of the “The Barber’s Story of his Fifth Brother” and go on to Night 33 and the story of the “The Barber’s Story of his Sixth Brother”.

Both of these brothers are seemingly different that what has been described by the Barber with his other brothers. The Fifth brother is clearly more courageous going as far as fighting back against what happened to him quite competently and getting his revenge on those who wronged him, while still having the traits that resulted in his finding himself in a dangerous situation. The beginning of the fifth brother’s story, where he dreams of wealth and what he shall do with it, is a common theme among folklore where the future is dreamed of but back in reality, something occurs that results in the shattering of that dream.

The sixth brother’s story is also different than that of his other brothers as the his form of being tricked, is not malicious, but rather is shown as something jovial and eccentric and his reaction to this shows how he approaches the situation using his smarts. It is only after a series of unfortunate events, where others are the cause of his misfortune, that causes him to suffer as he did.

It is interesting to note that in the sixth’s brother’s story the Barmakids are mentioned once again, however, this is an unnamed character meant to show the weird nature of the rich. Unfortunately it is unclear on who this is based on. He clearly is not based any of the main Barmakids, as they were already long dead especially by the time of the Caliph al-Muntasir bi’llah. The only plausible explanation might be that these were their descendants, from their children since there is no indication that the entire family was killed, or were distant relatives.

In the next episode, we will continue the series "Tales from Central Asia"!