Monday, September 8, 2014

Reading Diary Week 4: Arabian Nights



The Sultan Schahriar had a wife and he spoiled her out of his mind. He found out that she was unfaithful and was devastated. He basically became a woman hater from that day on. He had his wife be put to death, and after that married a new woman every night, and had her killed the next morning. The servant of the Sultan had two daughters, one of which asked to marry the Sultan with the hopes of being able to stop his horrible habit of killing so many innocent women. At the wedding alter, she asked if her sister could stay the night with her. And the Sultan agreed that would be okay. The woman, Scheherazade, did this so that her sister could wake her that next morning and tell a story. The story is called The Story of the Merchant and the Genius.

A merchant is approached by a genie who wants to kill him. The genie kept saying that he wants to kill the merchant like the merchant had killed his son. The merchant was very confused by this. Apparently, the merchant had accidently stuck his son with a stone he had thrown. When the genie went to start to kill the merchant, Scheherazade stopped the story. The Sultan said he would allow her to live another day so that way he could hear the end of the story.
The next night, the story continued. The merchant asked the genie for the opportunity to go home and see his family, the come back to be killed. The merchant asked for one year with his family, and then he would return to the genie. The genie said that would be okay, and left. The man went back to his family for one year. Then he went back to where he promised the genie he would be. When he got there, he met three men. When the genie appeared to kill the merchant, one of the men threw himself at the feet of the merchant and asked if he could tell a better story and if that with this, the genie would spare the life of the merchant and the genie agreed.

The old man told a story of how he had a wife but they didn’t have any children, so he adopted his favorite slave’s son with the intention of making him his heir. The time came where he needed to go on a journey. He was gone for a year and asked for his wife to look after his son, and his slave. What he didn’t know was that his wife was evil and had a terrible plan. While he was gone, she turned the slave into a cow and turned the son into a calf. When he came back she said the slave died, and she hadn’t seen the son in two months. He was very upset. To celebrate Bairam months later, he asked for a slave to bring out a cow to be killed. When he went to kill the cow, it began to cry and he felt so bad, he asked for the slave to bring out a different one. The wife was upset he didn’t kill the cow, and told him to try again, but the cow cried once more, and he couldn’t do it. His steward finally killed the cow, but found it was only bones even though it looked fat. They then brought out a fat calf to be killed (his son). The cow bent at the feet of the old man, and he felt so bad he couldn’t kill him. The wife persisted that he kill the calf but he refused. They killed another calf instead. The steward came back a day later when he heard the news that the wife had transformed the mother and son into cows and told the old man. The old man found the woman who changed him into a calf and asked if she could change him back. She agreed that she would if she could marry him, and punish the wife who had changed the son into a calf. The old man said only if she would spare the life of his wife. The woman brought his son back, and the changed his wife into a cow. That was the end of the story. The genie liked it. Then the second man who had approached the merchant exclaimed that he had an even better story to tell the genie.

Starts by saying that the two black dogs are actually his brothers, and that at one point they were all merchants. His oldest brother had left for one year, when he came back he was a beggar and had no money. The second old man, gave him half of the money he had and helped him get back on his feet. Then the other brother went out for a year and did the same thing as the eldest brother. He came back broke and the second old man gave him half of his money then, just like he had with the other brother. After five years, the two brothers convinced the second old man to go travel with them, he finally agreed to. Once they reached their first port, they sold some things, and before they left, a woman approached the old man and asked him if he would please marry her. He agreed and took her as his wife, and took her on the ship with them to sail. The brothers got jealous of how happy he was and one night while they were sleeping, the two brothers threw the wife and second old man into the sea. Turns out the wife was a fairy, and took herself and the second brother to a nearby island.
The fairy then took him back to the shop, and was went to seek revenge on the two brothers. She appeared back one day with two black dogs at the shop, and told the second old man how she condemned them to 10 years as dogs as their punishment.  Ten years passed and so he was going to find the fairy to get his brothers out of their dog bodies, and it was then he ran into the merchant.
The genie liked the story and spared the life of the merchant. Scheherazade then said although this was an amazing story, she had a better one about a fisherman. She did this so the Sultan would keep her alive for another day, and he did.

There once was a very poor fisherman. He would go out to the water and throw his net four times a day, in the hopes that he would be able to provide for his family. He went out and the first three times, only caught a bunch of crap. The fourth time, he caught a yellow pot. He hoped to sell the pot, and buy some wheat to feed his family. He opened the pot, and to his surprise, out popped a genie. The fisherman asked for him to tell him how he got in the pot. The genie told how he was put into the pot and thrown into the sea. For a long time, the genie said he would do good to the person who set him free. But after more than 300 years, he became angry and said he would kill whomever set him free, but would let him choose they way in which he would die. The fisherman then decided to trick the genie. He asked him to show him how it was he was able to fit into the pot. The genie turned back into smoke and went back into the vase. He then asked if the fisherman believed him then. As soon as he said that, the fisherman put the lid back tightly on the pot. The genie begged the fisherman to let him back out and the fisherman said no because he was afraid he would treat him like the Greek King and the Physician Douban.

The king of Persia was a leper and no one could cure him. A physician came up with an odd cure that required him to play a polo match with a special stick that was filled with medicine and herbs. The king spoiled the physician accordingly.  The grand vizir told him to beware of the man and said not to trust him. And then the king told him the story of the Story of the Parrot. This story was kind of confusing.

A husband loved his wife very much. One day when he left on a journey he bought a parrot and brought it back to his wife. The parrot would sit and observe, when the husband would get back it would tell tales of the wife. The husband got upset. He was convinced the parrot was lying and eventually killed the parrot. He soon found out that the parrot was not lying and he felt terrible.
The story the goes back to the king who is saying if he is wrong then he will repent and pay the consequences, however, he didn’t think the physician was trying to kill him. The vizir then tells the story of the ogress. It was a story of a prince who was tricked by a young woman, who tried to kill him and feed him to his children. However, when the prince came back and told his father what happened, he had him strangled and killed.

The king finally gives in to the vizir and decides that the physician must be killed. When the physician is brought to him to be killed, he asked for a day to get his things in order. He says he will come back the next day and will be killed then. The king agrees. The physician gave a book to the king before having his head cut off. The pages were stuck together, and so the king would lick his finger and turn each page, although he kept finding each page to be blank. He then died from poison in which the physician had planted on the pages of the book. The genie then told the fisherman that if he let him out, he would not kill him but make him rich. And so it was then that the fisherman freed the genie.

The fisherman made a deal with the genie. He would cast his net no more than one time a day and the sultan would pay a ton of money for the fish. The sultan wanted to know where the fish came from so he asked to go see the lake. On his way there he saw a giant palace and it was rather empty. He saw a man there though, and the entire bottom part of his body was black marble. And then the man started to tell his own story of how he got to be like that.

His wife whom was his cousins enchanted him to be a half man, half stone. She abused him and everything. The sultan decided he would help him. The sultan disguised himself as the slave that the queen loved and asked her to help her husband regain his former shape for he could not stand to hear his cries. She immediately went and helped the prince regain his former body. She went and undid everything she had done before. The sultan than killed her with a sword the next time she went to check on the slave.  The sultan than made the prince his heir as they traveled back to the city the sultan was from. He then also gave the fisherman a ton of money when he came back and all were happy!


Aladdin came from kind of a poor family. His father was a tailor. His father died when Aladdin was young. One day a magician came to Aladdin and said he was his uncle. He took Aladdin in, gave him nice clothes and everything. Then the magician took Aladdin out and showed him a place where a stone went deep into the ground and he gave Aladdin instructions on how to go and retrieve a lamp. Aladdin did so with the help of a ring the magician had given him. When he got back to the magician with the lamp, the magician locked him up and took off with the lamp. Aladdin sat in darkness for a very long time until he rubbed the ring the magician (who clearly was not his uncle) had forgot to take from him. It was after he rubbed the ring that a genie appeared and said he was there to serve the owner of the ring.

Aladdin went home with the lamp and the ring. When he went home, he asked his mother for food and she stated that she had none but would sell the little bit of wool that she for food. He refused and said he would sell the lamp and get them food instead. His mother went over to polish the lamp before he took it, and as she rubbed it, a giant genie appeared. She fainted. Aladdin then asked the genie for food and out popped an enormous feast. Aladdin’s mother didn’t like the idea of the genie but didn’t complain too much since they were no longer starving. Then Aladdin fell in love with the princess. He had his mother go ask the Sultan for his permission and the Sultan said to wait for three months and then approach him again. After two months, word broke out that the princess was to marry the vizir’s son instead. Aladdin asked the genie to bring him the bride and the bridegroom that night. That night, Aladdin put the vizir’s son out in the cold while he slept with the princess.

Aladdin kept taking the princess every night and the vizir’s son and the princess became very fearful of him. The vizir’s son asked if he could be separated from the princess for he didn’t want anything to happen to him anymore. Then, once the three months were up, Aladdin’s mom went back to the Sultan who then remembered the promise he had made her. He set the bar so high, that he thought it would be impossible for anyone to ever have his daughter. But it didn’t take long for Aladdin to fulfill his request since he had the help of the genie and before he knew it, forty or more slaves came in with gold and jewels for the princess. The sultan agreed that he could marry his daughter. So Aladdin went to the palace to meet the Sultan, where he said that he would marry her once he had a palace fit for her. He then took her back to the palace and married her. Everyone loved him and they lived many happy years together!

The magician one day found out that Aladdin not only escaped the cave, but also married the princess. He figured that this must mean that Aladdin had the lamp. Aladdin was on a hunting trip and so he was a way from the palace, his wife, and the lamp. The magician went to the palace with a beautiful new lamp and asked to exchange it for the other. The princess did not know of the magical powers of the lamp and agreed. The magician than awoke the genie and had the genie take Aladdin’s wife, palace, and everything with him to Africa. The Sultan saw that the palace was gone and tried to kill Aladdin, however, the people revolved and so he did not kill him. He asked the Sultan for 40 days to find the princess and his palace. He then rubbed his ring and had the genie take him to the palace in Africa.

Aladdin and the princess are reunited and he finds out that the magician has the lamp and carries it around with him. The two devised a plan. The princess made the magician think that she had forgotten Aladdin and wanted him instead. She then poisoned his drink, which made him fall back lifeless.

Aladdin and the princess were able to return their palace back to China where it originally was. However, they were not expecting for the magician to have ahd an evil brother. The brother disguised himself as a woman that he killed, and put an idea in the princesses head to hang a roc’s egg in the dome of the palace. When the wife asked Aladdin for it, he went to the genie. The genie was very upset, for the roc’s egg is his master. The genie told him that the request actually came from the evil brother, and that he planned on killing Aladdin. Aladdin then called for the woman to come near where he then killed her (which was actually the evil brother). They then lived in happiness and peace from that day forward. 

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