Reading Notes: Arabian Nights Part A

Arabian Nights is about telling a story within a story within a story. Scheherazade is telling a story to her husband and sister so she won't be killed. That story is about a merchant accidentally killed the genii's son so the genii wants to kill him. The genii gave the merchant a one year grace and after a year comes, the merchant went to meet the genii again. The merchant told his story to three old man and the three old man weep, feeling sad for the merchant. The old man begged the genii and told their story. First old man with his wife turned into a deer, second old man has two black dogs who were his brothers that got turned by a fairy. Third old man story kept as mystery, and the merchant reutrn to his wife. 

The story of the fisherman has an angry genie who threaten to kill him. The genie is the one telling the story but at the end, there is a transition that fisherman as storyteller and genie as the audience. The man tricked the genii back into the vase and told The Story of the Greek King and the Physician Douban. In this part, Scheherazade is telling a story to the sultan about a fisherman, and the fisherman is telling a story to the genie about a king, and that king is now about to tell a story to his vizir, a story that was once told to another king by his own vizir. The king is telling the story about a man and his parrot. The vizir countered it with his story about the king and an Ogress. Because the king believed the story about the physician being an assassin, he turned the physician into an assassin. After the Greek king died, Scheherazade turn back to the story of fisherman and the genie. The fisherman release the genii. They go on a journey to a magical palace and in that palace, the sultan meets a man who is half-flesh and half-marble below his body. The man told his story of King of the Black Isles. In the end, it ends happily for everyone including fisherman.

Stories from Arabian Nights at SnappyGoat

Bibliography: "Arabian Nights" by Scheherazade. Web source.