The fisherman and the jinee
TITLE: The fisherman and the jinnee
AUTHOR:
The fisherman tells the tale to the Jinnee The Tale of King Yunan and Duban the Doctor Once upon a time there reigned in the land of Persia a rich and mighty king called Yunan.
CHARACTERS:
Shahrayar
In "The Frame Story," he rules over the kingdom of India and begins the practice of marrying wives and killing them the next morning until Scheherazade begins to tell him stories every night. Brother to Shahzaman.
Shahzaman
In "The Frame Story," he rules over the kingdom of Samarkand and reveals to his brother Shahrayar that his wife is cheating on him.
Scheherazade
Scheherazade is the primary storyteller of The Arabian Nights, according to "The Frame Story." The daughter of Shahrayar's vizier, she marries the king and tells him stories every night to keep him from killing her or any more of his wives. She is renowned for both her talent and beauty.
An old, poor fisherman barely catches enough to support his family, but has a rule he refuses to break: he only casts his nets out four times per day.
One day, the old fisherman catches nothing from his first cast. His second seems to catch something heavy, but he is disappointed to discover it is only a donkey carcass. His third cast catches a basket full of trash. His fourth yields a large, heavy yellow pot that is sealed shut.
The old fisherman is delighted, sure that he will be able to sell it. However, when he breaks the seal, smoke emerges and forms into a jinni (a genie). The jinni initially believes that he has been released by King Solomon, the jinni king who had imprisoned him in the pot. He fears Solomon means to kill him, but then learns from the old fisherman that Solomon has been dead for centuries. As a gift, the pot jinni offers to let the fisherman choose how he wants to die.
The fisherman is naturally confused, so the jinni explains. For the first century that he was trapped underwater in the pot, the jinni promised himself that he would make whomever rescued him rich. During his second century imprisoned, he decided he would grant his rescuer all the world's treasures. For the next century, he planned to grant his rescuer three wishes per day. Finally, after four hundred years of imprisonment, the resentful jinni swore he would kill whoever rescued him, offering only to let that person choose the way he wanted to die.
Desperate, the fisherman develops a plan. Aloud, he doubts that the jinni could have fit in the pot, considering his immense size. To prove it, the jinni dissolved back into smoke and returned to the pot. The fisherman immediately shut and sealed the lid, trapping the jinni inside once more.
The jinni swears that he will repay the fisherman if the latter frees him, but the fisherman expresses his doubts. He then tells the jinni a story to explain why he does not believe the spirit - that story is "The Vizier and the Sage Duban," summarized elsewhere in this ClassicNote.
After the story, the old fisherman agrees to free the jinni if the spirit promises to help him. The jinni complies, and kicks the pot into the ocean once freed.
However, he keeps his promise, leading the fisherman to a distant pond in the mountains. From the pond, the fisherman catches four colorful fish, but promises he will only toss his net into this pond once a day. The fisherman sells his mystical fish to the kingdom's sultan, who pays healthily for them.
However, these fish are special; every time one is fried, a person walks through the wall to question the fish, and the fish answer. That person then flips the pan, and the fish chars to ash.
After the first instance, the curious sultan's vizier asks the fisherman for more, but he must wait until the next day in order to keep his promise to the jinni. Eventually, the curious sultan sees the miracle, and asks the fisherman to bring them to the pond.
Soon afterwards, the curious sultan sets out to the pond alone, against his vizier's wishes. Near the pond, he finds a palace, and enters to discover a young man who is half-stone. The man is crying, and tells the curious sultan another branch story called "The Ensorcelled Prince."
After the story, the curious sultan assists the sad princein securing revenge, and they become close friends. In turn, the fisherman is rewarded when his son is appointed as kingdom's treasurer, and his daughters are married to both the curious sultan and the prince.
STYLE:
ambergris
a waxy, ash-colored secretion from a sperm whale intestine; very valuable at the time of the stories, and used in perfume and cookery
bezestein
a marketplace of valuable merchandise
brocade
fabric woven with an elaborate design
Many of the Arabian Nights stories tell of men who rise from poverty to wealth and prosperity. This is evident through Aladdin of "Aladdin's Lamp," Ali Baba of "AliBaba and the Forty Thieves," and Sinbad in "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor," among others. In each of these stories, the protagonist begins with very little to show for himself, but manages to rise in society both through luck and perseverance. In fact, many of the characters experience good fortune, but must capitalize on that good fortune in order to succeed. Many characters fall back into poor luck after initially securing a fortune, but manage to recapture it through such perseverance. The idea of a common man rising in status was not only a popular concept during the Islamic Golden Age; the idea that we can overcome our societal standings and attain wealth is popular even today and will most likely remain popular long into the future.
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