Thousand and One Nights
Foreword
Nearly two and a half centuries have passed since Europe first became acquainted with the Arabic tales of the Thousand and One Nights in Galland's free and far from complete French translation, but even now they enjoy the unchanging love of readers. The passage of time did not affect the popularity of Scheherazade's stories; Along with countless reprints and secondary translations from Galland's edition, publications of the Nights appear again and again in many languages of the world, translated directly from the original, up to the present day. Great was the influence of "A Thousand and One Nights" on creativity various writers- Montesquieu, Wieland, Gauf, Tennyson, Dickens. Pushkin also admired Arab fairy tales. Having first become acquainted with some of them in a free arrangement by Senkovsky, he became so interested in them that he acquired one of the editions of Gallan's translation, which was preserved in his library.
It is difficult to say what attracts more in the fairy tales of "A Thousand and One Nights" - the entertaining plot, the bizarre interweaving of the fantastic and the real, bright pictures urban life of the medieval Arab East, fascinating descriptions of amazing countries or the liveliness and depth of experiences of the heroes of fairy tales, the psychological justification of situations, a clear, definite morality. The language of many stories is magnificent - lively, figurative, juicy, alien to obfuscations and omissions. The speech of the heroes of the best fairy tales of the "Nights" is brightly individual, each of them has his own style and vocabulary, characteristic of the social environment from which they came.
What is the Book of a Thousand and One Nights, how and when was it created, where were the fairy tales of Scheherazade born?
"A Thousand and One Nights" is not a work of an individual author or compiler - the collective creator is the whole arab people. As we now know it, The Thousand and One Nights is a collection of fairy tales Arabic, united by a framing story about the cruel king Shakhriyar, who every evening took new wife and killed her in the morning. The origin of the Thousand and One Nights is still far from clear; its origins are lost in the mists of time.
The first written information about the Arabic collection of fairy tales, framed by the story of Shahriyar and Shahrazad and called "A Thousand Nights" or "A Thousand and One Nights", we find in the writings of Baghdad writers of the 10th century - the historian al-Masudi and the bibliographer ai-Nadim, who speak about him like oh long and good famous work. Already at that time, information about the origin of this book was rather vague and it was considered a translation of the Persian collection of fairy tales “Khezar-Efsane” (“Thousand Tales”), allegedly compiled for Humai, the daughter of the Iranian king Ardeshir (4th century BC). The content and nature of the Arabic collection mentioned by Masudi and al-Nadim are unknown to us, since it has not survived to this day.
Testimony of the named writers about the existence in their time Arabic book fairy tales of the Thousand and One Nights is confirmed by the presence of an excerpt from this book dating back to the 9th century. In the future, the literary evolution of the collection continued until the XIV-XV centuries. More and more fairy tales of different genres and different social background. We can judge the process of creating such fabulous vaults from the message of the same anNadim, who says that his elder contemporary, a certain Abd-Allah al-Jahshiyari - a person, by the way, quite real - conceived to compile a book of thousands of fairy tales "Arabs, Persians, Greeks and other peoples”, one at a time, each with a volume of fifty sheets, but he died, having managed to type only four hundred and eighty stories. He took material mainly from professional storytellers, whom he called from all over the Caliphate, as well as from written sources.
The collection of al-Jahshiyari has not come down to us, nor have other fairy tales, called "A Thousand and One Nights", which are sparingly mentioned by medieval Arab writers, been preserved. The composition of these collections of fairy tales, apparently, differed from each other, they only had a title and a frame in common.
In the course of creating such collections, several successive stages can be outlined.
The first suppliers of material for them were professional folk narrators, whose stories were originally recorded from dictation with almost shorthand accuracy, without any literary processing. A large number of such stories in Arabic, written in Hebrew letters, is kept in the State public library named after Saltykov-Shchedrin in Leningrad; oldest lists belong to the 11th-12th centuries. In the future, these records were sent to booksellers, who subjected the text of the tale to some literary processing. Each fairy tale was considered at this stage not as component collection, but as a completely independent work; therefore, in the original versions of the tales that have come down to us, later included in the “Book of a Thousand and One Nights”, there is still no division into nights. The breakdown of the text of fairy tales took place on last step their processing when they fell into the hands of the compiler, who compiled the next collection of "A Thousand and One Nights". In the absence of material for the required number of "nights", the compiler replenished it from written sources, borrowing from there not only small stories and anecdotes, but also long chivalric novels.
The last such compiler was the scholarly sheikh, unknown by name, who in the 18th century in Egypt compiled the most recent collection of tales of the Thousand and One Nights. the most significant literary processing received fairy tales also in Egypt, two or three centuries earlier. This 14th-16th century edition of the Book of a Thousand and One Nights, commonly called the "Egyptian", is the only one that has survived to this day - it is presented in most printed publications, as well as in almost all the manuscripts of the Nights known to us and serves as concrete material for study of the tales of Scheherazade.
From the previous, possibly earlier collections of the “Book of a Thousand and One Nights”, only single tales have survived that are not included in the “Egyptian” edition and are presented in a few manuscripts of separate volumes of the “Nights” or exist in the form of independent stories, which, however, have a division for the night. These stories include the most popular fairy tales among European readers: “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp”, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” and some others; the Arabic original of these tales was at the disposal of the first translator of the Thousand and One Nights, Galland, through whose translation they became known in Europe.
In the study of "A Thousand and One Nights", each fairy tale should be considered separately, since there is no organic connection between them, and before being included in the collection for a long time existed on their own. Attempts to group some of them into groups according to their place of alleged origin - from India, Iran or Baghdad - are not sufficiently substantiated. The plots of Scheherazade's stories were formed from separate elements that could penetrate Arab soil from Iran or India independently of one another; on his new homeland they were overgrown with purely native stratifications and from ancient times became the property of Arab folklore. So, for example, it happened with the framing tale: having come to the Arabs from India through Iran, it lost many of its original features in the mouths of storytellers.
More appropriate than an attempt to group, say, on a geographical basis, should be considered the principle of combining them, at least conditionally, into groups according to the time of creation or according to belonging to the social environment where they lived. To the oldest, most enduring tales collection,
Glory to Allah, Lord of the worlds! Greetings and blessings to the lord of the messengers, our lord and master Muhammad! Allah bless him and welcome him with blessings and eternal greetings, lasting until the Day of Judgment!
And after that: truly, the tales of the first generations became an edification for subsequent ones, so that a person could see what events happened to others, and learn, and so that, delving into the traditions of past peoples and what happened to them, he refrained from sin . Praise be to him who made the legends of the ancients a lesson for the peoples of the future!
Such legends include the stories called "A Thousand and One Nights", and the sublime stories and parables contained in them.
They tell in the traditions of the peoples about what was, passed and long ago (and Allah is more knowledgeable in the unknown and wise and glorious, and most generous, and most gracious, and merciful), that in ancient times and past centuries and for centuries there was a king from the kings of the Sasana family on the islands of India and China, the lord of the troops, guards, servants and servants. And he had two sons: one adult, the other young, and both were brave knights, but the elder surpassed the younger in valor. And he reigned in his country and rightly ruled over his subjects, and the inhabitants of his lands and kingdom fell in love with him, and his name was King Shahriyar; and his younger brother was called King Shahzeman, and he reigned in Persian Samarkand. Both of them lived in their own lands, and each in his own kingdom was a just judge of his subjects for twenty years and lived in complete contentment and joy. This continued until the elder king wished to see his younger brother and did not order his vizier to go and fetch him. The vizier carried out his order and went, and rode until he arrived safely in Samarkand. He went in to Shahzeman, conveyed his greetings and said that his brother yearned for him and wished him to visit him; and Shahzeman answered with consent and got ready for the journey. He ordered his tents to be brought out, camels, mules, servants and bodyguards to be equipped, and he appointed his vizier as ruler in the country, and he himself went to the lands of his brother. But when midnight came, he remembered one thing that he had forgotten in the palace, and returned and, entering the palace, saw that his wife was lying in bed, embracing a black slave from among his slaves.
And when Shahzeman saw this, everything turned black before his eyes, and he said to himself: “If this happened when I had not yet left the city, then what will be the behavior of this accursed one if I go away to my brother for a long time!” And he drew his sword and struck them both and killed them in bed, and then, at the same hour and minute, he returned and ordered them to leave - and rode until he reached the city of his brother. And approaching the city, he sent messengers to his brother with the news of his arrival, and Shahriyar went out to meet him and greeted him, overjoyed to the extreme. He decorated the city in honor of his brother and sat with him, talking and having fun, but King Shahzeman remembered what had happened to his wife and felt great sadness, and his face turned yellow and his body weakened. And when the brother saw him in such a state, he thought that the reason for this was separation from the country and the kingdom, and left him like that, without asking about anything. But then, one day, he said to him: “O my brother, I see that your body weakened and your face turned yellow. And Shahzeman answered him: “My brother, there is an ulcer inside me,” and did not tell what he experienced from his wife. “I want,” Shahriyar said then, “that you go hunting and catching with me: maybe your heart cheer up." But Shahzeman refused this, and his brother went hunting alone.
IN royal palace there were windows overlooking the garden, and Shahzeman looked and suddenly saw: the doors of the palace open, and twenty slaves and twenty slaves come out, and his wife brother is coming among them, standing out for its rare beauty and charm. They went to the fountain, and took off their clothes, and sat down with the slaves, and suddenly the king's wife shouted: "O Masud!" And the black slave came up to her and embraced her, and she him also. He lay down with her, and the other slaves did the same, and they kissed and hugged, caressed and played, until the day turned to sunset. And when the king's brother saw this, he said to himself: "By Allah, my trouble is easier than this disaster!" – and his jealousy and sadness dissipated. "This Furthermore what happened to me!" he exclaimed and stopped refusing food and drink. And then his brother returned from the hunt, and they greeted each other, and King Shahriyar looked at his brother, King Shahzeman, and saw that the former colors returned to him and his face turned red and that he was eating without taking a breath, although he had eaten little before. . Then his brother, the elder king, said to Shahzeman: “O my brother, I saw you with a yellowed face, and now the blush has returned to you. Tell me what's wrong with you." “As for the change in my appearance, I’ll tell you about it, but spare me the story of why the blush returned to me,” answered Shahzeman. And Shahriyar said: “Tell me first why you changed your appearance and weakened, and I will listen.”
“Know, my brother,” Shahzeman spoke, “that when you sent a vizier to me with a demand to come to you, I equipped myself and already went outside the city, but then I remembered that there was a pearl in the palace that I wanted to give you. I returned to the palace and found my wife with a black slave sleeping in my bed and killed them and came to you thinking about it. This is the reason for the change in my appearance and my weakness; as for the blush returning to me, let me not tell you about it.
But, hearing the words of his brother, Shahriyar exclaimed: “I conjure you by Allah, tell me why the blush returned to you!” And Shahzeman told him about everything he had seen. Then Shahriyar said to his brother Shahzeman: “I want to see it with my own eyes!” And Shahzeman advised: “Pretend that you are going hunting and catching, and hide yourself with me, then you will see it and see it with your own eyes.”
The king immediately ordered the cry for departure to be called, and the troops with tents marched out of the city, and the king also went out; but then he sat down in the tent and said to his servants: “Let no one come in to me!” After that, he changed his appearance and stealthily went to the palace where his brother was, and sat for some time at the window that overlooked the garden, and suddenly the slaves and their mistress entered there along with the slaves and acted as Shahzeman told, until the call for afternoon prayer. When King Shahriyar saw this, his mind went out of his head, and he said to his brother Shahzeman: “Get up, let’s leave right away, we don’t need royal power until we see someone who happened to the same thing that happened to us! Otherwise, death is better for us than life!”
They went out through a secret door and wandered day and night until they came to a tree that grew in the middle of a lawn where a stream flowed near the salty sea. They drank from this stream and sat down to rest. And when the hour of daylight had passed, the sea suddenly became rough, and out of it rose a black column, rising to the sky, and went towards their lawn. Seeing this, both brothers were frightened and climbed to the top of the tree (and it was tall) and began to wait for what would happen next. And suddenly they see: in front of them is a genie, tall, with a large head and a broad chest, and on his head he has a chest. He went out on land and went to the tree where the brothers were, and sitting under it, he unlocked the chest, and took out the casket from it, and opened it, and from there came out a young woman with a slender figure, shining like a bright sun.
The genie looked at this woman and said, "Oh lady of the noble ones, oh you whom I kidnapped on the night of the wedding, I want to get some sleep!" - and he laid his head on the woman's knees and fell asleep; she raised her head and saw both kings sitting on a tree. Then she removed the head of the genie from her knees and laid it on the ground and, standing under the tree, said to the brothers with signs: “Get down, do not be afraid of the ifrit.” And they answered her: "We conjure you by Allah, deliver us from this." But the woman said, "If you don't come down, I will wake the ifrit, and he will kill you with an evil death." And they were frightened and went down to the woman, and she lay down in front of them and said: “Stick, but stronger, or I will wake the ifrit.” Out of fear, King Shahriyar said to his brother, King Shahzeman: “O my brother, do what she told you!” But Shahzeman answered: “I won’t do it! Do it before me!" And they began to encourage each other with signs, but the woman exclaimed: “What is this? I see you wink! If you don't come and do it, I'll wake the ifrit!" And out of fear of the genie, both brothers carried out the order, and when they had finished, she said: “Wake up!” - and, taking out a purse from her bosom, she took out a necklace of five hundred and seventy rings. "Do you know what these rings are?" she asked; and the brothers answered: “We don’t know!” Then the woman said: “The owners of all these rings dealt with me on the horns of this ifrit. Give me a ring, too.” And the brothers gave the woman two rings from their hands, and she said: “This ifrit kidnapped me on the night of my wedding and put me in a casket, and the casket in a chest. He hung seven shiny locks on the chest and lowered me to the bottom of the roaring sea, where the waves beat, but he did not know that if a woman wants something, then no one will overcome her.
Heart of the East - colorful tales of a thousand and one nights, adapted for children. Reading Arabic fairy tales means immersing yourself in the bright pictures of the East and experiencing unforgettable adventures.
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Acquaintance of the child with the tales of 1001 nights
The first acquaintance of a child with Arabic tales of a thousand and one nights must necessarily take place with original stories. After watching, for example, the Aladdin cartoon from Disney, read this oriental tale it won't make any sense anymore. Why?
The most attractive thing in Arabic fairy tales - descriptions overseas countries, always wonderful heroes, special magic with bizarre artifacts - you can’t feel this through a cartoon. Children's imagination is needed, and by reading Arabic tales to your child, you will give him a chance to show it.
Tales of a thousand and one nights: for children or for adults?
There are a lot of fairy tales of a thousand and one nights, as you might guess, however, most of them are designed for an adult audience. The most popular Arabic tales of 1001 nights, adapted for the little reader, are selected in the same section.
To acquaint a child with the culture of the East, it is enough to read to him the most best fairy tales whose morals will be clear and whose translation is in a language that can understand little man, without catchy words. That's exactly what you'll find here.
We all love fairy tales. Fairy tales are not just entertainment. In many fairy tales, the wisdom of mankind, hidden knowledge is encrypted. There are fairy tales for children, there are fairy tales for adults. Sometimes one is confused with the other. And sometimes about everyone famous fairy tales we have a completely wrong idea.
Aladdin and his magic lamp. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. What collection are these stories from? Are you sure? Are you sure that we are talking about the collection of fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights"? However, none of the original listings in this collection contain the tale of Aladdin and his magic lamp. It appeared only in modern editions of the Thousand and One Nights. But who and when put it there is not exactly known.
As well as in the case of Aladdin, we have to state the same fact: not a single authentic list famous collection there are no tales of the story of Ali Baba and the forty thieves. She appeared in the first translation of these fairy tales into French. The French orientalist Galland, preparing the translation of "A Thousand and One Nights", included in it the Arabic fairy tale "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" from another collection.
The modern text of the tales of the Thousand and One Nights is rather not Arabic, but Western. If you follow the original, which, by the way, is a collection of Indian and Persian (and not at all Arabic) urban folklore, then only 282 short stories should remain in the collection. Everything else is late buildup. Neither Sinbad the Sailor, nor Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, nor Aladdin with magic lamp not in the original. Almost all of these tales were added by the French orientalist and the first translator of the collection, Antoine Galland.
Initially, these tales had a slightly different name - "Tales from a Thousand Nights." As we have already noted, they were formed in India and Persia: they were told in bazaars, in caravanserais, courtyards noble people and among the people. Over time, they began to write down.
It must be said that in the East this book has long been treated critically. "A Thousand and One Nights" was not considered highly artistic for a long time literary work, because her stories did not have a pronounced scientific or moral overtones.
Interestingly, the original of the Thousand and One Nights tales is more saturated with eroticism than magic. If in the version familiar to us, Sultan Shahriyar indulged in sadness and therefore demanded every night new woman(and executed her the next morning), then in the original, the Sultan from Samarkand was angry with all women because he caught his beloved wife in treason (with a black slave - behind a willow hedge in the palace garden). Fearing to break his heart again, he killed women.
And only the beautiful Scheherazade managed to appease his thirst for revenge. Among the stories she told were many that children those who love fairy tales not to read: about lesbians, gay princes, sadistic princesses, and beautiful girls who gave their love to animals, since there were no sexual taboos in these tales.
In a rage, he cut off her head and the head of her lover. In frustrated feelings, he went to his brother for advice, but his brother also witnessed his own wife's infidelity. Shahriyar and his brother, did not know what to think, having killed their wives, they set off to look for answers. And they were near the sea. Jin's huge figure emerged from the sea. A few moments later, another figure appeared, also emerging from the water, but it was already female. Shahriyar and his brother hid, and watched as Jin lay down on his knee to his wife (the woman coming out of the water was Jin's wife). After a while, Jina's wife noticed the two brothers and called them to her. She said she wants to be with them intimacy, to which the brothers gave her a refusal. Jin's wife began to threaten them that she would wake her husband up and say that they were trying to persuade her to intimacy. Shahriyar and his brother were frightened and went to get close to Jin's wife. After copulating with the brothers, Jina's wife asked them for their wedding rings. The brothers did not understand why she needed them. Then Jin's wife pulled out a bag with 560 rings and showed them to the brothers. They asked what it was. Jean's wife told them that these rings belonged to all the men with whom she cheated on her husband.
After that, Shahriyar was beside himself with anger. From that moment on, all women were for him a fiend of evil, incapable of fidelity and devotion. He realized that women are needed only for bodily entertainment.
Shahriyar ordered that every marriageable girl be brought to him every night, after which he killed them in the morning. With each murder, he sank to the very bottom of unconsciousness, where low energies, fears, entities that eat the soul of a person reign.
Scheherazade was the daughter of a vizier. And she was no ordinary girl. WITH early childhood she showed such qualities as industriousness, love of reading, Eastern traditions and spiritual initiation. She was well versed in many areas of life: in politics, in art, in music, in exact sciences. Scheherazade was very patient and strong. She could speak well, knew many languages.
The turn came to the father of Kharezezada. Sultan Shakhriyal ordered him to bring his daughter, Scheherazade, to his palace, or the sultan would cut off his head. Scheherazade's father understood that if he took his daughter to the palace, it would be the certain death of his daughter, and wanted to refuse the Sultan. Scheherazade approached her father and begged him to let her go, saying that she understood what she was doing, and that she really wanted to try to help the Sultan with pure thoughts. Scheherazade's father, seeing the bold and honest desire of his daughter to help the Sultan, let her go.
Scheherazade understood what she was getting into, and most importantly, she began to treat Shahriyar with fairy tales. That is, the point is not to quarrel with your husband, but to tell him stories, give examples of what you think is not the right solution to this situation. But of course you need to listen to your husband. Be attentive. Understand the things that interest him.
Women often complain that their man does not suit them, does not give them gifts, does not offer to travel. But they forget to ask themselves the question: “Am I the right woman who deserves such a man who gives his companion gifts and offers to travel the world, builds a big house for his family? What am I doing for this? Am I developing personally as a person? Am I interested in the interests of my man?
Scheherazade, constantly developed. Just try to tell your child at least one fairy tale, beautifully, so that the child is not distracted and is completely in the attention of your voice and fairy tale. Shakherazade had to be in constant fear of death, because every night could be her last, and despite this, she constantly managed to keep Shahriyar's attention on herself, so that he wanted to spend one more night with this woman.
Shahriyar was cruel, and at that moment, he had already killed many innocent girls, what could happen to such a person? with his soul? Killing, raping, a person simply descends into the low-lying worlds, from which it is very, very difficult to get out. In our time, these worlds are lowered, all sorts of addictions, a dissolute way of life.
How much patience and love is required from a woman for a man like Shahriyar to be able to change?!
Scheherazade, with her love, led Shahriyar from the lowest level to the upper ones, where it is possible to believe in a miracle. For three years, Scheherazade was a prisoner of the Sultan, bore him three children, and only three years later she dared to turn to her Sultan with a request to leave her alive, since she had three children, and that they would be lost without her. Shahriyar, by this time was already a different person. He said that he already loved her with all his heart and was grateful that she gave him life and happiness! She gave birth to three wonderful sons!
Next to us are exactly the men we deserve. And they show us how ignorant we are and stand still in development. You need to try to be aware in order to understand this and not succumb to base feelings, such as anger and aggression. As soon as we begin to climb the levels of our consciousness, so our men begin to change. Because with a developing woman, a man also begins to develop. But that doesn't mean you have to force it! Only patience and love.
Scheherazade showed by her example that even such a man, who has already fallen into the lowest energies, can be brought to the upper levels, where there is already FAITH, HOPE, LOVE.
When we forgive our offenders, then by doing this we only add the strength of life in ourselves and gain much more than insults and revenge.
When we begin to truly love our men with all their shortcomings, we become witnesses of the real transformation of our men into real kings, sultans.
I want to express my deep gratitude to Tina Mitusova, who inspired me to write this article. Tina Mitusova conducts seminars on the basis of fairy tales about Scheherazade, a thousand and one nights. It was she who opened the door for me to this wonderful world oriental tales...
