Arabian Nights, like Arabian Days...are full of stories!

This week I read Arabian Nights (or at least selected stories from the Arabian Nights). It was pretty interesting - there were a whole lot of genies and interesting ties to other stories. I got the feeling that the tales had originally been translated by a Frenchman since it referenced the Muslims and Musulmans (the French word for Muslim).

One of the stories is of Sinbad and his 7 voyages. I was very interested by Sinbad's similarities to Odysseus (this makes me slightly curious about which came first). Sinbad had a very similar encounter with a cyclops. A big difference between Odysseus and Sinbad was that Sinbad would return home between his voyages. I wish I could luck into some of the stuff Sinbad did - he said he had suffered greatly, but from what I could tell - he was the Forest Gump of the Middle East (he just complained more about his "trials" that brought him immense wealth).

I also really liked the story of the three incredible gifts - golden water, a talking bird, and a singing tree. It was interesting that the girl was the only one clever enough to stop up her ears to make it past all the discouraging voices (hello again Odysseus reference). She seemed a little stubborn and spoiled about having to have those three gifts, even after her two brothers went and died in attempting to retrieve those luxuries for her. What struck me most about this story was that the King (the kids birth father) had believed that his wife had given birth to a dog, a cat, and a piece of wood! The kids aunts had sabotaged their sister's relationship with the queen by fabricating these lies and then setting the babies out into the stream (where they were discovered and adopted by the barren Gardener...a bit of a reverse Moses story).



Another story that I really enjoyed was that of the one Prince that was exiled (while still in the womb) and came back to his father's kingdom to bring glory to his name and his father's kingdom. He goes disguised to win the honor of his father and brothers and he just ends up inciting his brothers' envy and his father's respect and love (Joseph much). He defeats the evil "black vampire" that has kidnapped his brothers and wins the affection of one of the women he also rescued from the vampire. His brothers get pissed and attempt his murder. He gets rescued and comes back to save his father's kingdom as two of his father's enemies begin to converge upon the city. This wins him his father's kingdom and the ability to spare the lives of his jealous 49 brothers.

Of course there was Aladdin, who was actually much more of a punk that didn't deserve the things he did get. He was mean to his parents and a lazy boy who expected things to just be given to him. He gets misused by a black magician - I'm sensing a theme...who comes back to destroy his happiness after he has won his princess bride.

I can't forget about the 40 thieves. I really liked this story. It had another kick ass heroine. She not only single handily eliminated every one of the 40 thieves, but she out witted them too! She was just a slave, but she was smart and resourceful and that ended up winning her her freedom and the master's son in marriage.

I want to leave some for you to enjoy - so go out and get the book!!!

And yes, I did hear about Osama last night. I just didn't want to mention him in my happy posting. It is sort of interesting to see people saying that celebrating the death of even an enemy is sad; however, I think the world can smile a little bit more knowing the man that rejoiced in the deaths of thousands of innocents because he loved himself and Machiavelli (he would harm his own people if the ends beat the means).