Pars Today

We continue discussing the masterpeice of the One Thousand and One Night by elaborating the role of Sharzaad, the heroine of this collection of stories and then go on with the rest of the Egyptian story of Abu Sabr and Abu Qeer chosen from this collection.

We said that the One Thousand and One Nights is the story of a woman called Shahrzaad who gets married with the cruel king of a land. The king is an oppressor because after finding that his wife has been disloyal to him, he marries a new girl each day and beheads the previous day's wife so that she would have no chance to be disloyal to him. He had killed 1,000 such women by the time he was introduced to Shahrzaad. However Shahrzaad volunteers to get married to such a man against her parents' wish. Indeed, through her marriage, Shahrzaad goes to war with ignorance and folly and her weapon is her intelligence. We told you that Shahrzaad survives by telling a story to the king each night and at the end of the one thousand and first night the king falls in love with her and makes her the queen of the land.

Shahrzaad knows very well that she has chosen a hard task. She also knows that by advising or preaching the king nothing goes well. Praising or admiring the king isn’t also a proper tool to soften the king, either. She takes calculated measures. She actually tries to attract the king's trust by her kindness and smartness and tries to show the king she is devoid of jealousy, foolishness, and hypocrisy. And at the end the king trusts her. Shahrzaad actually mesmerizes the king by her loyalty and a new image of the female character appears in the mind of the king who before Shahrzaad intended to take revenge from all women. The king finally discovers that beauty of the face without the beauty of the mind is meaningless and Shahrzaad lets the king know the art of living.

We said that once upon a time there was a dyer and a barber called "Abu Qeer" and "Abu Sabr" in Alexandria. Abu Qeer was an imposter who told lies to his customers. Once, someone sued Abu Qeer because of his tricks. However, Abu Qeer escaped the court ruling and left for another city along with Abu Sabr to start a new life. In the city, Abu Sabr cut the passengers' hair, made money and shared it with his companion Abu Qeer. This was while Abu Qeer spent days and nights dangling around and eating from the food Abu Sabr brought for him. After a while Abu Sabr became badly sick and couldn't leave home. Once he had gone unconscious, Abu Qeer stole some coins from him and went to bazaar where he found that the people of the city did not have the knowledge of making colors so he made a big business of dying by the money the king of that land granted to him. Abu Sabr also made the first bathroom in the city by the money the king had granted him. Soon Abu Sabr's business boomed and people from around the city came to use the bathroom. On seeing this, Abu Qeer decided to poison the king's mind against Abu Sabr by saying that the latter intended to kill the king by a special soap he made himself.

And now the rest of the story.

Enraged at what he had heard from Abu Qeer, the king asked him not to divulge the story to anyone. Then he decided to go to the bathroom to see if Abu Qeer was right. After a few hours, Abu Sabr was informed that the king was going to visit the bathroom. So he made preparations.

After that the king came in with his entourage. He took off his clothes and Abu Sabr washed him.

Abu Sabr then told the king:

"I have made a special soap by which you'll get cleaner."

The king then said:

"Show me the soap."

Abu Sabr brought the soap. The king got the soap and smelled it. Finding it malodourous, he shouted:

"This is poisonous! Arrest this man."

The king came out of the bathroom angrily and went back to the palace.

In the palace, he called for his soldiers to put Abu Sabr in a cow's skin and throw him into the sea. The man charged with doing the job was called Qebtan.

Knowing Abu Sabr since the time they were travelling on board the ship long time ago, Qebtan told Abu Sabr:

"Oh brother! You have been good to me before.What have you done that the king has ordered such a punishment for you?"

Abu Sabr said:

"I swear by God that I am innocent. I don't know why he wants to kill me."

Qebtan then said:

"I suppose someone may have talked bad of you, but I don't intend to kill you. I send you to your city by ship.”

Abu Sabr got happy and agreed with him.

Now let me tell you about the king! The sea was near the palace and the king was standing in the balcony of the palace to see how Abu Sabr was being thrown into the sea. He looked angry and unintentionally threw his ring into the sea. The ring was a magic one and the king could defeat his enemies by that ring. At the other corner of the sea Abu Sabr, who was waiting for Qebtan to come and make him prepared to get on board, caught fish and began trimming them for lunch. While doing so he found a ring in the fish's belly and he wore it unaware of its magic property.

This time two of the king's servants came by the sea to catch fish. Abu Sabr elongated his hand which had the ring and suddenly a bright light shone and beheaded the servants. Abu Sabr, who hadn’t known anything about the magic ring, was taken aback and thought deeply.

Startled with what he had seen, Qebtan came and asked Abu Sabr:

"Where have you brought this ring from?"

 Abu Sabr told him the story. Qebtan told Abu Sabr that the ring was magical and now he was able to destroy an army!

Abu Sabr pondered and then said:

"Take me back to the king."

Qebtan agreed so they both got on a boat and sailed toward the palace.

Inside the palace they found the king depressed since he had lost his ring.

Seeing that Abu Sabr was alive, the king asked:

"Your'e still alive?"

 Abu Sabr told him the entire story.

He then gave back the ring to the king and suggested that he would be killed if he was guilty. This was while the king embraced Abu Sabr and kissed him, saying:

"You're an honest man."

He then told Abu Sabr what Abu Qeer had told against him. Abu Sabr then told the story of his journey to the city with Abu Qeer and told him that he had no intention of killing the king with the soap.

The king ordered his men to arrest Abu Qeer. He then ordered them to put him in a cow's skin and cast him into the sea. But Abu Sabr told the king that he had no complaint against Abu Qeer and asked him to forgive his old companion. However the king insisted on the punishment and Abu Qeer was thrown into the sea and Abu Sabr buried his corpse. Abu Sabr also wrote a piece of epitaph on Abu Qeer's grave which read:

"You shouldn't have good expectations from the one with an evil nature."

 Abu Sabr lived happily ever after and after spending a long life he died and, according to his last will, he was buried next to Abu Qeer.
AE/ RM/EA