Thousand and One Nights (alf layla wa layla) or The Arabian Nights, as
they came to be known, owes its origins to three distinct cultures and
storytelling traditions: that of India, Persia and the Arab world. The Arabian
Nights first appeared in Arabic form around 850 AD and it has been considered
a remarkable mystery in Classical Arabic Literature. Although many scholars
deny its literary importance, The Arabian Nights can be viewed as a valuable
source of Middle Eastern social history, being composed of the most extensive
and intimate recordings of the medieval Islamic period. Generations of Arabic
readers have appreciated the versatile and imaginative use of Arabic and the
mixture of the classical and colloquial language in many of the stories, a
style which helped diversify the characters from the narrative. While
chroniclers from the 10th century maintain that the tales were derived from a
Persian book of folk tales called, ‘Hazarafsaneh’ (A Thousand Stories) the
exact origins of The Arabian Nights is not certain and academic opinions are
divided. Like many folk tales, The Arabian Nights may have originated from
true stories which were embellished over time for entertainment value. The
success of The Arabian Nights stories over many other forgotten folk tales may
be due to their blend of popular themes; heroic and romantic adventures are
littered with mystery, old wisdom and exciting struggles between good and
evil.
For many years it has been customary to regard that collection of interesting
stories called “The Arabian Nights,” as pure fiction arising out of Oriental
brains at a time when every ruler had his story-teller to amuse him or put him
to sleep. But many a man who has in his heart believed in the stories he heard
in his youth about fairies and ghosts, has felt a revival of his young fancies
upon perusing these tales of prodigies and magic. Others, however, have
laughed at them as pure fables, and the entire scientific world does nothing
but preserve contemptuous silence.
The most well known fiction from the Islamic world was The Book of One
Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), which was a compilation of many
earlier folk tales. All Arabian fantasy tales were often called “Arabian
Nights” when translated into English, regardless of whether they appeared in
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, in any version, and a number of tales
are known in Europe as “Arabian Nights” despite existing in no Arabic
manuscript.
This epic has been influential in the West since it was translated in the
18th century, first by Antoine Galland. Many imitations were written,
especially in France. Various characters from this epic have themselves become
cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad and Ali Baba. Part
of its popularity may have sprung from the increasing historical and
geographical knowledge, so that places of which little was known and so
marvels were plausible had to be set further “long ago” or farther “far away”;
this is a process that continue, and finally culminate in the fantasy world
having little connection, if any, to actual times and places. In Kashmir The
Arabian Nights stories are well remembered and many of its terminology has
even found place in the Kashmiri lingo as well, besides these tales some times
where used as a tools of wisdom in the pre-modern Kashmir and professional
story tellers where employed to perform the job of telling those wise fables
thus even serving as a great source of entertainment till mid of 20th century.
These stories gave us impression about the forbidden lands and overall
number of elements from Arabic and Persian mythology are now common in modern
fantasy, such as genies, bahamuts, magic carpets, magic lamps, etc. When L.
Frank Baum proposed writing a modern fairy tale that banished stereotypical
elements, he included the genie as well as the dwarf and the fairy as
stereotypes to go.
The question here to be answered by men of science is how did such ideas
arise? Taking them on their own ground, one must believe that with so much
smoke there must at one time have been some fire. Just as the prevalence of a
myth - such as the Devil or Serpent myth - over large numbers of people or
vast periods of time points to the fact that there must have been something,
whatever it was, that gave rise to the idea.
In this enquiry our minds range over that portion of the world which is near
the Red Sea, Arabia and Persia, and we are brought very close to places, now
covered with water, that once formed part of ancient Lemuria. The name Red Sea
may have arisen from the fact that it was believed really to cover hell: and
its lower entrance at the island of Perim is called “Babel Mandeb,” or “the
Gate of Hell.” This Red Sea plays a prominent part in The Arabian Nights tales
and has some significance. We should also recollect that Arabia once had her
men of science, the mark of whose minds has not yet been effaced from our own
age. These men were, many of them magicians, and they learned their lore
either from the Lemurian adepts, or from the Black Magicians of the other
famous land of Atlantis.
We may safely conclude that The Arabian Nights stories are not all pure
fiction, but are the faint reverberations of a louder echo which reached their
authors from the times of Lemuria and Atlantis. We are not forcing a
conclusion when we say that these admirable and amusing tales are not all
fiction. They definitely are carrying some sort of social order of times along
with when the elements of glorifications are excluded.
(The author can be reached at
drhashimiqbal@gmail.com)
copyright Greater Kashmir 2007
