Thousand & One Nights: 63rd Night: Tale of the First Lady

My case is so strange, so amazing that were it engraved with the needle at the corner of the eye, it would be a lesson for all. The two black bitches are my sisters by the same mother and father. These two girls, the one who bears the mark of the rod and other who are shopper are sisters by another mother. When our father died and the inheritance was divided, and the three of us lived with our mother. After a while our mother also died, leaving us three thousand dinars, which we divided equally among ourselves. Since I was the youngest of the three, my two sisters prepared their dowries and got married before me. 

The husband of the eldest sister bought merchandise with his money and hers and the two of them set out on their travels. They were absent for five years, during which he threw away and wasted all her money. Then he deserted her, leaving her to wander alone in foreign countries,  trying to find her way back home. After five years she returned to me, dressed like a beggar in tattered clothes and a dirty old clock. She was in a most miserable plight.

I asked her, "Why are you in this condition?"

She replied, "Words are useless, because the pen has brought to pass that which has been decreed."

I took her at once to bath, dressed her with new clothes, prepared for her some broth, and gave her some wine to drink. I took care of her for a month, and then I said to her, "Sister, you are the eldest, and you have now taken the place of our mother. You and I will share my wealth equally, for God has blessed my share of inheritance, and I have made much money by spinning and producing silk." I treated her with utmost kindness, and she lived with me for a whole year, during which our minds were on our other sister. Shortly, she too came home in a worse plight than the first. I treated her just as I had treated the other, clothing her and taking care of her.

A little later, they told me, "Sister, we would like to get married, it is not fit that we live without husbands."

I replied, "Sister, there is little good in marriage, for it is hard to find a good man. You got married, but nothing good came of it. Let us stay together and live by ourselves." But they did not listen to my advice and married again. But I was obliged to provide them with dowries from my own pocket. Soon their husbands betrayed them; they took what they could, cleared out and left their wives behind. My sisters came to me with apologies to me, "Sister, although you are younger than us, you are older in wisdom. We will never mention marriage again. Take us back and we shall be your servants to earn our upkeep." 

I replied, "Sisters, none is dearer to me than you." I took them in and treated them even more generously than before. We spent the third year together, and all that time my wealth kept increasing, and my circumstances kept getting better and better.

One day I resolved to take my merchandise to Basra. I fitted a large ship and loaded it with merchandise, provisions and other necessities. Then we set out and for many days, we sailed under fair wind. Soon we discovered that we had strayed from our course, and for twenty days we were lost on the high seas. At the end of the twentieth day, the lookout man, climbing the masthead, cried out, "Good news!" Then he joyfully came down, saying, "I have seen what seems to be a city that looks like a fat pigeon." We were happy and in less than an hour our ship entered the harbour, and I disembarked to visit the city. When I came to the gate, I saw people standing there with staves in their hand, but as I drew nearer, I saw that they had been turned by a curse into stone. I went into the city and saw that all people in the shops had been turned into stone. No sign of life anywhere. I walked along the street and found that the entire city had been turned into hard stone. When I came to the upper end of the city, I saw a door plated with red gold draped with a silk curtain, and hung with a lamp. Saying to myself, "By God, this is strange! Can it be that there are human beings here!" I entered through the door and found myself in a hall that led to another, and then another, and as I kept going from hall to hall all alone, without meeting anyone, I became apprehensive. Then I entered the harem quarters and found myself in an apartment bearing the royal insignia and hung throughout with drapes of gold brocade. There I saw the queen, wearing a dress decorated with opulent pearls, each as big as a hazelnut, and a crown studded with precious stones.

The End of Night

1. The story highlights the role of a woman as merchant. Was there any historical records showing women in commerce and industry?

Assyrian women were actively engaged in textile business. Egyptian women of upper class were engaged in business and trade. In ancient Chinese places women were engaged in weaving and selling silks.
Margherita Datini of Florence, Italy is an example of woman in business, in Medieval Europe.

In Cochinchina (Vietnam) and Siam (Thailand) Dutch merchants had negotiated with women merchants.

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