Classics Retold

When the wind began to blow, we set sail, and we sat chatting, my sisters asked me, "Sister, what will you do with this young man?" I replied, "I will make him my husband." Then I turned to him and said, "O My lord, when we reach Baghdad, I offer myself to you, and we will be husband and wife." The young man replied, "Yes, indeed, for you are my lady, and my mistress." I turned to my sisters and said, "Whatever goods we have are yours, my only reward is this young man. He is mine and I am his." We sailed under fair wind until we entered Sea of Safety and began to approach Basra. Night came. The young man and I fell asleep. My two sisters turned green with envy over him and harboured ill will towards me. They had been waiting patiently to get an opportunity. They carried me in my sleep, with my bed and threw me into the sea. They did the same to the young man. He was drowned. I wish I had drowned with him. But I was escaped. I was cast o...

The young man seated me by his side. His face was as beautiful as full moon. From head to feet he was blessed with beauty. In normal time he should have captivated me, but the dead silence of the city frightened my heart. I eagerly waited for his story. "This city is the capital of my father," said he, after a long silence, "the king you must have seen, turned into black stone inside this palace. The queen you must have seen inside the net. They and all the people of the city were Magians.[1] They worshipped fire. My father was blessed with my birth in his late years. I was born and brought up in affluence. There was an old woman who resided with us. She was very learned, and taught me Quran. "You should worship none, but God the Almighty." She used to say. This, I never told my father or anyone else of my family. One day we heard a mighty voice, "O people of the city, leave your fire worship, and worship only the Merciful God." But they refused to ob...

The frame story is by Shahrazad, the queen of India. The stories help to  procrastinate her death at the hands of Shahriar the Indian king who went mad at the sight of his previous queen in compromising posture with a black slave. Consequent to this sight he became a misogynist and followed a one night marriage, where the partner was killed by the king, after their union. Ultimately the daughter of the vizier came forward, agreed to be married to the mad king, and challenged him with her stories. The present story is an inner layer sandwiched between the frames. The story teller is the youngest daughter of a wealthy man. She is a merchant by profession and is on her business journey. She arrives in a land where she does not see any sign of life. The story to continue: I saw a palace, and it was deserted. But the queen was there. The queen wore a crown studded with many kinds of gems. The apartment was spread with silk tapestries embroidered with gold. In the middle of the hall I sa...

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 be...

Florence was a city state of Italy. It was here Margherita Datini was born in 1360. In the year 1370, Bandini family, to which Margherita belonged was exiled from Florence for political reasons, and were settled in Avignon. Scholars have turned their attention to the correspondence discovered in 1870, behind the staircase of an Italian merchant and his wife. There were about hundred and fifty thousand letters and five hundred account books. These records shed light on trade and life of fourteenth century Italy. Among these letters, 250 letters belonged to Margherita's personal collection. At the age of sixteen, she was married to Francesco Datini, a wealthy merchant from Prato, who was twenty five years senior to her. This age difference was not uncommon in those days. He had fiancees, and even fathered a son in 1374. But the compulsion of a stratified society and the question of inheritance must have influenced him to take Margherita as his wife. His neighbour Niccolozzo Binduchi ...

This is the tenth part of 3rd Dervish's narrative. He had been trapped among forty beautiful girls of the palace. At the end of one year the girls were preparing to leave the palace to take a forty days' break and leave alone him and by the beginning of New year they left for their fathers' home.  During the absence of girls the dervish had got opportunity to examine ninety nine rooms of the palace, leaving the hundredth room unexamined. The girls had forbidden the entry to it because it may separate him from them. Tale of 3rd Dervish as told by him: But my curiosity, like Satan, had been enticing me to open the room and examine it. The thought of the  coming of the forty girls and their demand on me every day was becoming more than I could endure. It had created in me an aversion  to life. I know very many Indian kings had embraced the death because of their boredom in the life of eating, drinking and hooking. I wanted an escape from this boredom. I opened the door plate...

This is one of the inner stories of the frame stories told by Shahrazad to her sister Dinarzad in the presence of the Indian king who had gone wild with the memory of his queen in compromising posture with a black slave. The stories shed light on the intricacies of life and myths and strive to inculcate detachment. This is the Nineth part of narrative by 3rd Dervish in the presence of  beautiful and independent girls of Baghdad house, and their guests. Narrative by the 3rd Dervish continues: My lady, the forty girls said, "Our lord, the cause of our separation is in your hand. Enjoy looking into all ninety nine rooms, and avoid the 100th room. Be patient for forty days, and we shall come back to you." The girls left for their fathers' homes. One of the girls recited the following verses: Our hearts burning with love and longing. Our tears: wet pearls and Carnelians. I bid them farewell. I was left alone in the palace. I went and opened the first chamber. I entered not int...