Marjana and the Forty Thieves

Nights 282-295 & Bonus Story: Ali Baba

The Ka’ba is the unifying theme this week, reminding us we are in Arabia. It appears in both this week’s big stories (night 282, p. 208 and night 294, p. 927). I liked the stories. The first one had a weird theme of disgusting smells: slaughterhouses and excrement. For example, see these words from a man who must depart his lover: “Let me kiss your left hand ten times; // I know how much better it is than your right. // When you wash away your excrement, // Your left hand is closer to the place you clean.” (night 286, p. 912). The second story brings back Harun al-Rashid for a nice little mystery that ends with the marriage of Ja’far’s sister.

Then we get to “the story of Ali Baba and the forty thieves killed by a slave girl.” This is separate from the rest of the Nights. It is translated from French, as it was not included in the original text. It’s a good story, you can see why it became popular. But the title could use help: the “slave girl” is named Marjana, and she is at least as much the protagonist of the story as Ali Baba.

It was obviously not one of the original stories. The big giveaway is on page 942: “[Ali Baba] had now married his former sister-in-law, but no one showed any surprise, as such marriages are not unusual in our religion.” This is a strange thing to say. As if I were to write, “Then they went to communion together, but no one showed any surprise, as such sacraments are not unusual in our religion.” It sounds like a non-Muslim wrote it and is trying to sound Muslim. Apparently, the Frenchman Galland recorded the story from a Syrian in the 1700s, much later than the other stories were recorded.

Last note on translation. I had thought that “Open, sesame” was a deliberate pun in translation. (“open, says me”). That doesn’t seem to be the case! I looked it up; the pun doesn’t work in either French or Arabic. And at some point, a character forgets the password and says, “Open, barley.” No pun there.