Tawaddud's Discourse

Nights 437-461

Tawaddud is the ideal of a young woman in the Nights: religious, brilliant, sexually desirable (sigh), and a slave (sigh again). The Nights are starting to wear me down with all the authors’ lusting over slave children.

In the story, Tawaddud impresses the sultan and his advisors with her knowledge. It starts with a sort of Islamic catechism and collection of laws (Nights 438-448), followed by discussions of medical expertise (Nights 449-454), astronomy (Nights 454-457), philosophy (Nights 457-458), general knowledge with the master al-Nazzam (Nights 458-460), and finally games of chess and backgammon. These are the kinds of texts that I imagine many readers will skip. I skimmed through some of it pretty fast, looking for gems. 

There are plenty of gems! Here are a few of my favorites: (1) in the frame story, we learn that Tawaddud’s master is considered too much of a spender. Specifically, “he was constantly eating chicken . . . and listening to songs.” (Night 437, p. 277) How luxurious! (2) The bat is the “bird of Jesus” (Night 446, p. 292). (3) Medical knowledge in the Nights is basically Galen and the four humours (Night 450, p. 299). (4) The best fruits are pomegranate and citron (Night 453, p. 304). (5) Only a few animals have gone to heaven, including the dog of the Seven Sleepers and Duldul, the mule of the Prophet (Night 457, p. 312), (6) we get our first flying carpet: “who prayed, while he was neither on earth or in heaven . . . this was Solomon, who prayed on his carpet when it was being carried by the wind.” (7) The Nights acknowledge Mary’s virginity (Night 458, p. 314).

For Magic cards, I think we get our first reference to the actual word “jihad” (Night 442, p. 287). I also mentioned the Flying Carpet above, but I hope we can do better than that! We are nearly halfway through, I hope we get a real story focused on a flying carpet! The closest so far is the Ebony Horse.