Waves in a Tumultuous Sea

Nights 35-51

This section contains three stories. They are all “problematic” in some ways, especially around sex. The first involves two lovers, but the woman is a slave. The story does a good job of making their love look consensual and inevitable, despite the power imbalance. When “he sucked her tongue and she sucked his, and he then took her maidenhead,” (p. 247, night 34), it feels earned and not exploitative. But later, we worry about the man’s judgment when he hands over his lover to a slave auction as part of a ruse. She is nearly given to the Baghdadi caliph Harun al-Rashid (who returns with Ja’far the vizier and Masrur the muscular eunuch, all three recurring characters now). It’s not all sex. There are some nice descriptions of other delights, like the caliph’s garden (p. 261, night 36) and its various birds, apricots, flowers, etc. And there is a nice point where the male lover needs to escape in the clothes of a poor man and he is grossed out by all the “long-tailed lice” (p. 267, night 37).

The second story is the most forgettable story so far. It’s mostly mistaken identity for lovers and very predictable. The most distinct part is not something I would recommend: stories from castrated slaves about how they were castrated, one which involves graphic descriptions of a boy and a girl who just reached puberty having their first encounter with each other (p. 282, night 39). 

The third story, which starts on night 46, is the beginning of a long story that will take us to at least night 107, maybe 145 (I’m not certain how to interpret the index here). This is by far the longest story so far. Within twenty pages, I created a diagram of characters for it. Then as I read it, it reminded me of the most recent story I’ve read on Islam, the Tale of Princess Fatima. It has a similar story with a war between Islam and Christendom, and a shamed pregnant princess who escapes into the desert only to worry that the slave who has helped her escape might try to rape her. It has some interesting scenes: one of the princes spies on a Christian princess named Abriza as she wrestles naked with her grandmother. We are treated to comic descriptions of the grandmother’s pubic hair and flatulence (p. 313, night 47) before our eyes move to Abriza: “he saw her buttocks moving against each other like waves in a tumultuous sea.” (p. 319, night 48)

The story unfortunately involves plenty of coerced sex, specifically targeting Christian royalty. The King, Umar, has 360 concubines, one of whom we learn is a Byzantine emperor’s daughter. Then later, King Umar drugs and rapes Abriza as well. The Arabian Nights aren't for kids!

I don’t recall any unnatural events in this section. I also don’t think there are any Magic card inspirations, except perhaps a vizier named “Dandan” (p. 309, night 46; he is not a fish). And the war with Christendom brings in a holy army that could be an “Army of Allah.” I’ll keep an eye on Dandan and let you know if he turns into a fish.