Arabian Nights

Cassim (Ali Baba's brother) 1909 - Maxfield Parrish

Astral Codex Ten has a wonderful review of the Arabian Nights. I don't think I've ever read any of it, though I am certainly familiar with some of the stories like Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. It was years, maybe even decades, before I figured out that "open sesame" simply meant "open sez-a-me". (Who sez open? Sez a-me, that's who. Open sez a-me!). I believed them when they said is was the name of a seed, and yes it is, but that's not the way it's being used. Makes me wonder what the original Arabic version is like. I had the same problem with Fridgidaire, the brand name of our refrigerator when I was a kid. It was centuries before I realized that it wasn't just a name, it was also a compound word: Fridgid Air.

Just in case you haven't heard of any of this: One Thousand and One Nights (also known as Arabian Nights) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age (8th century to the 14th century). The first English-language edition dates from the early 1700's.

The small scale copy of the painting above doesn't look too great. Click on it to get the bigger version. The bigger version looks better, but I think you really need a poster size version to really appreciate it. Also, I think your eyes need to be night adapted. Tam took a picture of a car the other day. In person, in the sunlight, the car looked great. The picture? It just looks like a car. I'm thinking that while computer screens are pretty amazing and can do great things, they are still no substitute for reality.