Ahmed and Paribanou

Ahmed and Paribanou, or The Story of Prince Ahmed and the fairy Pari Banou,^[1] is one of the tales of the Arabian Nights compilation.

Illustration by Willy Pogany, 1915

Lithograph by Achille Devéria, 1833

Summary

One of the Islamic kings of India had three sons, namely Houssain (Husayn), Ali, and Ahmed (Ahmad), and a niece named Nouronnihar (Nur al-Nahar).^[2] Prince Ahmed was the younger brother of Houssain.^[3] The latter possessed a magic carpet of wondrous locomotive powers.^[3] Ahmed was equally blessed in the ownership of a magic tent, a present from the fairy Paribanou (Peri Banu), which would cover a whole army when spread, yet fold up into so small a compass that it might be carried in one's pocket.^[3]

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is a combination of two tale types listed in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index: ATU 653A: "The Rarest Thing in the World", and ATU 465: "The Man Persecuted because of His Beautiful Wife".^[4]

Origins

The tale is also considered to be one of the so called "orphan stories" of the Arabian Nights compilation, because a Persian or Indian original text has not been found, unlike other tales.^[5] Some scholars, including Ulrich Marzolph [de] and Ruth Bottigheimer, ascribe its source to a Maronite Christian named Hanna Diyab, from whom French author Antoine Galland collected the story.^[6][7][8]

Legacy

According to Ulrich Marzolph, tales collected later from oral tradition derive from Galland's translation of this story in The Arabian Nights.^[4]

The story was adapted by German film director Lotte Reiniger as the film The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926).^[9][10]

See also

• Peri
• Genie
• Islam and magic
• Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent

References

1. Kennedy, Philip F.; Warner, Marina, eds. (2020). "List of Stories". Scheherazade's Children. pp. 417–424. doi:10.18574/nyu/9781479837922.003.0025. ISBN 978-1-4798-3792-2.
2. Marzolph; Van Leeuwen 2004, I, p. 81.
3. Walsh 1915, p. 11.
4. Marzolph, Ulrich (2020). "The Contending Lovers Are Challenged to Acquire the Rarest Thing in the World (ATU 653A)". 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition. Wayne State University Press. pp. 105–110 [108]. ISBN 978-0-8143-4775-1. Project MUSE chapter 2668101.
5. Marzolph, Ulrich; van Leewen, Richard. The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia. Vol. I. California: ABC-Clio. 2004. p. 81. ISBN 1-85109-640-X (e-book).
6. Bottigheimer, Ruth, ed. (2012). Fairy Tales Framed: Early Forewords, Afterwords, and Critical Words. doi:10.1353/book14816. ISBN 978-1-4384-4222-8.
7. Marzolph, Ulrich (2018). "The Man Who Made the Nights Immortal: The Tales of the Syrian Maronite Storyteller Ḥannā Diyāb". Marvels and Tales. 32 (1): 117–118, 122. doi:10.13110/marvelstales.32.1.0114. S2CID 165578788.
8. Marzolph, Ulrich; Duggan, Anne E. (2018). "Ḥannā Diyāb's Tales, Part I". Marvels & Tales. 32 (1): 143–147. doi:10.13110/marvelstales.32.1.0133. S2CID 187817743.
9. Moritz, William (2009). "Some Critical Perspectives on Lotte Reiniger". In Furniss, Maureen (ed.). Animation: Art and Industry. Indiana University Press. pp. 13–20. ISBN 978-0-86196-904-3. Project MUSE chapter 1581792.
10. Acadia, Lilith (2021). "'Lover of Shadows': Lotte Reiniger's Innovation, Orientalism, and Progressivism". Oxford German Studies. 50 (2): 150–168. doi:10.1080/00787191.2021.1927377. S2CID 235663272.

Sources

• Marzolph, Ulrich; Van Leeuwen, Richard (2004). "Ahmad and the Fairy Perî Bânû, 355 Prince (Burton referring to Galland's adaptation)". The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC Clio. pp. 81–2.
• Walsh, William Shepard (1915). "Ahmed, Prince". Heroes and Heroines of Fiction. Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott Company. p. 11. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

Further reading

• Horta, Paulo Lemos (2016). "Beyond the Palace: Transnational Itineraries of the City in the Arabian Nights". PMLA. 131 (2): 487–495. JSTOR 26158832.
• Warner, Marina (2012). "Story 3. Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Peri Banou". Stranger Magic. pp. 71–73. doi:10.4159/harvard.9780674065079.c8. ISBN 978-0-674-06507-9.
• "Prince Ahmad and the Fairy Peri-Banu". Al-Hakawati.