Nuraddin Ibn Bakkar and the slave Shamsannahar

Woodcut by William Harvey , 1838–40

Nuraddin Ibn Bakkar and the slave Shamsannahar is a story from A Thousand and One Nights . It is in Claudia Otts translation as Nuraddin Ibn Bakkar and the slave Shamsannahar (night 171–199), in Gustav Weil as the story of Ali's Abu Bekkar and the Schems Annahar .

content

Harem lady Schamsannahar falls in love with Nuraddin Ibn Bakkar and entertains him and his friend, the druggist Abul-Hasan, in the palace. The caliph comes, the guests are smuggled out. The lovers suffer and exchange letters only through their servant and Abul-Hasan. Things are getting too dangerous for him, he goes to Basra. His friend, the jeweler, can smooth out the mistrust that has arisen and enables a meeting with himself. Once again the two exchange words in love at night until robbers plunder the house and take them prisoner. After they realize who it is, they give back a lot, they come free. The jeweler and Ibn Bakkar try to flee to al-Anbar, are robbed and received hospitably. Shamsannahar is betrayed by a chambermaid to the caliph, who, however, stands by her. But both die of love.

classification

The unhappy love story repeats a key theme of the collection with the unfaithful concubine, see already The betrayed Ifrit . The love dialogues are adorned with verses whose rhyme form is partly continued in prose. At times the druggist and then the jeweler act as the narrator. The palace of the sultan called ar-Raschid is said to be the Al-Chuld in Baghdad . Boats across the Tigris serve as secret transport routes, as in The Chef's Story: The Young Man from Baghdad and the slave girl Subeidas, the caliph's wife . Al-Anbar was about 60 km from Baghdad.

literature

Claudia Ott (Ed.): A thousand and one nights. How it all started Based on the oldest Arabic manuscript in the edition by Muhsin Mahdi, first translated into German and appended by Claudia Ott. Title of the original Arabic edition: The Thousand And One Nights (Alf Layla wa-Layla). dtv, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-423-14611-1 , pp. 424-494 (first CH Beck, Munich 2006).

Individual evidence

↑ Claudia Ott (Ed.): A thousand and one nights. How it all started Based on the oldest Arabic manuscript in the edition by Muhsin Mahdi, first translated into German and appended by Claudia Ott. Title of the original Arabic edition: The Thousand And One Nights (Alf Layla wa-Layla). dtv, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-423-14611-1 , p. 688 (first CH Beck, Munich 2006).

Web links

[1] Claudia Ott (Ed.): A thousand and one nights. How it all started Based on the oldest Arabic manuscript in the edition by Muhsin Mahdi, first translated into German and appended by Claudia Ott. Title of the original Arabic edition: The Thousand And One Nights (Alf Layla wa-Layla). dtv, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-423-14611-1 , p. 688 (first CH Beck, Munich 2006).