Arabian Nights and Days - Naguib Mahfouz

When I first found out we were going to be reading Arabian Nights and Days I was expecting something along the lines of Disney’s Aladdin. I grew up watching it and this is where most of my experience with Arabian themed tales comes from. However I found the themes of Arabian Nights and Days to be far from the innocent tales I had expected.

What surprised me about this book, apart from the themes, was how much it jumped around. It was a collection of smaller stories but ones that did not fit together as smoothly as I would have expected. It was also weird to read a book written by someone with Muslim views. They came through throughout the book and I wasn’t sure how to interpret it all, as I have a very limited knowledge of their religion.

The book also made me curious about the misconceptions I had about their culture. From what I grew up with, genies were always good and granted people wishes. What limited knowledge I had came from Aladdin and I Dream of Genie, and I had assumed that this view was the only way genies were thought of. To me the Genie’s seemed like Angels and Demons, the “believing genies” seemed like how our culture views angels and the evil genies seemed like demons. The first Genie we encounter in the book is the non-believing, evil Genie. Which manipulates humans to do their bidding, then he deceives the human again telling him I had nothing to do with it, you performed the action of your own free will, making him feel fully responsible.

I have never read A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, but after reading this book I am encouraged to do so, perhaps next summer when I may have a lighter work load.  It sounds like a very interesting read from what I’ve discussed with class mates.

I’m beginning to get a feeling that we are only going to read books with slightly confusing plot lines. I like books that follow one story from one point of view. But so far the books we’ve looked into have done a lot of jumping around, but hopefully the other books can require a little less jumping around.