963—978 Qamar al-Zaman • 978—989 Abd Allah ibn Fadil and his brothers • 989—1001 Ma’ruf the cobbler
The final three stories in the collection begin with an extremely liberal take on sex and sexuality. The titular protagonist is Qamar al-Zaman, and his face is so beautiful that even the men have lusty feelings for him. This induced fluidity of the sexualities is presented as entirely normal and permitted in the circumstances.
The effect that our hero has on the world is personified in the character of a pious dervish, who has had a chequered past. I enjoyed the simple yet telling phrase
He had experience of both nights and days
Tasting both licit and illicit love
A lover of both women and of men.
Burton has this as:
He had studied Love both by day and night
And had special knowledge of Wrong and Right;
Both for lad and lass had repined his sprite …
So the dervish seems to be openly bisexual. This is not presented as a moral failing per se, but Qamar’s father does seem anxious to protect his son from any advances, and resolves to kill the dervish if he succumbs to Qamar’s temptation. Bizarrely, in an unfair and creepy scheme, the father then encourages Qamar to attempt to seduce the dervish, the better to test the limits of the dervish’s self control. The dervish manages not to succumb and is spared, thus telling the tale of a beautiful woman he has seen in Basra. Like so many naive heroes before him, Qamar becomes obsessed with the story of this woman and sets himself the quest of finding her.
Continue reading “Nights 963 to 1001: The Final Tales”