Treasure from Aleppo (Aladdin's real home town)

Miscellaneous Information

• Who were the Calenders, or Kalendars? - Well, Islamic mysticism is called Sufism. In Sufism, there are branches, or sects, called dervishes. The sect in question was known as the Qalandariyah, its members being Qalandaris. This wandering dervish sect is traditionally said to have been founded by a Spanish Arab called Yusuf. They came from Central Asia and made their first appearance in Damascus in 1213. They were the cause of unrest in the Ottoman empire; and lived predominantly in Iran and Azerbaijan until the 17th century. They appear in the story of "The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad".

• The Locations of the Nights Stories: Baghdad and Basra. Unfortunately Baghdad and Basra have been largely laid waste several times since the times of the earliest stories of the Nights. It was the Mongols who, laying waste to everything in their path, destroyed the original cities of Baghdad and Basra, although one of my sources tells me that the ruins of one of the original gates of Baghdad, called Bab al-Wastani, still survives. I would love to be able to go over and check this out, but being a Brit. I don't fancy trying my luck at the moment. Maybe someone could pop over there for me and check this out. Basra and Baghdad are both, sadly, being targetted by U.S. and British bombing missions. I gather, interestingly, that there is an island at Basra in the Shatt al-Arab waterway called Sinbad Island, marking the fact the Sinbad always set off on his voyages from Basra. It was once a very attractive holiday resort, with outdoor restaurants and gardens, but suffered extensive bombing in the Gulf war.

• The Locations of the Nights Stories: Samarquand. Samarqand is the capital of Samarqand Wiloyat (Samarqand Oblast) in central Uzbekistan. It was an important trade centre on the route between China and the Mediterranean, as immortalised in James Elroy Flecker's The Golden Journey to Samarkand. Unfortunately it was subsequently obliterated by Genghis Khan. Marco Polo visited the city in the late 13th century, and reported that:
  "Samarcan is a noble city, adorned with beautiful gardens, and surrounded by a plain, in which are produced all the fruits that man can desire. The inhabitants, who are partly Christians and partly Mohametans, are subject to the dominion of a nephew of the Grand Khan, with whom, however, he is not upon amicable terms, but on the contrary there is perpetual strife and frequent wars between them".
  Samarqand was subsequently ruled (from 1369) by the noted despot Taimur, known in the West as Taimerlane, and immortalised by Christopher Marlowe as Tamburlaine the Great (first performed in 1590). The outskirts of the modern ex-Soviet city are typically colourless; however the domes and minarets in the centre, built by Taimur, are very beautiful. The remains of the old city destroyed by the Mongols lie a kilometre and a half away on the road to Tashkent, and are currently under excavation. This 220 hectare area is now called Afrasiab, and there is a museum devoted to the findings of the excavations. However, be warned - Uzbekistan is not noted for its friendliness to tourists, to whom the state has retained the attitude of the communist USSR.

• The Locations of the Nights Stories: Cairo. If you would wish to travel to a real Arabian Nights location, it would have to be Cairo. Cairo has managed to survive, and consequently turned into an urban sprawl. The Mongol empire fortunately collapsed before they could engulf Egypt. Many of Cairo's notable historic buildings would have certainly been around during the time of the composition of the Arabian Nights stories concerning Cairo. The Citadel, famous for its mosques and fort, was built in 1176 A.D. Cairo is not featured in the Nights to as great an extent as the aforementioned cities of Baghdad and Basra; however one example of a story that features Cairo is "The Tale of Nur al-Din Ali and His Son" from "The Tale of the Three Apples".

One night he lay down to sleep dejected and heavyhearted, and saw in a dream a speaker who said to him, "Verily thy fortune is in Cairo. Go thither and seek it." So he set out for Cairo, but when he arrived there, evening overtook him and he lay down to sleep in a mosque.

• The Locations of the Nights Stories: Damascus. Damascus in Syria is also safe to westerners; and always has been, despite its proximity to Iraq (a mere one hundred miles away). It is a beautiful and historic city, (in fact it is one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities) and like Cairo, that history has not been destroyed by its various invaders. St. Paul, according to the Bible (Acts 9:11) lived on the Via Recta, the main street of the old city, also known as the "Street Called Straight". In fact, on this same street, St. Paul's Chapel marks the spot where the disciples lowered St. Paul out of a window in a basket one night so that he could escape from the Jews. It has two hundred mosques, seventy of which are still in use, and one of which is one of the greatest mosques ever, the Omayyad Mosque, which tourists are free to visit, so long as women and men in shorts put on the supplied robes. Damascus, having been the home of the Omayyad dynasty, features in the story of 'The City of Brass'. Syria is so far the only Nights location that I've personally visited - and I learned a considerable amount about Arabic customs and traditions whilst there.

The Buzurieh Souq, Damascus - Home of Bedreddin Hassan's Cookshop

• What is meant by the "Grub Street" version?As readers of my other page devoted to The Beggar's Opera will be aware, Grub Street was a street in London noted for being inhabited by hacks, poets and pamphleteers. For further information about Grub Street, please go to that page. The Grub Street version of the Nights is the translation that was quickly made of Galland's pivotal French edition - see The History of the Nights. For a list of the stories contained in the Grub Street version, please click here.

• Where did the phrase "Open Sesame!" come from? - "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", of course. But other than that, no-one knows. It may just have been made up by Galland.

• Currency in the Nights. Reference is made in the Nights to two currency units, dirhams and dinars. Dinars are still the major currency unit of Iraq. One dinar is worth twenty dirhams.

Save your dirhams, and consider them the best salve for the wounds of the world.

Thus, some time later, when I found a profit of two thousand dinars, I praised the Lord and gave my brother one half and kept the other for myself.

Glossary of Obscure Arabian Nights Terms
(not covered above)

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And he continued to rule for many joyful years until he was visited by the Destroyer of all earthly pleasures, the Leveller of mighty kings and humble peasants, the Spoiler of worldly mansions, the Sunderer of societies and the Dark minister of the graveyard.

May Allah have mercy upon him.