“The Tale of the Yellow Youth” from The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night tells us a great deal about Khalifah Harun al-Rashid and his cozy court.[1] To begin with, we learn from the first paragraph that he was suffering from “sleeplessness and depression of spirit,” as well as that his grand-wazir Jafar al-Barmaki instructed him that there was no better remedy for such weariness than “seeing a new thing, and visiting a new place.”[2] Accompanied by Jafar and a small but cozy retinue from the court, each of whom was disguised as a merchant, one night the Khalifah went to the banks of Tigris and boarded a boat. And then they “allowed the current to bear them whither it would.”[3] The marvelous tale unfolds from such an auspicious beginning. Having read the first paragraph over and over again, tears well up to my eyes. Indeed, trust the current or perish!

Footnotes

1. London and New York: Routledge, 1964, Vol. III, pp. 54-68.

2. Op. cit., p. 54.

3. Loc. cit.