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The Fisherman and the Jinni

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Fisherman and the Jinni is the second top-level story told by Shahrazad in The Book of One
Thousand and One Nights.
Synopsis
There was an old, poor fisherman who cast his net four times a day and only four times. One
day he went to the shore and cast his net. When he tried to pull it up, he found it to be heavy.
When he dove in and pulled up the net, he found a dead donkey in it. Then he cast his net again
and netted a pitcher full of dirt. Then he cast his net for a third time and netted shards of
pottery and glass. On his fourth and final try, he called upon the name of God and cast his net.
When he pulled it up he found a copper jar with a cap that had the seal of Solomon on it. The
fisherman was overjoyed, since he could sell the jar for money. He was curious of what was
inside the jar, and removed the cap with his knife. A plume of smoke came out of the jar and
condensed into an Ifrit (powerful genie). The fisherman was frightened, although initially
the Jinni did not notice him. The Jinni thought that Solomon had come to kill him. When the
fisherman told him that Solomon had been dead for many centuries, the Jinni was overjoyed
and granted the fisherman a choice of the manner of his death.
The Jinni explained that for the first hundred years of his imprisonment, he swore to enrich the
person who freed him forever. For the second century of his imprisonment, he swore to grant
his liberator great wealth, but nobody freed him. After another century, he swore to grant
three wishes to the person who freed him, yet nobody did so. After four hundred years of
imprisonment, the Jinni became enraged and swore to grant the person who freed him a choice
of deaths.
The fisherman pleaded for his life, but the Jinni would not concede. The fisherman decided to
trick the Jinni. He asked the Jinni how he managed to fit into the bottle. The Jinni, eager to
show off, shrank and placed himself back into the bottle to demonstrate his abilities. The
fisherman quickly put the cap back on and threatened to throw it back to the sea. The Jinni
pleaded with the fisherman, who began to tell the story of "The Wazir and the Sage Duban" as
an example of why the Jinni should have spared him.
After the story, the Jinni pleaded for mercy, and swore to help him in return for being released.
The fisherman accepted the bargain, and released the Jinni. The Jinni then led the fisherman to
a pond with many exotic fish, and the fisherman caught four. Before disappearing, the Jinni told
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the fisherman to give the fish to the Sultan. The fisherman did so and was rewarded with
money for presenting the fishes. Every time a fish was fried, a person would appear and
question them, and the fish answered. When the fish would be flipped in the pan, it would be
charred. Awed by the sight, the Sultan asked the fisherman where he got the fish and went to
the pond to uncover their mystery. When he reached his destination, the Sultan found a young
man who was half man and half stone. The young man recounted his story, as the story of "The
Ensorcelled Prince". The Sultan then assisted the Prince in his liberation and revenge. They
became close friends, and the fisherman who first found the fish was rewarded with his son
being appointed the Sultan's treasurer, and the Sultan and the prince married the fisherman's
two daughters.




ESOL LA IV Class notes
09/11/08-9/15/08
Unit 1: Ancient World

Historical and cultural background:
Persia [today-Iran]
Cyrus the Great established large, powerful empire-from India to Egypt and to edge of
Greece.
His empire was later reconquered by Alexander the Great.

Zoroastrianism oldest Persian religion; preceded Islam, which grew to become the dominant
religion in Persia during the 7
th
century, A.D.

Islam -
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517 A.D. Mecca- Mohammad, prophet of Allah, one God. Know this is a monotheistic
religion.
His collected, recited revelations comprise The Koran- Quran, the book of sacred
writings for Islam.
Chapters are called surahs.
Opposites antithesis Daylight and Night
Vivid imagery; use of metaphor.
Valued just, pious society where rich give money to care for the poor, and where the
powerful did not abuse the weak. These ideas spread rapidly through Arabia (often through
military conquest), and soon an Islamic empire stretched from Spain to Asia, and incorporated
much of the culture of people they conquered.


The Fisherman and the Jinnee From The Thousand and One Nights




In the framework story, Scheherezade is telling this story to the king, to delay his plans to
execute her:
Poor Fisherman has to support a wife and 4 children.
Casts his net; pulls; heavy. Dives in to bring it back- contains a dead donkey
Casts net again; heavier. Dives in to bring it back. Brings back large jar full of mud
and sand.
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Casts again. Brings back bones and broken glass. [Notice elements
In despair, he prays to Allah for a better catch. This time,
pulls in a yellow bottle sealed by Solomon. He opens the bottle and out comes a huge
column of smoke. Smoke turns into a huge jinnee. He is a terrifying sight. The
fisherman corrects Jinnee on the identity of the prophet. Jinnee tells the fisherman he
has news to bring the fisherman of his own death. The fisherman calls him ungrateful.
The Jinnee tells fisher man to choose his manner or death. Jinnee tells him a story-
Solomon sealed him into a bottle and threw him into the sea. For the first 200 yrs., he
promised to give riches and treasures to whoever freed him. But noone come. After
another 100 years of waiting around in the bottle, the jinnee grew increasingly angry, so
he decided to kill the person who frees him. Therefore, the fisherman is the unlucky
one.
But even though he is powerless physically against the magical and mighty
jinnee, the fisherman uses his wits to outsmart the jinnee. He tells him he doesnt
believe the jinnee can get back into the bottle, which the jinnee immediately proceeds
to demonstrate. The fisherman seals the bottle back up at once and tells the jinnee,
who is at this point begging for his freedom from inside the bottle, that he will not free
him, because he is like the ungrateful (here comes another story, within Scherezades
story). . .

King Yunan who is an ungrateful leper who is cured by the wise
and magical Duban the Doctor. Duban cures the king by putting
medicine in a polo stick. The Kings vizier (high advisor) is quite jealous,
and warns the king that he should kill Duban. The king tells the vizier that
such an ungrateful act to a man who has helped him would make him like
(here comes another story, within the fishermans story of King Yunan,
within Scheherazades story of the fisherman who outsmarts the jinnee. .
.:

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King Sinbad who kills his falcon which
prevents him from being killed by snake venom, which the
careless king thought was water. The falcon protects his master
by preventing him from drinking the venom dripping down the
tree trunk from the snake, but Sinbad rips off the falcons wings in
a rage, thinking foolishly that the bird is keeping him away from
the water he wants. He learns as the bird is dying that it was only
trying to protect its master and Sinbad feels remorseful (sorry, full
of regrets).

King Yunan is persuaded by his vizier that the doctor is
evil. The king agrees to behead Duban, to prevent his plotting to kill the
king sometime in the future. Duban wins a 24 hour delay, and brings his
magic book to the king. The king, eager to learn the magicians
powerful secrets, beheads the doctor, but continues to follow the advice
of the severed (chopped off) head, which tells him to open the book.
Foolish ungrateful King Yunan is poisoned by licking his finger to turn
each page of the poisoned magic book, as Dubans head looks on and
advises him to keep looking through the book. The ungrateful king dies
(Poisoned)
. . .

And so, the fisherman concludes, he can not possibly release the ungrateful
jinnee who has already threatened to kill him. He follows Islamic principles of justice
since the jinnee would show no mercy to the fisherman, the fisherman will show no
mercy to the jinnee.
And so, what is the not so subtle message for the king that Scheherazade is telling these
instructive and entertaining stories to?
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It is wrong to repay someone who has helped you and done you a kindness with death.
Gradually, over the 1001 nights, he will realize that she has taught him many valuable principles
through her stories, and that he would be ungrateful to kill her as he had originally intended to
do.


So, with the Arabian Nights stories, we have stories within stories within a story. These are
folktales that include
Supernatural elements (jinnees, magic, talking severed heads)
A moral precept or rule (often Islamic) Allah will do to you what you have done
to others; the powerful will be outsmarted by the weak unless the powerful are
generous, grateful, and just.