The Arabian Nights, Ranked
So, I finally finished reading Husain Haddawy’s 1990 translation of the Arabian Nights (and the 1995 supplement containing the stories of Sindbad the Sailor, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Ala al-Din and the Magic Lamp. In order to pat myself on the back for that accomplishment, here is a ranking of all those stories in order of how much I enjoyed them.
(General CW about the stories themselves: racism, misogyny, sexual violence, regular violence, occaisional anti-semitism. This list doesn’t go into details.)
The Three Apples — This story starts out as a `whodunit' murder mystery that is quickly (if a little anticlimactically) resolved, but then launches into the story of `The Two Viziers, Nur al-Din Ali al-Misri and Badr al-Din Hasan al-Basri' which I found the most entertaining and memorable of the stories in the Nights.
The Porter and the Three Ladies — The is in my opinion the best frame tale in the Nights, beating out `The Hunchback' and `The Fisherman and the Demon' more narrowly and `The Merchant and the Demon' by a wide margin. In my opinion it had the best mix of strange symmetry, recurring themes, and taunting suspense. Quite memorable.
Qamar al-Zaman and His Two Sons — This story really has two parts, the first is the story of Qamar al-Zaman and his beloved, and the second is the story of the two sons. In my opinion, the first part is the best tale is the most skillful combination of the motifs that recur throughout the Nights---demon matchmakers, fated lovers and far-off cities full of murderous Magians---but the second part wasn't really to my liking. The first part had what seemed to me to be interesting queer things happening and allowed its women to be characters, but the second part was solidly hetero and misogynist in its characterization.
Jullanar of the Sea — This story is much more fantastical than most of the Nights, in that much of the action takes place under the ocean, where a race of wealthy and magical people live. It's one of the better `questing for a marriage' and `struggling to return from a distant land' tales.
The Hunchback — The frame tale here is not quite as good in my opinion as `The Porter and the Three Ladies,' but it ranks pretty highly if only on the virtue of the unnamed barber character, whose wonderful combination of self-awareness and un-self-awareness is definitely a comic highlight of the Nights.
The Fisherman and the Demon — Again, this is mostly a so-so frame story, but the end (the story of the enchanted king) is very good and classic.
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves — I kind of knew this story going in, but only from a half-remembered episode of Wishbone. The original was fairly good and exciting, but Ali Baba does very little in it; almost all the ingenuity in the story is thanks to his slave, Marjana, who is rewarded by being freed and married to Ali Baba's son.
Sindbad the Sailor — I was honestly a little disappointed by Sindbad. Some of the voyages have memorable moments, but overall I found the seven voyages very repetitive.
The Slave-girl Anis al-Jalis and Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Khaqan — In general I found the romances of the Nights pretty dull. It's a lot of two people, both `as beutiful as the full moon' swooning over how beautiful the other one is. 'Qamar al-Zaman' was like that too, but it was full enough of over interesting things to make it to the top section of my list. 'Anis al-Jalis and Nur al-Din Ali ibn Khaqan' is mostly memorable for the more or less inexplicable way that the Commander of the Faithful Harun al-Rashid disguises himself as a fisherman and personally fries up fish just in order to inveigle his way into a party with the lovers.
The Merchant and the Demon — The first story, and the one that is best-connected to the overall frame of 'King Shahrayar and Shahrazad.' It's not bad, but not especially memorable in my book, and is the weakest frame tale in the Nights.
King Shahrayar and Shahrazad — Part of this story is definitely the most well-known part of the Nights. The less well-known part, however, is the extreme preoccupation with women's sexual fidelity. This story is all about men reacting to their wives' adultery in exaggerated but never actually punished by the narrative ways.
Ala al-Din and the Magic Lamp — As I had been told, the original 'Ala al-Din and the Magic Lamp' is very different than the Disney version. However, I was very much not impressed by it. I found that Ala al-Din's only character growth was in money and privilege, and his solution to every problem was just to wish for it. I didn't find any charm in the character.
Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Bakkar and the Slave-girl Shams al-Nahar — As I said earlier, I didn't really care for most of the romances in the Nights. This was my least favorite. The only entertaining moment is when the lovers are kidnapped by bandits who then return them because they're so impressed by how beautiful they are. Other than that it's just the lovesick pining of two people who have only actually met each other twice or three times for pages and pages.













