Ahmed and Paribanou

Ahmed and Paribanou, or The Story of Prince Ahmed and the fairy Pari Banou,^[1] is one of the tales of the Arabian Nights compilation.

Illustration by Willy Pogany, 1915

Lithograph by Achille Devéria, 1833

Summary

One of the Islamic kings of India had three sons, namely Houssain (Husayn), Ali, and Ahmed (Ahmad), and a niece named Nouronnihar (Nur al-Nahar).^[2] Prince Ahmed was the younger brother of Houssain.^[3] The latter possessed a magic carpet of wondrous locomotive powers.^[3] Ahmed was equally blessed in the ownership of a magic tent, a present from the fairy Paribanou (Peri Banu), which would cover a whole army when spread, yet fold up into so small a compass that it might be carried in one's pocket.^[3]

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is a combination of two tale types listed in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index: ATU 653A: "The Rarest Thing in the World", and ATU 465: "The Man Persecuted because of His Beautiful Wife".^[4]

Origins

The tale is also considered to be one of the so called "orphan stories" of the Arabian Nights compilation, because a Persian or Indian original text has not been found, unlike other tales.^[5] Some scholars, including Ulrich Marzolph [de] and Ruth Bottigheimer, ascribe its source to a Maronite Christian named Hanna Diyab, from whom French author Antoine Galland collected the story.^[6][7][8]

Legacy

According to Ulrich Marzolph, tales collected later from oral tradition derive from Galland's translation of this story in The Arabian Nights.^[4]

The story was adapted by German film director Lotte Reiniger as the film The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926).^[9][10]

See also

• Peri
• Genie
• Islam and magic
• Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent