Magic In The Time Of The Arabian Nights

Whether drowned, dismembered, burned, beheaded or poisoned, it is prudent to say that sorcerers and sorceresses in the Tales from the Thousand and one Nights almost overwhelmingly meet their demise in some unfortunate way. Their fates reveal the mentality of the times; practitioners of sorcery were viewed as malevolent schemers. These outcasts violated the natural order of things and deserved punishment. The tales are set in an age when “implicit belief in magic is entertained by almost all Muslims”. This leads to the examination of the forbidden nature of magic, and why sorcerers are viewed in such a negative light. Furthermore, the wider question of the implications status may have on the portrayal and punishment of magicians will be explored.

Natural magic involved prestidigitation and sleight of hand ; those who practiced it were regarded as frauds and tricksters. Spiritual magic however was an entirely different notion, itself being split into the categories of high and low. High magic was considered divine, practiced only by the good for good. All users of high magic were said to have been drowned in the floods hence only wicked sorcerers practicing low magic influenced by the devil remained. Sorcery is referred to as Sihr. Although it has no explicit definition it has been described as, “man attempting to bend nature to his wishes by sheer force of spells and enchantments”. Some of the acts within sorcery’s realm include: divination, discovery of hidden treasures, enchantment, and harming/killing others. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, Sihr is the equivalent of apostasy, a hadith of the renowned scholar Ibn Hanbal even goes as far as saying, “kill every sahir [sorcerer]… and sahira [sorceress]”. The carrying out of this statement can be seen in almost every magician’s demise in the discussed

Many of them meet unfortunate ends nevertheless. The Tale of the Second Dervish exemplifies this sentiment. The princess agrees to her father’s wish to restore the dervish to human form “in Allah’s name” (274), but is killed for her efforts, regardless of good intention. While the dervish is thankful for her help he agrees that her death was divinely just, stating, “I wish that I could have died in her place… but, alas, none can revoke the degrees of Allah”. (277) Before dying the princess recites the Shahadah; regrettably, legal opinion argues that her soul would not be saved as, “when a Muslim did personally practice sorcery… he ought to be killed and no repentance was possible”. Despite the ability to create havoc with her magic, the princess chose to keep them hidden, until asked by her father about his wondrous ape. As an elite member of society she would be fully aware of the stigma attached to magic users, and reluctant to use