Excerpts from the 1001 Arabian Nights

The Al-Hakawati Tradition, and its proliferation in Lebanese and global theatre and literary tradition.
The Lebanese and Syrian Al-Hakawati, or oral storytelling tradition, is centered around key staple
stories and folktales. Of the traditional stories, one of the most popular across the centuries of Lebanese
storytelling have consistently been those included in the 1001 Arabian nights canon, which include many
stories framed within the story called King Schahriar and his brother. This story centers around a wicked
King who is marrying all of the women of the country, sleeping with them, and executing them in the
morning. The vizier's daughter offers herself to be his wife, and, against her father's wishes, marries him.
She makes her new husband promise her one thing: that she can tell her sister a story before she goes to
bed. The subsequent 1001 stories are her solution to putting off her own death and subsequently saving
the women of the Kingdom. The storytelling that I listened to and reviewed the trnascripts for was a
subset of the 1001 Nights, that included the King Schariar and His Brother, The Fisherman and The Jinni,
The Jinni and the Beautiful Lovers, all framed within the first story. The 1001 nights, in all of their
iterations, are still among stories that are told in the Al-Hakawati tradition. While the al-hakawati
tradition is dying, the popularity and sheer volume, as well as the richness of the tradition and roots in the
1001 Nights and Arabic culture. Of Arabic tales, the 1001 Nights is by far the most popular globally,
because of its very popular 19th transcription and subsequent French translation, by Henry Torrens in
1811. This edition was updated and revised several times, at times including stories not from the Arabic,
but the Egyptian tradition. "Aladdin and the Jinni," is from the non-original text, but is also one of the
most popularly re-told stories from the Al-Hakawati tradition. Many of the stories in the (transcripted and
translated) oral Al-Hakawati tradition deal with the traditional Arabic values of faith in Allah, outwitting
the "other" (within the framework of a story series that is designed to trick the king into not killing his
wife, the ultimate storyteller. ) The fisherman outwits the Jinni by asking him to "prove" that he fit into
his jar, and traps him in the jar, and then convinces the Jinni to stay in the jar by beginning yet another
story about the Jinni and the beautiful lovers, and after that, the storyteller begins a story about a king

with two sons, telling a story about a princess who is promised to marry a man, but ends up marrying his
wife in disguise. The man has adventures of his own, is eventually reconciled with his wife, marries the
princess as his second wife, and becomes the king. The storyteller then reminds us that we've only just
learned about one of the king's sons, saying, paralleling the trickster wife from the original story, that that
is a story for another night.
The theatrical form of Al-hakawati often has stories the highlight traditional Arabic truths, like
faith in Allah, eventually repeated actions (" a father wanted his son to marry, so he asked him to find a
wife, but his son refused. He was advised to wait one more year, and the next year went to ask his son to
find a wife; his son refused... " (from "The Jinni and the Beautiful lovers.") Like the 1001 nights, many
Arabic fables are framed as stories within other stories, highlighting parallel themes, like trickery,
outwitting, marriage, destiny and desire, and proving faithful to Allah. Al-hakawati is traditionally
performed in public paces; in Beirut and Damascus, until recently, there was an in-house al-hakawati at
most coffee shops and similar establishments. The stories told are often short and easy enough to follow,
and, as traditional tales, are familiar to the listeners, who can follow as they trickle in or out. The audience
in these situations are more fluid, so the stories require a shorter listening period to engage people
differently. In more formal situations, and even in some coffee shops, these performances can include
puppetry, similar to the karagoz tradition, and musicians who also create foley-type sounds for the stories.
The 1001 Nights certainly lends itself to being performed in this way, although it seems that most stories
could easily be adapted for this form. Lebanese theatre's earlies origins come form Al-Hakawati, and
theatrical plays reflecting the western ideas of theatre began as recently as 1848, with an adapted version
of the 1001 Nights, along with adapted French operettas. The new works of that time have not yet been
translated to English. The first originally Arabic show was created by Marun Al-Naqqash, and was an
adaptation of 1001 Arabian nights, called Abu Al-Hasan Al-Mughaffal." The 1001 Nights seem to have
staying power, and have been adapted in hundred of ways, from an Animated Disney film, to a 19 th
century performance at the Ballet Russe and recently an adaption at the Berkeley Rep by Mary

Zimmerman. While the Al-hakawati practice is becoming decreasingly popular, this story has staying
power, as a result of its proliferation to the west, and will likely be around longer than its parent tradtion.