Eastern Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page A

reflecting a multi-ethnic culture presided over by a generally tolerant Muslim hierarchy.
    In a society where much of the population was of mixed lineage, there was little tension caused by racial prejudice, and few rivalries born of creed or religious differences. Enjoying an elevated standard of living based on commercial importance and administrative efficiency, the Abbasid caliphate is the capital of Muslim heritage, a civilization centred in a marvel town that has assumed the status of a shining city in a golden time—one immortalized by the English poet James Thomson in his “Castle of Indolence”:
    Such the gay Splendor, the luxurious State,
Of
Caliphs
old, who on the Tygris’ Shore,
In mighty
Bagdat
, populous and great,
Held their bright Court, where was of Ladies shore;
And Verse, Love, Music, still the Garland wore.
    The analogy between Abbasid Baghdad and Camelot is not as unrealistic as it might seem, since the caliphate had its own version of King Arthur among its rulers—the fifth caliph, known as Haroun al-Rashid or “Aaron, the Righteous.” Like his legendary British counterpart, Haroun made such a strong impression on his age that he swiftly passed into myth. Thanks to numerous appearances in
The Thousand and One Nights
, he is today the most famous of the caliphs in the West, yet even during his own time his name was familiar to Europeans as a ruler of magnificent power and wealth.
    The reign of the historical Haroun al-Rashid, from 786 until his death in 809, is still remembered as Islam’s greatest period. Muslim lore depicts him as a paragon among kings, one whose enlightened regard for his subjects superseded all other concerns. Chief among this caliph’s legendary exploits was his habit of disguising himself as a commoner to descend among his people and gauge their mood and temper. As Scheherazade remarks, Haroun would often go out “to solace himself in the city … and to see and hear what new thing was stirring,” often accompanied by his trusted vizier, Jafar. Haroun’s adventures among the lowly provided ample material for court storytellers to flatter the historical caliph by including him in tales designed to showcase his wisdom and righteousness.
    From these nocturnal excursions come a number of
Arabian Nights
stories placing Haroun, Jafar or Haroun’s main wife, the lady Zubayda, at the centre of events. As both observer and participant in his subjects’ affairs, Haroun is generally shown to be wise, beneficent and even playful, as in “The Sleeper Awakened,”in which the caliph tricks a sleeping man into thinking he is the true Commander of the Faithful. Sometimes Haroun merely watches events unfold or hears a story from another party; on other occasions, he acts as a narrative
deus ex machina
, bringing matters to a just conclusion. Such was Haroun’s fame that his reign has become more closely identified with the setting of the
Nights
than any other era.
Arabian Nights
’ tales occur in many different times and places, but it is Haroun’s world—the Baghdad of the early Abbasid caliphate—that provides our imaginations with the work’s most common locale and period.
    Nowhere is this better illustrated than in verse the young Alfred Tennyson included in his first volume of published poetry. Written to memorialize the delight of reading the
Nights
as a child—“the silken sail of infancy”—Tennyson’s fourteen-stanza “Recollections of the Arabian Nights” is a work of aching nostalgia for the era of al-Rashid, which he contrasts sharply with the depressing reality of the early Industrial Age. Envisioning himself a loyal caliphate subject travelling languidly along the Tigris, Tennyson tarries in exquisite gardens, gazes upon a beautiful Persian girl and finally beholds the great Haroun himself, enthroned beneath a golden canopy. “Thereon,” the poet writes,