0:00:08 > 0:00:12So Scheherazade said, "Can I tell you a story to while away the night?
0:00:14 > 0:00:20"I heard that in a distant part of China lived a poor widow with her feckless son Aladdin.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23"One day a wandering magician approached Aladdin in the market place..."
0:00:25 > 0:00:29As a boy I loved the Arabian Nights, a riotous collection of adventures
0:00:29 > 0:00:32and tales of love, magic and revenge.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37I want to find out where these stories come from,
0:00:37 > 0:00:41and what they can still tell us about the Arab world today,
0:00:41 > 0:00:441,000 years after they were first recorded.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48Even for us in the Middle East this is the fantasy version
0:00:48 > 0:00:49of the Middle East.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53Not all the good characters will end up alive or fine
0:00:53 > 0:00:57and not all the stories will end well but justice will be done.
0:00:59 > 0:01:06On my travels I will discover that my childhood favourite is not actually a children's book at all.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10In the Middle East it is still deeply controversial.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14There is too much drinking. There is too much sex. Too much frivolity.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18You are not being rewarded for being good. You are being rewarded for being lucky.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20So the book is considered an immoral book.
0:01:23 > 0:01:29I'll also discover how they first arrived in Britain, and how they shaped our view of the Arab world.
0:01:29 > 0:01:36It's a story of how a best-seller launched a craze for an exoticised and erotic Middle East.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03Many of us discover the Nights through one of our best-loved pantos.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05New lamps for old!
0:02:05 > 0:02:08New lamps for old!
0:02:09 > 0:02:16The story of Aladdin, who finds a magic lamp and, with the help of its genie, gains love and riches,
0:02:16 > 0:02:20has been a staple of British theatre for two centuries.
0:02:20 > 0:02:21'It's a magical panto, Aladdin.'
0:02:21 > 0:02:24It's extraordinary that these stories which have been
0:02:24 > 0:02:28- done in this theatre in Drury Lane for 200 years...- Yeah.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31- Did you ever read the original stories?- I did, yeah.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36I remember getting a book with the most beautiful illustrations and they were glorious.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38I'll never forget the image of the genie.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41You know, the wisp of smoke and there is half a body.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44And they always stand like this for some unknown reason.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47Why Aladdin? What is it that attracts people to it?
0:02:47 > 0:02:50I think Aladdin is all about wishes.
0:02:50 > 0:02:55It's about the underdog getting one over on everybody.
0:02:55 > 0:03:00Aladdin is this street kid and he's got all these fantastic dreams, wishes and ambitions.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03And he lives with his mother and she runs a laundrette
0:03:03 > 0:03:06and life's rotten and it is never going to happen for him.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08But it does, with the help of a little magic.
0:03:10 > 0:03:17Sinbad The Sailor is another great favourite to spring from the pages of the Arabian Nights.
0:03:17 > 0:03:24Having lost all his money, Sinbad must sail out on many perilous adventures to regain his fortune.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad...
0:03:28 > 0:03:31See the attack of the giant two-headed bird!
0:03:31 > 0:03:37See the dance of the Cobra woman and feel her deadly slithering embrace!
0:03:37 > 0:03:43See the spectacular battle between the one-eyed cyclops and the fire-breathing dragon.
0:03:45 > 0:03:53Sinbad and Aladdin are two of the 1,001 tales linked by Scheherazade's frame story.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57She marries King Shahryar to break his cycle of revenge.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02Betrayed by his first wife, he is executing each
0:04:02 > 0:04:07of his virgin brides the morning after their wedding night.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12Scheherazade herself is faced with a tremendous problem - genocide.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15The Sultan is killing all the women in the kingdom,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18and alone, she stands up and fights it.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21She's a great feminist heroine, in her own way.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26She's telling stories to save her life.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Each ends on a cliff-hanger,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32so that the King lets her live to hear the next instalment.
0:04:32 > 0:04:38"If I am still alive tomorrow night, I shall tell you something stranger
0:04:38 > 0:04:40"and more amazing than this."
0:04:40 > 0:04:42It's pulp fiction. It's the equivalent
0:04:42 > 0:04:44of graphic novels or something.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46At times it's filthy.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48It's got smutty jokes in it.
0:04:48 > 0:04:49It's highly romanticised.
0:04:49 > 0:04:54The canonical Arabic literature scholars thought of this as trash.
0:04:58 > 0:05:04These 1,001 stories, that have so powerfully inspired Western artists, writers and filmmakers,
0:05:04 > 0:05:09had their roots 1,000 years ago in the oral traditions of the East.
0:05:16 > 0:05:21I'm travelling back in time to the Sahara to experience the world that created them.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38We've been driving for a few hundred miles south of Cairo
0:05:38 > 0:05:42and these are the first proper sand dunes we have seen.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44Star Wars land.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47God!
0:05:52 > 0:05:53Thank god he stopped!
0:05:53 > 0:05:56It's straight down.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05Oh, wow...
0:06:15 > 0:06:17What's extraordinary is that that old expression -
0:06:17 > 0:06:20the shifting sands of time - when you're actually in it
0:06:20 > 0:06:25and you see this sand moving so swiftly like this and recovering everybody's tracks.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28It feels completely nomadic.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32Your sense of who you are in the universe,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36how important you might be as a human, counts for absolutely squit.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49It's one thing to read these stories when you're at home in the comfort of your bed.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51When you're here in the landscape of the desert,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54which is so vast with nothing between yourself and Timbuktu,
0:06:54 > 0:06:59it's awe-inspiring and your sense of being a grain of sand
0:06:59 > 0:07:00is all too obvious.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05So that as the light is all gone and the temperatures go, you can imagine
0:07:05 > 0:07:10sand storms conjuring up genies or phantoms and it is these stories that provided
0:07:10 > 0:07:16a human narrative thread through this landscape which is completely inhuman and has no life whatsoever.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24So Scheherazade began -
0:07:24 > 0:07:30I heard that the second dervish told how the king's daughter drew talismanic shapes in the sand,
0:07:30 > 0:07:37whispered magic charms, and in a short time, the world turned dark,
0:07:37 > 0:07:42until he could see nothing but a genie rushing out of the sky.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49This atmosphere of enchantment, this atmosphere of wonder,
0:07:49 > 0:07:51that is very specific to the book.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55There is a sense of a kind of endlessly emancipated imagination.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58You don't feel that you need to observe
0:07:58 > 0:08:01any of the co-ordinates of ordinary life.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05They're simply asking you to let your imagination fly.
0:08:18 > 0:08:24The seeds of the Arabian Nights lie scattered across the whole of Asia and the Middle East.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29They include folk tales from India, and mystical stories from Persia.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32As these stories were carried by travellers
0:08:32 > 0:08:35on the great trade routes, they developed and took shape.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45Long before the diesel engine,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49there was only one way of travelling through these wildernesses.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52Camel trains could cross continents,
0:08:52 > 0:08:56carrying everything from silks and silver, to fabulous tales.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06It keeps you going all day?
0:09:06 > 0:09:08- Very good.- Very good.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11It's very sweet. My teeth will fall out.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19Even as far back as the ninth century,
0:09:19 > 0:09:24the story of Scheherazade was being told and retold by the hakawati,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27traditional Arabic storytellers, in places just like this.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51If you look at the trade routes of how goods travelled
0:09:51 > 0:09:52from the East...
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Look at something like tea or coffee - and coffee figures
0:09:55 > 0:10:00greatly in the Arabian Nights - the trade routes of coffee are the trade routes of the stories.
0:10:03 > 0:10:10There are cobblers, beggars, kings and tyrants, wise men, fools and so forth.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14There's a huge range and panoply of human character and diversity
0:10:14 > 0:10:21and class and a lot of emphasis on merchants and on trade.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25And so I think that, in a sense, gives support to this idea that
0:10:25 > 0:10:28the stories are part of this transport system
0:10:28 > 0:10:30that is crossing the globe.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Hold on here...and how do I steer?
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Good. Thank you.
0:10:43 > 0:10:49This is real time travel because there is no difference between now and 1,000 years ago, I imagine.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53The landscape looked the same. The animals would be the same.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56It's extraordinary that this is the way the stories and the people
0:10:56 > 0:10:59travelled across these vast expanses.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04What a privilege.
0:11:04 > 0:11:05Yallah!
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Caravans flooded into the great cities of Baghdad,
0:11:28 > 0:11:33Damascus and Cairo which became vibrant hubs of exchange.
0:11:33 > 0:11:38Gossip and travellers tales were traded as freely as silks and spices.
0:11:48 > 0:11:53Plunging into these narrow alleys, I feel I am back in the medieval world of the Nights.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57Everywhere I look I am reminded of familiar stories.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09I used to love the rags to riches story
0:12:09 > 0:12:11of Ali Baba And The 40 Thieves.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14He's poor as dirt until he finds treasure hidden
0:12:14 > 0:12:15in the robbers' cave.
0:12:15 > 0:12:20But then they come after him and hide in enormous pots
0:12:20 > 0:12:23in his courtyard, planning to wreak revenge.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38It's a sensory overload here. Incredible.
0:12:46 > 0:12:53'Gamal El-Ghitani is editor of Egypt's leading literary magazine and one of its greatest writers.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56'He's been passionate about the 1,001 Arabian Nights for 60 years.'
0:12:56 > 0:12:59Did you grow up in an area like this?
0:13:35 > 0:13:39Gamal, just hearing you talk, what I'm so struck by is that you've got,
0:13:39 > 0:13:44literally, solid, touchable historic buildings here.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47You're the walking, talking oral history and it's like layers
0:13:47 > 0:13:52upon layers of paint, wood, plaster, behind the plaster, more bricks.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54And, behind here, more secret life.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58It seems to me that that is almost like what the story is like.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02They fold in on each other one after another. Do you think that's true?
0:14:02 > 0:14:04Yes, exactly.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09Do you remember the first story out of 1,001 Nights that you read when you were a boy?
0:14:27 > 0:14:29She's hiding?
0:14:35 > 0:14:38Can you imagine?
0:14:38 > 0:14:40But that happens in all the stories.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45Somebody hiding in a tree, in a building, listening to what somebody else is doing.
0:14:57 > 0:15:04So Scheherazade said to King Shahryar, "Can I tell you a story to while away the night?"
0:15:04 > 0:15:07And Scheherazade began.
0:15:08 > 0:15:14I heard that the king walked to the centre of the palace.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18And looking around saw no-one...
0:15:25 > 0:15:30This is a salon in one of the great medieval merchant's houses
0:15:30 > 0:15:33where they would have all been seated on cushions over here
0:15:33 > 0:15:39and then watching travelling players performing street theatre versions
0:15:39 > 0:15:42of the 1,001 Nights.
0:15:53 > 0:15:59The palace was furnished with silk carpets, leather mats and woven cushions.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06But beyond the inner courtyard, he heard bitter weeping
0:16:06 > 0:16:10and moving towards the source of the wailing, lifted a curtain beyond
0:16:10 > 0:16:17a door and found a beautiful young man sitting on a throne.
0:16:17 > 0:16:22"Why do you cry?" he asked and the young man lifted his robe.
0:16:22 > 0:16:28From his navel to his head he was human flesh but from the waist down
0:16:28 > 0:16:30he was black stone.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41Scheherazade is one of the most enduring characters in world literature.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44Why do you think that is?
0:16:44 > 0:16:47She saved herself through the power of the word.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50She knew history, she knew magical stories.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52She was a great entertainer
0:16:52 > 0:16:56but it is through the power of the word that she saves herself
0:16:56 > 0:17:00and cures her husband, her Shahryar,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04from a misogynist throughout the stories,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08so that midway he becomes intrigued by her.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12She had figuratively and literally sat him on a couch
0:17:12 > 0:17:14and psyched him out.
0:17:14 > 0:17:20And she actually says in the introduction to the collected stories,
0:17:20 > 0:17:24she says, "I am doing this to save myself and my sisters."
0:17:24 > 0:17:29So the feminists caught on to that and they said,
0:17:29 > 0:17:33"Aha, there she is. She is doing something not just for herself
0:17:33 > 0:17:36"and the women of her time, but for women throughout."
0:17:36 > 0:17:42Actually she was very clever because the early stories reinforced
0:17:42 > 0:17:46the king in his views of woman as being fickle
0:17:46 > 0:17:48and not to be trusted.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52And then, little by little, they change in tone.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57Again and again, there are stories told,
0:17:57 > 0:17:59warning against sudden decisions,
0:17:59 > 0:18:05arbitrary tyranny, and recommending more mercy, more tolerance.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10The psychology of the book deepens and deepens as you go along
0:18:10 > 0:18:15into more complexity, more understanding, more sympathy,
0:18:15 > 0:18:20and, above all, less paranoia about women's sexuality.
0:18:26 > 0:18:32Scheherazade's stories show the Medieval Arab cities as prosperous, mercantile places.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39Although essentially Islamic, they had a rich mix of other faiths.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46The storytellers, or hakawati, peddled a repertoire
0:18:46 > 0:18:50of irreverent tales which satirised everyone equally.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56There are many stories which show multi-cultural cities
0:18:56 > 0:19:01that are highly recognisable in terms of contemporary reality,
0:19:01 > 0:19:03and the Hunchback, to some extent, is one of them.
0:19:03 > 0:19:09This is coarse, bawdy humour, an example of the street humour,
0:19:09 > 0:19:12stand-up comedian humour, of certain stories in the Nights.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18A tailor and his wife met a drunk but very entertaining hunchback
0:19:18 > 0:19:20and invited him round for dinner.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24Midway through a riotous evening, the hunchback, who happened to be
0:19:24 > 0:19:27a close friend of the Caliph of Basra, choked on a large piece
0:19:27 > 0:19:29of fish and dropped down dead.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35The tailor lugged the body up the stairs, dumped it outside the door
0:19:35 > 0:19:38of the Jewish doctor, knocked and then ran off.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44The doctor opened the doors, tripped over the body in the dark
0:19:44 > 0:19:46and set it tumbling down the stairs.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50Now the doctor is terrified he'll be accused of killing a patient
0:19:50 > 0:19:54so he carries the body onto the roof and dumps it into the courtyard
0:19:54 > 0:19:55of his Muslim neighbour.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02Hearing a thud the neighbour rushes out, thinking it's a burglar,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05beats him up and mistakenly believes
0:20:05 > 0:20:09he's killed a man and has to haul the body off.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13The Muslim neighbour dumped the body in a darkened alleyway.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15Then a drunken Christian trader came along,
0:20:15 > 0:20:19fell over the body, thought he was about to be robbed and beat it up.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23This alerted a night-watchman who hauled the drunk Christian trader
0:20:23 > 0:20:25off to the police where he was accused of murder.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31Just as the Christian trader is about to be executed,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34the Muslim neighbour rushes forward.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36"It was me, not him, who killed the hunchback".
0:20:39 > 0:20:42The executioner grabbed him and put his head on the block.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Just then the Jewish doctor confessed to the crime.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49And then the tailor too said, "No, it was me who killed him!"
0:20:51 > 0:20:57At this moment, the hunchback sat bolt upright, choked and coughed up the fishbone.
0:20:57 > 0:21:03I love this story for its sense of slapstick, comedy and farce.
0:21:03 > 0:21:08The behaviour of the Muslim, the Jew and the Christian are all as bad as each other.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12And the stereotypes, caricatures are recognisable across the centuries.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16Oral stories like this were collected and written down
0:21:16 > 0:21:21in the great cities of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26In the tenth century, an Arab historian records that they were
0:21:26 > 0:21:29called Alf Layla - 1,000 Nights.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37This kaleidoscope of stories might never have reached the West
0:21:37 > 0:21:41but for the chance discovery of a French traveller to the Arab world.
0:21:54 > 0:22:00I've come to Paris to discover how a dusty Syrian manuscript became an overnight literary sensation.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02It was translated by Antoine Galland,
0:22:02 > 0:22:06a brilliant linguist and a great favourite of Louis XIV.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12Antoine Galland was a prodigy from a poor background
0:22:12 > 0:22:16who spoke Persian, Arabic, Turkish and Hebrew.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21He went to look for manuscripts for Christian theology,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25and he came back deeply admiring of the Middle East.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27He translated the Koran.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31He became the first great French Arabist and, in a way,
0:22:31 > 0:22:36opened up the possibility of mutual respect.
0:22:36 > 0:22:43The European West simply did not know that much about
0:22:43 > 0:22:48western Asia, what we now refer to as the Middle East, at all.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52And it was still an age of discovery on the part of Europe
0:22:52 > 0:22:54when it came to both East and West.
0:22:56 > 0:23:02Galland was about to revolutionise the West's view of the Arab World.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05He started with a story about the amazing voyages
0:23:05 > 0:23:10of a character called Sinbad and went on to translate dozens more.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15I'm about to see the original manuscripts Galland translated,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18now treasured in France's National Library.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21Annie Vernay-Nouri is their curator.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26- Annie, can we have a look at the books?- Yes.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31This is the three volumes of Galland.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35This manuscript is from the 14th century.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38So this paper is 14th Century?
0:23:38 > 0:23:45Yes, because it is oriental paper and when we see this writing,
0:23:45 > 0:23:49we can say that is an old writing of the 14th century.
0:23:49 > 0:23:55So, the Arabic that's written here, is that the equivalent of Shakespeare in English?
0:23:55 > 0:23:57No, it's not exactly the same.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59- So you can read this? - Yes, I can read this.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02I think it's easier than Shakespeare,
0:24:02 > 0:24:08because it's not a very good literature. It's an oral tradition.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11- It's the language of the street? - Yes, exactly.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15Annie, can you tell me what the red writing is compared to the black?
0:24:15 > 0:24:20We have a sort of title.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23- So it's like a chapter heading?- Yes. Just like the beginning of a chapter.
0:24:23 > 0:24:28In the Nights, at the beginning of each Night,
0:24:28 > 0:24:34you have always the same sentence which begins the tale, or story.
0:24:34 > 0:24:41So is it the equivalent of fairy stories where it always begins, "Once upon a time..." ?
0:24:41 > 0:24:44Yes, it's the same.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53Galland's translations were a sensation with the ladies at court.
0:24:56 > 0:25:03They gathered in salons - the book groups of their day - to relish and read aloud whatever was new.
0:25:07 > 0:25:13One of the reasons they become popular so quickly is that they fit
0:25:13 > 0:25:19very neatly with the already fashionable trend for reading fairy tales.
0:25:19 > 0:25:25We mustn't forget that it is only in 1698, 1697 that French writers
0:25:25 > 0:25:31like Perrault and Madame d'Aulnoy are publishing their fairy tales and it becomes fashionable
0:25:31 > 0:25:35for women in Parisian salons to talk about fairy tales.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39So in some ways Galland is extraordinarily fortunate in his timing.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44Galland comes across and says, "Hey, I've got a whole new bunch of stories for you."
0:25:44 > 0:25:48Not only that, as he says in his preface quite explicitly,
0:25:48 > 0:25:51"These are better than anything that we've got."
0:25:57 > 0:26:03They were a runaway success, quickly filtering down from court to ordinary readers.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15Fans would congregate under Galland's window demanding more.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19But how did he feed this appetite for the stories?
0:26:19 > 0:26:22I am hoping writer Margaret Sironval has the answer.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09He wasn't merely a translator, but a storyteller in his own right.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16Having listened to the stories, Galland created his own embellished versions.
0:27:16 > 0:27:21Among these were Aladdin and Ali Baba, some of our best-known tales in the West.
0:27:21 > 0:27:26Was he the Dan Brown, Da Vinci Code of his age?
0:27:53 > 0:27:57The Arabian Nights really was a literary epic, numbering 12 volumes
0:27:57 > 0:28:00in as many years. Once the genie was out of the bottle
0:28:00 > 0:28:01it couldn't be put back inside.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05It's some irony that the most famous stories in the Nights
0:28:05 > 0:28:09were either added or possibly invented by Galland himself.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20An anonymous translation of Galland's book appeared in Britain in 1706,
0:28:20 > 0:28:23two years after taking Paris by storm.
0:28:23 > 0:28:31Called The Arabian Nights Entertainments, it amazed and astonished English readers.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34What's really striking, I think, for a modern reader
0:28:34 > 0:28:40and a modern audience is that this was affected by word of mouth.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43It was simply people telling one another about it.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48Readers were instantly captivated by an exotic new form of magic,
0:28:48 > 0:28:52quite unlike anything they'd encountered before.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03The magic in the Arabian Nights is rather different from the magic
0:29:03 > 0:29:05in Western myths and fairy tales.
0:29:05 > 0:29:06Cinderella doesn't fly.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08Sleeping Beauty doesn't fly.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10Red Riding Hood doesn't fly.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13But all the heroes and heroines fly in the Nights.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17All the delirious freedoms of transformation of illusion,
0:29:17 > 0:29:21all the spectacular effects, you could find them in the Nights.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32The book offered a rich portrait of an exotic East,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35whose colours, clothes and perfumes fascinated British readers.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41The fashion for the Nights as a text, as a narrative,
0:29:41 > 0:29:46certainly whet the appetite and cultivated the fashion
0:29:46 > 0:29:54for oriental, or what was perceived to be oriental, furniture and design.
0:29:55 > 0:30:01It becomes popular to have your portrait painted in Oriental, or pseudo-Oriental, garb.
0:30:03 > 0:30:09People turned Turk, donning turbans, wearing exotic clothes, draping themselves over divans and ottomans
0:30:09 > 0:30:12and drinking mind-blowing amounts of caffeinated coffee.
0:30:16 > 0:30:22They used Oriental fashions, Oriental ways of being, in order to have their pleasures,
0:30:22 > 0:30:28from the dressing gowns that the aristocrats wore, to their slippers and their turbans.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34It is, if you like, the phenomenon of the fancy dress ball.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38You can have much more fun in fancy dress than you can in your own clothes.
0:30:38 > 0:30:40But for some, it proved too much.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44In 1711, the Earl of Shaftesbury denounced the Nights for causing
0:30:44 > 0:30:49what he called, "the Desdemona tendency" among its female readers.
0:30:49 > 0:30:54"The Nights excite in them a passion for a mysterious race
0:30:54 > 0:30:58"of black enchanters, such as of old used to creep into houses,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01"and lead captive silly women."
0:31:04 > 0:31:07But the Earl could not stem the tide.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11Dozens of cheap new versions of the Nights were appearing
0:31:11 > 0:31:17and the individual stories of Sinbad, Ali Baba and Aladdin were readily available.
0:31:18 > 0:31:23We feel we're going through a kind of information technology revolution right now
0:31:23 > 0:31:25and being overloaded with information.
0:31:25 > 0:31:31Very much the same kind of thing was happening in the 18th century -
0:31:31 > 0:31:36a genuine revolution in printing technology and letters.
0:31:37 > 0:31:43These chapbooks would have been available for sale not only in bookstores, but also
0:31:43 > 0:31:48by traditional chapbook sellers, who would have their stalls on street corners.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52Things were passed from hand to hand so often, and a single copy might
0:31:52 > 0:31:56have been read by 40, 50 readers. We don't know how many.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59AUDIENCE APPLAUSE
0:32:02 > 0:32:07The Arabian Nights Entertainments was a great source of material for 18th-Century dramatists,
0:32:07 > 0:32:12who mined them not only for their stories, but for their exoticism and their magic.
0:32:12 > 0:32:19The first-ever recorded performance of Aladdin took place here in Drury Lane, in Covent Garden, in 1788,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22the year before the French Revolution.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25AUDIENCE "OOHS "AND "AAHS"
0:32:29 > 0:32:30CHILDREN CHEER
0:32:30 > 0:32:36The Theatre Royal launched Aladdin, where it quickly became one of Britain's best-loved pantos.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39The core story, of a penniless young lawbreaker,
0:32:39 > 0:32:43who wins a fortune and falls in love with a beautiful princess,
0:32:43 > 0:32:49became the framework for some of the cheesiest gags and greatest stage characters ever devised.
0:32:49 > 0:32:50Queen of them all? Widow Twankey.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54- Grab hold of this washing for me. I'm going to hang it out.- OK.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58DRUM ROLL
0:32:58 > 0:33:00LAUGHTER
0:33:00 > 0:33:03That's what I call a spin dry.
0:33:03 > 0:33:05You're playing Widow Twankey this Christmas?
0:33:05 > 0:33:06Yes, this Christmas.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10I'm basing mine on Elsie Tanner and her relationship with Dennis.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12Remember her son?
0:33:12 > 0:33:16She's all hands on hips and "Eh, Elsie, you're son's setting fast."
0:33:16 > 0:33:21She's always skint, so she's the ideal role model for Twankey, Elsie Tanner.
0:33:21 > 0:33:27"I've got this terrible life of destitution, all I do is wash and wash." All this nonsense.
0:33:27 > 0:33:28"Our Aladdin, he's tagged,"
0:33:28 > 0:33:35because our Aladdin's got a tag on and he's tweeting on his mobile.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39So she's a modern mum, my Twankey.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43See, you can mix all these elements together and get away with them.
0:33:43 > 0:33:48Do you think that is how the stories have survived? As they've gone through the centuries,
0:33:48 > 0:33:52- people have just localised them every time?- Yeah, and panto's very contemporary, as well.
0:33:52 > 0:33:53It has to be.
0:33:53 > 0:33:58- Given the framework of the story and then you can just say anything? - Then you hang things on it.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01You've got this lovely skeleton and then you can go in
0:34:01 > 0:34:03and embroider it yourself, to your heart's content.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05What's your connection with Aladdin?
0:34:05 > 0:34:10I first discovered Aladdin when I was about seven and somebody bought me, I think it was an auntie,
0:34:10 > 0:34:15she bought me one of those Pollock's toy theatres, cut it all out, all the characters.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19Well, I didn't cut it out, me dad did, because I wasn't trusted with a Stanley knife.
0:34:19 > 0:34:24And they were all on little sticks. I remember the cave had a rock that rolled over the hole.
0:34:24 > 0:34:29There was a script that came with it, that I learnt religiously, line for line for line.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32Nobody around to watch this thing, just me.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34I can still remember it, to this day.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38I can still remember the villain's curse, when he put Aladdin in the cave,
0:34:38 > 0:34:44which was, "Listen, Aladdin, this is your end, you are my foe and you are not my friend.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48"May your life be full of strife, the princess will never be your wife.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52"May all the fruit you eat turn sour, may you get hiccups every hour.
0:34:52 > 0:34:57"May you find wet paint upon each seat, may you get corns upon your feet.
0:34:57 > 0:35:02"Now my patience you've sorely tried, the cave is sealed with you inside."
0:35:09 > 0:35:12Ayesha Dharker grew up with stories like this in India.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17She recently played Scheherazade with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
0:35:19 > 0:35:24The Nights introduces this idea of cunning, of living by your wits,
0:35:24 > 0:35:28that you may not be the smartest and the prettiest and the brightest,
0:35:28 > 0:35:33but that there are certain tools that you can use to survive, you can use stories to survive.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37You don't have to be born beautiful, rich and powerful, all the things that...?
0:35:37 > 0:35:41Well, the stories have rich, powerful, unbelievable things in them, too,
0:35:41 > 0:35:45and also the fact that something is ordinary must never be taken for granted.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52Very often, the most ordinary object, like the most ordinary lamp,
0:35:52 > 0:35:55the ugliest, most dented, small, useless lamp,
0:35:55 > 0:36:00will turn into a fortune that houses a genie that has been waiting for
0:36:00 > 0:36:05thousands of years and is very angry at being stuck in this tiny thing.
0:36:05 > 0:36:10Originally he would have granted you wishes, but now, because you've taken 100 years extra long,
0:36:10 > 0:36:12he wants to kill you and has complete right to do so.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16So, you know, the ordinary is a very dangerous term.
0:36:20 > 0:36:22EVIL LAUGHTER
0:36:22 > 0:36:26The magical reversals of fortune in the Nights captivated
0:36:26 > 0:36:31the imagination of Charles Dickens and hugely influenced his writing.
0:36:31 > 0:36:38Dickens encountered the stories when he was very young, about six, and characters, references
0:36:38 > 0:36:43to the Nights, to individual stories, feature in almost every single novel that he wrote.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47They're particularly prominent in the Christmas stories.
0:36:47 > 0:36:52'Suddenly a man in foreign garments, wonderfully real and distinct to look at,
0:36:52 > 0:36:58'stood outside the window, with an axe stuck in his belt and, leading by the bridle,
0:36:58 > 0:37:03'an ass laden with wood. "Why, it's Ali Baba!"
0:37:03 > 0:37:06'Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10' "It's dear old honest Ali Baba." '
0:37:10 > 0:37:15That's how magical the texts are for him,
0:37:15 > 0:37:19that sense of dazzling possibility and excitement,
0:37:19 > 0:37:22and he never lets it go, he's constantly fascinated by them.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27The Victorians read the Arabian Nights avidly,
0:37:27 > 0:37:31but its sexual content both seduced and scandalised them.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36Arabist Edward Lane drastically censored his translation for the Victorian family.
0:37:38 > 0:37:39Lane was the son of a clergyman.
0:37:39 > 0:37:45He was a scholar, he spent time in Egypt, he knew his Arabic,
0:37:45 > 0:37:49and he knew what he was doing, but, apparently, he didn't read
0:37:49 > 0:37:53all that much in English, apart from the Bible, so when it comes to
0:37:53 > 0:37:59translating the Nights, if you look at Lane's version now, it's very archaic. He's a bit prurient,
0:37:59 > 0:38:05so he cuts them, he omits anything of an explicitly sexual nature
0:38:05 > 0:38:12or anything that would be in any way possibly indecent, indecorous.
0:38:12 > 0:38:13He's a bit of a prude.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18Many children's versions were published around this time.
0:38:18 > 0:38:23They drew heavily on Lane's sanitised translation of the Arabian Nights.
0:38:23 > 0:38:29It's very paradoxical the book was adapted for children, because it's probably one of the greatest studies
0:38:29 > 0:38:33of sexual desire that has been written, certainly written at that stage.
0:38:33 > 0:38:40That is one of the reasons why the book appealed to 18th-century readers in the first place
0:38:40 > 0:38:44and was then cleaned up by the Victorians, because they didn't like that side of it.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49After all that the stories have gone through in the West, I want to know
0:38:49 > 0:38:52if they are still causing trouble where they came from.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56I'm taking a magic carpet ride back to Cairo to find out.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18As one of the characters in the Nights declares,
0:39:18 > 0:39:22"Whoever has not seen Cairo, has not seen the world.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26"Its soil is gold, its river is a wonder, its women are houris,
0:39:26 > 0:39:33"its houses are palaces, its climate is mild and its scent is sweeter than frankincense."
0:39:40 > 0:39:46Today, Cairo is a sprawling megacity of around 20 million people,
0:39:46 > 0:39:49almost suffocating under the weight of its own traffic.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04'These traders are the descendants of the merchants in the Nights.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10'I'm wondering what these stories can mean to them now.'
0:40:14 > 0:40:16- Hi.- Hello, welcome.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18You made everything that's in here?
0:40:18 > 0:40:21- Everything is handmade.- Can I see?
0:40:21 > 0:40:25I would like you to see this masterpiece and the new design also.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30All handmade. I have more bigger than that one.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33- Can I see that?- Yeah, please.
0:40:37 > 0:40:42'Tariq Fattoh is at least the fifth generation to work in his family textile business.
0:40:42 > 0:40:47'He's currently creating his own version of the Arabian Nights stories.'
0:40:47 > 0:40:50This is new building, but the same idea from the souk.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57How old were you when you started making tapestries?
0:40:57 > 0:40:59- Six years.- Six years old?
0:40:59 > 0:41:01So you didn't want to be a doctor?
0:41:01 > 0:41:03- I am lawyer.- A lawyer?
0:41:03 > 0:41:05So you're a lawyer and a tapestry maker?
0:41:11 > 0:41:14I like you see that one. This is a special purchase.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18But I have one more better than that one, but all handmade.
0:41:22 > 0:41:28- So this is your interpretation of the 1,001 Arabian Nights?- Yeah.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31So where is Scheherazade on the picture?
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Scheherazade... Here. But not finished, but I have the....
0:41:34 > 0:41:36- Oh, she's here.- Yeah.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38I have the design here.
0:41:42 > 0:41:43So, I'm intrigued.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47Are you allowed to have her shown without any clothes on?
0:41:47 > 0:41:54Yeah, you see exactly from the television, from the book, from everything, exactly like that.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56Wow.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59So the whole of the Arabian Nights stories, all the myths and legends,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02are encompassed in this one picture here.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06You start off with the genie monster up here.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09And open the box,
0:42:09 > 0:42:11makes the dream come true.
0:42:11 > 0:42:16And then, you move down. Is it Ali Baba?
0:42:16 > 0:42:20And here's the magic flying horse, the prince on it.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23And over here, the king, inside his castle.
0:42:23 > 0:42:28And this is the slave, having sex with the princess.
0:42:28 > 0:42:33So you could say that the beginning and the end of the story of the Arabian Nights is all to do with sex
0:42:33 > 0:42:39and adultery and I certainly didn't think this when I read these stories when I was ten years old. Did you?
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Scheherazade's frame story is about adultery and betrayal.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54But there's also a lighter, funnier side to sex in the Nights,
0:42:54 > 0:42:58which has been cut out from our favourite children's versions.
0:42:59 > 0:43:04There are stories for a sophisticated audience, who relished sensuality.
0:43:08 > 0:43:14In the story of the porter and the three ladies, there's a list of all the luxuries and pleasures available
0:43:14 > 0:43:17to the very rich, which include "quinces, Amani peaches,
0:43:17 > 0:43:22"jasmine and water lilies from Syria, autumn cucumbers, lemons, Sultani oranges,
0:43:22 > 0:43:25"scented myrtle, privet flowers, camomile blossoms,
0:43:25 > 0:43:28"violets, red anemones, pomegranate blooms and eglantine."
0:43:28 > 0:43:30And that's just for starters.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40'So Scheherazade began.
0:43:40 > 0:43:45'I heard a porter was accosted by a veiled beauty in the market one day.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49"Take your basket and follow me," she said.'
0:43:52 > 0:43:54The porter had to stop at all the stalls.
0:43:54 > 0:44:00Now, Arab readers would have realised that this was a woman of enormous wealth and exquisite taste
0:44:00 > 0:44:03and that she was preparing a banquet to pamper all the senses
0:44:03 > 0:44:08and inviting the porter and us the readers along with it into her intoxicating world.
0:44:12 > 0:44:20'Laden with spices, fruits, sweetmeats and perfumes, he followed her to her door.
0:44:20 > 0:44:25'Once inside, he was delighted to meet her two beautiful sisters
0:44:25 > 0:44:30'and was soon intoxicated by the carousing and feasting that followed.
0:44:30 > 0:44:36'As all four plunged into the pool, kissing and biting,
0:44:36 > 0:44:41'cuffing and slapping, he feels he is seated amongst the houris of paradise.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48'When there was a sudden knock at the door, how could he have known what dark magic would be revealed?'
0:44:52 > 0:44:57The Porter and the Ladies of Baghdad has a wonderfully comic scene,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00a marvellous scene of erotical display,
0:45:00 > 0:45:07in which, they name with a very beautiful series of words, each other's private parts.
0:45:07 > 0:45:12That's one of the reasons why the Arabian Nights was condemned and criticised -
0:45:12 > 0:45:15there's too much drinking, there's too much sex,
0:45:15 > 0:45:18there's too much frivolity, there's too much immoral reward.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22You're not being rewarded for being good, you're being rewarded for being lucky
0:45:22 > 0:45:28and that's, you know, really against all religious thinking and teaching.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31So the book is considered an immoral book.
0:45:31 > 0:45:33ISLAMIC CALL TO PRAYER
0:45:51 > 0:45:57Until recently it's been hard to get hold of a complete version of the Arabian Nights in Egypt.
0:45:57 > 0:46:02When the book was reprinted in paperback earlier this year, one religious group
0:46:02 > 0:46:06called for it to be banned as an immoral and un-Islamic text.
0:46:13 > 0:46:19Gamal al Ghitani has received death threats from extremists for publishing a new edition.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15Why did they want to ban it?
0:47:56 > 0:48:03Soon after I arrived in Cairo, the Egyptian Attorney General rejected the call for a ban on the book.
0:48:03 > 0:48:08He ruled that the 1,001 Nights is one of humanity's greatest treasures.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20We have prayers starting.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24That's wonderful, because that's precisely when Scheherazade
0:48:24 > 0:48:27stopped telling her story.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29That was the pretext
0:48:29 > 0:48:31to stop - at dawn.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34Samia, what specifically did the clerics object to in the books?
0:48:37 > 0:48:40They piled up many objections,
0:48:40 > 0:48:42but I think that,
0:48:42 > 0:48:45among them the fact that
0:48:45 > 0:48:48some of the stories are sexually explicit,
0:48:48 > 0:48:52but also they went so far as to accuse the text,
0:48:52 > 0:48:55as whole, of being in contempt of religion.
0:48:55 > 0:49:01So do you feel that the Nights have been hijacked, to fulfil
0:49:01 > 0:49:06a religious edict, rather than what they are actually dealing with?
0:49:08 > 0:49:14It's not even a religious edict. It's more political, in the sense that it's a game between the state
0:49:14 > 0:49:20and these conservatives and they have always used culture, which is the soft spot
0:49:20 > 0:49:24to embarrass the state into that position of immorality.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31So the Nights have become part of a wider struggle
0:49:31 > 0:49:35between conservative and progressive forces in the Arab world.
0:49:36 > 0:49:43As editor of a fashion magazine, Yasmine Shihata has experienced this struggle first hand.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48You began the first women's magazine ten years ago
0:49:48 > 0:49:56and you now have 120 issues or stories, which are the stories of contemporary Egyptian women.
0:49:56 > 0:50:01Do you see a parallel that you are fighting the same battle
0:50:01 > 0:50:06against prejudice to be accepted, like Scheherazade was?
0:50:06 > 0:50:10Um, yes, I think, in many ways,
0:50:10 > 0:50:15I do relate to her, because these very. kind of,
0:50:15 > 0:50:21black and white attitudes about things, they still exist.
0:50:21 > 0:50:26You know, how the king has this experience and suddenly all women are not to be trusted.
0:50:26 > 0:50:34You do see this attitude still in the Middle East, a lot of lumping of stereotypes about women, about what
0:50:34 > 0:50:37is correct or what should be done and what shouldn't be done,
0:50:37 > 0:50:43what society expects. These are big things that hang over everybody here.
0:50:43 > 0:50:49Do you think that the image created by the 1,001 nights has given
0:50:49 > 0:50:52a false impression to the West of what the Middle East is really like?
0:50:52 > 0:50:59For a lot of people in the world, even for us in the Middle East, this is the fantasy version
0:50:59 > 0:51:02of the Middle East. The real day-to-day life is tough.
0:51:02 > 0:51:08That is why people are very religious, very conservative. A lot of it is tradition.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14If you look at a lot of the way young veiled women dress now,
0:51:14 > 0:51:19you can tell they want to be fashionable, they want to stand out,
0:51:19 > 0:51:24so they wear very colourful clothing - yes, they are covered - but they are wearing tight...
0:51:24 > 0:51:29- We saw that in the park yesterday. - They wear a lot of accessories, a lot of jewellery and make-up,
0:51:29 > 0:51:32so the whole idea of being veiled to blend in and to not stand out
0:51:32 > 0:51:37and to not attract male attention, which is really the origin of it,
0:51:37 > 0:51:44is completely irrelevant, because in some cases, by being veiled now they attract more attention.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56For centuries, the Nights was the West's main window
0:51:56 > 0:52:02onto the Arab world, shaping and even distorting our views of the people who live here.
0:52:02 > 0:52:08I'm sure that's not what Galland intended when he first translated these fabulous stories.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17The view that people have in the West,
0:52:17 > 0:52:22that the 1,001 Nights have exoticised or orientalised
0:52:22 > 0:52:25Arab life, do you think that has been positive
0:52:25 > 0:52:28or negative...or fantastical?
0:52:29 > 0:52:36I think fantastical. I mean, you're here in Cairo now and you can well see
0:52:36 > 0:52:43that the Nights and its vision of what Oriental people are like
0:52:43 > 0:52:50has very little to do with what you actually see on the streets, besides the architecture, I mean.
0:52:50 > 0:52:56But the great themes in the book, of seven deadly sins, lust and debauchery and faithfulness
0:52:56 > 0:53:04and fidelity and treason, and all of these things that do go on in life for evermore,
0:53:04 > 0:53:09as soon as you have got human beings anywhere, they are all encapsulated in these stories.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11And, therefore, they're universal stories.
0:53:11 > 0:53:15And they say not necessarily much about us as...
0:53:15 > 0:53:19- Any more than Hans Christian Andersen or..- Right, exactly...
0:53:19 > 0:53:22- ..or the Grimm's fairy tales tells us about Europe?- Precisely.
0:53:22 > 0:53:24They're fables.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27Yep, but very wise ones,
0:53:27 > 0:53:29in the sense that they tell us about
0:53:29 > 0:53:35ourselves as human beings everywhere, all the time, no matter when.
0:53:44 > 0:53:49I've discovered the 1,001 Nights are still relevant in the modern Arab world.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53But can they help connect the East to us now in the West?
0:53:58 > 0:54:03'I'm visiting an inspiring project in inner-city Paris, set up by Nafissa Lamotte.'
0:54:37 > 0:54:41Do you think these stories are still relevant for children to understand?
0:54:41 > 0:54:43- Do they still respond to them? - Oui.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08That's very interesting, because it began as an oral tradition and now
0:55:08 > 0:55:13the oral tradition is keeping their culture alive again, via the spoken word.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40- When you were a little girl? - Yes.- Moi aussi.
0:57:07 > 0:57:12I know the Arabian Nights are part of popular culture in the West, but I never expected to find such
0:57:12 > 0:57:18passion for them here in a tiny room in a Parisian suburb where, they are clearly alive well and kicking.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34'So Scheherazade said,
0:57:34 > 0:57:39'I heard that a poor merchant called Sinbad, who'd lost all his money,
0:57:39 > 0:57:43'set out to sail the seven seas and regain his fortune.'
0:57:46 > 0:57:51I feel rather like Sinbad, voyaging through this shared ocean of stories
0:57:51 > 0:57:55and discovering richer worlds than I ever could have imagined.
0:57:58 > 0:58:00For centuries in the East and the West,
0:58:00 > 0:58:05the stories have fed our hunger for entertainment, magic and hope.
0:58:06 > 0:58:11And it's because they continue to speak to us that I'm sure they'll never be suppressed.
0:58:12 > 0:58:16They are as irrepressible as the human imagination itself.
0:58:20 > 0:58:22'And leaving the island for the last time,
0:58:22 > 0:58:28'Sinbad boarded his boat and sailed on...'
0:58:50 > 0:58:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:53 > 0:58:56E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk