In Arabian Nights Read Online Free Page A

riches, every
inch of it bustling with brass lamps, silks, and rugs woven in
kaleidoscopic colours, spices and perfumes, sweetmeats and
dried chameleons for use in spells. The shade of the medina was
contrasted by the searing light in the square. Only the brave or
the mad endured it, crouching low on their haunches, whispering,
waiting. I noticed a group of gnaoua , the famous Saharan
musicians, dressed in indigo jelabas , their caps trimmed with
cowrie shells. Next to them sat a travelling dentist with his tin of
second-hand teeth. Beside him was a knot of medicine men,
touting snake oil, ostrich eggs and rows of slim brown mice
tethered on twine.
    I crossed the square, dodging the pools of melted tarmac,
wondering how a city could take root and thrive in such a
furnace. I thought of Osman's comment – that I was blind to the
real Morocco. At that moment I caught sight of an elderly
donkey being led into the middle of the square. Its muzzle was
grey and there was an unusual white blotch on its rump.
    A hooded figure had tucked the reins under the arm of his
dusty brown jelaba . The animal was goaded forward until it
stood in a puddle of melted tar. Its hooves were sticky and black,
its head low and cautious. The figure pressed a palm to the
donkey's brow, urged it to stop. He threaded his fingers together,
seemed to flex them, then, bending down, he strained to lift the
animal on to his back.
    A chorus of wild frenzied braying followed, echoing to all
corners of the square.
    As someone who lives in the centre of a shantytown, I am not
unused to the sound of donkeys. But the clamour of that creature
held astride a man's shoulders was shrill enough to wake the
dead. Within an instant a crowd had gathered – tourists and
mendicants, orange-sellers, pickpockets, and day-trippers from
the Atlas mountains. I staggered over and pushed my way to the
front. The donkey's eyes were bulging, the back of the man's jelaba stained with sweat.
    'What's going on?'
    'He's about to start,' said a man.
    'Start what?'
    'The tale.'
     
    Each night before they sleep, I read a bedtime story to Ariane
and Timur. As I read, I glance up from the page and look into
their eyes. I see the twinkle of wonder, the sense that magic is at
work. Some of the stories I read were left to my two sisters and
me by our father when he died, in a manuscript he entitled, at
my demand, 'Tell Me a Story'. He had read the same tales to us
as children, and had composed them from ancient sources in
Arabia and Afghanistan. Since his death many of the stories
have been published as illustrated books.
    'We are a family of storytellers,' he would whisper before we
slept. 'Don't forget it. We have this gift. Protect it and it will
protect you.'
    In the dozens of books he wrote, my father presented to the
    West many hundreds of traditional teaching stories, just like the ones I read
    to my children now. Such tales were developed by the Sufis, a fraternity of
    mystics found across the Muslim world and beyond. If asked about it, they
    say that their knowledge existed long before the rise of Islam, and that it
    can be received by anyone who is ready to absorb it. Sufis use teaching stories
    as a way to package ideas and information, making them palatable to the mind.
    As with a peach, they believe that the delicious flesh of the fruit is necessary
    to allow the seed to be passed on, to take root and be nurtured.
     
    When I returned from Marrakech, I found the guardians and
the maid huddled outside the front door of the Caliph's House.
They were chattering away anxiously, but fell silent as soon as
they saw my old Jeep rumbling down the lane. The Bear was
standing with his back to the door, his arms out wide. It was as
if he was trying to hide something from me. I got out and asked
what was going on.
    Osman looked at the ground and shook his head from side to
side.
    'Nothing, Monsieur Tahir,' he said. 'It's nothing at all.'
    The maid, Zohra, slapped her hands together and