The Arabian Nights Group 12 Summary & Analysis

Group 12: “The Story of Jullanar of the Sea”

Summary: “The Story of Jullanar of the Sea”

A Persian king marries a beautiful, slender woman named Jullanar who is an exiled sea creature. Soon, Jullanar is pregnant with her son, Badr. After Badr is born, Jullanar’s brother, Sayih, takes Badr to his home in the sea. Years later, when his father dies, Badr returns home and becomes king. Badr wants Jauhara, the fairest daughter of the sea king, as a wife. Sayih and Badr plunge into the sea to fetch Jauhara without telling Jullanar.

The sea king, however, won’t allow Jauhara to marry Badr, so Siyah takes the sea king hostage. Jauhara turns Badr into a bird and sends him to a distant island. A bird catcher sees a stunning bird and brings it to her king. When the king’s wife sees the bird, she recognizes that the bird is actually a man, and changes the bird back into King Badr. On Badr’s way home, his ship sinks, and he ends up in a city where he is attacked by beasts. There, an old man gives him shelter, and Badr tells the man his story.

The old man explains that his home, the City of Magicians, is ruled by a witch named Queen Lab who has turned the men into the beasts. The old man claims Badr as his nephew and cares for him for a month. Against the old man’s wishes, Lab takes Badr to her palace where they drink and make love and remain happy for forty days.

One day while in the garden, Badr sees two birds having sex, and he recognizes one to be Lab. Wracked with jealousy, Badr visits the old man, who tells him to beware. That night, Badr pretends to be asleep and sees Lab do magic with barley seeds. The next day, the old man gives Badr his own barley to feed Lab. Lab eats the barley and turns into a mule, which Badr rides out of the town. Soon, he encounters an old woman, who turns the mule back into Lab.

Lab turns Badr into an ugly bird and cages him. A girl pities the bird and takes him to the old man, who in turn sends her to Jullanar with the news that Badr is alive. Jullanar orders sea demons to kill everyone in the City of Magicians except the old man and the ugly bird. Jullanar turns the bird back into Badr and gives the girl to the old man. Badr only wants Jauhara for a wife, and now, Jauhara’s father agrees.

The translator adds a postscript that reveals that King Shahrayar learned to trust Shahrazad and made her his queen. Shahrazad later bore Shahrayar three sons.

Analysis: “The Story of Jullanar of the Sea”

This final story in the collection is another love story that ends happily. The title says that it is the story of Jullanar, but it is actually a story about witchcraft and love in which Jullanar plays a role as mother and one of several sorcerers. The main character is Badr, Jullanar’s son, who wants to marry the beautiful, elusive, and forbidden Jauhara, but he spends many nights with the witch-queen Lab before marrying Jauhara. The story combines mysticism, magic, and mythology and juxtaposes the lavish palaces of Persian royalty with the magic of creatures of the sea. Men are turned into beasts and birds, people walk on water, a queen is turned into a she-mule, and humans make love while in the form of birds. This is, perhaps, the most supernatural story in the collection, a fitting ending to this collection of magical fairy tales.

The story has a clear villain, the wicked enchantress Queen Lab. It also has a clear protagonist, the son-king Badr, who temporarily falls for Lab but who is soon changed into two different birds under her spell. Badr, like many characters in The Arabian Nights, must travel a long journey to return to his home. He must endure transforming spells, a shipwreck and near drowning, false love, and a change in identity along the way. Badr meets a kind old man, also a sorcerer, who treats him like a nephew and saves his life with his cunning and wisdom. In the end, Badr is saved and marries the woman he has chosen, but he must endure many hardships, challenges, and traumas before he finds home and true happiness.

The double standard of men and women when it comes to virginity is evident here. Discovering that women are virgins is a badge of honor for the men who get to make love to them, but men are not expected to remain faithful or save their virginity for their betrothed. Despite there being strong women throughout The Arabian Nights, theirs is a completely different way of life. They are subservient to their fathers and, later, their husbands, victim to their rules and whims and, like Jauhara, able to marry whom they love only when allowed by the men who control them.

As the collection reaches its conclusion, readers may almost forget about Shahrazad’s storytelling until the translator explains in the postscript that she has achieved her goal of convincing King Shahrayar to spare her life. Even more, she gives him sons and the two live as king and queen until the end of their days, a truly happy ending for the entire collection. Storytelling has worked its magic not only for Shahrazad but for all of those who hear or read The Arabian Nights.