The Prince and the Tortoise (Persian fairy tale)

Author: Traditional Persian

Time Period: 1001 CE–1500 CE

Country or Culture: Iraq; Iran

Genre: Fairy Tale

Overview

“The Prince and the Tortoise” is a tale of unexpected love that could never have taken place without a leap of faith from one of its principle characters, the young prince Muhammad. As is the case with many stories in Arabian Nights, the primary origin for the tale is somewhat obscure, though it is likely that the story was known and told by people in ancient and medieval India, Persia, Arabia, and the Middle East. One of the most widely celebrated features of Arabian Nights is the use of a frame story that describes the plight of Scheherazade. As the story goes, Scheherazade is the daughter of a vizier (or “wazir”) to the sultan Shahryar, who has recently executed his wife after discovering that she was having an adulterous affair. Losing his faith in womankind, the sultan has decided to marry a new virgin every day and have her executed the following morning so that she may not have the opportunity to break his heart. Scheherazade bravely volunteers to marry the king, hoping that she can rely on her storytelling abilities to stay alive. Each night, she tells a new story and manages to capture the king’s imagination, leaving him always in suspense for the stories’ conclusions. In this way, she compels him to keep her alive for 1,001 days.

The frame story is an excellent example of the narrative sophistication of its medieval storytellers, and it offers an additional analytical lens for “The Prince and the Tortoise.” By this token, one may chose to see the young princess in “The Prince and the Tortoise” as a kind of self-portrait by the narrator; the cunning mind and magical abilities of the tortoise are meant to mirror Scheherazade’s in order to help her to convince the king to accept her as his final wife. A feminist perspective helps to uncover the commonplace misogyny of the medieval Muslim sociopolitical structure; the twenty-first-century reader may identify multiple strong female characters whose powers seem to outweigh those of the men around them.

While many Arabian Nights stories share unclear origins in southern Asia and the Middle East, the versions that figure most prominently in the West are highly problematic, due to the dearth of primary texts available to the eighteenth-century French translator Antoine Galland. Additionally, Galland seems to have adapted the original stories to make them more accessible to the French public. Despite backlash from academic critics, stories from Arabian Nights have been altered and retold countless times since Galland’s version first appeared in print in 1704. A lack of primary sources, along with allegations that Galland may have invented some of the most popular Arabian Nights stories, has made the stories highly multicultural. With the timelessness of their themes as well as their great comedic and fantastical qualities, stories from the Arabian Nights have lent themselves to a variety of modern adaptations and seem destined to survive for centuries to come.

Summary

A sultan has three unmarried sons, Ali, Hussein, and Muhammad. All of them are great warriors, but the youngest, Muhammad, is considered the most handsome and the most benevolent. The sultan loves them all equally and has planned to leave them equal parts of his kingdom and wealth when he dies. When it comes time for them to marry, the sultan consults his wazir for advice on choosing their mates.

The wazir thinks about it for some time and then decides that the best way to choose the brides by destiny is to have each son blindfolded and instruct them to shoot arrows from the terrace of the palace down to the town. Wherever their arrows land, they will find their destined wives. The sultan approves of this plan; each son fires an arrow from the terrace, and each one strikes a different house. Both Ali’s and Hussein’s arrows land on the houses of noble fathers who are eager to have their daughters marry the reputable princes. However, Muhammad’s arrow lands on a house whose only inhabitant is a large female tortoise.

But young Muhammad cried in dissent from this, “I swear by the virtues of the prophet (upon whom be prayer and peace!) that the time of my celibacy is over! If the large tortoise is written in my destiny I shall assuredly marry her.”

“She is certainly written in your destiny!” cried the astonished sultan. “But it would be a monstrous thing for a human being to wed with a tortoise!”

“The Prince and the Tortoise,” Arabian Nights

The sultan orders Muhammad to shoot again, but despite his blindfold, his arrow lands upon the same house. A third shot produces the same results. Distraught, the sultan declares that Muhammad should remain a bachelor from then on, as it is unheard of for a man to marry a tortoise. But Muhammad disagrees and declares that he will trust what has been set before him by Allah. The sultan reluctantly allows his son to make arrangements for their wedding.

Soon the eldest two sons are wed, each with magnificent festivals lasting forty days and forty nights. Muhammad’s wedding, on the other hand, is ignored. Muhammad is subject to ridicule and rumormongering behind his back. Everyone is curious to know whether the odd couple have been able to consummate their marriage, but Muhammad refuses to speak to anyone about his wedding night.

In the years following the three weddings, the sultan’s health declines due to the strain of his long rule and the humiliation he has suffered in the wake of Muhammad’s marriage. The sultan loses his appetite and then his vision, until he is nearly blind.

The three princes are distraught at their father’s condition and seek to restore his health. They forbid his harem to care for him any longer, blaming his declining health on their ignorance and superstitions. They resolve to have their wives prepare all of the sultan’s food from then on, and he will be able to choose his favorite meal from the three presented to him each day. The sultan reluctantly accepts their offer, and the brothers each return to their homes. In the spirit of competition, each one wishes to be the sultan’s preferred house; they tease Muhammad about his wife’s cooking, but Muhammad only smiles calmly.

The tortoise had been waiting for just such an opportunity. She immediately sends her most trusted servant to the house of the eldest brother, where the servant requests all of the rat and mouse dung that they can spare, claiming that the tortoise never uses any other seasoning. Thinking she has found an advantage in the competition, Ali’s wife refuses, saying that she only has enough to meet her own needs. When the servant returns to the tortoise with this message, she laughs uncontrollably.

The tortoise then sends the same servant to Hussein’s wife to ask for hen and pigeon droppings. She too refuses, and when the servant relays her response to the request, the tortoise laughs even harder than before.

Finally, when the time comes for the sultan to choose his preferred meal, he is presented with the three dishes. He takes the lid off Ali’s wife’s dish and is overpowered by the smell of the rat and mouse droppings she has used to season the dish. He nearly faints from the horrific stench. When he is somewhat recovered, they bring him Hussein’s wife’s dish. When the lid is lifted, the smell of burned bird feces overpowers the sultan, who nearly dies from the shock to his system. It takes some convincing to get him to consider opening the lid of the tortoise’s dish, but to the amazement of all it smells wonderful. The sultan eats every last bit of it.

Muhammad modestly accepts the sultan’s praise for his wife’s cooking. He then convinces the sultan to allow no one but the tortoise to cook for him, and after only a few weeks, the sultan’s health and eyesight are restored. Reenergized, the sultan plans a great feast and requests the attendance of all his sons and their wives. Upon hearing this news, the elder princesses begin to plan how they will appear before sultan so as to earn more respect and admiration than their tortoise sister-in-law.

The tortoise begins making preparations as well. She sends her trusted servant to Ali’s wife to request the loan of a goose for her to ride to the banquet. The request is sternly refused. Hussein’s wife is even ruder than Ali’s when she refuses to loan the tortoise a goat. Just as before, the tortoise is overcome with laughter after each refusal.

When the day of the feast arrives, the queen arranges for all of the women in the harem to greet the three wives as they arrive at the palace. Ali’s wife is first to arrive, clutching the neck of the goose as it threatens to shake her loose. Next, Hussein’s wife comes forward on a bleating goat, stained with dust and dung.

The sultan is gravely insulted by these princesses and claims that since their attempts to poison him did not work, they have resorted to mocking him instead. Shortly after the tumult dies down and the queen reluctantly accepts the princesses into the castle, couriers arrive with the news that Muhammad’s wife is approaching. Soon thereafter four handsome men dressed in fine, flowing tunics come carrying a palanquin draped in bright silks. The bearers stop at the entrance to the palace and everyone watches in amazement as an elegant young woman steps out of the palanquin. It is not until the servants lead the palanquin away that everyone recognizes the woman as Muhammad’s wife, transformed from a tortoise into a graceful young woman. The sultan rejoices at the charming perfection his son’s wife exudes and orders the feast to commence.

After the first dish of buttery rice is served, Muhammad’s wife pours her plate on her head. Everyone watches in amazement as each grain of rice rolls off her hair and instantly becomes a pearl. Then she pours a bowl of green soup over her head in the same manner, turning it into a profusion of emeralds. Amid the clamor of delight that swept the crowd, the two eldest princesses are overcome with jealousy, and they pour rice and soup over their heads, expecting the same results as the youngest princess. Instead, they remain covered in food and stain their dresses even worse than before.

This is the last straw for the sultan, who declares that the eldest princesses have disgraced themselves and orders them to be removed from his sight forever. Thus, they are escorted away by their husbands, who are enraged at the embarrassment their wives have caused them. In the end, the sultan declares that Muhammad and his wife shall be his only true children and decides to leave the throne to Muhammad alone. The magic princess then decides to rid herself of the temptation to return to the shape of a tortoise and burns her old shell without regret. She remains a lovely woman for the rest of her life, over the course of which she and Muhammad are blessed with many children.

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