Islamic folklore: Ali Baba

Folk stories are immortal stories transcending space and time. Folk tales were oral tales utilizing linguistic devices to be told in such a way to be remembered easily and shared with other people.  These tales reflect the beliefs and traditions, histories and even the psyches of the eras they belong to. All over the world, folk tales stand the test of time and highlight our human obsession with telling stories. The Islamic civilization was no exception with some of the richest accounts of folklore present. One Thousand and One nights (The Arabian Nights) are probably the strongest folklore account preserved in history. One of its most popular stories "Ali Baba and the forty thieves" was not actually part the original Arabian Nights, but was added anyways for its significance. Its original Arabic manuscript remains a mystery to this day. However, the tale has all the themes and elements in common with all Islamic folklore confirming its origins. The story does not only reflect the moral aspects of the Islamic psyche, but also the role of women and their representation in the ancient Islamic society (a prominent presence in depth that still does not bubble to the surface of the title).   

Ali Baba and the forty thieves

Once upon a time there were two brothers living in a town in Persia, Cassim and Ali Baba. Cassim married a rich women while Ali Baba married a poor woman Ali Baba worked wood in a near Forest for a living. One day, he saw a group of men on their horses coming through a huge dust cloud. He suspected them to be robbers, so he watched them from a high tree to be safe. He counted forty of them. Their leader went across the wood in place with little shrubbery and shouted: "Open Sesame!". Ali Baba heard the creak of a cave door opening between the rocks. The leader ordered his people to go in. He then closed the door, saying: "Shut Sesame!" before the whole group left. 

Ali Baba climbed down and went to the same place, shouting the keyword: "Open Sesame!". The door opened and he saw a mounds of gold and silver and leather wallets containing loads of money, a hidden treasure! He brought many bags of gold transporting them on his donkey. He shouted "Shut sesame!" and set out to his home. He brought the bags to his wife, entrusting her with the secret. He told her he would go to bury the gold, but his wife wanted to measure its weight first so she went to Cassim's wife to borrow a weighting scale. 

Cassim's wife was so meddlesome, she wanted to know what Ali Baba's wife will measure so she placed some suet at the bottom of the weighting pan. Oblivious, Ali Baba's wife carried the scale back to Cassim's wife, without noticing that a piece of gold was sticking to it. Cassim's wife found out and told Cassim. Overcome with jealousy, Cassim went to his brother in the morning and said: "Ali Baba, you pretend that you are poor and now you measure gold!" giving him the gold piece. Ali Baba realized that they knew his secret because of the foolishness of his wife. He owned up to everything and offered Cassim a share. Cassim refused, he wanted to know the exact location of the treasure or else he would epose his brother. Ali Baba told him where is the cave and the words that he should use. In the morning, he went there with his mules, then he said: "Open sesame!" he took everything he could reach. Overwhelmed by his greed, he forgot what to say to reopen the door. Instead of saying Sesame he tried: "Open Burly" and followed up with many wrong key words. Around the afternoon, the thieves returned to the cave and saw Cassim mules. They unsheathed their swords as they went in. Cassim was frightened as he heard the trampling of the horses. The leader of the thieves went to the door and said: "Open sesame!". When the door opened they saw Cassim and killed him, cutting his body into four quarters and nailing them up in the cave's entrance to frighten anyone who dares to go inside. (this part is often left out in the children's stories).

Photo attribution: Rena Xiaxiu / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Cassim's wife ran to her brother-in-law asking for her husband who hasn't returned. Ali Baba reassured her and went out to the forest in search of his brother. He entered to the cave and he saw his dead brother, he put the body on one of his donkeys and the bags of gold on the two other donkeys. He covered everything with sticks. He drove the two donkeys loaded with gold to his home and the other one to Cassim's house. Morgiana, their house slave, opened the door. She was brave and cunning. Ali Baba told her they should make the people think that Cassim died naturally. So, she bought the medicines from the pharmacist telling him that Cassim is very ill. She then brought an old tailor called Baba Mustafa and paid to him to stitch Cassim's body together so that no one will suspect. 

The thieves revisited the cave and didn't find the body. They realized that there is another one who knows their secret. The decide to investigate. One of them goes to the town comes across Baba Mustafa. Baba Mustafa realized that the dead person he stitched must have been the victim of the strange thieves. The thief asked him to lead him to this house. He marks the door of the house with a symbol so that the other thieves can come at the night and kill everyone in the house. Morgiana saw him, so she marked all the neighbouring houses with the same symbol. When the thieves returned at night they could not know the right house. Furious, the leader killed the theif who drew the mark. Another thief followed and asked Baba Mustafa. He put a chunk of chopped stone in front of Ali Baba's door, but Morgiana put the similar chips in front of all the doors steps, the theif was killed also by the leader. Eventually, the leader decides to do the work himself. He memorizes every detail the door of Ali Baba's house, he pretended to be an oil merchant needing the hospitality of Ali Baba. His donkeys were loaded with 38 kegs of oil hiding the thieves. The thieves planned to kill him when he went to bed. Morgaina goes to the kegs ti get some lamp oil only to hear one of the thieves ask "Is it time?" as she approached the keg. Morgiana now knows the plan with her quick wit. She stalls the thieves and foils it by pouring boiling oil on each of them in their kegs. They were killed, but the leader managed to run away. Morgiana tells Ali Baba everything, he was grateful and gives her her freedom and asks her to stay until he has paid her full compensation for her work. 

  Albert Robida (1848-1926) / Public domain

                 

To take his revenge, the leader again disguises as a merchant and befriends the son of Ali Baba. The son invited him to dinner, Morgiana recognized him performing the sword dance as she dipped the dagger into his heart. At first Ali Baba was angry, but when he knew the truth, he was grateful and rewarded Morgiana by marrying her to his son. Ali Baba revisits the cave some time later and realizes that he is the only one who knows its secret. Ali Baba uses the wealth of this cave to provide a good livelihood for his household and they live happily ever after only leaving us to restlessly wonder "Is it OK to steal from thieves?".