Alright, it’s time for another retelling from 1001 Nights. Get a cup of coffee and let’s talk Julnar of the Sea: the original—better—Little Mermaid*, her army of jinn, and the world’s most useless son.
*Not a random comparison, trust me and read on if you’ve ever seen this drawing from Hans Christian Anderson’s Little Mermaid and confusedly gone “akhi??” 
By the way like the last one, this thread might get long, so feel free to mute me.
First, a bit about the story. “Julnar” is one of the originals. It existed in the earliest compilations of the Nights, put together *probably* in 9th/10th century Iraq (based on earlier Persian & Indian stories). It also shows up in Tales of the Marvelous and News of the Strange.
Which is excellent for my purposes today because I can use Tales of the Marvelous and thus avoid thinking about the frame story of the Nights which makes me want to burn down the patriarchy and move to one of the women-only islands mentioned in the text.
ANYWAY, Tales of the Marvelous is one of the earliest Arabic stories collections, dating from about the 10th century and comes to us today from a single manuscript found in a Turkish library (it even has a cool origin story!)
It’s a fantastic collection and very similar to the Nights…if you chuck out a good deal of the pieties and nuance of the Nights and replaced them with more sex and battles between centaurs and sword-wielding automata.
If you think I’m kidding, there is a story in Tales of the Marvelous called “The Story of the Forty Girls and What Happened to Them with the Prince” and (spoiler!), exactly what you think happened did. Forty times.
So, let’s begin with “Julnar of the Sea."
It is said in ancient times there was a great and wise king of Persia who lived in a palace by the sea (the stories use Khorasan and if an academic type would like to tell me where/when there’s been a seaside palace in Khorasan, you’d be helping a confused amateur.)
Now our king is doing well for himself. He’s uber-rich, well-respected, and has approximately a hundred concubines, each in their own finely appointed apartment. But he’s sad because he’s getting up there in years and has no son to inherit his kingdom.
What to do? Put out a call for MORE concubines, of course! Because, you know, the problem couldn’t be him…
So by and by, a trader brings him a new girl, more beautiful than any he’s ever seen before. Face like a silver moon, black tresses hanging to her ankles, flashing dark eyes… our king is DAZZLED. He starts throwing dinars, robes of honor, fine horses like rain... and she’s his.
Except…not really. Because though the king is desperate to win her over: giving her gifts, the finest of wine and foods, bringing in musicians, feeding her almond pastry from his own hand (which tbh, is a courtship ritual that needs reviving), she’s unmoved.
She (Julnar!) just stares solemnly at the sea and says nothing. For a year. Not that this stops the king by the way; the narrative wants you to know that there is much clasping to the breast and exclamations of delight. By him.
After a year, he’s head over heels in love. “Neglecting affairs of state” in love. The literature of this period is always enamored of this, but I’m guessing the normal folk were more “I pay taxes so the garbage gets picked up and we don’t get over-run by steppe peoples” annoyed.
He begs her to say something, anything. Confessing his love, his desire for a son… it’s all very dramatic with the exact kind of poetry anyone familiar with medieval Arabic knows to expect.
Finally, Julnar, instead of being like “I’m a kidnapped concubine in antiquity, you starry-eyed ass, let me be!” speaks. Says that her name is Julnar! She’s totally in love with him too (guess the clasping and almond pastry were on point) She’s pregnant with his child!
She’s… also kind of a mermaid/sea jinn/sorceress (pick one, honestly) from an underwater kingdom who was taken by “men of the land” after stalking out of the sea following a fight with her brother. I mean, relatable, yeah?
Now, she won’t stop talking. Gives a rather lovely description of her world and explains the magic by which her people can walk and breath under the sea “which acts as a roof through which they can see the stars and the creatures of the ocean.”
She says she could have left at any point, but she truly does love him and wants a life together with their child. But she misses her family and wants them to know she’s okay and be part of her life again.
Just to be clear, another story talks about how the underwater kingdoms of the jinn are basically paradises of free love, excellent everything, and treasure so… Julnar clearly shares the king’s clear-eyed decision making when it comes to love.
(This is going to be a theme. WAIT until you meet their son.) And hey, give Julnar a break. I mean, have you seen the crowns that ancient Persian kings wore? Very fine. I kind of get it.
She does some magic with smoke and incense and talismans and BAM. With just enough time for the king to sneak into a closet, a bunch of green-hair people come swimming up to the palace and fly into the room. Family reunion!
Everyone’s kissing and crying and delighted—except that Julnar’s family is also MAD. “Flames shooting out of their eyes and mouth mad” about what’s happened to her. But she calms them down, tells them the story, that she’s in love, etc, etc.
And…they’re cool with it. They want whatever makes her happy. Yay, female agency! (Disney’s King Trident could learn a thing) Trembling, try-not-to-freak-out human king is dragged from the closet to meet the in-laws and everyone’s happy.
Her family stays to help with the baby’s delivery (it’s a boy! A bouncy baby named Badr!), LOADS them with treasure, gets Badr all magic’d up so that he too can walk in the sea one day, and all’s generally well.
Badr grows up being groomed in all the ways a good Persian prince should be. The narrative takes great pains to let you know that by the time Badr is a teenager, there’s none like him in generosity, beauty, wit, archery, military skill, intelligence, kindness…
If there is a virtue, Badr has it in ABUNDANCE. There’s no guy like him!
Personally, I think the narrative is over-compensating because if you can read the rest of this story and not think Badr has the wit of a pile of blocks and the decision-making skills of a dying plant… I can’t help you.
The king dies shortly after passing the reins to Badr who with his mother Julnar’s guidance, is doing pretty well at the ruling thing for a sixteen-year-old. By doing well, I mean he’s THE GREATEST THING PERSIA HAS EVER SEEN. HE’S SO HANDSOME AND BRAVE AND DEFINITELY SUPER-SMART
His uncle Salih (Julnar’s brother) comes swimming up one day and is like “Sis, we gotta talk brides. Your super-awesome son should have an equivalent super-awesome sea princess at his side. Let’s discuss some names.”
“But first, are you sure your son Badr—by happenstance sleeping in the room while we chat—is REALLY asleep? Because we know how love-crazy the young can get upon even the mention of a fetching future spouse? Are you certain he’s sleeping and not ACTUALLY eavesdropping?”
And Julnar is like “of course!” because she doesn’t realize she’s in a medieval story collection that relies on tropes of convenience and FORE-SHADOWING.
So, they go on to talk about how Jauhara, the daughter of the sea king Samandal, is Badr’s only equal. She’s sweet and delightful. She’s got jewel-like teeth and when she sways, she makes even the WILLOW BOUGH jealous. Your fave could never.
Problem: Jauhara’s father Samandal has a bit of a temper and is known for rudely dismissing suitors. NO ONE is good enough for his little girl. Which the text treats as a problem but seems kind of sweet?
They agree Salih uncle is going to go try to get the girl without Badr’s knowing. So, in case things don’t work out… no harm, no foul.
Except Badr hasn’t been sleeping (hah! Unexpected plot twist!)
Now you need to understand something about love in the literature of the medieval Middle East. Chiefly that love at first mention (not even sight!) is a endemic condition that results in madness and death if left unrequited.
“Oh, sure SA, well y’know Romeo and Juliet is really sad---” MAJNUN WANDERS IN THE WILDERNESS WITH BEASTS UNTIL HE BECOMES A LITERAL SUFI PARABLE! FARHAD TUNNELS THROUGH A MOUNTAIN! Do not speak to me of Romeo and his feels!
Which means Badr is done. Dude is sixteen and Jauhara’s got a body like a willow bough. He douses himself up in agarwood and frankincense (fun fact: the AXE body spray of ancient Persia would have been much more pleasant) and abandons his kingdom to follow his uncle.
His uncle catches him and is like, “fine, you can come with me but we can’t tell your mother because she’d be REALLY angry.”
Badr agrees. Because he’s apparently not only a terrible king but the kind of son who you know would NEVER call his mother. Like, she didn’t leave her people and live among humans for you to go weeks without word, Badr! What if you were dead in a ditch?!
::makes note to call home:: Anyway, where were we? Ah, Badr’s uncle raises an army to go ask Samandal to give his daughter’s hand in marriage to Badr because that’s the best way to make a first impression. Understandably, Samandal tells him to shove off.
*I’m paraphrasing. They insult each other at length over who has a bigger… kingdom and the better child, Samandal refuses, and then Badr’s uncle literally overthrows him in an attempt to steal his daughter and locks him in chains.
Again…where is Samandal wrong is denying these people?? Jauhara rightly flees before they can catch her and so does Badr because the battle scares him, and he’s a coward who’s responsible for all of this.
Coincidentally, they end up fleeing to the same island. (What are the odds?) Jauhara takes refuge up a tree with one of her maids, and Badr conveniently collapses at the trunk of the same tree.
He looks up, his eyes pop, and he’s like “Glory to God who has created such a beauty! You can only be Jauhara!” He declares his eternal love as she climbs down and approaches him.
Jauhara looks at this beautiful boy confessing his love for her, pulls him into an embrace… AND THEN SHE SPITS IN HIS FACE AND TURNS HIM INTO A BIRD.
Is this one of the greatest moments in the Nights? Yes. Did Shahrazad fantasize about doing the same thing to her serial killer husband instead of telling him bedtime stories? I truly hope so.
Anyway, Badr’s a bird (but a pretty one!) and Jauhara is like “my father is in chains because of this dude, take him to the Island of Thirst!” Yes, the Island of Thirst. Not technically THAT kind of thirst, but also…possibly?
The maid takes pity on Badr the Bird and takes him to a nicer island where a hunter picks him up and takes him to a king who sticks him in a fancy cage because even as a bird, this dude manages to fail upwards.
But Badr the Bird will only eat fancy human food and drink wine which amuses the king so much, he calls his wife to come see him and is all “Look, he thinks he’s people!”
The queen immediately covers her face and is like “that’s because he IS people. That’s King Badr of Persia who Jauhara has turned into a bird!” She knows this because she’s apparently a super-powerful, all-knowing sorceress and alright, maybe just go with it.
She turns him back into a human and they give him a fully tricked-out ship to take him back to Persia. But oh no! Stormy seas sink his ship!
He makes it to shore, seeing a palace in the distance, only to be rather mercilessly kicked back into the sea by some weirdly insistent herd of horses, mules and cows. He keeps swimming (half sea-jinn if you recall) and staggers into a foreign city.
In the meantime, Julnar goes searching for her son only to find her brother on Samandal’s throne and Badr missing. She is NOT happy! She shames her brother into doing a better job searching for Badr and commits her own resources as well.
But then she needs to go back to Persia because, oh right, someone needs to actually RULE it.
So much for Julnar. Anyway, Badr is staggering through the streets of this strange city when an old man named ‘Abdallah is like “it’s a handsome youth! Get inside, brother, quick!”
He drags Badr inside to hide him. Why? Oh, because the city is ruled by an evil (but hot! Never forget these stories are basically populated by people out of a CW casting call) sorceress called Queen Lab who has a thing for handsome young men.
Mainly a thing for “enjoying” them for forty days and then turning them into livestock. Remember the herd on the beach kicking Badr away? They were trying to save him!
Of course, Queen Lab finds Badr and wants him, so ‘Abdallah lies and says Badr is his nephew, but Queen Lab is really persistent and all “Hey, we go way back! Let me have him for a bit and I totally swear I won’t turn him into a mule!”
An agreement is made and since Queen Lab is even MORE beautiful than Jauhara… Badr goes with her. I mean, I can’t even with this guy. He falls completely in love and they drink and eat in her gold-plated palace while being serenaded by instrument-playing statues.
And then there is clasping. So much clasping and kissing and “enjoyment” until the sun rises, they take fancy baths, change into robes of honor worth thousands of dinars. Rinse and repeat for a month. Then well, they’re getting a little sick of each other.
There’s a more complicated reason involving bird sex and one of the many instances of shitty racism in medieval Arabic lit, but I do not have it in me to recount and spread this nonsense.
Badr wakes one night to spy Queen Lab awake and with some pretty cool imagery and spellwork, she conjures a stream from sand in their bedroom, grows a field of instant barley, and harvests it to make a porridge before going back to sleep.
He’s bright enough to think this is strange so mentions it to ‘Abdallah who’s like “yeah, she’s definitely going to turn you into a cow.” He gives Badr counter-porridge and off he goes back to Queen Lab for one last hook-up.
Afterwards, she offers him some of her porridge which he pretends to eat while offering her some of his. She jumps to her feet, throws water in his face and commands him to turn into the grimiest of mules. But he doesn’t!
Of course, Queen Lab is all “totally kidding about that, my love!” to which Badr throws water in her face and says “I’m not! YOU turn into a mule!” And she does!
King Badr:
Queen Lab:
Badr takes Mule Queen Lab to ‘Abdallah who gives him a bridle for her, tells him in no uncertain circumstances should you let go of this bridle EVER, and to go home to his people.
My friends, this dude doesn’t make it three days before he comes across an old woman who wants to buy the mule, claiming it remind her of her son’s old mule (¯\_(ツ)_/¯) and offering a thousand dinars for it.
Badr laughs and is all “Hah, like YOU have a thousand dinars. Prove it, old lady.” Because besides having no common sense and being a coward, he’s also apparently disrespectful to his elders? How is he the hero of this tale?!
She proves it, Badr feels compelled to hand over the bridle, and oh snap! It’s Queen Lab’s mom! She turns her daughter back into human and summons up a damn ifrit the size of a mountain to seize Badr and fly all of them back to Queen Lab’s palace.
Queen Lab promptly turns Badr into a bird again (an UGLY bird) and puts him away on a shelf. And sigh, of course a sympathetic maid gives him some water and with ‘Abdallah’s blessing, calls a demon to fly her to Julnar and tell her of her son’s fate.
Now Julnar who’s been busy ruling Persia in her son’s stead is officially done with all this. He might have the brains of a dying plant, but Badr is HER dying plant, and Mama isn’t letting her baby end up an ugly bird on some sorceress’ shelf.
Bypassing her useless brother, she goes to the real power: her mother, Farasha, who embraces her daughter and is equally all “oh, no, not my grandson, you don’t, evil demon queen!”
They summon EVERYONE. ALL the sea jinn. ALL the demon armies. They fly through the air and no sooner land in Queen Lab’s city then they kill literally everyone except ‘Abdallah, that one nice maid and Badr the Bird. Then they level Queen Lab’s palace in a rain of fire and magic.
(By the way, this is rather disappointingly handled in just a few verses. I’m an epic fantasy writer; I expect a lot more from my magical battles ESPECIALLY if I’ve sat through a score of poems trying to convince me that Badr isn’t a spoiled punk.)
So Badr is once again turned into a human. Julnar takes him VERY firmly by the hand and drags him back to Persia to be a king again. They all settle in, but life is life and thus the issue of marriage arises again. Julnar and her brother sit with Badr to discuss possible wives…
… and this boy has the nerve to look his mother in the eye, IN THE EYE, this woman has emigrated to the human world for him. Who has ruled his kingdom and gone to war for him… and declare “Only Jauhara will do.”
Then all of Persia rises up to beat Badr to death with pieces of uncollected garbage.
No? Ugh, fine, you try to take some creative difference and everyone’s all “that’s not what happened!” Badr marries Jauhara, who supposedly now loves him, and they all live happily until Death, the Destroyer of Delights and Breaker of Ties comes for them all.
Maybe with, like, some stick-figure instructions for Badr so he can properly “follow the light.”
I do not like this ending. I try to content myself by saying Jauhara realized he had the wits of a broken chess board and thus married him only to promptly give him a mirror to admire himself in so she could rule Persia in his stead.
Also, the earliest versions of the Nights end with this story so then I gotta hear about how Shahriyar the serial killer gets his own happy ending with Shahrazad and I’m back to wanting to burn down the patriarchy and wondering if maybe Queen Lab wasn’t half right.
Thus ends “Julnar of the Sea.” And to follow up on the “Little Mermaid” thing, yes, Hans Christian Anderson was likely influenced by “Julnar.” He was an admirer of the 1001 Nights and there’s clear inspiration between various tales and his stories.
Though Anderson’s story largely loses the warmth and swashbuckling adventure of Julnar for despair, tragedy (soulless sea foam dancing on knives??) and his own issues regarding unrequited love and sex, and I’m sure there’s no metaphor for the West in that at all.
Some have also made comparison between Circe of classical Greek myth and Queen Lab, and meh, maybe... but also, have you met men? Circe and Queen Lab aren’t the only ones to contemplate turning you all into animals.
Otherwise, that’s it! (or is it...... because I hear the amazing @saladinahmed maybe has something coming up related to Julnar? 👀👀👀)
If you’re interested in reading more, I have a reading list on my website sachakraborty.com but will go ahead and recommend Haddawy’s translation of the Nights and Lyon’s translation of Tales of the Marvelous.
If you’re interested in learning more about the history of the Nights (I didn’t make up the Little Mermaid thing!), Robert Irwin’s companion is very good. If you want to read sailor yarns from the period (who doesn’t?!), check out Ibn Shahriyar’s Book of the Wonders of India.
Also, this is the first re-telling that inspired this one. The characters are equally exasperating. I think I’m gonna need some dashing rogues and witty tricksters in the next one.
And if you enjoyed this thread and have a couple $$, it would be awesome if you sent them over to @IslamicRelief bit.ly/2FURQn4
Thank you and don't forget to call your mother.
