The Genie of the Desert – The Untold Story of the Arabian Nights

Very few knew about the back story behind the Genie from the story ‘Merchant and the Genie’ as related by Queen Scheherazade to the Sultan Shahriar. This Genie of the desert was a happy go lucky fellow loitering around the sand dunes and occasionally playing tricks on people who passed by his place. It so happened once he came across a group of travelers who rested under the shade of a huge tree near an oasis which the Genie had created to trap innocent travelers.  

Genie enjoyed pranks set out to frighten the travelers. He created an unusual atmosphere of peace and quiet with abundance of food and sweet music for their soul. Among them was a fakir who understood that the place was inhabited by a Genie who was playing on their senses. The other travelers did not give heed to this warning by the fakir.

The travelers spent their time rejoicing themselves with the food and sweet music. That night when the travelers slept under their tent they were driven crazy by weird dreams and in that dream they would find themselves disfigured and ugly. Panicking they woke up from their dream only to find the Genie waiting for them.

All the travelers were frightened by the huge Genie who smirked at them and ordered them to obey his orders if they wished to return to their hometown safely. The fakir understood what the Genie intended to do with the travelers. The genie enslaved all the merchants and he ordered them to build the unfinished summer house with complicated exits and entrances. The summer house was another trap for visitor who travelled through that part of the desert. The merchants became like zombies obeying the order of the Genie.

            But the fakir who had not eaten any of the food or drank any water from the oasis was clear minded. Fakir ate only the food that he had brought along with him. On the third night when the moon had risen on the eastern sky, the genie prepared to kill one merchant at a time. The fakir to save the merchant made sure that he was the one that the Genie picked by standing first in the line.

The genie then took the fakir to a deserted spot where a tree was cut down so that he could use it for chopping the heads of the merchants. Right when the genie lifted his scimitar to kill the fakir, the fakir spoke in a feeble voice asking for his forgiveness.

But the genie would not be moved. Upon entreating him for three times the genie remained staunch on his desire to kill him. The fakir who was black magician tied up the genie with his magical silk cord. The genie was effectively imprisoned. Then he ordered the genie to release the merchants from their zombie like state. The frightened genie obeyed whatever the fakir told him to do.

The Genie pleaded to be set free and promised not to do any further harm to the travelers in the future. The fakir knew how conniving the genie was and did not fall for the false promises.  He cursed that he would also be bereft in sorrow over a loss of his family member like the many merchants who had lost their lives because of the genie’s bad intention.

And as predicted by the fakir the genie lost his son because of a date seed that the merchant threw blinded his son’s eye and killed him eventually. Even though the Genie knew that his son was lost because of the Fakir’s curse yet he wished to avenge his son’s death by killing the merchant who threw the date seed.