The Story of the Merchant and the Genius

Readers familiar with the friendly blue genie in Disney’s Aladdin films may be shocked to discover a crueller kind in Scheherazade’s first tale. When a merchant accidentally kills the son of a genie, the spirit swears to kill him in revenge, but grants him a year’s reprieve to say his goodbyes. Yet when the merchant returns on the appointed day, he meets three old men, who have a plan to avert his death. Listen as tale leads into tale in “The Story of the Merchant and the Genius”, the second of 34 tales in the classic Arabian Nights collection translated by Andrew Lang.