One Thousand and One Nights

This is the tale of a Yemeni Bedouin named Abu Hasan. Abu Hasan decides to give up the “life of the desert” (163) to become a wealthy merchant. He then settles down in the town of Kaukaban. Because his wife died young, Abu Hasan’s friends encourage him to marry again. He does, planning a lavish wedding. However, at this wedding, “horror of horrors, being bloated with meat and drink, he let go a long and resounding fart” (163). Deeply embarrassed, Abu Hasan flees to India. He lives there “in peace and contentment for ten years” (164) but eventually decides to return to Yemen. He disguises himself and returns to Kaukaban, hoping that no one will recognize him or remember his accident. However, he soon comes across a child asking her mother when she was born. The mother replies, “[Y]ou were born on the very night of Abu Hasan’s fart” (164). Mortified yet again and realizing that his fart “will surely be remembered till the end of time” (164), Abu Hasan returns to his self-imposed exile in India.