In The Great Khan’s Tent Episode 24: The Arabian Nights Part 22

In the Great Khan’s Tent

In this episode, we continue the story of “The Barber’s Story of his First Brother” in Night 31 and begin the story of “The Barber’s Story of his Second Brother” and then move on to the story of “The Barber’s Story of his Third Brother” and “The Barber’s Story of his Fourth Brother” in Night 32.

As we encounter and listen to the Barber tell the story of his brothers and their misdeeds, foolishness, and gullibility, it is interesting to note how the characters that are central to the story remain nameless, oftentimes simply repeating the tropes that is commonly found within these tales.

You really have to think that the revenge concocted by the man in the Third brother’s story went so far just because the foolish brother did not reply when he was asked before the man descended all the way down his house. The magician in the Fourth Brother’s story is an interesting one because one would think that a person would be scared of confronting the man who was able to change paper into coins and the harm that he would do to a person if he was directly confronted. We have already met sorceresses who used magic to their will, but in this case it seems that his purpose is solely to be the catalyst for the expulsion of the Fourth brother.

Finally, it would seem, again, that the fourth brother’s story would become a story within a story, however this tale directly tells us that the people who caught the fourth brother did not believe him at all and went for the more obvious solution.