Egyptian Chronicles: Ramadan Arabian Nights 2022 : Tale of Al-Ashkeef “Luqman and his son” Ep.1

Ramadan Kareem

Here we are back again to this amazing blessed time of the time; the Holy Month of Ramadan.

We are back to Ramadan and it is the time of our annual audio Arabian Nights like every year.

In those hard times of war, economic crises and pandemic that has not disappeared yet, a nice short daily break with the Book of One Thousand and one nights is the best escape.

Once again we will listen to episodes produced by the Egyptian State Radio inspired by the famous book decades ago.

We are back to the One Thousand and One Nights radio show in Arabic created by Egyptian Radio legend Mahmoud Shaaban aka Papa Sharo.

Scheherezade and Shahyer as we know them from TV "Gamal Kotb"

Legendary actress Zouzou Nabil as Scheherazade and Theatre legend Abdel Rahim El-Zarakany as Shahryar are back as well, so get ready for our tale for this year.

You can check previous Ramadan Arabian Nights here.

This year I chose the tale of “Al-Ashkeef” and some of the 1980s generations will know it very well.

“Al-Ashkeef” which was written by Taher Abu-Fasha was adapted into a TV series in Ramadan 1989 starring Hassan Youssef and Laila Elwy.

For a decade and a half, Egyptian State TV used to produce Ramadan TV series based on the One Thousand and One Nights show thanks to also famous entrainment TV director Fahmy Abdel-Hamid.

The TV series was not the greatest though.

It was like a bad acid trip compared to the old seasons of the same series in the early 1980s also directed by Abdel-Hamid.

Despite having big names from music composers and choreographers that consider pioneers and legends on its crew, the series was a fun, seriously bad fun acid trip.

I am sharing this year, they are not any spoilers because when I checked it was the same script and by far I prefer the radio version.

Without further chitchat, here is the first episode of our tale tonight. It was episode no.583 of our favourite show.

We are back to the royal couple at night as King Shahryar is lost in his thoughts and questions about life and the struggle of humans against injustice and so our Scheherazade starts a new tale answering his questions.

The tale is about Al-Ashkeef, the mighty wicked marid or demon and how he is defeated.

The tale of Al-Ashkeef and his eventual defeat actually started decades earlier at King Luqman’s court

Here Shahryar wonders when Luqman became a King when he is known as a wise man.

Back to the court of King Luqman where he holds a meeting with his son Prince Rihan who is an adult now.

Luqman wants his son to get married and the son agrees eventually.

Luqman whose kingdom includes four islands decides that he will invite the kings of the four islands to come and attend the annual festival in his main Kingdom along with their young daughters so he can bless them.

On one of the islands, Princess Hanom is told by her father that they are going to visit King Luqman’s grand feast so she can be blessed like the rest of the princesses of the other three kingdoms.

Here is the video episode from Maspero Drama. “This is my contribution to helping Maspero in this economic crisis so please click the ads.”