Ramadan Arabian Nights 2020 : Tale of King Magedwon “Scheherazade in trouble” Ep.1

It is that time of the year and actually we are all in a huge need for it.

Ramadan Kareem

Egyptian Chronicles Blog is back with its  Ramadan Arabian Nights for year 2020 or rather the year of Coronavirus Pandemic.

Famous Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish said once that “We got another life in the imagination” in one of his poems and in those worrying times I believe so much in this.

God gifted us with imagination for many things including a short escape from those times we feel trapped.

We got another life in imagination and the Book of One Thousand and one night is the best example of this. Scheherazade’s life is spared because of imagination already.

I won’t speak much but I hope this year you will able escape for a few minutes to the wonderful world of the Arabian Nights.

It is my pleasure and pride to present to you the Egyptian State Radio original production of One Thousand and One Nights “The Tale of King Magedwon”.

Written in the late 1960s by Abbas Al-Aswany, it directed by the show creator legendary Mohamed Mahmoud Sha’aban in.

Once again, we will meet legendary actress Zouzou Nabil as Scherazade who seemed to be in trouble this Ramadan.

Now after the break you can hear our first episode or rather episode No.733 in one of Egypt’s longest radio shows ever produced.

Scheherazade is big trouble. Just like a skilled written, she got a writer’s block or rather story teller’s block. Fighting for her own life, she can’t find any new story in order to amaze and dazzle King Shahryar.

Scheherazade and Shahryar by Leon Carre 

As Shahryar begins to lose patience because she did not show up in time, he starts to go back to his old ways saying that she deserves to die.

Our Scheherazade prays a miracle stranger than fiction happens. All her fictional characters like Sindbad and Aladdin come to rescue as they have got her a new tale.

And so once again she is saved by her own imagination.

Back to angry Shahryar, she starts to tell the story of a very wise and fair king called Magedwon who was popular and loved by his subjects because of his justice.

Once upon a time, King Magedwon wakes up after a disturbing dream and requests a dream interpreter to get into court ASAP.

He dreamt that he was swimming in a vast sea that suddenly changed in one instance to a desert with no water and when he raised his hand to the sky, a few drops of rains touched his hand palm.

The dream interpreter knows what it means but fears to share it. He prays that the dream is just a pipe dream adding that the King must pray and fast for God instead of thinking about it.

After refusing to share the meaning of the dream with him, angry Magedwon orders the guards to take Sallam, the dream interpreter and to throw him to the jail.

King Magedwon remembers that there is another man who can help him; famous astrologer Bakhityshou.

After a week, Bakhityshou comes to the king and tells him that he won’t speak except he is granted safety to speak freely.

This alarms Magedwon but he grants him safety.

And Bakhityshou tells him the meaning of his dream.

Tomorrow night we will know inshallah what Magedwon’s dream meant.

Between work during Coronavirus pandemic and hardware failure, I wanted to choose a light and a simple tale for this year. I hope you enjoy it.

I must thank Ahmed Kamel for his patience with me.  “Go and Subscribe in Deezer and no, it is not a sponsored post from any kind but the folks in Deezer got very interesting content in Ramadan”

You can check previous Ramadan Arabian Nights