Ramadan Arabian Nights 2021 : Tale of King Mahorab “Cenmar ” Ep.4

Here we are on the fourth night of our Radio Arabian Nights this year.
We will continue our tale for this year, the tale of King Mahorab
First of all, You can refresh your mind with what happened last night here.

It is the fourth episode in our tale and the 526th night in the nights of our Egyptian Radio show.

You can listen to the episode after the break.

Sheikh Dagestan believes the Sultana and Crown Prince should not stay in the tents of the Nomads Land, they should stay in a huge palace and there is already enough money for that.

He tells Sultana Fatoon that he commissioned a famous Byzantine architect called Cenmar to build a great palace that suits her and the young prince.

An 11th-century illustration depicting
the murder of cenmar "Wikipedia"

Meanwhile, in Serendib, King Shador’s wives begin to give birth one after another and now Mahorab got 29 brothers.

Shador is worried that his sons will fight over the rule. He also sends Harut to the Nomads Land to supervise the Crown Prince’s education.

Back to the Nomads Land, Cenmar finishes constructing the great and amazing palace that has 40 rooms. Cenmar tells Prince Mahorab that he can enter all the rooms except one without giving any reason why.

Sultana Fatoon decides to rest along with her son as Dagestan and Cenmar went to check the roof.

Dagestan asks Cenmar if he can make a palace greater than this palace which he built.

Cenmar says that he can’t build a greater palace but he can build a palace as great as this one.

“I do not want you to build a palace as great as this one,” Dagestan tells Cenmar and the architect says it won’t be for free, he won’t build a palace like this one only for compensation.

Then Dagestan gives Cenmar his compensation, he pushes him off the roof. Cenmar dies and Degastan’s aide who witnesses the crime says that he fell from the roof.

Footnote

Taher Abu Fasha brought in tonight’s episode the famous or rather infamous “Cenmar’s affair” and incorporated it into the tale.

In case you do not know Cenmar was a famous Byzantine architect who was requested by the Lakhmid king Al-Nu'man to build a magnificent palace that no one would have seen before in Iraq. Cenmar built a magnificent palace and according to the common story which I read and heard since I was a child, it did not end well.

Unlike what is mentioned in Wikipedia, Nu’man threw Cenmar from the roof of the palace he built because he was afraid that the Byzantine architect would build a palace as great as it was or even greater.

Abu Fasha followed the common story in Egypt and Arab literature and brought it to his tale. 

Till next night inshallah