Allusion Definition: Allusion is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing

or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. It does not describe in

detail the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a passing comment and the writer
expects the reader to possess enough knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp its
importance in a text.

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-”Why use allusions?”

+”To link new characters or storylines with ones people are aware of, and to get feelings of
expectancy.

Sometimes the relation is intended to be criticizing what is being alluded to, though most of the time this
role of the allusion will not be properly found by the reader until the very end of the story, in order to
encompass all new details.”

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Visual Representation of Duffy’s Scheherazade: http://www.youtube.com/watch?

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Abracadabra; healing incantation (other definitions – “open,” “corpse,” or “cadaver.”)

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 Scheherazade is from Carol Ann Duffy’s 2012 collection, ‘The Bees’. It is based on the  tale of 
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 Scheherazade  from ‘The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights
Scheherazade and her One Thousand and One Nights:
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A legendary Persian queen and storyteller of the One Thousand and One Nights.
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The story goes that every day Shahryar (Persian:, "king") would marry a new virgin, and every day he
would send yesterday's wife to be beheaded. This was done in anger, having found out that his first wife
was unfaithful to him. He had killed 1,000 such women by the time he was introduced to Scheherazade,
the vizier's (minister’s) daughter.
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Against her father's wishes, Scheherazade volunteered to spend one night with the king. Once in the
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king's chambers, Scheherazade asked if she might bid one last farewell to her beloved sister, Dinazade,
who had secretly been prepared to ask Scheherazade to tell a story during the long night. The king lay
awake and listened with awe as Scheherazade told her first story. The night passed by, and
Scheherazade stopped in the middle of the story. The king asked her to finish, but Scheherazade said
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there was not time, as dawn was breaking. So, the king spared her life for one day to finish the story the
next night. So the next night, Scheherazade finished the story and then began a second, even more
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exciting tale which she again stopped halfway through at dawn. So the king again spared her life for one
day to finish the second story.
And so the King kept Scheherazade alive day by day, as he eagerly anticipated the finishing of last night's
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story. At the end of 1,001 nights, and 1,000 stories, Scheherazade told the king that she had no more
tales to tell him. During these 1,001 nights, the king had fallen in love with Scheherazade, and had three
sons with her. So, having been made a wiser and kinder man by Scheherazade and her tales, he spared
her life, and made her his queen.

Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp:

Aladdin is an impoverished idle young man, who is recruited by a sorcerer from the Maghreb, who passes

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 himself off as the brother of Aladdin's late father Qaseem, convincing Aladdin and his mother of his
goodwill by claiming to set up the lad as a wealthy merchant. The sorcerer's real motive is to persuade
young Aladdin to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave of wonder. After the
sorcerer attempts to double-cross him, Aladdin finds himself trapped in the cave. Fortunately, Aladdin
retains a magic ring lent to him by the sorcerer as protection. When he rubs his hands in despair, he
inadvertently rubs the ring, and "genie", appears, who takes him home to his mother. Aladdin is still
carrying the lamp, and when his mother tries to clean it, a second, far more powerful genie appears, who
is bound to do the bidding of the person holding the lamp.
With the aid of the genie of the lamp, Aladdin becomes rich and powerful and marries Princess
Badroulbadour, the Emperor's daughter The genie builds Aladdin a wonderful palace – a far more
magnificent one than that of the Emperor himself.
The sorcerer returns and is able to get his hands on the lamp by tricking Aladdin's wife, who is unaware of
the lamp's importance, by offering to exchange "new lamps for old". He orders the genie of the lamp to
take the palace along with all its contents to his home in the Maghreb. Fortunately, Aladdin retains the
magic ring and is able to summon the lesser genie. Although the genie of the ring cannot directly undo
any of the magic of the genie of the lamp, he is able to transport Aladdin to Maghreb, and help him
recover his wife and the lamp and defeat the sorcerer.

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The sorcerer's more powerful and evil brother tries to destroy Aladdin for killing his brother by disguising

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himself as an old woman known for her healing powers. Badroulbadour falls for his disguise, and
commands the "woman" to stay in her palace in case of any illnesses. Aladdin is warned of this danger by

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the genie of the lamp and slays the imposter. Everyone lives happily ever after, Aladdin eventually
succeeding to his father-in-law's throne.

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The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor
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Sinbad was a wealthy sailor who inherited his fortune from his parents. He sold all his household
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items and joined a company of merchants who traded by sea. Sinbad translates to “Lord of the Sindh
River, and also indicates the name of the Indus River. The second night of his travels are described in the
549th night of Scheherazade’s storytelling. One day he encounters a porter whose name also happens to
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be Sinbad. The porter complains to his god for him being cursed with such a poor life, and the sailor
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Sinbad overheard him from outside his palace and called for him to be escorted inside. The sailor was
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astounded to hear of the porter’s troubles, and tells him of his seven voyages that made him so
phenomenal.

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

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Short Summary: Ali Baba stumbles upon a tribe of thieves as they come and go from a magic cave, filled
with gold and exotic treasures from their plunders.
Ali Baba learns the secret message (“Open Sesame”) to open and close the cave and plunders it himself
when the thieves aren’t around. His theft is discovered when his greedy brother (who forced him to reveal
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the location of the treasure cave) was killed by the thieves in the cave and the thieves wants revenge. It is
only through the dedicated efforts of Ali Baba’s slave girl, Morgiana, that his life is spared (and all the
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thieves killed) by foiling all of the thieves’ plot to kill Ali Baba.

Long Summary: After the death of their father, Ali Baba’s greedy brother, Cassim, marries a wealthy
woman and becomes well-to-do, building on their father's business. Ali Baba marries a poor woman and
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settles into the trade of a woodcutter.

One day, he happens to overhear a group of forty thieves visiting their treasure store in the forest. The
treasure is in a cave, the mouth of which is sealed by magic. It opens on the words "iftah ya simsim"
("Open Sesame" in English), and seals itself on the words "Ikfil ya simsim" ("Close Sesame"). When the
thieves are gone, Ali Baba enters the cave himself, and takes some of the treasure home.
Ali Baba and his wife borrow his sister-in-law's scales to weigh this new wealth of gold coins. Secretly,

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 Cassim's wife puts a blob of wax in the scales to find out what Ali Baba is using them for. To her shock,
she finds a gold coin sticking to the scales and tells her husband.Ali Baba, then, is forced to reveal the
secret of the cave. Cassim goes to the cave and enters with the magic words, but in his greed and
excitement over the treasure, he forgets the magic words to get back out again. The thieves find him
there and kill him. The worried Ali Baba goes to the cave to look for Cassim and finds the body quartered
and with each piece displayed just inside the entrance of the cave as a warning.
Ali Baba brings the body home, where he entrusts Morgiana, a clever slave-girl in Cassim's household,
with the task of making others believe that Cassim has died a natural death. [4] First, Morgiana purchases
medicines from an apothecary, telling him that Cassim is gravely ill. Then, she finds an old tailor known as
Baba Mustafa whom she pays, blindfolds, and leads to Cassim's house. There, overnight, the tailor
stitches the pieces of Cassim's body back together, so that no one will be suspicious. Ali Baba and his
family are able to give Cassim a proper burial without anyone asking awkward questions.
The thieves, finding the body gone, realize that yet another person must know their secret, and set out to
track him down. One of the thieves goes down to the town and comes across Baba Mustafa, who
mentions that he has just sewn a dead man's body back together. Realizing that the dead man must have
been the thieves' victim, the thief asks Baba Mustafa to lead to Ali Baba’s house. The tailor is blindfolded
again, and in this state he is able to retrace his steps and find the house. The thief marks the door with a
symbol, for the other thieves to come back that night and kill everyone in the house. However, the thief

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has been seen by Morgiana, and she, loyal to her master, foils his plan by marking all the houses in the

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neighborhood with a similar marking. When the forty thieves return that night, they cannot identify the

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correct house and their leader, in a furious rage, kills the unsuccessful thief. The next day, another thief

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revisits Baba Mustafa and tries again, only this time, a chunk is chipped out of the stone step at Ali Baba's
front door. Again Morgiana foils the plan by making similar chips in all the other doorsteps, and the

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second thief is killed for his failure as well. At last, the leader of the Thieves goes and looks for himself.
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This time, he memorizes every detail he can of the exterior of Ali Baba's house.
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The chief of the thieves pretends to be an oil merchant in need of Ali Baba's hospitality, bringing with him
mules loaded with thirty-eight oil jars, one filled with oil, the other thirty-seven hiding the other remaining
thieves. Once Ali Baba is asleep, the thieves plan to kill him. Again, Morgiana discovers and foils the plan,
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killing the thirty-seven thieves in their oil jars by pouring boiling oil on them. When their leader comes to
rouse his men, he discovers that they are all dead, and escapes. The next morning Morgiana tells Ali
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Baba about the thieves in the jars; they bury them, and Ali Baba shows his gratitude by giving Morgiana
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her freedom.
To exact revenge, after some time the chief of thieves establishes himself as a merchant, befriends Ali
Baba's son (who is now in charge of the late Cassim's business), and is invited to dinner at Ali Baba's
house. However the thief is recognized by Morgiana, who performs a dance with a dagger for the diners
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and plunges it into his heart when he is off his guard. Ali Baba is at first angry with Morgiana, but when he
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finds out the thief wanted to kill him, he is extremely grateful and rewards Morgiana by marrying her to his
son. Ali Baba is then left as the only one knowing the secret of the treasure in the cave and how to access
it.he way to the house where the deed was performed.
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Scheherazade, The King, and The King’s Brother

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The Persian king, King Shahryar had been betrayed by his unfaithful wife. He looked for consolation with
his brother, Shah Zaman, only to discover that his brother was also married to an infidel. Driven by grief,
the king became very bitter, so he decided to marry a different virgin woman every night, only to have
them killed the very next morning. He had been convinced that his bride’s death was the only way to
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ensure that a woman stayed faithful.

After the king had killed three thousand wives, Scheherazade persuaded her father to allow her to
become the next bride of the king. Her father, who was the king’s executioner, knew that if his daughter
were to become the king’s bride, she would be killed. However, Scheherazade knew of a clever plan that
would stop the king from beheading all of the female virgins. She had to have the help of her sister
Dinazade to do so and with a great amount of reluctance, her father agreed to Scheherazade’s idea. On
the night of her wedding, Scheherazade had Dinazade beg the king to let Scheherazade finish to story

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 she started before her marriage to the king. Dinazade persuaded the king that she knew that it would be
Scheherazade’s last night alive and the last chance she’d have to listen the rest of the story. The king
agreed to her request.
Throughout the night, Scheherazade astounded the king with her mesmerizing story. As the dawn
approached, Scheherazade was reaching her story’s climax. The king felt so pleased with her story, he
put off her death for another night so she could finish telling it to him before being put to death on the
second morning.
Each and every night for one thousand and one nights, Scheherazade told the king the most exquisite,
entertaining tales he had ever heard in his life. Every morning, just when the sun was about to rise, the
stories had begun to reach their high peaks of excitement, only to be cut short, for one more day, until
Scheherazade could complete her story telling during the next night. The king spared her each day for
one more day, so he could hear the final moment of the story.

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