Draft:An Arabian Night-mare

"An Arabian Night-mare" is a fantasy short story by Fitz-James O'Brien and was published in Household Words (Nov. 8, 1851), presented as a first-person narrative by a merchant named Hamet.

Story Summary

Hamet recounts his journey to the fair of Nishin, Novgorod, in the land of the Muscovites, where he successfully sells his merchandise and befriends a local merchant named Demski. Troubled by illness and the harsh conditions, Hamet accepts Demski's invitation to travel with him to Berezow in Tobolsk.

During his stay in Berezow, Hamet witnesses the peculiarities of the Muscovite lifestyle, including their strange foods and the extended winter darkness. He spends much time in the sweating-house and playing games with Demski's family. One day, he notices Demski's son carving chess pieces from a large bone and learns from Demski about the presence of mammoth bones in the ice, which a learned man attributes to a once warmer climate.

One night, Hamet dreams of being taken by a jin (a supernatural being) to the palace of Eblis, the ruler of the jinn. The jinn, including a bull-faced jin and others with hawk-like features, transport Hamet to a frozen land filled with ice-encased animals. At the palace, made entirely of ice, Hamet faces Eblis, who demands a present. When Hamet refuses to part with his roubles, he escapes with the help of a piece of cloth he had touched to the Holy Stone in Mecca. He wakes up back in Demski's house, realizing it was a vivid dream influenced by his holy relic.

Hamet returns to Khiva with his roubles intact, reflecting on the benefits of his pilgrimage to Mecca and the protection it provided him from the supernatural.

Story Analysis

"An Arabian Night-mare" by Fitz-James O'Brien is a rich tapestry of cultural intersection, mystical imagery, and existential reflections. The narrative, framed as an exotic tale told by a Muslim merchant, juxtaposes the mundane commercial endeavors with surreal, supernatural experiences. O'Brien uses Hamet’s journey to a foreign land and his subsequent dream to explore themes of cultural dislocation and the clash between rational and mystical worldviews. The vivid dream sequence, filled with jinn and frozen creatures, symbolizes the alien and often hostile environment that Hamet navigates. The story critiques the greed and deception in human nature, embodied by Hamet’s staunch defense of his roubles against Eblis, suggesting that material wealth can become both a burden and a source of moral conflict. Moreover, the protagonist’s reliance on his pilgrimage relic underscores a theme of faith and divine protection, highlighting a tension between Islamic beliefs and the pre-Islamic, pagan elements of folklore. Through Hamet’s journey, O'Brien reflects on the complexities of identity and the human condition in a world where the spiritual and the material are in constant interplay.

Contemporary Reception

Francis Wolle, O'Brien's first biographer, was the first to identify the story as an O'Brien publication: "For the year 1851, . . . there are three anonymous contributions, any or all of which come easily within the range of O'Brien's capabilities. On November 8 a prose fantasy, under the title "An Arabian Night-Mare," tells jokingly of the frozen spirits of Eblis in a style that imitates the overornateness of oriental phrasing." However, O'Brien scholar Jessica Amanda Salmonson, had a slightly more positive view of the story: "The story does seem pure Fritz in his dream story mode, and it is definitely the case that The Thousand and One Nights, along with other Orientalia, influenced him. . . . This would be Fritz's first known short story . . Many of Fritz's later themes can be detected in this early work."

The story indeed prefigures many of O'Brien's later themes, such as liminality, otherworldliness, and uncanny terror. It skillfully navigates the boundaries between reality and the supernatural, immersing the reader in a world where ordinary experiences are intertwined with eerie, fantastical elements. The dream-like journey of Hamet, filled with mystical beings and surreal landscapes, encapsulates the unsettling and ambiguous nature of O'Brien's work, where the familiar becomes strange and the unknown is charged with a sense of impending dread. This narrative not only exemplifies O'Brien's fascination with the eerie and the uncharted but also underscores his ability to evoke a sense of profound disquiet through richly detailed, imaginative storytelling.