Storytelling

The beautiful rabbit Simsimah is a good-hearted rabbit who loves her friends from the forest inhabitants. One day, Simsimah went out searching for food for her little children. She wandered through the forest, right and left. During her usual wandering like every day, she heard a voice coming close to her, crying for help: Help… let someone help me… save me. Simsimah stopped a little to determine the source of the sound, then continued her way toward the small bushes a few meters away. As soon as she moved them aside, she found a small lion cub stuck in a hunters’ net. Simsimah thought a little: What if I saved him, then he became a lion, grew up, and tried to catch me to eat me? Simsimah the rabbit thought a lot and was terrified by the idea that the cub would grow up and eat her, so she decided to leave him and depart. ...

Once upon a time, there were two brothers who loved each other. They were always friends, accompanying each other in everything, and playing together all the time. But one day, they argued over one of their games, where both of them wanted the same game, and they disagreed over who would take it. From that day, the two brothers decided each to play alone. They had many toys, so they sat dividing those toys. However, they also disagreed over choosing the games, where they would choose the big games and leave the small ones, also arguing over who would take this game and who would take the other. ...

Once upon a time, there was a large kingdom known for an ancient prophecy speaking of a princess without a palace. The prophecy said she would be the most just and wise wherever she was. In the kingdom lived a noble family of kings who owned a palace of great beauty. Generations of that family lived inside it. After many years, a great earthquake occurred, causing a catastrophe for that royal family. The earthquake completely destroyed the palace. The king and queen also died in that painful incident, leaving only their two daughters, Nour and Sabina. ...

When there were no flowers on the face of the earth, not even a single flower, when flowers were a dream unknown, a little girl was playing in the garden in front of her house. She repeated the words she knew. She loved words and loved to repeat the word she learned before others. Mama, she repeated ten times. She repeated it as if it were a sweet candy and chewed it as if it were a red berry. ...

It is told that the wise Shuparnasiti sat with his disciple Chakradara and began recounting his usual stories. The topic of today’s story was about accepting advice and taking action when angry. He told him the story of the bird with two heads, saying: There was a large bird called Bharunda living on the shores of a lake. It had two heads and one body. Once, when the bird was wandering on the shores of that lake, it found some delicious fruit. One of its heads turned and said: Oh, how lucky I am. This must be a gift from the heavens to me. ...

One night, two angels decided to descend from heaven to bless some families and bestow upon them abundant gifts and wealth after testing them. The two kings disguised themselves as two little girls. Their clothes were tattered, and signs of extreme poverty and need appeared on them. The two disguised angels chose two houses. The first was located at the town’s entrance, a large house that looked like a luxurious palace with many floors and rooms. The two girls knocked on the door, and its owner opened for them. When they asked him to allow them to spend a night in his home to protect them from the cold and darkness of the night, he refused. ...

These are the stories of the folk artist Muhammad Harb, known as Abu Subhi al-Tinawi. The artist grew up in Damascus, but his paintings reached Europe and America. Tinawi practiced the art of glass painting, a folk art known in the Balkan countries and Tunisia. He drew his scenes from folk stories and religious stories. When the boy was born more than 100 years ago in the alleys of Old Damascus, they called him Muhammad, as an example to the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace. ...

A farmer had a large garden that he cared for completely. He strove to arrange, organize, irrigate, and fertilize it. It bore much fruit, and he profited greatly from it. The man knew that his three sons hated agriculture and despised the cultivation of orchards. Their goal was to learn something else to get rich quickly. When the father grew old and felt the end of his life approaching, he called his three sons and said to them: My dear sons, I have left you a large fortune of gold. I placed it in a large pot and hid it in the garden’s land. After my death, dig the earth and search for this fortune if you desire it. The three sons tried to make their father tell them the place where he had put this gold fortune or even show them the direction where it was hidden, but he didn’t answer their request. ...

In one of the places full of roses, greenery, flowers, and fruits on trees, one of the merchants placed a beehive on the edge of one of the rivers, in a location far from sight. The Queen and the Workers: The queen bee rejoiced at this choice, showing features of joy and delight. She decided to give instructions to the workers and males. The working bees began working hard, without fatigue or boredom, flying over flowers to absorb nectar and make honey. ...

In one of the ancient kingdoms, there lived an unhappy king with much fat and flesh. He suffered greatly from his increased weight. He gathered the wise men to seek a solution to his problem, for he couldn’t walk or move much. Pain and ailments accompanied him, and the king lived in misery and torment because of his ailing body. Unfortunately, none of the wise men could do anything for the king, so he was overcome with grief and worry, living in unhappiness that spread throughout the entire kingdom. Until a wise physician came to the kingdom. When the king learned of him, he summoned him and asked him to cure him of his condition, in exchange for bestowing upon him money and gifts. ...