Open Sesame

“Eftah ya Semsem!” is one of the most famous sentences known to children and adults, and is at the same time the song of the introduction to one of the most famous children’s programs “the world of Sesame”. Children know this sentence from the famous story: Alibaba and the forty thieves, But what is the story of Alibaba?

Ali was living with his father, a merchant, and his brother Qassem. He learned from his father how to trade and do business, and became a merchant, but when his father died, his brother Qasim was greedy and seized their father’s money and left Alibaba without any money. Qasim married a wealthy woman to benefit from her wealth and grow his father’s trade. Alibaba worked in cutting and collecting wood to make a living and sell the wood in the city. Qassim had a maid called “Morjana” who treated Ali Baba with all good and grace.

One day, as usual, Alibaba went to the forest to cut wood and collect firewood for sale in the city. As he was resting from his work, he heard a voice coming from the mountain. He went to hide behind a big tree and found forty knights, who were actually thieves, standing in front of a cave in the mountain.

The commander of the knights advanced and stood in front of the cave and shouted “Open Sesame”, the mountain split right away, a cave opened, and the knights entered it! Alibaba was surprised at what had happened and waited until the knights had left to go to that cave to see what was inside. And when the knights left he went to the door of the cave and used the password “Open Sesame” to open the cave and found inside a lot of treasures, gold and money. 

He gathered the largest amount of treasures and returned to his home to finally escape poverty. Alibaba wanted to measure the amount of money and treasures so he asked the maid Morjana, to ask Qasim’s wife to lend him the scale. Qassim’s wife was suspicious and wondered; what does he want to measure when he did not have anything? So she poured some honey down the scale to know what Alibaba is planning. When he gave her the scale back, Qassim’s wife found some gold coins attached to the scale. She told her husband Qasim to keep watch on Alibaba and find out where the money came from.

The next day, Qassim followed his brother and found out about the mystery of the cave and the password. He waited until Alibaba had left and went to the cave, repeated the password to enter the cave and discovered a large amount of gold. Qassim collected and collected as much as he could and because of his greed, he forgot the password and could not go out. 

When the thieves returned to the cave and found Qassim, they decided to kill him, but he begged them not to, and promised to tell he will tell them a secret. Qassim told them about his brother and promised to guide them to his place to take what Alibaba collected from the cave.

The commander of the thieves disguised himself as a merchant and went to Alibaba’s house and asked him that he was a stranger in the city, didn’t know anyone, and that people he was recommended by people to go to his house. Alibaba hosted him at his house, and in return, the thieve gave him forty jars of oil, as a gift and thanked Alibaba for his generosity and hospitality. 

Alibaba ordered the servants to prepare the food for his guest. The servants told Alibaba that there is no cooking oil for preparing food for the guest. Alibaba asked Morjana, who moved to work for him instead of his brother’s, to take the oil in the pot that the merchant had given him. The servants found out that the thieves hid in it, they inspected the rest of the pots and found all the thieves hiding in them. So they placed stones over the pots to keep them inside. Alibaba was angry and he ordered that all the thieves and their commander to be killed.
At the end he married Morjana and they lived happy together.

Tags: 

AliBaba     , Morjana,      The forty Thieves ,       Open sesame , Cave   , Treasure, Gold,       Merchant, Money, knights   , Theft , password , Trade ,       Servant