Abu al-Husn and His Slave-Girl Tawaddud
Abu al-Husn and His Slave-Girl Tawaddud is a story that is first attested in medieval Arabic (later appearing in the Thousand and One Nights) that, besides being well known in itself, inspired spin-offs in Persian, Spanish, Portuguese, Mayan, and Tagalog. The tale in Arabic Summary As summarised by Ulrich Marzolph, Richard van Leeuwen, and Hassan Wassouf, the version in the Cairo edition of the Thousand and One Nights runs as follows: A rich man in Baghdad has a son called Abu ’l-Husn. When his father dies, Abu ’l-Husn squanders his inheritance ... until he owns nothing except a slave-girl named Tawaddud. Tawaddud advises him to take her to Caliph Hârûn al-Rashîd and sell her for 10,000 dinars. When she is led before the caliph, Hârûn starts interrogating her and she claims to be well versed in all the sciences. Thereupon Hârûn holds a contest between the foremost scholars of Baghdad and Tawaddud. She is questioned about the Koran, the traditions and the law, about theology, physiology and medicine, astronomy, and philosophy. In every discipline she proves to be exceptionally well informed and emerges victorious. Then she beats the champions of chess and backgammon and shows her ability to play the