A Muslim grocer in Kashgar attacks the body of a dead hunchback believing it to be a robber. Etching, 1785, by J. Jones after H.W. Bunbury.

  • Bunbury, Henry William, 1750-1811.
Date:
Decr. 24. 1785
Reference:
2477172i
Part of:
Arabian nights.
  • Pictures

About this work

Description

Around the walls are grocery materials such as dried fruits, fish etc.

An episode in Galland's version of the Arabian nights: Jonathan Scott, The Arabian nights entertainments, vol. 2, London: Longman, 1811, pp. 205-220, nights 123-128. A hunchbacked jester to the sultan of Casgar (Kashgar, China) is invited to dinner with a tailor but dies through choking on a fish bone. The tailor takes the body to the house of a Jewish physician and tries to implicate him in the man's death. The Jewish physician takes the body and lowers it down the chimney of a Muslim grocer who thinks he is a robber, beats him, and thinks he has killed him (the episode shown here). The grocer takes the body and places it outside a shop where it is encountered by a drunk Christian who in turn thinks he himself is responsible for the man's death. Eventually each of the participants confesses his role

Publication/Creation

[London] (No. 63 Great Portland Street) : J. Jones, Decr. 24. 1785.

Physical description

1 print : stipple engraving ; image 23.4 x 29.4 cm

Lettering

The sultan of Casgar's purveyor takes the corps of little Hunch Back (which is let down his chimney) for a robber. H. Bunbury esqr. del. ; J. Jones fecit

Reference

Wellcome Collection 2477172i

Creator/production credits

"Sketches for The Arabian Nights [by H.W. Bunbury] were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1785, and issued in sepia and coloured stipple etchings"--Oxford dictionary of national biography, s.v. Bunbury, Henry William

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