The Fan of Patience (Urdu: Sabr ka pankha) is a Pakistani fairy tale from Punjab, published by Pakistani author Shafi Aqeel and translated into English by writer Ahmad Bashir.
It tells the story of a princess who summons into her room a prince named Sobur (Arabic: "Patience"), or variations thereof, by the use of a magical fan.Haring, Lee. "Diaspora, Southwest Indian Ocean ". In: South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia. Routledge, 2020 . p. 157. . The story contains similarities to the European (French) fairy tale The Blue Bird - both tales classified, according to the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, as tale type ATU 432, "The Prince as Bird".
Summary A king has six daughters and no son. When his wife, the queen, announces she is pregnant, the king declares he will kill the baby if it is another daughter. As labour approaches, the queen is anxious, and the king orders the midwife to kill the child as soon as she is born. When the time comes, the midwife cannot kill her, and admires the beautiful child, who laughs and flowers fall from her lips. The queen is astonished at the princess's ability and bribes the midwife to lie to the king, so the princess can be raised in secrecy. As the princess grows up, the queen learns that her daughter can produce bricks of silver and gold with every step she takes, and keeps them stored.
One day, when a famine strikes the kingdom and the royal treasury is wholly depleted, the queen brings some of the bricks to her husband to keep the kingdom afloat. The king demands an explanation, and the queen makes him promise to let her live. The king agrees and they bring in his seventh daughter, bricks of gold and silver appearing with every step and flowers falling from her lips. The king makes peace with queen and the princess, forgiving his previous order, and enjoys his youngest's company, since she saved the kingdom. However, the six elder sisters begin to envy her, so the king builds her a separate palace. One day, he has to go on a journey, and asks his daughters what he can bring them when he returns. After hearing his elder daughters' wishes, he goes to ask his seventh daughter in her palace, and her maid goes to ask her on the king's behalf. As the princess is saying her prayers, she asks her maid to have "patience", which she misconstrues as a material object named "patience".
When he returns from his journey, he brings his seventh daughter a box he says it is "patience". The girl does not understand the meaning of the gift and leaves it alone in a corner. Some time later, on a hot day, the girl decides to open the box to use the lid as a fan, and finds a beautiful fan inside. She waves it and a handsome prince appears before her. She swoons at the sight, but the prince wakes her up and explains the fan can summon him and send him back. The princess spends her days with the prince, and rumours of their meetings reach her elder sisters' ears, who become even more jealous of her. Thus, they feign friendship and decide to learn about the mysterious prince, and even prepare a bed for him, where they place glass. The princess, believing their words, summons the prince. Just as he lies on the bed, the glass hurts his body and he bleeds all over, so the princess waves the fan to send him back to his country.
Days pass, and the prince does not return, even as the princess waves the fan. She then decides to search for him in his home country, wears masculine clothes and ventures into jungles until she can find him. On one occasion, she stops to rest by a tree and overhears the conversation between a mynah bird and a parrot about the prince and how to heal his wounds: take droppings from both birds, make them it a powder and apply to his wounds. She produces the remedy and takes it with her to the prince's country in the West, where she introduces herself as a physician who has come to dress the prince's wounds.Aqeel, Shafi. Popular Folk Tales of the Punjab. Translated by Ahmad Bashir. Oxford University Press, 2008. pp. 6-12 (Tale nr. 2). .
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type 432, "The Prince as Bird",Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 146–147. albeit in a form that exists in South Asia. In these variants, the heroine's father brings her a fan, which she uses to summon the magical prince whose name translates to 'Wait' or the like.
Motifs The tales contain motif J1805.2.1, "Daughter says 'Sobur' ('Wait'); Father thinks it is a thing, finds Prince Sobur". The motif appears in tale type ATU 432, "The Prince as Bird".El-Shamy, Hasan. Folk Traditions in the Arab World: A Guide to Motif Classification. Vol. I. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1995. p. 209. .
The tales also contain motif D1425.3., "Magic fan summons prince for heroine".Thompson, Stith; Balys, Jonas. The Oral Tales of India. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1958. p. 131.
In some tales, the heroine passes by a King Lear-type judgement (Motif H592), indexed as its own tale type in the catalogue for Indic tales: AT 923B, "The Princess Who Was Responsible for Her Own Fortune".Ramanujan, A. K. A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India . University of California Press, 1997. p. 218. .Goldberg, Christine. "Prinz als Vogel (AaTh 432)" [Prince as Bird (ATU 432)]. In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online. Edited by Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Heidrun Alzheimer, Hermann Bausinger, Wolfgang Brückner, Daniel Drascek, Helge Gerndt, Ines Köhler-Zülch, Klaus Roth and Hans-Jörg Uther. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016 . p. 1323. https://www-degruyter-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/database/EMO/entry/emo.10.244/html. Accessed 2024-02-15.
Variants Prince Sabr Sindhologist Nabi Bakhsh Baloch published a Sindhi tale collected from a source in Hyderabad, Pakistan, with the Sindhi title: "صبر شهزادو" ("Sabr Shahzada"), translated to English as Prince Sabr. In this tale, a king has three beautiful daughters, but the third and youngest the most beautiful and intelligent of them all. The king likes to ask his daughters how much they love him, and they reply with sweet metaphors. One day, however, the youngest compares her love for him as salt to a meal. Enraged, the king thinks the third princess offended him and orders some attendants to abandon her in the wilderness. The princess complies with his orders, but utters he will regret his decision. She goes to the forest and meets with a beggar man. They live together. One night, she has a dream of someone pointing to a spot in the forest where she is to dig. She relates her dream to her friend, the beggar, who suggests this is a good omen, so they look for the spot to dig up. They do so and find a chest with diamonds and precious gems. The princess suggests the beggar take some of the gems to the marketplace to hire some carpenters to build them a house, and they should keep some of the gems to themselves. The carpenters build them a fine palace, and they live comfortably. The princess and the beggar take the rest of the chests from the hole, also filled with gems and jewels, save for a seventh box that contains a beautifully ornate fan with gold and pearl. The princess takes the fan for herself and, one day, waves it and a prince appears to her. The princess is surprised at his presence, but the man introduces himself as a prince from Fairy-land who the fan summoned to her. The princess spends time with the fairy prince, and waves the fan to both summon and send him back. One day, the princess bids the beggar man invites her father and sisters for a meal at her palace, and asks him not to reveal anything about her, for she will wear a disguise. It happens thus, and the king and the six princesses attend the meal, where they are served a tasteless meal without salt. The king finally understands what his cadette meant, and the princess reveals herself. Father and daughter reconcile. As for the elder princesses, they feel insulted by the deception, and decide to investigate how she obtained so much money. One night, they spy on the princess summoning Prince Sabr, and decide to hurt him by placing broken glass on a bed, since fairy people have "delicate skin" that bleeds easily. Soon enough, the elder princesses pretend to be tired and convince Sabr to rest a while. The prince lies down in bed, and the glass hurts his skin. Badly injured, he begs the princess, his lover, to come find him, then vanishes. Time passes, the princess mourns for her lover's disappearance, and decides to search for him. She stops to rest by a tree, and overhears two birds talking about how the leaves from that same tree can cure the prince. The princess plucks some leaves and, six months later, reaches her lover's kingdom. She meets some girls fetching water for Prince Sabr, and introduces herself as a doctor that can cure Sabr. She uses the remedy on him, and reveals herself to him. They reconcile and live happily.
The Patient Princess