The Dervish and the King

Discussion plan devised by G. Smith 18/7/95

TEXT: The Victorian Reader Book 5

Discussion:

• two world views clash: the king's stability and the nomad's freedom
• testing cultural boundaries:
• not daunted by the etiquette
• not daunted by the sense of place
• nature of a mistake:
• dervish's or king's mistake?
• apparent and real mistakes; "deliberate mistakes"
• dangerous to cross a king?
• use of Socratic dialogue to achieve an end

POINTS FOR DISCUSSIONS

1. Name the story: The Mistake? The Dervish and the King?

2. TIME The two have different ideas of time and so different perspectives on the facts: the dervish has a contracted time, and the king has a long one, with his ancestors, his son the prince.

3. Who made a mistake? No one. Just different approaches.

• unintentional mistakes
• there's no such thing as a deliberate mistake
• right to and process of rectifying mistakes with hindsight
• avoiding/anticipating mistakes.

3. the character of the dervish

• daring, persistent, cunning, wise, witty, clever
• estimating his chances
• stood up to the angry guards

4. the role of a king: middle eastern despot, arbitary rule - beheading

• kings need to be challenged to be reminded them they are only human
• king is entertained by this challenge
• a wise king? a clever king can afford to be merciful, generous?
• foolish for allowing one exception.

5. Who had the truth? Can there be two equally valid different persepctives on it?

Both had evidence, support for their stands.

6. What's at stake?

• the status of the dervish - a holy man. Is he afraid of losing his life, his credibility?
• the king, his dignity, his pride, his power, his authority, legitimacy?
• risking misunderstanding of his compassion,
• Does one exception leds to a flood

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© G Smith