The Story of Mushkil Gushā

The printed source

Authors

D. L. R. Lorimer and E. O. Lorimer

Book

Persian Tales: Written Down for the First Time in the Original Kermānī and Bakhtiārī

Publication

London: Macmillan and Co., 1919

Story

Tale IX, “The Story of Mushkil Gushā,” pp. 48–57

Practice note

Page 48, note 1

Language

English translation of material collected in Kermani and Bakhtiari

Research status

The earliest complete printed witness located so far — not a demonstrated point of origin for the story or the practice.

How the story moves

1. Need and a daughter’s wishA poor thorn-gatherer supports his wife and daughter by selling bundles of fuel. His daughter longs for date cakes, but the family has no money for their ingredients.
2. Three days of hungerThe father gathers thorns for three days. Each night he finds the door shut and sleeps outside; his family, meanwhile, goes without food. When he follows a report of a feast in the desert, he finds nothing, and the accumulated thorn bundles are destroyed by fire.
3. The horseman and the pebblesA mysterious rider tells him to recite prayers, close his eyes and mount. In a distant place the man fills his clothing with ordinary-looking stones. The rider sends him home with an instruction: remember Mushkil Gusha, tell the tale every Friday Eve, fast and give dates as alms.
4. Unexpected wealthAt home the pebbles shine and prove to be jewels. One is sold, the daughter’s wish is fulfilled, and the family rises from extreme poverty to wealth.
5. Friendship and the lost necklaceThe daughter becomes the friend of a princess. During an excursion the princess hangs a necklace in a tree before bathing and leaves it there.
6. Accusation and reversalBelieving the necklace stolen, the princess accuses her companion. The thorn-gatherer is imprisoned and the family’s property is confiscated.
7. The forgotten obligation rememberedIn prison on Friday Eve, the father remembers that he has neglected the observance. With one small coin he asks a passer-by to buy peas and raisins and listen while the story is told. A wealthy rider refuses and suffers an accident. A poor father, hurrying first for help and later for a shroud for his child, eventually agrees.
8. Telling, sharing and restorationThe prisoner tells the story and shares the food. The poor man’s child recovers. Elsewhere, a servant notices the necklace’s reflection in water, looks upward and finds it still in the tree.
9. ReleaseThe truth is established. The thorn-gatherer is freed and his property is restored. The tale closes by turning its wish for relief outward toward those who hear it.

Thursday, telling and alms

The Lorimers’ note describes a practice among poor and pious women in Persia. On Thursday they fasted. At noon the story was told to a child who had not heard it before; if no such child could be found, a mirror was placed on the ground and the teller addressed her own reflection.

At the sunset prayer, the fast was broken with peas and raisins or with dates. What remained was distributed as alms in the name of Mushkil Gusha. The recipient was not to refuse the food, although it could be passed on to someone else.

The note also preserves an important, though indirect, indication of how this particular version entered print:

“taken down verbatim from the lips of one of these poor and pious women by my informant.”Lorimer and Lorimer, 1919, p. 48 n. 1

What this witness allows us to say

• The 1919 publication shows that a complete Mushkil Gusha narrative and an accompanying women’s practice were documented together in the early twentieth century.
• The tale is not merely accompanied by a rite; it contains a model of that rite. Need is followed by help and obligation, forgetting by renewed difficulty, and remembering, telling and sharing by restoration.
• The practice joins fasting, a listener, food and almsgiving. The mirror provides a striking alternative when the required listener cannot be found.
• The printed date is evidence for publication, not for the origin of the tradition. The note itself points back to an existing oral setting and an unnamed chain of transmission.

What the printed text does not settle

• Who were the woman teller and the Lorimers’ informant?
• Does an original Kermani text, field transcription or related manuscript survive?
• How does the English rendering relate to the wording, performance and ritual vocabulary of the teller?
• Which earlier and later regional witnesses can establish continuity, variation or borrowing?

Consult the 1919 volume

The story returns to Kerman

In 1395 SH (2016/17), Lorimer’s Kerman material appeared in a Persian edition prepared by Fereydoun Vahman and published by the Kerman Studies Center. This later stage is documented separately so that it is not mistaken for an independent early witness.