The Sultan's Dilemma

Question 1

How does the play open?

Answer 1

With an executioner and a man condemned to death

Question 2

When is the execution going to take place?

Answer 2

The sentence will be carried out at dawn prayer

Question 3

Who is Muezzin?

Answer 3

The person who gives the call to prayer at the five daily appointed times

Question 4

What happens if the condemned man tell his crime to the executioner?

Answer 4

His head will be cut right away

Question 5

What is the executioner trying to do at the beginning of the play?

Answer 5

Fall asleep and rest so that he can perform his work well

Question 6

What do the executioner and the condemned man decide to do until dawn prayer?

Answer 6

Have a drink together

Question 7

What does the executioner promise the condemned man to do?

Answer 7

Sing

Question 8

Why does the executioner and the maid get in a fight?

Answer 8

The executioner was being too loud, and the maid’s mistress was sleeping

Question 9

Who gave the order to the executioner?

Answer 9

The Vizier

Question 10

What does the lady do to postpone the execution?

Answer 10

She invites Muezzin for a drink at her house

Question 11

What does the sultan give to the executioner?

Answer 11

A fair trial in accordance with his wish, and the Chief Cadi is in charge of his trial

Question 12

What was the condemned man crime?

Answer 12

He said that the sultan was a slave and has not yet been manumitted, and that a person bearing such a stigma is not entitled to rule over the country

Question 13

Who proves the Sultan that he has not been manumitted?

Answer 13

The Chief Cadi

Question 14

Why hasn;t the sultan been manumitted?

Answer 14

because the Sultan collapsed suddenly following a heart attack, and departed his life before manumitting the new sultan

Question 15

What does Chief Cadi represent in the play?

Answer 15

He represents the law, and is against the conspiracy Vizier suggests

Question 16

What does the Vizier represent in the play?

Answer 16

He represents the Sword, and suggest that death should follow to any person who denies the fact that the sultan has been manumitted

Question 17

What solution does Chief Cadi offer?

Answer 17

Put the sultan for sale by public auction, and the person to whom he is knocked down thereafter manumits him

Question 18

Why does the Vizier stop the sultan from killing Chief Cadi?

Answer 18

Because doing so would brand the sultan with brutality and make him loath, since chief cadi represents the civil law

Question 19

What do the wine merchant and the shoemaker talk about before the auction>

Answer 19

About how they could employ the sultan if they could afford buying him

Question 20

Who offer the most money in the auction?

Answer 20

The lady who is considered as a whore in the district

Question 21

What the lady’s request before signing the deed?

Answer 21

Have the Sultan as a guest for a single night

Question 22

What does the Sultan understand about the lady?

Answer 22

That the man in her house are simply guests, and she only throws banquets with these guests who are poets and singers..a tradition she continued after her husband died

Question 23

What do the Vizier and Chief Cadi do to snatch th Sultan away from the house before dawn?

Answer 23

They make the Muezzin call the dawn prayer at midnight

Question 24

What does the Sultan give as a gift to the lady by the end of the play?

Answer 24

A ruby