Zadig

Someone identified only by the name Sadi beseeches a sultana to see in Zadig’s story something that is not immediately apparent. Sadi relates that Sultan Ouloug preferred Zadig’s story to the stories popular with the sultanas—One Thousand and One Nights—because the former had the meaning and reason the latter lacked. Sadi remarks that Sultana Sheraa’s ignorance of philosophy will make her more receptive to the subtleties of Zadig’s stories than the other sultanas. Finally, Sadi prays for her good fortune: “I implore the Heavenly Powers that your pleasures be unalloyed, your beauty lasting, and your good fortune without end” (34). 

Zadig is a young, rich, handsome Babylonian. Despite his youth and wealth, he is humble, temperate, and generous—even to ungrateful people—because he adheres to Zoroastrian ethics. He is also pleasantly witty and strictly rational, believing in scientific theories despite the government strongly opposing them. Zadig’s good fortune and engagement to Semira—a beautiful, wealthy, and well-born woman who is devoted to him—assures him he will be happy.

One day, as Zadig and Semira walk “near one of the gates of Babylon, under the beautiful palm trees which line the banks of the river Euphrates” (37-38), they are accosted by a man Orcan and his guards. Orcan is related to the chief minister and is a rival suitor to Semira. Having failed to court Semira—he lacks Zadig’s charms—Orcan and his guards try to kidnap her. Zadig and his two slaves repel them, and Zadig carries home the wounded Semira. There, she feels even more devoted to Zadig, declaring she owes him her life and honor. Zadig was more seriously wounded than she, so he summons a well-reputed doctor named Hermes. Hermes judges Zadig will lose his injured right eye, proclaiming that only wounds in the left eye can be healed. The Babylonians respect the doctor’s knowledge and lament Zadig’s fate. However, two days later Zadig heals completely, prompting Hermes to write a book proving the impossibility of his recovery.

Zadig discovers that during his convalescence Semira married Orcan out of an aversion to one-eyed men. Zadig nearly dies from grief, but his ability to reason saves him. He decides to marry a woman from the city (since a woman from court brought him so much pain), choosing the well-born Azora. Azora is passionate about Zadig for a month, after which he sees her frivolity and attraction to other men. 

Questioning his wife’s fidelity, Zadig enlists his friend Cador—whom Azora trusts—to test her character. When Azora returns from a brief trip, her servants inform her that Zadig has died. She swears she will die of grief and spends the night weeping with Cador. The next day, Cador tells Azora that he would like to share Zadig’s estate (which Zadig willed him) with her. At first, this proposition angers Azora, but eventually she warms both to it and Cador, praising him for lacking Zadig’s faults.

At dinner, Cador has a violent attack of abdominal pain. Azora laments Hermes is no longer in Babylon. Cador says the only relief for these occasional paroxysms is the application of a dead man’s nose. This cure perplexes Azora, but Cador convinces her it is no stranger than another popular remedy of the time. She agrees to cut off Zadig’s nose, reasoning that a lack of a nose will not bar him from the afterlife. She cries before approaching with the razor, at which point Zadig leaps up and admonishes her.

Zadig divorces Azora, having found that while the first month of marriage is appropriately called the honeymoon, the second is aptly called the wormwood moon. He decides to console himself by moving to the country to study nature. Zadig examines the qualities of different animals and plants, becoming highly attuned to minute differences that others do not see.

While walking in the woods, Zadig encounters the queen’s retinue searching for her dog. Zadig accurately describes the dog in detail despite not having seen it. Coincidentally, the king’s retinue approaches at the same time, asking about the king’s missing horse. Zadig again accurately describes the animal in detail but insists he has not seen it. Convinced Zadig is a thief, the king’s men bring him to court, where he is sentenced to flogging and banishment to Siberia.

Immediately after Zadig’s sentencing, the dog and horse are found. Embarrassed, the judge changes his sentence to a fine of 400 ounces of gold. Zadig pays it and then explains himself in front of a council of judges, addressing them in soaring terms: “Luminaries of Justice! Unfathomable Depths of Knowledge! Mirrors of Truth” (52). Zadig explains he discerned each animal’s characteristics from the tracks it made: Feathery imprints on either side of the dog’s forefoot tracks told him the dog had long ears; silver flecks on the rocks told him the horse wore silver horseshoes. The judges are impressed by Zadig’s deductions as are the king and queen. The king orders the fine repaid but the court keeps 398 ounces for legal expenses and the rest to tip their servants.

Realizing how dangerous being clever can be, Zadig resolves to curb his cleverness. When he witnesses a prisoner escape, Zadig denies seeing anything. The court catches his lie and fines him 500 ounces of gold. Following Babylonian custom, Zadig thanks the judges for their clemency. Zadig remarks how easy it is to fall into trouble: “What trouble a man can get into if he takes a walk in a wood after the Queen’s bitch and the King’s horse have passed by! How dangerous it is to sit at a window, and how difficult to be happy in this life!” (56).

Zadig seeks shelter from life’s vicissitudes in philosophy and friendship. He welcomes the best scholars in Babylon into his library, but soon a controversy arises over Zoroaster’s law against eating griffins. One group of scholars questions why Zoroaster would forbid eating something that does not exist, while the other group insists that griffins must exist since Zoroaster made a law about them. Zadig attempts to resolve the conflict: “If griffins do exist, we mustn’t eat them. If they don’t, we certainly can’t eat them. Thus either way we shall obey Zoroaster” (58).

One scholar who had written 13 volumes on griffins reports Zadig for heresy to the Archimage Yebor. Yebor intends to burn Zadig at the stake before Cador intervenes, using his influence to quash the matter. Zadig questions how he is supposed to be happy when his fate depends on things that do not even exist. He abandons the scholars for high society.

Zadig starts hosting elegant dinner parties where he prioritizes substance over surface, hosting interesting rather than fashionable people. People respect Zadig for this integrity, but his neighbor Arimazes grows jealous of his social success and happiness. Arimazes, known as Green Eyes, is ugly, rancorous, and boring.

On a visit to Zadig’s, Arimazes discovers in a rose bush a discarded piece of verse Zadig wrote for his friends about the king’s recent triumph in war. By a stroke of fate, a tear in the paper changes the laudatory verse into a slanderous one. Determined to ruin Zadig, Arimazes sends the verse to the king, who imprisons Zadig and the friends for whom he wrote it. A judge condemns Zadig to death and gives his estate to Arimazes without allowing Zadig to defend himself. Just before the execution, the king’s parrot deposits the missing pieces of verse on the king’s lap. The queen realizes their mistake; Zadig and his friends are released, and his estate returned. The king and queen are so impressed with Zadig’s subsequent plea to forgive his unskilled verses that they befriend him. The king orders Arimazes to give his estate to Zadig, but Zadig returns it.