TO THE SCIENTIFIC COMPONENT OF A DELIBERATELY UNSCIENTIFIC PICTURE OF THE WORLD

The article offers an analysis of a fairy tale from The Arabian Nights as an example of the possibility of identifying a specific picture of the world that this text contains. The presence in the fairy tale of a picture of the world that can be considered as scientific one is due to the fact that the picture of the world is based on a certain understanding of the law, it can provide some information about the legal and social orientation of that time (Islamic law during the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt), and the possibility of establishing the main ontological foundations of the perception of the world of that time. The peculiarity of Islamic law allows us to consider it as a science that connects the social world with the general structure of the universe. Analysis shows that this understanding of the universe sees direct causal connections between the material (and social) world and the higher world (God). These worlds form a single space, although their unity is not accessible to direct contemplation. This tale was probably created with the aim of asserting a certain ideology. The main purpose of such a text is to establish the view that the executive institutions of the Mamluk Sultanate act in full accordance with Islamic law and the will of God. Behind the supposedly ordinary criminal plot unfolds an attempt by the authority to establish its legitimacy by proving the fact that its executive apparatus acts in accordance with the will of higher powers.