The Thousand and One Nights

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The Thousand and One Nights
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Origins

• Culture Arab, from a collection of pre-Islamic
  Middle Persian tales around the14th century
• Names to know Schehazerade, Shahrayar (king)
• Shahrayar very displeased with first wife (and
  those who follow)

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1001 Nights

• Oral and written versions existed side by side.
• The tales are rooted in daily life, but are made
  magical by their settings, fantastic adventures,
  and the intervention of sorcerers and demons
  (djinn).
• The Prologue sets forth the themes of
• Lust, madness, violence, justice, retribution,
  heroism.

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The Narrator

• Shahrayar cannot find a suitable wife stating,
  There is not a single chaste woman anywhere on
  the entire face of the earth
• Beheads those not suitable
• Schehazerade volunteers to spend the night with
  king
• He orders her to be beheaded the next day but she
  begins telling him stories of kings/empires/events
  of the past
• After 1001 nights he falls in love with her and
  makes her his queen
• This is where we get the story of Sinbad and
  Aladdin

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Global Connections?

• The Greeks invented the novel in the Hellenistic
  period (3rd-1st centuries BCE) but these were
  adventure/romance tales only.
• Novel form is developing in medieval Japan, as
  well.
• This is also where idea of the Cyclops stems from

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Two-part Narrative Structure

• Baghdad part the characters and action focus on
  Baghdad in the time of Haroun al-Rashid.
• Egyptian part characters and settings are
  Egyptian, jinn are manipulated through talismans
  rather than directly.
• Tales reflect the influence of all the Islamic
  world ( the Quran) as well as ancient Babylonian
  Mesopotamian narratives and historical
  events/figures such as those surrounding
  Alexander the Great.

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Male vs. Female P.O.V.

• Men are comfortable when in control
• Men react violently when they realize they do not
  have control
• Women dislike the bonds put upon and actively
  seek escape
• Women can be powerful as even Djinn (genies)
  cannot control them

Disney Version
Real Version
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Aim of the Tales

• Schehazerades tales may be chosen to teach
  Shahrayar that not all women are like his first
  wife.
• In many of the tales a good woman undoes the harm
  done by a bad woman.
• The wicked characters are punished according to
  their crimes, but are never put to death (unlike
  all of Shahrayars other innocent wives!).