Behaviour of Kings as Portrayed in The Thousand and One Nights - Essay Example

?Behaviour of Kings as portrayed in The Thousand and One Nights The Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern stories from the goldenage of Islam. It was originally written in Arabic and over the centuries has been translated by various authors and scholars. The stories depict the Arabian culture and society and the lives of the Muslim people. In English the compilation of stories is known as the Arabian Nights. It has gained popularity all over the world and is one of the most widely read literature. The stories describe the extreme patriarchal society among the Arabs and the Muslims. This paper focuses on the attitude of kings as representatives of the male gender in the male dominating society. The larger story into which the collection of tales has been woven consists of a Persian King Shahrayar. He once witnessed the infidelity of both his brother’s wife and his own newly wed wife. In a fit of rage he executes his wife and decides thereon that all women belong to the same genre of lie and deception. He then decides to marry a virgin every day only to execute her the next morning. In this way he believed that the wives will not be able to deceive him. This continued for three years at the end of which there were no more virgins left in the king’s kingdom. Eventually, Shahrazad who was the daughter of the vizier plotted a plan to put an end to this inhuman custom of the king. The plan was that she would narrate tales to the king every night, but would let it remain unfinished at dawn. This would make the king curious to know the conclusion of the story and he would postpone her death for indefinite period. The Thousand and One Nights is the compilation of all the stories narrated by Shahrazad to the King Shahrayar. By studying the stories it is possible to comprehend the early culture of the Arabians which include the role of gender, contemporary human behaviour, interaction between the male and female and the punishments for going against the social customs. The Arabian society was an extremely male dominated society where the men were the head of the family. They were the earning members and often went on long journeys for trading and hunting. In story of the Merchant and the Jinni, the husband had to engage in traveling for the purpose of business. For this he had to leave behind his wife and children at home before he traveled to a foreign country. The society expected the men to enforce their power and authority on their female partners and to manage their family lives in an efficient manner. The men physically abused their wives to force them to remain obedient towards them. The wives were expected to be submissive in nature. It was also a common practice for men to beat their wives as punishment for infidelity as demonstrated in the tale of the husband and the parrot. The women were bound by their duties as been ascribed by the men in the society. Their activities comprised of remaining within the confines of home and to keep the house clean and orderly. The men expected obedience, faithfulness and submission from their wives. Any conflicting behaviour from women was considered inexcusable and was regarded as punishable offence. The stories of The Thousand and One Nights give a clear pattern of male characteristics more specifically that of kings. In the story of The Merchant and the Jinni there is a “pious and law-abiding merchant, who thinks of his obligations to his fellow men even under the most adverse circumstances” (Muhsin, 1995, p.138). Such unselfish characteristics of men can be seen in many stories of the compilation. The story of the fisherman narrated to the demon it can be seen that people of four different religions maintain their faith towards their covenants “even when they are in frying pan”. The kings had the power to transfer the followers of traditional religions “into law-abiding citizens with the passage of time” (Muhsin, 1995, p.138). The kings were also honorable in their acts and believed in repaying for every good deed. There was King Yunan who was a “heathen king ruling over heathen Greeks in Northwest Persia” (Muhsin, 1995, p.135). He was struck by leprosy which was not curable. Eventually a Greek philosopher succeeds in curing the king. The king showed his gratitude by showering the philosopher with rewards and appointing him as counselor. In the same tale the king’s wisdom was also demonstrated when he refused to be swayed by a jealous vizier. The vizier accused the philosopher of being a spy who is planning to murder the king. But King Yunan who remembered a similar tale of “another king who was about to kill his son because of the insinuations of a jealous person” did not commit the same mistake (Muhsin, 1995, p.135). There are various tales in the compilation that portray the image of men towards women for whom killing their wives for infidelity was a common occurrence. The beginning of each tale had a common theme with four basic events. Firstly, a man is forced to leave his wife at home to go for business trips or other reasons. Secondly, he returns home abruptly for some inevitable coincidence. Thirdly, he witnesses his wife in bed with her lover. Finally, he kills them to satisfy his brutish revenge. The tales of The Thousand and One Nights portray a society where the king was the government. He had the power to punish or execute anyone according to his whims. The power of kings was intimidating and the subjects were completely at their mercy. The King Shahrayar after being deceived by his wife killed both his wife and her paramour. Then for the next three years he married virgins everyday only to execute them the next day. This was his own rule which could not be defied by anyone. Since he was the ruler there was none who could oppose because he had the right to kill anyone who dared to cross his path. Since the monarch ruled the political outlook did not have any kind of democratic representation. The thousand and one stories represented the time and place where the king owned every piece of land and ruled his people according to his own laws. The king had the power to make a person rich by granting then lands or poor overnight by taking away their lands. The king had the right to marry any young woman while his subjects did not have any rights to oppose. This was a society where the women had absolutely no power or rights whatsoever. The honour of a woman depended on the sexual whims of her men. Being brought up in the modern society where I have been taught the equal rights and status of men and women, I can never live in a society that has been portrayed by the tales of the Arabian Nights. The male characters in The Thousand and One Nights were not static. Their personality and characterization were born from the narrative itself. The male characters were personified by their self ego which was developed from the events he encountered and experienced during the course of the tale. Not all the stories portrayed the tyranny of the kings. There were some tales those were pious and taught about the ethical way of life in a cruel world which was ruled by whimsical kings, but was above all looked after by a compassionate God. References Mahdi, M. (1995) The Thousand and One Nights, Netherlands: BRILL Read More