One Thousand and One Nights - Research Paper Example

One Thousand and One Nights A thousand and one nights is also called Arabian nights in English. It is a compilation of stories across Asia during the Islamic Golden Age. Many researchers deem that the whole thing is a pastiche, as the Islamic Caliphate then spanned a lot of countries that most folk stories were incorporated into the frame story which features the famous Scheherazade. One thousand and one nights tell various stories, imagine the tales of brothers Grimm, but there is a link to all of them, mainly the frame story of Scheherazade and Shariyar. Shariyar is a Persian ruler and the wife, Scheherazade, tells him stories to prolong her death, as the king is bitter towards women, he decides to marry virgins only to have them executed the next day. He was also bitter because of his brother’s experience. Earlier, he came to know of his younger brother's disloyal wife because of whom his younger brother had lost the will to live. He saw one more instance of the voracious sexual appetite of a woman who insisted on sexual intercourse with him. These instances robbed the peace of his mind and he concluded no woman in the world is chaste and faithful. Filled with revenge, "He also sware himself by a binding oath that whatever wife he married he would abate her maidenhead at night and slay her next morning to make sure of his honour; 'For' said he, 'there never was nor is there one chaste woman upon the face of the earth." These lines also exemplify that: "When King Shahryar saw this infamy of his wife and concubines he became as one distraught and he cried out, 'Only in utter solitude can man be safe from the doings of this vile world! By Allah, life is naught but one great wrong'." This utterance relates to the instance when the king saw his wife and concubines indulge in sex with slaves in his absence. Now Scheherazade begins a story and does not end it and so the king prolongs the execution of the girl as she does not tell the ending of the story. This is the frame story of the whole Thousand And One Nights. The frame story is anchored on these two characters with other stories that lift off from this tale, and some are framed from stories within stories but other stories begin and end in their accord. The tales vary from historical tales, stories of virtue, eroticism, love stories, tragedies, poems, comedies, burlesques and love stories. Most of the stories center on women. Magic is also central to the stories as there are characters with jinns, ghouls, wizards, magicians and even famous people of history. Fiction is intermingled with non-fiction. Then sometimes, these characters would intermingle within Scheherezade’s stories resulting to a rich narrative. As it is a geographically based story, many versions of it exist. Because of that, there are also different versions of the story’s ending: from Scheherezade having a pardon because the King eventually fell in love with her after a thousand and one nights or the versions that the king sees their children together and gives Scheherazade pardon from her death sentence as she is the mother of his children. This piece of literature is vital because it gives the world a glimpse to an otherwise closed world of Islam. It is also important because the literature centers on women. It pictures women as cunning, manipulative, independent and also compassionate. It is quite varied and hopeful at the same time, even though it paints something that’s not accurate. After all, it is literature and should be regarded as a reflection of real life as all of art forms. In this story we see two aspects of women. One, women are depicted as treacherous and disloyal towards men. Two, they have an enormous sexual appetite. And finally, they are intelligent and wise. Let us see some instantiations in the story. As mentioned earlier, the stories mostly have women as the common thread. Like the patterns and weaving, they are repeating themes. What about the women though? The major theme of these stories is about women who make men feel better about themselves because of their subservient nature; women who are sexually aggressive when they make love to men, and who cater to men’s fascination of beauty. Women then are mostly kept as slaves and concubines. They are also kept because they are capable of having children and they are there to produce male heirs for their husband. As it was, having a male heir as a ruler made him quite proud. Yes, it was quite sexist but as we have said before, this piece of literature is a reflection of the times then and as such, it just states the reality then that the times are indeed sexist. Amongst the many characteristics of “The Woman” in the stories, her beauty is perhaps the most celebrated. The Woman’s beauty is intricately described, down to the last detail of makeup, metaphorical details and facial jewelry and ornaments. This is evidenced by these lines: "She was wrapped in an izar of silk embroidered with gold, and the merchant uncovered her face, whereupon the place was illuminated by her beauty, and there hung down from her forehead seven locks of hair reaching to her anklets, like the tails of horses. She had eyes bordered with kohl, and heavy lips, and slender waist: she was such as would cure the malady of the sick, and extinguish the fire of the thirsty, and was as the poet hath said in these verses: I am enamoured of her: she is perfect in beauty, and perfect also in gravity and dignity. She is neither tall nor short; but her lips are such that the izar is too narrow for them. Her stature is a mean between the small and the large: so there is neither tallness nor shortness to find fault with. Her hair reacheth to her anklets, (and is black as night,) but her face is ever like the day. The king, therefore wondered at the sight of her, and at her beauty and loveliness, and her stature and justness of form..." (The Story of Jullanar of the Sea, 2nd paragraph) In “The Porter and the Ladies of Baghdad,” these are the excerpts: “"...and the porter, looking to see who opened it, found it to be a damsel of tall stature, high bosomed, fair and beautiful, and of elegant form, with the forehead like the bright new moon, eyes like those of gazelles, eyebrows like the new moon of Ramadan, cheeks resembling anemones, and a mouth like the seal of Suleyman: her countenance was like the full moon in splendour, and the forms of her bosom resembled two pomegranates of equal size. When the porter beheld her, she captivated his reason..." (The Porter and the Ladies of Baghdad..., 4th paragraph) All of these descriptions reflect how the people then describe beauty and its standards during those days. It should be noted that when beauty is talked about, color – especially pale color – is mentioned. This is because color is regarded as something of a status in those times. One can say that color consciousness is prevalent during those times as evidenced by these lines. Slave males are almost invariably black in color. Princes and princesses are fair. The color was believed to add charms to the beauty that was an amalgamation of a number of other features. While there are women in One Thousand and One Nights that are leading the lives as a wife, consort, slave or concubine or beautiful princesses leading their life in misery or luxury, always playing a second fiddle to men; there are also women who have bold characters. These women go beyond beauty and sex to establish their personality as we have seen in Scheherazade and Marjaneh. However, the wit, intelligence and wisdom of women in most of the stories form the central theme to fight out injustice and oppression. For instance in the same story, Sheherazade, the Vizier's daughter has been described in exceedingly glowing metaphors. She marries Shahryar in order to save the king and unmarried women in the kingdom and accomplishes her task successfully. There are a number of other stories where the kings are worried for their daughters, the beautiful and highly accomplished princesses, fearing they would not be able to find equally accomplished, intelligent, wise and handsome princes. The question is do we find these qualities in the personalities of common women or are these the preserve of only aristocratic ladies? Marjanah for example, exemplifies this trait. In the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the entire story revolves around the wit and intelligence of a slave girl, Marjaneh. Her extraordinary presence of mind saves Ali Baba from a sure death at the hands of the 'Forty Thieves'. Ultimately through the foresight, intelligence and wisdom of Marjaneh all the thieves are killed and their wealth devolves to Alibaba. Marjaneh gets married to Alibaba's son and is no longer a slave. This implies that Women and slave girls were not just sex-symbols. They had an independent identity and personality even in the medieval Islamic society. They could rise in social hierarchy through their merit, wit and intelligence.  And seemingly realizing that, these characters use wit, merit and intelligence. We have also the instances of women who lived just with other women, as against being perpetually in subservience to the males. But these were exceptions rather than rule. It appears men and women were made for each other to have fun and to enjoy. For instance, in The Story of the Porter and the Ladies of Baghdad' there is a statement that the porter makes to the ladies, "...but my heart and mind were occupied with reflections upon you and your state, ye being alone, with no man among you, not one to amuse you with his company, for ye know that the menareh standeth not firmly but on four walls: now ye have not a fourth, and pleasure of women is not complete without men: ye are three only, and have need of a fourth, who should be a man, a person of sense, discreet, acute, and a concealer of secrets." Most of the stories have women as the common denominator. We find women who are good as well as evil. The evil ones can be extremely mean and jealous of someone. They undertake mischievous acts purely out of their evil nature for which they are punished. While all stories have good and bad characters, the women in these stories are extremely bad when they are bad by the standards of medieval morality and the punishments or curse inflicted upon them is also severe. The weaving and the geometric patterns that are present in all the stories are also metaphors for the repetitive structures used in the story. The patterns signify the beauty of the story as well as the repetition of the key themes and structure. A pattern is not a pattern if it’s not repeating, so that’s what this is about. The women are repeating patterns as well and the frame story! The structure of stories within stories are also repeating. Now even the characteristics of the women are repeating patterns as well. They are always exhibiting the beauty of the stereotypical beautiful woman during those times and age. That is also a very notable thing in terms of metaphors. All the weaving and geometric patterns are indeed staples of the Arab culture. They are beautiful works of art. That mentioned, we can also say that the stories with their repeating structures – are also beautiful works of art. Like the woven material, these stories are also woven together intricately and with love – passion – to make beautiful outcome. These are woven together by strings, by material. The strings and the material that will bind the stories together are the structure and the characters that are vital to the story. Scholars are also convinced that these stories are Indian by origin as they evidenced by the frame story and the animal stories. These are also repeating themes. In One Thousand and One Nights, we find a wealth of information about society and literature in general. There are repeating factors and themes, and this makes the piece important, as well as vital in terms of art. References: The Book of One Thousand Nights and One Night, (Translated) by Richard Francis Burton Stories from the Thousand and One Nights, Harvard Classics Ulrich Marzolph (ed.) The Arabian Nights Reader (Wayne State University Press, 2006) The Islamic Context of The Thousand and One Nights by Muhsin J. al-Musawi, Columbia University Press, 2009. Hamori, Andras (1971), "An Allegory from the Arabian Nights: The City of Brass", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (Cambridge University Press) Pinault, David (1992), Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights, Brill Publishers Beaumont, Daniel. Literary Style and Narrative Technique in the Arabian Nights. P.1. In The Arabian nights encyclopedia, Volume Sallis, Eva. 1999. Sheherazade through the looking glass: the metamorphosis of the Thousand and One Nights. Dwight Reynolds. "The Thousand and One Nights: A History of the Text and its Reception." The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: Arabic Literature in the Post-Classical Period. Cambridge UP, 2006. Read More