Reading Notes: Arabian Nights, Part A


Story 1: Scheherazade

This tale provides the introduction to the Arabian Nights sequence. In it, a brave young girl named Scheherazade has taken it upon herself to stop a terrible evil committed by the sultan. He was deceived by his own wife, and as a result of his anger, he has promised to sentence all of his future wives to death. He marries a new one each day and has her killed the next morning. However, Scheherazade has a plan to stop this, though this plan is not yet clear. At this point, she has begun a story just in time before her death. I could use several themes from this for my own storytelling. I like the idea of a brave character choosing a circumstance of near certain death, but with a plan of action for how to adjust his or her fate. I assume that Scheherazade has something in mind to avert the sultan's usual action. Perhaps this story would also look different if the roles were switched, and someone made a deal to assassinate the sultan.

Story 2: The Merchant and the Genius

Here, things get interesting. We discover that Scheherazade has employed story-telling methods in order to prolong the event of her murder! Each morning she continues a story, but pauses in time for the sultan to begin his day. Thus, he keeps her alive, perpetually needing to hear the end of the story. I love what Scheherazade does. Not only does she pause at the most intense moments, but she begins developing stories within stories. This would be an awesome element for my own story - to begin one narrative, but have that narrative pause only to develop additional inner-narratives. It reminds me of a book called The Golden Ass, which makes use of such techniques.

Story 3: The First Old Man and the Hind

The interweaving of tales continues to increase in complexity. In this story, a man tries to explain his own story of how his wife became a deer, in order to help save the merchant from the genie, which is part of the original plot that Scheherazade is relaying to the sultan. If I am examining the story itself, then there is incredible magic and deception involved, which would make my own story very interesting. A frustrated woman turns a slave and his mother into animals in order to deceive her own husband. However, in a crazy turn of events, the woman herself is turned into an animal. This would parallel in a plot where the exact opposite of the original intended effect occurs.

Bibliography:
"The Arabian Nights' Entertainments: Scheherazade" by Andrew Lang: online link
"The Arabian Nights' Entertainments: The Merchant and the Genius" by Andrew Lang: online link
"The Arabian Nights' Entertainments: The First Old Man and the Hind" by Andrew Lang: online link

Image Information: A painting of the desert and Arabian buildings.
Link: Pixabay

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