Arabian Nights
Diane Thompson, NVCC , ELI
THE WORLD OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS
The stories come from India, Persia and Arabia; there are even     stories from China, such as Aladdin, in some editions. These stories all reflect the     enormous, highly civilized Islamic world of the ninth to thirteenth centuries. It     stretched from Spain across North Africa to Cairo, across the Arabian peninsula, up to     Damascus and Baghdad, further north to Samarkand, across what is now Afghanistan, down into     India, and beyond. Many of the people in this huge area shared a religion, Islam, a     religious language, the Arabic of the Koran, and many cultural elements which derived from     the Koranic culture of Islam and its seventh century roots in the Arabian peninsula, now     mostly Saudi Arabia.
A traveler could wander across this huge region speaking Arabic,     sharing in a familiar culture, studying and praying in mosques, and trading with fellow     Muslims. A wonderful travel book was written by Ibn Battuta in the fourteenth century     recording his travels of about 77,000 miles, from Morocco across North Africa, through     Arabia, up through Persia, the Steppes of Central Asia, across what is now Afghanistan,     through India, perhaps up to China, and back again in many slow loops. Ibn Battuta, the     Arabic Marco Polo, was able to travel all this distance almost entirely within the sphere     of Islamic culture. 
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THE VARIETY OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS
The Arabian Nights is hugely various, like the lands it came from,     and it is jam-packed with spiritual as well as earthly values. It includes information on     what life is like and how to live it in a world full of tyrannical as well as good rulers,     magicians and witches, good and bad jinnis (or demons), plentiful sex, lots of violence     and mystical spiritual quests.
The Arabian Nights are not just Arabic, but Persian and Indian as     well, so perhaps a better name for them is simply The Nights, one of the world's     great collections of stories. The Nights are a wonderful example of Folk literature     and how it develops, through the telling and retelling of stories over a long period of     time. There were many creators of these stories, many re-tellers, and many rewriters. There     are, consequently, many different texts of the Nights, and stories were added to the Nights for many centuries. The stories are called the Thousand and One Nights to express     the idea of a large number, not necessarily exactly 1001.
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FRAME STORIES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS
The stories in the Nights are like a complex set of interlocking     arguments and examples, each fitting more or less well into its frame and doing a more or     less successful job of proving its point as well as entertaining. The main frame creates     the setting and motivation for all the stories contained in the Nights:
I. Two brother kings, Shahrayar and Shahzaman
A. Shahzaman is cuckolded by his wife
B. Shahrayar is cuckolded by his wife.
C. They travel until they meet the Jinni (demon) who keeps his wife     locked up in a glass chest, yet she still manages to cuckold him.
D. They return to their kingdoms and Shahrayar has his wife killed,     and vows to marry a new wife each night and kill her the next morning, so she can't     cheat on him.
E. Shahrazad tells her father she will marry Shahrayar.
1. Father tells her The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey to dissuade     her. Not successful.
2. Father tells her The Tale of the Merchant and His     Wife to dissuade her. Not successful.
F. Shahrazad marries Shahrayar, and arranges for her sister,     Dinarzad, to ask     her to tell a story to pass the night. This story, and many more, will save her and     deliver the people.
1. Story of the Merchant and the Demon
a. Story of the First Old Man and the Deer
b. Story of the Second Old Man and Two Dogs
c. Story of the Third Old Man.
These three stories are successful and persuade the demon to release     the merchant.
2. Story of the Fisherman. And so on until eventually the King     forgives women, accepts his marriage to Shahrazad as permanent, and all live happily ever after. The stories     have     been successful in curing the King and saving the people.
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TEXTS AND VERSIONS OF THE NIGHTS
Because the Nights developed out of an oral tradition, there are     many texts and versions of the Nights available. If you wish to read more than is included     in the Norton Anthology,  the best current translation is that by Haddawy, which is     also published by Norton. Although the Haddawy translation includes only a small portion     of the total stories sometimes found in editions of the Nights, the translation is new,     attractive, has a good introduction, and avoids the ugly racism of the more standard     nineteenth century Richard Burton translation. The Burton translation, although it     includes many more stories, is so marred by the racial stereotyping in it, that I cannot     recommend it. You may, if you wish, read one of the editions translated by Burton instead     of the Haddawy version, but be warned, it is indeed racist in its negative stereotyped     descriptions of black people.
THE ISSUE OF RACE IN THE NIGHTS
In the Arabic stories of the Nights, as opposed to the Burton     translation, the issue of race is not that of modern racism. Although it does seem that     when a woman has illicit sex, it is with a black slave, and some bad jinnis are black,     there are also plenty of white slaves in the stories and jinnis come in various colors.     Indeed, the mystic color symbolism of some Islamic Sufis includes Black Light as the     second most sacred color, only exceeded by emerald, the color of Eternal Life.
Historically, there were plenty of black non-slaves who had     positions of importance in the Muslim world of the Nights. Further, the children of a man     and his slaves or concubines were free citizens and potential heirs, regardless of color.     The son of a king and his black slave concubine could become the next king. So, although     the Nights describe a world that includes slavery and some negative images about blacks,     these need to be examined in the context of the Nights, not as if they were expressions of     modern western values, while no such explanation is adequate for the Burton translation.
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ROLES OF WOMEN IN THE NIGHTS
The roles of women in the Nights are especially interesting. On the     one hand, there are many female slaves and concubines who must obey the men who own them.     On the other hand, it is the courage and wit of Shahrazad that heals the King's insane     distrust of women and saves the remaining virgins of her city from being killed. There are     faithful women and faithless women, magical women and silly women. Their many roles and     kinds are not those of the modern western world, but they have their own strengths and     weaknesses and deserve to be looked at for what they are, not simply as victims of men who     control them, although that too is a factor.
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THE POWER OF KINGS IN THE NIGHTS
The power of kings and other rulers in the Nights is frightening.     Shahrayar is able to marry and kill a new virgin each night for as long as he pleases. As     ruler, he makes the rules, and no one can oppose him and survive. There is not the least     suggestion of democratic representation; this is a world where the ruler, in a sense, OWNS     the land and people he rules. The king can save or kill the people, give away lands and     their inhabitants, claim young women as his wives and concubines, in short, do whatever he     pleases, while his subjects can either agree or keep silent.
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THE STORY OF THE FRAME OF THE NIGHTS
There are two brothers, Shahrayar and Shahzaman. Shahrayar rules     India and Indo-China, and he gives Samarkand to his younger brother, Shahzaman, to rule.     After Shahzaman has been in Samarkand for ten years, his older brother, Shahrayar longs to     see him, so he sends his Visier (his chief administrator) to his brother to ask him to     come and visit.
The Visier travels to Samarkand to invite Shahzaman to visit his     brother in India. The Visier camps with his retinue outside the city. King Shahzaman goes     to the camp to visit with the Visier, BUT, unknown to his wife, the Queen, he     returns to his palace in the middle of the night. Shahzaman finds his Queen in bed with     the cook, and becomes so enraged that he kills them both with his sword. He says nothing     of this to anyone, and leaves with the Visier to visit his brother, Shahrayar.
One day, while Shahrayar is out hunting, Shahzaman stays in the     palace feeling very depressed about his dead wife. He looks out at the garden and sees his     brother's wife enter the garden with twenty slave girls, ten white and ten black. They     undress and prove to be ten men and ten women, who proceed to have sex together, while     another slave, Mas'ud, jumps down from a tree when the Queen calls to him and they have     sex. Then they all re-garb as slave girls, except for Mas'ud who jumps back over the wall     and is gone.
Shahzaman marvels that his fate is not so bad as his brother's, and     consequently he feels much better.
When Shahrayar returns, he notices that his brother is more cheerful     and asks why. Shahzaman tells him and Shahrayar insists on seeing his Queen deceiving him.     This is done and he is enraged and suggests to his brother that they leave the kingdom and     seek a lover who is even MORE unfortunate than they are. Only if they find him will they     return home.
They travel to the sea shore where they hear a great commotion. A     black pillar emerges from the sea until it touches the clouds. It is a huge demon carrying     a glass chest locked with four padlocks. The demon wades to shore and stops under the tree     where the two brothers are hiding. He unlocks the glass chest and pulls out a beautiful     woman. He places her under the tree, puts his head in her lap, and goes to sleep. The     woman looks up and notices the two kings hiding in the tree. She gestures to them to come     down or she will wake the demon. Then she insists they make love to her or she will wake     the demon. Afterwards, she takes a ring from each brother to add to her collection of 98     rings from 98 other lovers. This shows her scorn for the demon who has not realized that     he cannot control what is pre-destined, or stop a woman from satisfying her desires.
This is indeed worse than the two brothers' situations, so they     return to their kingdoms. Shahrayar has his Queen killed and he personally kills all his     slave girls. He then swears to marry a new woman each night and have her killed the next     day, so she will not be able to betray him. And this is just what he does for quite a     while.
Shahrazad tells her father, the Vizier, that she wants to marry the     king and try to save more women from being killed. Her father gets very angry and says     that what happened to the donkey and the ox will happen to her. And what is that, she     asks?
Now the Vizier tells the first sub-story of the Nights, to convince     Shahrazad that she should not marry the king. This sub-story is about a donkey that     persuaded an ox to stop feeding and act sick in order to avoid working. Unfortunately for     the donkey, the ox's owner, a merchant, understood animal language and tricked the donkey     by making him do the ox's work, so the donkey suffered while the ox had an easy life. This     is not a very close analogy to Shahrazad's situation, so she rejects the moral of the     story and insists that she must marry the king.
The Visier then warns her that unless she desists from her plan,     he'll do to her what the merchant did to his wife. Shahrazad asks, what was that? This     introduces the second substory. When the merchant's wife realizes he understands animal     language, she INSISTS he tell her what the donkey and the ox were saying. The merchant     refuses, objecting that he will die if he tells. But, she insists and he prepares to tell     her and die. However, he overhears a rooster who says that he, the merchant, is foolish     because he can't control one wife, while the rooster controls fifty wives. The rooster     recommends that the merchant beat his wife until she stops trying to get him to tell her     the animal language. This proves a successful ploy, and the merchant gains control of his     wife and doesn't die, because he refuses to reveal the animal language.
BUT, Shahrazad refuses to accept the message of this tale, because     it, like the Vizier's first tale, offers a weak analogy to her situation. She is no     nagging wife to be beaten, nor is the Vizier in danger of death from her marrying the     King; she is the one putting herself in danger. The Vizier's attempts to dissuade     Shahrazad by telling stories have failed, and she insists on marrying the King.
Shahrazad then tells her little sister, Dinarzad, that she will send     for her on her wedding night and Dinarzad should then ask Shahrazad to tell a story "'and it will cause the king to stop his practice, save myself, and deliver the     people.'"
This is the great power of wonderful stories, when told well and for     a good purpose. They will cure the King, save Shahrazad's life, and free the kingdom from     the terror of having its young women killed night after night.
Shahrazad duly marries the King and summons her sister to her     bedchamber, where Dinarzad asks her to tell a story. This starts the series of Shahrazad's     stories, many of which include other stories within stories, like a set of interlocking     puzzle boxes.
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THE STORY OF THE FIRST NIGHT
The First Night is the story of the Merchant and the Demon. A     traveling merchant stops to rest and eat. He tosses date pits onto the ground, washes,     and says his prayers. Suddenly there appears an old demon, sword in hand, feet on the     ground and head in the clouds, who says "I must kill you as you killed him," because one of the date pits the merchant tossed away struck the demon's son and killed     him. This is the justice of the pre-Islamic law of "blood for blood," no matter     what the intentions of the people involved.
The Merchant replies with Muslim piety: "To God we belong and     to God we return. There is no power or strength save in God the Almighty, the Magnificent.     If I killed him, I did it by mistake. Please forgive me." But the Demon is of the     old     school of pre-Islamic law, and replies, "By God, I must kill you, as you killed     my son." This, of course, parallels the situation of the King who is killing a woman     every night to punish a woman long dead--it is punishment without determining guilt. The     pious merchant pleads, but the demon insists he MUST kill him.
Dawn comes, and Shahrazad stops the story right in the middle, but     says she'll tell an even better story if the king lets her live until the next night. He     agrees, wanting to hear the end of the story, after which he will kill her.
THE STORY OF THE SECOND NIGHT
The Demon agrees to let the merchant go home and put his affairs in     order. The merchant swears to God that he will return on New Year's Day. The demon accepts     this because they both believe in the same God, even though the merchant is Muslim and the     demon is from an earlier time and accepts an earlier law.
True to his word, the merchant puts his affairs in order and returns     on New Year's Day. As he waits for the demon to come and kill him, an old man appears with     a deer on a leash, hears the merchant's story and says he will stay until he sees the     outcome.
Dawn comes and Shahrazad stops telling her story. The intrigued King     agrees to let her live yet another day to tell the rest of it.
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THE STORY OF THE THIRD NIGHT
Another old man with two black dogs arrives, hears the merchant's     story, and says he'll stay to see the outcome.
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THE STORY OF THE FOURTH NIGHT
The demon appears and the first old man asks him if he will release     one third of the merchant's guilt if the old man can tell the demon a strange and     wonderful story. The demon agrees and the first old man tells his tale.
He had a barren wife for thirty years and then he took a mistress     who bore a son. His wife was jealous and, while the man was away, turned his mistress into     a cow and the son into a bull. When the man returned, he was told that his mistress had     died and his son had run away.
On a feast day, at his wife's insistence, the old man sacrificed the     cow, although the cow wept and otherwise behaved oddly. But, it proved only skin and     bones, when dead, so at his wife's insistence, he was going to sacrifice the bull, but it     threw itself at his feet and behaved pathetically.
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THE STORY OF THE FIFTH NIGHT
The old man refused to kill the bull and sent him to live with a     shepherd, whose daughter saw through the enchantment. She changed him back into a man     after his father agreed to marry the bull/son to her. She also changed the evil wife into     a pretty deer, the very deer the old man had with him on a leash.
The demon agrees that this is a strange and amazing tale,     and grants one third of the merchant's life. The second old man, with the two dogs, then     says that his story is even more strange and amazing and the demon agrees to grant one     third of the merchant's life if the story proves to be so.
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THE STORY OF THE SIXTH NIGHT
The second old man tells the story of himself and his two brothers     who squandered away their wealth each time he helped them to get on their feet. Finally,     they persuaded him to go on a trading voyage.
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THE STORY OF THE SEVENTH NIGHT
They arrived at their destination, sold their goods at a nice     profit, and the man telling the story met a girl dressed in tatters. She asked for a favor     and he agreed. The favor was that he would marry her, and she added that she would reward     him for his "kindness and charity." He felt pity for her and "guided by     what God the Most High had intended for me, I consented." This displayed his virtues     of trust in God and belief in Destiny or predestination, a frequent theme in the Nights.
On the voyage home, the two brothers became jealous and tossed him     and his new wife overboard. The wife turned into a she-demon and carried him to safety on     an island, saying, "Husband, I have rewarded you by saving you from drowning, for I     am one of the demons who believe in God...." This is the second pious demon we have     encountered in the Nights so far. She wanted to kill the evil brothers, but her husband     refused, so she flew him to his home, where he found the two dogs waiting.
The Demon whose son was killed by the merchant's date pit agrees     that the story is indeed strange and amazing and grants another third of the     man's life to the second old man.
The third old man then asks if the demon will grant the last third     of the merchant's life if his story is even more strange and amazing. The     story loving demon agrees again to this bargain.
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THE STORY OF THE EIGHTH NIGHT
The third old man tells the story of his "mule." When the old man had surprised his wife in bed with a     slave, his wife turned him (the old man) into a dog. He ran to a butcher     shop, where the butcher's daughter recognized that he was a man in dog form.     She sprinkled him with magical water and restored him to human form. The old     man then asked for a bit of the magical water, which he used to turn his wife into the mule who     accompanies     him. 
The demon, amazed and "swaying with     delight," grants the final third of the merchant's life. The demon leaves and the     merchant thanks the three old men and then returns home.
Shahrazad remarks that this story was not as strange and     amazing as the story of the Fisherman, and her sister says, on cue, "Please,     what story?" And Shahrazad begins a new set of stories that will continue for several     nights. The king is hooked on her stories by now, and we know they will go on and on.
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JUSTICE AND FORGIVENESS
This first set of stories is all about justice and forgiveness. The     demon is like the king in demanding blood for blood justice, whether or not there is     personal guilt involved. Shahrazad is no more responsible for what the king's first wife     did than the merchant is for innocently scattering date pits, one of which killed the     demon's son. In both cases, a new, better kind of justice must be taught. This is what the     stories in the first set do--they teach justice with forbearance. Evil people are turned     into deer and dogs, not killed, and the innocent merchant is set free, thanks to the care     and charity of the three old men, who may well be allegories of the three revealed     religions of the book, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which brought justice to the     pagan world of blood guilt.
This world of the Nights is complex, instructive, pious at times and     quite bawdy at others. Even this first small chunk of the Nights includes good and bad     demons, plenty of sex, including a relationship between a demon and a human woman kept     locked in a chest, instructions on how to restore a king to sanity, how to control a wife,     how to keep a promise, how to tell stories to out-argue one's father, how a woman can be     brave, and so on. Not all the stories are as uplifting as this sequence, but some are even     more pious, and most teach about the manners and ethics of survival in a complex,     difficult world ruled by capricious tyrants, but ultimately governed by a benevolent God.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Thousand and One Nights. Translated by Husain Haddawy. In The     Norton Anthology: World Masterpieces. Expanded edition. Volume 1. New York: Norton,     1995,   1514-1540.