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Home Fiction Books Tales from 1, Nights. I was obligated to give it a try because I was a member of a reading group that decided to discuss the Arabian Nights in three meetings during the summer months of I managed to read only parts of Volume 1, none of Volume 2 I was out of town , and with extra effort and listening to audio I managed to get through Volume 3.
This collection of stories does provide a glimpse into Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales of the 8th to 13th centuries. Since all my reading was in the first and third volumes I can offer some generalizations about the differences I noticed between the early and late stories.
The earlier stories are shorter, less complex and contain fewer references to religion. The later stories are mostly longer and more religious. One story in Volume 3 takes up to 31 nights to get the story told. And Volume 3 is steeped in praise of the Muslim religion. As a matter of fact some of the stories in Volume 3 go out of their way to make it clear that the Christians i.
Here's a summary of the nights per story for the three volumes: Volume 1: 74 stories over nights for an average of 3. Again this indicates lack of an editor to correct this sort of thing. One little detail which is probably left out of the children's version of these stories is the fact that nights is sufficient time to get pregnant three times and have three children by the end of all these stories. That is exactly what happens in this book. So the king was doing more than listening to the stories.
Scheherazade must have been quite a woman to be able to not miss a night, and apparently deliver her babies without her husband noticing because at the end of the book the king seems to have not been previously aware of the existence of his children. It is translated by Malcolm C. Lyons and Ursula Lyons with introduction and annotations by Robert Irwin. It contains, in addition to the standard text of Nights, the so-called "orphan stories" of Aladdin and Ali Baba as well as an alternative ending to The seventh journey of Sindbad from Antoine Galland's original French.
As the translator himself notes in his preface to the three volumes, "No attempt has been made to superimpose on the translation changes that would be needed to 'rectify' The Lyons translation includes all the poetry, omitted in some translations, but does not attempt to reproduce in English the internal rhyming of some prose sections of the original Arabic.
It is rarely mentioned in lists of popular literature and few preth century manuscripts of the collection exist. Fiction had a low cultural status among Medieval Arabs compared with poetry, and the tales were dismissed as khurafa improbable fantasies fit only for entertaining women and children. According to Robert Irwin, "Even today, with the exception of certain writers and academics, the Nights is regarded with disdain in the Arabic world. Its stories are regularly denounced as vulgar, improbable, childish and, above all, badly written.
I actually agree with the last sentence of the above quotation. The romance, mystery, and wonder of the ancient Near East come alive in fables that still enchant. Burton; introduced by A. Answer: True. View all 6 comments. Aug 30, Scott rated it really liked it. This first volume of the Arabian Nights is fun. It's massive especially considering it's the first of three volumes , but the tales are easy to read and jammed with the stuff of fantasy.
Djinn, princesses, romances, deaths, wars, metamorphoses, and all other sorts of great fodder for ripping good yarns. The structure truly is amazing.
The couching story of Shahrazad telling tale after tale is fairly well known. What I wasn't expecting is just how deeply complex, yet eminently readable, the multi This first volume of the Arabian Nights is fun. What I wasn't expecting is just how deeply complex, yet eminently readable, the multiple tales are.
Within the first 50 pages, I was reading a story within a story within a story within a story that's no joke , and I was keeping up with it all.
It's a testament to the narrative devices used by the original oral storytellers of the Middle East who concocted and preserved these stories. It's not a picnic all the way through or in all respects, though. After several hundred pages of the tales, some of the repetitive themes and linguistic devices tend to wear thin to me. I understand that these are meant to be very romantic stories, but if I had read one more lover faint at the sight of their beloved, or tear their robe and hair at the sight of their beloved's death, I might have given up.
Also, the misogyny is pretty thick, let's not kid ourselves. I understand that these stories were composed over a millennium ago, but it gets a bit wearying seeing virtually every female character in all of the stories be either a treacherous whore, a deceitful old crone, or a helpless object of sex or desire. Again, I understand that these are fairy tales, but in the 21st century, certain themes are stale, if not outright offensive.
A saving grace, though, is the "bastard" tale of Ali Baba, which is featured at the end of the "Nights" stories in this volume. It was a solid way to end the volume. It's a good read, but I'll need a breather before I start volume II. Aug 30, Andrea Blythe rated it really liked it Shelves: fic-fantasy. When King Shahriyar discovers his wife to be unfaithful, he begins to marry young women, only to behead them in the morning.
In order to save the young women of the region, Shahrazad gives herself to the King Shahriyar. She is not expected to survive beyond dawn, but during the night she begins to tell tales, each night ending the story in the middle, leaving the king desperate to learn the ending and allowing Shahrazad to live another day.
One of my reading goals for this year is to read the com When King Shahriyar discovers his wife to be unfaithful, he begins to marry young women, only to behead them in the morning. One of my reading goals for this year is to read the complete version of A Thousand and One Nights. My aim was to find a translation that was as complete as possible, including " Aladdin " and " Ali Babba and the Forty Thieves ", both of which were added in the s.
Since there are many translations, I eventually settled in the Penguin Classics version, The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1, Nights , which comes in three giant volumes and claims to be as complete as possible. Plus I really liked the covers. Volume 1 is pages long. It includes the beginning of Shahrazad's marriage to Shahriyar and provides up through night of tales, as well as "Ali Babba and the Forty Thieves" as an appendix.
Shahrazad's tales range from adventure yarns with djinn to morality tales, love stories, fables, and war epics. Despite the variety of tales, there was also a great level of repetition, with similar descriptions of characters or expected outcomes. Though this should be expected due to how many stories there are, it can get burdensome for some readers, I'm sure.
The stories are also often nested, a tale within a tale within a tale. Just as Shahrazad saves herself through the telling of the tales, many of the characters within her stories also save themselves from death in a similar way.
For example, kings are of ten saying, tell me story more wonderful than what has just happened or I'll cut off your head. The nesting not only allows Shahrazad a longer tale to tell, which keeps her alive for more nights, but also shows how valuable the act of storytelling was thought to be. Sometimes the nesting becomes a bit too much, though, and there are so many stories within stories, it can be easy to forget the original story, until it's finally returned many pages and nights later.
My guess is that scholars in the Middle Ages were likely knew of and were influenced by the tales of the Arabian Nights, so that the themes crossed over. Or perhaps there was some cross-cultural influence going both directions. Here are a few of the themes I noticed. Chivalry, or knightly behavior - Though this is not as pronounce in the Arabian Nights, there was an ongoing element of proper behavior for a gentleman.
Often this involved how to be a guest or a host in one's home, however this also related to a code of conduct in battle. A wandering young man in the Arabian nights may fall into a crowd of armed men that wish to defeat him. But rather than attacking all at once, the fighters go up against the young man one by one, because it's the right thing to do. At which point the young man will take up a horse and a spear and charge against each fighter one by one, similar to a joust in the Arthurian tales.
And both the Arabian Nights and the Arthurian tales use similar language, describing the knight or warrior as fighting "like a lion" or some other noble and fierce beast. Courtly Love - Love requires adherence to a strict set of rules, which often involves falling in Love at First Sight and total loyalty to one's lover.
However, I don't remember quite as many lovers wasting away and dying from their affliction of romance in the Arthurian tales as they do in the Arabian Nights. The ugly are never noble or wise or good. Characters often look at someone and know they are from good breeding and wealth and have a good heart, based on the beauty of their features and elegance and grace of their body.
Fainting - Seriously, in cases of high emotion the only thing to do is to fall over in a faint. Terrified you're going to die? Thrilled to have your long-lost son to return? Hear a poem that makes you think of your secret lover? It's the only reasonable thing to do. Women are Evil, Except When They're Awesome There is a general belief of the characters throughout these stories that women are he the root of all evil and are the downfall of men, which is revealed in many of the stories in which wives commit adultery or murder or other misdeeds.
It made sense to me that Shahrazad would tell Shahriyar these kinds of stories in the beginning, because of his own distrust of women. However, as the tales progressed, different kinds of women began to be prevalent, too. There were lots of women in these tales, and while their stories often end in marriage, they often had their own adventures. Women sometimes have power. Women were merchants or travelers, some got to go on pilgrimages.
In fact, two of my favorite moments in this book involved women being awesome. Princess Abriza, the daughter of the King of Constantinople a Christian city , is a small character in a much. Longer epic narrative. She is discovered wrestling with her female friends in the woods by a great Muslim warrior, Sharkan.
She challenges him to a wrestling bout and throws him each time though it's thought that he was distracted by her beauty and then she invites him home. Later, she follows him disguised as a man and again beats him repeatedly in battle.
And, she leads an army of female warriors who all defeat the men they come across. In another story, Budur is in a strange land and has lost her husband, so she dresses herself as a young man and goes looking for her him. Along the way, she comes to a kingdom and through adventure marries the princess and becomes king of the land, where with the complicity of her wife she rules the kingdom and earns much fame for a number of years.
Both of these stories are awesome, though neither have great endings, which makes me sad. Xenophobia The hardest part of reading these stories was definitely the prejudice shown toward certain groups, most notably in the descriptions of the black characters, all of whom were described as villainous and ugly. I cringed every time I read one of these passages and it certainly lessened my enjoyment.
Prejudice was also shown toward the Christian, Jewish, and Bedouin populations, though this was not as overt to me as some of them could be shown to have good points at different points in the stories. A Random Aside My copy of the book has an amusing printing flaw: At page , the book jumps back to and repeats 47 pages before continuing on. I'm sure I could think up a few more things to mention, while I'm sitting here, but I think this post is long enough.
I have two more volumes to get through, but I'm going to take a break from readings the tales for a little bit before jumping back in. At least the next two volumes are slightly shorter. View 2 comments. Aug 31, Paul Dembina rated it liked it. I really struggled to get through this and I'm not tempted to read the other 2 volumes. Many of the stories repeated the same themes with identikit characters caliphs, princes, princesses, viziers good and evil slave girls, eunuchs etc What's startling is that so many of the locations mentioned Basra, Aleppo, Damascus and Baghdad are now known so well for all the wrong reasons.
Interesting to compare this with 2 other foundational texts of world literature that I've previously read. Homer's I really struggled to get through this and I'm not tempted to read the other 2 volumes.
Homer's Odyssey and Iliad are concerned with Fate. The Icelandic Sagas with Revenge. The Arabian Nights with Symmetry and Repetition.
By far the best tale is the "bonus" one of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves View all 5 comments. Something that made my childhood better, and me a even better person.
Jan 21, Kimya rated it it was amazing. Is she not as lovely as the moon and as graceful as a gazelle? Although you are older than me, and more powerful, yet I am more experienced in the ways of women, for I already have a wife. I tell you no woman on earth has a pure and faithful heart.
And she cheated on Shahryar….. And…Scheherzade decided to volunteer and tell him a legend every night ….. The best points about this book are the details and characters that have been chosen very cleverly. But what attracted me to this book was its historical aspect….
I don't know why they call it Arabian nights, the legends came from India and Ancient Persia View all 4 comments. Aug 04, Edlira Dibrani rated it liked it. An amazing collection of divine stories filled with a lot of emotions, magical creatures, great kings, beautiful ladies and marvelous treasures.
These stories are told by the wise and beautiful Scheherazade, a maiden who intends to change the king's life with these great stories by trying to save her life from the death that is already determined. Each night she tells him stories and ends them in a cliffhanger so that he will spare her from death this is because before her, he used to kill every An amazing collection of divine stories filled with a lot of emotions, magical creatures, great kings, beautiful ladies and marvelous treasures.
Each night she tells him stories and ends them in a cliffhanger so that he will spare her from death this is because before her, he used to kill every bride that he would take them in the first night of their marriage because of his first wife's infidelity because he wants desperately to know the end of the story. Just as joy has no tomorrow, Woe is bound not to last.
May 01, Ved Marath rated it it was amazing. One day a little hunchback sat a the entrance of the tailors shop and began to play his tambourine. The tailor was amused and invited him to came to his house and play his tambourine for his wife.
The hunchback agreed to come. When they reached the house they found the table ready for supper and in no time all three were sitting before a beautiful fish. Unluckily the hunchback swallowed a large bone The Little Hunchback from the Arabian Nights I the kingdom of Kashgar lived a tailor and his wife.
Unluckily the hunchback swallowed a large bone and died to suffocation instantly on the spot. The couple were frightened thinking that the police would throw them in prison. To prevent this calamity they both sat thinking of a plan which would throw suspicion on someone else.
They made up their minds and selected a Jewish doctor who lived nearby. She does this intelligently, of course, camouflaging with little stories here and there on different topics. But the main line is you cease to be a human being if you steep yourself in brutality and killing.
That adultery--like many human failings--happens for reasons we can sympathize with. And so one cannot be a tyrant. One must listen carefully to others, and be just. Every story is her asking for her life, asking for the killer to stop. With time, the stories introduce a new character, a ruler to rival and subvert Shahrayar: Haroun al-Rashid, based on the historical ruler, who loved art and poetry and music, and believed people should be treated equally.
He sometimes disguised himself at night as a poor man and walked about and around to bazaars and streets to see if the people were happy. He is a mirror image, of a sort, of Shahrayar, and he issues a mirror-image statement when he learns of a wrongful death:. Here, Shahrayar's bloodthirsty proclamation is met with its polar opposite. Instead of a mandate to destroy and humiliate all women, we are presented with a vow to protect and avenge every innocent victim.
We don't know much about their relationship--if she was attracted to him, if she was happy with him in bed, if she was merely a victim of his violence. But you can feel in the stories a gradual change. At the beginning they are very brutal and dark, but they show us that adultery usually happens for a reason and that jealousy and violence typically bring misery to all concerned.
With time, though, they become more about social values, adventures, they were less dark than when she started, and concern higher questions. Who are we human beings? What do we do in life? What is our aim of living? How do we become better citizens? And the answer, so often, comes through telling important stories and listening closely to what others have learned.
The One Thousand and One Nights show, in a way, a role for literature. Stories guide you through life, and have the power to make you more human. I don't believe in polemics--what I'm speaking about happens on a human, not a political level.
I wrote my third novel, which made my name, about the war in Lebanon. It tells a story different from what we hear in films, documentaries, and newsreels on television--when you hear that a bomb fell on that region, and killed all the occupants in a building. But when you read a novel--how the eye came out, and the ribs were nowhere to be found--you wonder about the characters. How can he or she continue to live their lives witnessing so much terror? You live with the protagonist and you feel, profoundly, the depths of atrocity.
When I was young, I thought--well, you write what you want. You can write about a butterfly, or whatever. But I was faced with the question of life and death in Beirut, and I became wiser. I thought, I want to write books that will educate people and will inform people about brutality and violence, and about peace, at the same time.
The One Thousand and One Nights accomplishes this. It talks us down from our worst instincts, shows us an enlightened alternative to brutality. I cherished this experience; I felt the words were hypnotizing me as I read them.
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