250 word summary

“Then Dinarzad cleared her throat and said, ‘Sister, if you are not sleepy, tell us one of your lovely little tales to while away the night, before I bid you good-bye at daybreak, for I don’t know what will happen to you tomorrow.’ Shahrazad turned to King Shahrayar and said, ‘May I have your permission to tell a story?’ He replied, ‘Yes,’ and Shahrazad was very happy and said, ‘Listen’:” (Norton 1186-87)

  Author

 Time/Date of Composition

 Contextual Information

 Form

 Themes

Preview

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Author

 No single author

 Derived from multiple sources and cultures across Asia and North Africa

(13th Century Abbasid Manuscript via Wikimedia Commons)

  1st document bearing evidence of 1,001 Nights is a

Syrian paper dating to 879 CE

 Contains a few words from the opening lines of 1,001 Nights

 2nd document dates to the 10th Century CE. This document is a catalogue by Ibn al-Nadim, a book dealer in Baghdad

 Mentions stories about “Shahrazad” that are adapted from an original called Hazar Afsan

Time/Date

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Time/Date of Composition

 Hazar Afsan is the Persian title of the Thousand and One Nights

 Unfortunately, the original Hazar Afsan has never been discovered

(Shahrazad by В.А. Серов, early 20th Century via Wikimedia Commons)

 Abbasid Caliphate.

 1,001 Nights is set during the Abbasid Caliphate, a dynasty that ruled the Middle east from 758 to 1258 CE

 Caliphate  from Arabic khilāfa, meaning “succession”— an Islamic state led by a supreme religious and political leader known as a caliph

Contextual Information

  This caliphate overthrew the previous one (the

Umayyads Caliphate) with the support of many different people, thereby integrating non-Arab groups, such as Persians, into Arabic culture

 At its height, the Abbasid Caliphate ruled over modern-day Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon!

Contextual Information

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Contextual Information

(Map of Abbasid Caliphate via Wikimedia Commons)

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Contextual Information

 The Abbasid Caliphate was a time of prosperity and stable government, which in turn supported the flourishing of art, science, and literature

(Faquih and Students, 8-13th Centuries via Wikimedia Commons)

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Contextual Information

 Harun al-Rashid (translates into “Aaron the Upright”) was the fifth Abbasid Caliphate  Ruled from 786 to 809 CE

 His rule was characterized by great cultural and religious wealth

(Harun al-Rashid via Wikimedia Commons)

  Rashid established a famous library called Bayt al-

Hikma—a source for learning and translation

 As a result, he became a figure in many fictitious works, including the 1,001 Nights

 Other historical figures that make their way into 1,001 Nights: Abu Nuwas (classical Arabic poet), Ibrahim al- Mawsili (singer)

Contextual Information

 Translation history.

 From the beginning, 1,001 Nights had a close relationship to translation. For example, the Arabic text is derived from a Persian source, but behind both of these sources is probably a Indian (Sanskrit) version

 Five printed versions in Arabic: “each printed version is based on a different manuscript or combination of manuscripts, some of which are no longer extant” (Sallis 3)

 Though it has a long history steeped in oral tradition

Contextual Information

  Three words in Arabic are used interchangeably to

describe 1,001 Nights: hikayah, hadith, and khurafah

 Hikayah means “imitation”

 Hadith means “instructive tales” (most commonly used)

 Kurafah means “fabulous fictions and incredible stories” (Sallis 8)

Contextual Information

  Two separate lineages for modern text:  A 14th century Syrian manuscript translated by the

Antoine Galland in the early 18th century  Incorporates the stories of Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba,

and Aladdin, along with other stories heard from a Lebanese Christian

 Composite texts assembled in 18th and 19th century Cairo  Developed from Galland’s version

 Serves to show the ways a Western audience perceived Arabic peoples (think: Orientalism)

Contextual Information

  The Thousand and One Nights is an example of a frame

narrative

 A story in which another story is enclosed or embedded as a “tale within a tale,” or which contains several tales

 Very common in Eastern and Western tradition – in fact, these kinds of stories probably originated in India

 Examples

 Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

 The Decameron by Boccaccio

 Contemporary examples: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, Forest Gump, and Slumdog Millionaire

Form



Form

 Written in Middle Arabic

 The Arabic title Alf Layla wa-Layla translates literally into “Thousand and One Nights”

 It is a symbolic title that suggests there is a rich abundance of the stories in this collection – the stories are unending

(16th Century map of Soltaniyeh, Iran via Wikimedia Commons)

  There are many different kinds of stories in modern

versions of 1,001 Nights, including  Beast fables  Comic and pious anecdotes  Historical and pseudohistorical short tales and anecdotes  Episodic narratives  Travel stories  Long adventures  Love stories  Fanciful stories  Realist and romantic stories with supernatural elements  Rogue and trickster stories (Sallis 6)

Form

  Story-telling

 Earthly justice / divine justice

 Men and women’s roles

 The supernatural

Themes