![]() ![]() On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. Schehrezade, the vizier’s daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. Eventually the vizier, whose duty it is to provide them, cannot find any more virgins. The king, Shahryar, begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning, before she has a chance to dishonour him. He has her executed and in his bitterness and grief, decides that all women are the same. The main frame story concerns a Persian king and his shock to discover his wife’s infidelity. The versions of One Thousand and One Nights vary, but what is common throughout all the editions is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahryar (from Persian: شهريار, meaning “king” or “sovereign”) and his wife Schehrezade (from Persian: شهرزاد, possibly meaning “of noble lineage”). I detect some parallels with the Hebrew and Biblical account of the book of Esther and the origins of the Feast of Purim. ![]() One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic golden age, 7th – 13th century AD. The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature. ![]()
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