One Thousand and One Nights

Shahrazad is the Vizier’s eldest daughter and “possessed many accomplishments and was versed in the wisdom of the poets and the legends of ancient kings” (19). When she sees that her father is distressed, she asks him to marry her to King Shahriyar, recognizing that she will either die and “be a ransom for the daughters of Moslems” (19) or save them all. Although her father tries to dissuade her from risking her life needlessly, she persists in this “mission [she is] destined to fulfill” (21) and marries Shahriyar. In the meanwhile, she hatches a plot with her sister to tell the king a series of tales. After their marriage in consummated, she asks to say a final goodbye to her sister and is granted this wish. When her sister comes, she requests that Shahrazad tell them a story, and so begin a series of tales that proceed over the course of a thousand and one nights.

At the end of the tales, we find out that Shahrazad has borne Shahriyar three sons. She asks him to spare her life for the sake of her sons, and Shahriyar readily agrees, noting that she has redeemed him and that he had pardoned her even “before the coming of these children” (405). Shahriyar exalts his wife, noting that she is “the salvation of [his] people […] chaste, wise, and eloquent” (406).

Shahrazad is very much the narrator and the hero of these tales in the sense that she provides the impetus and the narrative frame, and in the end, she redeems women to the king as well as the king himself.

Tales from the Thousand and One Nights begins with the tale of Shahzaman, the Sassanid king of Samarkand and younger brother of Shahriyar. His joy at the invitation to visit his older brother is marred by the discovery that his wife has been unfaithful. Upon discovering this, Shahzaman kills both his wife and her lover. He is “haunted by the thought of his wife’s perfidy” (16) and unable to enjoy spending time with his brother. Once he discovers that Shahriyar’s wife is also unfaithful and informs his brother of this, he agrees to his brother’s suggestion to travel the world and see if other kings received the same fate.

The Vizier is tasked with finding virgins for Shahriyar and returns “to his house with a heavy heart” (19) when he is no longer able to find any. He is alarmed when one of his two daughters, Shahrazad, volunteers to marry the king, and he pleads with her “against such a hazard” (19). He tells her the fable of a donkey who gave advice to an ox that ended up hurting him. In doing so, he warns her against sticking her neck out unnecessarily. When she persists, he marries her to King Shahriyar.

Dunyazad is one of the Vizier’s other daughters. Unlike her older sister, she does not offer to marry Shahriyar, but she does readily help her sister with her plot to regale Shahriyar with a series of tales. She follows Shahrazad’s instructions to come when she sends for her and to prompt her to start her tales.

The tailor provides both a beginning and an ending to the tale of the hunchback. To appease his wife, the tailor takes her out for a night of “pleasure and amusement” (24). On their way home, they come across a hunchback and invite him to their house for a festive meal. When his wife’s prank results in the hunchback’s death, he agrees to her plan to pass the dead man off on a Jewish doctor in town. After doing so, they both flee, not realizing that they have set off a chain of small tales. The tailor reappears when the Jewish doctor faces the noose to exonerate him and implicate himself, unable to stand the guilt. When his execution is delayed, he tells the story of a breakfast party at which he met the lame young man and the barber, setting off another chain of small tales.

The lame young man attends a breakfast party along with the tailor. He catches everyone’s eye because he is “richly dressed in the Baghdad fashion” (29) and very handsome. When he spots the barber who has wronged him, he immediately attempts to leave the party. When the guests stay him and ask for an explanation, he tells his story. He reveals that his father, a rich merchant in Baghdad, had left him a great fortune. Although he lived lavishly, he generally avoided women as he was “strangely indifferent to their allurements” (30). One day, however, he sees the daughter of the judge (Cadi) of Baghdad and falls madly in love. Consumed by his love, he takes the advice of an old woman and hatches a plot to be alone with his love. Before he visits her, he has the barber brought to shave him. In his comedic exchanges with the barber, we learn that he is an impulsive and an impatient, lovesick young man. The more he tries to dodge the barber, the more the barber hounds him. Ultimately, this results in a series of accidents when the young man visits his lover, and the young man ends up lame. He settles his affairs and leaves Baghdad only to run into the barber again at the breakfast party in Basra.

The barber provides much comic relief in the greater tale of the hunchback. We find out from the lame young man that he is incredibly learned and wise but also that he is imposing, chatty, and irritating. He hounds the young man endlessly, and this results in the young man’s accident and flight from Baghdad. The barber, however, finds no fault in his own behavior and notes: “[H]ad it not been for my sagacity, resourcefulness, and personal courage this youth would have surely died” (43). As he tells his story and the story of his six brothers, we learn that he is both judgmental and caring. He judges his brothers harshly, even in cases when they come upon misfortunes through seemingly no fault of their own, but he also takes all of them in and cares for them. His meddling convinces others that he is “exceptionally garrulous and meddlesome” (73) and leads those at the breakfast party to lock him up in an empty room. However, he is eventually freed and saves the hunchback’s life. In the end, he is appointed to the king’s court and becomes one of his favorite companions.

The fisherman in “The Fisherman and the Jinnee” is both brave and clever. When he catches a bottle while fishing and releases the jinnee within, he is terrified, but he still parries with him in conversation, pointing out his blasphemy and ungratefulness. Although scared, he is clever enough to prolong his life by asking the jinnee to tell him a story, by asking him to spare his life so that Allah may spare the jinnee, and by tricking the jinnee back into his bottle. However, he falls prey to a similar trick, indulging the jinnee in two tales before he purports to throw him back into the sea. Ultimately, he believes the jinnee’s promise that he will not harm him upon release. The jinnee rewards this by apologizing for his treatment and gifting him with four marvelous fish to sell for a profit.

The jinnee in this tale is a multivalent figure. At the start of the tale, he threatens to kill the fisherman even though he has saved and released him from his bottle. However, he allows the fisherman’s request to tell his story to distract him. We find out that Solomon has punished and imprisoned the jinnee, who has been waiting a long time for release. The jinnee has become so furious that he promised to kill whoever releases him. He also allows the fisherman to trick him into returning to his bottle, but he cleverly turns the tables by distracting the fisherman with his request for a story. In the end, he manages to come to a sort of compromise, promising not to harm the fisherman in return for his life and freedom. He owns up to his promise, providing the fisherman with a means to earn money, and he even apologizes for his behavior, saying: “I must beg you to pardon the scant courtesy I have shown you; for I have dwelt so long at the bottom of the sea that I have forgotten my manners” (93).

The young woman from “The Young Woman and Her Five Lovers” is an exceptionally clever and devoted character. To free her lover from jail, she comes up with a brilliant plan to extract what she needs from the city’s governor, judge, king, vizier, and carpenter by seducing them. In the same manner, she lures and traps them in a cupboard while she and her lover make their escape. In the end, her brilliant scheme even delights the five men she fooled.

Sindbad the sailor is one of the most complex characters within this collection of tales. When we first meet him after he invites a poor porter to his party, we find out that he is wealthy, generous, and has an adventurous past. Through his stories, he reveals that he is a skilled merchant and an ingenious adventurer but also that his lust for traveling and adventure plagues him. In each of his stories, he escapes death numerous times and comes across several marvels, from gigantic roc birds to dwarves, from giants to Satan-worshippers. Although he experiences great hardship on his adventures and barely manages multiple miraculous returns to Baghdad, he continues to set out on his adventures. He recognizes the foolishness of this risk-taking on numerous occasions, lamenting the fact that he is not able to simply enjoy his wealth and comfortable life in Baghdad but constantly yearns to be adventuring out at sea. It is only after his seventh and last voyage that he returns to and settles down in Baghdad permanently. The story ends with an aged Sindbad who continues to live luxuriously in Baghdad, bestowing his wealth on the needy, such as his namesake porter, and hosting wonderful parties.

Abu Hasan is a nomadic Bedouin turned city merchant living in Yemen. He is convinced by his friends to remarry given that his wife had passed a long time ago. Abu Hasan throws a lavish wedding and invites many illustrious guests, but he embarrasses himself by farting in front of all of them at the ceremony. He is a tragicomic figure. Although the entire situation is light-hearted and funny, Abu Hasan takes his public embarrassment very hard, running away to India and living there in self-imposed exile. When he begins to miss Yemen and returns in disguise, with the hope that people have forgotten, he overhears his fart referenced and realizes that it will be remembered forever. In doing so, he returns to exile in India.

At the very start of his tale, Aladdin is introduced as the “good-for-nothing” (165) son of a tailor in China. His wayward ways distress his father so much that, “grieving over the perverseness of his son, [he] fell into an illness and died” (165). Much to the distress of his mother, Aladdin refuses to mend his ways even after his father’s death. Only a chance encounter with a powerful sorcerer from Morocco, who poses as Aladdin’s uncle, spurs him into action. After the sorcerer believes Aladdin to be stealing his enchanted lamp and traps him underground, Aladdin finally takes initiative and uses the resources around him to change his life. He escapes, is able to provide for him and his mother, and aspires to marry the princess of his realm. In securing his marriage to the princess, Aladdin uses the magical powers at his disposal, including his own cunning trickery. Once he is married to the princess, he genuinely behaves like a prince, taking care of his family and displaying military valor. He is also so generous to the people that he gains their love and respect, and this comes in handy when he is stripped of his magic lamp and loses everything. The people of his city protect him from execution, and in the end, he manages to make things right and retrieve his lamp.

Aladdin’s mother is a constant source of support to her son, a voice of wisdom, and an indispensable ally. At the start of the story, she tries to reform Aladdin’s behavior. When he returns from his imprisonment, she cautions him against turning to magic too often and encourages moderation. Even though she warns him against pursuing the princess, she understands his love and effectively negotiates his marriage, warning Aladdin that the sultan’s vizier is against him. Throughout the story, she is ever-present and supportive of her son.

The Moroccan sorcerer is a cunning, learned, and ambitious man. He is referred to as a dervish “deeply versed in astrology and could, by the power of his magic, uproot a high mountain and hurl it against another” (165). He comes to China in search for an enchanted lamp and a boy who can open its chamber. Once he discovers that this is Aladdin, he has no qualms about tricking him and his mother into trusting him. He is also quick to turn his back on Aladdin and leave him to die once he believes that Aladdin is after his lamp. However, he is also not infallible; he gives Aladdin a magic ring, which saves the boy’s life more than once and which he uses to defeat him. Once he realizes that Aladdin lives and thrives, the sorcerer immediately launches into action, tricks the princess into giving him the enchanted lamp, and makes off with her and Aladdin’s palace. He ultimately fails because he allows the princess to distract him via seduction. Aladdin then kills him.

The princess is precious to her father and sought after by both Aladdin and her father’s vizier for an advantageous marriage. Aladdin immediately falls in love with the princess and plays a trick on her and her previous husband to cast doubt on their marriage. Although the princess is traumatized because of this ordeal, she is quick to take to her new husband and the riches he offers her. Throughout the story, she serves as both a help and a hindrance to Aladdin. First, she falls into the sorcerer’s trap and hands over Aladdin’s enchanted lamp. However, later, she helps Aladdin kill the sorcerer by seducing and distracting him. After this, she falls again for a trap set by the sorcerer’s brother and almost gets Aladdin killed. She admits that this is “the second time [she has] thrown [him] into a deadly peril,” but Aladdin waves this off and says that he will “gladly accept whatever befalls [him] through [her]” (236).

Kafur, a eunuch at the court of an unspecified Abbasid caliph, is the narrator of his tale and tells us immediately that, already by the age of eight, he developed “a remarkable habit” (237) of telling one big lie a year. He does not explain why he does this, even expressing some surprise himself, and he relates one of his epic lies matter-of-factly. Even when he is caught in this epic lie, he is entirely composed, reminding his master that he knew what he was getting into when he purchased him and adding that the second half of his epic lie was yet to come. Kafur easily divulges that he “continued to bring trouble and misfortune to every household that employed [him]” (241). He notes, however, that his “old spirit is broken” (241) since his castration.

The first girl is one of the most important characters in the tale “The Porter and the Three Girls of Baghdad.” She is the mistress of the house and makes the decisions. In the tale, we find that she whips two black dogs daily. She tells us that these two dogs are actually her older sisters who were punished by a jinniyah for attempting to kill the girl and her betrothed. The first girl is a complex character. Her sisters have badly mistreated her, yet she sheds tears over them and the fact that she has to whip them. Although she takes part in seducing the porter that comes to her home, she eschews marriage and tells her sisters that honest men are hard to find. She is a firm authority, but she frees the captive men once they tell their tales.

The second girl is the younger half-sister of the first girl in “The Porter and the Three Girls of Baghdad.” She follows the orders of her half-sister. Every day, as their third sister plays music, she wails aloud, beats her breast, throws off her clothes, and faints. Her body is covered with lash marks. In her tale, we find out that she began as a rich widow and was tricked by an old woman into remarrying. Although she initially felt trapped, she was greatly attracted to her husband, and she swore that she would love only him. However, after the old woman tricks her yet again, a young merchant accosts her. Her husband then beats and discards her. After, her older sister takes her in. Her estranged husband ends up being the caliph’s son.

Haroun al-Rashid is the celebrated fifth Abbasid caliph who lived and reigned in the late 8th century. He is portrayed as a fun-loving trickster as well as a wise ruler. In “The Porter and the Three Girls of Baghdad,” he enters the house of the three girls disguised as a merchant along with his vizier and executioner “in quest of new adventures” (251). He heeds the advice of his vizier and does not reveal his identity until the very end of the story, when he brings everyone together to tell their story and puts things right for everyone involved. In “The Tale of Khalifah the Fisherman,” rather than punishing Khalifah for his insolence, he plays along with his game and plays a trick on him. In this tale, he is referred to as “the other hero of our tale” (326), and as in the previous tale, he reveals his wisdom and puts things right in the end.

Khalifah is a source of comedy throughout his tale. At the start, we find out that he is “so poor that he could not afford to take even one woman in marriage” (303). After Khalifah strikes a deal with a magical ape and begins to earn money, he dampens his good luck by developing a deep paranoia over his new riches. This causes him to lose them and get caught up in a trick played by the disguised Caliph Haroun al-Rashid. Khalifah spends the rest of his time trying to regain his money and getting in altercations with a court eunuch and a variety of other individuals. In the end, a risky purchase ends up paying off when Khalifah benefits from the advice of a royal concubine, who tells him to clean up his act, stop being “churlish” (326), and to be respectful and genteel in front of the caliph. This earns him a seat at his table, various riches, and a wife.

Judar is the youngest of three sons. His wicked brothers, who rob him of much of his inheritance, constantly beset him. Throughout his tale, Judar’s brothers continue to abuse his good-will and abuse their mother. For his part, Judar foolishly retains an almost blind loyalty to them, which ends up costing him his life. Judar benefits from allying with a powerful sorcerer named Abdul Samad and helping him open the Treasure of Al-Shamardal. This sorcerer remains his lifelong friend and gifts him with a magic bag that produces all food on demand. This is the only gift Judar asks of him despite his great feats in his service, showing his naivety. Although the sorcerer later gifts Judar with a magic ring containing a jinnee, which enables Judar to even marry into the royal family of his kingdom, he makes the mistake of trusting his brothers yet again, only to have them end up usurping and killing him.