History of Thousand and One Nights

Arabian Nights, also known as One Thousand and One Nights, is a collection of stories and tales based on life in Middle Eastern culture. The history of when these tales were written is uncertain, as is the authorship, and since the stories take place in distinct places such as Iran and Egypt, it’s unlikely that there’s a singular author for these tales. Some of them go back centuries, with some dating back to the 9th century, however, evidence is conflicting, making the history of the original Thousand and One Nights an uncertain one. Since then though, there have been many translations in the Western world making it popular in Western folklore; specifically in the 19th by well-known authors such as John Payne and Richard Burton. Thousand and One Nights was revolutionary, being one of the first frame stories—a type of story telling technique where a story is told within an already developed story. All of these tales connect to the main narrative that in Thousand and One Nights is called “The Story of King Shahrayar and Shahrazad.”

Why Thousand and One Nights?

Our group chose to analyze Thousand and One Nights because of its breadth of stories and its presence in Hollywood. In addition, historical context and cultural significance attracted us to this piece. Undertones of feminism were present in the literature as well as the Disney rendition of the text in “Aladdin”. Our last assignment lead us to further explore Orientalism and its role in the film,we all found this phenomenon to be fascinating as it has implications in today’s volatile political climate as stereotypes have been perpetuated about Eastern cultures.

Summary of the frame story

The collection of stories of ‘Thousands and one nights’ started with the frame story, “The Story of King Shahrayar and Shahrazad”. The story is that, one day, Shahrayar, the king of Persia, found that his wife was planning on running away from him with another man. He was outraged and ordered his wife to be executed. After that night, each day the king took a new wife, but at the end of each night, he ordered his servants to execute her. The people were horrified by the king’s behavior. At long last when the king called for a new queen, the vizier’s own daughter, Scheherazade, intervened, begging her father to send her in place of any other girls. Scheherazade told an interesting story for the king every single night to avoid death and Shahriyar postponed execution to listen the story left. Night after night, Scheherazade told another story, reaching the middle at dawn and entranced by her stories, the king kept her with him, and 1,001 nights passed. On night 1,001, when Scheherazade has no more stories, the king was in love with her, and thanks to her tales, he had become a wiser man, versed in the tales of this world. Finally, he made Scheherazade his queen, and justice and kindness reigned once again.

Cultural Significance

Thousand and one nights is greatly influenced by Islamic heritage and culture. Written by a number of authors over a stretch of centuries, The Thousand and One Nights depicts a burgeoning, urban Islamic culture in all its variety and complexity. The tales document their own places and periods of production, reflecting the Islamic individual’s growing exposure to a number of entertainments and temptations and their conflict with the obligations of faith. Aimed at a diverse audience, these stories follow a narrative arc that begins with corruption and ends with redemption, conforming to a paradigm that concurs with the sociological and religious concerns of Islam and the Islamic state.

John Payne

Our site will be focusing on the version of A Thousand and One Nights that was retold by John Payne. John Payne was an English poet in the 19th century. A majority of the translations of A Thousand and One Nights were produced in England in the 19th century, but Payne’s poetic writing style set his apart from the others. While some storytellers focused more on the cultural context of this set of Middle Eastern stories, Payne focused more on telling these stories in a way that made this foreign land seem very exotic and fantastical. While Payne’s translations may be exciting reads for pat and present audiences alike, it can be understood how these writings have influenced the way the west views eastern cultures to this day.