Category Archives: The Thousand and One Nights

In The Thousand and One Nights, Shahrayar was a king who went mad and killed many women in the kingdom due to his wife’s infidelity. He would spend the night with a woman and kill her the next morning. Shahrazad, the vizier’s educated daughter, tells her father to marry her to Shahrayar so that she may have an opportunity to change his ways through storytelling. Storytelling as a way to teach lessons is prominent throughout The Thousand and One Nights and in an article in The New York Times “An Israeli Novelist Writes of Pain, Private and Public” by Ethan Bronner.

The New York Times article explains the novel To the End of the Land written by David Grossman around the time of his youngest military son’s death.  This story, which can somewhat be compared to Grossman’s own life, teaches the lesson about the “importance of home.” Though Shahrazad tries to teach Shahrayar different lessons, there is an overall lesson being taught. Shahrazad is trying to teach him that killing women the morning after he spends the night with them is wrong.

In the article, Grossman “entertained the illusion that by writing…, he was somehow protecting his children.” In The Thousand and One Nights, Shahrazad was also telling these stories as protection. Shahrazad tells her father “I would like you to marry me to King Shahrayar, so that I may either succeed in saving people or perish and die like the rest.” (B, 414) She is telling these stories not only to save her life, but to save the lives of the rest of the women in the kingdom.

“On Nov. 4, Anderson Cooper did the country a favor. He expertly deconstructed on his CNN show the bogus rumor that President Obama’s trip to Asia would cost $200 million a day”.

Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” “But it also showed that there is an antidote to malicious journalism — and that’s good journalism”.

A story circulated around the Web that the Obama’s trip to Asia would cost U.S. taxpayers 200 million a day that would make 2 billions for the entire trip. Anderson Cooper, a host of the CNN show, had “Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a Republican and Tea Party favorite, on his show and had asked her where exactly Republicans will cut the budget”.

Instead of answering the question she mentioned the story and the next day Cooper claimed “that he felt compelled to trace that story back to its source, since someone had used his show to circulate it.”

He found out that alleged Indian official from the Indian state of Maharashtra wrote it in his article where he estimated the cost of the Obama’s trip. “No proof was given; no follow-up reporting was done.”

In a little while a number of hosts of radio shows and TV programs mentioned the story but nobody checked the facts. “For security reasons, the White House doesn’t comment on logistics of presidential trips, but they have made an exception this time.”

That’s the example how people like to repeat and listen to crazy stories. Same Shahrazad did to the King Shahrayar. Her stories were so entertaining and interesting that even the King listened to her for so long.

In A Thousand and One Nights, there are two kings, Shahryar and Shahzaman. The younger king, Shahzaman, is cheated by his wife. He catches her having sex with a kitchen boy and kills them both. He visits his brother’s kingdom but he still remains sad and keeps thinking about his wife’s betrayal. One day, he learns that his older brother, Shahrayar, is being cheated by his wife while he is absent from the castle.  After hearing the bad news of his wife infidelity, Shahrayar kills his wife and all of the slaves who were involved. This makes Shahrayar loses all trust in women. He wants to be sure his next wife will not cheat on him again. So, he gets married every night and kills his wife before the sunrise. Shahrazad, the vizier’s daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. She is highly educated with vast knowledge on philosophy, medicine and literature.  On the night of their marriage, Shahrazad, who is considered “intelligent, knowledgeable, wise, and refined” (B, 414), tells the king a tale, but does not end it. The king is then forced to keep her alive in order to hear the conclusion of the tale. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins yet another. So it went for 1,001 nights. At the end, the king gives his wife a pardon and spares her life. 

 There are similarities between Shahrazad, King Shahrayar’s wife and Kate Middleton, Prince William’s fiancée.  Middleton and Shahrazad are both educated women. In “The Thousand and One Nights,” Shahrazad “knows poetry by heart, had studied historical reports, and was acquainted with the sayings of men and the maxims of sages and kings.” (B, 414).  With this knowledge the king allowed her to stay alive unlike all the other women he married and killed.  Kate Middleton is a college graduate. She and Prince William met while attending University of St. Andrews in Scotland.   Middleton is different from Prince William’s mother, Queen Diana.  In the New York Times article “Diana’s Ring Seals Prince William’s Marriage Plans,” it mentions Miss Middleton as a “tough and savvy, and far better equipped to deal with media attention than Diana was.” She have enough knowledge and education to handle anything coming her way.  Middleton comes from a middle class family, and will become the first Queen to have a college education.  She also help Prince William when he was having a hard time his freshmen year of college, she help persuade him not to drop out.   

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/world/europe/17royal.html?scp=2&sq=prince%20william&st=cse

“The Thousands and One Nights.”

The article that I picked is about U.S. shutting down all the websites that involves in piracy. The websites made illegal copies of movies, music and different other programs that were available to users using Internet all over the world. But U.S. seems to be very considered about this topic matter, first because piracy is a crime and second that they cannot control what people download from the Internet, which is a very vast. So, it would be easier and safer if the hosting sites were closed or banned. The Immigration and Customs enforcement division of the Homeland security took such action because they saw high risk and threat that U.S. could have. They take down the site put a notice of their own so that users are aware. They are still in the action of closing down many more other sites and they have been searching for them everyday.
I find this article to be very related to the story of Shahrayar who finds his wife cheating on him over a slave. The women wore veils, which was used to cover their body, so it was difficult to identify them. The sites also disguises themselves to look like a decent website but instead they give off data that users can share. In the story Shahrayar’s wife took advantage of this by getting the slaves dress up in veils and come to the palace. When he comes to know about his wife’s act, he makes to plan to catch her red-handed. “It became King Shahrayar’s custom…death the next morning.” (B, 414) It is similar to the test that the government officials are doing; they check the sites and then turn them down.

 In The One Thousand and One Nights, the story discusses how woman are betraying their husbands. In one instance Shahrayar’s wife is caught cheating with a slave. She is able to get away with this by using the veil that woman are told to wear in their society. Woman are told to wear the veils to cover up their beauty in public, however women realized to use this belief in their favor. In The One Thousand and One Nights the woman are shown as using their veils to cover up their identity and provide them with freedom. It is very hard to tell woman apart when they are completely covered up and this makes it very easy to secure their identity. Shahrayar’s wife uses her veil to make herself blend in with the slave girls and the men they are sleeping with wear the veils to make them appear to be slave girls as well. The Thousand and One Nights says, “…[A]nd there emerged, strutting like a dark-eyes deer, the lady, his brother’s wife, with twenty slave-girls, ten white and ten black. … Then they sat down, took off their clothes, and suddenly there were ten slave-girls and ten black slaves dressed in the same clothes as the girls” (B,410). After Shahrayar sees what is going on he decides to never trust a woman again. He comes up with a plan to sleep with a new girl every night and then put them to death. That way they will not be able to sleep with anyone else. This is Shahrayar’s attempt to control woman.
 In the New York Time’s, recently there was an article, Google Sees Rules Violations in Limits on Internet Access. This article discusses how China, and other countries, are attempting to control the internet by blocking what people are allowed to access. The internet, since it was created, always provided freedom. Users are able to access any site and are able to obtain any information they are looking for. Some people used the internet to cover up their identity because anybody can be whoever they would like to be online. Also there are many websites now with information that users are allowed to put up, like Wikipedia. The freedom on the internet is endless, or so it was. Now Google is saying that government is attempting to control the internet by blocking what users are allowed to do. The article states, “The Google policy paper said that more than 40 governments around the world now to some extent restrict freedom of information on the Internet — which it said was more than a tenfold increase in the last decade of governments with such restrictions.” Most of the governments that want to go about this are from the East. Google is arguing that blocking the free flow of information on the internet is against human rights and will block economic growth. This article is similar to the story, The One Thousand and One Nights because as woman are using the veils to allow themselves freedom, the internet has provided users with freedom. Now the government, similar to Shahrayar, is attempting to control the rights given to people, or these women. The government is attempting to use censorship to control internet uses, and Shahrayar is killing women, so that they will have absolutely no freedom after him.

The reading of Thousand and One Nights is one that can be very closely related to the NY Times article Diana’s Ring Seals Prince William’s Marriage Plans. For example, Shahrazad and Kate Middleton are both very well educated.  “The oldest daughter, Shahrazad had read books of literature, philosophy, and medicine. (414) Kate also went to a very prestigious school and is also very well educated.   “Should Miss Middleton become Queen Catherine, she would be the first queen in British history to have a college degree, or indeed, to have any college education at all.”
It can also be inferred that both men in these instance fell in love because of the intelligence that these woman have.   Kate and Prince William met at the same university and so they exchanged ideas, and opinions, which could have led to the initial attraction. Sometimes this type of attraction is just as powerful as sexual and so we must give some credit to Kate’s intelligence as something that Prince William fell in love with.  In comparison, Shahryar fell in love with Shahrazad because of her ability to tell many tales and keep him interested in keeping her alive to tell these stories.  There may have been sexual tension but the main source of stimulation was Shahrazad’s intelligence.

Another comparison that can be made is that both Shahrazad and Miss. Middleton entered dangerous situations. Shahrazad entered a more life-threatening situation where every night she would have to persuade the king to keep her alive for another day.  In Miss. Middleton’s case it is more superstitious but the previous Princess, Lady Diana met a tragic demise and so Kate is entering the situation knowing what happened to the last princess.  This however is highly superstitious but it is a fact nonetheless.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/world/middleeast/21honor.html?ref=middleeast

The Thousand and One Night is a collection of classic Islamic literature. In the beginning of that collection, the king, Shahrayar, is informed that his wife cheats on him. He gets very angry and decides to kill both lovers. After this situation the king is very upset. He sees that women are dishonest and it leads him to take very brutal and unethical action: he gets married with a young girl from his kingdom, he spends night with her, and finally he kills a bride when the sun rises. He repeats this ritual every day and it is his way to be sure that his wife will always be loyal and never cheats on him, as happened before.

Shahrazad is a daughter of the vizier who serves in the kingdom. Vizier is a person who has to kill every bride who spends night with the king. When Shahrazad tells her father that she wants to get married with a king, vizier tries to influence and change her mind. However, he is unable to do so. Finally, Shahrazad and Shahrayar get married. Before the sun rises Shahrazad asks about the permission to say goodbye to her lovely sister. When Dunyazad comes to the king’s bedroom she asks about one thing; she wants Shahrazad to tell her the last story before she will die. Both, the king and Dunyazad listen to the tale very carefully with a passion and great interest. So, when the sun rises, Shahrazad stops her stories. She stops in the most interesting point, so king wants to hear the rest of the story and he doesn’t kill his wife. Shahrazad smartly continues her action: she tells a story every night and she keeps the most interesting part to the moment of sunrise. Then king wants to hear the end of the story and doesn’t kill her. Shahrazad tells thousand and one stories. During that time she gives her husband three children; she gains Shahrayar’s love and changes him from tyrant to a good king who cares about his kingdom and people leaving in there.

The New York Times article “Diana’s Ring Seals Prince William’s Marriage Plans” by Sarah Lyall is about Prince William who plans to get married soon. He proposes to his girlfriend, Kate Middleton, and he is accepted. The couple will marriage in spring or summer 2011.

There are few similarities between Shahrazad and Kate Middleton. First of all, both are very well educated. Shahrazad “had read the books of literature, philosophy, and medicine. She knew poetry by heart, had studied historical reports, and was acquainted with the sayings of men and the maxims of sages and kings. She was intelligent, knowledgeable, wise, and refined. She had read and learned.” (B, 414) Similarly, Kate Middleton is intelligent and well educated woman. She met Prince “at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.” In addition, the article stays that if she becomes a queen “she would be the first queen in British history to have a college degree, or indeed, to have any college education at all.”

Also, both are willing to get married with a king. Shahrazad says to her father “I would like you to marry me to King Shahrayar.” (B, 414) She knows that her father disagrees with her wish and she black mails him in order to get his acceptance. Similarly, Kate Middleton wants to get married with a Prince. She stays in relationship with him for few years and waits for his proposal. As the article says she was called by tabloids as “Waity Katie” which reference to her waiting behavior.

In addition, both are from rich families, however; they are not princesses. Shahrazad is a daughter of vizier who serves in court. Her father has enough money to support himself and his two daughters. In addition, he pays for their education. She comes from an aristocratic family; however, she is not a princess. Similarly, Kate Middleton comes from rich family “her father is a former British Airways officer and her mother a former flight attendant; together, they run a successful mail-order business that sells paraphernalia for children’s parties,” but she is not a princess.

Finally, both have an understanding of difficulties which comes with their decisions to get married with a king.  Shahrazad knows that “[i]t become King Shahrayar’s custom to take every night the daughter of a merchant or a commoner, spend the nigh with her, then have her put to death next morning” (B, 414). Even if she has a plan how to change the king’s behavior, she is not sure if it will work. Similarly, Kate Middleton knows a story of Prince’s mother, Lady Diana “whose short life ended when she was killed after a car accident in Paris in 1997.”

The Thousand and One Nights are a collection of many stories. It is about kings, Shahrayar and Shahzaman, who abuse people. The younger, Shahzaman is cheated by his wife. He catches her having sex with a kitchen boy and kills them both. He then visits his brother’s kingdom but he still remains sad and keeps thinking about his wife’s betrayal. One day, he finds out his older brother, Shahrayar, is being cheated by his wife in his absence from the castle. Shahrayar gets angry when he hears this news and eventually kills his wife and all of the slaves who were involved. Since then, Shahrayar loses his trust on women. He wants to be sure his next wife will not cheat on him again. So, he gets married every night and kills his wife before the sunrise. Vizier’s daughter, Shahrazad wants to get married with the king. She is highly educated with vast knowledge on philosophy, medicine and literature. So she is considered as “intelligent, knowledgeable, wise, and refined” (B, 414). She is also very courageous because she wants to marry the king even though she knows her fate, an inescapable death before the dawn. Her father job is to take those newly married wife and kill them at sunrise. If his daughter will get married with the king, he has to kill her in the morning without being able to show any disobedience to the king’s order. This is why he tries to influence his daughter’s decisions by different approaches. Eventually all of his strategies fail to convince his daughter. “I would like you to marry me to King Shahrayar, so that I may either succeed in saving the people or perish and die like the rest” (B, 414). She really proves her mental strengths and believes by accepting this challenging situation. So, Shahrazad gets married with Shahrayar and come up with a master plan to save her and stop King’s cruelty. She asks her sister Dunyazad to come into her room ask request her to tell a story before its time for her death. She starts telling stories every night and pauses at an interesting point when she sees the coming of the sunlight. Sharayar wants to know more about the stories so he spares another night allowing Shshrazad to continue her stories. This way she makes the story goes on for thousand and one nights.

New York Times article, “Diana’s Ring Seals Prince William’s Marriage Plans” written by Sarah Lyall is about engagement of the Prince William and Kate Middleton. I found similarities between Kate and Shahrazad. Kate is well educated. She has a college degree. According to the article, “she would be the first queen in British history to have a college degree, or indeed, to have any college education at all.” She is also very brave like Shahrazad. She knows that she will die absolutely; however, she gets married with the king. Diana died in car accident and her son William gives her ring to Kate for the engagement. This ring might not be very welcoming to think. Kate knows Diana ““whose short life ended when she was killed after a car accident in Paris in 1997.” However, Kate, Very fearlessly, wears the ring knowing the tragic death of its previous owner. She proves her bravery by accepting it.

The Thousand and One Nights is a collection of tales compose by many individuals. It starts with the story of two great Kings and brothers named Shahrayar the oldest and Shahzaman the youngest. Both kings are betrayed by their wives. After this terrible news both kings become irritated and end up killing their wives. The older king went further with his actions it says that “it became King Shahrayar’s custom to take every night the daughter of a merchant or a commoner, spend the night with her, then have her put to death the next morning” (B414). The residents of the city become frustrated and asked in their prayers to “the creator of havens” to end king Shahrayar’s actions. Witnessing what was happening in her city, a well educated women named Shahrazad decides to marry King Shahrayar “ so that [she may] either succeed in saving the people or perish and die like the rest” (B414). Her father tries to convince her not to do it but he is unsuccessful. Since she was a well educated woman she knew tales that can transform the life of any person. So she told great tale for thousand nights and one night and at the end the life of King Shahrayar have change for good. He said “my soul is change and joyful, it beats with an appetite for life” (B471).
Similarly to the story telling of Shahrazad, Mr. David Grossman wrote a novel of his own experience. His novel is about a mother named “Ora whose son has gone off to battle with the Israeli army” (NY Times). However, the story on his book is very similar to his own experience. Mr. Grossman lost his son during “the final hours of the 2006 Lebanon war” (NY Times). As any person would do, he suffers from the loss of his son. However instead of turning insane as king Shahrayar did Mr. Grossman decides to write and tell the story to the world which is the way he finds relief from his sufferings. In fact he says that “writing is my home. It [is] a place where I again recognized my self” (NY Times). Mr. Grossman also writes books for children and he is working on something new which “is a mix of drama, poetry and prose” (NY Times). This writing might one day be use to transform the life of a person the same way the tales from The Thousand and One Nights transformed King Shahrayar.

NY Times: