Arabian Nights the Stories of Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights

The stories of "Arabian Nights" come mostly from India, Persia and Arabia. These stories reflect the highly civilized Islamic world of the ancient centuries. Many of the people in these areas shared a religion, Islam, a religious language, the Arabic of the Koran, and many cultural elements, which derived from the Koranic culture of Islam and its roots in the Arabian Peninsula, now mostly Saudi Arabia.

The stories of "Arabian Nights" vary as much as the lands they originate from. However, all the stories have a spiritual message and a message about values during life. The stories talk about life and how to live it, based on the Islamic culture and religion.

The wise tales speak of good and bad rulers, and have messages about how to deal with both. They speak of magic, demons, lust and violence, as well as love and spirituality.

BETRAYAL

The story tells the tale of two brother kings, Shahrayar and Shahzaman, both of whom are betrayed by their wives. They search for a man more unfortunate in love than they are, vowing to search until they find him.

In the story, they meet a demon, Jinni, who keeps his wife locked in a glass chest. Still, she manages to betray him. The brothers go to their village to deal with their cheating wives. Shahrayar has his wife killed, and vows to marry a new wife each night and kill her the next morning, so she can't cheat on him.

Shahrazad tells her father she plans marry Shahrayar. Her father tells her The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey to talk her out of the marriage. In this story, the donkey persuades an ox to stop feeding and act sick in order to avoid working. However, the ox's owner, a merchant, understood animal language and tricked the donkey by making him do the ox's work, so the donkey suffered while the ox had an easy life. This story does not grab her attention and it fails to convince her to change her mind about the marriage.

He then tells her The Tale of the Merchant and His Wife, which also fails. In this story, the merchant's wife realizes that he understands animal language and demands to know what the animals said. The merchant tells her that he will die if he reveals the words.

She insists and he prepares to tell her and die. A rooster laughs at him, saying that he is foolish if he cannot control one wife. After all, the rooster controls fifty wives. The rooster urges the merchant to beat his wife, which he does, and he gains control of her. Shahrazad rejects the moral of the story, because she does not relate to it and cannot grasp the lesson.

Shahrazad marries Shahrayar, and arranges for her sister, Dinarzad, to ask her to tell a story to pass the night. This story, and many more, will save her and deliver the people.

THE STORIES

On the first night, she tells the story of the Merchant and the Demon, which keeps the king from killing her. She promises him an even better story the next night and he agrees to let her live. This continues for several nights.

Her first set of stories revolves around justice and forgiveness. Each tale is directly related to the king's life. The stories teach the king about justice with forbearance. Evil people are turned into deer and dogs, not killed, and the innocent are set free.

The stories that follow are not necessarily uplifting. However, all are pious, and most teach about the manners and ethics of survival in a complex, difficult world ruled by tyrants but governed by a fair God.

The stories are successful and eventually the King forgives women, accepts his marriage to Shahrazad as permanent, and all live happily ever after. The stories have been successful in curing the King and saving the people. The stories of the Arabian Nights tell all about the world of Islam.

ISLAMIC CULTURE

The role of Islamic women can be seen in these stories. While many of the stories show the importance of obedience for women, the stories clearly show how the courage and wit of women, such as Shahrazad who heals the King's distrust of women, is dominant and plays an important role in Islamic society.

In the book, there are faithful women and faithless women, magical women and silly women. They all have strengths and weaknesses and deserve to be looked at for what they are, not simply as victims of men who control them. However, that is a factor in Islam, as well, and is clearly shown.

The stories also show the incredible power of the Islamic kings, which is both incredible and terrifying. As a ruler, Shahrayer can marry and kill a virgin woman every night. This shows the power of an Islamic ruler, who can make his own rules and expect them to be obeyed. There is no democracy here. The ruler is essentially the owner of the land and its people.

The stories show there are good, pious demons, and bad, impious demons, but all demons seem to obey certain rules or laws. This is a very important concept in Islam -- obedience. Still, the stories show it is better to be just than unjust in all situations.

The word "Islam' refers not only to a religion but also a culture, area and society that is dominated by the religion. The ancient societies of the Middle East were monarchies, dominated by centralized empires such as Assyria, Persia and Byzantium.