
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights) Volume 09
'The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights) Volume 09' Summary
The main frame story concerns Shahryār (Persian: شهريار, from Middle Persian: šahr-dār, 'holder of realm'), whom the narrator calls a "Sasanian king" ruling in "India and China." Shahryār is shocked to learn that his brother's wife is unfaithful. Discovering that his own wife's infidelity has been even more flagrant, he has her killed. In his bitterness and grief, he decides that all women are the same. Shahryār begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning, before she has a chance to dishonour him.
Eventually the Vizier (Wazir), whose duty it is to provide them, cannot find any more virgins. Scheherazade (Persian: شهْرزاد, Shahrazād, from Middle Persian: شهر, čehr, 'lineage' + ازاد, āzād, 'noble'), the vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. The king, curious about how the story ends, is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins another one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion of that tale as well, postpones her execution once again. This goes on for one thousand and one nights, hence the name.
The tales vary widely: they include historical tales, love stories, tragedies, comedies, poems, burlesques, and various forms of erotica. Numerous stories depict jinn, ghouls, apes, sorcerers, magicians, and legendary places, which are often intermingled with real people and geography, not always rationally. Common protagonists include the historical Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, his Grand Vizier, Jafar al-Barmaki, and the famous poet Abu Nuwas, despite the fact that these figures lived some 200 years after the fall of the Sassanid Empire, in which the frame tale of Scheherazade is set. Sometimes a character in Scheherazade's tale will begin telling other characters a story of his own, and that story may have another one told within it, resulting in a richly layered narrative texture.
Different versions differ, at least in detail, as to final endings (in some Scheherazade asks for a pardon, in some the king sees their children and decides not to execute his wife, in some other things happen that make the king distracted) but they all end with the king giving his wife a pardon and sparing her life.
The narrator's standards for what constitutes a cliffhanger seem broader than in modern literature. While in many cases a story is cut off with the hero in danger of losing their life or another kind of deep trouble, in some parts of the full text Scheherazade stops her narration in the middle of an exposition of abstract philosophical principles or complex points of Islamic philosophy, and in one case during a detailed description of human anatomy according to Galen—and in all of these cases she turns out to be justified in her belief that the king's curiosity about the sequel would buy her another day of life.
Book Details
Authors

Richard Francis Burton
England
Sir Richard Francis Burton was a British explorer, scholar and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary knowledge of langu...
Books by Richard Francis BurtonDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki
Published in 1903 entitled the Japanese Fairy Book, the title was changed in the 1908 edition to Japanese Fairy Tales. Theodora Ozaki was the daughter...

The Meadow Sprite, and Other Tales of Modern Germany by Rudolf Baumbach
Rudolf Baumbach's enchanting collection, "The Meadow Sprite, and Other Tales of Modern Germany," transports us to a world where magic mingles with eve...

Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
**The Moon and Sixpence** is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, first published in 1919. The story is based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin, and...

The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
Masterful artist, illustrator, and storyteller Howard Pyle brings new life to the legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. The first...

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights) Volume 11 by Richard Francis Burton
One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in Englis...

Inheritors by Susan Glaspell
Inheritors is a four-act play written by the American dramatist Susan Glaspell, first performed in 1921. The play concerns the legacy of an idealist...

The Book of Stories for the Storyteller by Fanny Coe
This group project is a collection of 43 fairy tales (both old and new), folk lore, myths and real life stories by a variety of authors, brought toget...

Märchen by Hans Christian Andersen
Based on Danish, German and Greek legends and historical events, linked to popular belief and inspired by the literary currents of his time, Andersen...

Infernaliana by Charles Nodier
A collection of tales and essays exploring the belief in vampires, ghosts, and other supernatural beings. Nodier argues that these beliefs are absurd...

Under the Sunset by Bram Stoker
“Under the Sunset” is a collection of eight amazing fantasy tales from the mind and imagination of the legendary Bram Stoker (Dracula.) Originally con...
Reviews for The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights) Volume 09
No reviews posted or approved, yet...