In the first several days of Thousand Nights there are a multitude of cases of unfaithful and evil women, but there are equally several tales regarding the idiocy of men to balance the message. Considering that the frame-story is based on a completely misogynistic pretext (a kind determined to sleep with and then kill a woman every night) some of the “bite” of this is taken out of the story by the strong willed heroine Shahrazad, who uses her wit and vast stores of knowledge to gain her desire instead of her sexuality. Through her tales, Shahrazad presents a number of representations of women and does not rely on the stereotype presented at the beginning of the book when all women are viewed as harlots—sleeping with any man as soon as the husband has left. While there are, of course, many examples of the traitorous and unfaithful woman stereotype her royal listener might be expecting, there are also examples of ingenious women who while not good per se, are capable of using their wits and proving themselves to be more than one-dimensional sex-objects.

One of the strangest cases of dubious female representation occurs before Shahrazad is introduced and concerns the idea of the cuckold Jenni and his seductress who forces the two kings, already wandering the countryside due to their hatred of women, to have sex with her near her giant lover. The men are hesitant for several reasons, the most pressing being the fact that the genie could kill them at any moment, but eventually concede to her demands. In some ways, the narrator telling this story is acting as a sort of precursor to Shahrazad because there is the attempt to teach a lesson (not to be the sleeping giant near a lying female) and to foreshadow the theme of violent reactions to jealousy. “The Jinni seated her under the tree by his side and looking at her said, “O choicest love of this heart of mine! O dame of noblest line, whom I snatched away on thy bride night that none might prevent me taking thy maidenhead or tumble thee before I did, and whom none save myself hath loved or hath enjoyed: O my sweetheart! I would fief sleep a little while” (Burton 7). The genie had taken her away from her life in order to have her virginity and thus she was kept captive due to her gender. Her pleasure was to collect the rings of men she had seduced so that she would be able to count her victories. In many ways, this counting of the rings—a sign of female power over male domination—is similar and foreshadowing the countdown of days throughout the text. We are constantly reminded as the days pass, one to the other, and as they do, Shahrazad adds more “rings” to her collection. This story serves to prepare the reader for the introduction of Shahrazad and gives a cursory introduction as well to themes of the cuckold (male weakness) the desiring woman (female weakness) and the more important theme—the presentation of one of many ways in which women will be shown to have authority over men.

In her “lessons” in The Thousand and One Nights Shahrazad’s message becomes a bit less feminist when she tells single-gender stories (those in which women are not involved). There are a number of tales that she tells about kings and princes that do not involve feminine and in most of these cases, the men are able to think clearly and resolve the conflict through wits and ingenuity. Consider for example the story of the fisherman and the genie in The Thousand and One Nights. Unlike many of the earlier stories, there are no women present and the fisherman is able to argue with the genie and eventually trick him back into his hiding place. It would seem that when women are involved, nothing but trouble can result, thus calling to mind how feminist the motivations behind Shahrazad’s stories (lessons) are.

In her stories in the “Thousand and One Nights” the character of Shahrazad often represents the men as helpless to the will of a beloved female, thus indicating that women are the cause of men’s downfall. In the story of the man who could communicate with animals mentioned above, the man is admittedly helplessly in love with his wife and unable to deny her request that he divulge the secret that would bring him death. It isn’t until other male voice intervene (since the voice of the Cock is attributed to a male pronoun) convinces him to “snap out of it” and give his wife a sound beating. Since the man listened to his wife, he is said, in one of the important quotes in “Thousand and One Nights” saying, “neither sense nor judgment” (14) which indicates that women destroy this characteristic in men. While one could speculate what the ultimate lesson inherent in stories such as this would be, the truth remains that there are still some feminist undertones at play. With so much emphasis put on the fact that women do have say in their husband’s lives, even if they are beaten, it seems to be more in fear of losing control over “male faculties” than because of women’s natural evil.

As the stories in The Thousand and One Nights grow increasingly littered with misogynistic undertones, one has to wonder what Shahrazad’s position is supposed to be. The king will later grow to love her and keep her and armed with this knowledge, it almost seems fair to assume that the final message concerns females winning power through intelligence and independence balanced with (rather than dominated by) a culturally-coded submission to males. If that is true, then the final message of The Thousand and One Nights is hopeful. One should remember that Shahrazad’s main purpose with this strategy [of daily storytelling] is not procrastination. This could not be so: even she would eventually run out of stories. On the contrary, Shahrazad is narrating tales primarily to instruct the king (Heath 18). Through her stories in The Thousand and One Nights, particularly those related in the first eight days, there is a clear distinction between what the king considers to be female—based on his hatred and what Shahrazad considers it to be. Ultimately, through her lessons in the form of stories, she depicts women as not simply whores and tricksters, but as capable of wit, intelligence, and much more beyond sex and infidelity.

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Works Cited

Burton, Richard. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments (10 Vols.) Benares (stoke Newington, London), 1885

Enderwitz, S. “Shahrazad Is One of Us: Practical Narrative, Theoretical Discussion, and Feminist Discourse.” Marvels & Tales: The Journal of Folk Tales18.2 (2004): 187

Heath, Peter. “Romance as Genre in ‘The Thousand and One Nights.” Journal of Arabic Literature 18 (1987) 1-21

Naithani, S. “The Teacher and the Taught: Structures and Meaning in the Arabian Nights and the Panchatantra.” Marvels & Tales: The Journal of Folk Tales 18.2 (2004): 272