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| The Little Extras - Myths and Fantasies | |
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| The Little Extras - Myths and Fantasies | |
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Sheherazade
Sheherazade ... the sound of her name conjures up images of magic carpets airborne on their way to the mysterious Orient of The Thousand and One Nights. The legendary heroine has served as guardian of these enchanting, fabulous stories for more than a thousand years. Popular tales retold and embroidered upon throughout the Arab world for centuries, The Thousand and One Nights came originally not only from Arab countries but also India, Persia and possibly Greece. A 9th century Arab historian found some of the stories, including the one about Sheherazade, or Shahrazad, in a Persian anthology called Hazar Afsanah (A Thousand Tales). New tales may have been included as recently as the 16th century, but the literary device of Sheherazade as narrator has always been preserved. Here is how, according to the first night's tale, Sheherazade came to recount these adventures. Embittered by an experience with feminine infidelity, Shahryar, a king in Central Asia, devised a way to avoid further betrayal. Each time he married, he murdered the bride after the wedding night, ensuring that no wife would have time to be unfaithful. Terror reigned in his kingdom, and all young maidens hid from him. One day the vizier in charge of finding new brides went home greatly distressed because he could no longer persuade anyone to marry the king. His daughter Sheherazade told him, "By Allah, O my father, give me in marriage to this king-- either I shall die, and be a ransom for one of the daughters of the Muslims, or I shall live, and be the cause of their deliverance from him." The clever young girl had devised a strategy for conquering the king's bitterness, using her talents. For she "had read various books of histories, and the lives of preceding kings, and the stories of past generations." She was very eloquent and a delight to listen to. Sheherazade married Shahryar. On their wedding night, she used his insomnia as an excuse to tell him a story. At dawn the tale had not ended, and the king, curious, allowed her to live another night to complete the story. She finished it early the next evening, and immediately began another... and so it went, for a thousand and one nights, during which Sheherazade won the king's love and, unknown to him, bore him three children. When she told Shahryar about them, he had already succumbed to her: "O Sheherazade, by Allah, I pardoned thee before the coming of these children, because I saw thee to be chaste, pure, ingenious and pious." Shahryar's profound change of heart, his reawakening to love, made him want to share this joy with others. He told his brother Shahzaman what had happened, and Shahzaman promptly proposed to Dunyazade, Sheherazade's sister. A lavish celebration was organised for the two couples. And Shahryar, wishing to immortalize the cause of his happiness, had The Thousand and One Nights put into writing. It is stated there: "And he and the people of this empire continued in prosperity and delight and happiness until they were visited by the terminator of delights and the separator of companions-- death. Sheherazade disarmed the king with intelligence, charmed him with gentleness, conquered him with perseverance. Hers was a victory of mind over might, of wisdom over cynicism-- a woman's victory. Her story proves the power of poetry and the strength of words to awaken desire. For centuries she has represented Oriental femininity. The West came to know her through Antoine Galland's 18th century French translation, and above all Sir Richard Burton's definitive English rendering in the late 19th century, but also through writings by authors as varied as Théophile Gautier and Edgar Allan Poe, and through the music of Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Sheherazade's tales touch on all the great themes of humanity: love, nostalgia for times past, cruelty... As "The Tender Tale of Prince Jasmine and Princess Almond" tells on Night 998, Love
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