The Depiction Of Women: The Thousand And One Nights

The depiction of women: The Thousand and One Nights In the summary these are great fascinating stories from the ancient world and all the way to the 14th century. The first old Syrian stories are said to be found as early as 879 CE, and actually discovered till 1948 in Cairo (1743). Most of the collection of these stories were actually found in the 10th century. Surprisingly enough this collection is not 1001 stories but far less, and said to be a symbol of everlasting abundance (1743). These stories began to be adapted and translated for the western reader in 1702 by Galland for the public and became extremely popular in the 19th and 20th century (1745). But what I have noticed in “The Thousand and One Nights”, is the belief of women being …show more content…
In return this leads me to draw conclusions on the Islamic culture and religion. Their culture was definitely not fair to all, women were married at a young age and looked as possessions of the men. King Shahrayar himself is an example of this because he marries a young lady every night as he chooses only to have her put to death against her will the next morning (1752). When one cannot choose one’s own death is the real oppression of the man’s dominance over women in this culture. Yet the good virtuous women like Shahrazad herself were adored and well respected above the evil women in this story. She is a character that mixes both religious beliefs and culture at the time even is an example of the “good” women. Shahrazad is described as, “intelligent, knowledgeable, wise, and refined. She had read and learned (1752). She is the depiction of the perfect women and even beyond perfect because she was literate which I could assume a lot of women of this culture weren’t due to the dominance of men over them. She also serves as an example of the religious beliefs of this society. I believed her request to marry King Shahrayar is an act of fate driven by the belief of Allah the dominant God of the time. But to the western reader it might just seem as an act of benevolence and kindhearted nature of this gracious women unlike the others. Her being an educated woman of her time, telling all this stories to the King each of which has a moral following the religion of her time showing that turning one’s fate over to God would help the afflicted suffering soul find answers and resolution. This culture and religion depicted by this stories leads to think that the east is a magical place for men full of prosperity and