{"id":76395,"date":"2019-07-24T14:06:08","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T20:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=76395"},"modified":"2019-07-24T14:06:08","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T20:06:08","slug":"another-little-bit-on-the-arabian-nights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/07\/another-little-bit-on-the-arabian-nights.html","title":{"rendered":"Another little bit on the “Arabian Nights”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"She<\/a>
A 1914 illustration of Scheherazade and the king, by Milo Winter
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One typical feature of the Nights<\/em> is the use of the \u201cframe story technique,\u201d in which a character in one story will say something along the lines of \u201cBeware, lest there befall you that which happened to A.\u201d\u00a0 Another character will respond curiously, \u201cAnd what was that?\u201d at which point the first speaker tells the story of A.\u00a0 And perhaps, in that story, a character may ask \u201cDo you not recall the story of B?\u201d\u00a0 Whereupon another character will say \u201cAnd what story was that?\u201d thus inviting the telling of that<\/em> tale.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thus a story is nested within a story, and oftimes another story is nested within that one, and perhaps yet another story within the third one.\u00a0 Sometimes there will be several levels of embedding, rather like a Russian matryoshka<\/em> or babushka<\/em> doll.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 A reader can easily become so completely absorbed by the latest story that, when she suddenly emerges from that one back to another tale in which she had previously been thoroughly engrossed, it can be quite a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The technique of the \u201cframe story\u201d was already known in ancient Egypt, where it occurs in the Papyrus Westcar<\/em> (P. Berlin 3033) and in the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor<\/em> and The Eloquent Peasant<\/em>.\u00a0 It also appears in early Sanskrit literature in India, including such epics as the Mahabharata<\/em> and the Ramayana<\/em>, and in the collection of animal fables known as the Panchatantra<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the Nights<\/em>, the main, overall frame story is that King Shahry\u0101r and his (latest) wife, Shahraz\u0101d, who is more widely known in the West as Scheherazade \u00a0(not least through the marvelous 1888 symphonic suite of that same name, Op. 35, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov). \u00a0Shocked at that adulterous behavior of his brother\u2019s wife and then betrayed by his own, the king has essentially vowed war against women, marrying a new virgin every night and killing her at dawn.\u00a0 Appalled by the slaughter and determined to stop it, Scheherazade, the learned, witty, and resourceful daughter of the royal vizier\u2014effectively, the kingdom\u2019s prime minister\u2014volunteers to marry the king.\u00a0 Her plan, which ultimately succeeds, is to tell wonderful stories to the monarch, her husband, that are always timed to be incomplete at sunrise.\u00a0 So Shahry\u0101r spares her for another night until, after several children have been born to them, he abandons his murderous intention.\u00a0 But this, of course, becomes the vehicle that allows plenty of narrative opportunity for the retelling of numerous wonderful tales.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking, after all, about a thousand and one nights.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Matryoshka_doll<\/p>\n

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Posted from Canmore, Alberta, Canada<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 One typical feature of the Nights is the use of the \u201cframe story technique,\u201d in which a character in one story will say something along the lines of \u201cBeware, lest there befall you that which happened to A.\u201d\u00a0 Another character will respond curiously, \u201cAnd what was that?\u201d at which point the first speaker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAnother little bit on the "Arabian Nights"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    One typical feature of the Nights is the use of the \u201cframe story technique,\u201d in which a character in one story will say something along the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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