Who has never heard of “A Thousand and One Nights”? Do you know what that expression means?
The Thousand and One Nights is the title of one of the most famous works of Arabic literature, it is composed of a collection of short stories written between the 13th and 16th centuries.
What makes the reader interested in reading all the stories is the fact that they are interconnected, that is, one complements the other. The work tells the story of King Périsa, of Persia, who, betrayed by his wife, had her killed. From that moment on, he decided to spend each night with a different woman, who was beheaded the next morning. Of the several women he married, Scheherazade was the cleverest, started a tale that piqued the king’s interest in hearing the continuation of the story the following night.
Don’t stop now… There’s more after the publicity 😉
With her cleverness, Scheherazade escaped death and, in order to continue living, wrote A Thousand and One Nights. The Thousand and One Nights became known in the West from 1704, thanks to the French orientalist Antoine Galland. The book went through several adaptations, the current version is based on translations by Sir Richard Burton and Andrew Lang, in which the most “ardent” scenes were eliminated or modified, gaining a less sexual context.
Virtually all stories take place in the region corresponding to Egypt and Persia.
By Eliene Percília