The Thousand And One Nights

Influence of Cultures on "The Thousand and One Nights"

Stories like Sindbad, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp and other popular stories are very common today in the western culture. Animated movies were also made for the entertainment of kids on these popular stories. One might wonder that where these stories originated and how it came down and made place in the western culture. Although these stories are very popular in both the western culture and the eastern culture but the original literary work is not so popular in common people. Theses stories are some of the stories from the Arabic work "The Thousand and One Nights." The work of "The Thousand and One Nights" represents basically a female that is a strong and clever idol and continuously imaginative and creative. It is an anonymous work which is widely known in the Arab world. It is an Arabic collection of a thousand tales, which is derived from the Persian version, telling of a King who was in the habit of killing his wives after the first night, and who was led to abandon this practise by the cleverness of the Wezir's daughter, who nightly told him a tale which she left unfinished at dawn, so that his curiosity led him to spare her till the tale should be completed. Many people have written about these stories, that where they originated, what time period was it originated, how they have been changed, and also literary criticism of the work.

The question arises to many historians that when did this work originated. It has been said that it was originated in Persia in pre-Islamic time period and then later translated into Arabic. The Norton Anthology of World MasterPieces states:

The history of The Thousand and One Nights is vague, and its shape as hard to pin down as colud's. The starting point of the work in Arabic was probably collection of tales in Middle Persian called the "thousand stories" that had been translated or adapted from Sanskrit in the time of the Sassanids, the pre-Islamic Iranian dynasty. (Lawall 1586)

The same is claimed by Goitein as he says that "the first element in the tile of popular book: 'One Thousand Nights' is very old, as it is an adaptation of the Persian hezar efsane, which means 'A Thousand Stories,' according to various Muslim writers the name of a pre-Islamic collection of tales and fables."(301-02) W. F. Kirby states while reviewing the work that "Our first reference to The Thousand and One Nights by name dates back to the work of Masoudi in the tenth century where it is said to be based on a Persian work."(112-24) All of these authors date back the work to the same era. Although the time period it was originated has been a topic of study but the author of the work is unknown and not talked about by any of these reviewers.

The title of this work has a history also, that how it is called The Thousand and One Nights. As the work was and adaptation of the Persian hezar efsane which literally means 'thousand stories', it got its name of Alf Laila. (Youssef) This title was changed to "The Thousand and One Nights" later as Goitein discusses:

A marginal note in a fragmentary manuscript of the Fihrist states that the book was called "One Thousand and One Nights" see D. B. Macdonald, ib., p. 367. However, unless new evidence is forthcoming, it stands to reason that the two tenth century authors actually spoke of a book of "One Thousand Nights," a statement which was corrected by later copyists into one thousand and one, in order to fit the title in vogue in their time. (301-02)

The Fihrist was a bibliography of Arabic literature by Ibn al-Nadim. (Wollcott 74) A direct documentary evidence has been found of the title Alf laila wa-laila which means a thousand and one nights from Cairo around the year 1150. (Goietien)

Many historians have talked about the influence of Nights in many cultures and how the stories have been changed from the influence of those cultures. As Caracciolo says: "The influence of the Nights has been diffused in many ways: by travelers, translators, moralists, mythographers; through the feedback of poets, novelists, critics, the entertainers of children in theatre and cinema; no least by the efforts of illustrators."(17)

The stories are greatly affected by the Islamic culture as H. T. Norris states:

The official religion in the stories is Islam. It is the orthodox from of Islam, Sunna as we find it in Saudi Arabia, in Egypt and in Turkey. In the Arabian Nights we find a well-founded knowledge of Sunna. A story like the narrative of the learned sympathia is an illustration. She is a slave-woman in order to save her master from economic ruin she suggests that she be sold to the sultan. In order to demonstrate her special value in addition to that of youth and beauty, she offers to be examined in Islam in the presence of scribes. (148-49)

Norris also talks about how the beliefs of Islam have blended into the stories. On the other hand if we look at Margaret Parker, she gives us the same story that Norris reports about the slave woman in Spanish about a Christian slave woman, and in Brazilian also. (2) This shows how the stories in different cultures are molded into different styles.

These stories are also affected by the Islamic dynasty and the kingdom