Scheherazade (
) is a major female character and the storyteller in the
frame narrative
A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent.
Frame and FRAME may also refer to:
Physical objects
In building construction
*Framing (con ...
of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the ''
One Thousand and One Nights''.
Name
According to modern scholarship, the name ''Scheherazade'' derives from the Middle Persian name , which is composed of the words ('lineage') and ('noble, exalted').
The earliest forms of Scheherazade's name in Arabic sources include (, ) in
Masudi
Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodot ...
, and in
Ibn al-Nadim
Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm ( ar, ابو الفرج محمد بن إسحاق النديم), also ibn Abī Ya'qūb Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Warrāq, and commonly known by the ''nasab'' (patronymic) Ibn al-Nadīm ...
.
The name appears as in the ''
Encyclopaedia of Islam''
[ and as in '']Encyclopædia Iranica
''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times.
Scope
The ''Encyc ...
''.[ Among standard 19th-century printed editions, the name appears as () in Macnaghten's Calcutta edition (1839–1842) and in the 1862 Bulaq edition, and as () in the Breslau edition (1825–1843). ]Muhsin Mahdi Muḥsin Sayyid Mahdī al-Mashhadani ( ar, محسن مهدي; cited Muhsin S. Mahdi) (June 21, 1926 – July 9, 2007) was an Iraqi-American Islamologist and Arabist. He was a leading authority on Arabian history, philology, and philosophy. His best ...
's critical edition has ().
The spelling ''Scheherazade'' first appeared in English-language texts in 1801, borrowed from German usage.
Narration
The story goes that the monarch Shahryar, on discovering that his first wife was unfaithful to him, resolved to marry a new virgin
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
every day and to have her beheaded the next morning before she could dishonour him. Eventually the vizier
A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...
could find no more virgins of noble blood and, against her father's wishes, Scheherazade volunteered to marry the king.
Sir Richard Burton's translation of ''The Nights'' describes Scheherazade in this way:
Scheherazade had perused the books, annals, and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples, and instances of bygone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts, and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred.
Once in the king's chambers, Scheherazade asked if she might bid one last farewell to her beloved younger sister, Dunyazad, who had secretly been prepared to ask Scheherazade to tell a story during the long night. The king lay awake and listened with awe as Scheherazade told her first story. The night passed by, and Scheherazade stopped in the middle. The king asked her to finish, but Scheherazade said there was no time, as dawn was breaking. So the king spared her life for one day so she could finish the story the next night. The following night Scheherazade finished the story and then began a second, more exciting tale, which she again stopped halfway through at dawn. Again, the king spared her life for one more day so that she could finish the second story.
Thus the king kept Scheherazade alive day by day, as he eagerly anticipated the conclusion of each previous night's story. At the end of 1,001 nights, and 1,000 stories, Scheherazade finally told the king that she had no more tales to tell him. During the preceding 1,001 nights, however, the king had fallen in love with Scheherazade. He spared her life and made her his queen.
See also
* Scheherazade in popular culture
References
External links
*
The Arabian Nights Entertainments
'—Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...
{{Authority control
Female characters in literature
Fictional queens
Fictional storytellers
One Thousand and One Nights characters
Persian mythology
Medieval legends