Shahryar And Scheherazade: The Struggle Between Men And Women

Death. One thousand and ninety-five women, dead. When over one thousand women die at the hands of a scorned king, Scheherazade, a woman, is placed before him. Unlike the other women, she was not sent to him against her will, she volunteered (1001 Arabian Nights 19). Any sane person would say she had a death wish. How could a young girl willingly lie with King Shahryar, knowing he lies with a new woman every night...only to kill her in the morning? The answer is simple: fairy tales. Fairy tales, stories, myths, folklore, fables, etc. motivate Scheherazade to volunteer herself. To understand the power behind fairy tales, an understanding of the story of King Shahryar and Scheherazade is necessary. Not only is the importance of fairy tales evident

in the tale of The Arabian Nights, but the double standards between men and women at that time, and the sexism against women is evident.
The story starts off with two king brothers, King Shahryar, the elder, and King Shah Zaman, the younger. King Shahryar was king of “the islands of India and China” ( 1001 Arabian Nights 1). King Shah Zaman was the king of Samarcand (City in Uzbekistan) in Barbarian land (1001 Arabian Nights 1). One day, King Shahryar decided he missed his little brother too much, and had his Wazir, high official, deliver a message to King Shah Zaman. The message was loving, and invited the young brother over to King Shahryar’s court to visit. King Shah Zaman accepted the invitation happily, and prepared to visit his brother (1001 Arabian Nights 2-3). Upon leaving for his brother’s court King Shah Zaman realized he had forgotten a gift for his brother in his bedroom. Shah Zaman returned back to his room in order to retrieve the gift, when he found his wife, The Queen, in the arms of a black cook (1001 Arabian Nights3). The King’s drastic reaction shows the double standards between men and women. The adulteress was sleeping on King Shah Zaman’s bed with the cook, when Zaman sliced the couple into four pieces where they slept (1001 Arabian Nights 3). King Shah Zaman angrily said, “If such case happen while I am yet within sight of the city what will be the doings of this damned whore during my long absence at my brother’s court?” (1001 Arabian Nights 3). King Shah Zaman is clearly angry with his wife, considering he kills her, and his use of the word “whore.” According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, a whore is the following: “a woman who engages in sexual acts for money.” This word choice is harsh for King Shah Zaman to use, because his wife was not a whore. While King Zaman can take as many concubines as he pleases, but his wife is only allowed to be with him.Therefore, calling his wife a whore for cheating on him is hypocritical, and shows the double standards regarding men and women at that time.
Concubines did not originally start in Islamic culture, but thanks to Muslim society, concubines were granted certain rights. “Concubinage” is a form of the word “marriage,” and in Islam, both are similar. According to “Faith in Allah,” concubines were treated similarly to wives, but of a lower status. Concubines were given outlets for freedom as well (Elias np). If King Shah Zaman (and his brother) were moral, why not set all of their concubines free? If a man has many concubines, they are not all getting individual attention from the man, therefore they are likely to seek attention elsewhere (Fellizar np). If a concubine cheats on their “master,” they are scolded and judged and in King Shahryar’s case, murdered. If the king brothers did not have enough attention to give to their plethora of concubines, they should have set said concubines free, instead of hiking up the rate of death in concubines! King Shah Zaman leaves the dead couple in his bed, and continues the journey to visit King Shahryar.
At his brother’s castle, King Shah Zaman refuses to participate in any activities with his brother, and shuts himself in a room.He appears sickly, and only mulls over his dead wife’s betrayal night after day.

The king’s ability to obsess over his wife also shows double standards between men and women, because a concubine could not shut herself inside and obsess over her “master’s” sexual encounters, so why should Shah Zaman get to do so? One day, in the midst of mulling, King Shah Zaman looks out a window onto his brother’s pleasure grounds (1001 Arabian Nights 5). There, King Zaman witnesses his brother’s wife have sex with a “blackamoor” (1001 Arabian Nights 5). The concubines cheat on the king as well. Upon seeing this act of infamy, King Shah Zaman realizes that his brother being betrayed is worse than his own personal betrayal, for his brother is a greater king than himself. This realization heals King Zaman from his sickly state, so that when his brother returns home from hunting, King Shahryar questions his brother’s healthy glow (1001 Arabian Nights 6). In Islam, polygamy is allowed, but polyandry is not (Understanding Islam np). This double standard makes it acceptable for men to have wives as they please, and women to be stuck to the same man, who is out and about with whomever/whenever.This Islamic law gives men more agency, and creates a sort of domestic sphere for women. Psychologically, this may cause women to want to cheat on their husbands, because it gives

them agency/power. The following morning, King Shahryar witnesses The Queen and the blackamoor together (1001 Arabian Nights 7-8). Betrayed, King Shahryar decides to leave with his brother to find other men that have been cheated on by their wives, to see if all women are truly vile. On their journey to find adulteresses they come across a jinni. The jinni then reveals a woman, who he stole the day she was going to get married. He stole the woman so he could be the only one to “hath loved or hath enjoyed” her (1001 Arabian Nights 9). The jinni rests his head on the woman’s thighs and falls asleep. As the jinni slept, the woman commands the two kings to have sex with her. The kings do not want to, for they fear the jinni will kill them. Despite this, the woman tells the kings that if they do not do as she says, she will awaken the jinni to kill them. So the two kings unwillingly have sex with the woman (1001 Arabian Nights 9). Once the act was completed, the jinni’s maiden produced a “knotted string, whereon were strung five hundred and seventy seal rings” (1001 Arabian Nights 10). The rings were all from men the jinni’s maiden had made love to, unbeknownst to the jinni. Both Kings realize that the jinni’s betrayal is much worse than their own, considering the jinni is far more powerful. The king brothers come to a conclusion that all women are evil, and King Shahryar has his wife, and twenty concubines killed (1001 Arabian Nights 11). Looking at all the events that just unfolded, the double standards for men and women become clear yet again. Both kings could marry and keep as many concubines as they pleased. Yet when either of their wives cheated on them with ONE man, the woman was killed (along with twenty concubines). The kings would not be killed for sleeping with a woman other than their wife, so why should their wife be killed? In the jinni’s case, he abducted the woman the day she was supposed to be married, and he raped her, and continued to rape her whenever he felt like it. This caused the woman to cheat on the jinni with five hundred and seventy two men! Though the woman was not killed by the jinni (for she was never caught), she was seen as a whore by the kings. While they do not directly call her a whore, she is the deciding factor that causes them to deem all women evil. They view her as the cheater for going out to sleep with men behind the jinni, even though the jinni abducted and raped her. These sexisms and double standards are evident throughout the events listed above in The Arabian Nights.
After deeming all women evil, the kings go separate ways.

King Shahryar decides to lie with a new woman every night, only to take her virginity and kill her the next morning (1001 Arabian Nights 11). For three years, King Shahryar stays on track, killing one thousand and ninety five women. After those three years, the king’s wazir was having trouble finding new women for the king to lie with, for they were all running in the opposite direction (1001 Arabian Nights 12). That is when the Wazir’s own daughter, Scheherazade, made a courageous move. Scheherazade had read one thousand histories, stories, fables, fairy tales etc. whatever one chooses to call them, Scheherazade was very well versed in story-telling. Through these tales, Scheherazade had the courage to offer herself up to lie with the king, well knowing that she would be dead the next morning (1001 Arabian Nights 12-3). Scheherazade had a plan to save herself, however, and it involved her younger sister, Dunyazad. Scheherazade was brought to the king by her father, the wazir (who only agreed to offer up his daughter because Scheherazad blackmailed him). Scheherazade’s courage from the fairytales empowers her, and it causes her to become incharge/a woman of action, which is not common in Islamic culture. Scheherazade defies the double standards/sexisms in 1001 Arabian Nights, and is refreshing to the book’s constant sexisms/standards. Scheherazade made love to the king, but started crying during their love-making.

King Shahryar asked Scheherazade what was wrong, when she admitted she missed her younger sister, Dunyazad, and could not fall asleep without her. The king called for Dunyazad to sleep in his chambers with them. The plan was for Dunyazad to beg her older sister to tell a story, which she did. The story was so exciting that Scheherazade had the king enthralled. At the end of the story, Scheherazade would say that the previous story was not as interesting as the next story she could tell, and that would convince King Shahryar to spare her life another night (1001 Arabian Nights 20). Every night, Scheherazade would tell a more interesting story, and say, “yet this tale is not more wondrous than…” (1001 Arabian Nights 33). The king, Scheherazade, and Dunyazad would fall asleep with one tale, and the king would let Scheherazade live another day so he could hear the next. The power behind these fairy tales is what spared Scheherazade’s life (and the thousands of other women that would be in Scheherazade’s place, had it not been for her storytelling). While the tales empowered and saved Scheherazade, they also gave Scheherazade a superiority over the king. Scheherazade, made smarter through fairy tales, was more educated/superior to the king, which again, is refreshing, and breaks the sexism throughout the book.
For one thousand and one nights, Scheherazade had told King Shahryar a new story. Throughout her storytelling, she had given birth to three sons with the king. When Scheherazade ran out of stories to tell the king, she begged him to spare her life, for she was the only one that could take care of her sons, for no one would love them as she does. The king wept, and said that of course he would spare her life, for during those one thousand and one nights, Scheherazade and King Shahryar had fallen in love (1001 Arabian Nights 727-8). King Shahryar fell in love with Shahryar through the fairy tales, again, showing the power behind them. The king marries Scheherazade, and calls his brother to his court. King Shah Zaman had been living as his brother had, killing a new woman everyday. Upon seeing that his older brother found a woman that was not evil, King Zaman decides to marry Scheherazade’s younger sister, Dunyazad (1001 Arabian Nights 729). Both of the king’s marriages end the slaughter of many women, and can all be attributed to the wondrous tales Scheherazade told. If it had not been for the fairy tales, Scheherazade would not have been spared and double standards/sexisms would not have been put to an end in the book!
In conclusion, the tale of The Arabian Nights was plagued with sexism and double standards, but also showed the power behind fairy tales. Not only can fairy tales help little children fall asleep, but fairy tales can save countless lives.