Sheherazade Through the Looking Glass by Eva Sallis

Author:Eva Sallis [Sallis, Eva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781136817526
Google: 1R2PAQAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2011-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Sheherazade/Shahrazād: A Commentary on the Frame Tale1

Once upon a time, Shahriyār, the king of the islands of India and China was overwhelmed by a desire to see his brother Shāhzamān, the king of Samarcand and Tartary, whom he had not seen for twenty years. He sent for him on the spot. As Shahzaman was on the point of leaving, he discovered his wife asleep on his bed with a black slave. Overwhelmed by pain, he killed them both and left at once on his journey to his brother’s kingdom. He arrived at his brother’s noticeably affected by grief and despair. However, a few days later by chance he saw his brother’s wife and ten slaves and slave girls make love in the garden and he cheered up with the realisation that his brother’s misfortune was greater than his own. Shahriyār asked him that evening for an explanation of both his unhappiness and his recovery and, reluctantly, Shāhzamān told him the whole story. Shahriyār insisted on seeing the betrayal of his wife for himself and when he did, he left the palace with only his brother, profoundly unhappy. Both kings were determined to roam the world until they found someone more unfortunate than themselves. After a while they came to a meadow by the sea, and rested themselves under a tree. Suddenly an enormous jinnī rose out of the sea and, as the brothers leapt into the branches to hide, came up to the tree and put a great chest on the ground. The jinnī opened the chest and took out of it a beautiful woman. He laid his head in her lap and fell asleep. The woman looked up and saw the two brothers and insisted, using the threat of waking her captor, that they come down and make love to her. Eventually they complied and she added their two rings to the five hundred and seventy she already had. She then told them that the jinnī had abducted her on her wedding night and despite his keeping her padlocked in a box under the sea, she had nonetheless managed to sleep with anybody she desired. Shahriyār and Shāhzamān cheered up at once, for they realised that the jinnī’s misfortune was greater than theirs. They went home and had the unfaithful women and slaves killed. For three years Shahriyār then married a virgin girl every night and had her killed in the morning. At the end of three years, his wazir was in a terrible predicament, for he could not find a new bride for the king. The wazir had two daughters, Sheherazade and Dunyāzād. Sheherazade was wise and intelligent and very highly educated and when she realised her father’s dilemma, she persuaded him to let her marry the king, saying that either she would ransom the daughters of the people, or she would live.2 Sheherazade married the king and when night fell, after the king had taken her virginity, she asked to see her younger sister to say goodbye.

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