Issues of Gender in The Arabian Nights
The Arabian Nights are a collection of stories of Asian and Arabic origin. These stories were collected over a period of several years and transmitted orally from generation to generation. These tales are entrenched in several oral traditions and are primarily associated with medieval Arabic culture. These stories have been greatly altered between the tenth and sixteenth centuries and have been kept alive by professional storytellers who performed them all over the Middle East. These stories were translated by many European translators based on those that were done from the nineteenth century. The latest translations are by Richard F. Burton 1885, Andrew Lang 1898 and J.C. Mardrus 1899 to 1904.
Critics of these works have pointed out that the stories in The Arabian Nights are mainly about human life and experience. These stories contain many themes of love, fate, happiness, good and evil, spirituality and immortality. Women have featured greatly in these stories as the inferior sex who are owned by men and must obey men. Traditionally men did not have to prove their strength neither did they have to command the respect of anyone. They were born possessing power and authority and women had to walk in their shadow. In the stories of the Arabian Nights women defied the odds however by proving themselves more formidable in times of adversities. The incredible mental strength of these women makes them triumph over those who try to enslave them. King Shahryar, in One Thousand and One Nights story, had his wife put to death for being unfaithful to him. He sees women as worthless and lashes out at them by sleeping with one every night and kills her in the morning. In these stories women are originally seen as valueless but they usually prove their worth through their ability to outwit and outsmart the men.
In Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Margiana plans to make the murder of Cassim seem like he died of natural causes. She tricked the thieves and saved Ali Baba and his family. She is seen as a strong and formidable woman, who by her cleverness was able to save a whole family “Morgiana, a clever and intelligent slave” (3). In “The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad,” the three women proved clever than the men who had initially promised not to interfere in anything that does not concern them. Where men have been seen previously as being the head of their families and are the ones to look up to in times of need, the women characters in most of these stories have proved themselves worthy of praise.
Previously those who have looked upon women as weak must now think twice. In the story of the Lady and her Five Suitors, women have been quite clever and quick-witted. In the story the woman uses her good looks to entice the men. Here we could argue that men are weakest when it comes to women and the flesh. She gets each of the men to enter her house and after tempting them, locks each one in a cabinet so that she could get her lover out of prison and escape with him. Women again proved to be more conscious.
The role of women in the Arabian culture features significantly in these tales. Women were treated terribly and these stories tell it all. What is significant too is that these tales were translated and written by men and possibly some of the contents of the stories would have changed to portray the men as powerful and the women weak and unable to defend themselves. Some critics say that these stories hold particular value to modern day because they enable the individual to change negative desires into innocent dreams, but that is hardly likely in the case where a woman’s life is taken so simply. Scheherazade proves to be the savior of young women when she cleverly got the king to fall in love with her and avert the slaying of other young girls.
In this large collection of fairy tales that date back to the ninth Century, women have been the target in most of these stories. In the tale of Bakbook, The Barber’s First Brother, it tells of the cunning cruelty of women, in the Tale of Al-Haddar, the Barber’s Second Brother, A cruel trick is played by a woman, and in The Young woman and Her five Lovers, a clever adulteress thwarts the plans of five men who pretend to seduce her. The woman is often used as the target of humor but she almost always proved herself to be clever. Those who have looked upon power as non-existent in women must now reconsider. The gender issue that has permeated the stories might not change even if these stories are translated and rewritten later on, but those who have read must change their perceptions of the power that these women hold.
Works Cited
Burton, Richard. “The Arabian Nights”. The Arabian Nights Essay – The Arabian Nights. Arabic
short story collection. Criticisms on The Arabian Nights from 1953 through 2002.
http://www.enotes.com/topics/arabian-nights/critical-essays/arabian-nights
Giaya, Dennis. 1001 Arabian Nights Essay
http://users.wpi.edu/~dgiaya/work/arabian.pdf
