Week 4 Reading Diary: Arabian Nights

For this week's Middle Eastern Unit, I decided to read the Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrations by H.J. Ford. The introduction began with a huge hook! The sultan's wife, who he loved with all of his heart and soul, had been unfaithful. Enraged with the deception and the betrayal, the sultan had the grand-vizir put her to death. The sultan could not bring himself to trust any woman ever again, so he proposed a ludicrous solution. He will marry a new wife every morning and by nightfall the bride's father would have to kill her. This meant every day there was a new bride and a new death. The entire town wept out of lamentation.

The one day, a beautiful woman named Scheherazade volunteered to be the new sultan's wife. She convinced her father that she could stop this horrendous torture. Of course her father refused to sacrifice his daughter, but she was determined. The sultan was quite happy to hear that he will be marrying the most beautiful woman in all of Persia, but it was a shame that she would have to die in the morning. During my reading, I kept wondering how Scheherazade would save herself in the morning. The clever girl told stories to her little sister and the sultan but never finished the stories. Because he wanted to hear the ending of the stories, the sultan would spare his wife's life.

I thought it was insane that the sultan would even think of punishing his wives in that way. Who would be so heartless to kill their wife, in fact kill a new wife every morning?

Scheherazade  and the sultan. Source.