“'These days no one challenges us,' he said. 'And because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we have all become lazy.'” -Tahir Shah, Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams
Arabian Nights Quick Match Game
A matching game to test your knowledge of the characters, story, context, and understanding of a frame tale. Click here to get started.
Short Answer Questions:
These questions are designed to test your knowledge of Husain Haddawy's translation of The Arabian Nights.
1. Describe the importance of storytelling in the context of The Arabian Nights.
Before the implementation of written language oral stories were used to pass information, culture, and history from one generation to generation, or from culture to culture. Given that The Arabian Nights was born into this age of oral storytelling its roots are not written, but rather told through stories. In The Arabian Nights this reliance on storytelling continues as it is the only means Shahrazad has to prolong her life and the lives of other women. The notion that the only way for Shahrazad to stay alive is to continue telling stories to the king mirrors the culture The Arabian Nights was born into. Information, history, culture, traditions had to be told and retold in order for them to stay alive. In this way Shahrazad acts as a sort of personification for the art of oral storytelling. By continuing in the tradition of oral stories Shahrazad both keeps this tradition as well as herself alive.
2. What is a frame story? How does the frame in The Arabian Nights function?
A frame story is one that lays out the framework to have many other stories told within it. In The Arabian Nights the frame story sets the reader up for the rest of the piece. The frame, the story of the two brothers, works to give the reader context as to why King Shahrayar has chosen to wed a different woman every night and have her killed the next day. However, in The Arabian Nights the presence of a frame does not stop there. Because Shahrazad sits within the frame every story she tells takes the reader down another level giving us a frame within a frame. As the stories progress not only is Shahrazad telling stories to the king, the characters in her stories are telling stories of their own causing the reader to dive down into another level.
3. What is The Rule of Three? How does Shahrazad use this tradition to aid her storytelling?
The rule of three is the notion that things that come in threes are better, for example in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Every third thing that Goldilocks tries is the best and most suited for her. The first two beds are too something but the third is just right. Often a group of three is thought as being complete. This rule isn't new either, in fact it was well known and understood in Shahrazad's time. That being said Shahrazad uses this rule to her advantage by implementing it in multiple stories so that she may draw them out longer. Take for instance the Merchant and the Demon, in order to have her story span more than one night Shahrazad strategically tells her tale and implements the three old men signifying to the king that something more is going to happen. In doing this she is able to further peak the king's interest therefore sparing her life for one more night.
A matching game to test your knowledge of the characters, story, context, and understanding of a frame tale. Click here to get started.
Short Answer Questions:
These questions are designed to test your knowledge of Husain Haddawy's translation of The Arabian Nights.
1. Describe the importance of storytelling in the context of The Arabian Nights.
Before the implementation of written language oral stories were used to pass information, culture, and history from one generation to generation, or from culture to culture. Given that The Arabian Nights was born into this age of oral storytelling its roots are not written, but rather told through stories. In The Arabian Nights this reliance on storytelling continues as it is the only means Shahrazad has to prolong her life and the lives of other women. The notion that the only way for Shahrazad to stay alive is to continue telling stories to the king mirrors the culture The Arabian Nights was born into. Information, history, culture, traditions had to be told and retold in order for them to stay alive. In this way Shahrazad acts as a sort of personification for the art of oral storytelling. By continuing in the tradition of oral stories Shahrazad both keeps this tradition as well as herself alive.
2. What is a frame story? How does the frame in The Arabian Nights function?
A frame story is one that lays out the framework to have many other stories told within it. In The Arabian Nights the frame story sets the reader up for the rest of the piece. The frame, the story of the two brothers, works to give the reader context as to why King Shahrayar has chosen to wed a different woman every night and have her killed the next day. However, in The Arabian Nights the presence of a frame does not stop there. Because Shahrazad sits within the frame every story she tells takes the reader down another level giving us a frame within a frame. As the stories progress not only is Shahrazad telling stories to the king, the characters in her stories are telling stories of their own causing the reader to dive down into another level.
3. What is The Rule of Three? How does Shahrazad use this tradition to aid her storytelling?
The rule of three is the notion that things that come in threes are better, for example in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Every third thing that Goldilocks tries is the best and most suited for her. The first two beds are too something but the third is just right. Often a group of three is thought as being complete. This rule isn't new either, in fact it was well known and understood in Shahrazad's time. That being said Shahrazad uses this rule to her advantage by implementing it in multiple stories so that she may draw them out longer. Take for instance the Merchant and the Demon, in order to have her story span more than one night Shahrazad strategically tells her tale and implements the three old men signifying to the king that something more is going to happen. In doing this she is able to further peak the king's interest therefore sparing her life for one more night.