Scheherazade

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Scheherazade (often spelled Schéhérazade).Ballet in one act with choreography by Fokine, libretto by Benois, music by Rimsky-Korsakov (the symphonic suite Scheherazade minus its 3rd part), and design by Bakst. Premiered 4 June 1910 by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes at Paris Opera, with Ida Rubinstein, Cecchetti, and Nijinsky. It is based on the first story from A Thousand and One Nights in which the women of the Shah's harem persuade the Chief Eunuch to admit the male slaves to their quarters while their master is absent. In the orgy that follows the Shah returns to discover his favourite concubine Zobeide consorting with the beautiful Golden Slave. The latter is killed and Zobeide is forced to stab herself. Bakst's designs with their revealing oriental costumes and voluptuous palette of colours were considered almost as daring as the graphic eroticism of the dancing and mime. It has been revived by many companies including London Festival Ballet in Beriozoff's 1952 staging, and the Kirov in A. Liepa and I. Fokine's 1993 staging, although its exoticism and sexuality seem, inevitably, rather tame to modern audiences. Other new versions include V. Panov's for Vienna State Opera Ballet (1981). Ravel also composed a Shéhérazade which has been choreographed by, among others, G. Murphy (Sydney Dance Company, 1979) and Petit (1974).

Scheherazade, female character within the frame story and narrator of all tales but the frame of The Arabian Nights (also known as the Thousand and One Nights). The sultan Shahryar, disillusioned by the sexual infidelity of women, has decided to marry a new wife every night only to kill her the next morning. Three years later, all marriageable women have either been killed or deserted the town, and none are left except the vizier's own daughters Scheherazade and Dinarzade. Scheherazade, the elder one, is well educated and has read a thousand books of histories and tales. Against her father's advice she insists on challenging the king. After the consummation of their marriage, Scheherazade has her sister ask her to tell a tale in order to pass the time. Scheherazade narrates a fascinating tale, but breaks off without reaching the end. Out of curiosity the king decides not to kill her and listens to the continuation next night. This strategy of suspense goes on for a thousand nights, until Scheherazade in the thousand and first night discloses her ruse and presents to the king the three children to whom she meanwhile has given birth. The king pardons her, renounces his former habit, and all rejoice.

In Western literary criticism, The Arabian Nights was regarded for a long time as equivalent of ‘Scheherazade's tales’, a label that veils the quality of Scheherazade herself constituting the protagonist of a narrative. On the other hand, the narrator Scheherazade has been subjected to various interpretations largely from a feminist perspective. Though Shahryar appears the supreme ruler commanding life and death, he readily falls victim to a (daring, yet simple) female ruse. By arousing the ruler's curiosity, Scheherazade inadvertently educates him. Generally speaking, Scheherazade is the perfect threefold woman: mother, whore, and friend. The male she confronts is brutal and insensitive and has to be tricked into allowing his own positive qualities to unfold. The fact that the male authors of the Nights have a female narrator educate a male wrongdoer contains more than an obvious simple moral and has continued to inspire literary reworkings of Scheherazade's background, motivation, and fate, notably in the modern Arabic novel.

Bibliography

• Gerhardt, Mia I., The Art of Story‐Telling (1963).
• Lahy‐Hollebecque, Marie, Scheherazade, ou l'éducation d'un roi (1927, 1987).
• Malti‐Douglas, Fedwa, “‘Shahrazad feminist’”, in Richard G. Hovannisian and George Sabagh (eds.), ‘The Thousand and One Nights’ in Arabic Literature and Society (1997).

— Ulrich Marzolph

For other uses, see Scheherazade (disambiguation).

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Scheherazade شهرزاد
One Thousand and One Nights character
Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryar.
Portrayed by	Mili Avital, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Claude Jade, María Montez, Cyrine Abdelnour, Sulaf Fawakherji
Information
Gender	Female
Specialty	Storytelling
Occupation	Queen consort
Family	Chief Vizier (father) Dunyazad (sister)
Spouse(s)	Shahryar
Children	3 sons
Religion	Islam
Nationality	Persia
Other names	Shahrazad, Shahrzād, Šahrzād

Scheherazade (pronounced /ʃəˌhɛrəˈzɑːd(ə)/), sometimes Scheherazadea, Persian transliteration Shahrazad or Shahrzād (Persian: شهرزاد Šahrzād, Arabic Šahrāzād), is a legendary Persian queen and the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights.

The frame tale goes that every day Shahryar (Persian: شهريار or "king") would marry a new virgin, and every day he would send yesterday's wife to be beheaded. This was done in anger, having found out that his first wife was betraying him. He had killed three thousand such women by the time he was introduced to Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter.

In Sir Richard F. Burton's translation of The Nights, Shahrazad was described in this way:

"[Shahrazad] had perused the books, annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of by gone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred."

Against her father's protestations, Scheherazade volunteered to spend one night with the King. Once in the King's chambers, Scheherazade asked if she might bid one last farewell to her beloved sister, Dinazade, who had secretly been prepared to ask Scheherazade to tell a story during the long night. The King lay awake and listened with awe to Scheherazade's first story and asked for another, but Scheherazade said there was not time as dawn was breaking, and regretfully so, as the next story was even more exciting.

And so the King kept Scheherazade alive as he eagerly anticipated each new story, until, one thousand and one adventurous nights, and three sons later, the King had not only been entertained but wisely educated in morality and kindness by Scheherazade who became his Queen.

The nucleus of these stories is formed by an old Persian book called Hezar-afsana or the "Thousand Myths" (Persian: هزارافسانه).

The earliest forms of Scheherazade's name include Šīrāzād (شیرازد) in Masudi and Šahrāzād (شهرازاد) in Ibn al-Nadim, the latter meaning "she whose realm or dominion (شهر šahr) is noble (ازاد āzād)". In explaining his spelling choice for the name Burton says, "Shahrázád (Persian) = City-freer; in the older version Scheherazade (probably both from Shirzád = lion-born). 'Dunyázá' = world-freer. The Bres[lau] Edit[ion] corrupts the former to Shárzád or Sháhrazád; and the Mac[naghten] and Calc[utta] to Shahrzád or Shehrzád. I have ventured to restore the name as it should be." ^[1]. Having introduced the name Burton does not continue to use the diacritics on the name.

Scheherazade was identified, confused with, or partly derived from the legendary queen Homāy, daughter of Bahman, who has the epithet Čehrzād or Čehrāzād (چهرازاد) "she whose appearance is noble". Harun al-Rashid's mother, Al-Khayzuran, is also said to have influenced the character of Scheherazade.

See also

• Scheherazade in popular culture

References

1. ^ Burton, Richard F. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Burton Club, p.14, footnote.

External links

• The Arabian Nights Entertainments Project Gutenberg

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