Arabian Nights

1001 magical adventures

Arabian Nights is not only a comic, but a collection of stories that have been around since the Islamic Golden Age (8th-13th century). The reason I read this comic in particular is because my grandmother used to tell me these stories when I was a child and I remember her telling me there was a thousand and one of them. She said that her family used to sit around a fire and tell them at night. They were fascinating tales and still are, and I find that every few years I come across them somehow and attempt to acquire some form of the original text to no avail.

Shifting to the theme of this week however, women in comics, the premise of the thousand and one tales is a king that loves to decapitate everyone he marries. One young maiden however saves herself from this terrible fate because the can entertain him every night by telling him one of these fascinating tales. In the end he spares her life, after 1001 sleepless nights for both of them (thats a little more than 2 years and 8 months!). This poor woman has to come up with some kind of crazy story to "entertain" her murderous husband (to whom she was married by force anyways) so she can "keep her head," for almost three years! When do they sleep? Do they sleep? And in the end he spares her life saying that a woman who can outwit her husband for so many nights "deserves" to be his wife. Deserves? Under any feminist concept, this is preposterous, but we have come to accept that anyways. I think it is a little odd that this woman is depicted as oppressed yet thriving and powerful for tricking her husband at the same time as the husband is portrayed as all powerful and dangerous yet dense enough to forget his murderous tendencies because of some story.

Rant aside and despite the background of a terribly abusive and toxic relationship (to say the least), Arabian Nights is a beautiful classic and beautifully illustrated here in a style as classic as the tales themselves.

P.S. Quick shoutout to Prince Achmed!