One Thousand and One Nights: A Retelling

The Lebanese-British Writer Hanan Al-Shayan wrote a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights. The edition I read of Al-Shayan’s One Thousand and One Nights has a forward by the American-born Writer Mary Gaitskill. This edition was published in 2013. Gaitskill writes that “the stories in One Thousand and One Nights were told orally for centuries, coming out of India and Persia in the sixth century, and carried by traders and travelers all over the world; they were first written in 1450” (Gaitskill xi). Gaitskill writes that the stories told by the frame character of “Shahrazad’s stories are on every theme and subject, from con-artistry to justice to love; they are surreal and grimy-real, and they express powerful opposites: male/female, union/disunion, love/hate, nature/society. The theme of betrayal and/or trickery through many of them” (Gaitskill x). Al-Shayan chose the stories with prominent female characters. Al-Shayan chose nineteen stories from the collection of stories that makes up One Thousand and One Nights. Al-Shayan writes in her “Preface” (al-Shayan xvii-xix) that over time she had become fascinated with the complex female characters of One Thousand and One Nights (xix). Hanan Al-Shayan’s retelling of One Thousand and One Nights is interesting and readable retelling of One Thousand and One Nights.