Reading Notes: Arabian Nights Part A

A sultan is happily married to his wife until he discovers his wife was a horrible person. The sultan determines that every woman in the world must be as horrible and so decides to marry a different woman every night and kill the bride in the morning. His right-hand man/executioner has two daughters. His eldest, Scheherazade, is as beautiful as she is clever. She comes up with a plan to tell an interesting story to be interrupted right before it is time for her execution. The sultan is enraptured by her stories she continues to delay her execution. Scheherazade's plan causes the sultan to stop killing a woman because his wife was horrible.

Retelling Ideas:

Scheherazade's thought process for why she decided to marry the Sultan and entertain him with stories with a cliffhanger so he does not kill her.

What if Scheherazade while clever, is not a good storyteller. 

What if Scheherazade was not a noblewoman, but an ordinary woman whose friends have been killed by the Sultan.

What if a determined but not-very-good storyteller Scheherazade decides to a story without an end. She made the Sultan promise not to kill her until her story was over. For days she continues the story without rest. As long as she is alive and married to the Sultan, the rest of the kingdom's women are spared.

Scheherazade knows a few good stories and practiced them, but when she runs out, she decides to tell the neverending story.

One day the Sultan asks why Scheherazade is so resolute in continuing a story. Scheherazade explains that no matter how sore her voice gets, her pain is nothing compared to the pain the Sultan has brought to their country.

Story of the Fisherman

-The fisherman's nets are weak so that is why he can only throw them 4 times a day.
-Genie and fisherman become friends

Original Story: Excerpt from "The Arabian Nights' Entertainments" by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898). Source.

"The Story Without an End" is based on a fairy tale I read when I was younger. When I searched online, I discovered a version of it but there wasn't an author credited. Source.

"The Sultan Pardons Scheherazade" by Arthur Boyd Houghton (1836-1875). Source.