One of the most entertaining stories concerns Dalila the Wily, who upends an entire town and humiliates some of its most prominent citizens in order to receive what she deserves. Here, in these tales, the reader not only meets women who are true victims, such as the many who meet their deaths by being (wrongly or rightly) accused of infidelity (the wives of both Shahrayar and Shahzaman, the lover of the second dervish, and the wife of the third dervish), but also women who script their own fates and seize chance by the throat to make things happen. Al-Shaykh says, “As a female Arab writer my real enchantment was the discovery that women in those forgotten ancient societies were far from passive and fearful they showed their strong will and intelligence and wit, all the time recognizing that their behavior was the second nature of the weak and the oppressed.” Shahrazad embodies strength, not just her own, but that of the women of her kingdom, her country, and her era. Hanan al-Shaykh, in her introduction to this highly accessible retelling of the tales, states, “I came to see weapon was art at its best, her endless invention of all of those magnificent stories.” Those only familiar with the Orientalized version of the “One Thousand and One Nights” as a tale of harems, sultans, and veiled houris may be surprised to know that Arab women, especially those who are writers, continue to be enchanted by the stories of Shahrazad as Arabs know it as a tale featuring a heroine who uses her wits and knowledge to save the women of her kingdom from a murderous monarch.

One thousand and one nights hanan