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

Scheherazade (IPA: /ʃəˌhɛrəˈzɑːd, -ˈzɑːdə/), sometimes Scheherazadea, Persian transliteration Shahrazad or Shahrzād (Persian: شهرزاد Šahrzād) is a legendary Persian queen and the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights. Scheherazade meaning of noble race in old Persian, meaning born in the city in todays Persian, may refer to one of the following: Shahrzad, a common Persian girls name Scheherazade, the story teller in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights Scheherazade, a symphonic suite by Nikolai... Arabian Nights redirects here. ... Image File history File links Depiction of Queen Scheherazade telling her stories to King Shahryar in The Arabian Nights. ... Mili Avital Mili Avital (Hebrew:מילי אביטל) (born 30 March 1972) is an Israeli actress. ... Catherine Zeta-Jones (born 25 September 1969) is an Academy Award-winning Welsh actress based in the United States. ... Maria Montez was the stage name of María África Gracia Antonia Vidal de Santos Silas (June 6, 1912 – September 7, 1951). ... For other uses, see Female (disambiguation). ... For the 2001 film, see Storytelling (film) Storytelling is the ancient art of conveying events in words, images, and sounds. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... There is also a collection of Hadith called Sahih Muslim A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Persian: Mosalman or Mosalmon Urdu: مسلمان, Turkish: Müslüman, Albanian: Mysliman, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of the religion of Islam. ... For other uses of this term see: Persia (disambiguation) The Persian Empire is the name used to refer to a number of historic dynasties that have ruled the country of Persia (Iran). ... Farsi redirects here. ... For other uses, see Legend (disambiguation). ... Persia redirects here. ... Arabian Nights redirects here. ...

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. A frame story (also frame tale, frame narrative, etc) is a narrative technique whereby a main story is composed, at least in part, for the purpose of organizing a set of shorter stories, each of which is a story within a story. ... The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (كتاب ألف ليلة و ليلة in Arabic or هزار و یک شب in Persian), also known as The book of a Thousand Nights and a Night, 1001 Arabian Nights, or simply the Arabian Nights, is a piece of classic Arabic literature in... In Roman times, Vestal Virgins were strictly celibate or they were punished by death. ... ik ben jaaapie A Vizier (Persian,وزير - wazÄ«r) (sometimes also spelled Vazir, Vizir, Vasir, Wazir, Vesir, or Vezir - grammatical vowel changes are common in many oriental languages), literally burden-bearer or helper, is a term, originally Persian, for a high-ranking political (and sometimes religious) advisor or minister, often to...

In Sir Richard F. Burton's translation of The Nights, Shahrazad was described in this way: For other persons named Richard Burton, see Richard Burton (disambiguation). ...

"[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, Dunyazad, 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. This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ...

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. Abd al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn Masudi (d. ... Ibn al-Nadim (Abu al-Faraj Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Muhammad ibn Ishaq), (died September 17, 995 or 998) was an muslim scholar (of either Arab or Persian origin) and bibliographer and the author of the Kitab al-Fihrist. ...

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. HārÅ«n al-RashÄ«d (Arabic: ‎ ); also spelled Harun ar-Rashid, Haroun al-Rashid or Haroon al Rasheed; English: Aaron the Upright, Aaron the Just, or Aaron the Rightly-Guided; March 17, 763 – March 24, 809) was born in Rayy near Tehran, Iran and was the fifth and most... Al-Khayzuran a former slave girl from Yemen, and mother of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid which was the 5th and most famous Abbasid Caliph from 786 until 809. ...

In popular culture

• Scheherazade, Op. 35, is a symphonic suite composed by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1888, and is based on The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.
• Peter Cetera's 3rd solo album One More Story (1988) contains a song named Scheherazade. In the song, Cetera tells the story of an unhappy Arabian King who is bored with all his riches and harem of dancing girls but once he lays his eyes on Scheherazade, he suddenly becomes entranced by her and makes her his queen. Background vocals were performed by Madonna.
• "The Magic of Scheherazade" is a 1989 video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) by Culture Brain, Inc.
• Scheherazade and Other Stories is a 1975 album by the rock/folk group Renaissance
• The Riddles of Scheherazade is a book of logic puzzles by Raymond M. Smullyan.
• The Magic: The Gathering card game features a card called Shahrazad, the art of which depicts the queen.
• In Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, the narrator repeatedly compares his own tales of his life to Scheherazade's, and mentions that he can't "count on having even a thousand nights and a night" (page 4) in which to tell them.
• In the Vertigo graphic novel Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, Snow White takes the role of Scheherazade and tells background stories about the inhabitants of Fabletown in order to prevent her beheading at the hands of the Sultan. At the end of the book, Scheherazade makes an appearance, and Snow White tells her the secret to make sure the sultan doesn't have her executed. "He likes stories."
• The protagonist of Stephen King's novel Misery, Paul Sheldon, frequently compares himself to Scheherazade as he writes a novel both for himself and to keep his captor from killing him.
• Kamelot's song 'Nights of Arabia' from the album The Fourth Legacy describes the story of Scheherazade.
• "Scheherazade" is the title of a poem in John Ashbery's book Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror.
• Scheherazade and a Thousand Tales is part of the lyrics of the song "Friend Like Me" in Disney's Aladdin.
• "Scheherazade Sits" is the title of a song by filk artist Terence Chua.
• Shadow Spinner is a book written by Susan Fletcher about Shahrazad's tale through the eyes of a harem girl named Marjan.
• In the novel New Moon by Stephenie Meyer, the narrator, Bella, avoids asking Edward any questions on the flight so she may have some time with him after the flight landed saying "I hoped that by postponing the discussion, I could buy a few more hours with him at some later time—spin this out for another night, Scheherazade-style."
• The Storyteller's Daughter which is a novel that focuses specifically on the life of Scheherazade before and during her marriage to Shahryar

Scheherazade (Шехерезада in Cyrillic, Å ekherezada in transliteration), Op. ... Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian: , Nikolaj Andreevič Rimskij-Korsakov), also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, (March 6 (N.S. March 18), 1844 – June 8 (N.S. June 21) 1908) was a Russian composer, one of five Russian composers known as The Five, and was later a... Peter Paul Cetera (born September 13, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.) is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitar player and producer best known for being an original member of the rock band Chicago, before launching a successful solo career. ... This article is about the American entertainer. ... The Magic of Scheherazade is a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, released by Culture Brain in 1989. ... “NES” redirects here. ... Culture Brain (カルチャーブレーン) is a small Japanese videogame developer and publisher that was founded in October 5, 1980. ... Annie Haslam Renaissance were an English progressive rock band popular in the 1970s. ... Raymond Merrill Smullyan (born 1919) is a mathematician, logician, philosopher, and magician. ... Magic: The Gathering (colloq. ... Midnights Children is a 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie. ... For other persons named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation). ... Misery is a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1987. ... Kamelot is a power metal band that incorporates many elements of symphonic and progressive metal into their music. ... The Fourth Legacy is the fourth full-length album released in 2000 by the metal band Kamelot. ... John Ashbery John Ashbery (born July 28, 1927) is an American poet. ... Friend Like Me is a 1992 Academy Award-nominated song from the 1992 film Aladdin. ... Disney may refer to: The Walt Disney Company and its divisions, including Walt Disney Pictures. ... This article is about the Disney film. ... Filk is a form of music created from within fandom, and performed generally late at night at science fiction conventions. ... New Moon is a young adult, horror, and romance novel by author Stephenie Meyer. ... Stephenie Meyer (born December 24, 1973, in Hartford, Connecticut) is an American author. ... Isabella Marie Swan, known as Bella Swan, is a fictional character from the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. ... Edward Cullen is a character in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. ... The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (كتاب ألف ليلة و ليلة in Arabic or هزار و یک شب in Persian), also known as The book of a Thousand Nights and a Night, 1001 Arabian Nights, or simply the Arabian Nights, is a piece of classic Arabic literature in...

References

External links

• The Arabian Nights Entertainments Project Gutenberg
• Scheherazade Second Life